Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epithelial cell binding of group A streptococci by lipoteichoic acid on fimbriae denuded of M protein

Group A streptococci were treated with various enzymatic and chemical agents in an attempt to dissociate the type-specific M protein from intact surface "fimbriae. " Mild peptic digestion at pH 5.8, which was previously shown to extract serologically active M antigen from intact streptococci had little visible effect on the fimbriae even though virtually all of the M protein was removed as demonstrated by (a) increased susceptibility to phagocytosis, (b) lack of opsonic effect of homologous M antibody on the treated streptococci, and (c) loss of HCl- extractable M protein. These fimbriated streptococci which lacked M protein adhered to human oral mucosal cells equally as well as untreated, fimbriated organisms which retained their M protein. Removal of both fimbriae and M protein by digesting organisms with HCL at pH 2.0 at 94 degrees C. or with trypsin abolished their ability to bind mucosal cells. Electron microscopy of streptococci bound to epithelial cells demonstrated fimbriae radiating from the surface of the organisms to the membrane of the epithelial cells. It is apparent, therefore, that the determinants of streptococcal fimbriae involved in resistance to phagocytosis can be dissociated from those involved in epithelial cell binding. These results are consistent with our previous studies which suggested that fatty acids ester linked with glycerol teichoic acid rather than M protein of streptococci binds the organisms to epithelial cells.
On the Design and Development of Program Families

Program families are defined (analogously to hardware families) as sets of programs whose common properties are so extensive that it is advantageous to study the common properties of the programs before analyzing individual members. The assumption that, if one is to develop a set of similar programs over a period of time, one should consider the set as a whole while developing the first three approaches to the development, is discussed. A conventional approach called "sequential development" is compared to "stepwise refinement" and "specification of information hiding modules. " A more detailed comparison of the two methods is then made. By means of several examples it is demonstrated that the two methods are based on the same concepts but bring complementary advantages.
Western Dietary Pattern Is Associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the French NutriNet Cohort

Background: Diet appears to play a key role in the pathogenesis of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Some dietary patterns (DP) could increase the risk of triggering or worsening IBS symptoms. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the association between a posteriori derived DP and IBS in a large French population, the web-based NutriNet-Santé cohort. Methods: Study population included participants of the NutriNet-Santé study who completed a questionnaire based on Rome III criteria assessing IBS. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify major DPs based on 29 food groups’ consumption. Associations between DP quintiles and IBS were investigated with multivariable logistic regressions. Results: 44,350 participants were included, with 2423 (5.5%) presenting IBS. Three major DP were extracted using PCA, “healthy,” “western,” and “traditional. ” After adjustments on confounders, the “western” DP was positively associated with IBS (OR Q5 vs. Q1 = 1.38, 95% CI 1.19–1.61, p trend < 0.0001) and the “traditional” DP was positively associated with IBS in women (OR Q5 vs. Q1 = 1.29 95% CI 1.08–1.54, p trend = 0.001). Conclusions: In this study, a “western” DP—highly correlated with the consumption of fatty and sugary products and snacks—was associated with a moderate increased risk of IBS.
Angiotensin II enhances thrombosis development in renovascular hypertensive rats

Summary There is an increased number of in vitro evidence that angioten-sin II (Ang II) may promote thrombosis. However there are no in vivo experiments exploring the effect of Ang II on thrombus formation. In the present study we have investigated the influence of Ang II on venous thrombosis in renovascular hypertensive rats. Furthermore, we examined the role of AT1 receptor and Ang II metabolites: angiotensin III (Ang III) and angioten-sin IV (Ang IV) in the mechanisms of Ang II action. The contribution of coagulation and fibrinolytic systems in the mode of Ang II action was also determined. Venous thrombosis was induced by ligation of vena cava. Ang II infused into rats developing venous thrombosis caused dose-dependent increase in thrombus weight, which was partially reversed by losartan, selective AT1 antagonist. Ang III did not influence the thrombus formation in hypertensive rats, while Ang IV caused a marked increase in thrombus weight only in one of the used doses. Our study shows that Ang II via AT1 receptor enhances thrombosis development. The prothrombotic effect of Ang II may partially depend on enhanced leukocytes adhesion to endothelial cells accompanied by accelerated fibrin formation and increased plasma level of PAI-1. Moreover, Ang II action is partially mediated by one of its metabolites – Ang IV.
Development of 3D in Vitro Technology for Medical Applications

In the past few years, biomaterials technologies together with significant efforts on developing biology have revolutionized the process of engineered materials. Three dimensional (3D) in vitro technology aims to develop set of tools that are simple, inexpensive, portable and robust that could be commercialized and used in various fields of biomedical sciences such as drug discovery, diagnostic tools, and therapeutic approaches in regenerative medicine. The proliferation of cells in the 3D scaffold needs an oxygen and nutrition supply. 3D scaffold materials should provide such an environment for cells living in close proximity. 3D scaffolds that are able to regenerate or restore tissue and/or organs have begun to revolutionize medicine and biomedical science. Scaffolds have been used to support and promote the regeneration of tissues. Different processing techniques have been developed to design and fabricate three dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering implants. Throughout the chapters we discuss in this review, we inform the reader about the potential applications of different 3D in vitro systems that can be applied for fabricating a wider range of novel biomaterials for use in tissue engineering.
Insulin Sensitivity, Serum Lipids, and Systemic Inflammatory Markers in School-Aged Obese and Nonobese Children

The impact of obesity as a systemic low-grade inflammatory process has only partially been explored. To this effect, 704 community-based school-aged children (354 obese children and 350 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched controls) were recruited and underwent assessment of plasma levels of fasting insulin and glucose, lipids, and a variety of proinflammatory mediators that are associated with cardiometabolic dysfunction. Obese children were at higher risk for abnormal HOMA and cholesterol levels. Furthermore, BMI z score, HOMA, and LDL/HDL ratio strongly correlated with levels of certain inflammatory mediators. Taken together, obesity in children is not only associated with insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia, but is accompanied by increased, yet variable, expression of markers of systemic inflammation. Future community-based intervention and phenotype correlational studies on childhood obesity will require inclusion of expanded panels of inflammatory biomarkers to provide a comprehensive assessment of risk on specific obesity-related morbidities.
Log-linear learning: Convergence in discrete and continuous strategy potential games

In this paper, we consider log-linear learning algorithm in potential games. This algorithm can be applied to solving cooperative control problems in multi-agent systems. We investigate the convergence properties of the log-linear learning algorithm in potential games with discrete and continuous strategy sets. So far, the convergence of this algorithm to some state in a potential game has been proven to be specified by a chosen parameter and does not imply the convergence in probability to potential function maximizers. Tending the parameter and time to infinity simultaneously, we analyze the probabilistic convergence of the log-linear learning algorithm not only in discrete strategy games, but also in continuous strategy ones. We present a way of parameter setting that guarantees the probabilistic convergence of system behavior to the set of potential function maximizers in both cases. This result is valuable since in many settings the potential function maximizers correspond to the optimal states in the multi-agent system.
A Framework for Empirical Evaluation of Model Comprehensibility

If designers of modelling languages want their creations to be used in real software projects, the communication qualities of their languages need to be evaluated, and their proposals must evolve as a result of these evaluations. A key quality of communication artifacts is their comprehensibility. We present a flexible framework to evaluate the comprehensibility of model representations that is grounded on the underlying theory of the language to be evaluated, and on theoretical frameworks in cognitive science.
Observations on the commercial production of ostrich (Struthio camelus) in the United Kingdom: rearing of chicks

Two sets of ostrich eggs (60 and 120 eggs) were imported into the United Kingdom under class 1 quarantine restrictions. The eggs were incubated and observations were made on the growth, survival and sex ratio of the chicks hatched. The chicks decreased in weight for five days after hatching before they began a sustained period of exponential growth. They reached a liveweight of 4 kg five weeks after hatching. Female chicks grew significantly faster than male chicks. The survival rates of the chicks to three months of age were 66.7 per cent and 78.3 per cent, respectively, for the two sets of eggs, and mortality restricted mainly to the first four weeks of rearing. All the birds which died showed poor rates of growth before they died. The sex ratio of both groups was skewed 2:1 towards males.
Variable Rate Image Compression with Recurrent Neural Networks

A large fraction of Internet traffic is now driven by requests from mobile devices with relatively small screens and often stringent bandwidth requirements. Due to these factors, it has become the norm for modern graphics-heavy websites to transmit low-resolution, low-bytecount image previews (thumbnails) as part of the initial page load process to improve apparent page responsiveness. Increasing thumbnail compression beyond the capabilities of existing codecs is therefore a current research focus, as any byte savings will significantly enhance the experience of mobile device users. Toward this end, we propose a general framework for variable-rate image compression and a novel architecture based on convolutional and deconvolutional LSTM recurrent networks. Our models address the main issues that have prevented autoencoder neural networks from competing with existing image compression algorithms: (1) our networks only need to be trained once (not per-image), regardless of input image dimensions and the desired compression rate; (2) our networks are progressive, meaning that the more bits are sent, the more accurate the image reconstruction; and (3) the proposed architecture is at least as efficient as a standard purpose-trained autoencoder for a given number of bits. On a large-scale benchmark of 32$\times$32 thumbnails, our LSTM-based approaches provide better visual quality than (headerless) JPEG, JPEG2000 and WebP, with a storage size that is reduced by 10% or more.
Characterization of steady solutions to the 2D Euler equation

Steady fluid flows have very special topology. In this paper we describe necessary and sufficient conditions on the vorticity function of a 2D ideal flow on a surface with or without boundary, for which there exists a steady flow among isovorticed fields. For this we introduce the notion of an antiderivative (or circulation function) on a measured graph, the Reeb graph associated to the vorticity function on the surface, while the criterion is related to the total negativity of this antiderivative. It turns out that given topology of the vorticity function, the set of coadjoint orbits of the symplectomorphism group admitting steady flows with this topology forms a convex polytope. As a byproduct of the proposed construction, we also describe a complete list of Casimirs for the 2D Euler hydrodynamics: we define generalized enstrophies which, along with circulations, form a complete set of invariants for coadjoint orbits of area-preserving diffeomorphisms on a surface.
Solubility and net exchange of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in digesta flowing along the gut of the sheep

1. The changes in the solubility of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in digesta flowing along the intestinal tract and the net movement across the intestinal wall of these elements were determined in six rams, each equipped with three T-shaped cannulas; cannulas were placed in a total of six different sites of the small intestine. Cr2O3 was used as a marker substance to measure the rate of flow of the digesta. 2. The concentrations of soluble Ca, Mg and P decreased as digesta moved along the intestine. The greatest fall in soluble Ca occurred after the first 3 m of the intestine, while a significant decrease in soluble Mg was found only at 15 and 25 m from the pylorus. The concentration of soluble P in digesta decreased until the 7 m site and then remained stable. In the faeces, the level of soluble Mg was approximately 4 times higher than, and that of Ca equal to, the levels of Mg and Ca found in digesta flowing through the upper intestine. Unlike Ca and Mg, a very low concentration of soluble P was found in the faeces. 3. In the duodenum, 84, 78 and 62% of the total Ca, Mg and P respectively were soluble, whereas in the digesta flowing through the terminal ileum the corresponding values were 3·2, 7·2 and 19% for Ca, Mg and P respectively. 4. The forestomachs and the colon were found to be the main sites of Mg net absorption; 1·12 mmol/h was apparently absorbed from the stomach and 1·05 mmol/h from the colon. The upper small intestine (1–3 m from the pylorus) appeared to be the major site of Ca and P absorption. 5. In the last 10 m of the small intestine, considerable amounts of minerals were secreted; 4·70, 0·96 and 1·85 mmol Ca, Mg and P/h respectively were added to the digesta flowing between 15 and 25 m from the pylorus. The effect of the increase in the pH of digesta along the small intestine on the solubility of these minerals is discussed.
Energy-Aware Migration of Virtual Machines Driven by Predictive Data Mining Models

Consolidation of virtual machines (VM) is one of the key strategies used to reduce the power consumption of Cloud servers. For this reason it is extensively studied. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of a consolidation strategy strongly depends on the forecast of the VM resource needs. This paper describes the design and development of a system for energy-aware allocation of virtual machines, driven by predictive data mining models. In particular, migrations are driven by the forecast of the future computational needs (CPU, RAM) of each virtual machine, in order to efficiently allocate those on the available servers. Experimental results, performed on data of a real Cloud data centre, show encouraging benefits in terms of energy saving.
Infection with Trypanosoma cruzi Restricts the Repertoire of Parasite-Specific CD8+ T Cells Leading to Immunodominance1

Interference or competition between CD8+ T cells restricted by distinct MHC-I molecules can be a powerful means to establish an immunodominant response. However, its importance during infections is still questionable. In this study, we describe that following infection of mice with the human pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi, an immunodominant CD8+ T cell immune response is developed directed to an H-2Kb-restricted epitope expressed by members of the trans-sialidase family of surface proteins. To determine whether this immunodominance was exerted over other non-H-2Kb-restricted epitopes, we measured during infection of heterozygote mice, immune responses to three distinct epitopes, all expressed by members of the trans-sialidase family, recognized by H-2Kb-, H-2Kk-, or H-2Kd-restricted CD8+ T cells. Infected heterozygote or homozygote mice displayed comparably strong immune responses to the H-2Kb-restricted immunodominant epitope. In contrast, H-2Kk- or H-2Kd-restricted immune responses were significantly impaired in heterozygote infected mice when compared with homozygote ones. This interference was not dependent on the dose of parasite or the timing of infection. Also, it was not seen in heterozygote mice immunized with recombinant adenoviruses expressing T. cruzi Ags. Finally, we observed that the immunodominance was circumvented by concomitant infection with two T. cruzi strains containing distinct immunodominant epitopes, suggesting that the operating mechanism most likely involves competition of T cells for limiting APCs. This type of interference never described during infection with a human parasite may represent a sophisticated strategy to restrict priming of CD8+ T cells of distinct specificities, avoiding complete pathogen elimination by host effector cells, and thus favoring host parasitism.
Iterative channel estimation for turbo equalization of time-varying frequency-selective channels

We investigate turbo equalization, or iterative equalization and decoding, as a receiver technology for systems where data is protected by an error-correcting code, shuffled by an interleaver, and mapped onto a signal constellation for transmission over a frequency-selective channel with unknown time-varying channel impulse response. The focus is the concept of soft iterative channel estimation, which is to improve the channel estimate over the iterations by using soft information fed back from the decoder from the previous iteration to generate "extended training sequences" between the actual transmitted training sequences.
Optimising surfactant aided dispersions of carbon nanotubes in aqueous solution

Dispersion of carbon nanotubes in water with the aid of surfactants is becoming common practice, however methodologies vary greatly among the literature. Here the variables of sonication type, length of processing time and power input are examined to find optimal values for dispersion of arc-discharge nanotubes in sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate.
On Comparing Image and Video Compression Algorithms

In this work, a performance evaluation of AVC Intra and JPEG2000 in terms of rate-distortion performance is conducted. A set of High Definition sequences with different spatial resolutions is used for this purpose. Results obtained show quite competitive performance between two coding approaches, while in some cases, AVC Intra, in its High Profile, outperforms JPEG2000.
Effect of GDF‐7 deficiency on tail tendon phenotype in mice

The subfamily of growth/differentiation factors (GDFs) known as GDFs 5, 6, and 7 appears to be involved in tendon maintenance and repair, although the precise nature of this role has yet to be elucidated. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of GDF‐7 in tendon maintenance by studying tail tendon fascicle gene expression, composition, and material property strain rate dependency in 16‐week‐old male and female GDF‐7 deficient mice. GDF‐7 deficiency did not affect the biochemical composition of tail tendon fascicles, nor did it significantly affect the tensile material properties obtained at either slow (5%/s) or fast (50%/s) strain rates. Further, no difference was found between genotypes in the strain rate sensitivity of any tensile material property. Consistent with the compositional analyses, QRT‐PCR data did not reveal any differences of twofold or greater in the gene expression levels of collagens I, III, V, nor in the proteoglycans decorin, fibromodulin, lumican, biglycan, versican, or aggrecan. Gdf5 expression was upregulated twofold in GDF‐7 deficient tail tendons, and Bmp7 expression was downregulated twofold. No notable differences in expression levels for Bmp1‐6 or Gdf6 were detected. GDF‐5 protein levels were 50% higher in GDF‐7 deficient tail tendon compared to wild type tail tendon. The results of this study support the intriguing possibility that compensation by Gdf‐5 may be at least in part responsible for the absence of a strong phenotype in GDF‐7 deficient mice. © 2008 Orthopaedic Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 26:834–839, 2008
Can Oysters Crassostrea virginica Develop Resistance to Dermo Disease in the Field: The Impediment Posed by Climate Cycles

Populations of eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, are commonly limited by mortality from dermo disease. Little development of resistance to Perkinsus marinus, the dermo pathogen, has occurred, despite the high mortality rates and frequency of epizootics. Can the tendency of the parasite to exhibit cyclic epizootics limit the oyster’s response to the disease despite the presence of alleles apparently conferring disease resistance? We utilize a gene-based population dynamics model to simulate the development of disease resistance in Crassostrea virginica populations exposed to cyclic mortality encompassing periodicities expected of dermo disease over the geographic range at which epizootics have been observed. Cyclic disease reduces the incremental rate of development of disease resistance profoundly, primarily as a consequence of a reduction in the time-integrated population mortality rate, which will be about half the cycle’s apogean rate. Cyclicity enhances host survival for more susceptible genotypes at cycle nadir. Moreover, alleles conferring disease resistance typically are rare in the naïve population. Cyclicity permits these rare alleles to drift and most often, that drift is towards lower frequencies because fewer animals carrying these alleles predestines a lower probability of their successful dissemination during sweepstakes reproduction at cycle nadir. Variations in population dynamics, such as differences in abundance, fecundity at size, and in the number of individuals successfully producing recruits varied the outcome little. The large number of loci contributing to disease resistance, the cyclic nature of the exposure relieving the population in predictable time units from selection pressure, and the tendency for conditions that might enhance development of disease resistance such as rapid growth to be counterbalanced by multiple yearly spawnings, hamper the rapid development of disease resistance. Unfortunately, epizootic mortality rates at cycle apogee, twice that observed at cycle nadir or prior to onset of disease, are consequential from the standpoint of population sustainability, but much less consequential for driving selection towards disease resistance. The periodicity of dermo epizootics may doom oyster populations to an extended period of low abundance, during which disease resistance slowly improves; bit by bit limiting the depredations of the disease. 1. Rutgers University, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences and The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Port Norris, New Jersey, 08349, U.S.A. 2. Corresponding author. email: eric@hsrl.rutgers. edu 3. Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 23508, U.S.A. 309 310 Journal of Marine Research [70, 2-3