Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
pH-mediated potentiation of aminoglycosides kills bacterial persisters and eradicates in vivo biofilms.

BACKGROUND Limitations in treatment of biofilm-associated bacterial infections are often due to subpopulation of persistent bacteria (persisters) tolerant to high concentrations of antibiotics. Based on the increased aminoglycoside efficiency under alkaline conditions, we studied the combination of gentamicin and the clinically compatible basic amino acid L-arginine against planktonic and biofilm bacteria both in vitro and in vivo. METHODS Using Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli bioluminescent strains, we studied the combination of L-arginine and gentamicin against planktonic persisters through time-kill curves of late stationary-phase cultures. In vitro biofilm tolerance towards gentamicin was assessed using PVC 96 well-plates assays. Efficacy of gentamicin as antibiotic lock treatment (ALT) at 5 mg/mL at different pH was evaluated in vivo using a model of totally implantable venous access port (TIVAP) surgically implanted in rats. RESULTS We demonstrated that a combination of gentamicin and the clinically compatible basic amino acid L-arginine increases in vitro planktonic and biofilm susceptibility to gentamicin, with 99% mortality amongst clinically relevant pathogens, i.e. S. aureus, E. coli and P. aeruginosa persistent bacteria. Moreover, although gentamicin local treatment alone showed poor efficacy in a clinically relevant in vivo model of catheter-related infection, gentamicin supplemented with L-arginine led to complete, long-lasting eradication of S. aureus and E. coli biofilms, when used locally. CONCLUSION Given that intravenous administration of L-arginine to human patients is well tolerated, combined use of aminoglycoside and the non-toxic adjuvant L-arginine as catheter lock solution could constitute a new option for the eradication of pathogenic biofilms.
The BAF45D Protein Is Preferentially Expressed in Adult Neurogenic Zones and in Neurons and May Be Required for Retinoid Acid Induced PAX6 Expression

Adult neurogenesis is important for the development of regenerative therapies for human diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) through the recruitment of adult neural stem cells (NSCs). NSCs are characterized by the capacity to generate neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. To identify key factors involved in manipulating the adult NSC neurogenic fate thus has crucial implications for the clinical application. Here, we report that BAF45D is expressed in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus, the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricle, and the central canal (CC) of the adult spinal cord. Coexpression of BAF45D with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a radial glial like cell marker protein, was identified in the SGZ, the SVZ and the adult spinal cord CC. Quantitative analysis data indicate that BAF45D is preferentially expressed in the neurogenic zone of the LV and the neurons of the adult CNS. Furthermore, during the neuroectoderm differentiation of H9 cells, BAF45D is required for the expression of PAX6, a neuroectoderm determinant that is also known to regulate the self-renewal and neuronal fate specification of adult neural stem/progenitor cells. Together, our results may shed new light on the expression of BAF45D in the adult neurogenic zones and the contribution of BAF45D to early neural development.
Constipation and Diarrhea in Patients with Cancer

Constipation and diarrhea are both common problems in patients with advanced cancer. They are source of major morbidity and distress. Constipation is, overall, more common that diarrhea. Diarrhea may be severe and, in some cases, associated with life-threatening dehydration and electrolyte abnormalities. Indeed, with some of the newer chemotherapy agents, this is a problem seen with increasing frequency. Oncologists must be familiar with the common causes of constipation and diarrhea in cancer patients and the strategies to evaluate and manage these common and distressing symptoms. Both with constipation and diarrhea, there is a differential diagnosis. In many cases, management can be complex and challenging. Approaches to diagnosis, evaluation, and management are reviewed.
India-Asia collision and the Cenozoic slowdown of the Indian plate: Implications for the forces driving plate motions

The plate motion of India changed dramatically between 50 and 35 Ma, with the rate of convergence between India and Asia dropping from ~15 to ~4 cm/yr. This change is coincident with the onset of the India-Asia collision, and with a rearrangement of plate boundaries in the Indian Ocean. On the basis of a simple model for the forces exerted upon the edges of the plate and the tractions on the base of the plate, we perform force balance calculations for the precollision and postcollision configurations. We show that the observed Euler poles for the Indian plate are well explained in terms of their locations and magnitudes if (1) the resistive force induced by mountain building in the Himalaya-Tibet area is ~5–6 × 10^(12) N/m, (2) the net force exerted upon the Indian plate by subduction zones is similar in magnitude to the ridge-push force (~2.5 × 10^(12) N/m), and (3) basal tractions exert a resisting force that is linearly proportional to the plate velocity in the hot spot reference frame. The third point implies an asthenospheric viscosity of ~2–5 × 10^(19) Pa s, assuming a thickness of 100–150 km. Synthetic Euler poles show that crustal thickening in the Tibetan Plateau was the dominant cause of the Cenozoic slowdown of the Indian plate.
How we empathize with others: A neurobiological perspective

Summary Empathy allows us to internally simulate the affective and cognitive mental states of others. Neurobiological studies suggest that empathy is a complex phenomenon, which can be described using a model that includes 2 modes of processing: bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up neural processing is achieved via the mirroring representation systems that play a key role in the direct sharing of the emotional states of others. Top-down processing, known as cognitive perspective-taking or theory of mind, where the feelings of others are fully imagined and understood, is based on control and inhibition mechanisms. Available evidence indicates that empathic brain responses are likely to be influenced by several different modulating factors.
Long dose exposure of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in albino rats and effect of Podophyllum hexandrum on oxidative stress.

OBJECTIVES The effect of Podophyllum hexandrum methanolic extract and alpha-tocopherol in reducing oxidative stress in male albino rats was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Lipid peroxidation was monitored by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA) level in different tissues of rats. Activities of free radical scavenging enzymes (superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase) were determined using H2O2 decomposition. RESULTS Results showed that administration of H2O2 (0.1%) in drinking water of the rats, for 25 weeks, increased the malondialdehyde levels in liver, kidney and lung tissues of all the rats. However, rats receiving Podophyllum hexandrum extract and alpha-tocopherol had lower MDA levels in a dose dependent manner, which indicates decreased lipid peroxidation in these rats. Increase in the catalase activity appears to be a response to H2O2 accumulation. The decrease in the activity of catalase and increase in the activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in different organs of the rats receiving Podophyllum hexandrum extract and alpha-tocopherol indicates the protective effect of the plant in combating oxidative stress undergone by the rats. OBJECTIVES Rhizome of Podophyllum hexandrum have been ethnomedically claimed to possess a wide array of biological activities including anticancer activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS To verify the folklore claim, this study was performed in a six Human carcinoma cell lines, Lung (A-549), Prostate (PC-3), Colon (Colo-25), Breast (MCF-7), Neuroblastoma (IMR-32) and CNS (SF-295) MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. RESULTS Methanol and 70% ethanolic extracts of the rhizome of Podophyllum hexandrum showed highest cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 (Breast) and Colo-25 (Colon) cell line, as determined with sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay. CONCLUSIONS These findings 1 - showed that Podophyllum hexandrum extract may ameliorate H2O2 induced oxidative stress by decreasing lipid peroxidation via alteration of the antioxidant defense system of the rats. 2 - these data also showed the anticancer activity of the plant extracts on different human cancer cell lines. However, further investigation is needed to assess the molecular mechanisms mediated anticancer activities of this plant.
Maximum Margin Criterion Embedded Partial Least Square Regression for Linear and Nonlinear Discrimination

More recently, the partial least square regression (PLSR) has been suggested applying to pattern discrimination. However, the eigen-structure problem essential to the discriminant PLSR basically depends on a slightly modified version of the between-class scatter matrix Sb. Unfortunately, the class structure information contained in the within-class matrix Sw is skipped when using PLSR for discrimination. To overcome this drawback, this paper presents a new scheme for pattern classification by incorporating the maximum margin criterion (MMC) into the PLSR (refered to as PLSR/MMC). We further extend the PLSR/MMC to its nonlinear domain via the kernel trick. The scheme given in this paper essentially describe an approach wherein the various advantages of the MMC and PLSR are combined to augment each other. The experiments on both face recognition and facial expression recognition have shown the superiority of the proposed method over the conventional PLSR
Performance analysis of dynamic OFDMA systems with inband signaling

Within the last decade, the orthogonal frequency- division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission scheme has become part of several standards for wireless systems. Today, OFDM is even a candidate for fourth-generation wireless systems. It is well known that dynamic OFDMA systems potentially increase the spectral efficiency. They exploit diversity effects in time, space, and frequency by assigning system resources periodically to terminals. Informing the terminals about new assignments creates a signaling overhead. Up to now, this overhead has not been taken into account in studies on dynamic orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access (OFDMA) systems. Yet this is crucial for a realistic notion of the performance achieved by dynamic approaches. In this paper, we close this gap. We introduce two forms of representing the signaling information and discuss how these affect system performance. The study of the signaling impact on the performance is conducted for an exemplary dynamic approach. We find that the throughput behavior of dynamic OFDMA systems is significantly influenced by the signaling overhead. In many situations, neglecting the overhead leads to wrong performance conclusions. Also, the performance difference between dynamic and static schemes is now much more sensible to the specific parameter set of the transmission scenario (e.g., frame length, subcarrier number, etc.). This leads to the proposal of access points which should adapt certain system parameters in order to provide optimal performance.
Equivocal tales about identity, racism and the curriculum

This paper is based on a small-scale study of the minority ethnic student experience at a small mainly ‘white’ university in the south of England. Students described their experience as broadly positive but suggested clashes of values in some areas of campus social life. Where the curriculum explored notions of culture, students valued the space to reflect on and nurture their identity, but most described the curriculum as patchily diverse. Students were ambiguous about racism, giving anecdotal evidence of its existence whilst downplaying its significance. The findings suggest that the Higher Education (HE) curriculum is a powerful but under-utilised tool in developing a more inclusive experience for all students. They further suggest that legal and institutional procedures are not a strong enough framework to combat racism, and that campuses with few minority ethnic students need to take a much more intentional approach to transforming the institutional culture.
Relationship Between Phase and Energy Methods for Disparity Computation

The phase and energy methods for computing binocular disparity maps from stereograms are motivated differently, have different physiological relevances, and involve different computational steps. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that at the final stages where disparity values are made explicit, the simplest versions of the two methods are exactly equivalent. The equivalence also holds when the quadrature-pair construction in the energy method is replaced with a more physiologically plausible phase-averaging step. The equivalence fails, however, when the phase-difference receptive field model is replaced by the position-shift model. Additionally, intermediate results from the two methods are always quite distinct. In particular, the energy method generates a distributed disparity representation similar to that found in the visual cortex, while the phase method does not. Finally, more elaborate versions of the two methods are in general not equivalent. We also briefly compare these two methods with some other stereo models in the literature.
Response biases in lineups and showups.

The showup, or presentation of a single suspect to an eyewitness, is widely believed to be a more biased and suggestive identification procedure than the lineup even though there has been no empirical work on this issue. Results suggest, however, that witnesses at a lineup are less likely to say «not there» than are witnesses at a showup. This tendency is seen in both live and photographic identification procedures, in both laboratory studies and real-world identifications. Showups in the lab resulted in no more mistaken identifications than lineups. Results also suggest that a showup is not equivalent to a poor lineup (i.e., a lineup with a functional size of 1)
Religious Orientation, Mature Faith, and Psychological Distress: Elements of Positive and Negative Associations

There are substantial data exploring the link between religiousness and health, yet there is little consensus regarding the nature of the relationship between religiousness domains and mental health. The purpose of this study was to identify the types of mental health outcomes associated with religiousness domains. Participants included 251 (M= 19.02; range = 17–25) young adults who completed self-report measures of religiousness (Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Quest Orientations, Faith Maturity Scale), and psychological distress subscales (SCL-90-R). We identified significant relationships between each of the religiousness measures and the SCL-90-R subscales and analyzed the relative contributions of each of the religiousness measures in predicting psychological distress with hierarchical multiple regression. The Faith Maturity Scale was a particularly robust predictor of positive and negative psychological adjustment. The specific pathways by which religiousness influences mental health outcomes remain to be elaborated in future research.
Phase Shifts of the Circadian Locomotor Rhythm Induced by Pigment-Dispersing Factor in the Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

Abstract Pigment-dispersing factors (PDFs) are octadeca-peptides widely distributed in insect optic lobes and brain. In this study, we have purified PDF and determined its amino acid sequence in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus. Its primary structure was NSEIINSLLGLPKVLNDA-NH2, homologous to other PDH family members so far reported. When injected into the optic lobe of experimentally blinded adult male crickets, Gryllus-PDF induced phase shifts in their activity rhythms in a phase dependent and dose dependent manner. The resulted phase response curve (PRC) showed delays during the late subjective night to early subjective day and advances during the mid subjective day to mid subjective night. The PRC was different in shape from those for light, serotonin and temperature. These results suggest that PDF plays a role in phase regulation of the circadian clock through a separate pathway from those of other known phase regulating agents.
Teaching Geoscience in the Context of Culture and Place: Theme Issue Continued

This issue of the Journal of Geoscience Education includes the second installment of a two-part special theme issue on Teaching Geoscience in the Context of Culture and Place. In an editorial paper that introduced the first installment (Apple et al., 2014), we presented a literature review and overview of philosophy, theory, and practice related to culturally-infused and place-based geoscience teaching and learning, as preface and context for the collection of new works in the two-part theme issue. We invite readers to refer to this introduction, as it pertains equally to the content of this second installment.In this second part of the theme issue, seven papers continue the exploration of the interfaces among place, culture, identity, and geoscience education, highlighting new and ongoing efforts to better define, implement, and assess place-based, culturally-infused approaches to geoscience teaching. The total number of papers in the theme issue (19) constitutes a strong testimony to the commitment of the geoscience education community to this topic.CONTINUING THE THEME ISSUEPlace-based teaching, which by definition leverages and emphasizes local environments, landscapes, and communities, has been compared and contrasted (e.g., Gruenewald and Smith, 2008) with globally oriented teaching that, while mirroring current societal trends, may offer less immediate relevance to students. Ault (p. 158) enters this fray with a provocative commentary paper that offers a place-based philosophy of pedagogy as a counterpoint to a movement to unify (or universalize) science education through steady standardization. Ault illustrates his argument with an example from geoscience that is at once scientifically robust, culturally relevant, and firmly place-based: paleoseismic studies in Cascadia.Four papers in the current issue provide examples of place-based pedagogical approaches to geoscience education, three of which also highlight effective integration of Indigenous knowledge to enrich students' senses of place and motivate learning. Kirkby (p. 177) provides strategies for helping undergraduate students in an urban setting develop a stronger sense of place through exploring interconnections among geological, cultural, and Indigenous history of local geographic spaces. This place-based educational approach is expanded by Cohn et al. (p. 203), who blend Indigenous knowledge and technological tools (i.e., Digital Earth) to foster a sense of place in the community along with a greater global awareness. …
Posttraumatic Growth in Adolescence: The Role of Religiosity, Distress, and Forgiveness

This study examines the role of religiosity in posttraumatic growth in Israeli religious, traditional, and secular adolescents (n = 1482; aged 16) who were exposed to terror events. Results showed that religious youth reported higher levels of growth than secular youth. Among secular and traditional youth posttraumatic symptoms and an unwillingness to forgive were positively associated with growth. For religious youth forgiveness was positively associated with growth. Fear of terror was positively associated with growth across the groups. These findings imply that since the predictors of growth vary by religiosity, it has different meanings depending on the religiosity of the youth. Growth seems to be a function of distress among secular and traditional but not religious youth. This extends our understanding of the role of religiosity in the posttraumatic growth process among adolescents following terror.
Preliminary Analysis of the Effects of Pair Programming and Test-Driven Development on the External Code Quality

Test-driven development (TDD) and pair programming (PP) are the key practices of eXtreme Programming methodology that have caught the attention of software engineers and researchers worldwide. One of the aims of the large experiment performed at Wroclaw University of Technology was to investigate the difference between test-driven development and the traditional, test-last develop-ment as well as pair programming and solo programming with respect to the external code quality. It appeared that the external code quality was lower when test-driven development was used instead of the classic, test-last software development approach in case of solo programmers (p=0.028) and pairs (p=0.013). There was no difference in the external code quality when pair programming was used instead of solo programming.
Problem-Based Learning in General Education at Samford University: A Case Study of Changing Faculty Culture Through Targeted Improvement Efforts

Despite the many claims that the paradigm has shifted in higher education from a traditional instructional paradigm to a learning paradigm (Farmer, 1999; Fischetti, et al. 1996; Cambridge, 1996; Barr & Tagg, 1995; McDaniel, 1994), planning for curriculum wide change on campus is still a challenging task. Stark and Lowther (1988) note, for example, that faculty and administrators are sometimes reluctant to invest the necessary effort needed to pursue substantive curricular change. Barriers and resistance to change are common. In particular, institutional values, beliefs, and norms can impede change efforts. Most curriculum changes have been implemented on a short term, piecemeal basis within colleges and universities (Ewell, 1997) and thus the change has been neither widespread nor long lasting. Research should examine how curricular change can be accomplished over time and across programs and what cultural considerations enhance or impeded these efforts. This article at tempts that by presenting the results of a case study focusing on one university's major curriculum transformation process that has been underway for over three years. The curricular reform efforts at this particular institution moved the university towards active, student-centered learning. The change process helped to promote curricular coherence be cause faculty pursued common learning outcomes (such as team work or problem solving) that were integrated across the curricu lum. Undergraduates enrolling in general education courses had
Striving for genuine connections: men's experiences of living with hearing impairment

Abstract Hearing impairment affects 16–17% of the Swedish and Danish population, where 6–8% is affected during their working life. This study aims at describing what a hearing impairment means in men's daily life. Qualitative interviews were performed on two occasions with nine men aged 35–53 years with an acquired, moderate hearing impairment and who had taken part in rehabilitation and tried out hearing aids. Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used for the analysis. Living with limited hearing emerged as ‘A never-ending striving for genuine connections…’: ‘…to other people and the surrounding world’; ‘…to find personal strategies and technical aids’; and ‘…to transform one's personality and identity’. Men in mid-life experienced hearing impairment as a continuous process which included all aspects of daily life. In order to find balance in a changed life situation and avoid ill-health, support with different aims is needed.