Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular detection and epidemiology of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase genes prevalent in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and E coli from Trinidad and Tobago.

OBJECTIVE The epidemiology of Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing E coli and K pneumoniae is complex and varies among hospitals and countries. This study aimed at describing the molecular detection and epidemiology of ESBL subtypes prevalent in clinical isolates of K pneumonia and E coli in Trinidad and Tobago. METHODS Over 36-months, isolates of E coli and K pneumoniae from clinical specimens of patients processed at a regional tertiary hospital in the country,were identified using standard microbiological methods. MicroScan System (Siemens, USA) was used to determine MIC values while E-test (AB Biodisk, Sweden) assays phenotypically confirmed ESBL production. K pneumoniae (n = 65) and E coli (n = 25) isolates confirmed as ESBL producers were further subjected to multiplex PCR and PFGE tests to determine the ESBL subtypes and clonal relatedness. RESULTS Female patients (67.8%) and urine samples (65%) yielded most ESBL isolates, with over 90% recovered from the hospital's medicine and surgery facilities. All ESBL isolates including all K pneumoniae producing ESBLs were 100% susceptible to carbapenems and amikacin antimicrobials. Polymerase Chain Reaction detected 100% blaTEM genes, 4.1% blasHv and 37.5% blaCTX_M genes among E coli isolates. Similarly, 84.3% blaTEM, 34.5% blaSHV and 58.8% blaCTX-M genes were detected in K pneumoniae. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) results showed diverse and unrelated clones. CONCLUSIONS In this the first report of molecular characterization and epidemiology ofESBL subtypes in E coli and K pneumoniae isolates in Trinidad and Tobago, the CTX-M, mainly phylogenetically group 1 type, was most predominant. Most ESBL isolates were still susceptible to carbapenems and aminoglycosides and their spread appears to be polyclonal and clonally unrelated.
Aerobic recovery metabolism following a single isometric tetanus in frog sartorius muscle at 0 degrees C.

1. Basal and recovery O2 consumption, delatO2, in frog sartorius muscles at 0 degrees C were measured with a polarographic electrode. Reproducible observations were made with the same muscle over many hours. 2. The experimental records had an exponential form except for the early phases of recovery following a single isometric tetanus. Diffusion of O2 within the muscle was adequate to account for this deviation from an exponential time course of recovery. The time constant of the recovery O2 consumption increased with the duration of tetanic stimulation from 5 to 20 sec. 3. Lactate synthesis was measureable in unstimulated aerobic muscles and increased in proportion to total O2 consumption as long as the muscle did not lack O2. The contribution of glycolysis to the total chemical energy production during recovery was 6‐9%; for hypoxic muscles it was greater. 4. The resynthesis of phosphorylcreatine and the decrease in inorganic phosphate and free creatine following a tetanus showed an exponential time course similar to recovery O2. Initial concentrations were re‐attained within 60 min following a 20 sec tetanus. 5. We conclude that recovery O2 consumpation is a useful and accurate measure of the net chemical energy utilization for a single contraction.
PROBLEMY EKOROZWOJU – PROBLEMS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development as well as implementation of sustainable practices stems from commitment to certain values. It is an expression of a particular ethical worldview – a sustainable ethic, a core value of which is the value of sustainability. This ethics is an applied ethics that is built upon two theoretical pillars. It operates on expanded scope of moral concern, where intrinsic value is appointed to future generations and also noninstrumental value is recognised in non-humans. I will argue in this paper that those pillars, namely intergenerational equity and non-instrumental value of nonhumans are present in ethical theories of the West and Islam. Both of which exist as values or as derivatives of other values in those moral frameworks. On that account, as it will be demonstrated further, sustainable development, in theory and practice, may be seen as a common ground for intercultural dialogue and a tool of bringing together the two cultures.
2′-Benzoyloxycinnamaldehyde Induces Apoptosis in Human Carcinoma via Reactive Oxygen Species*

2′-Hydroxycinnamaldehyde (HCA) has been shown to have inhibitory effects on farnesyl protein transferase in vitro, angiogenesis, and tumor cell growth. However, mechanism for these inhibitions remains unknown. As a derivative of HCA, BCA (2′-benzoyl-oxycinnamaldehyde) was synthesized by replacing hydroxyl group with benzoyl-oxyl group. When p53-mutated cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell and SW620 colon cancer cell) were treated with 10 μm HCA or BCA, it induced growth arrest and apoptosis of tumor cells. Markers of apoptosis such as degradations of chromosomal DNA and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and activation of caspase-3 were detected after HCA or BCA treatment. BCA-induced apoptosis was blocked by pretreatment of cells with anti-oxidants, glutathione, or N-acetyl-cysteine. In addition, BCA-induced activation of caspase-3 and degradation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase were abolished by pretreatment of cells with the anti-oxidants. These results suggest that reactive oxygen species are major regulator of BCA-induced apoptosis. HCA or BCA-induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species was detected by using DCF-DA, an intracellular probe of oxidative stress. Furthermore, when BCA (100 mg/kg) was administrated intraperitoneally or orally into a nude mouse, it inhibited >88 or 41% of tumor growth, respectively, without any detectable weight change. These results suggest that BCA is a good drug candidate for cancer therapy.
Modulation-mode and power-assignment for SVD-and GMD-assisted downlink MIMO systems

Multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink (DL) transmission schemes experience both multiuser interference (MUI) as well as inter-antenna interference. However, instead of treating all the users jointly as in zero-forcing (ZF) multiuser transmission techniques, the investigated singular value decomposition (SVD) and geometric mean decomposition (GMD) assisted DL multiuser MIMO systems take the individual user's channel characteristics into account. The performed joint optimization of the number of activated MIMO layers and the number of bits per symbol along with the appropriate allocation of the transmit power shows that not necessarily all user-specific MIMO layers have to be activated in order to minimize the overall BER under the constraint of a fixed data throughput.
Privatization in Turkey: Implementation, politics of privatization and performance results

The paper provides a comprehensive survey of privatization transastions in Turkey which took place between 1986 and 2000. The objectives of the privatization programme and privatized and nominated SOEs are discussed. The breakdown of total proceeds by sales methods and scope of the privatization programme by economic sectors are examined. The saleability of relatively large public enterprises is reviewed and utilization of privatization proceeds during and after privatization process is critically appraised. In addition, an attempt is made to discuss the politics of privatization by referring to key political and economic factors which have influenced implementation of the privatization programme. Following a short review of the economic environment and macroeconomic indicators in Turkey, focus is also placed on the research results that are available on the performance of public, private and privatized SOEs, particularly in the cement sector. In the final section, some key issues relevant to Turkish privatization are accentuated and some conclusion are drawn. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Effects of Psychotropic Drugs upon Driving-Related Skills

The use of psychotropic drugs by road users is considered to be on the increase although little accurate epidemiological data are available. To determine the effects of such drugs upon driving skills, reliance must be placed upon laboratory investigations. This paper reviews the results of studies of the effects of barbiturate and non-barbiturate hypnotics, tranquillizers, and antidepressants upon sensory functions and perceptual skills, cognitive skills, and motor skills. The relationship between such skills and actual driving performance is discussed and some possible mechanisms whereby psychotropic drugs may contribute to the causation of accidents are described. In view of the wide variety of drugs, dose levels and test situations used, few definite conclusions may be drawn regarding the effects of psychotropic drugs upon driving-related skills.
Prospects for Remailers

Remailers have permitted Internet users to take advantage of the medium as a means to communicate with others globally on sensitive issues while maintaining a high degree of privacy. Recent events have clearly indicated that privacy is increasingly at risk on the global networks. Individual efforts have, so far, worked well in maintaining for most Internet users a modicum of anonymity. With the growth of increasingly sophisticated techniques to defeat anonymity, there will be a need for both standards and policies to continue to make privacy on the Internet a priority.
A Regulatory Network-Based Approach Dissects Late Maturation Processes Related to the Acquisition of Desiccation Tolerance and Longevity of Medicago truncatula Seeds1[C][W][OPEN]

A network analysis approach to gene regulation during seed maturation of Medicago truncatula uncovers distinct temporal regulatory programs related to desiccation tolerance, longevity, and pod abscission and the key regulators governing these programs. In seeds, desiccation tolerance (DT) and the ability to survive the dry state for prolonged periods of time (longevity) are two essential traits for seed quality that are consecutively acquired during maturation. Using transcriptomic and metabolomic profiling together with a conditional-dependent network of global transcription interactions, we dissected the maturation events from the end of seed filling to final maturation drying during the last 3 weeks of seed development in Medicago truncatula. The network revealed distinct coexpression modules related to the acquisition of DT, longevity, and pod abscission. The acquisition of DT and dormancy module was associated with abiotic stress response genes, including late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) genes. The longevity module was enriched in genes involved in RNA processing and translation. Concomitantly, LEA polypeptides accumulated, displaying an 18-d delayed accumulation compared with transcripts. During maturation, gulose and stachyose levels increased and correlated with longevity. A seed-specific network identified known and putative transcriptional regulators of DT, including ABSCISIC ACID-INSENSITIVE3 (MtABI3), MtABI4, MtABI5, and APETALA2/ ETHYLENE RESPONSE ELEMENT BINDING PROTEIN (AtAP2/EREBP) transcription factor as major hubs. These transcriptional activators were highly connected to LEA genes. Longevity genes were highly connected to two MtAP2/EREBP and two basic leucine zipper transcription factors. A heat shock factor was found at the transition of DT and longevity modules, connecting to both gene sets. Gain- and loss-of-function approaches of MtABI3 confirmed 80% of its predicted targets, thereby experimentally validating the network. This study captures the coordinated regulation of seed maturation and identifies distinct regulatory networks underlying the preparation for the dry and quiescent states.
GISAXS analysis of 3D nanoparticle assemblies—effect of vertical nanoparticle ordering

We report on grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) study of 3D nanoparticle arrays prepared by two different methods from colloidal solutions—layer-by-layer Langmuir–Schaefer deposition and spontaneous self-assembling during the solvent evaporation. GISAXS results are evaluated within the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) considering the multiple scattering effects and employing a simplified multilayer model to reduce the computing time. In the model, particular layers are represented by nanoparticle chains where the positions of individual nanoparticles are generated following a model of cumulative disorder. The nanoparticle size dispersion is considered as well. Three model cases are distinguished—no shift between the neighboring chains (AA stacking), a shift equal to half of the mean interparticle distance (AB stacking) and random shift between the chains. The first two cases correspond to vertically correlated nanoparticle positions across different chains. A comparison of the experimental GISAXS patterns with the model cases enabled us to distinguish important differences between the 3D arrays prepared by the two methods. In particular, laterally ordered layers without vertical correlation of the nanoparticle positions were found in the nanoparticle multilayers prepared by the Langmuir–Schaefer method. On the other hand, the solvent evaporation under particular conditions produced highly ordered 3D nanoparticle assemblies where both laterally and vertically correlated nanoparticle positions were found.
The Monetary Appreciation of Paintings

Price indices for pre-World War II paintings are developed from U.S. and U.K. auction prices, assuming that auctioned paintings are sampled from a fixed underlying stock of paintings. The simple form of the capital-asset pricing model is modified to describe durable goods with risky capital appreciation and constant service yield. Estimated parameters for U.S. paintings are β = 0.82 (SE = 0.34), R2 = . 24, service yield = 1.6 percent (SE = 7 percent). To individual collectors, "performance" is positive to the extent that they value the service yield above 1.6 percent. Paintings are "inefficient. " Regressions using U.K. data have no significant β coefficients.
What's Stopping You?: The Sources of Political Constraints on International Conflict Behavior in Parliamentary Democracies

Much of the work on the democratic peace treats democracies as a homogenous set. In this paper we focus on the heterogeneity of established parliamentary democracies and investigate the effects of their domestic constraints on international conflict behavior. We emphasize leaders' vulnerability to removal from office and how this vulnerability varies across democracies as a function of two aspects of a ruling parliamentary coalition: 1) its political position, that is, whether a government is "right" or "left"; and 2) its structural complexity. We present a model of the relationship between levels of conflict and leaders' vulnerability to removal from office. The model concludes that leaders who are more likely to be removed from office, should they use force, are less likely to become involved in militarized interstate conflict; but that once involved, they are more likely to see their conflicts escalate. We find that right governments (whose leaders are less vulnerable to removal from office should they use force) are more likely to be involved in militarized disputes, while left governments (whose leaders are more likely to be removed from office should they use force) are more likely to see the disputes in which they are involved escalate. Our evidence indicates that structural complexity is largely unrelated to the likelihood of either involvement in or escalation of militarized interstate disputes.
Development of IMES signal transmitters

An indoor messaging system named the Indoor Messaging System (IMES) is expected to be an indoor positioning infrastructure. However, conventional IMES signal transmitters have three major issues: oscillator's cost, low usability, and wired-configuration. In the present work, a transmitter aimed to avoid these issues is developed and evaluated in conjunction with a prototype IMES receiver. The developed transmitter generates its carrier wave by using an HP-TCXO. It uses a whip antenna instead of an RHCP antenna, and its operation parameters are configured through a wireless communication. The evaluation results show that the developed transmitter can improve the usability and maintainability of IMES. A transmission space diversity method is also proposed to mitigate the influence of multipath interference. A transmitter based on this method is developed and experimentally evaluated in a practical setup (Hankyu Third Avenue underground mall in Osaka). The experimental results show that the proposed method can improve the availability of the cell of the IMES signal service area. These findings contribute further to development of a practical IMES transmitter and receiver.
Coral reefs of the Mascarenes, Western Indian Ocean

The reefs of the Mascarenes differ in structure and stage of development. Mauritius is the oldest island, bound by a discontinuous fringing reef and small barrier reef, with large lagoon patch reefs. Rodrigues has nearly continuous fringing reefs bounding an extensive lagoon with deep channels and few patch reefs. Réunion, the youngest island, has short stretches of narrow fringing reefs along southwestern coasts. The islets of St Brandon are bound to the east by an extensive arc of fringing reef. Reef mapping of the Mascarenes using satellite imagery provides an estimate of 705 km2 of shallow reef habitats. These areas have been modified over geological time by changes in sea level, ocean–atmosphere disturbances and biological and chemical forcing. Further modification has resulted from historical changes in land–use patterns. Recent economic development has placed many of these reefs at risk from anthropogenic impact. The reefs of the Mascarenes have escaped mass mortality from bleaching to date, which increases their conservation significance within the wider Indian Ocean. The reefs are poorly protected. A case study shows how a geographic information system incorporating reef–habitat maps can help formulate and demonstrate Marine Protected Area boundaries.
Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Institutions

This paper discusses the nature of entrepreneurship and its relation to innovation along a cycle in which exploration and exploration follow upon each other. We place the roles of entrepreneurship in innovation policy within this cycle of innovation. Different types of innovation along the cycle of innovation are realized with different forms of entrepreneurship, which are constrained or enabled by different legal institutions. One of the key roles of governments is to design, change or destruct institutions in order to improve societal welfare. The question is what governments should do in the context of innovation policy. Here, social scientists can make a contribution by providing insight into what entrepreneurship and innovation is (theories about these phenomena), and how institutions affect them in reality (empirical evidence about their effects). This requires social scientists to be engaged scholars and to provide new policy options as an honest broker between the academic world and the policy world. The key question of this paper is: How can policy best enable innovation based entrepreneurship? The answer is derived from looking at both theoretical tenets and empirical evidence using an institutional design perspective, which aims at providing arguments for the design, change and/or destruction of institutions, given the goals of the governments. We provide an overview of some (empirically tests of) institutions that enable or restrain particular types of entrepreneurship. Examples of these institutions are intellectual property rights and the Small Business Innovation Research program, employment protection, and non-compete covenants.
Cloning and characterization of a ribonuclease L inhibitor from the silkworm, Bombyx mori

The ribonuclease L (RNase L) pathway plays an important role in the response of cells to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) during the events such as virus infection. Ribonuclease L inhibitor (RLI) belonging to the ABC transporter family is known as a regulator of the RNase L pathway. The homologs of RLI were reported in many organisms including the fruit fly and mosquito, but their functions in insects and arthropods have not been elucidated to date. In the present study, we cloned a cDNA of a silkworm RLI homolog, termed BmRLI, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. RT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of BmRLI mRNA was marked in the testis, ovary and fat body. From the cDNA, recombinant protein with an apparent molecular mass of 69 kDa was expressed in Escherichia coli and cultured insect cells. Although no obvious effect of up-regulation of the BmRLI expression on RNAi was observed, its down-regulation slightly reduced RNAi efficiency.
Power Conservation and Security Enhancement in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Priority Based Approach

In wireless sensor networks (WSN), two major challenges are how to conserve the battery power and a series of security challenges. The power conservation and security are important for reliability and longevity of a WSN. This paper proposes an approach called “priority based approach (PBA)” which empowers the node to choose the most important packet based on the priority and the current energy status of the forwarding node. Thus we can minimize the average delay and energy spent and maximize the throughput and packet delivery ratio (PDR) when compared to game theory approach.
Foreign Trade and FDI as Main Factors of Growth in the EU

In the last decade, a number of empirical studies tried to highlight a strong correlation among foreign trade, foreign direct investment and economic growth. Moreover, the recent crisis affecting firstly the GDP growth had also a negative impact on foreign trade and on FDI inflow. Today, there is a strong competition both on the goods market and on the capital market. As a rule, in countries where the stock of FDI is high, the foreign trade is in expansion and has a high level of efficiency and, consequently, a relatively stable economic growth is demonstrated. Based on available statistical data, we estimated a model to simulate the impact of FDI on GDP growth in the EU. Further, a similar approach permitted us to investigate the FDIExport- GDP relationship in the case of Romania for the last decade. As a conclusion, to recover economic growth a growth in FDI is needed, taking into account its major impact on the efficiency of foreign trade and its contribution to the general economic growth.
The Rate of Market Efficiency

We define two measures: the Model Performance Ratio (MPR), which ranks asset pricing models based on their ability to price random portfolios, and the Rate of Market Efficiency (RME), which measures market efficiency assuming the best pricing model (largest MPR). We find that: (i) market efficiency has almost doubled in the last four decades; (ii) the CAPM is the best performing model among five linear factor specifications. The first result is in sharp contrast with the evolution of thinking about market efficiency and the rise of behavioral finance; the second, casts serious doubts on the Fama and French paradigm.