Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clarification of small volume microbial suspensions in an ultrasonic standing wave

The removal of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli from 2·5 ml suspensions in ultrasonic standing wave formed at 1 or 3 MHz has been characterized. The standing wave was set up by a plane transducer and reflector mounted in the vertical plane. Cells in the ultrasonic field first concentrated in vertical planes at half wavelength separations. The ultrasound was then pulsed to allow clumps of concentrated cells to sediment in a controlled way during the short ‘off’ intervals. Yeast removal from suspension at a concentration of 3 × 109 ml−1 (14% volume v/v) was 99·5% in a total time of 4·5 min. Almost total (99·5%) clarification of prokaryote (E. coli) suspension was achieved here for the first time in a standing wave field. The clarification of a 1·3 × 1011 ml−1 (16% v/v) E. coli suspension occurred over 11·5 min. The period decreased to 7 min in the presence of a polycationic flocculant, polyethyleneimine. The implications of the results for design of systems to further reduce clarification times are discussed. Removal efficiency for both S. cerevisiae and E. coli decreased with decrease in cell concentration. This concentration dependence is shown not to be simply a consequence of acoustic interaction between single cells. Flow cytometry of stained cells detected no loss of cell viability arising from the ultrasonic procedure.
Examining Student Perspectives On Suicidal Behaviour and Its Prevention in Sri Lanka

Background: Suicidal behaviour, primarily through self-poisoning, is a major public health problem among youth in Sri Lanka. Methods: This article describes a qualitative study of student perspectives on suicidal behaviour and its prevention. Focus groups were held with students 17—20 years of age. A discussion of the perceived causes of suicidal behaviour provided the context for discussing prevention efforts. Conclusion: Participants identified pathways to suicidal behaviour and emphasized experiential aspects and the variability of fatal intent. Suggestions for prevention tended to emphasize the strengthening of community-oriented actions in order to better realize lethal means restrictions.
MEASLES VACCINATION

Children immunized with 4 doses of formalin‐killed (FK) whole virus vaccine containing adjuvant and aqueous, purified hemagglutinin prepared from Tween‐ether (TE) treated material in different combinations have been followed serologically and clinically during a period of 3 to 4 years after the last dose of vaccine. The average decline in HI antibody titers was about 10‐fold during this period of time, except in children who had received 4 doses of TE vaccine. The latter group displayed about a 40‐fold decrease in titers. Four out of 10 children exposed to cases of regular measles displayed clinical symptoms of varying degrees of severity. Two more children responded with a rise in HI antibody titer only. All these reactions occurred in children with a pre‐exposure HI serum titer of 160 or higher. A case of pneumonia was encountered in connection with exposure to wild virus in a child who had received only 2 doses of FK vaccine.
Identification of a Specific Leukocyte Antigen: Another Presumed Example of 5b

A leukocyte agglutinating antibody obtained from a multiparous normal female was studied. By means of cross‐absorption and antibody elution methods, it was established that this antibody detected a single leukocyte antigen, designated as “Ke. ” The data suggest a gene frequency of 0.8 for “Ke” and 0.2 for “ke,” the postulated allelic gene. The antigen is shared by granulocytes, lymphocytes‐monocytes, eosinophils and also platelets, but is absent from red cells. The cross reaction studies indicate that this antigen may be identical with group 5b already described by Van Rood.
A narrowband land mobile satellite channel software simulator for urban environments

This paper presents a software simulator applicable to narrowband land mobile satellite channels, in urban environments. The simulator is based on a two-state model, and several statistical models, for the characterization of di! erent environments. A core procedure of the simulator is a Rayleigh multipath module that conforms to the channel characteristics imposed by the use of non-geostationary satellites, incorporating the Doppler shift introduced to the received signal. The underlying three-dimensional multipath scattering model addresses the movement of satellites with respect to the scatterers and the mobile receiver. A method for producing complex Rayleigh processes, shaped in spectrum is also presented. A full description of the tool is given, and case study results are presented. A tool validation section is quoted, and the last section of the paper is devoted to the comparison of "rstand second-order statistics as extracted by measured data and simulation runs.
Purification and characterization of VSH-1, a generalized transducing bacteriophage of Serpulina hyodysenteriae

Serpulina hyodysenteriae B204 cells treated with mitomycin (20 microg of mitomycin/ml of culture broth) lysed and released bacteriophages. Bacteriophage particles, precipitated by using polyethylene glycol and purified by CsC1 density gradient ultracentrifugation, had a buoyant density of 1.375 g/cm3 and consisted of a head (45-nm diameter) and an ultrastructurally simple (noncontractile) tail (64 by 9 nm) composed of at least 13 proteins with molecular masses ranging between 13 and 101 kDa. The purified bacteriophage has been designated VSH-1 (VSH for virus of S. hyodysenteriae). VSH-1 was incapable of lytic growth on any of five intestinal spirochete strains, representing three Serpulina species. VSH-1 nucleic acid was determined to be approximately 7.5 kb in size and to be linear, double-stranded DNA based on differential staining with acridine orange, DNase I sensitivity, electrophoretic mobility, and contour length as measured by electron microscopy. Phage DNA digested by the restriction enzymes SspI, AseI, EcoRV, and AflII gave electrophoretic banding patterns nearly identical to those of digested chromosomal DNA from S. hyodysenteriae. Additionally, VSH-1 DNA fragments hybridized with probes complementary to S. hyodysenteriae chromosomal genes nox and flaA1. When purified bacteriophages induced from cultures of S. hyodysenteriae A203 (deltaflaA1 593-762::cat) were added to growing cells of strain A216 (deltanox 438-760::kan), transductants (Cmr Kmr) were obtained at a frequency of 1.5 x l0(-6) per phage particle (enumerated by electron microscopy). These findings indicate that induced VSH-1 virions package DNA of S. hyodysenteriae and are capable of transferring host genes between cells of that spirochete. To our knowledge, this is the first report of genetic transduction of a spirochete.
Effects of vitamin E on human platelet and mononuclear cell responses in vitro

Recent epidemiological studies have provided evidence supporting the potential benefits of antioxidants in coronary prevention. We have investigated the effects of vitamin E on platelets, monocytes and endothelial cells in vitro. Pre‐incubation of platelets with vitamin E inhibited subsequent thrombin‐ (P < 0.05, n = 5), collagen‐ (P < 0.0001, n = 5) and ADP‐(P < 0.05, n = 4) induced platelet aggregation measured using a microtitre plate method, or conventional aggregometry. The adhesion of thrombin‐activated platelets to collagen was also inhibited by vitamin E (P < 0.05, n = 8), but not by vitamin C (P > 0.05, n = 8); nor was the adhesion of unstimulated platelets significantly affected (P > 0.05, n = 8). Pre‐incubation of monocytes with vitamin E inhibited their subsequent adhesion to plastic (P < 0.05, n = 9), and was also associated with an 18% reduction in adhesion to EA.hy 926 endothelial cells (n = 8), although this failed to reach statistical significance. Pre‐incubation of the endothelial cells with vitamin E also significantly reduced subsequent mononuclear cell adhesion by 56% (P < 0.05, n = 3).
Hypoxia and the Renin-Angiotensin System in Atherosclerosis Master thesis in Medicine

3 Background . 6 Aim . 11 Material and methods . 12 Histological examination of atherosclerotic plaques – and – comparative analysis of plaque morphology and serum markers of inflammation between patients receiving ARB treatment and controls . 12 Study population . 12 Study design . 12 Atherosclerotic plaques . 14 Serum samples . 15 In vitro examination of the effects of hypoxia and ARB treatment on expression of AT1 and markers of inflammation in cell culture . 15 Cell culture – smooth muscle cells . 16 Cell culture – monocyte derived macrophages . 16 Real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (Real Time RT-PCR) . 16 Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) . 17 Western Immunoblotting . 18 Statistics . 19 Results . 20 Expression of AT1 co localizes with CD68 positive macrophages and HIF-1α expression in human carotid atherosclerotic plaques . 20 Significant correlation between CD68 and AT1 expression as well as HIF-1α and CD68 expression in human carotid atherosclerotic plaques . 23 Similar plaque morphology and levels of serum markers of inflammation in ARB treated patients and controls . 24 SMC cell-culture experiments proved inconclusive as to the effects of hypoxia and ARB treatment on AT1 mRNA expression . 28 Expression of HIF-1α mRNA was reduced in SMCs exposed to hypoxia . 29 No change in secretion of cytokines, ACE or angiotensin II from SMCs exposed to hypoxia or Candesartan compared to controls. 30 Macrophage cell-culture experiments proved inconclusive as to the effects of exposure to hypoxia, angiotensin II or Candesartan in AT1 mRNA expression . 30 Expression of AT1 protein in macrophages verified with Western Immunoblotting. 31 Discussion . 32
Innovation, Communication, and Leadership: New Developments in Strategic Communication

Strategic communication, in contrast to everyday public relations, concentrates on the core drivers of organizational success. It also expands the traditional set of institutionalized communication measures in order to manage meaning in all kinds of interactions with internal and external stakeholders. Along this line, this article argues that communication should play a new role in promoting innovation management as a crucial process in today's society, and that this can be achieved by a new understanding of leadership communication. Theoretical concepts and empirical findings can be integrated into a wheel of leadership communication on innovations that combines the social, cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions of a new role in the innovation process supported by communication management.
User interfaces and consumer perceptions of online stores: The role of telepresence

As competition in B2C e-commerce becomes more fierce, online stores have made efforts to attract consumer attention by adopting state-of-the-art technologies. Specifically, virtual reality (VR) has recently been gaining prominence on the Internet because it enables consumers to experience products over the web, an activity that plays a key role in obviating consumers' lack of real physical contact with products. VR simulates direct experiences in mediated environments, and it can generate a compelling sense of telepresence.The present study proposes a research model to analyse and evaluate the impact of telepresence on consumer perception, based on existing theories of telepresence and consumer learning. A laboratory experiment with three user interfaces - multiple pictures, video clips and VR - has been conducted to test the model. The VR interface produced the highest level of telepresence, as expected. Telepresence in turn generally augments consumers' product knowledge, attitudes and purchase intentions, and reduces consumer perceptions of product risk and discrepancies between online product information and actual products, directly or indirectly.
Considerations for the Treatment of Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (Infantile Batten Disease)

The infantile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (ie, infantile Batten disease) is the most rapidly progressing type and is caused by an inherited deficiency in the lysosomal enzyme palmitoyl protein thioesterase 1. The absence of enzyme activity leads to progressive accumulation of autofluorescent material in many cell types, particularly neurons of the central nervous system. Clinical signs of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis appear between 6 months and 1 year of age and include vision loss, cognitive decline, motor deficits, seizures, and premature death, typically by 3 to 5 years of age. There is currently no effective treatment. However, preclinical experiments in the murine model of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis have shown that gene therapy, enzyme replacement, stem cell transplantation, and small-molecule drugs, alone or in combination, can significantly slow disease progression. A more thorough understanding of the underlying pathogenesis of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis will identify new therapeutic targets.
Expression and Secretion of Defined Cutinase Variants by Aspergillus awamori

ABSTRACT Several cutinase variants derived by molecular modelling and site-directed mutagenesis of a cutinase gene from Fusarium solani pisi are poorly secreted by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The majority of these variants are successfully produced by the filamentous fungus Aspergillus awamori. However, the L51S and T179Y mutations caused reductions in the levels of extracellular production of two cutinase variants by A. awamori. Metabolic labelling studies were performed to analyze the bottleneck in enzyme production by the fungus in detail. These studies showed that because of the single L51S substitution, rapid extracellular degradation of cutinase occurred. The T179Y substitution did not result in enhanced sensitivity towards extracellular proteases. Presumably, the delay in the extracellular accumulation of this cutinase variant is caused by the enhanced hydrophobicity of the molecule. Overexpression of the A. awamori gene encoding the chaperone BiP in the cutinase-producing A. awamori strains had no significant effect on the secretion efficiency of the cutinases. A cutinase variant with the amino acid changes G28A, A85F, V184I, A185L, and L189F that was known to aggregate in the endoplasmic reticulum of S. cerevisiae, resulting in low extracellular protein levels, was successfully produced by A. awamori. An initial bottleneck in secretion occurred before or during translocation into the endoplasmic reticulum but was rapidly overcome by the fungus.
Flocking of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by LQR control

In this paper, we address the control problem of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flocking by using a behavior-based strategy. We conceive a behavior intending to address the control design towards a successful achievement of the flocking task without fragmentation. Moreover, through its implemention in UAVs, no rendezvous point is needed to perform flocking. We design a control law, which is independent of the number of UAVs in the flock. We use the LQR control method to develop our strategy. Our proposed strategy deals with the flocking problem from a measurement-mapping perspective. Simulation results show two scenarios of aggregation and navigation of multiple UAVs.
Bifix codes, Combinatorics on Words and Symbolic Dynamical Systems. (Codes bifixes, combinatoire des mots et systèmes dynamiques symboliques)

Sets of words of linear complexity play an important role in combinatorics on words and symbolic dynamics.This family of sets includes set of factors of Sturmian and Arnoux-Rauzy words, interval exchange sets and primitive morphic sets, that is, sets of factors of fixed points of primitive morphisms.The leading issue of this thesis is the study of minimal dynamical systems, also defined equivalently as uniformly recurrent sets of words.As a main result, we consider a natural hierarchy of minimal systems containing neutral sets, tree sets and specular sets.Moreover, we connect the minimal systems to the free group using the notions of return words and basis of subroups of finite index.Symbolic dynamical systems arising from interval exchanges and linear involutions provide us geometrical examples of this kind of sets.One of the main tool used here is the study of possible extensions of a word in a set, that allows us to determine properties such as the factor complexity.In this manuscript we define the extension graph, an undirected graph associated to each word $w$ in a set $S$ which describes the possible extensions of $w$ in $S$ on the left and the right.In this thesis we present several classes of sets of words defined by the possible shapes that the graphs of elements in the set can have.One of the weakest condition that we will study is the neutrality condition: a word $w$ is neutral if the number of pairs $(a, b)$ of letters such that $awb in S$ is equal to the number of letters $a$ such that $aw in S$ plus the number of letters $b$ such that $wb in S$ minus 1.A set such that every nonempty word satisfies the neutrality condition is called a neutral set.A stronger condition is the tree condition: a word $w$ satisfies this condition if its extension graph is both acyclic and connected.A set is called a tree set if any nonempty word satisfies this condition.The family of recurrent tree sets appears as a the natural closure of two known families, namely the Arnoux-Rauzy sets and the interval exchange sets.We also introduce specular sets, a remarkable subfamily of the tree sets.These are subsets of groups which form a natural generalization of free groups.These sets of words are an abstract generalization of the natural codings of interval exchanges and of linear involutions.For each class of sets considered in this thesis, we prove several results concerning closure properties (under maximal bifix decoding or under taking derived words), cardinality of the bifix codes and set of return words in these sets, connection between return words and basis of the free groups, as well as between bifix codes and subgroup of the free group.Each of these results is proved under the weakest possible assumptions
Multi-Agent Based Control Framework for Microgrids

This paper presents a control scheme implemented with multi-agent system for the operation of a microgrid, which can be connected to the main power network or operate autonomously, similar to physical island of power systems. The features of agent for microgrid control are discussed. An agent- based control framework for microgrids is then presented.
Viscum album agglutinin‐I induces apoptosis and degradation of cytoskeletal proteins via caspases in human leukaemia eosinophil AML14.3D10 cells: differences with purified human eosinophils

Although there are several agents that induce neutrophil apoptosis, few are known as inducers of eosinophil apoptosis. As eosinophils are potent effector cells contributing to allergic inflammation and asthma, we investigated whether the pro‐apoptotic agent Viscum album agglutinin‐I (VAA‐I) could induce eosinophil apoptosis. VAA‐I was found to induce apoptosis in eosinophilic AML14.3D10 (3D10) cells and that these cells expressed caspases‐1, ‐2, ‐3, ‐4, ‐7, ‐8, ‐9 and ‐10. VAA‐I‐induced gelsolin degradation was reversed by the pan‐caspase inhibitor N‐benzyloxycarbonyl‐V‐A‐D‐O‐methylfluoromethyl ketone (z‐VAD). Also, paxillin, vimentin and lamin B1 were cleaved by caspases in VAA‐I‐induced 3D10 cells. VAA‐I activated caspase‐3 and ‐8 in 3D10 cells but, unlike z‐VAD, treatment with a caspase‐8 inhibitor slightly reversed apoptosis. Treatment of purified human eosinophils with VAA‐I was found to induce apoptosis, degradation of gelsolin and lamin B1, but unlike 3D10 cells, cleavage of lamin B1 and cell apoptosis was not reversed by z‐VAD. We conclude that VAA‐I is a potent inducer of eosinophil apoptosis and that proteases other than those inhibited by z‐VAD in 3D10 cells are involved in VAA‐I‐induced peripheral blood eosinophil apoptosis and lamin B1 cleavage. Thus, VAA‐I represents a potential candidate for the reduction of the number of eosinophils in diseases where they play important roles.
An Overview of the Vaccinia Virus Infectome: a Survey of the Proteins of the Poxvirus-Infected Cell

ABSTRACT We have quantitatively profiled the proteins of vaccinia virus-infected HEK293T cells early and late during vaccinia virus infection. Proteins corresponding to 4,326 accessions were identified, the products of 3,798 genes. One hundred thirty-six of the proteins were vaccinia virus-encoded (∼64% of the known vaccinia virus proteome). The remaining accessions were from the host cell. A total of 3,403 of the 4,326 accessions could be confidently quantitated at the precursor peptide level. Although vaccinia virus gene products spanned the entire abundance dynamic range of the cellular proteome, nearly all of the proteome dynamics observed as a result of infection were manifest in the virus gene products with very little plasticity in the host cell proteome. The vaccinia virus gene products could be grouped into four kinetic classes (i.e., four combinations of pre- and postreplicative expression). These protein kinetic classes reflected, almost entirely, the corresponding gene classes within the recently characterized vaccinia virus transcriptome map. The few cellular gene products that showed notable changes in abundance upon vaccinia virus infection were concentrated largely in just a few functional groups. After all of the quantitated cellular gene products were assigned to Gene Ontology (GO)-specific groups, quantitation values for a number of these GO-specific groups were significantly skewed toward over- or underabundance with respect to the global distribution of quantitation values. Quantitative analysis of host cell functions reflected several known facets of virus infection, along with some novel observations.
Reaction time and attention in schizophrenia: a critical evaluation of the data and theories.

The literature on schizophrenia is a voluminous one, the size of which is in part determined by the multiplicity of the contradictions. There is a marvelous value in this since one can, on an ad hoc basis, claim that virtually anything has been demonstrated and be correct. Despite the usefulness of this contradictory literature, as a practical ego support it presents real problems. One research strategy in coping with this state of affairs is to seek out those findings which have been consistently replicated. The reaction time (RT) studies are the closest thing to a north star in schizophrenia research. [Cancroetal. 1971, p.352]