Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urea Decomposition as a Means of Differentiating Proteus and Paracolon Cultures from Each Other and from Salmonella and Shigella Types

Bacterial decomposition of urea has been especially useful in distinguishing between members of the Proteus group and other fecal organisms encountered in stool examinations. Originally, the reactions of these organisms on urea were determined by the use of sterile urine as a culture medium, and only recently have media of known composition been employed (Rustigian and Stuart, 1941). Of the media of known composition, those of Rustigian and Stuart and of Ferguson and Hook (1943) have been found suitable to differentiate between Proteus and other organisms believed to be urease-negative. In considering the formulae of the two media mentioned, it is obvious that the medium of Ferguson and Hook (urea, 2 per cent; phosphate buffer; NaCl, 0.5 per cent; and ethyl alcohol, 1.0 per cent) is of such a nature that only an organism capable of utilizing urea as a sole source of nitrogen would grow. The possibility therefore arises that this medium would not detect organisms which could hydrolyze urea but which could not utilize the liberated ammonia as a source of nitrogen. In such a case, no growth would occur, and the organism would be considered urease-negative. The medium of Rustigian and Stuart (urea, 2 per cent; yeast extract, 0.01 per cent; and phosphate buffer), because of the extremely small amount of nutritive material present, also is subject to the same theoretical limitations, particularly in view of the fact that an organism incapable of utilizing ammonia is probably forced to use the yeast extract not only as a nitrogen source but also as a carbon source. If these materials are exhausted before the organism shows appreciable growth, its ability to hydrolyze urea cannot be adequately determined. The high buffer capacity of the medium would also mask slight urease activity if such an organism were capable of initial growth in the medium. These two media, however, as stated by the authors, were designed for the detection of Proteus organisms, and for this purpose they are well suited. It was thought possible, however, that if a medium were devised which eliminated the necessity of an organism's utilizing ammonia as a sole source of nitrogen, other organisms of the fecal group could be detected which would hydrolyze urea.
The corrugator supercilii muscle revisited.

BACKGROUND Few studies have examined the anatomy of the central forehead as it pertains to vertical glabellar furrows. OBJECTIVE This study sought to critically examine the corrugator supercilii muscle (CSM) in situ, in relation to surrounding bony and soft tissue landmarks. METHODS Anatomic dissection of 10 fresh cadaveric hemi-heads was performed, focusing on the CSM origin and insertion, with emphasis on regional fascial relations, neurovascular structures, and osseous topography. RESULTS The CSM originates along the supraciliary arch. The muscle is attached at its medial and superior margin, whereas the lateral and inferior margins are free. The muscle originates from a bony plateau on the supraciliary arch. The CSM travels laterally, with most of the muscle passing through the fibers of the orbicularis oculi and the frontalis. The dermal insertion of the muscle is under the central portion of the eyebrow. The nerve supply enters at the lateral aspect of the muscle approximately 5 mm cephalic to the lateral brow. The action of the CSM is to elevate the medial aspect of the brow and depress the lateral segment of the brow. CONCLUSION The CSM does not appear to be the primary determinant of vertical glabellar frown lines. (Aesthetic Surg J 2001;21:209-215.).
Performance of adults with cerebral palsy related to falls, balance and function: A preliminary report

Aim: To describe performance on standardised measures of functional mobility and identify relationships between gait decline, falls history and risk scores, and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level. Method: Adults with cerebral palsy (CP) aged 30–65 years, GMFCS Levels I–III underwent a single assessment to complete performance and questionnaire measures of balance, mobility and falls. Results: Twenty-five ambulant community dwelling adults with CP participated (mean 41 years) in this study. Fifteen participants (60%) reported gait decline (>age 18). The most frequent self-reported cause of decline was reduced balance (n = 12). Seventeen participants (68%) reported prior falls. Group differences were found between GMFCS levels and falls risk (falls risk for older people-community, p = 0.025), balance (Berg Balance Scale, p = 0.005) and mobility (6 min walk test p = 0.004; timed up and go, p = 0.011). Conclusion: Adults with CP experience mobility decline in early to middle adulthood, with reduced balance performance and elevated falls risk evident. There is urgent need for further research into falls risk factors using prospective falls data.
Resilience and Cognitive Bias in Chinese Male Medical Freshmen

Background Psychological resilience has become a hot issue in positive psychology research. However, little is known about cognitive bias difference of individuals with different resilience levels. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of cognitive bias and its role in Chinese medical freshmen with different resilience levels. Methods 312 Chinese medical freshmen were surveyed by the Chinese version of Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, 92 of whom were, respectively, allocated into high (n = 46) and low (n = 46) resilient group to complete computerized tests using an attentional shifting task and an emotional picture recognition task. Results All participants had the highest recognition accuracy toward negative pictures compared to neutral and positive ones. By comparison, it was found that the high-resilient group had a longer recognition response time toward positive emotional pictures, but a shorter response time toward negative emotional pictures, while the low-resilient group had a longer response time toward negative emotional pictures. Conclusion This study pointed to the association between resilience and cognitive bias. Medical freshmen with different resilience levels showed significant differences in the cognitive bias toward emotional pictures, suggesting that reducing negative cognitive bias and promoting positive cognitive bias could be important targets to increase resilience.
No Benefit to Continue Lamivudine Therapy after Emergence of Ymdd Mutations

Background Mutations in the sequence of the conserved tyrosine-methionine-aspartate-aspartate (YMDD) locus of the HBV RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (rt M 204 I/V) may develop after 6–9 months of lamivudine therapy. The current practice of continuing lamivudine therapy has been associated with hepatitis flares or even hepatic decompensation. In addition, experiments have shown that the defective replication competency of rt M 204 I/V restores upon addition of lamivudine. Aim To evaluate whether continuing lamivudine therapy after emergence of rt M 204 I/V is appropriate. Patients and methods The clinical courses of 66 patients with continuing lamivudine therapy (continued group) and 68 patients who discontinued lamivudine therapy (discontinued group) were monitored monthly or more frequently if condition required. Hepatitis flare, jaundice, hepatic decompensation and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion in HBeAg-positive patients were documented as events. Results In a 12-month period, hepatitis flares and decompensations occurred in 67 and 11%, respectively, in patients who continued lamivudine therapy, as compared with 54 and 7%, respectively (P>0.05), in those who stopped therapy. HBeAg seroconversion rate was 19% in continued group and 35% in discontinued group (P=0.08). Serum HBV DNA increased in 48 (73%) of the continued group, and the median level increased from 46 pg/ml upon first detection of mutation to 330 pg/ml (P<0.001) at the end of 12 months continuing therapy. In contrast, serum HBV DNA level in the discontinued group increased in 22 (33%) patients but decreased in 39 patients, and median level decreased from 172 to 55 pg/ml at the end of 12 months after stopping lamivudine. Conclusion These results suggest that there is no benefit to continued lamivudine therapy after emergence of rt M 204 I/V. Presented in part at the Digestive Disease Week, San Francisco, Calif. , USA, May 2002.
Bacterial infections in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients

Purpose of reviewBacterial infections are among the most frequent complications of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). This review describes current epidemiology and management of bacterial infections. Recent findingsMultidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria are increasingly frequent in HSCT recipients, but significant differences in etiology of bacterial infections and prevalence of resistant strains exist between different transplant centers. Methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, vancomycin-resistant enterococci and MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa are the most relevant examples. Infection control measures are mandatory to limit the spread of resistant strains. Selective digestive decontamination is controversial and potentially associated with inducing resistance to antibiotics that might be the last treatment option, such as colistin or aminoglycosides. Empirical therapy should be individualized, and an escalation or de-escalation approach should be chosen depending on local epidemiology, colonization and clinical presentation. Antimicrobial stewardship, with the aim of improving management of bacterial infections, should be put in place in transplant units. SummaryBacterial infections in the transplant population warrant currently particular attention to limit the negative impact of infections caused by resistant strains.
High-k dielectric fabrication process to minimize mobile ionic penetration

A process for fabricating hafnium oxide (HfO) films to minimize ionic penetration was developed and tested. A 333Å HfO film was successfully deposited by thermal evaporation. The film was characterized through capacitance versus time (C-T) and capacitance versus voltage (C-V) measurements. The films were exposed to a solution of 0.1M NaCl physiological saline and preliminary results showed that the ionic species did not alter the electrical characteristics. The relative effective dielectric constant of the hafnium oxide layer and SiO2 interfacial layer was 10.5, while the relative dielectric constant of the hafnium oxide layer was 18.
Class VI intermediate filament protein nestin is induced during activation of rat hepatic stellate cells

Hepatic stellate cells are considered to be liver‐specific pericytes that play a key role in liver fibrosis. Because these cells express desmin and smooth muscle α‐actin, they were assumed to be of myogenic origin. This hypothesis became doubtful when it was reported that stellate cells also express glial fibrillary acidic protein and neural cell adhesion molecule. In the present study, we show that activated stellate cells express nestin, a class VI intermediate filament protein originally identified as a marker for neural stem cells. Expression of nestin was first studied during spontaneous activation of stellate cells in culture. Immunohistochemistry showed that nestin‐positive stellate cells already appeared at day 3, and nearly all the cells became positive for nestin at day 6 and 15. The immunoreaction was present in filaments except in dividing cells. The presence of messenger RNA transcript for nestin was shown by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and sequencing of amplified complementary DNA. We then compared the presence of nestin with that of other intermediate filament proteins and smooth muscle α‐actin. Immunoblotting showed that the relative concentrations of nestin, desmin, and vimentin increased between day 2 and 6 in primary culture. After the initial increase vimentin leveled off, while nestin and desmin showed a tendency to decrease. This pattern was quite different from that of glial fibrillary acidic protein, which kept declining, and smooth muscle α‐actin, which increased continuously up to day 13 in culture. We then studied the presence of nestin in normal and CCl4‐injured rat liver. In normal liver, minimal immunoreaction for nestin was observed within the liver parenchyma. During induction of fibrosis by carbon tetrachloride, nestin‐positive stellate cells appeared at 6 weeks, which was late in comparison with the induction of desmin and smooth muscle α‐actin. We conclude that nestin is induced in stellate cells during transition from the quiescent to the activated phenotype; culture activation is a stronger stimulus than in vivo activation by injection of CCl4. Taken together with reports on expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and neural cell adhesion molecule by stellate cells, new experimental studies on the embryonic origin of these cells are required
Effects of Acute and Chronic Murine Norovirus Infections on Immune Responses and Recovery from Friend Retrovirus Infection

ABSTRACT Murine norovirus (MNV) is a highly infectious but generally nonpathogenic agent that is commonly found in research mouse colonies in both North America and Europe. In the present study, the effects of acute and chronic infections with MNV on immune responses and recovery from concurrent Friend virus (FV) infections were investigated. No significant differences in T-cell or NK-cell responses, FV-neutralizing antibody responses, or long-term recovery from FV infection were observed. We conclude that concurrent MNV infections had no major impacts on FV infections.
Molecular Characterization, Structural Modeling, and Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity of Basrai Thaumatin-Like Protein against Fungal Infection

A thaumatin-like protein gene from Basrai banana was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Amplified gene product was cloned into pTZ57R/T vector and subcloned into expression vector pET22b(+) and resulting pET22b-basrai TLP construct was introduced into E. coli BL21. Maximum protein expression was obtained at 0.7 mM IPTG concentration after 6 hours at 37°C. Western blot analysis showed the presence of approximately 20 kDa protein in induced cells. Basrai antifungal TLP was tried as pharmacological agent against fungal disease. Independently Basrai antifungal protein and amphotericin B exhibited their antifungal activity against A. fumigatus; however combined effect of both agents maximized activity against the pathogen. Docking studies were performed to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of TLP against A. fumigatus by probing binding pattern of antifungal protein with plasma membrane ergosterol of targeted fungal strain. Ice crystallization primarily damages frozen food items; however addition of antifreeze proteins limits the growth of ice crystal in frozen foods. The potential of Basrai TLP protein, as an antifreezing agent, in controlling the ice crystal formation in frozen yogurt was also studied. The scope of this study ranges from cost effective production of pharmaceutics to antifreezing and food preserving agent as well as other real life applications.
Effect of the Inulin Addition on the Properties of Gluten Free Pasta

In this work the influence of the soluble fiber content, such as inulin, on both the sensory quality of dry spaghetti based on maize and on the dough rheological properties were evaluated. The inulin was added to the dough up to an amount of 20%. Results showed that the samples with inulin at 5% and 7.5% showed the higher values of elongation and shear viscosity with respect to the other samples, therefore a higher firmness. Regarding the sensorial analysis, all dry sam- ples had a positive score of overall quality; in particular, the sample with 5% of inulin showed the highest score because of the highest resistance to break value. Moreover, the overall quality of the cooked spaghetti samples decreased with the increase of the amount of inulin. In fact, firmness, color and taste attributes decreased with the increase of the inulin amount influencing negatively the overall quality of the spaghetti samples.
Sustained Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Stimulation Mobilizes the cAMP/PKA Pathway to Induce Nitric Oxide Synthase Type 1 Expression in Rat Pituitary Cells In Vitro and In Vivo at Proestrus1

Previous in vivo studies have established that pituitary nitric oxide synthase type 1 (NOS1) is regulated by gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). The aim of our study was to elucidate the mechanisms of NOS1 regulation by GnRH in rat pituitary cells. Using a perifused cell system, we demonstrated that NOS1 induction was sensitive to GnRH pulse frequency and was maximally induced under continuous GnRH stimulation. In primary cultures of rat pituitary cells, sustained stimulation with the GnRH agonist triptorelin (GnRHa) increased NOS1 protein levels, whereas NOS2 and NOS3 levels were unaffected. NOS1 up-regulation occurred in gonadotroph cells only, in a time-dependent and concentration-dependent manner (maximum increase, 2.5-fold; half-maximal concentration, 0.17 nM). GnRHa effect was mimicked by cAMP pathway activators and, most importantly, was blocked by disruption of the protein kinase A (PKA) pathway using pharmacological inhibitors such as Rp-cAMP or drug phosphatase technology-protein kinase inhibitor (DPT-PKI), a cell-permeant PKI peptide. In contrast, modulation of the PKC pathway and inhibition of the MAPK cascade were ineffective. Overall, these experiments demonstrated that GnRH-induced up-regulation of pituitary NOS1 is mediated notably by the cAMP/PKA pathway. Last, in vivo administration of a GnRH antagonist markedly inhibited the pituitary cAMP rise at proestrus in addition to suppressing NOS1 increase. Altogether, our data suggest that the cAMP/PKA signaling pathway is preferentially recruited under sustained GnRH stimulation in vivo during proestrus, allowing the expression of a specific set of PKA-regulated proteins, including NOS1, in gonadotroph cells.
Biophysical Analysis of Natural Variants of the Multimerization Region of Epstein-Barr Virus Lytic-Switch Protein BZLF1

ABSTRACT BZLF1 plays a key role in the induction of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) replication. On the basis of limited sequence homology and mutagenesis experiments, BZLF1 has been described as a member of the bZip family of transcription factors, but this prospect has not been rigorously tested to date. Here, we present biophysical analysis of the multimerization domain of BZLF1, from three natural variants of EBV, and demonstrate for the first time that the region between amino acids 196 and 227 is sufficient to direct folding as a coiled-coil dimer in vitro.
Arabic Corpora for Credibility Analysis

A significant portion of data generated on blogging and microblogging websites is non-credible as shown in many recent studies. To filter out such non-credible information, machine learning can be deployed to build automatic credibility classifiers. However, as in the case with most supervised machine learning approaches, a sufficiently large and accurate training data must be available. In this paper, we focus on building a public Arabic corpus of blogs and microblogs that can be used for credibility classification. We focus on Arabic due to the recent popularity of blogs and microblogs in the Arab World and due to the lack of any such public corpora in Arabic. We discuss our data acquisition approach and annotation process, provide rigid analysis on the annotated data and finally report some results on the effectiveness of our data for credibility classification.
Reversible axial segregation of rotating granular media.

Binary mixtures of granular media having differing diameters are combined in a horizontal cylinder and rotated like a drum mixer about its long axis. Within a few minutes of rotation at 15 rpm axial segregation occurs and the mixture separates into relatively pure alternating bands of the individual components along the axis of rotation. We describe an experimental system whereby the mixed state can be restored by changing the speed of rotation. The sensitivity of the reversible axial segregation effect to systematic variations of the glass bead diameter is reported. Measurements of the dynamic angle of repose of the mixed and segregated phases support an explanation for the reversible axial segregation effect involving the competition between axial drift and diffusion currents, leading to a diffusion equation with a negative effective diffusion coefficient.
Self-assembled micro-organogels for 3D printing silicone structures

High-precision 3D printing of liquid silicone is achieved using a new oil-based microgel as a support medium. The widespread prevalence of commercial products made from microgels illustrates the immense practical value of harnessing the jamming transition; there are countless ways to use soft, solid materials that fluidize and become solid again with small variations in applied stress. The traditional routes of microgel synthesis produce materials that predominantly swell in aqueous solvents or, less often, in aggressive organic solvents, constraining ways that these exceptionally useful materials can be used. For example, aqueous microgels have been used as the foundation of three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting applications, yet the incompatibility of available microgels with nonpolar liquids, such as oils, limits their use in 3D printing with oil-based materials, such as silicone. We present a method to make micro-organogels swollen in mineral oil, using block copolymer self-assembly. The rheological properties of this micro-organogel material can be tuned, leveraging the jamming transition to facilitate its use in 3D printing of silicone structures. We find that the minimum printed feature size can be controlled by the yield stress of the micro-organogel medium, enabling the fabrication of numerous complex silicone structures, including branched perfusable networks and functional fluid pumps.
Cultural influences on HIV testing among Latino youth

Abstract Young Latinos aged 13–24 years in the USA are disproportionately impacted upon by HIV. Despite the elevated risk, lower rates of HIV testing have been documented among Latino youth relative to other racial/ethnic groups. The objective of the current study was to examine the influence of acculturation and cultural values on HIV testing among Latino youth. The study consisted of 51 sexually experienced young Latinos aged 13–16 years from a major city in the Southeastern USA. Participants completed a survey on HIV testing history, cultural orientation and Latino cultural values. Results indicate that 21.6% of the young people had been tested for HIV. The number of times tested ranged from one to four (M = 1.9 ± 1.0). HIV testing was associated with US American cultural orientation and familism (and emphasis on strong family commitment, family support and emotional closeness). Participants with greater orientation to US American culture were more likely, whereas those who endorsed higher familism value were less likely, to have had an HIV test. For participants scoring high on familism, the desire to maintain family honour may serve as a deterrent to testing. Incorporating culturally relevant strategies, such as promoting sexual communication and conversations on HIV prevention within the family, may enhance testing and narrow the gap in HIV infection between Latino youth and other ethnic groups.