Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Tigecycline and Vancomycin Administration on Established Clostridium difficile Infection

ABSTRACT The glycylcycline antibiotic tigecycline was approved in 2005 for the treatment of complicated skin and soft tissue infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections. Tigecycline is broadly active against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive microorganisms, including Clostridium difficile. Tigecycline has a low MIC against C. difficile in vitro and thus may represent an alternate treatment for C. difficile infection (CDI). To assess the use of tigecycline for treatment of established CDI, 5- to 8-week-old C57BL/6 mice were colonized with C. difficile strain 630. After C. difficile colonization was established, mice (n = 10 per group) were treated with either a 5-day course of tigecycline (6.25 mg/kg every 12 h subcutaneously) or a 5-day course of vancomycin (0.4 mg/ml in drinking water) and compared to infected, untreated control mice. Mice were evaluated for clinical signs of CDI throughout treatment and at 1 week posttreatment to assess potential for disease development. Immediately following a treatment course, C. difficile was not detectable in the feces of vancomycin-treated mice but remained detectable in feces from tigecycline-treated and untreated control mice. Toxin activity and histopathological inflammation and edema were observed in the ceca and colons of untreated mice; tigecycline- and vancomycin-treated mice did not show such changes directly after treatment. One week after the conclusion of either antibiotic treatment, C. difficile load, toxin activity, and histopathology scores increased in the cecum and colon, indicating that C. difficile-associated disease occurred. In vitro growth studies confirmed that subinhibitory concentrations of tigecycline were able to suppress toxin activity and spore formation of C. difficile, whereas vancomycin did not. Taken together, these data show how tigecycline is able to alter C. difficile pathogenesis in a mouse model of CDI.
Higher Dietary Energy Density is Associated with Stunting but not Overweight and Obesity in a Sample of Urban Malaysian Children

ABSTRACT Although diets with high energy density are associated with increased risk of overweight and obesity, it is not known whether such diets are associated with undernutrition. This study assessed the relationship between dietary energy density (ED) and nutritional status of 745 urban 1- to 10-year-old children. Dietary intakes were obtained using food recall and record for two days. Dietary energy density was based on food and caloric beverages. Higher dietary ED was associated with lower intakes of carbohydrate, sugar, vitamins C and D, and calcium but higher fat, fiber, iron, and folate intakes. While intakes of fruits and milk/dairy products decreased, meat, fish, and legume intakes increased with higher dietary ED. Stunting, but not other growth problems, was associated with higher dietary ED. Future studies should confirm the cause-and-effect relationship between higher dietary ED and stunting.
Peer support in industrial action: how colleagues' anticipated social support affects willingness to strike

This article studies how the support workers expect from colleagues for strike participation affects their willingness to participate in a strike. We formulate hypotheses on the effects of anticipated social support for participation as well as anticipated social support for nonparticipation. We include the potentially mediating effect of social identification and the social costs of (non-)participation. We test our hypotheses on survey data of 725 Dutch employees collected in 2010. Using structural equation modeling techniques, we find that the support for participation has a stronger positive effect on the willingness to strike than the support for nonparticipation has on the willingness to strike. In addition, our findings suggest that union membership substitutes the effect of social support of colleagues.
Strong, lightweight, and recoverable three-dimensional ceramic nanolattices

Compressive, ductile ceramic nanolattices Ceramics are strong and stiff, but their limited ability to stretch like putty or steels makes them unsuitable for many engineering applications. Meza et al. constructed ceramic nanolattices from aluminum oxide, in which the beams are designed to stretch rather than bend. A key parameter in lattice design is the ratio of the wall thickness to the beam radius. When that ratio is small enough, compressing the beams does not break them. That way, the nanolattices can be highly compressed and recover to something close to their original shape when the stress is removed. Science, this issue p. 1322 Hollow, three-dimensional alumina nanolattices absorb energy and recover after substantial compression. Ceramics have some of the highest strength- and stiffness-to-weight ratios of any material but are suboptimal for use as structural materials because of their brittleness and sensitivity to flaws. We demonstrate the creation of structural metamaterials composed of nanoscale ceramics that are simultaneously ultralight, strong, and energy-absorbing and can recover their original shape after compressions in excess of 50% strain. Hollow-tube alumina nanolattices were fabricated using two-photon lithography, atomic layer deposition, and oxygen plasma etching. Structures were made with wall thicknesses of 5 to 60 nanometers and densities of 6.3 to 258 kilograms per cubic meter. Compression experiments revealed that optimizing the wall thickness-to-radius ratio of the tubes can suppress brittle fracture in the constituent solid in favor of elastic shell buckling, resulting in ductile-like deformation and recoverability.
Immunohistochemical Labeling of Normal Melanocytes

Comparison of seven antibodies for the demonstration of normal melanocytes in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded surgical discard skin showed that the monoclonal antibody Mel-5 (clone TA99) directed against pigment associated antigen was the most sensitive. Quantitative data were obtained for the sensitivity of the antibodies NKI/beteb, S100, T311, Melan A (clone A103), c-kit, and Mel-5 in parallel sections of human skin. An anticytokeratin antibody (CK34&bgr;E12) was also used to stain basal keratinocytes and provide a negative image of the melanocytes present. Optimal conditions for the use of Mel-5 in paraffin sections of skin are described.
Impact study of plug-in electric vehicles on electric power distribution system

This paper presents the impact study of plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) on a power distribution system and investigates how it would affect the distribution systems from different perspectives. PHEVs are modelled as storage energy systems in which its dispatch mode will follow the load shape patterns for charging behavior. The IEEE 37 test system with PHEVs is simulated in OpenDss, and a control algorithm is developed using the Matlab program. The study considers the impact of PHEVs on system voltage profile, power loss and line loading by taking into account low and high penetration level of PHEVs. An evaluation is also made on the diversification of charging behavior over a 24 hour period by considering the existing system load profile.
Dihydroxyphenylglycol as a Biomarker of Norepinephrine Transporter Inhibition by Atomoxetine: Human Model to Assess Central and Peripheral Effects of Dosing

Abstract To assess the primary metabolite of norepinephrine, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol (DHPG), as a sensitive biomarker for norepinephrine transporter (NET) function and the relationship of DHPG measured peripherally and centrally, NET was antagonized with 80 mg/d atomoxetine for 18 days. Twelve healthy subjects were treated with atomoxetine in an open-label, multiple-dose exploratory study. Plasma atomoxetine reached steady state by day 6, and the pharmacokinetic results demonstrated availability of atomoxetine to the central nervous system. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)/plasma ratios of atomoxetine based on area under concentration-time curve from 0 to 12 hours postdose (AUC0–12), maximum concentration (Cmax), and predose were 0.3%, 0.2%, and 11%, respectively. Plasma from atomoxetine-treated subjects (ex vivo) significantly inhibited radioligand binding to human NET (P < 0.001) only 1 hour after dosing. Plasma DHPG and DHPG/norepinephrine (ratio) during repeated posture tests were reduced significantly (P < 0.001) on day 5 and stayed significantly reduced up to 1 day after treatment. In CSF, both DHPG and the ratio were significantly reduced (P < 0.001) on day 18. Urine results showed significant decreases for both DHPG and the ratio (P = 0.010 to P < 0.001). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor in CSF was lesser than the limits of detection. The findings suggest that NET blockade can be assessed with DHPG concentration or with the ratio in plasma, CSF, and urine. The data suggest that DHPG is a useful biomarker to proactively assess the pharmacological activity of compounds intended to inhibit NET activity within the brain. The study shows that CSF is a medium for early identification and quantification of biomarkers useful in assessing novel neuroscience targets.
Molecular epidemiology of noroviruses associated with sporadic gastroenteritis in children in Novosibirsk, Russia, 2003–2012

Noroviruses (NoVs) are an important cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. To monitor the molecular epidemiology of NoVs genogroup II (GII) in Novosibirsk, Russia, a total of 10,198 stool samples from young children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis and two asymptomatic comparison groups were collected from 2003 to 2012. All samples were screened for the presence of NoV GII, rotavirus, and astrovirus by RT‐PCR. The prevalence of NoV in gastroenteritis cases was 13.1%, varying from 7.1% to 21.3% in different seasons. Rotavirus and/or astrovirus were detectable in 25% of the NoV‐positive samples. NoV was detected throughout the year with a seasonal increase during winter months. Based on sequence analysis of regions D and/or C within the VP1 gene, 892 identified NoV strains were divided into nine genotypes—GII.3 (51%), GII.4 (44%), GII.6 (2%), as well as GII.1, GII.2, GII.5, GII.7, GII.16, and GII.21 (totally, 3%). The prevalence of NoV in the comparison groups was considerably lower (∼2.5%); only GII.4 (n = 6), GII.21 (n = 2) and GII.1 (n = 1) genotypes were revealed. Based on phylogenetic analysis of the ORF1/ORF2 junction region sequences, GII.P21/GII.3 recombinant and GII.P4/GII.4 were prevalent genotypes (totally, 93%) and their ratio changed every season. The median age of children with NoV infection was 6.6 months (range, <1–35 months), but it was different depending on NoV genotype. Children infected with the NoV GII.3 were younger (median 6.2 months) than GII.4‐positive patients (median 9.1 months). This is the first long‐term systematic study of NoV molecular epidemiology in Russia. J. Med. Virol. 87:740–753, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Energy Dependence of Parameters Characterizing Multiply Backscattering of Gamma Photons

The present studies aimed to investigate the effects of energy dependence of parameters characterizing multiply backscattering of gamma photons. The numbers of multiply backscattered events are found to be increasing with thickness of copper target, and saturate for a particular thickness known as saturation thickness. The saturation thickness is found to be decreasing with increase in incident gamma photon energy, and also is not altered by the variation in collimator opening. The number, energy and dose albedos, characterizing the reflection probability of a material, are also evaluated. For each of the incident gamma photon energy, the number and energy albedos show an increase with increasing target thickness, and finally saturate. Monte Carlo calculations support the results of present experimental work.
Survey of Polymorphic Worm Signatures

Worms are self –replicating, fast moving malicious codes, capable of spreading themselves without human interaction. It’s a weapon of choice for those, who like to launch destructive attacks on network or internet as a whole. Recently there emerge more sophisticated worms such as polymorphic worm which vary their payload in every infection attempt. Polymorphic worms have more than one mutated instances. It is very important to detect and prevent such worms quickly and accurately at their early phase of infection. There are several worm detection and containment methods available. This paper surveys recent automated signature based detection of polymorphic worms and presents a classification for various signature approaches. There are two main categories of worm signatures, exploit specific and vulnerability driven. Both categories of signature are either network-based or host based. Each signature generation scheme is described and discussed in appropriate category. We analyze and compare different signature schemes. The paper concludes with challenge and scope of future research directions.
Adhesion and colonisation of Candida krusei on host surfaces.

Candida krusei is an emerging pathogen, especially in immunocompromised hosts. As the adherence of this organism both to host epithelial surfaces and to catheter and prosthetic surfaces appears to be important in the pathogenesis of superficial as well as systemic candidoses, the adhesion of 20 oral isolates of C. krusei and five oral isolates of C. albicans was compared with the following substrates: cultured (HeLa) epithelial cells, buccal epithelial cells (BEC) from healthy adults and bone marrow transplant patients, and acrylic (polymethylmethacrylate) surfaces. Animal experiments in Sprague Dawley rats were also conducted to evaluate the relative oral carriage rate of the two Candida spp. C. krusei isolates adhered in far greater numbers to acrylic surfaces than to either of the cell surfaces. Significant intra-species differences in C. krusei adhesion for acrylic surfaces were noted between 74 (39%) of 190 pair comparisons in contrast to 18 (9.5%) of 190 with HeLa surfaces (p < 0.05). A positive correlation was also observed between the adhesion of C. krusei isolates to HeLa cells and acrylic surfaces. Five isolates of C. albicans showed very low adherence to HeLa surfaces when compared with BEC obtained from either healthy individuals or bone marrow transplant patients. The adherence of C. albicans to BEC from the healthy individuals was c. 12-fold greater than that of C. krusei, a figure similar to the relative murine oral carriage rate of the two Candida spp. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Spherical-Wavefront-Based Scatterer Localization Algorithm Using Large-Scale Antenna Arrays

In this letter, a spherical-wavefront-based parametric signal model is proposed by considering the architecture using a large-scale antenna array. A space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE)-based localization algorithm is derived and adopted to localize the first-and last-hop scatterers along the propagation paths between the transmitter and the receiver. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the localization algorithm. An outdoor measurement campaign with a 1600-element virtual planar array is carried out to verify the localization performance in reality. Those results show the advantages of using a spherical-wavefront-based signal model and the SAGE-based algorithm in the scatterer localization.
An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Consanguineous Marriages on Economic Development

In this study, development experiences toward economic development are investigated to provide an alternative analysis of economic development, human capital, and genetic inheritance in the light of consanguineous marriages. The countries analyzed in the study are discussed in accordance with consanguineous marriage practices and classified by their per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth. A broad range of countries are analyzed in the study. Arab countries that experienced high rates of growth in their gross national income during the twentieth century but failed to fulfill adequate development measures as reflected in the growth in national income, countries undergoing transition from tight government regulation to free market democracy, and African nations that have experienced complications in the process of development show important differences in the process of economic development. It is shown that the countries that have reached high average development within the context of per capita GDP have overcome problems integral to consanguineous marriage.
Impairment of recollection but not familiarity in a case of developmental amnesia

In a re-examination of the recognition memory of Jon, a young adult with developmental amnesia due to perinatal hippocampal damage, we used a test procedure that provides estimates of the separate contributions to recognition of recollection and familiarity. Comparison between Jon and his controls revealed that, whereas he was unimpaired in the familiarity process, he showed abnormally low levels of recollection, supporting the view that the hippocampus mediates the latter process selectively.
The fundus in mongolism.

The fundus in 63 eyes of 32 karyotyped patients with mongolism (Down syndrome) was examined by indirect ophthalmoscopy. Common features included a rosy disc associated with a greater than normal number of retinal blood vessels, a generalized attenuation of fundus pigmentation regardless of iris coloration, peripapillary and patchy peripheral areas of pigment epithelial atrophy, and choroidal vascular "sclerosis. " These findings are believed to be suggestive but not pathognomonic of mongolism. Eleven eyes of six additional patients were found to have retinal detachment. Eight of these were due to a retinal dialysis and only two could be surgically reattached. Trauma was thought to be an important predisposing factor. Several suggestions for prevention and early diagnosis of this complication are briefly presented.
Naltrexone does not attenuate the acute behavioral effects of ethanol or pentobarbital in humans.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, attenuates the acute subject-rated, performance-impairing and physiological effects of ethanol or pentobarbital. To accomplish this aim, two separate experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, eight volunteers (one female, seven males) received ethanol (0, 0.5 and 1.0 g/kg) alone and in combination with naltrexone (0, 50 and 100 mg). In Experiment 2, eight different volunteers (five females, three males) received pentobarbital (0, 150 and 300 mg), alone and in combination with naltrexone (0, 50 and 100 mg). Subjects received one of the nine possible drug-naltrexone combinations under double-blind conditions during each of nine experimental sessions. Order of drug administration was mixed, and at least 48 h separated all sessions. In Experiment 1, subjects orally ingested ethanol 1 h after naltrexone. In Experiment 2, subjects ingested naltrexone 1 h after pentobarbital. The timing of drug administration was arranged so that the peak behavioral effects of ethanol or pentobarbital occurred so that across peak plasma levels of naltrexone. Drug effects were assessed before drug administration and periodically afterwards for 5 h using a battery of subject-rated drug-effect questionnaires and performance measures previously shown to be sensitive to the acute effects of ethanol. Ethanol and pentobarbital produced prototypical subject-rated drug effects (e.g. increased subject ratings of Drunk, Drug Liking, Elated and Good Effects) and impaired performance. Naltrexone did not produce significant effects on these measures. In other words, naltrexone did not attenuate the acute subject-rated and performance-impairing effects of ethanol or pentobarbital. The mechanism by which naltrexone exerts its clinical effect in the treatment of alcohol abuse/dependence remains unclear.
Mining monolingual and bilingual corpora

In this paper, we describe two new methods of mining monolingual and bilingual text corpora that heavily rely on the use of association rules and triggers. The association rules based method is firstly applied in query expansion. The conducted experiments on French newspapers and on a set of scientific documents show that the proposed approach outperforms the baseline model. The second method focuses on the machine translation and is motivated by the results of triggers on statistical language modeling. In order to build up a translation table, association rules and triggers are then generalized to mine bilingual corpora. In this respect, we propose respectively the concepts of inter-lingual association rules and inter-lingual triggers. Both methods have been integrated in a real statistical machine translation. Carried out experiments highlight the practical feasibility of the introduced approaches in the context of machine translation and show that inter-lingual triggers achieve better results than those obtained using the third IBM model.
Blood Pressure, Smoking and Body Mass in Relation to Mortality from Stroke and Coronary Heart Disease in the Elderly. A 10-year Follow-up in Norway

Objectives: To examine the association between blood pressure, smoking and body mass index (BMI) and cerebro- and cardiovascular mortality in a population of healthy elderly. Design: Ten-year mortality follow-up of elderly men and women who participated in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study 1984-86. Setting: Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. Subjects: 3121 men and 3271 women aged 70 years and older, free from any diagnosed atherosclerotic diseases or diabetes at baseline. Main outcome measures: Relative risk of cerebro- and cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality according to blood pressure, smoking and BMI. Results: There was a consistent, positive association between systolic and diastolic blood pressure and cerebro- and cardiovascular mortality. The association persisted after adjustment for potential confounding factors, and was strongest for cerebrovascular mortality; the adjusted relative risks for systolic blood pressure categories 160-179 mmHg and S 180 mmHg in men were 1.63 (95% confidence interval, CI 1.06-2.53) and 2.19 (95% CI 1.39-3.44) compared to blood pressure <140 mmHg. In women, the corresponding relative risks were 1.54 (95% CI 0.93-2.56) and < 2.12 (95% CI 1.29-3.50). For diastolic blood pressure the adjusted relative risks in categories 100-109 and S 110 mmHg in men were 1.88 (95% CI 1.19-2.95) and 3.06 (95% CI 1.79-5.21) compared to pressure <90 mmHg. The corresponding relative risks in women were 1.75 (95% CI 1.05-2.91) and 2.02 (95% CI 1.04-3.93). Current smoking increased cardiovascular mortality in both men and women, and among women, BMI was negatively associated with all-cause mortality. Conclusions: These findings add to the growing evidence that hypertension is a major risk factor for mortality from stroke and coronary heart disease among the elderly and the very old.
Maternal Ratings of the ADHD Symptoms

Objective: This study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), latent class analysis (LCA), and factor mixture model (FMM) to ascertain the best model for ADHD symptoms, as presented in the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-Symptoms and Normal Behavior Scale (SWAN). Method: Mother ratings of the ADHD symptoms of 418 clinic-referred children and adolescents were obtained. Results: The findings provided most support for an FMM with two classes (less severe inattention [IA] and hyperactivity/impulsivity [HI] symptoms and more severe IA/HI symptoms) and two factors (IA and HI) model. The more severe class had more individuals with the ADHD diagnosis, especially the combined type. Conclusion: The findings are discussed in relation to dimensional and categorical views of ADHD.