Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transformation of Acinetobacter sp. Strain BD413(pFG4ΔnptII) with Transgenic Plant DNA in Soil Microcosms and Effects of Kanamycin on Selection of Transformants

ABSTRACT Here we show that horizontal transfer of DNA, extracted from transgenic sugar beets, to bacteria, based on homologous recombination, can occur in soil. Restoration of a 317-bp-deleted nptIIgene in Acinetobacter sp. strain BD413(pFG4) cells incubated in sterile soil microcosms was detected after addition of nutrients and transgenic plant DNA encoding a functionalnptII gene conferring bacterial kanamycin resistance. Selective effects of the addition of kanamycin on the population dynamics of Acinetobacter sp. cells in soil were found, and high concentrations of kanamycin reduced the CFU ofAcinetobacter sp. cells from 109 CFU/g of soil to below detection. In contrast to a chromosomalnptII-encoded kanamycin resistance, the pFG4-generated resistance was found to be unstable over a 31-day incubation period in vitro.
Sex, Sharing and the Distribution of Income

ABSTRACT It is customary to assume that income is redistributed between the sexes within the family. This article investigates alternative assumptions about sharing within the family and their effects on the distribution of income. Using data from the UK Family Expenditure Survey for 1968 and 1986, we contrast two assumptions about sharing within the family; the conventional assumption of equal sharing or ‘pooling’, and an alternative of ‘minimum sharing’. Under each assumption, we examine the composition of extreme quintiles of the income distribution, and compute the numbers of men and women falling below an arbitrary ‘poverty line’. The contribution to inequality of the net transfers between the sexes and other sources of income is also examined. We estimate that resource transfers (other than for housing) between spouses could, if all income is pooled, account for about one third of married couples’ pooled incomes in 1986 and about 56 per cent of the inequality of married women's incomes (in 1968, 56 per cent and 50 per cent respectively). Taking the bottom quintile of pooled income as an arbitrary ‘poverty line’, we calculate that 15 per cent of married people would have been below this line in 1986 if all incomes were pooled. On the minimum sharing assumption, 52 per cent of married women, but only 11 per cent of married men would have been under the line.
A cluster of patients with recombinant B/F HIV‐1 infection: Epidemiological, clinical, and virological aspects

Migratory processes have caused changes in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemiology and non‐B subtypes are now playing an increasing role. In a cohort of 553 HIV‐infected outpatients tested to identify non‐B isolates, the largest group consisted of 13 subjects with a recombinant B/F form (prevalence 2.4%). Sequencing and phylogenetic analyses described a B/F recombinant clade with anomalous breakpoints that did not allow it to be classified as CRF12_BF. Viral load was not quantified efficiently because of a mismatch in the primers and probes used by commercial assays. An assessment of the clinical management, and epidemiological, immunological, and virological characteristics of these patients, who were receiving non‐nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)‐ or protease inhibitor (PI)‐based regimens, showed that the immunological and virological mismatch delayed the start of treatment by a mean of 6.8 months. Therapy was started in nine patients. Both NNRTI‐ and PI‐based regimens led to full virological suppression after a mean 36 weeks of treatment; the PI‐based regimens proved to be more effective in terms of immunological recovery (1,341 vs. 544 CD4+ cells/mm3). The spread of non‐B subtypes is increasing throughout the world but their response to treatment is still unclear. PIs and NNRTIs are effective but further tests are needed to allow the more efficient recognition of these viral strains and establish how they should be treated. J. Med. Virol. 83:1493–1498, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Use of Roadway Scene Semantic Information and Geometry-Preserving Landmark Pairs to Improve Visual Place Recognition in Changing Environments

Visual place recognition (VPR) in changing environments is an urgent challenge for long-term autonomous navigation. One recent ConvNet landmark-based approach exploits region landmarks coupled with ConvNet features to match images, and the approach has shown promising results under significant environmental and viewpoint changes. In this paper, we propose a robust ConvNet landmark-based system for VPR in changing outdoor roadway environments by extension of this approach from the following two aspects. First, our method utilizes more discriminative landmarks obtained by a novel refinement method called SemLandmarks, which leverages roadway scene semantic information to screen landmarks directly detected by an existing object proposal method. Second, our method improves the accuracy of image matching by introducing consistent spatial constraints based on the use of geometry-preserving landmark pairs. Experimental results demonstrate that our method significantly improves the state of the art in VPR in terms of recognition accuracy on three challenging benchmark data sets with various environmental and viewpoint changes.
Design and simulation of modified selective XOR algorithm for payload attrition in CAN

The controller area network is widely used in automobile electronics networking and for low cost embedded systems. Nondeterministic response time have restricted the wider use of CAN in safety critical real time system applications, since the CAN protocol uses “non return to zero” (NRZ) coding and includes automatic bit stuffing mechanism for synchronization. Automatic error detecting bit stuffing mechanism causes the can data length variation to complex function. As a results jitter occurs in receiver clock and length of the data will vary message to message based on stuffed bits. Utilization of bandwidth becomes difficult with addition of stuff bits. It also affects the real time behavior of the system employing in this protocol. In this paper a new algorithm (modified selective XOR algorithm) is proposed and simulate on Matlab Simulink vehicle network model which is able to guarantee stuff bits free data field during transmission. Efficiency, net bit rate of the CAN transmission is being improved by this technique.
Effects of Husbands' Work Experiences on Wives' Marital Satisfaction

Abstract Despite persistent suggestions that excessive work involvement or negative work-related experiences would have an adverse influence on the marital relationship, no conclusive empirical data support this assumption. The association between 50 husbands' work-related experiences (job involvement, job satisfaction, and perceptions of organizational climate) and their wives' marital satisfaction was assessed. Multiple regression analysis revealed that husbands' perceptions of the organizational climate and their job satisfaction were related to their spouses' marital satisfaction in a significant, positive, and linear manner.
Sorption–reduction coupled gold recovery process boosted by Pycnoporus sanguineus biomass: Uptake pattern and performance enhancement via biomass surface modification

Biorecovery is emerging as a promising process to retrieve gold from secondary resources. The present study aimed to explore the uptake pattern of Pycnoporus sanguineus biomass for gold, identify the effective functional groups in gold recovery process, and thus further intensify the process via microbial surface modification. Results showed that P. sanguineus biomass could effectively recover gold with the formation of highly crystal AuNPs without any exogeneous electron donor. Under the conditions of various initial gold concentrations (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 mM), biomass dosage of 2.0 g/L, solution pH value of 4.0, and incubation temperature of 30°C, the uptake equilibrium established after 4, 8, and 12 h, respectively. The uptake process could be well described by pseudo‐second order kinetics model (R2 = 0.9988) and Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.9958). The maximum uptake capacity of P. sanguineus reached as high as 358.69 mg/g. Further analysis indicated that amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups positively contributed to the uptake process. Among them, amino group significantly favored the uptake of gold during recovery process. When P. sanguineus biomass was modified by introduction of amino group, the gold uptake process was successfully intensified by shortening the uptake period and enhancing the uptake capacity. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 33:1314–1322, 2017
Représentations sociales du mariage endogame et de ses conséquences biologiques sur la santé des descendants chez des fiancés apparentés : Cas de deux villages chiites au Liban

Cet article presente les resultats d’une etude portant sur les representations sociales de l’endogamie et de ses consequences biologiques sur la sante des descendants chez des fiances apparentes musulmans chiites. La population a l’etude est issue de deux villages libanais. Des entrevues en profondeur ont ete realisees aupres de fiances, hommes et femmes, d’informateurs cles et d’un groupe de meres. L’analyse qualitative de leur discours nous a permis de definir deux modeles de representations sociales de l’endogamie : le mariage securitaire et le mariage risque. Quant aux representations sociales des consequences biologiques de l’endogamie, nous avons identifie des causes d’ordre surnaturel, biologique, sociocomportemental et environnemental. Les resultats ont mis en evidence que l’endogamie, qui est une pratique sociale privilegiee dans les deux villages etudies, ne peut etre comprise qu’a la lumiere de la culture et du contexte socio-economico-politique de ces deux collectivites.
Dipole Strengths of the Qy(0,0) Bacteriochlorophyll c Transition¶

Abstract The absorption spectra of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c solutions in two mixtures of two solvents (acetonitrile with pyridine and dimethylsulfoxide with methanol) exhibiting different refractive indices were measured and deconvoluted into Gaussian components. The refractive index of mixed solvents was changed by the change in the ratio of the volumes of the liquids used in the mixture. Using the Qy(0,0) band half widths and absorption coefficient, based on the simplified formula proposed by Knox, the dipole strengths of the Qy(0,0) BChl c transition for various values of solvent refractive index were calculated and compared with values given by Knox and Spring. For both investigated combinations of two liquids, the dependence of Qy(0,0) transition dipole strength of the BChl c on solvent refractive index was almost linear. The slopes of the lines obtained from the experimental absorption bands were different for two investigated solvent mixtures. More accurate linear dependence and similar slopes of lines for both solvent mixtures were obtained using half widths and absorption coefficients of the Gaussian components of Qy(0,0) transition. It is explained by the superposition of the contributions from other electronic and vibronic transitions of BChl c monomers or possibly also from transitions of the pigments involved in some complexes with solvent molecules in the absorption region investigated. The results show that the formula proposed by Knox can be successfully applied also for BChl c, after elimination of the overlapped contributions from the other transitions, by applying Gaussian analysis to select only contribution from Qy(0,0) pigment transition.
Relationship between sulcular sulfide level and oral malodor in subjects with periodontal disease.

BACKGROUND The relationship between oral malodor and sulfide levels in periodontal pockets (pS) has not yet been determined. The aims of this study were: 1) to identify the correlation among oral malodor, pS levels, and the BANA (benzoyl-DL-arginine-naphthylamide) test and 2) to recognize the interaction between oral malodor, demographic factors, tongue coating, and periodontal condition. METHODS Eighty-one periodontal patients participated in this study. A portable sulfide monitor and organoleptic method were used to evaluate oral malodor. Demographic data included age, gender, race, and smoking habits. The volume of tongue coating and periodontal condition for all teeth were assessed. The pS levels of 3 different radiographic bone loss (RBL) sites: RBL < 2 mm, healthy; RBL > or = 2 to < 4 mm; low to moderate; RBL > or = 4 mm, severe, were measured using an industrial sulcular sulfide-monitoring device. Subgingival plaque samples from the above 3 sites and tongue scraping were examined by the BANA test. RESULTS The volume of tongue coating (P<0.001), extent of periodontal disease (P<0.05), pS levels of the sites with low to moderate bone loss (P<0.05), and BANA score of tongue scrapings (P<0.05) were significantly associated with oral malodor. Stepwise multiple regression analysis examined the degree of association between oral malodor and potential explanatory variables. The volume of tongue coating and percent of sites BOP (bleeding on probing) were significantly associated with oral malodor. Females and smoking habit were negatively correlated with organoleptic measurements. CONCLUSIONS The pS level of the representative sites with low to moderate bone loss demonstrated a modest association with oral malodor. Oral malodor in periodontal patients was primarily associated with tongue coating and gingival inflammation.
Differential expression patterns of metastasis suppressor proteins in basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are common malignant skin tumors. Despite having a significant invasion capacity, they metastasize only rarely. Our aim in this study was to detect the expression patterns of the NM23‐H1, NDRG1, E‐cadherin, RHOGDI2, CD82/KAI1, MKK4, and AKAP12 metastasis suppressor proteins in BCCs.
The Relation Between Past Behavior, Intention, Planning, and Quitting Smoking: The Moderating Effect of Future Orientation

The present study examined the moderating effects of two measures of future orientation on the relation between intention, planning, and past behavior on the one hand, and quitting smoking on the other. The degree of future orientation was assessed by the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) Scale and the Stanford Time Perspective Inventory (STPI). Both CFC and STPI significantly moderated the intention–quitting behavior and past behavior–quitting behavior relationships. CFC also moderated the relation between planning and quitting behavior, whereas STPI failed to moderate the planning–quitting relation. The results indicate that the extent to which a person is future oriented represents an important moderating variable when it comes to the relation between deliberative processes and actual behavior. The implications of the results are discussed.
What Happens after the High School Years among Young Persons with Disabilities?

In this article, we examine the immediate post-high school years of adolescents with disabilities. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, 1987-1991, we examine the transition from adolescence to adulthood and uncover the specific factors that are associated with the likelihood of making various early transitions to adulthood. Our results reveal that disability and type of disability profoundly affect youths' immediate post-high school activities. In addition, family socioeconomic resources have a smaller impact on the transition to adulthood among adolescents with disabilities than among adolescents without disabilities. Many resources families use to increase education and to promote the transition to adulthood do not operate, effectively blocking the intergenerational transfer of socioeconomic privilege.
Teaching and learning about solid waste: aspects of content knowledge

This paper investigates aspects of content knowledge related to teaching and learning about solid waste, focusing on the processes of learning and teaching by Elementary School teachers in Brazil, in two modalities of continuing education: courses and school‐based meetings. We analyse elements of teachers' reflections whilst referring to three dimensions of environmental education: knowledge, values (ethic and aesthetic), and political participation. We identify which dimensions are predominant, or absent, and the aspects included and developed in projects elaborated by teachers. The results raise issues we consider important to support teacher education and curriculum programmes and help teachers develop more substantial, critical and effective projects about the subject.
Panoply: Low-TCB Linux Applications With SGX Enclaves

Intel SGX, a new security capability in emerging CPUs, allows user-level application code to execute in hardware isolated enclaves. Enclave memory is isolated from all other software on the system, even from the privileged OS or hypervisor. While being a promising hardware-rooted building block, enclaves have severely limited capabilities, such as no native access to system calls and standard OS abstractions. These OS abstractions are used ubiquitously in real-world applications. In this paper, we present a new system called PANOPLY which bridges the gap between the SGX-native abstractions and the standard OS abstractions which feature-rich, commodity Linux applications require. PANOPLY provides a new abstraction called a micro-container (or a “micron”), which is a unit of code and data isolated in SGX enclaves. Microns expose the standard POSIX abstractions to application logic, including access to filesystems, network, multi-threading, multi-processing and thread synchronization primitives. Further, PANOPLY enforces a strong integrity property for the inter-enclave interactions, ensuring that the execution of the application follows the legitimate control and data-flow even if the OS misbehaves. Thus, commodity Linux applications can enhance security by splitting their application logic in one or more microns, or by importing micron-libraries, with little effort. In contrast to previous systems that enable comparable richness, PANOPLY offers two orders of magnitude lower TCB (about 20 KLOC in total), more than half of which is boiler-plate and can be automatically verified in the future. We demonstrate how PANOPLY enables much stronger security in 4 real-world applications — including Tor, OpenSSL, and web services — which can base security on hardware-root of trust.
Spatial Distribution and Sampling Plans for Grapevine Plant Canopy-Inhabiting Scaphoideus titanus (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) Nymphs

Abstract The paper deals with the study of the spatial distribution and the design of sampling plans for estimating nymph densities of the grape leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus Ball in vine plant canopies. In a reference vineyard sampled for model parameterization, leaf samples were repeatedly taken according to a multistage, stratified, random sampling procedure, and data were subjected to an ANOVA. There were no significant differences in density neither among the strata within the vineyard nor between the two strata with basal and apical leaves. The significant differences between densities on trunk and productive shoots led to the adoption of two-stage (leaves and plants) and three-stage (leaves, shoots, and plants) sampling plans for trunk shoots- and productive shoots-inhabiting individuals, respectively. The mean crowding to mean relationship used to analyze the nymphs spatial distribution revealed aggregated distributions. In both the enumerative and the sequential enumerative sampling plans, the number of leaves of trunk shoots, and of leaves and shoots of productive shoots, was kept constant while the number of plants varied. In additional vineyards data were collected and used to test the applicability of the distribution model and the sampling plans. The tests confirmed the applicability 1) of the mean crowding to mean regression model on the plant and leaf stages for representing trunk shoot-inhabiting distributions, and on the plant, shoot, and leaf stages for productive shoot-inhabiting nymphs, 2) of the enumerative sampling plan, and 3) of the sequential enumerative sampling plan. In general, sequential enumerative sampling was more cost efficient than enumerative sampling.
Quality Evaluation of Methyl Binding Domain Based Kits for Enrichment DNA-Methylation Sequencing

DNA-methylation is an important epigenetic feature in health and disease. Methylated sequence capturing by Methyl Binding Domain (MBD) based enrichment followed by second-generation sequencing provides the best combination of sensitivity and cost-efficiency for genome-wide DNA-methylation profiling. However, existing implementations are numerous, and quality control and optimization require expensive external validation. Therefore, this study has two aims: 1) to identify a best performing kit for MBD-based enrichment using independent validation data, and 2) to evaluate whether quality evaluation can also be performed solely based on the characteristics of the generated sequences. Five commercially available kits for MBD enrichment were combined with Illumina GAIIx sequencing for three cell lines (HCT15, DU145, PC3). Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing data (all three cell lines) and publicly available Illumina Infinium BeadChip data (DU145 and PC3) were used for benchmarking. Consistent large-scale differences in yield, sensitivity and specificity between the different kits could be identified, with Diagenode's MethylCap kit as overall best performing kit under the tested conditions. This kit could also be identified with the Fragment CpG-plot, which summarizes the CpG content of the captured fragments, implying that the latter can be used as a tool to monitor data quality. In conclusion, there are major quality differences between kits for MBD-based capturing of methylated DNA, with the MethylCap kit performing best under the used settings. The Fragment CpG-plot is able to monitor data quality based on inherent sequence data characteristics, and is therefore a cost-efficient tool for experimental optimization, but also to monitor quality throughout routine applications.
Evidence Supporting a Key Role of Lp-PLA2-Generated Lysophosphatidylcholine in Human Atherosclerotic Plaque Inflammation

Objectives—To determine whether the level of lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC) generated by lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is associated with severity of inflammation in human atherosclerotic plaques. Elevated plasma Lp-PLA2 is associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Lp-PLA2 inhibition reduces atherosclerosis. Lp-PLA2 hydrolyzes low-density lipoprotein–oxidized phospholipids generating lysoPCs. According to in vitro studies, lysoPCs are proinflammatory but the association between their generation and plaque inflammation remains unknown. Methods and Results—Inflammatory activity in carotid plaques (162 patients) was determined immunohistochemically and by analyzing cytokines in homogenates (multiplex immunoassay). LysoPCs were quantified using mass spectrometry and Lp-PLA2 and the lysoPC metabolite lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) by ELISA. There was a strong correlation among lysoPC 16:0, 18:0, 18:1, LPA, and Lp-PLA2 in plaques. LysoPC 16:0, 18:0, 18:1, LPA, and Lp-PLA2 correlated with interleukin-1&bgr;, interleukin-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, macrophage inflammatory protein-1&bgr;, regulated on activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted, and tumor necrosis factor-&agr; in plaques. High lysoPC and Lp-PLA2 correlated with increased plaque macrophages and lipids and with low content of smooth muscle cells, whereas LPA only correlated with plaque macrophages. Lp-PLA2, lysoPC 16:0, 18:0, and 18:1, but not LPA were higher in symptomatic than in asymptomatic plaques. Conclusions—The associations among Lp-PLA2, lysoPCs, LPA, and proinflammatory cytokines in human plaques suggest that lysoPCs play a key role in plaque inflammation and vulnerability. Our findings support Lp-PLA2 inhibition as a possible strategy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.