Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Effects of Temperature and Starvation on Induction of the Viable-but-Nonculturable State in the Coral Pathogens Vibrio shiloi and Vibrio tasmaniensis

ABSTRACT We compared induction of the viable-but-nonculturable (VBNC) state in two Vibrio spp. isolated from diseased corals by starving the cells and maintaining them in artificial seawater at 4 and 20°C. In Vibrio tasmaniensis, isolated from a gorgonian octocoral growing in cool temperate water (7 to 17°C), the VBNC state was not induced by incubation at 4°C after 157 days. By contrast, Vibrio shiloi, isolated from a coral in warmer water (16 to 30°C), was induced into the VBNC state by incubation at 4°C after 126 days. This result is consistent with reports of low-temperature induction in several Vibrio spp. A large proportion of the V. tasmaniensis population became VBNC after incubation for 157 days at 20°C, and V. shiloi became VBNC after incubation for 126 days at 20°C. Resuscitation of V. shiloi cells from cultures at both temperatures was achieved by nutrient addition, suggesting that starvation plays a major role in inducing the VBNC state. Our results suggest that viable V. shiloi could successfully persist in the VBNC state in seawater for significant periods at the lower temperatures that may be experienced in winter conditions, which may have an effect on the seasonal incidence of coral bleaching. For both species, electron microscopy revealed that prolonged starvation resulted in transformation of the cells from rods to cocci, together with profuse blebbing, production of a polymer-like substance, and increased membrane roughness. V. shiloi cells developed an increased periplasmic space and membrane curling; these features were absent in V. tasmaniensis.
Amplitude Equations for Locally Cubic Nonautonomous Nonlinearities

For systems of partial differential equations (PDEs) with locally cubic nonlinearities, which are perturbed by additive noise, we describe the essential dynamics for small solutions. If the system is near a change of stability, then a natural separation of time-scales occurs and the amplitudes of the dominant modes are given on a long time-scale by a stochastic ordinary differential equation. We consider applications to dynamic pitchfork bifurcation, pattern formation below the threshold of stability, and transient dynamics of stochastic PDEs near this deterministic bifurcations.
Toxicity of bloodmeals from ivermectin-treated cattle to Anopheles gambiae s.l.

Abstract Two anthelmintic drugs used as cattle dewormers, ivermectin and moxidectin, were tested for their lethal and sublethal effects on the malarial vectors Anopheles gambiae s.s. and An. arabiensis. In the laboratory, direct addition of ivermectin to bovine blood reduced the survivorship and fecundity of mosquitoes fed on the blood. The median lethal concentration (LC50) of ivermectin in the bloodmeal, for the laboratory populations of An. gambiae s.l. , was 19.8 ppb. In the field, commercially available formulations containing ivermectin or moxidectin were injected into cattle at three times the recommended dose. Most (90%) of the An. gambiae s.s. that fed on the ivermectin-treated cattle within 2 weeks of treatment failed to survive more than 10 days post-bloodmeal. No eggs were deposited by An. gambiae s.s. that fed on ivermectin-treated cattle within 10 days of treatment. In contrast, the survivorship and egg production of the mosquitoes that fed on the moxidectin-treated cattle were no different from those feeding on untreated cattle. These results indicate that treatment of cattle with ivermectin could be used, as part of an integrated control programme, to reduce the zoophilic vector populations that contribute to the transmission of the parasites responsible for human malaria.
Nasogastric aspiration and lavage in emergency department patients with hematochezia or melena without hematemesis.

OBJECTIVES The utility of nasogastric aspiration and lavage in the emergency management of patients with melena or hematochezia without hematemesis is controversial. This evidence-based emergency medicine review evaluates the following question: does nasogastric aspiration and lavage in patients with melena or hematochezia and no hematemesis differentiate an upper from lower source of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding? METHODS MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and other databases were searched. Studies were selected for inclusion in the review if the authors had performed nasogastric aspiration (with or without lavage) in all patients with hematochezia or melena and performed esophagogastroduodenal endoscopy (EGD) in all patients. Studies were excluded if they enrolled patients with history of esophageal varices or included patients with hematemesis or coffee ground emesis (unless the data for patients without hematemesis or coffee ground emesis could be separated out). The outcome was identifying upper GI hemorrhage (active bleeding or high-risk lesions potentially responsible for hemorrhage) and the rate of complications associated with the nasogastric tube insertion. Quality of the included studies was assessed using standard criteria for diagnostic accuracy studies. RESULTS Three retrospective studies met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The prevalence of an upper GI source for patients with melena or hematochezia without hematemesis was 32% to 74%. According to the included studies, the diagnostic performance of the nasogastric aspiration and lavage for predicting upper GI bleeding is poor. The sensitivity of this test ranged from 42% to 84%, the specificity from 54% to 91%, and negative likelihood ratios from 0.62 to 0.20. Only one study reported the rate complications associated with nasogastric aspiration and lavage (1.6%). CONCLUSIONS Nasogastric aspiration, with or without lavage, has a low sensitivity and poor negative likelihood ratio, which limits its utility in ruling out an upper GI source of bleeding in patients with melena or hematochezia without hematemesis.
Calcipotriol plus Betamethasone Dipropionate Gel Compared with Tacalcitol Ointment and the Gel Vehicle Alone in Patients with Psoriasis Vulgaris: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial

Objective: To establish the efficacy and safety of once daily treatment of Daivobet®/Dovobet® gel in patients with psoriasis vulgaris, relative to tacalcitol ointment and the gel vehicle alone. Methods: 458 patients with at least moderately severe disease were randomized in 3 treatment arms for an 8-week period. Treatment was investigator blinded, and treatment success was defined as patients with an Investigator’s Global Assessment of ‘clear’ or ‘almost clear’ at week 8. Results: The proportion of patients who were ‘clear or almost clear’ was significantly higher in the 2-compound gel group (39.9%) compared with 17.9% in the tacalcitol group and 5.5% in the gel vehicle group: p < 0.001 in both comparisons. The proportion of patients with at least 1 adverse drug reaction was significantly lower in the 2-compound gel group compared to the other 2 treatment groups. Conclusions: Once-a-day treatment with the 2-compound Daivobet/Dovobet gel is a safe and efficacious therapeutic regimen for individuals with psoriasis on the body.
Surgical management of venous malformation in soft tissue with the guidance of magnetic resonance imaging and percutaneous sinus angiography/three-dimensional computed tomography imaging

Background Venous malformation (VM) is a common vascular malformation in soft tissue. Surgical management plays an important role in its treatment. The location, extent, and adjacent anatomy of the lesion are crucial information for the safety of operation. This study introduces the application of magnetic resonance imaging and percutaneous sinus angiography/three-dimensional computed tomography imaging in gathering above information. Methods A retrospective analysis was made in the patients with venous malformation from January 2012 to June 2014 in our clinic. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging and percutaneous sinus angiography/three-dimensional computed tomography imaging. The location, extent of the lesion, its draining veins, and the relationship with around tissues were showed. Surgical management was carried out in the lesions which were well defined, located in the superficial fascia without important vessels and nerves across it. The wound was repaired by skin flap or skin graft. Results A total of 13 patients underwent complete surgical removal of the lesions, including five type I venous malformations and eight type II venous malformations. Ten lesions were removed by undermining dissection, and the wound was repaired by the undermined flap. Three superficial lesions were removed together with the skin over it, and the wound was repaired by the skin graft. In the six months to two years of follow-up period, none of the recurrence of the lesion was observed. Conclusion Magnetic resonance imaging and percutaneous sinus angiography/three-dimensional computed tomography imaging can display abundant morphological details of venous malformation, which are helpful for the surgical management.
The Effect of a Mind-Body Intervention on Mental Health and Coping Self-Efficacy in HIV-Infected Individuals: A Feasibility Study.

OBJECTIVES Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a stressful disease, and depression is the most common form of psychologic distress experienced by those infected. The aim of this study was to further develop and validate a mind-body intervention to improve coping self-efficacy strategies and increase mental health. DESIGN Feasibility study, a randomized trial. Participants were assigned into two blocks (female/male) and simple randomization in a 1:1 ratio was performed within each block to one of two arms (1) intervention group, (2) control group who received usual care. Setting/Location and Subjects: The authors enrolled 30 HIV-infected individuals (10 women and 20 men) who had psychologic challenges and were motivated for working with personal development at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. INTERVENTION The intervention was a group intervention facilitated by an educated coach. The framework was a 3-day residential course plus two single-day/8-h follow-up events. The intervention was based primarily on a Native American philosophy of life and its understanding of how changes affect human beings and create imbalance. OUTCOME MEASURES Primary outcomes were change in risk of depression and level of coping self-efficacy. Secondary outcomes were change in levels of stress and personal growth. RESULTS Significant improvement between the intervention group and control group was seen in risk of depression and personal growth mean values from baseline to 6-month follow-up. Significant improvements were shown within the intervention group in mean values of risk of depression, coping self-efficacy, stress, and personal growth. There were no significant improvements within the control group. CONCLUSIONS The authors suggest that interventions designed to increase resilience through enhancing coping self-efficacy be used in conjunction with HIV medication to make this approach and especially the "whole-person" commitment a fully integrated aspect of HIV care.
Impact of Core Charging Station's Cease Operation in the Entire Charging Station System: A Case Study in Shenzhen

As the rapid development of Electric Vehicles (EV), how to strategically deploy charging stations becomes an emerging and challenging question to EV communities. However, the cease operation of charging stations and the consequent impacts have been discussed little. In this paper, by analyzing a large scale electric taxi GPS data, we make the first attempt to investigate this problem. A case in Shenzhen is analyzed in this paper, where a core charging station ceases operation due to the security consideration, offering us a real situation. We develop a regression model to predict load increments of charging stations based on the analysis of EV taxi drivers' recharging behavior patterns. Based on the model, an allocation strategy of charging resources is proposed to minimize the average waiting time at charging stations, and maximize the charging resources utilization at the same time. To evaluate the performance of our proposed strategy, we conduct experiments on half-year real EV taxi GPS data. The evaluation results demonstrate that our suggested strategy can achieve a 32%-88% reduction rate on average waiting time at charging stations, over baseline methods. Moreover, our strategy can perform better in charging resources utilization.
BLAST Search Updater: a notification system for new database matches

UNLABELLED BLAST Search Updater (BSU) can help molecular biologists perform large numbers of BLAST searches routinely and screen the results for novel matches. The search result files (HTML format) and delta files (novel matches) are WWW viewable and BSU also emails users alignments of new matches. AVAILABILITY BSU runs on UNIX machines and is freely available to academic users at http://athena.bioc. uvic.ca/genomes/. Additional figures and description are also available. CONTACT cupton@uvic.ca
HEMOPHILUS VAGINALIS VAGINITIS

That a widespread, nontrichomonal, malodorous leukorrhea exists that has been attributed in the past to “nonspecific” bacterial vaginitis is undeniable. Clinical descriptions of “nonspecific” vaginitis appearing in the literature are rare and grossly inadequate, but the clinical pattern is far more uniform than that observed in vaginal trichomoniasis or moniliasis. The etiology of nonspecific vaginitis has been postulated in the past, although seemingly contrary to the usual rules of medical logic, as being of mixed bacterial character, with the various streptococci, staphylococci, micrococci, diphtheroids, and coliform bacilli being most often incriminated. In a preliminary report in 1Y54I and a more detailed report, in 195Y we presented evidence that over 90 per cent of so-called nonspecific vaginal infections belong to a specific disease ent,ity caused by a single bacterial species, namely, Hemophilus caginalis. Our additional years of experience have added only confirmation to our previously published opinions, and these opinions have also been largely confirmed by Lutz et ~ l . , ~ Kay and M a ~ g b a n , ~ Amies and Jones; Brewer et al.,’j and S t e ~ a r t . ~ Deming8 described a closely similar, if not identical, entity hut identified his causative bacterium as H . injuenzae. Heltai and TaleghanyQ report.ed isolating H . vaginalis 30 times from 127 clinic patients but, according to t.heir material and methods, were unwilling to assign H . zraginalis a more significant role than numerous other organisms. Consequently, they questioned the existence of a specific entity and preferred to adhere to the concept of a mixed bacterial etiology. Hunter and Longlo apparently failed to identify the organism in a group of 87 patients.
Swapping Repair for Misplaced Attribute Values

Misplaced data in a tuple are prevalent, e.g., a value "Passport" is misplaced in the passenger-name attribute, which should belong to the travel-document attribute instead. While repairing in-attribute errors have been widely studied, i.e., to repair the error by other values in the attribute domain, misplacement errors are surprisingly untouched, where the true value is simply misplaced in some other attribute of the same tuple. For instance, the true passenger-name is indeed misplaced in the travel-document attribute of the record. In this sense, we need a novel swapping repair model (to swap the misplaced passenger-name and travel-document values "Passport" and "John Adam" in the same tuple). Determining a proper swapping repair, however, is non-trivial. The minimum change criterion, evaluating the distance between the swapping repaired values, is obviously meaningless, since they are from different attribute domains. Intuitively, one may examine whether the swapped value ("John Adam") is similar to other values in the corresponding attribute domain (passenger-name). In a holistic view of all (swapped) attributes, we propose to evaluate the likelihood of a swapping repaired tuple by studying its distances (similarity) to neighbors. The rationale of distance likelihood refers to the Poisson process of nearest neighbor appearance. The optimum repair problem is to find a swapping repair with the maximum likelihood on distances. Experiments over datasets with real-world misplaced attribute values demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal in repairing misplacement.
Etude pluridisciplinaire d’une perturbation industrielle dans l’estuaire de la Gironde : implications du transport et de la dynamique de dégradation des débris végétaux sur le fonctionnement de la source froide du CNPE du Blayais

Jusqu’a present, la dynamique des fractions vegetales n’avait jamais ete etudiee dans les estuaires macrotidaux en raison de leur faible quantite, par rapports aux fortes charges en matieres en suspension fines, et du manque de protocoles d’etude et d’echantillonnage adequats. Les debris vegetaux sont toutefois a l’origine de perturbations d’activites economiques qui impliquent la filtration de larges volumes d’eau. L’objectif de cette these etait ainsi de comprendre la dynamique d’apport et de transit de ces debris vegetaux dans l’estuaire de la Gironde par la mise en oeuvre d’un suivi spatio-temporel de leur distribution et de techniques nouvelles pour un tel estuaire hyper-turbide (incubations in-situ litter-bag, caracterisation biogeochimique, identification des sources). Les resultats principaux sont la mise en evidence du controle du regime hydrologique sur leur distribution et la determination des echelles de temps de leur persistance dans l’estuaire de la Gironde.
THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING ON THE PERIODONTAL CONDITION OF YOUNG ADULT SAUDI POPULATION

Tobacco smoking has a substantial influence on periodontal health and disease. It is associated with an increased disease rate in terms of periodontal attachment loss, periodontal pocket formation and periodontal bone loss. In addition, it exerts masking effect on gingival symptoms of inflammation. The purpose of this study is to examine the clinical influence of tobacco smoking on the periodontal condition of the young adult Saudi patients. (43)
RAF inhibition and induction of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Purpose of review Targeted anticancer agents are associated with frequent skin side-effects. Several kinase inhibitors have been implicated in the appearance of borderline and malignant skin tumors such as keratoacanthomas and squamous cell carcinomas. The purpose of this review is to discuss the mechanisms as well as the management and implications of this unexpected side-effect. Recent findings Recent findings suggest that these skin neoplasms are due to RAF inhibition and that they are more frequent and arise earlier after treatment initiation with the more specific and potent RAF inhibitors than with the multikinase and pan-RAF inhibitor sorafenib. Biological results show that RAF inhibition induces paradoxical activation of the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway in cells that do not carry BRAF mutation. Summary This review discusses the various mechanisms that could be implicated in the appearance of skin tumors during the course of anti-RAF treatments as well as the implications of these findings for clinical practice and future drug development. The unexpected emergence of tumors during the course of anticancer therapies is a concern that stimulates an active field of research in the aim of understanding the underlying mechanisms and preventing if possible skin tumor initiation.
Statistical approaches to multi-scale point cloud processing

In recent years, 3D geometry has gained increasing popularity as the new form of digital media content. Due to advances in sensor technology, it is now feasible to acquire highly detailed 3D scans of complex scenes to obtain millions of data points at high sampling rates over large spatial extents. This ability to acquire high-resolution depth information brings with it the possibility of using 3D geometric data to construct detailed shape models and of perhaps combining 3D depth with visual appearance from images to address challenging problems in computer vision. However, geometric information represented as a 3D point cloud presents challenges uniquely different from other data modalities such as images or audio. Due to a combination of reasons such as the spatial irregularity of the data and the implicit nature of 3D observations, an easy substitution of traditional signal processing operators from images for processing unorganized 3D points is not possible. Furthermore, traditional estimators from classical statistics are not suitable for processing data in this domain, and new algorithms as well as different criteria for evaluating these algorithms are necessary. This dissertation contributes towards the development of two fundamental building blocks for processing point clouds. The first is of geometric model fitting, where we present a class of locally semi-parametric estimators that allows finite-sample analysis of accuracy and also explicitly addresses the problem of support-radius selection in local fitting. The second is of multi-scale filtering operators for point clouds that allow detection of interest regions whose locations as well as spatial extent are completely data-driven. The proposed approaches are distinguished from related work by operating directly in the input 3D space on unorganized points without assuming an available mesh or resorting to an intermediate global 2D parameterization. Results are presented for several applications including surface reconstruction, accurate shape descriptor computation and repeatable interest region detection, on synthetic data, as well as outdoor aerial and ground-based data obtained with a laser scanner.
Ehrlichia chaffeensis, a new species associated with human ehrlichiosis

The bacterial 16S rRNA genes from blood samples of two patients with human ehrlichiosis and from an isolate recovered from one of the patients were amplified by using the polymerase chain reaction. The amplimers were then cloned and sequenced. The 16S rRNA gene sequence was also determined for Ehrlichia canis (two strains), E. equi, E. phagocytophila (two strains), and E. sennetsu (two strains). These sequences, along with a previously published 16S rRNA gene sequence of E. risticii, were compared. The 16S rRNA gene sequences were identical for all three sources of the human ehrlichiosis agent. The sequence comparisons indicate that the human ehrlichiosis agent is a new species most closely related to E. canis (98.2%) and more distantly related to other Ehrlichia spp. We propose that this species be named Ehrlichia chaffeensis sp. nov., with the Arkansas strain as the type strain.
Sexual problems in healthy and depressed persons

In the ongoing Zurich Cohort Study, 591 males and females from the general population of Zurich were interviewed five times over the 15-year period between the ages of 20 and 35 years. The data on sexual problems were mainly obtained from the final three interviews when the subjects were aged 28–35 years. Emotional problems or sexual dysfunction alone are rare and are almost always associated with each other, or with changes in libido. However, changes in libido without associated emotional problems or sexual dysfunction are relatively common. Libido therefore appears to be the core problem with which other sexual problems overlap. Overall, sexual problems of some type were found in 26% of normal subjects, 45% of non-treated depressed patients and 63% of treated depressed patients. This increase in sexual problems in treated depressed patients is mainly due to an increase in sexual dysfunction and emotional problems; the level of libido appears not to be affected by treatment. There was no difference in the prevalence of sexual problems of any kind between patients treated with medication and those treated only with psychotherapy.