Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG Inhibits the Toxic Effects of Staphylococcus aureus on Epidermal Keratinocytes

ABSTRACT Few studies have evaluated the potential benefits of the topical application of probiotic bacteria or material derived from them. We have investigated whether a probiotic bacterium, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, can inhibit Staphylococcus aureus infection of human primary keratinocytes in culture. When primary human keratinocytes were exposed to S. aureus, only 25% of the keratinocytes remained viable following 24 h of incubation. However, in the presence of 108 CFU/ml of live L. rhamnosus GG, the viability of the infected keratinocytes increased to 57% (P = 0.01). L. rhamnosus GG lysates and spent culture fluid also provided significant protection to keratinocytes, with 65% (P = 0.006) and 57% (P = 0.01) of cells, respectively, being viable following 24 h of incubation. Keratinocyte survival was significantly enhanced regardless of whether the probiotic was applied in the viable form or as cell lysates 2 h before or simultaneously with (P = 0.005) or 12 h after (P = 0.01) S. aureus infection. However, spent culture fluid was protective only if added before or simultaneously with S. aureus. With respect to mechanism, both L. rhamnosus GG lysate and spent culture fluid apparently inhibited adherence of S. aureus to keratinocytes by competitive exclusion, but only viable bacteria or the lysate could displace S. aureus (P = 0.04 and 0.01, respectively). Furthermore, growth of S. aureus was inhibited by either live bacteria or lysate but not spent culture fluid. Together, these data suggest at least two separate activities involved in the protective effects of L. rhamnosus GG against S. aureus, growth inhibition and reduction of bacterial adhesion.
The Saxpy Matrix-1: A General-Purpose Systolic Computer

There has been no reduction in the demand for higher performance in scientific computation. This is especially true in digital signal processing because new algorithms for that application require much more computation than do conventional techniques. The increasing volumes of data from seismic surveys, sonar and radar systems, and imaging systems need to be processed; these applications are important sources of demand for more throughput. The analysis of data that are generated by such new imaging technologies as magnetic resonance imaging creates additional demand. In signal processing and scientific computing, parallelism is pervasive. While the granularity of the parallelism may vary, the opportunity to perform many calculations in parallel is characteristic of it. Harnessing this inherent, abundant parallelism through new computer architectures is now one of the major thrusts in computer technology.
Robust state estimation for Micro Aerial Vehicles based on system dynamics

In this work, we present a model-based estimation scheme for multi-rotor Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). Although modeling approaches for MAVs have been presented in the past, these models have rarely been used for real-time state estimation onboard MAVs. Building on this work, we identify the most dominant effects and propose an easy-to-use calibration scheme for estimation of the model parameters. Given the calibration estimates for these parameters, we derive a state estimator where the state prediction of the indirect Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is driven by a MAV model. Solely using measurements from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and a barometric pressure sensor - both available on almost every MAV - our model-based formulation keeps the estimated velocity of the MAV bounded in all directions, as opposed to state of the art IMU-model driven state estimators onboard MAVs. This is crucial for keeping MAVs airborne safely, for instance in the case of failures or re-initialization of vision based localization systems.
Distinguishing optimism from pessimism in older adults: is it more important to be optimistic or not to be pessimistic?

Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the Life Orientation Test (LOT) consisted of separate Optimism and Pessimism factors among middle-aged and older adults. Although the two factors were significantly negatively correlated among individuals facing a profound life challenge (i.e., caregiving), they were only weakly correlated among noncaregivers. Caregivers also expressed less optimism than noncaregivers and showed a trend toward greater pessimism, suggesting that life stress may affect these dispositions. Pessimism, not optimism, uniquely predicted subsequent psychological and physical health; however, optimism and pessimism were equally predictive for stressed and nonstressed samples. By exploring optimism and pessimism separately, researchers may better determine whether the beneficial effects of optimism result from thinking optimistically, avoiding pessimistic thinking, or a combination of the two.
The Temporal Dynamics of Voluntary Emotion Regulation

Background Neuroimaging has demonstrated that voluntary emotion regulation is effective in reducing amygdala activation to aversive stimuli during regulation. However, to date little is known about the sustainability of these neural effects once active emotion regulation has been terminated. Methodology/Principal Findings We addressed this issue by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy female subjects. We performed an active emotion regulation task using aversive visual scenes (task 1) and a subsequent passive viewing task using the same stimuli (task 2). Here we demonstrate not only a significantly reduced amygdala activation during active regulation but also a sustained regulation effect on the amygdala in the subsequent passive viewing task. This effect was related to an immediate increase of amygdala signal in task 1 once active emotion regulation has been terminated: The larger this peak postregulation signal in the amygdala in task 1, the smaller the sustained regulation effect in task 2. Conclusions/Significance In summary, we found clear evidence that effects of voluntary emotion regulation extend beyond the period of active regulation. These findings are of importance for the understanding of emotion regulation in general, for disorders of emotion regulation and for psychotherapeutic interventions.
Watching Them Watching Me: Browser Extensions Impact on User Privacy Awareness and Concern

Third-party companies increasingly track users’ web browsing behavior, which raises privacy concerns. A number of browser extensions inform users about this tracking, yet the extensions’ impact on user attitudes has not been well studied. We conducted a 24-participant, qualitative lab study evaluating how three popular extensions (Ghostery, DoNotTrackMe, and Disconnect) influence users’ privacy awareness and privacy concerns. Before using any tool, many participants assumed tracking occurs, yet were unsure of specifics. The extensions provided limited insight; participants remained uncertain who the tracking companies are, what data they collect, and for what purpose. While using a browser extension, participants reported increased privacy concern due to increased awareness of tracking, yet this concern was mitigated by feeling protected by the extension. However, some participants distrusted the extensions or concluded the extension would tracked them. While all three extensions provided some additional awareness, users remained confused about many aspects of data tracking.
Laboratory Evaluation of Warm-Mix Asphalt Mixtures for Moisture and Rutting Susceptibility

AbstractSince its introduction, warm mix asphalt (WMA) has garnered a lot of attention and interest from the pavement industry as a promising technology to replace the conventional hot mix asphalt (HMA). Despite its many benefits, including reducing emissions and fuel usage, definitive answers on the feasibility of replacing HMA pavements with WMA are yet to be answered. A major concern for WMA is susceptibility to moisture-induced damage. In this research study, mixtures prepared using three WMA technologies- viz. Sasobit, Advera WMA and the Foamer were evaluated for their moisture susceptibility and permanent deformation in comparison with an HMA mixture. Tensile strength ratio (TSR) and asphalt pavement analyzer (APA) tests were conducted on these mixtures. Results show that moisture-based WMA technologies (Advera and Foamer) are more susceptible to moisture damage. However, rut depths evaluated using APA, even for moisture-conditioned specimens, indicated WMA performance on par with that of HMA. Even .
Implementing the context tree weighting method for content recognition

This paper presents the usability of context tree weighting method (CTW) for applications involving content recognition. The CTW method is a statistics-based universal date compression algorithm that is capable of achieving superior performance compared to Lempel-Ziv based algorithms. The concept of context tree freezing after the reference sequence is encoded to avoid learning the memory structure of the appended test sequence is used to modify CTW for content recognition purposes.
Source-Language Features and Maximum Correlation Training for Machine Translation Evaluation

We propose three new features for MT evaluation: source-sentence constrained n-gram precision, source-sentence reordering metrics, and discriminative unigram precision, as well as a method of learning linear feature weights to directly maximize correlation with human judgments. By aligning both the hypothesis and the reference with the sourcelanguage sentence, we achieve better correlation with human judgments than previously proposed metrics. We further improve performance by combining individual evaluation metrics using maximum correlation training, which is shown to be better than the classification-based framework.
Residual Stress State of TIG Remelted Zone in the Weld Toe after Chilling Treatment

Using the software named ABAQUS, the residual stress distributions of welding toes for the Q345C butt joints and T-joints are simulated, respectively. The simulations are performed in three cases which are as-welded, TIG remelting after welding, and chilling treatment for the welding toes after TIG remelting at different temperatures, respectively. The stress measurement is performed for these areas using the blind-hole method. The results of measurement and numerical simulation indicate that the residual stresses for the surface of the welding toes can be transformed into the biaxial compression stress when the TIG remelting zone temperature of welding toes is above 450 °C,which is availible for the improvement of fatigue strength of welded joints.
Magnetosheath compression: Role of characteristic compression time, alpha particle abundance, and alpha/proton relative velocity

[1] The hybrid expanding box (HEB) is used to study a slow compression of the magnetosheath plasma. The HEB simulations confirm the previous results of Hellinger et al. (2003b) that the slowly compressed plasma follows a marginal stability path of the proton cyclotron instability in a low-beta plasma, whereas in a high-beta plasma the mirror instability becomes dominant. For a faster compression the marginal stability path shifts further inside the unstable region in order to balance the faster anisotropization rate due to the faster compression. The presence of alpha particles strongly changes the dispersive properties of the plasma and introduces the alpha cyclotron instability. The theoretical description of the system becomes intricate, since the alpha particles introduce additional parameters. The plasma evolution during the compression gets more complex; a transition between the proton and the alpha cyclotron instabilities appears. The overall behavior of the simulated system is not qualitatively different from the behavior of the pure electron-proton plasma. When an additional parameter, a nonzero alpha/proton relative velocity, is included, the theoretical understanding becomes even more complicated. The behavior of the compressed system is nevertheless similar to the results in the pure electron-proton plasma. An important qualitative change from the zero alpha/proton relative velocity case is that the proton cyclotron instability is able to efficiently accelerate alpha particles with respect to protons, whereas the alpha cyclotron and the mirror instabilities decelerate them.
Clinical evaluation of diagnostic tests.

This is the 13th in the series designed by the American College of Radiology (ACR), the Canadian Association of Radiologists, and the American Journal of Roentgenology. The series, which will ultimately comprise 22 articles, is designed to progressively educate radiologists in the methodologies of rigorous research, from the most basic principles to a level of considerable sophistication. The articles are intended to complement interactive software that permits the user to work with what he or she has learned, which is available on the ACR Web site (www.acr.org).
[Energy metabolism of ALS patients under mechanical ventilation and tube feeding].

We studied the energy metabolism of ALS patients under mechanical ventilation and tube feeding. Gas exchanges (O2 and CO2 content in expiratory and inspiratory gas) were measured all day long by DELTATRAC (Datex, Finland) in 11 ALS patients, and energy metabolism during 24 hours was calculated according to the next formula; 5.67 VO2 + 1.60 VCO2-2.17 UN (VO2; O2 consumption l/min, VCO2; CO2 production l/min, UN; urea nitrogen excretion in urine g/day). All patients were clinically stable under continuous mechanical ventilation and tube feeding, and did not have any infection such as pneumonia. The patients were 23-70 years old (mean 49.3), and had total clinical courses of 3-12 years (mean 7.1), and 2-8 year-long courses under mechanical ventilation (mean 4.6). They were classified into the next 3 groups: group I; totally locked-in state (2 patients), group II; complete tetraplegia (6 patients), group III; incomplete tetraparesis (3 patients). Basal metabolic rate (BMR) of each patient was also calculated from Harris-Benedict's formula; male = 66.47 + 13.75W + 5.0H - 6.76A, female = 665.10 + 0.567W + 1.85H - 4.68A (W; weight kg, H; height cm, A; body surface area m2). And the changes of the body weight by month were examined retrospectively in 26 ALS patients with at least 2 year-duration under mechanical ventilation, which include the previous 11 patients. The calorie consumption of 24 hours were 783.3 kcal (group I), 875.3 (group II), 974.9 (group III), which were all lower than BMR (I; -26.8%, II; -17.6%, III; -11.3%). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Neural Substrates of Recognition Memory for Verbal Information: Spanning the Divide between Short- and Long-term Memory

One of the classic categorical divisions in the history of memory research is that between short-term and long-term memory. Indeed, because memory for the immediate past (a few seconds) and memory for the relatively more remote past (several seconds and beyond) are assumed to rely on distinct neural systems, more often than not, memory research has focused either on short- (or “working memory”) or on long-term memory. Using an auditory–verbal continuous recognition paradigm designed for fMRI, we examined how the neural signatures of recognition memory change across an interval of time (from 2.5 to 30 sec) that spans this hypothetical division between short- and long-term memory. The results revealed that activity during successful auditory–verbal item recognition in inferior parietal cortex and the posterior superior temporal lobe was maximal for early lags, whereas, conversely, activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus increased as a function of lag. Taken together, the results reveal that as the interval between item repetitions increases, there is a shift in the distribution of memory-related activity that moves from posterior temporo-parietal cortex (lags 1–4) to inferior frontal regions (lags 5–10), indicating that as time advances, the burden of recognition memory is increasingly placed on top–down retrieval mechanisms that are mediated by structures in inferior frontal cortex.
Zinc-finger gene Fez in the olfactory sensory neurons regulates development of the olfactory bulb non-cell-autonomously

Fez is a zinc-finger gene encoding a transcriptional repressor that is expressed in the olfactory epithelium, hypothalamus, ventrolateral pallium and prethalamus at mid-gestation. To reveal its function, we generated Fez-deficient mice. The Fez-deficient mice showed several abnormalities in the olfactory system: (1) impaired axonal projection of the olfactory sensory neurons; (2) reduced size of the olfactory bulb; (3) abnormal layer formation in the olfactory bulb; and (4) aberrant rostral migration of the interneuron progenitors. Fez was not expressed in the projection neurons, interneurons or interneuron progenitors. Transgene-mediated expression of Fez in olfactory sensory neurons significantly rescued the abnormalities in olfactory axon projection and in the morphogenesis of the olfactory bulb in Fez-knockout mice. Thus, Fez is cell-autonomously required for the axon termination of olfactory sensory neurons, and Fez non-cell-autonomously controls layer formation and interneuron development in the olfactory bulb. These findings suggest that signals from olfactory sensory neurons contribute to the proper formation of the olfactory bulb.
Multiple Choices

The generation of memory T cells in immune responses has been extensively studied over recent years, yet the requirements for production and persistence of a functional memory pool are still unclear. For example, while there is compelling evidence that survival of memory cells does not require TCR–MHC engagements (1, 2), recent evidence indicates that such interactions may be needed to maintain functional activity of these cells (3, 4). Furthermore, there is growing evidence that cytokines play a major role in deciding the fate of CD8 memory cells, although the precise mechanisms by which these effects are mediated remain unknown.
8-year follow-up of patients treated for borderline personality disorder: mentalization-based treatment versus treatment as usual.

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the effect of mentalization-based treatment by partial hospitalization compared to treatment as usual for borderline personality disorder 8 years after entry into a randomized, controlled trial and 5 years after all mentalization-based treatment was complete. METHOD Interviewing was by research psychologists blind to original group allocation and structured review of medical notes of 41 patients from the original trial. Multivariate analysis of variance, chi-square, univariate analysis of variance, and nonparametric Mann-Whitney statistics were used to contrast the two groups depending on the distribution of the data. RESULTS Five years after discharge from mentalization-based treatment, the mentalization-based treatment by partial hospitalization group continued to show clinical and statistical superiority to treatment as usual on suicidality (23% versus 74%), diagnostic status (13% versus 87%), service use (2 years versus 3.5 years of psychiatric outpatient treatment), use of medication (0.02 versus 1.90 years taking three or more medications), global function above 60 (45% versus 10%), and vocational status (employed or in education 3.2 years versus 1.2 years). CONCLUSIONS Patients with 18 months of mentalization-based treatment by partial hospitalization followed by 18 months of maintenance mentalizing group therapy remain better than those receiving treatment as usual, but their general social function remains impaired.
Hypoadiponectinemia Is Strongly Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Korean Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between serum adiponectin level, dietary intake, and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients, and to identify factors associated with serum adiponectin level. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using 789 type 2 DM patients (406 men and 383 women) 40–80 years old. Subjects were classified into 3 groups on the basis of serum adiponectin level. General characteristics and anthropometric, hematologic, and dietary data were obtained for each subject. Results: The prevalence of hypoadiponectinemia (<4.0 µg/mL) was 57.4% in men and 32.4% in women. Serum adiponectin level was negatively correlated with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, body fat percentage, and serum concentrations of insulin and triglyceride, and was positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol level. Even though the direct association of nutrient intake with serum adiponectin concentration was not strong, various contributing factors for hypoadiponectinemia were strongly correlated with micronutrient intake, such as calcium, iron, and niacin. Both sexes in the group with the lowest adiponectin concentration had a higher prevalence of MetS and MetS components than corresponding sexes in the group with the highest adiponectin concentration. Conclusions: Our findings show that hypoadiponectinemia is strongly associated with MetS in type 2 DM patients. Dietary intake may be indirectly associated with adiponectin levels through factors such as BMI, waist circumference, insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and blood pressure. Therefore, our results suggest that manipulation of the level of adiponectin may prevent MetS and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in type 2 DM patients.
Antibacterial activities of a fosfomycin/tobramycin combination: a novel inhaled antibiotic for bronchiectasis

Objectives To compare the in vitro and in vivo activities of a 4:1 (w/w) fosfomycin/tobramycin combination (FTI) with those of fosfomycin and tobramycin alone against cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF bronchiectasis pathogens. Methods Clinical isolates of CF Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Burkholderia cepacia complex, Escherichia coli and Klebsiellia spp. were evaluated by MIC, MBC, post-antibiotic effect (PAE), synergy, time–kill, a rat pneumonia model and spontaneous mutation frequency (SMF). Results FTI showed high activity against E. coli, H. influenzae, S. aureus and Klebsiella spp. For the S. aureus strains, 75% of which were methicillin resistant (MRSA), FTI had a lower MIC90 than tobramycin. For P. aeruginosa, FTI had a lower MIC90 than fosfomycin, but tobramycin was more active than either. Synergy studies showed no antagonism between fosfomycin and tobramycin, and 93% of the isolates demonstrated no interaction. FTI was rapidly bactericidal and exhibited concentration-dependent killing in time–kill studies. In the rat pneumonia model, FTI and tobramycin demonstrated bactericidal killing of P. aeruginosa; both were more active than fosfomycin alone. The SMF for S. aureus resistance to FTI was 2–4 log10 lower than that for tobramycin and 2–7 log10 lower than that for fosfomycin. For P. aeruginosa, the FTI SMF was 2–3 log10 lower than that for fosfomycin and 1–2 log10 lower than that for tobramycin. Conclusions FTI is a broad-spectrum antibiotic combination with high activity in vitro and in vivo. These data suggest FTI could be a potential treatment for respiratory infections caused by Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic bacteria.