Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pseudomonas aeruginosa cross-colonization and persistence in patients with cystic fibrosis. Use of a DNA probe

SUMMARY To investigate cross-colonization with and persistence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis (CF). 181 isolates from 76 CF patients were typed using a P. aeruginosa -specific DNA probe. Whereas sibling pairs predominantly harboured genotypically identical P. aeruginosa strains, all of the other patients harboured different strains. Seventy-nine per cent (22/31) of the infected CF patients harboured the same strains at the beginning and the end of a summer camp. A change of strains was seen in 10% (3/31) of the patients at the end of the camp. Forty-six per cent (6/13) of the patients who were apparently initially uninfected, acquired P. aeruginosa by the end of the period. Genotyping proved that strain change or acquisition was due to cross-colonization in four of nine cases. Very little P. aeruginosa was isolated from the inanimate environment. Persistence of P. aeruginosa after a temporary loss due to antibiotic therapy was seen in 12/16 paired patient strains before and after antibiotic therapy. Thus, suppression followed a flare-up seemed to occur in these patients rather than eradication and a new infection. When 35 patients were followed over a period of 6 months, 7 (20%) changed the strain in their sputum. Only one of 43 patients harboured two different P. aeruginosa strains simultaneously over a long period.
Learning to classify documents according to genre

Current document-retrieval tools succeed in locating large numbers of documents relevant to a given query. While search results may be relevant according to the topic of the documents, it is more difficult to identify which of the relevant documents are most suitable for a particular user. Automatic genre analysis (i.e., the ability to distinguish documents according to style) would be a useful tool for identifying documents that are most suitable for a particular user. We investigate the use of machine learning for automatic genre classification. We introduce the idea of domain transfer—genre classifiers should be reusable across multiple topics—which does not arise in standard text classification. We investigate different features for building genre classifiers and their ability to transfer across multiple-topic domains. We also show how different feature-sets can be used in conjunction with each other to improve performance and reduce the number of documents that need to be labeled.
VA Healthcare Costs of a Collaborative Intervention for Chronic Pain in Primary Care

Background:Chronic pain is costly to individuals and the healthcare system, and is often undertreated. Collaborative care models show promise for improving treatment of patients with chronic pain. The objectives of this article are to report the incremental benefit and incremental health services costs of a collaborative intervention for chronic pain from a veterans affairs (VA) healthcare perspective. Methods:Data on VA treatment costs incurred by participants were obtained from the VA's Decision Support System for all utilization except certain intervention activities which were tracked in a separate database. Outcome data were from a cluster-randomized trial of a collaborative intervention for chronic pain among 401 primary care patients at a VA medical center. Intervention group participants received assessments and care management; stepped-care components were offered to patients requiring more specialized care. The main outcome measure was pain disability-free days (PDFDs), calculated from Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire scores. Results:Participants in the intervention group experienced an average of 16 additional PDFDs over the 12-month follow-up window as compared with usual care participants; this came at an adjusted incremental cost of $364 per PDFD for a typical participant. Important predictors of costs were baseline medical comorbidities, depression severity, and prior year's treatment costs. Conclusions:This collaborative intervention resulted in more pain disability-free days and was more expensive than usual care. Further research is necessary to identify if the intervention is more cost-effective for some patient subgroups and to learn whether pain improvements and higher costs persist after the intervention has ended.
A Rox1‐independent hypoxic pathway in yeast. Antagonistic action of the repressor Ord1 and activator Yap1 for hypoxic expression of the SRP1/TIR1 gene

Hypoxic SRP1/TIR1 gene expression depends on the absence of haem but is independent of Rox1‐mediated repression. We have found a new hypoxic pathway involving an antagonistic interaction between the Ixr1/Ord1 repressor and the Yap1 factor, a transcriptional activator involved in oxidative stress response. Here, we show that Ord1 repressed SRP1 gene expression under normoxia and hypoxia, whereas Yap1 activated it. Ord1 and Yap1 have been shown to bind the SRP1 promoter in a region extending from −299 to −156 bp upstream of the start codon. A typical AP‐1 responsive element lying from −247 to −240 bp allows Yap1 binding. Internal deletion of sequences within the SRP1 promoter were introduced. Two regions were characterized at positions −299/−251 and −218/−156 that, once removed, resulted in a constitutive expression of SRP1 in a wild‐type strain under normoxic conditions. Deletion of both these two sequences allowed the bypass of YAP1 requirement in a Δyap1 strain, whereas these two internal deletions did not yield increased expression in a Δord1 strain compared with the full‐length promoter. Both a single Δord1 mutant and a doubly disrupted Δyap1 Δord1 strain yielded normoxic constitutive SRP1 expression and increased hypoxic SRP1 induction, thereby demonstrating that ord1 is epistatic to yap1. Thus, Yap1 is not directly involved in SRP1 induction by hypoxia, but is necessary to counteract the Ord1 effect.
Extracellular Factors and Cycloheximide Apoptosis in Human Fibroblasts by Intracellular Regulation of Fas-Induced

L. PablosBegona Santiago, Maria Galindo, Guillermo Palao and Josehttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/172/1/560J Immunol€2004; 172:560-566; ;Referenceshttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/172/1/560.full#ref-list-1This article cites 51 articles, 17 of which you can access for free at: Subscriptionshttp://jimmunol.org/subscriptionsInformation about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: Permissionshttp://www.aai. org/ji/copyright.htmlSubmit copyright permission requests at: Email Alertshttp://jimmunol.org/cgi/alerts/etocReceive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at:
Smoking, pregnancy and the fetus

Smoking may influence a women's reproductive ability by having adverse effects on fertility, the early embryo and the fetus. The ability to become pregnant and to maintain the pregnancy long enough for it to be clinically detected is reduced in smokers. Smoking can adversely influence seve ral of the crucial steps within the reproductive process required for achieving a pregnancy. Despite the increased miscarriage rate in women that smoke there is no evidence to suggest that smoking can cause fetal abnormalities. The chemical composition of cigarette smoke is more closely related to reduction in fetal growth than the number of cigarettes smoked. In smokers, the placenta appears remarkably normal. The effects of smoking could be due to one or more of the hundreds of different chemical substances in tobacco smoke, but apart from carbon monoxide and nicotine, little is known about the effects of other toxins. Nicotine can adversely affect uterine and placental blood flow by causing constriction of the blood vessels. It can also affect both the maternal and fetal blood pressure and heart rate, but its action on the fetal cardiovascular system does not appear to be dependent on its effect on placental perfusion.
Formation of Catechols via Removal of Acid Side Chains from Ibuprofen and Related Aromatic Acids

ABSTRACT Although ibuprofen [2-(4-isobutylphenyl)-propionic acid] is one of the most widely consumed drugs in the world, little is known regarding its degradation by environmental bacteria. Sphingomonas sp. strain Ibu-2 was isolated from a wastewater treatment plant based on its ability to use ibuprofen as a sole carbon and energy source. A slight preference toward the R enantiomer was observed, though both ibuprofen enantiomers were metabolized. A yellow color, indicative of meta-cleavage, accumulated transiently in the culture supernatant when Ibu-2 was grown on ibuprofen. When and only when 3-flurocatechol was used to poison the meta-cleavage system, isobutylcatechol was identified in the culture supernatant via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Ibuprofen-induced washed-cell suspensions also metabolized phenylacetic acid and 2-phenylpropionic acid to catechol, while 3- and 4-tolylacetic acids and 2-(4-tolyl)-propionic acid were metabolized to the corresponding methyl catechols before ring cleavage. These data suggest that, in contrast to the widely distributed coenzyme A ligase, homogentisate, or homoprotocatechuate pathway for metabolism of phenylacetic acid and similar compounds, Ibu-2 removes the acidic side chain of ibuprofen and related compounds prior to ring cleavage.
CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE AMONG COUNTRIES

This paper focuses on the study of the conditional convergence hypothesis among African countries that belonging to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), More precisely, this paper treats even the effect of convergence, stability and growth pact on the convergence dynamics, by considering control variables comprising: the share of investment in gross domestic product the enrollment and the opening ratio, the study showed that these variables contribute to the revival of economic growth in the region. We use two estimation technique: within and system generalized method of moment, for the period 2000-2012. Similarly we give special attention to two streams of conflicting thoughts. The first is based on the positive impact generated by the opening on convergence of income among nations, while the second is almost contradictory to the one defined above, this current is called divergence or inequality between countries.
Monetary Incentives Modulate the Processing of Emotional Facial Expressions:An ERP Study

It is widely reported that monetary reward improves performance of cognitive tasks, such as spatial orienting, visual search, and conflict control by increasing task concentration and engagement. The current study used event-related potentials(ERPs) technique to investigate the impact of monetary reward on the discrimination of emotional facial expressions. Participants were asked to discriminate a happy, neutral, or angry face presented at the center of the computer screen, which was preceded by a monetary incentive or a non-incentive cue, and was followed by a feedback stimulus regarding the fastness and correctness of the response. Participants were informed that they would gain additional monetary reward if their reaction times(RTs) on incentive trials meet certain criteria. Behavioral results showed that RTs to emotional faces were generally faster than to neutral faces, and RTs in incentive trials were faster than that in non-incentive trials. Cue-elicited ERPs were modulated by monetary incentive, such that incentive cue elicited larger P1(130~200 ms), P2(200~300 ms), and P300(300~600 ms) amplitude than the non-incentive cue. Target-elicited occipito-temporal P1, N170 and frontal-central N300 amplitudes were modulated by reward anticipation, such that target elicited more positively-going ERPs in incentive condition than that in non-incentive condition. Early P1, N170 and VPP amplitudes were not affected by emotional facial expressions. The neural processes involved in processing emotional faces(happy, angry) and neutral faces diverged 300 ms after stimulus onset. Results showed more positive N300 in emotional conditions than in neutral conditions. Additionally, the amplitude of N300 was influenced by both reward anticipation and emotional valence. While the positive emotion processing effect was not modulated by reward anticipation, the negative emotion processing effect and negative bias effect for the N300 component were larger in incentive condition than in non-incentive condition. These results suggested an impact of reward anticipation on the processing of upcoming emotional facial expressions. Motivational factors may modulate the distribution of attentional resources, which then bias the processing of negative emotion.
The spatio-temporal strain distribution in inhomogeneous poroelastic phantoms

The presence of a mobile fluid in a porous tissue modifies aspects of the tissue's mechanical behaviour such as the time variation of strain induced by a sustained compression. Elastography can be used to follow such responses and to estimate poroelastic parameters. This preliminary study examined axial strain variation in a poroelastic cylinder embedded in a quasi-elastic (or weakly permeable) background. Finite element analysis and experiment were compared. Unlike the case of purely elastic materials a region with high strain decaying with time was observed at the interface between the cylinder and the background. The time variation of strain in different regions of the phantom showed known poroelastic behaviour in that, as fluid was expelled, some regions contracted axially while others expanded axially. The strain relaxation time varied in a systematic manner in the different materials.
Long-Term Disability After First-Ever Stroke and Related Prognostic Factors in the Perth Community Stroke Study, 1989–1990

Background and Purpose— Few reliable estimates of the long-term functional outcome after stroke are available. This population-based study aimed to describe disability, dependency, and related independent prognostic factors at 5 years after a first-ever stroke in patients in Perth, Western Australia. Methods— All individuals with a suspected acute stroke who were resident in a geographically defined region (population, 138 708) of Perth, Western Australia, were registered prospectively and assessed according to standardized diagnostic criteria over a period of 18 months in 1989 to 1990. Patients were followed up prospectively at 4 and 12 months and 5 years after the index event. Results— There were 370 cases of first-ever stroke, and 277 patients survived to 30 days. Of these early survivors, 152 (55%) were alive at 5 years, and among those who were neither institutionalized (n=146) nor disabled (n=129) at the time of their stroke, 21 (14%) were institutionalized in a nursing home, and 47 (36%) were disabled. The most important predictors of death or disability at 5 years were increasing age, baseline disability defined by a Barthel Index score of <20/20 (odds ratio [OR], 6.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 14), moderate hemiparesis (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.1 to 6.2), severe hemiparesis (OR, 4.5; 95% CI, 1.1 to 19), and recurrent stroke (OR, 9.4; 95% CI, 3.0 to 30). A low level of activity before the stroke was a significant predictor of institutionalization, and subsequent recurrent stroke was a consistent, independent predictor of institutionalization, disability, and death or institutionalization, increasing the odds of each of these 3 adverse outcomes by 5- to 15-fold. Conclusions— Among 30-day survivors of first-ever stroke, about half survive 5 years; of survivors, one third remain disabled, and 1 in 7 are in permanent institutional care. The major modifiable predictors of poor long-term outcome are a low level of activity before the stroke and subsequent recurrent stroke. Efforts to increase physical activity among the elderly and to prevent recurrent stroke in survivors of a first stroke are likely to reduce the long-term burden of cerebrovascular disease.
Örgütsel Bağlilik, Örgütsel Destek ve İş Arkadaşi Desteğinin İşgören Performansi Üzerine Etkileri: AVM Çalişanlari Örneği Effects of Organizational Commitment, Organizational Support and Peer Support on Employee Performance: Sample of Employees at the Mall

OZ Orgutsel baglilik, orgutsel destek ve is arkadasi desteginin, isgoren performansi uzerindeki etkisini farkli bir bakis acisiyla ele almak amaciyla Alanya'da faaliyet gosteren Alanyum Alisveris Merkezinde gerceklestirilen calismaya 333 isgorenin 171'i (%51) katilmistir. Arastirma sonucunda isgoren performansina etki eden en onemli degiskenlerin orgutsel destek ve is arkadasi destegi oldugu ortaya cikmistir. Duygusal bagliligin isgoren performansi ile pozitif yonde ve anlamli korelâsyonlara sahip oldugu tespit edilirken, diger baglilik degiskenleri ile anlamli iliskiler bulunamamistir. Orgutsel destek ve is arkadasi desteginin orgutsel bagliligi artirici bir etkiye sahip oldugu tespit edilmistir. Ayrica normatif bagliligin cinsiyete gore, devamli bagliligin sosyal guvence durumuna gore ve orgutsel destek algisinin egitim duzeyine gore farkliliklar gosterdigi ortaya cikmistir. ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to research the effects of organizational commitment, organizational support and peer support on employee performance. 151 of the 331 employees participated the study which carried out in Alanyum Shopping Center in Alanya. According to the results of the research, the most important variables effect the employee performance are organizational support and peer support. There is a significant positive correlation between affective commitment and employee performance while other commitment components have no relations. It is also found that organizational and peer supports have an increasing effect on organizational commitment. Besides there are some significant differences according to the gender, social assurance and education level.
Strategies for Intuitive Interaction in Public Urban Spaces

Characterised by the increased spread of technology out of workplaces and into public spaces and homes,theso-calledthird-waveofhuman-computerinteractionhasplacedgreaterfocusonscenarios that are socially situated, context dependent and not necessarily task oriented. This movement has led to studies investigating how people interact with digital applications in public spaces, but the discussion of intuitive interaction thus far has not been extended to this new realm of user interfaces. Designing for intuitive interaction in public spaces differs from traditional digital applications due to the inherently fluid social nature and often large-scale character of urban interventions. This article discusses the design of interaction for public spaces, based on applications we developed along the years, contrasted to similar endeavours elsewhere. We analyse them through the lens of frameworks for intuitive interactions and derive a series of strategies towards designing for immediate use and high crowd turnaround in urban interventions. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • Analysis of different types of interactive public spaces, in terms of spatial layout, distribution of focal points and how people negotiate the space in order to engage in the interaction. • Classification of urban interfaces into three broad categories according to crowd self-organization around the digitally enhanced environments: performative, allotted and responsive ambient interfaces. • Discussion of intuitive aspects of interactive public spaces with reference to established literature on intuitive interaction. • Proposal of user feedback strategies for designing intuitive interaction in public spaces derived from the presented analysis and discussion.
The conceptual nature of knowledge, situations, and activity

Situated action can be viewed as a psychological theory about the dynamic relation of conceiving and acting; and as a social theory about the nature of activity as a social choreography. Conventional views of interactivity reduce concepts to words, situations to data, and activities to descriptions of disembodied tasks. The difference between tasks and activities suggests new ways for using computers to facilitate work and learning.
Toward a Typology of Implementation Challenges Facing English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

Higher education is becoming increasingly internationalized, and the use of English as a medium of instruction for academic content has become commonplace in countries where English is not the native language. However, concerns are growing that the trend toward English-medium instruction (EMI) has accelerated without sufficient thought to the challenges of the implementation processes. This article discusses the challenges facing higher education institutions adopting EMI and proposes a typology for understanding them. Drawing on previously unpublished data from a study of universities in Japan, a context in which EMI is rapidly expanding, the article reconceptualizes prior understandings and identifies four categories of challenges: linguistic, cultural, administrative and managerial, and institutional. The categories are dynamic and context dependent, with institutional challenges playing a particularly prominent role in Japan. The proposed typology is offered as a conceptual framework for policy makers and program implementers designing effective implementation strategies for EMI.
Fairness through awareness

We study fairness in classification, where individuals are classified, e.g., admitted to a university, and the goal is to prevent discrimination against individuals based on their membership in some group, while maintaining utility for the classifier (the university). The main conceptual contribution of this paper is a framework for fair classification comprising (1) a (hypothetical) task-specific metric for determining the degree to which individuals are similar with respect to the classification task at hand; (2) an algorithm for maximizing utility subject to the fairness constraint, that similar individuals are treated similarly. We also present an adaptation of our approach to achieve the complementary goal of "fair affirmative action," which guarantees statistical parity (i.e., the demographics of the set of individuals receiving any classification are the same as the demographics of the underlying population), while treating similar individuals as similarly as possible. Finally, we discuss the relationship of fairness to privacy: when fairness implies privacy, and how tools developed in the context of differential privacy may be applied to fairness.
SURVEY OF URINARY SCHISTOSOMIASIS IN IRAN

Objective: To determine the present status of urinary schistosomiasis in Khuzestan Province, southwestern Iran. Methodology: Urine samples were collected from 3400 villagers residing in the high risk areas in Khuzestan Province, mainly from school children (80%) from 2005-2007. During a sequential visit by our team urine specimens were collected between 10:00am and 14:00pm. Each person was given a prenumbered bottle in the field, and the name of the person including age and sex was entered against the appropriate number on a form kept by the investigating team. Results: In this province, the transmission of Schistosoma haematobium is being successfully interrupted as none of the samples were found positive. Conclusion: Total elimination of urinary schistosomiasis appears to be possible if the health authorities in neighboring areas can be persuaded to adopt a similar strategy of integrated control. The plan for the future is to continue monitoring transmission, by passive surveys in local health centers and active case-finding among schoolchildren, and to continue snail sampling and focal mollusciciding.
Recent advances in whale-watching research: 2010-2011.

Whale-watching research encompasses a wide variety of disciplines and fields of study, including monitoring the biological impacts of whale-watching activities on cetaceans and assessments of the effectiveness of whale-watching management and regulations, to the sociological and economic aspects of whale watching on communities hosting such activities. This article is the latest in a series of annual digests, which describes the variety and findings of whale-watching studies published over the past year, since June 2010.