Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acquired Gentamicin Resistance by Permeability Impairment in Enterococcus faecalis

ABSTRACT Enterococci are intrinsically resistant to low levels of aminoglycosides. We previously selected in vitro and in vivo Enterococcus faecalis with intermediate-level resistance to gentamicin that did not abolish synergism with a cell-wall-active agent (E. Aslangul et al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 49:4144-4148, 2005). The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of resistance to gentamicin in the 1688-G3 third-step mutant (MIC, 512 μg/ml) of E. faecalis JH2-2. No mutations were found in the genes for L6 ribosomal protein and the four copies of 16S rRNA. Production of a known aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme was unlikely due to the distinct resistance phenotype and absence of the corresponding genes. Efflux was also unlikely since ethidium bromide MICs were similar for JH2-2 and 1688-G3 and since the pump inhibitors reserpine and verapamil had no effect on gentamicin resistance in both strains. To study gentamicin accumulation, we developed a nonisotopic method based on a fluorescent polarization immunoassay. Impaired gentamicin accumulation was observed in 1688-G3 compared to JH2-2 and was only partially reversible by the N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD) uncoupler agent. The lower sensitivity of 1688-G3 to DCCD suggested alteration of the FoF1-ATPase. However, no mutations were detected in the structural genes (atp) for the Fo channel and no difference in transcript levels of atpB and atpE was found between 1688-G3 and JH2-2. Our data are compatible with acquisition of intermediate-level gentamicin resistance by uptake impairment in E. faecalis.
Explicit constructions of MDS array codes and RS codes with optimal repair bandwidth

Given any r and n, we present an explicit construction of high-rate maximum distance separable (MDS) array codes that can optimally repair any d failed nodes from any h helper nodes for all h, 1 ≤ h ≤ r and d, k ≤ d ≤ n - h simultaneously. These codes can be constructed over any base field F as long as |F| ≥ sn; where s = lcm(1, 2,., r). The encoding, decoding, repair of failed nodes, and update procedures of these codes all have low complexity. Our results present a significant improvement over earlier results which can only construct explicit codes for the case of at most 3 parity nodes, and these existing constructions can only optimally repair a single node failure by accessing all the surviving nodes. In the second part of the paper we give an explicit construction of Reed-Solomon codes with asymptotically optimal repair bandwidth.
Unsupervised Cluster Matching via Probabilistic Latent Variable Models

We propose a probabilistic latent variable model for unsupervised cluster matching, which is the task of finding correspondences between clusters of objects in different domains. Existing object matching methods find one-to-one matching. The proposed model finds many-to-many matching, and can handle multiple domains with different numbers of objects. The proposed model assumes that there are an infinite number of latent vectors that are shared by all domains, and that each object is generated using one of the latent vectors and a domain-specific linear projection. By inferring a latent vector to be used for generating each object, objects in different domains are clustered in shared groups, and thus we can find matching between clusters in an unsupervised manner. We present efficient inference procedures for the proposed model based on a stochastic EM algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated with experiments using synthetic and real data sets.
Granger causality analysis reveals distinct spatio-temporal connectivity patterns in motor and perceptual visuo-spatial working memory

We employed spectral Granger causality analysis on a full set of 56 electroencephalographic recordings acquired during the execution of either a 2D movement pointing or a perceptual (yes/no) change detection task with memory and non-memory conditions. On the basis of network characteristics across frequency bands, we provide evidence for the full dissociation of the corresponding cognitive processes. Movement-memory trial types exhibited higher degree nodes during the first 2 s of the delay period, mainly at central, left frontal and right-parietal areas. Change detection-memory trial types resulted in a three-peak temporal pattern of the total degree with higher degree nodes emerging mainly at central, right frontal, and occipital areas. Functional connectivity networks resulting from non-memory trial types were characterized by more sparse structures for both tasks. The movement-memory trial types encompassed an apparent coarse flow from frontal to parietal areas while the opposite flow from occipital, parietal to central and frontal areas was evident for the change detection-memory trial types. The differences among tasks and conditions were more profound in α (8–12 Hz) and β (12–30 Hz) and less in γ (30–45 Hz) band. Our results favor the hypothesis which considers spatial working memory as a by-product of specific mental processes that engages common brain areas under different network organizations.
Divisibility and Compactness Analysis of Physiological Signals for Sentiment Classification in Body Sensor Network

Affective computing draws more and more attention to the human-computer interaction. Based on physiological signals acquired by body sensor network, within the affection recognition process, the problem that training samples have larger class distance and smaller intraclass distance must be considered. For the class divisibility and intraclass compactness problem, researching method of samples validity was proposed based on metric multidimensional scaling. With dissimilarity matrix, scalar product matrix was calculated. Subsequently, individual attribute reconstructing matrix could be got using principal components factor analysis to display samples difference in low dimension. By means of experiment results, training and testing samples for sentiment classifier will be selected instructionally.
Study of candidate genes affecting the progression of renal disease in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease type 1.

BACKGROUND Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a systemic disorder with a wide spectrum of renal involvement. Differences in the age at onset of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are partially explained by the genetic heterogeneity of the disease but intrafamilial variability remains to be explained. Modifier genes may play a role in disease severity. METHODS A total of 355 PKD1 patients from 131 families belonging to three different European centres were analysed. According to the age at onset of ESRD patients were classified into two groups: early and late onset. Two different cut-offs were used. Based on literature, early onset was firstly considered when ESRD was reached before 40 years of age and late onset after 60 years of age. Secondly, according to the bimodal distribution of age at onset of ESRD in our population we established two groups with similar variability and the cut-offs were assigned before 48 years of age and after 56 years of age. These groups of patients were then analysed by two different complementary perspectives: (i) using ESRD onset as a quantitative trait when performing survival analysis and Cox regression analysis, and (ii) considering it a qualitative trait. The candidate genes (and polymorphisms) studied were the following: NOS3 (T-786C and E298D), BDKRB1 (-699 G > C), BDKRB2 (R14C), TGFB1 (-509 C > T, R25P and L10P), ACE (I/D), EGFR (IVS1CA) and PKD2 (-9780 G > A, -718 A > G and 83 C > G). RESULTS The results disclosed that the ACE polymorphism had a slight influence on the age of onset of ESRD in ADPKD patients and the NOS3 and BDKBR1 polymorphisms showed a very slight involvement in renal outcome. CONCLUSIONS Our results discard the most prominent functional genes suggested to date, to have a major effect on ADPKD progression in this cohort. Genes strongly implicated in disease severity are yet to be identified. The description of such genes would allow us to establish a prognosis for ADPKD and eventually to develop therapeutic interventions.
Applying an Intercultural Approach to Chinese College Language Teaching

This thesis seeks to investigate how the integration of intercultural dimensions in an English as Foreign Language (EFL) syllabus can provide Chinese university students with opportunities to develop their intercultural communicative competence (ICC). It presents both theoretical and practical implications for constructing an ICC framework and intercultural methodology suitable for the EFL context in China. An action research study was planned and carried out over a six-week Intercultural English Course (IEC) among multi-majored undergraduate students in China through an action research study. The qualitative data gathered provides evidence of the development of learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and highlights learning and teaching practices that were effective in enhancing students’ learning. The findings indicate that the teaching content and instructional methods contributed significantly to improvement in a number of key areas: cultural knowledge, strengthened positive attitudes toward other cultures, and enhanced intercultural communicative skills. The theoretical conception of ICC represents a comprehensive set of criteria that provide both guidance and challenge. Application of such frameworks, past and future, ensures rigour in the design of intercultural language learning curricula and their associated learning objectives. This study argues that adoption of an ICC methodology together with use of relevant, contextualised content, will more effectively meet the needs of Chinese EFL learners. The intercultural approach arouses great curiosity amongst teachers and offers new perspectives for language learners. This study recommends the further development and implementation of contextualised ICC models that integrate culturally appropriate teaching materials and embrace creative student-centred learning strategies.
USING OPTIMIZED FEATURE SELECTION FOR CLASSIFICATION OF BRAIN MRI

Humans have an extremely complex brain anatomy because of its complicated structure as well as functions. The brain is an integral part of the Central Nervous System (CNS) and is the center that controls the mental processes as well as physical actions of the human body. Brain abnormalities are symptoms wherein motor impairments or neuropsychological issues impact the CNS [1]. It is typically an anomalous growth of cells in the brain that may or may not be carcinogenic in nature. Several studies into the detection of brain anomalies have been carried out because of its considerably significant role in the identification of anatomical areas of interest for diagnosing diseases, treating illnesses or even the planning of surgeries.
Inactivation of the Arylhydrocarbon Receptor Nuclear Translocator (Arnt) Suppresses von Hippel-Lindau Disease-Associated Vascular Tumors in Mice

ABSTRACT Patients with germ line mutations in the VHL tumor suppressor gene are predisposed to the development of highly vascularized tumors within multiple tissues. Loss of pVHL results in constitutive activation of the transcription factors HIF-1 and HIF-2, whose relative contributions to the pathogenesis of the VHL phenotype have yet to be defined. In order to examine the role of HIF in von Hippel-Lindau (VHL)-associated vascular tumorigenesis, we utilized Cre-loxP-mediated recombination to inactivate hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (Hif-1α) and arylhydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (Arnt) genes in a VHL mouse model of cavernous liver hemangiomas and polycythemia. Deletion of Hif-1α did not affect the development of vascular tumors and polycythemia, nor did it suppress the increased expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (Vegf) and erythropoietin (Epo). In contrast, phosphoglycerokinase (Pgk) expression was substantially decreased, providing evidence for target gene-dependent functional redundancy between different Hif transcription factors. Inactivation of Arnt completely suppressed the development of hemangiomas, polycythemia, and Hif-induced gene expression. Here, we demonstrate genetically that the development of VHL-associated vascular tumors in the liver depends on functional ARNT. Furthermore, we provide evidence that individual HIF transcription factors may play distinct roles in the development of specific VHL disease manifestations.
Is a Perceived Activity-Friendly Environment Associated with More Physical Activity and Fewer Screen-Based Activities in Adolescents?

Background: The aim of this study is to explore if perception of an activity-friendly environment is associated with more physical activity and fewer screen-based activities among adolescents. Methods: We collected self-reported data in 2014 via the Health Behavior in School-aged Children cross-sectional study from four European countries (n = 13,800, mean age = 14.4, 49.4% boys). We explored the association of perceived environment (e.g., “There are other children nearby home to go out and play with”) with physical activity and screen-based activities using a binary logistic regression model adjusted for age, gender, family affluence and country. Results: An environment perceived as activity-friendly was associated with higher odds that adolescents meet recommendations for physical activity (odds ratio (OR) for one standard deviation (SD) change = 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05–1.18) and lower odds for excessive screen-based activities (OR for 1 SD better = 0.93, 95% CI 0.88–0.98). Conclusions: Investment into an activity-friendly environment may support the promotion of active life styles in adolescence.
Thermal (Kapitza) resistance of interfaces in compositional dependent ZnO-In2O3 superlattices

Compositionally dependent superlattices, In2O3(ZnO)k, form in the ZnO-rich portion of the ZnO-In2O3 phase diagram, decreasing thermal conductivity and altering both the electron conductivity and Seebeck coefficient over a wide range of composition and temperature. With increasing indium concentration, isolated point defects first form in ZnO and then superlattice structures with decreasing interface spacing evolve. By fitting the temperature and indium concentration dependence of the thermal conductivity to the Klemens-Callaway model, incorporating interface scattering and accounting for conductivity anisotropy, the Kapitza resistance due to the superlattice interfaces is found to be 5.0 ± 0.6 × 10−10 m2K/W. This finding suggests that selecting oxides with a compositionally dependent superlattice structure can be a viable approach, unaffected by grain growth, to maintaining low thermal conductivity at high temperatures.
Training a Multilingual Sportscaster: Using Perceptual Context to Learn Language

We present a novel framework for learning to interpret and generate language using only perceptual context as supervision. We demonstrate its capabilities by developing a system that learns to sportscast simulated robot soccer games in both English and Korean without any language-specific prior knowledge. Training employs only ambiguous supervision consisting of a stream of descriptive textual comments and a sequence of events extracted from the simulation trace. The system simultaneously establishes correspondences between individual comments and the events that they describe while building a translation model that supports both parsing and generation. We also present a novel algorithm for learning which events are worth describing. Human evaluations of the generated commentaries indicate they are of reasonable quality and in some cases even on par with those produced by humans for our limited domain.
Using self-report anger assessments in school settings

Students who experience high levels of anger both in and out of school are at risk of exhibiting multiple negative developmental outcomes including poor school performance, peer problems, behavioral difficulties, and concurrent emotional distress. Given this developmental trajectory, it is important for mental health professionals working within school settings to accurately identify those students manifesting anger-related problems at an early age. This chapter provides an overview of instruments designed to assess levels of anger and associated cognitive and behavioral manifestations in children and youth. Among those instruments highlighted is the Multidimensional School Anger Inventory (MSAI)specifically designed to measure anger, hostility, and aggressive behavioral expression in school settings. The role of anger assessment in developing appropriate early intervention and anger management treatment plans is also discussed.
Rn-222 Determination in Drinking Water Samples in a Region with Elevated Natural Radioactivity in Brazil : Comparison Between Liquid Scintillation Counting and Gamma Spectrometry

Radon is a naturally occurring noble gas. It can easily diffuse into the environment. It is found in waters which are in contact with rocks having high uranium concentration (Desideri et al., 2005). Radon gas is considered to be one of the natural radioactive elements with greatest mobility in the terrestrial crust. Conventional chemical analysis of water does not place emphasis on the study of dissolved gases; however, their determination is important, due to their reactivity and their mobility (Alfaro et al., 2002). There are three Radon isotopes, but only 222Rn is generally taken into consideration because it has a sufficiently long half-life (T1/2 = 3.82 days) and can accumulate in the environment. The origin of 222Rn in houses is either from uranium rich soil or through the use of building materials rich in 226Ra such as tailings from uranium mining, or due to well water. Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) areas are located in Brazil in zones of volcanic alkaline intrusion in the interior of Minas Gerais State (Sohrabi, 1998). These areas are characterized by elevated natural radioactivity. In the case of Radon, its presence can provide information concerning the radioactive elements present in a rock, the origin of water and flow Abstract 222Rn concentrations were determined in twenty one drinking water samples from the Poços de Caldas region. Samples were taken from wells that provide potable water and brought immediately to the Radiochemistry Laboratory. Two different systems were employed to determine 222Rn, a Packard TRI-CARB 2700TR Liquid Scintillation Detection System (LSC) and a Canberra Gamma Spectrometer with Germanium Detector Model GX4519 with a relative efficiency of 45 %. A Marinelli Flask was used for the Gamma Spectrometry analysis. 222Rn concentration range varied from 1.5 ± 0.5 BqL-1 to 234 ± 20.00 BqL-1 in the LSC method and from 9 ± 3 BqL-1 to 208 ± 22 BqL-1 in the Gamma Spectrometry method. Considering that the maximum concentration found was lower than 250 BqL-1, a maximum personal dose of 0.75 mSv.year-1 can be calculated based on epidemiological studies showing that a daily ingestion of one liter of water containing 100 BqL-1 should give a dose of only 0.3 mSv.year-1. This study concluded that the concentration values obtained for drinking water samples collected in the Poços de Caldas region are not dangerous for the local population. The risk associated with ingesting water containing a low radon concentration is negligible as reported in other studies.
Multiplication in Cyclotomic Rings and its Application to Finite Fields

A representation of finite fields that has proved useful when implementing finite field arithmetic in hardware is based on an isomorphism between subrings and fields. In this paper, we present an unified formulation for multiplication in cyclotomic rings and cyclotomic fields in that most arithmetic operations are done on vectors. From this formulation we can generate optimized algorithms for multiplication. For example, one of the proposed algorithms requires approximately half the number of coordinate-level multiplications at the expense of extra coordinate-level additions. Our method is then applied to the finite fields GF(q^m) to further reduce the number of operations. We then present optimized algorithms for multiplication in finite fields with type-I and type-II optimal normal bases.
Die Resilienzskala (RS): Ein statistischer Vergleich der Kurz- und Langform anhand einer onkologischen Patientenstichprobe

The use of short and reliable questionnaires in psychological and medical studies is increasingly demanded due to economic, but also ethical reasons. The expectation of low dropout rates within longitudinal studies is an important issue with respect to the validity and quality of clinical studies. In this article, differences of the Resilience Scale (RS) in a short (11 items) and a long version (25 items) are described related to 212 patients treated in a radiooncological unit before receiving radiotherapy. It can be demonstrated that the long and the short version of the Resilience Scale did not appear to differ clinically relevant (differences of means = - 0.080, median = - 0.042, effect size = 0.11). Effect sizes and correlations of the resilience of the patients and other illness- and treatment-related variables such as the need for psychosocial support and fatigue did not change depending on the use of the short or long version of the questionnaire. Therefore, it can be concluded that the short version of the Resilience Scale turns out to be a useful and valid instrument that can be recommended for its use in psychological and medical research.
Who has undiagnosed dementia? A cross-sectional analysis of participants of the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study.

BACKGROUND delays in diagnosing dementia may lead to suboptimal care, yet around half of those with dementia are undiagnosed. Any strategy for case finding should be informed by understanding the characteristics of the undiagnosed population. We used cross-sectional data from a population-based sample with dementia aged 71 years and older in the United States to describe the undiagnosed population and identify factors associated with non-diagnosis. METHODS the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study (ADAMS) Wave A participants (N = 856) each underwent a detailed neuropsychiatric investigation. Informants were asked whether the participant had ever received a doctor's diagnosis of dementia. We used multiple logistic regression to identify factors associated with informant report of a prior dementia diagnosis among those with a study diagnosis of dementia. RESULTS of those with a study diagnosis of dementia (n = 307), a prior diagnosis of dementia was reported by 121 informants (weighted proportion = 42%). Prior diagnosis was associated with greater clinical dementia rating (CDR), from 26% (CDR = 1) to 83% (CDR = 5). In multivariate analysis, those aged 90 years or older were less likely to be diagnosed (P = 0.008), but prior diagnosis was more common among married women (P = 0.038) and those who had spent more than 9 years in full-time education (P = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS people with dementia who are undiagnosed are older, have fewer years in education, are more likely to be unmarried, male and have less severe dementia than those with a diagnosis. Policymakers and clinicians should be mindful of the variation in diagnosis rates among subgroups of the population with dementia.