Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Culture Positivity of CVCs Used for TPN: Investigation of an Association with Catheter-Related Infection and Comparison of Causative Organisms between ICU and Non-ICU CVCs

A relationship between central venous catheter (CVC) tip colonisation and catheter-related blood-stream infection (CRBSI) has been suggested. We examined culture positivity of CVC tips (colonised and infected CVCs) in a total parenteral nutrition (TPN) population. Our aims were to define the relationship between culture positivity and CRBSI, and to compare causative organisms between culture positive and CRBSI CVCS, and between ward and ICU CVCs. All patients receiving TPN via non-tunnelled CVCs during the study (1997–2009) were included. All CVC tips were analysed. Data were collated contemporaneously. A TPN audit committee determined whether CVC tip culture positivity reflected colonisation/CRBSI using CDC criteria. 1,392 patients received TPN via 2,565 CVCs over 15,397 CVC days. 25.4% of CVCs tips were culture positive, of these 32% developed CRBSI. There was a nonsignificant trend of higher Gram negative Bacilli isolation in ICU CVCs (P = 0.1), ward CVCs were associated with higher rates of staphylococcal isolation (P = 0.01). A similar pattern of organisms were cultured from CRBSI and culture positive CVCs. The consistent relationship between CRBSI and culture positive CVCs, and similar pattern of causative organisms further supports an aetiological relationship between culture positive CVC tips and CRBSI, supporting the contention that CVC culture-positivity may be a useful surrogate marker for CRBSI rates.
Localized translation regulates cell adhesion and transendothelial migration

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process by which cancer cells gain the ability to leave the primary tumor site and invade surrounding tissues. These metastatic cancer cells can further increase their plasticity by adopting an amoeboid-like morphology, by undergoing mesenchymal-to-amoeboid transition (MAT). We found that adhering cells produce spreading initiation centers (SICs), transient structures that are localized above nascent adhesion complexes, and share common biological and morphological characteristics associated with amoeboid cells. Meanwhile, spreading cells seem to return to a mesenchymal-like morphology. Thus, our results indicate that SIC-induced adhesion recapitulates events that are associated with amoeboid-to-mesenchymal transition (AMT). We found that polyadenylated RNAs are enriched within SICs, blocking their translation decreased adhesion potential of metastatic cells that progressed through EMT. These results point to a so-far-unknown checkpoint that regulates cell adhesion and allows metastatic cells to alter adhesion strength to modulate their dissemination.
Human Aging Magnifies Genetic Effects on Executive Functioning and Working Memory

We demonstrate that common genetic polymorphisms contribute to the increasing heterogeneity of cognitive functioning in old age. We assess two common Val/Met polymorphisms, one affecting the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme, which degrades dopamine (DA) in prefrontal cortex (PFC), and the other influencing the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein. In two tasks (Wisconsin Card Sorting and spatial working memory), we find that effects of COMT genotype on cognitive performance are magnified in old age and modulated by BDNF genotype. Older COMT Val homozygotes showed particularly low levels of performance if they were also BDNF Met carriers. The age-associated magnification of COMT gene effects provides novel information on the inverted U-shaped relation linking dopaminergic neuromodulation in PFC to cognitive performance. The modulation of COMT effects by BDNF extends recent evidence of close interactions between frontal and medial-temporal circuitries in executive functioning and working memory.
Molecular phylogeny of clade III nematodes reveals multiple origins of tissue parasitism

SUMMARY Molecular phylogenetic analyses of 113 taxa representing Ascaridida, Rhigonematida, Spirurida and Oxyurida were used to infer a more comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis for representatives of ‘clade III’. The posterior probability of multiple alignment sites was used to exclude or weight characters, yielding datasets that were analysed using maximum parsimony, likelihood, and Bayesian inference methods. Phylogenetic results were robust to differences among inference methods for most high-level taxonomic groups, but some clades were sensitive to treatments of characters reflecting differences in alignment ambiguity. Taxa representing Camallanoidea, Oxyurida, Physalopteroidea, Raphidascarididae, and Skrjabillanidae were monophyletic in all 9 analyses whereas Ascaridida, Ascarididae, Anisakidae, Cosmocercoidea, Habronematoidea, Heterocheilidae, Philometridae, Rhigonematida and Thelazioidea were never monophyletic. Some clades recovered in all trees such as Dracunculoidea and Spirurina included the vast majority of their sampled species, but were non-monophyletic due to the consistent behaviour of one or few ‘rogue’ taxa. Similarly, 102 of 103 clade III taxa were strongly supported as monophyletic, yet clade III was paraphyletic due to the grouping of Truttaedacnitis truttae with the outgroups. Mapping of host ‘habitat’ revealed that tissue-dwelling localization of nematode adults has evolved independently at least 3 times, and relationships among Spirurina and Camallanina often reflected tissue predilection rather than taxonomy.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Cc by Adaptive Mobile Video Streaming and Efficient Social Video Sharing in the Clouds

While demands on video traffic over mobile networks have been souring, the wireless link capacity cannot keep up with the traffic demand. The gap between the traffic demand and the link capacity, along with time-varying link conditions, results in poor service quality of video streaming over mobile networks such as long buffering time and intermittent disruptions. Leveraging the cloud computing technology, we propose a new mobile video streaming framework, dubbed AMES-Cloud, which has two main parts: AMoV (adaptive mobile video streaming) and ESoV (efficient social video sharing). AMoV and ESoV construct a private agent to provide video streaming services efficiently for each mobile user. For a given user, AMoV lets her private agent adaptively adjust her streaming flow with a scalable video coding technique based on the feedback of link quality. Likewise, ESoV monitors the social network interactions among mobile users, and their private agents try to prefetch video content in advance. We implement a prototype of the AMES-Cloud framework to demonstrate its performance. It is shown that the private agents in the clouds can effectively provide the adaptive streaming, and perform video sharing (i.e., prefetching) based on the social network analysis.
Performance analysis for adaptive MIMO SVD transmission in a cellular system

In this paper we consider the performance of an adaptive MIMO SVD (singular value decomposition) transmission scheme operating in a cellular environment. In particular we consider the impact of inter-cell interference on the performance of an adaptive MIMO system. Inter-cell interference is always present in a cellular system. However, its value may be controlled by the type of cellular layout, i.e., the number of sectors and the frequency reuse pattern. In this paper we consider a number of cellular layouts and consider the impact of the resulting SINR on the constellation sizes that can be supported, the BER, etc. The primary metric used for our performance analysis is the error free transmission rate, and this is derived for the adaptive MIMO SVD system. For the cellular scenarios considered, we find that the effect of interference is considerable and the performance of the adaptive MIMO SVD scheme is only marginally better than that provided by conventional diversity methods
Australian Pregnant Women's Awareness of Gestational Weight Gain and Dietary Guidelines: Opportunity for Action

Background. Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) can negatively impact on maternal and foetal health. Guidelines based on Institute of Medicine (IOM) encourage managing GWG by following healthy eating recommendations and increasing physical activity. This study investigated pregnant women's knowledge of their optimal GWG and recommended dietary approaches for GWG management. Method. English-speaking pregnant women were recruited from five hospitals in New South Wales (Australia) and an online link. Prepregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated from self-reported height and prepregnancy weight. Participants identified their recommended GWG. A survey assessed practical dietary knowledge and asked about broad dietary recommendations to prevent excessive GWG. Chi square and logistic regression analyses were used. Results. N = 326 pregnant women completed the surveys; 49% entered pregnancy overweight (25.2%) or obese (23.6%); and knowledge of recommended GWG was lacking. Prepregnancy BMI was a significant predictor of GWG recommendation knowledge (P < 0.000). Pregnant women were highly knowledgeable about broad dietary recommendations but had poor knowledge of detailed recommendations. Conclusions. Limited knowledge of IOM's GWG guidelines and of specific dietary recommendations for pregnancy should be addressed by health care providers and education initiatives to assist the high number of women who enter pregnancy overweight or obese.
Cost-Sensitive Convolution based Neural Networks for Imbalanced Time-Series Classification

Some deep convolutional neural networks were proposed for time-series classification and class imbalanced problems. However, those models performed degraded and even failed to recognize the minority class of an imbalanced temporal sequences dataset. Minority samples would bring troubles for temporal deep learning classifiers due to the equal treatments of majority and minority class. Until recently, there were few works applying deep learning on imbalanced time-series classification (ITSC) tasks. Here, this paper aimed at tackling ITSC problems with deep learning. An adaptive cost-sensitive learning strategy was proposed to modify temporal deep learning models. Through the proposed strategy, classifiers could automatically assign misclassification penalties to each class. In the experimental section, the proposed method was utilized to modify five neural networks. They were evaluated on a large volume, real-life and imbalanced time-series dataset with six metrics. Each single network was also tested alone and combined with several mainstream data samplers. Experimental results illustrated that the proposed cost-sensitive modified networks worked well on ITSC tasks. Compared to other methods, the cost-sensitive convolution neural network and residual network won out in the terms of all metrics. Consequently, the proposed cost-sensitive learning strategy can be used to modify deep learning classifiers from cost-insensitive to cost-sensitive. Those cost-sensitive convolutional networks can be effectively applied to address ITSC issues.
Simulating and Characterizing Water Flows Inside Hydroentangling Orifices

The hydroentangling technique uses cone-capillary orifice nozzles to direct high-energy water jets against loose fiber webs. This study simulates the effects of orifice configuration on the water-jet properties. An axisymmetric steady-state model is considered for this two-phase system. The turbulent water jet is simulated using a realizable k - ε model, and the behaviors of cone-up and cone-down geometries are investigated. The simulation reveals that the water jet produced by a cone-up orifice keeps contact with the walls all the way through the orifice and may undergo cavitation to reduce the water-jet intact length and damage to the orifice surface. In contrast, the cone-down geometry can form a constricted water jet that is enveloped by an air gap, which separates the water from the orifice surface and therefore prevents cavitation. The results are in excellent agreement with previous experimental studies.
Cardiovascular effects of amphepramone.

The i.v. administration of amphepramone in dogs induced a dose-related depressor reaction. This effect was due to a peripheral myotropic vasodilatation. When the drug was administered intracerebroventricularly it elicited a marked pressor response, due, to the release of catecholamines with its subsequent action on alpha-adrenergic receptors. Small doses of amphepramone administered in dogs, rats and rabbits, induced a sinus tachycardia. Larger doses brought about a sinus bradycardia, bradyarrhythmias, extrasystoles, ventricular bradycardia and ventricular fibrillation or asystolia. The respiratory movements as well as the EEG tracings were depressed by larger doses of amphepramone.
Sex chromosomes and karyotypes of the Alticidae (Coleoptera).

In Alticidae, the range of chromosome numbers encountered almost covers that of all other coleopterans. The most primitive karyotype was found in an Andean species of Forsterita: 1111+ Xyp (256 spermatozoa per bundle). The original chrysomeloid karyotype might have been composed of eleven metacentric autosomes plus X and y of nearly equal size. From such a basic complement, the actual diverse karyotypes have been derived along different lineages, of which very few can be recognized cytologically at the present. One, or most probably, several ones, are characterized by an increase of the autosomal number and retention of the original Xyp, leading to instances like Epitrix (1211+ Xyp), Phyllotreta (1511+ Xyp) (both 64 spz/b), and Diphaulaca (1411+ Xyp; 32 spz/b). In other cases, the Xyp is retained, but the autosomal number lowered: Hypolampsis (1011+ Xyp; 64 spz/b), Phyllotrupes (1011+ Xyp; 32 spz/b). In other lineage, the sex chromsomes, but not their nucleolus, are retained: tribes Alticini and Oedionychini. In Alticini (usually 1111+ X + y; 64 spz/b), the univalent sex chromosomes amphiorientate at M 1, but segregate in the manner known from Tipulidae (Diptera). In the subtribe Oedionychina (usually 1011+ X + y; 16 spz/b) the sex chromosomes organize their own spindle in M I, segregating from a distant bivalent (or distant multivalent) condition showing synorientation. Characteristic for Oedionychina is furthermore the large size of spermatocytes and sex chromosomes. How the large X and y are formed is unknown. They could be the fusion products of multiple sex chromosomes as encountered in Disonychina (32 spz/b), the lower subtribe of Oedionychini.
Rising Population Cost for Treating People Living with HIV in the UK, 1997-2013

Background The number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) is increasing in the UK. This study estimated the annual population cost of providing HIV services in the UK, 1997–2006 and projected them 2007–2013. Methods Annual cost of HIV treatment for PLHIV by stage of HIV infection and type of ART was calculated (UK pounds, 2006 prices). Population costs were derived by multiplying the number of PLHIV by their annual cost for 1997–2006 and projected 2007–2013. Results Average annual treatment costs across all stages of HIV infection ranged from £17,034 in 1997 to £18,087 in 2006 for PLHIV on mono-therapy and from £27,649 in 1997 to £32,322 in 2006 for those on quadruple-or-more ART. The number of PLHIV using NHS services rose from 16,075 to 52,083 in 2006 and was projected to increase to 78,370 by 2013. Annual population cost rose from £104 million in 1997 to £483 million in 2006, with a projected annual cost between £721 and £758 million by 2013. When including community care costs, costs increased from £164 million in 1997, to £683 million in 2006 and between £1,019 and £1,065 million in 2013. Conclusions Increased number of PLHIV using NHS services resulted in rising UK population costs. Population costs are expected to continue to increase, partly due to PLHIV's longer survival on ART and the relative lack of success of HIV preventing programs. Where possible, the cost of HIV treatment and care needs to be reduced without reducing the quality of services, and prevention programs need to become more effective. While high income countries are struggling to meet these increasing costs, middle- and lower-income countries with larger epidemics are likely to find it even more difficult to meet these increasing demands, given that they have fewer resources.
Obtaining explicit consent for the use of archival tissue samples: practical issues

Background:: Over the past few years, research ethics committees have increasingly demanded explicit consent before archival tissue samples can be used in research projects. Current UK guidance in this area requires an assessment of whether it is “practical” to obtain explicit consent. Ethics committees have little experience or evidence to help them to judge what is “practical” in this context. Methods:: We attempted to obtain general consent for research use of surplus tissue from renal transplant biopsies from the entire patient population of the renal transplant unit in Leicester. The nature of this patient population would be expected to facilitate this task. Results:: A total of 495 letters were sent. Attempts were made to contact non-responders when they attended the outpatient clinic. One year after the initiation of the project, the opinions of 26% of the patients had still not been ascertained. Conclusions:: The results confirm that the vast majority of patients are happy for “surplus” biopsy material to be used for research; the situation does not parallel the use of autopsy tissue. A requirement to obtain explicit consent for the study of archival tissue is likely, however, to block or at least seriously delay research, which is contrary to the public interest and specifically may harm the interests of the patients concerned. In the UK, the problem of tissue being used against the wishes of the donor has now been largely replaced by the problem of prohibition of tissue use against the wishes of the donor.
The Evolution of Reproductive Characters in Dipsacales

Improved knowledge of Dipsacales phylogeny provides a solid framework for studies of character evolution. Although the polarity of many characters can now be confidently established, for others it remains unclear. This results largely from uncertainty about the broader relationships of Dipsacales and is especially problematic for characters that differentiate the two basal lineages, Adoxaceae and Caprifoliaceae. Within Caprifoliaceae, changes in stamen number became decoupled from corolla evolution, a reduction from five to four stamens, coinciding with the origin of the Linnina clade. Subsequently, there was a reduction to two stamens within Morinaceae and to three, two, and one within Valerianaceae. In contrast, within Adoxaceae, stamen number covaries with the number of corolla lobes, although the number of stamens was effectively doubled within Adoxina by the division of each stamen. Fleshy fruits may have evolved separately in Adoxaceae and in Caprifolieae. These vary in the number of seeds and in the presence or absence of an endocarp and show repeated patterns in the evolution of color, perhaps underlain by shifts in the timing of developmental events. In Caprifoliaceae, dry fruits include bicarpellate septicidal capsules in Diervilleae and initially tricarpellate, single‐seeded achenes in Linnina. Achene fruits exhibit a variety of independently evolved dispersal mechanisms, especially involving modifications of the calyx lobes or bracts subtending the ovary. Within Linnina, a distinctive epicalyx surrounding the ovary appears to have originated through the fusion of supernumerary bracts. It is possible that the epicalyx evolved twice, once in the ancestor of the Morinaceae and again in the Triplostegia‐Dipsacaceae clade. Within the Dipsacaceae, modifications of the epicalyx parallel those of the ovary and calyx within Valerianaceae, suggesting a transference of function involving homeoheterotopy. Evolutionary adjustments of the epicalyx, calyx, and ovary wall in relation to protection and dispersal may have established an evolutionarily stable configuration.
Polar Quassinoids in Standardized Eurycoma longifolia Extract Formulated into a Lipid‐Based Solid Dispersion to Improve Rat Sperm Count

Eurycoma longifolia Jack is popularly sought in Southeast Asian countries for traditional remedies to improve sexual performance and fertility. 13α(21)‐Epoxyeurycomanone and eurycomanone, two major quassinoids in a root extract (TAF2) were reported to improve rat spermatogenesis and fertility. Unfortunately, these quassinoids possess low bioavailability because of high aqueous solubility and low lipid membrane permeability. Often, other possible barriers may be P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) efflux in the gut and presystemic hepatic metabolism. The present study attempted to solve these problems by formulating a lipid‐based solid dispersion (TAF2‐SD) of optimized mixture of TAF2 and emulsifiers, which was then orally administered to rats prior to sperm count analysis. The TAF2‐SD‐treated rats showed significantly twofold (p < 0.001) and fourfold (p < 0.001) higher sperm count than did TAF2‐treated and vehicle‐treated (control) rats, respectively. The study also demonstrated no significant in vitro ileal absorption changes of the quassinoids by P‐gp efflux inhibitors and concentration change or secondary metabolite formation upon in vitro incubation with rat liver homogenates, suggesting that P‐gp‐mediated efflux and presystemic metabolism were not limiting their bioavailability. Further study on orally TAF2‐treated rats confirmed that the area under the curve and bioavailability curve of each quassinoid in the absence and presence of ketoconazole were unchanged. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Space Charge Measurement and Electroluminescence of Aged LDPE

Polymeric insulation aging is related to the change of its different properties. An attempt is tried to relate the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption spectra, space charge distribution and electroluminescence (EL) behaviors of aged polymers. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) samples are aged in a thermal aging oven with different periods, and the FTIR absorption spectra is used to analyze the change of their molecule structure. There are mainly two new elements at ~1725 and 3380¿m corresponding to carbonyl and hydroxyl groups occurred due to the oxidation. The pulsed electro-acoustic (PEA) method is employed to measure the space charge distribution under different electric field intensity and for different aged materials. A sensitive photon counting module (PCM) is employed to measure the weak EL emission from each sample under 50 Hz ac electrical stresses. All EL experiments are performed in a vacuum chamber to avoid the influence of gases or impurities absorbed on the sample surface. It is found that aged LDPE samples show a relatively lower EL initial voltage than that of sample without aging. New products resulted from aging would act as the traps to capture charge carriers, possibly leading to the differences of space charge distribution for different aged samples, and henceforth affecting the light emission from different LDPE samples.
Primitives for Contract-based Synchronization

We investigate how contracts can be used to regulate the interaction between processes. To do that, we study a variant of the concurrent constraints calculus presented in [1], featuring primitives for multi-party synchronization via contracts. We proceed in two directions. First, we exploit our primitives to model some contract-based interactions. Then, we discuss how several models for concurrency can be expressed through our primitives. In particular, we encode the pi-calculus and graph rewriting.