Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of NanR Regulation of Sialidase Production, Sporulation and Enterotoxin Production by Clostridium perfringens Type F Strains Carrying a Chromosomal Enterotoxin Gene

Clostridium perfringens type F food poisoning (FP) strains produce C. perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) to cause a common bacterial food-borne illness in the United States. During FP, CPE is synthesized in the intestines when C. perfringens sporulates. Besides CPE, FP strains also produce sialidases. Most FP strains carry their cpe gene on the chromosome and all surveyed chromosomal cpe (c-cpe) FP strains produce NanH sialidase or both NanJ and NanH sialidases. NanR has been shown previously to regulate sialidase activity in non-FP strains. The current study investigated whether NanR also regulates sialidase activity or influences sporulation and CPE production for c-cpe FP strains SM101 and 01E809. In sporulation medium, the SM101 nanR null mutant showed lower sialidase activity, sporulation, and CPE production than its wild-type parent, while the 01E809 nanR null mutant showed roughly similar sialidase activity, sporulation, and CPE production as its parent. In vegetative medium, the nanR null mutants of both strains produced more spores than their parents while NanR repressed sialidase activity in SM101 but positively regulated sialidase activity in 01E809. These results demonstrate that NanR regulates important virulence functions of c-cpe strains, with this control varying depending on strain and culture conditions.
Modeling of the Achilles Subtendons and Their Interactions in a Framework of the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation

Experimental results have revealed the sophisticated Achilles tendon (AT) structure, including its material properties and complex geometry. The latter incorporates a twisted design and composite construction consisting of three subtendons. Each of them has a nonstandard cross-section. All these factors make the AT deformation analysis computationally demanding. Generally, 3D finite solid elements are used to develop models for AT because they can discretize almost any shape, providing reliable results. However, they also require dense discretization in all three dimensions, leading to a high computational cost. One way to reduce degrees of freedom is the utilization of finite beam elements, requiring only line discretization over the length of subtendons. However, using the material models known from continuum mechanics is challenging because these elements do not usually have 3D elasticity in their descriptions. Furthermore, the contact is defined at the beam axis instead of using a more general surface-to-surface formulation. This work studies the continuum beam elements based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) for AT modeling. ANCF beam elements require discretization only in one direction, making the model less computationally expensive. Recent work demonstrates that these elements can describe various cross-sections and materials models, thus allowing the approximation of AT complexity. In this study, the tendon model is reproduced by the ANCF continuum beam elements using the isotropic incompressible model to present material features.
SIMULATION OF TIME-DEPENDENT FLOW IN CAVITIES WITH THE ADDITIVE-CORRECTION MULTIGRID METHOD, PART II: APPLICATIONS

An additive-correction multigrid method for the prediction of two-dimensional unsteady flows, described in a previous article, is applied to selected cavity flow problems. The cases considered are the lid-driven cavity problem and the buoyant flow in differentially heated cavities. Accurate results are obtained for the lid-driven cavity, where fine-grid, high-Reynolds-number calculations, indicate that the steady flow bifurcates to a periodic regime for a Reynolds value in the range 7,500--10,000. The results for side-heated rectangular enclosures are presented first for a Prandtl number equal to zero, and corresponding values of Grashof number of 1.2 {times} 10{sup 5} and 1.6 {times} 10{sup 5}. In addition, a Prandtl number of 0.71 is considered, with values of the Rayleigh number of 1 {times} 10{sup 8}, 2 {times} 10{sup 8}, and 2 {times} 10{sup 9}. The study demonstrates that the additive-correction multigrid method is computationally efficient, and is capable of performing accurate simulations of time-dependent, and possibly chaotic, flows in enclosures.
Effects of Inspiratory Muscle Training on Muscle Oxygenation during Vascular Occlusion Testing in Trained Healthy Adult Males

Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) may have an additional effect on cardiovascular autonomic modulation, which could improve the metabolism and vascular function of the muscles. Aim: To determine the effects of IMT on vascular and metabolic muscle changes and their relationship to changes in physical performance. Methods: Physically active men were randomly placed into an experimental (IMTG; n = 8) or IMT placebo group (IMTPG; n = 6). For IMT, resistance load was set at 50% and 15% of the maximum dynamic inspiratory strength (S-Index), respectively. Only the IMTG’s weekly load was increased by 5%. In addition, both groups carried out the same concurrent training. Besides the S-Index, a 1.5-mile running test, spirometry, and deoxyhemoglobin (HHbAUC during occlusion) and reperfusion tissue saturation index (TSIMB and TSIMP: time from minimum to baseline and to peak, respectively) in a vascular occlusion test were measured before and after the 4-week training program. In addition, resting heart rate and blood pressure were registered. Results: IMTG improved compared to IMTPG in the S-Index (Δ = 28.23 ± 26.6 cmH2O), maximal inspiratory flow (MIF: Δ = 0.91 ± 0.6 L/s), maximum oxygen uptake (Δ = 4.48 ± 1.1 mL/kg/min), 1.5-mile run time (Δ = −0.81 ± 0.2 s), TSIMB (Δ = −3.38 ± 3.1 s) and TSIMP (Δ = −5.88 ± 3.7 s) with p < 0.05. ΔVO2max correlated with S-Index (r = 0.619) and MIF (r = 0.583) with p < 0.05. Both ΔTSIMB and TSIMP correlated with ΔHHbAUC (r = 0.516 and 0.596, respectively) and with Δ1.5-mile run time (r = 0.669 and 0.686, respectively) with p < 0.05. Conclusion: IMT improves vascular function, which is related to additional improvements in physical performance.
Pediatric emergency revisits of children with COVID-19

ABSTRACT Objective This study was conducted to reveal the characteristics of pediatric emergency revisits of children with COVID-19 and the factors associated with clinical worsening and hospitalization at the revisit. Materials and Methods In pediatric emergency visits of children between July 2020 and March 2021 with COVID-19, the patients who had a revisit within 7 days were included in the study. Demographic and clinical characteristics, test results, and the relationship of these variables with clinical worsening and hospitalization at the revisit were investigated. Results In 6779 children with COVID-19, 284 (4.1%) patients included in the study. 51.8% of the patients were male, the median age was 11.1 years, and median time to revisit time was 2.0 days. The rates of clinical worsening and hospitalization were 9.1% and 14.7%, respectively. Children younger than 24 months and those with chronic diseases were more commonly hospitalized at the revisit. Though the frequency of laboratory and radiologic testing at the revisit was significantly increased compared to the first presentation, tests did not play an important role in the decision-making processes. More than 85% of patients were clinically mild at the first presentation and revisit. Conclusions Children with a diagnosis of COVID-19 can revisit the emergency without evident clinical worsening. Since revisits cause increase in frequency of laboratory and radiological testing, preventing unnecessary revisits of children with COVID-19 can reduce the workload and cost of health care services. We may consider changing our perspective on revisit patients to make decisions based on clinical findings instead of obtaining for more laboratory tests.
Atomic resonance absorption spectroscopy measurements on high-temperature CO dissociation kinetics

The dissociation rate coefficient of CO was measured behind reflected shock waves in the temperature range 5500 < J<9000 K. By the use of the atomic resonance absorption spectroscopy (ARAS), the time-dependent formation of C and O atoms could be directly observed in the postshock reaction zone. The experiments were performed in mixtures of CO highly diluted in argon at pressures between 0.5 and 1.3 bar. The initial CO concentrations varied from 100 to 10,000 ppm. Assuming vibrational equilibrium, the data for the thermal decomposition of CO, (CO + Ar ^ C + O + Ar), can be represented by the following modified Arrhenius expression: k\ = 4.3 X1027 J-3-1 exp(-129,000 K/J) cn^mol-^-1 ±50%. Computer simulations based on a two-temperature model were not able to explain observed reaction induction times. Vibrational relaxation alone seems to have a negligible influence under the present conditions. The effect of impurities was minimized by keeping background pressure in the shock tube below 5xlO~ 7 mbar.
TIME-VARYING COINTEGRATION

In this paper we propose a time-varying vector error correction model in which the cointegrating relationship varies smoothly over time. The Johansen setup is a special case of our model. A likelihood ratio test for time-invariant cointegration is defined and its asymptotic chi-square distribution is derived. We apply our test to the purchasing power parity hypothesis of international prices and nominal exchange rates, and we find evidence of time-varying cointegration.
Spike-Based Motion Estimation for Object Tracking Through Bio-Inspired Unsupervised Learning

Neuromorphic vision sensors, whose pixels output events/spikes asynchronously with a high temporal resolution according to the scene radiance change, are naturally appropriate for capturing high-speed motion in the scenes. However, how to utilize the events/spikes to smoothly track high-speed moving objects is still a challenging problem. Existing approaches either employ time-consuming iterative optimization, or require large amounts of labeled data to train the object detector. To this end, we propose a bio-inspired unsupervised learning framework, which takes advantage of the spatiotemporal information of events/spikes generated by neuromorphic vision sensors to capture the intrinsic motion patterns. Without off-line training, our models can filter the redundant signals with dynamic adaption module based on short-term plasticity, and extract the motion patterns with motion estimation module based on the spike-timing-dependent plasticity. Combined with the spatiotemporal and motion information of the filtered spike stream, the traditional DBSCAN clustering algorithm and Kalman filter can effectively track multiple targets in extreme scenes. We evaluate the proposed unsupervised framework for object detection and tracking tasks on synthetic data, publicly available event-based datasets, and spiking camera datasets. The experiment results show that the proposed model can robustly detect and smoothly track the moving targets on various challenging scenarios and outperforms state-of-the-art approaches.
Branching Processes as Models of Progenitor Cell Populations and Estimation of the Offspring Distributions

We consider two new models of reducible age-dependent branching processes with emigration in conjunction with estimation problems arising in cell biology. Methods of statistical inference are developed using the relevant embedded discrete branching structure. Based on observations of the branching process with emigration, estimators of the offspring probabilities are proposed for the hidden unobservable process without emigration, which is of prime interest to investigators. The problem under consideration is motivated by experimental data generated by time-lapse video recording of cultured cells, which provides abundant information on their individual evolutions and thus on the basic parameters of their life cycle in tissue culture. Some parameters, such as the mean and variance of the mitotic cycle time, can be estimated nonparametrically without resorting to any mathematical model of cell population kinetics. For other parameters, such as the offspring distribution, a model-based inference is needed. Age-dependent branching processes have proven to be useful models for that purpose. A special feature of the data generated by time-lapse experiments is the presence of censoring effects due to the migration of cells out of the field of observation. For the time-to-event observations, such as the mitotic cycle time, the effects of data censoring can be accounted for by standard methods of survival analysis. No methods are available to accommodate such effects in the statistical inference on the offspring distribution. Within the framework of branching processes, the loss of cells to follow-up can be modeled as a process of emigration. Incorporating the emigration process into a pertinent branching model of cell evolution provides the basis for the proposed estimation techniques. Statistical inference on the offspring distribution is illustrated with an application to the development of oligodendrocytes in cell culture.
Do CEOs’ demographic characteristics affect firms’ risk-taking? Evidence from Jordan

Abstract The upper echelons theory suggests that directors’ characteristics, values, and professional experience have an impact on their perceptions, and thus their own decisions. Building on this theory, this study aims to examine the impact of CEOs’ demographic characteristics on firms’ risk-taking. The analysis is based on a sample of 82 manufacturing and service companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange for the period 2015–2019. The CEO characteristics examined include gender, age, qualification, experience, ownership, duality, and tenure. Though, we use the standard deviation of the firm’s return on assets ratio as a measure for risk-taking. The results indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between CEO qualification, experience, ownership, and Jordanian firms’ risk-taking. While there is a significant positive relationship between CEO tenure and Jordanian firms’ risk-taking. Importantly, CEO gender, age, and duality are unrelated to firms’ risk-taking in Jordan. This study contributes significantly to the existing, but limited, literature that examines the relationship between the CEOs’ demographic characteristics and firms’ risk-taking. It is worth noting that, this The study is the first in Jordan to investigate the impact of the CEOs’ demographic characteristics on firms’ risk-taking and document the above-mentioned relationships. The findings of the study could bring the attention of the standard setters and regulators to the importance of CEOs’ attributes on controlling the mechanisms of the firms’ risk-taking, and thus enable Jordanian companies to take the right decisions in relation to CEO appointments, as such decisions would certainly affect the company’s performance and sustainability in the long-run.
Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Waxy Proso Millet's Starch

The granule shape, amylose, pasting, retrogradation, transparency, and thermal properties of the four varieties of waxy proso millet's starches were investigated. The starches had a substantial proportion of smooth-edged, big polygonal grains, a sparse proportion of spherical shape granules, and a combined grain size of 6.04 µm. Waxy proso millet variants' starches exhibit lower amylose level (0.24%) and greater phosphorus contents (2.32 mg/100 g) than non-waxy varieties' starches, as well as greater transparency (30.23%) and lesser volume proportions of retrogradation (4.99%); greater peak viscosities (3282 cP), thickening viscosities (2403 cP) and breakdowns (882 cP), and lesser setbacks (268 cP); and lesser onset temperatures (To) (69.65°C), peak temperatures (Tp) (74.9°C), final temperatures (Tc) (80.98°C) and enthalpies (Delta H) (11.19 J/g) in their starch gelatinization.
Non-autonomous Ginzburg-Landau equation and its attractors

The behaviour as t → +∞ of solutions {u(x, t) ,t 0} of the non- autonomous Ginzburg-Landau (G.-L.) equation is studied. The main attention is focused on the case when the dispersion coefficient β(t) in this equation satisfies the inequality |β(t)| > √ 3f ort ∈ L ,w hereL is an unbounded subset of R+ . I n this case the uniqueness theorem for the G. -L. equation is not proved. The trajectory attractor A for this equation is constructed. If the coefficients and the exciting force are almost periodic (a.p.) in time and the uniqueness condition fails, then the trajectory attractor A is proved to consist precisely of the solutions {u(x, t) ,t 0} of the G. -L. equation that admit a bounded extension as solutions of this equation onto the entire time axis R. The behaviour as t → +∞ of solutions of a perturbed G. -L. equation with coefficients and the exciting force that are sums of a.p. functions and functions approaching zero in the weak sense as t → +∞ is also studied. Bibliography: 16 titles.
Analysis of the Mediation Effect of Innovation Culture on the Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the Sustainable Competitive Advantage of SMEs in Indonesia

One of the opportunities for an entrepreneur is to assess the market and expand the business to the global market. Often, the domestic market experiences a downturn which has a negative impact on business operations and sales. When the business goes global, this minimizes the risk of a market downturn due to other options. There is always an opportunity to take advantage of the global position to protect the business and gain new market share. One alternative to protect and improve business performance is to increase sustainable competitive advantage. However, to achieve optimal sustainable competitive advantage, the role of entrepreneurial orientation and culture is needed to innovate sustainably. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and innovation culture on the sustainable competitive advantage of SMEs. This study uses a causal quantitative research design. The number of samples used in this study was 170 SME business actors. The data analysis method used is Partial Least Square (PLS). The data analysis test tool uses the statistical software Smartpls 3.0. The results of this study conclude that entrepreneurial orientation and innovation culture have a positive and significant effect on sustainable competitive advantage. The results also confirm that the innovation culture can mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and sustainable competitive advantage.
ION ENERGIES PRODUCED BY LASER GIANT PULSE

Ion energies of approximates 1000 ev were produced by the action of a single giant pulse from a ruby laser. The delivered energy was about 0.2 joules in a pulse having full width at half maximum of about 40 nsec. The peak power was 5.4 Mw. The area of the focal spot was approximately 10/sup -3/ cm/sup 2/. Energies were determined by the ion time-of-flight method. Foils of C, Al, Au, and Ti were target materials. (C.E.S.)
Particle-associated bacteria in seawater dominate the colony-forming microbiome on ZoBell marine agar

Abstract Planktonic particle-associated bacteria comprise particle-attached and motile free-living cells. These groups were obtained by settlement in Imhoff cones. Dilution plating on marine agar 2216 (ZoBell marine agar) and microscopic counts indicated a cultivability of 0.7% (0.4%–1.2%) of bacteria in coastal seawater collected at Helgoland Roads, North Sea. Particle-associated bacteria presented a minority population in seawater, but had a larger cultivability of 25% (0.9%–100%) for populations collected by settlement of particles and 5.7% (0.9%–24%) for populations collected by filtration. Partial 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that 84% of the cultured taxa were either enriched in particle-associated microbiomes or only found in these microbiomes, including Sulfitobacter and other Rhodobacteraceae, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychromonas, Arcobacter and many Flavobacteriaceae. Illumina-based 16S rRNA V3V4 amplicon sequences of plate communities revealed that nearly all operational taxonomic units had a cultivated and described strain in close phylogenetic proximity. This suggested that decades of strain isolation from seawater on ZoBell marine agar had achieved a very good coverage of cultivable genera abundant in nature. The majority belonged to particle-associated bacteria, complementing observations that abundant free-living seawater bacteria often require cultivation conditions closer to their natural habitat like liquid cultivation in oligotrophic medium.
Effect of organic and inorganic nutrient sources on productivity, profitability and soil fertility in onion (Allium cepa) under Entisol

Field experiment was conducted for two consecutive winter (rabi) seasons of 2014â€“15 and 2015â€“16 at Panwari village, Agra,Uttar Pradesh to find out the best combination of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers for increasing productivity, profitability and soil fertility in onion (Allium cepa L.) under Entisol. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with eight treatments and three replications. The results revealed that the fresh weight of onion bulb, and bulb yields increased on application of 100% NPK. The yields of onion bulbs were significantly lower with the suboptimal dose of NPK fertilizers (75% RDF). An additional bulb yield of 7.25 t/ha was realized with 75% NPK+15 t/ha FYM over 75% NPK alone. Application of 75% RDF+6 t/ha vermicompost increased bulb yield by 29.4% over 75% RDF alone. Application of 75% RDF+15 t/ha FYM+20 kg/ha S and 75% NPK+6 t/ha vermicompost+20 kg/ha S increased the bulb yield by 38.5 and 43.8% over 75% RDF, respectively, indicating the superiority of vermicompost over FYM. The maximum content of protein (7%) was recorded with 75% NPK+15 t/ha FYM+20 kg/ha S, but maximum value of protein yield (481 kg/ha) was recorded with 75% NPK+6 t/ha vermicompost+20 kg/ ha S. Application of 75% NPK+20 kg/ha S also improved the yield (29.92 t/ha), quality, and uptake of nutrients by onion bulbs but proved inferior compared to vermicompost and FYM. The uptake of NPK and S was highest with 75% NPK+6 t/ha vermicompost+20 kg/ha S and lowest in control. Net returns (` 1,44,375/ha) and B:C ratio (3.20) were also highest with 75% NPK+6 t/ha vermicompost+20 kg/ha S. Use of organic manures decreased soil pH and their combined use with fertilizers built up organic carbon and available NPK and S in post-harvest soil.
Tensile failure of liquids under dynamic stressing

This paper contains an account of various experiments associated with the propagation of a pressure pulse up a vertical column of liquid. When such a pulse reaches the upper free surface of the liquid it is reflected downwards as a pulse of tension. This method therefore provides a means of subjecting the liquid to tension under dynamic conditions of stressing. If the value of the tension at any depth exceeds a certain critical value the liquid will cavitate. Values of this critical tension T were measured for liquids of varying viscosities η and it was found that the empirical relation T=kη0. 1 holds. Secondly, pulse propagation across the interface between two immiscible liquids was studied, and it was found that the maximum tension which could be sustained by an interface separating silicone oil and water is less than the tension which produces cavitation in either of these two liquids. Thirdly, it has been found that the cavitation produced shows several cycles of growth and collapse, a phenomenon which has been observed photographically by previous workers.