Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and Evolution of Drug Efflux Pump in Clinical Enterobacter aerogenes Strains Isolated in 1995 and 2003

Background The high mortality impact of infectious diseases will increase due to accelerated evolution of antibiotic resistance in important human pathogens. Development of antibiotic resistance is a evolutionary process inducing the erosion of the effectiveness of our arsenal of antibiotics. Resistance is not necessarily limited to a single class of antibacterial agents but may affect many unrelated compounds; this is termed ‘multidrug resistance’ (MDR). The major mechanism of MDR is the active expulsion of drugs by bacterial pumps; the treatment of Gram negative bacterial infections is compromised due to resistance mechanisms including the expression of efflux pumps that actively expel various usual antibiotics (ß-lactams, quinolones, …). Methodology/Principal Findings Enterobacter aerogenes has emerged among Enterobacteriaceae associated hospital infections during the last twenty years due to its faculty of adaptation to antibiotic stresses. Clinical isolates of E. aerogenes belonging to two strain collections isolated in 1995 and 2003 respectively, were screened to assess the involvement of efflux pumps in antibiotic resistance. Drug susceptibility assays were performed on all bacterial isolates and an efflux pump inhibitor (PAßN) previously characterized allowed to decipher the role of efflux in the resistance. Accumulation of labelled chloramphenicol was monitored in the presence of an energy poison to determine the involvement of active efflux on the antibiotic intracellular concentrations. The presence of the PAßN-susceptible efflux system was also identified in resistant E. aerogenes strains. Conclusions/Significance For the first time a noticeable increase in clinical isolates containing an efflux mechanism susceptible to pump inhibitor is report within an 8 year period. After the emergence of extended spectrum ß-lactamases in E. aerogenes and the recent characterisation of porin mutations in clinical isolates, this study describing an increase in inhibitor-susceptible efflux throws light on a new step in the evolution of mechanism in E. aerogenes.
Point process time-frequency analysis of respiratory sinus arrhythmia under altered respiration dynamics

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is largely mediated by the autonomic nervous system through its modulating influence on the heartbeat. We propose an algorithm for quantifying instantaneous RSA as applied to heart beat interval and respiratory recordings under dynamic respiration conditions. The blood volume pressure derived heart beat series (pulse intervals, PI) are modeled as an inverse gaussian point process, with the instantaneous mean PI modeled as a bivariate regression incorporating both past PI and respiration values observed at the beats. A point process maximum likelihood algorithm is used to estimate the model parameters, and instantaneous RSA is estimated by a frequency domain transfer function approach. The model is statistically validated using Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) goodness-of-fit analysis, as well as independence tests. The algorithm is applied to subjects engaged in meditative practice, with distinctive dynamics in the respiration patterns elicited as a result. Experimental results confirm the ability of the algorithm to track important changes in cardiorespiratory interactions elicited during meditation, otherwise not evidenced in control resting states.
Setting-up of PPG scaling factors for SpO2% evaluation by smartphone

The recent literature proposes the smartphone's camera to evaluate the arterial blood oxygenation (SpO2%) with the characteristic of friendly and ubiquitous measurement instrument. Some issues remain open, making difficult the compensation of artefacts causing error in the estimation of the photoplethysmogram signal (PPG) and not guarantying that the measurement of SpO2% is correctly executed. In the research, a method is proposed for setting-up the parameters to compensate the effects of the environmental light sources. Initially, the method evaluates the quality of the PPG signals by analysing the light intensity in the red and green colour channels of the video frames of the patient fingertip. Successively, a proper digital procedure sets the scale factor of the PPG to compensate the effects of external light for improving the accurate evaluation of the SpO2%. In order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method, the experimental results are compared with the gas chromatography analysis.
Teacher Demoralization, Disempowerment and School Administration.

Teacher demoralization is a concept describing the negative emotional experiences affecting teachers’ well-being and quality of teaching. However, since the dominant discourse about teacher demoralization is influenced by psychological perspectives, especially the theory of burnout, most of effort to promote teachers’ well-being and quality of teaching reply on psychological approaches. Nevertheless, teacher demoralization is more socially constructed other than psychologically constructed. Thus, this study aims to identify the potential social causes instead of psychological roots of teacher demoralization. Using in-depth interview data, the study illustrates that school administration may, from teachers’ perspectives, structurally demoralize teachers by disempowering teachers to control over labor process of teaching and to appreciate the instructional values of work and working condition. Thus, school reformers are recommended to empower teachers to exercise control over labor process of teaching and to appreciate the instructional values of their work and working conditions.
Computational Modeling-Based Discovery of Novel Classes of Anti-Inflammatory Drugs That Target Lanthionine Synthetase C-Like Protein 2

Background Lanthionine synthetase component C-like protein 2 (LANCL2) is a member of the eukaryotic lanthionine synthetase component C-Like protein family involved in signal transduction and insulin sensitization. Recently, LANCL2 is a target for the binding and signaling of abscisic acid (ABA), a plant hormone with anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory effects. Methodology/Principal Findings The goal of this study was to determine the role of LANCL2 as a potential therapeutic target for developing novel drugs and nutraceuticals against inflammatory diseases. Previously, we performed homology modeling to construct a three-dimensional structure of LANCL2 using the crystal structure of lanthionine synthetase component C-like protein 1 (LANCL1) as a template. Using this model, structure-based virtual screening was performed using compounds from NCI (National Cancer Institute) Diversity Set II, ChemBridge, ZINC natural products, and FDA-approved drugs databases. Several potential ligands were identified using molecular docking. In order to validate the anti-inflammatory efficacy of the top ranked compound (NSC61610) in the NCI Diversity Set II, a series of in vitro and pre-clinical efficacy studies were performed using a mouse model of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis. Our findings showed that the lead compound, NSC61610, activated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma in a LANCL2- and adenylate cyclase/cAMP dependent manner in vitro and ameliorated experimental colitis by down-modulating colonic inflammatory gene expression and favoring regulatory T cell responses. Conclusions/Significance LANCL2 is a novel therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases. High-throughput, structure-based virtual screening is an effective computational-based drug design method for discovering anti-inflammatory LANCL2-based drug candidates.
Joint Chinese word segmentation and punctuation prediction using deep recurrent neural network for social media data

In this work, we propose to jointly perform Chinese word segmentation (CWS) and punctuation prediction (PU) in a unified framework using deep recurrent neural network (DRNN). We further perform a comparative study among the joint frameworks, the isolated prediction and the pipeline methods that link the two tasks sequentially, on a social media corpus. Our experimental results show that joint models improve performance of CWS and affect PU marginally. We also study the effects of CWS and PU on Chinese-to-English machine translation (MT) quality by evaluating on a parallel social media corpus. It is shown that joint models are superior to the isolated prediction and the pipeline approaches.
Time for international action on treating testosterone deficiency syndrome

Aim. Testosterone deficiency is having an increasing impact on men's health because of global aging, higher levels of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome and adverse environmental factors such as stress xenoestrogens and anti-androgens. The question addressed is to what extent the large body of evidence on the benefits and safety of testosterone therapy is applied in clinical practice. Methods. Demographic data for men over the age of 50 from different regions of the world have been compared with the number of men in that age group estimated from sales figures to be receiving testosterone treatment. Results. On the basis of estimate that 20% of men over 50 in the general population of each region could be expected to have testosterone deficiency symptoms, on average only these men (0.69%) in most European countries were receiving treatment. Proportion was higher in the UK (1.00%) and Germany (1.89%), but lower in France (0.49%), Italy (0.51%) and Russia (0.54%). Interestingly, Australia had higher figures (1.64%), in spite of tight state control measures on androgen use. The USA has the highest treatment rate (7.96%) and this is increasing rapidly. If the basis for the diagnosis was the more conventional combination of symptoms plus biochemical evidence of low total and free testosterone levels, androgen deficiency would be expected in at least 5% of men over 50, and percentage treatment rates therefore four times higher. However, even on that basis, only in the USA do these exceed 10%. Conclusions. International action is urgently needed to raise awareness in the medical profession in the various countries of these remarkably low levels of testosterone treatment. Improvement in this requires education and motivation of doctors and those regulating the healthcare systems. A public awareness campaign is needed to educate men about the symptoms of testosterone deficiency and its impact on their health.
The Numerical Computation of Homoclinic Orbits for Maps

Transversal homoclinic orbits of maps are known to generate shift dynamics on a set with Cantor-like structure. In this paper a numerical method is developed for computation of the corresponding homoclinic orbits. They are approximated by finite-orbit segments subject to asymptotic boundary conditions. We provide a detailed error analysis including a shadowing-type result by which one can infer the existence of a transversal homoclinic orbit from a finite segment. This approach is applied to several examples. In some of them parameters appear and closed loops of homoclinic orbits are found by a path-following algorithm.
RESTORING FUNCTION AFTER SPINAL CORD INJURY

BACKGROUND–By affecting young people during the most productive period of their lives, spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating problem for modern society. A decade ago, treating SCI seemed frustrating and hopeless because of the tremendous morbidity and mortality, life-shattering impact, and limited therapeutic options associated with the condition. Today, however, an understanding of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, the development of neuroprotective interventions, and progress toward regenerative interventions are increasing hope for functional restoration. REVIEW SUMMARY–This study addresses the present understanding of SCI, including the etiology, pathophysiology, treatment, and scientific advances. The discussion of treatment options includes a critical review of high-dose methylprednisolone and GM-1 ganglioside therapy. The concept that limited rebuilding can provide a disproportionate improvement in quality of life is emphasized throughout. CONCLUSIONS–New surgical procedures, pharmacologic treatments, and functional neuromuscular stimulation methods have evolved over the last decades that can improve functional outcomes after spinal cord injury, but limiting secondary injury remains the primary goal. Tissue replacement strategies, including the use of embryonic stem cells, become an important tool and can restore function in animal models. Controlled clinical trials are now required to confirm these observations. The ultimate goal is to harness the body’s own potential to replace lost central nervous system cells by activation of endogenous progenitor cell repair mechanisms.
Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor 1 Is a Negative Regulator of Progenitor Proliferation in Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a proinflammatory cytokine, acting through the TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 receptors. The two receptors have been proposed to mediate distinct TNF-α effects in the CNS, TNF-R1 contributing to neuronal damage and TNF-R2 being neuroprotective. Whether TNF-α and its receptors play any role for neurogenesis in the adult brain is unclear. Here we used mouse models with loss of TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 function to establish whether signaling through these receptors could influence hippocampal neurogenesis in vivo under basal conditions, as well as after status epilepticus (SE), which is associated with inflammation and elevated TNF-α levels. Notably, in the intact brain, the number of new, mature hippocampal neurons was elevated in TNF-R1−/− and TNF-R1/R2−/− mice, whereas no significant changes were detected in TNF-R2−/− mice. Also after SE, the TNF-R1−/− and TNF-R1/R2−/− mice produced more new neurons. In contrast, the TNF-R2−/− mice showed reduced SE-induced neurogenesis. Cell proliferation in the dentate subgranular zone was elevated in TNF-R1−/− and TNF-R1/R2−/− mice both under basal conditions and after SE. The TNF-R2−/− mice either showed no change or minor decrease of cell proliferation. TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 receptors were expressed by hippocampal progenitors, as assessed with reverse transcription-PCR on sorted or cultured cells and immunocytochemistry on cultures. Our data reveal differential actions of TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 signaling in adult hippocampal neurogenesis and identify for the first time TNF-R1 as a negative regulator of neural progenitor proliferation in both the intact and pathological brain.
Teaching Poetry Through Collaborative Art

This study is anchored on two positions: that every communication is multimodal and that different modalities within multimodal communication have particular affordances. Written and oral language and other modalities, such as body language and audio/visual media, are interwoven in classroom communication. What might it look like to strategically deploy particular modalities whose affordances predispose them to visualizing certain kinds of knowledge in the classroom? I propose that educators purposefully employ multimodality for transformative learning. Through ethnographic approaches and multimodal interactional analysis, I analyze a possible link between multimodal pedagogy and transformative education, focusing on image-language entwinement, within an International Baccalaureate poetry classroom in Nairobi, Kenya. This article offers an illustrative resource for educators interested in the intersections of transformative learning and multimodality.
Mesenchymal stem cells in arthritic diseases

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the nonhematopoietic progenitor cells found in various adult tissues, are characterized by their ease of isolation and their rapid growth in vitro while maintaining their differentiation potential, allowing for extensive culture expansion to obtain large quantities suitable for therapeutic use. These properties make MSCs an ideal candidate cell type as building blocks for tissue engineering efforts to regenerate replacement tissues and repair damaged structures as encountered in various arthritic conditions. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common arthritic condition and, like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), presents an inflammatory environment with immunological involvement and this has been an enduring obstacle that can potentially limit the use of cartilage tissue engineering. Recent advances in our understanding of the functions of MSCs have shown that MSCs also possess potent immunosuppression and anti-inflammation effects. In addition, through secretion of various soluble factors, MSCs can influence the local tissue environment and exert protective effects with an end result of effectively stimulating regeneration in situ. This function of MSCs can be exploited for their therapeutic application in degenerative joint diseases such as RA and OA. This review surveys the advances made in the past decade which have led to our current understanding of stem cell biology as relevant to diseases of the joint. The potential involvement of MSCs in the pathophysiology of degenerative joint diseases will also be discussed. Specifically, we will explore the potential of MSC-based cell therapy of OA and RA by means of functional replacement of damaged cartilage via tissue engineering as well as their anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive activities.
Torque based selection of ANN for fault diagnosis of wound rotor asynchronous motor-converter association

In this paper, an automatic system of diagnosis was developed to detect and locate in real time the defects of the wound rotor asynchronous machine associated to electronic converter. For this purpose, we have treated the signals of the measured parameters (current and speed) to use them firstly, as indicating variables of the machine defects under study and, secondly, as inputs to the Artificial Neuron Network (ANN) for their classification in order to detect the defect type in progress. Once a defect is detected, the interpretation system of information will give the type of the defect and its place of appearance.
An introduction of trajectory model into HMM-based speech synthesis

In the synthesis part of a hidden Markov model (HMM) based speech synthesis system which we have proposed, a speech parameter vector sequence is generated from a sentence HMM corresponding to an arbitrarily given text by using a speech parameter generation algorithm. However, there is an inconsistency: although the speech parameter vector sequence is generated under the constraints between static and dynamic features, HMM parameters are trained without any constraints between them in the same way as standard HMM training. In the present paper, we introduce a trajectory-HMM, which has been derived from the HMM under the constraints between static and dynamic features, into the training part of the HMM-based speech synthesis system. Experimental results show that the use of trajectory-HMM training improves the quality of the synthesized speech.
Automatic Clustering with Differential Evolution Using Cluster Number Oscillation Method

In this paper, an improved Differential Evolution algorithm (ACDE-O) with cluster number oscillation for automatic crisp clustering has been presented. The proposed algorithm needs no prior knowledge of the number of clusters of the data. Rather, it finds the optimal number of clusters on the processing with stable and fast convergence, cluster number oscillation mechanism will search more possible cluster number in case of bad initial cluster number caused bad clusters. Superiority of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by comparing it with one recently developed partitional clustering algorithm. Experimental results over three real life datasets and the performance of proposed algorithm is mostly better than the other one.
Data Prefetching: A Cost/Performance Analysis

This paper attempts to answer the question, “To what extent is prefetching effective in hiding memory latency, and what is the minimal amount of hardware required to support prefetching? ” We begin by providing a classification of the different kinds of prefetching, and reconciling the various common performance metrics to allow fair comparisons. We then put forward an analytical model that gives the potential speedup with prefetching. We next detail the non-binding software prefetch technique and examine its performance, both with hand-inserted and compiler-inserted prefetches. We consider an elaborate hardware scheme meant to replace the software schemes entirely; then look at more reasonable schemes requiring only minimal extra hardware, and assess how much they add to the simple software prefetching model. We conclude with recommendations for CPU/cache architects.
Endocrine and clinical correlates of myostatin serum concentration in men--the STRAMBO study.

CONTEXT Myostatin is expressed mainly in skeletal muscle cells and acts as an inhibitor of muscle growth and differentiation. However, data on the determinants of serum myostatin concentrations in humans are limited. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to assess the correlates of serum myostatin concentrations in men. DESIGN We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the STRAMBO cohort. SETTING Men holding private health insurance coverage with Mutuelle de Travailleurs de la Région Lyonnaise were included in the study. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1121 male volunteers aged 20-87 yr participated in the study. INTERVENTIONS Nonfasting blood samples were collected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We measured the association of the investigated variables with circulating myostatin levels. RESULTS Serum myostatin levels increased slightly with age until 57 yr and then decreased. Circulating myostatin levels showed circannual variation, with the highest concentration in spring. In men older than 57 yr, serum myostatin levels decreased across increasing quartiles of body mass index and of total central and peripheral fat mass (P<0.05 to <0.001). Serum myostatin levels were positively correlated with serum levels of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25OHD), even after adjustment for season. Average myostatin levels were 0.47 sd higher in men with 25OHD above 40 ng/ml, compared with those with 25OHD below 20 ng/ml (P<0.05). Current smokers had lower myostatin concentration. Neither current physical activity nor serum levels of PTH, testosterone, and 17β-estradiol were associated with myostatin concentrations. CONCLUSIONS In men, circulating myostatin levels show seasonal changes and are associated with age, body mass index, fat mass, smoking, and 25OHD levels.
Impedance Control of Rehabilitation Robots for Lower Limbs, Review

Impedance control is commonly used in rehabilitation robots to maintain the human-robot interaction force below safe levels for the patient, and simultaneously, to control the limb position according to the desired trajectories determined by the therapy. Impedance control aims to regulate the dynamic relationship between the robot force and the actuator movement. On the other hand, design of rehabilitation robots for lower limbs demands specific features that come from their biomechanical functions as weight bearing and locomotion. This paper aims to review the main features for implementing an impedance control in a lower limb rehabilitation robot. Initially, we present a general formulation of the impedance control starting from the dynamic equations toward the most basic forms of this controller. We emphasize that impedance control enable real-time variations in the amount of assistance via the variation of the impedance parameters (inertia, damping and stiffness) of the controller without significant problems of stability. Control performance does not only depend on the control schemes but also a good selection of all the elements of the control loop, including sensors and actuators. We review on the most commonly used actuators for impedance controlled robots. Finally, we addressed the main challenges and limitations for research and development of most efficient implementations and indicates the most relevant trends that literature evidence.