Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of BACTEC Plus 26 and 27 media with and without fastidious organism supplement with conventional methods for culture of sterile body fluids

We compared the BACTEC Plus 26/27 culture system (Becton Dickinson Diagnostic Instrument Systems, Sparks, Md.) with and without fastidious organism supplement with conventional centrifugation preparation and plating for the recovery and speed of detection of microorganisms. A total of 1,101 sterile body fluid specimens were collected and processed at five hospital laboratories, yielding 234 (21%) positive cultures. Of the 176 isolates considered clinically significant, 133 (76%) were recovered by both the BACTEC system and conventional culture, while 28 (16% [P < 0.005]) were recovered by BACTEC only and 11 (6%) were recovered by conventional culture alone. There were no statistically significant differences in the speed of detection of microbial growth. It was found that BACTEC, with or without the addition of fastidious organism supplement, exhibited improved sensitivity for the recovery of microorganisms, including fastidious bacteria.
Deduced consensus sequence of Sindbis virus strain AR339: mutations contained in laboratory strains which affect cell culture and in vivo phenotypes

The consensus sequence of the Sindbis virus AR339 isolate, the prototype alphavirus, has been deduced. THe results presented here suggest (i) that a substantial proportion of the sequence divergence evident between the consensus sequence and sequences of laboratory strains of AR339 has resulted from selection for efficient growth in cell culture, (ii) that many of these changes affect the virulence of the virus in animal models, and (iii) that such modified genetic backgrounds present in laboratory strains can exert a significant influence on genetic studies of virus pathogenesis and host range. A laboratory strain of Sindbis virus AR339 was sequenced and cloned as a cDNA (pTRSB) from which infectious virus (TRSB) could be derived. The consensus sequence was deduced from the complete sequences of pTRSB and HRsp (E. G. Strauss, C. M. Rice, and J. H. Strauss, Virology 133:92-110, 1984), from partial sequences of the glycoprotein genes of three other AR339 laboratory strains, and by comparison with the sequences of the glycoprotein genes of three other AR339 sequence. HRsp differed form the consensus sequence by eight coding changes, and TRSB differed by three coding changes. In the 5' untranslated region, HRsp differed from the consensus sequence at nucleotide (nt) 5. These differences were likely the result of cell culture passage of the original AR339 isolate. At three of the difference loci (one in TRSB and two in HRsp), selection of cell-culture-adaptive mutations was documented with Sindbis virus or other alphaviruses. Selection in cell culture often results in attenuation of virulence in animals. Considering the TRSB and HRsp sequences together, one noncoding difference from the consensus (an A-for-G substitution in the 5' untranslated region at nt 5) and six coding differences in the glycoprotein genes (at E2 amino acids 1, 3, 70, and 172 and at E1 amino acids 72 and 237) were at loci which, either individually or in combination, significantly affected alphavirus virulence in mice. Although the levels of virulence of isogenic strains containing either nt 5 A or nt 5 G did not differ significantly in neonatal mice, the presence of nt 5 A greatly enhanced the effect of a second attenuating mutation in the E2 gene. These results suggest that minimal differences in the "wild type" genetic background into which an additional mutation is introduced can have a dramatic effect on apparent virulence and pathogenesis phenotypes. A cDNA clone of the consensus AR339 sequence, a sequence devoid of occult attenuating mutations introduced by cell culture passage, will allow the molecular genetic examination of cell culture and in vivo phenotypes of a virus which may best reflect the sequence of Sindbis virus AR339 at the time of its isolation.
LET THEM HAVE DOMINION OVER ALL THE EARTH: ARE CHRISTIANS ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL?

A common assumption is that the Christian religion is an obstacle to the environmental cause, and Christians have been seen as unsympathetic to environmental issues. This may be due in part to Lynn White's now- famous article, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," published in Science magazine in 1967. White's paper posits that the Western paradigm, heavily influenced by traditional Christian theology, sets humans apart as masters of nature. Thus Christianity, from its injunction in Genesis to dominate all the earth, must be responsible for a large share of the extensive ecological destruction that began with the Industrial Revolution. A number of researchers have attempted to test White's hypothesis through survey data, comparing numerous measures of environmental sensitivity between Christians and non-Christians. This paper analyzes the findings of 14 such studies conducted between 1984 and 2007. It concludes that while these studies provide valuable insights into the environmental attitudes of different religious traditions, they do not achieve a consensus, nor do they adequately test White's thesis.
Hertfordshire commuter villages: from Geography to Sociology

This is a personal biographical account of the author’s early conversion from human geography to sociology. Early explorations of the French villages for an undergraduate dissertation were followed by postgraduate work on three villages in Hertfordshire. The doctoral thesis was jointly supervised by Emrys Jones and John Westergaard, with their different perspectives creating a tension between local particularities and national class divisions. This helped to create the author’s intellectual agenda for some 50 years of active empirical research in sociology.
Social Competencies and the Early Years Learning Framework: Understanding Critical Influences on Educator Capacity

CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH HAS FOCUSED on the imperatives for social competence in young children. This work has explained the diverse ways this complex construct is defined and the implications for social and academic outcomes for children. As a result of this research, social competence has become an embedded feature of early childhood curriculum frameworks at both an international and national level, the most recent of which is Australia's Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Underpinning these frameworks are both implicit and explicit expectations that educators have, in fact, the capacity to support children's development and competence in this area. This paper explores the imperatives for the inclusion of social competencies within contemporary curriculum frameworks. It will be argued that an understanding of the influences that shape educator capacity is critical in supporting effective professional practice.
Diverse Repertoire of HIV-1 p24-Specific, IFN-γ-Producing CD4+ T Cell Clones Following Immune Reconstitution on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy1

HIV-1 Ag-specific CD4+ T cell proliferative responses in human subjects with advanced, untreated HIV-1 disease are often weak or undetectable. Conversely, HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cell proliferation is occasionally detected following suppression of HIV-1 replication with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). These observations suggest that unchecked HIV-1 replication may lead to depletion or dysfunction of HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cells, and that these defects may be partially corrected by viral suppression and subsequent immune reconstitution. However, the impact of this immune reconstitution on the repertoire of HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cells has not been thoroughly evaluated. To examine the HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cell repertoire in this clinical setting, we established HIV-1 p24-specific CD4+ T cell clones from a successfully HAART-treated subject whose pretreatment peripheral CD4 count was 0 cells/μl. Eleven different p24-specific CD4+ T cell clonotypes were distinguished among 13 clones obtained. Most clones produced both IFN-γ and IL-4 upon Ag stimulation. Clones targeted eight distinct epitopes that varied in their conservancy among HIV-1 strains, and responses were restricted by one of three MHC II molecules. Clones showed a range of functional avidities for both protein and peptide Ags. Additional studies confirmed that multiple HIV-1 p24-derived epitopes were targeted by IFN-γ-producing CD4+ cells from subjects first treated with HAART during advanced HIV-1 disease (median, 4.5 peptides/subject; range, 3–6). These results suggest that in HAART-treated subjects whose peripheral CD4+ T cell pools were once severely depleted, the HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cell repertoire may include a diverse array of clonotypes targeting multiple HIV-1 epitopes.
Mining Themes and Interests in the Asperger’s and Autism Community

Discussion forums offer a new source of insight for the experiences and challenges faced by individuals affected by mental disorders. Language technology can help domain experts gather insight from these forums, by aggregating themes and user behaviors across thousands of conversations. We present a novel model for web forums, which captures both thematic content as well as user-specific interests. Applying this model to the Aspies Central forum (which covers issues related to Asperger’s syndrome and autism spectrum disorder), we identify several topics of concern to individuals who report being on the autism spectrum. We perform the evaluation on the data collected from Aspies Central forum, including 1,939 threads, 29,947 posts and 972 users. Quantitative evaluations demonstrate that the topics extracted by this model are substantially more than those obtained by Latent Dirichlet Allocation and the Author-Topic Model. Qualitative analysis by subjectmatter experts suggests intriguing directions for future investigation.
Effect of statins on the nano-mechanical properties of supported lipid bilayers

Many drugs and other xenobiotics may reach systemic concentrations where they interact not only with the proteins that are their therapeutic targets but also modify the physico-chemical properties of the cell membrane, which may lead to altered function of many transmembrane proteins beyond the intended targets. These changes in bilayer properties may contribute to nonspecific, promiscuous changes in membrane protein and cell function because membrane proteins are energetically coupled to their host lipid bilayer. It is thus important, for both pharmaceutical and biophysical reasons, to understand the bilayer-modifying effect of amphiphiles (including therapeutic agents). Here we use atomic force microscopy topography imaging and nano-mechanical mapping to monitor the effect of statins, a family of hypolipidemic drugs, on synthetic lipid membranes. Our results reveal that statins alter the nano-mechanical stability of the bilayers and increase their elastic moduli depending on the lipid bilayer order. Our results also suggest that statins increase bilayer heterogeneity, which may indicate that statins form nanometer-sized aggregates in the membrane. This is further evidence that changes in bilayer nanoscale mechanical properties may be a signature of lipid bilayer-mediated effects of amphiphilic drugs. Redondo-Morata et al. 2016 Statins modify lipid bilayer nano-mechanics
Role of Student Background, Perceptions of Ethnic Fit, and Racial Identification in the Academic Adjustment of African American Students at a Predominantly White University

Ethnic minority students’adjustment in majority college environments is related to the characteristics and experiences they bring to college as well as experiences on campus. In the present study, the authors explore the interaction of socioeconomic background and precollege intergroup contact opportunities among African American students (N = 215) at a predominantly White university. The authors also examine relationships among students’ racial identification (racial centrality), perceptions of ethnic fit at college (PEF), and academic adjustment (satisfaction, perceived competence, and performance) for students with differing precollege background profiles. Results indicate differing relationships with PEF across student background as well as differences in the relationships among students’racial centrality, PEF, and their academic adjustment. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of examining heterogeneity within African Americans and in their subsequent educational experiences.
Human Cytomegalovirus UL144 Gene Polymorphisms in Congenital Infections

ABSTRACT The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) UL144 gene is a tumor necrosis factor-like receptor with the potential to affect HCMV virulence. HCMV strains display genetic variability in the UL144 region, and the analysis of a potential link between UL144 gene polymorphisms and disease severity has scarcely been studied. However, a correlation between the UL144 genotype and congenital-disease outcome has been reported in one previous study, with the observation that all asymptomatic infants had a single UL144 genotype. In order to confirm or refute this finding, we determined the UL144 polymorphisms of HCMV strains recovered from the amniotic fluids of 38 infected fetuses and compared them to HCMV strains obtained from 30 viremic adult controls. The UL144 sequences were distributed among five genotypes (A, B, C, AC, and AB), as previously described. We observed similar percentages of the three major genotypes A (37%), B (33%), and C (27%) in our population. The UL144 genotype distributions were similar among the group of infected adults and the group of infected fetuses and among symptomatic and asymptomatic fetuses (P < 0.05). In our series, all five UL144 genotypes could be vertically transmitted from mothers to fetuses, and all could cause symptomatic congenital infection. We concluded that determination of UL144 polymorphisms in cases of congenital infection is not relevant, since it is unlikely to help predict the outcome of the infection.
Do L1 Reading Achievement and L1 Print Exposure Contribute to the Prediction of L2 Proficiency

The study examined whether individual differences in high school first language (L1) reading achievement and print exposure would account for unique variance in second language (L2) written (word decoding, spelling, writing, reading comprehension) and oral (listening/speaking) proficiency after adjusting for the effects of early L1 literacy and verbal skills, cognitive ability in L1, and L2 aptitude. Participants were administered measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, listening comprehension, and cognitive ability in 1st through 5th grades; L2 aptitude in 9th grade; and L1 reading achievement, L1 print exposure, and L2 proficiency in 10th grade. The findings showed that L1 reading achievement in 10th grade made significant and unique contributions to L2 word decoding, L2 reading comprehension, L2 listening/speaking, and overall L2 proficiency after adjusting for the effects of L1 literacy and verbal skills, cognitive ability in L1, and L2 aptitude. Subsequent analyses showed that L1 print exposure variables made unique contributions to L2 reading comprehension, L2 decoding, L2 writing, L2 listening/speaking, and overall L2 proficiency even after adjusting for the effects of L1 literacy and verbal skills during elementary school, cognitive ability in L1, L2 aptitude, and 10th-grade reading achievement. The results suggest that stronger L1 reading skills are related to stronger L2 outcomes and that opportunity for and engagement in L1 literacy experiences may also be related to differences in L2 proficiency.
A novel self-triggered sampling scheme in networked control systems

This paper proposes a novel self-triggered sampling scheme for the execution of sampling in networked control systems by taking into consideration network-induced delays and data packet dropouts. Using this scheme, the next sampling period is dynamically obtained with respect to (a) the desired performance; (b) the latest accepted time-stamped control packet; and (c) the allowable communication delay and the maximum allowable number of successive data dropouts. This scheme can adaptively adjust the sampling period to reduce communication loads with maintaining the desired control performance. Compared with some existing ones, this scheme does not require continuous measurement of the system state and on-line estimation of a triggering condition. An inverted pendulum is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Contrasting gray and white matter changes in preclinical Huntington disease

Background: In Huntington disease (HD), substantial striatal atrophy precedes clinical motor symptoms. Accordingly, neuroprotection should prevent major cell loss before such symptoms arise. To evaluate neuroprotection, biomarkers such as MRI measures are needed. This requires first establishing the best imaging approach. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, we acquired T1-weighted and diffusion-weighted scans in 39 preclinical (pre-HD) individuals and 25 age-matched controls. T1-weighted scans were analyzed with gross whole-brain segmentation and voxel-based morphometry. Analysis of diffusion-weighted scans used skeleton-based tractography. For all imaging measures, we compared pre-HD and control groups and within the pre-HD group we examined correlations with estimated years to clinical onset. Results: Pre-HD individuals had lower gross gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume. Voxel-wise analysis demonstrated local GM volume loss, most notably in regions consistent with basal ganglia–thalamocortical pathways. By contrast, pre-HD individuals showed widespread reductions in WM integrity, probably due to a loss of axonal barriers. Both GM and WM imaging measures correlated with estimated years to onset. Conclusions: Using automated, observer-independent methods, we found that GM loss in pre-HD was regionally specific, while WM deterioration was much more general and probably the result of demyelination rather then axonal degeneration. These findings provide important information about the nature, relative staging, and topographic specificity of brain changes in pre-HD and suggest that combining GM and WM imaging may be the best biomarker approach. The empirically derived group difference images from this study are provided as regions-of-interest masks for improved sensitivity in future longitudinal studies.
Transcriptional and Posttranslational Regulation of Nucleotide Excision Repair: The Guardian of the Genome against Ultraviolet Radiation

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight represents a constant threat to genome stability by generating modified DNA bases such as cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) and pyrimidine-pyrimidone (6-4) photoproducts (6-4PP). If unrepaired, these lesions can have deleterious effects, including skin cancer. Mammalian cells are able to neutralize UV-induced photolesions through nucleotide excision repair (NER). The NER pathway has multiple components including seven xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) proteins (XPA to XPG) and numerous auxiliary factors, including ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) protein kinase and RCC1 like domain (RLD) and homologous to the E6-AP carboxyl terminus (HECT) domain containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 2 (HERC2). In this review we highlight recent data on the transcriptional and posttranslational regulation of NER activity.
Counseling around the world: an international handbook

ification and finds many parallels as well as points of distinction. The final chapter, which is on theory and research, brings us back to defining what a ‘value’ is and exploring how values clarification is simultaneously value free and value laden. Quite rightly he recognises the large extent to which values clarification is an individualistic approach, focusing as it does on an individual’s values while no doubt taking into account the social and cultural context of these values. As he emphasises throughout, this approach seeks to enable an individual to clarify and actualise their values without practitioner imposition. This demands that the practitioner have a high level of self and other awareness, and be non-judgemental, open and empathic to whatever the person brings from their own frame of reference and cultural worldview. As it is not itself a therapy modality, research has been scanty and of questionable quality. In this regard, Kirshenbaum points to the difference between saying that ‘the evidence does not show that values clarification works’ (p. 187) and saying that it shows that it does not work. Moreover he suggests that values clarification is a vital component of different models of therapy where there is evidence to show its effectiveness, particularly solution-focused therapy, motivational interviewing and acceptance and commitment therapy. I commend this book to any practitioner or educator wanting to expand their understanding of a values clarification process with people in many different settings. It is a rich and thorough book. Although values clarification is not a formulaic approach, I would have preferred the format of the book to be more like a manual to make the large central section on strategies easier to read, refer to and work with.
E-PUR: an energy-efficient processing unit for recurrent neural networks

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are a key technology for emerging applications such as automatic speech recognition, machine translation or image description. Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks are the most successful RNN implementation, as they can learn long term dependencies to achieve high accuracy. Unfortunately, the recurrent nature of LSTM networks significantly constrains the amount of parallelism and, hence, multicore CPUs and many-core GPUs exhibit poor efficiency for RNN inference. In this paper, we present E-PUR, an energy-efficient processing unit tailored to the requirements of LSTM computation. The main goal of E-PUR is to support large recurrent neural networks for low-power mobile devices. E-PUR provides an efficient hardware implementation of LSTM networks that is flexible to support diverse applications. One of its main novelties is a technique that we call Maximizing Weight Locality (MWL), which improves the temporal locality of the memory accesses for fetching the synaptic weights, reducing the memory requirements by a large extent. Our experimental results show that E-PUR achieves real-time performance for different LSTM networks, while reducing energy consumption by orders of magnitude with respect to general-purpose processors and GPUs, and it requires a very small chip area. Compared to a modern mobile SoC, an NVIDIA Tegra X1, E-PUR provides an average energy reduction of 88x.