Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microtiter broth dilution method for yeast susceptibility testing with validation by clinical outcome

There is no ideal laboratory procedure or culture medium in current use for susceptibility testing of pathogenic yeasts. Six candidate growth media (RPMI 1640 with L-glutamine, yeast nitrogen base, Casamino Acids medium, Mueller-Hinton broth, Sabouraud dextrose broth, and minimum essential medium-Eagle salts) were screened by spectrophotometric absorbance for nucleic acid and protein. From these, two media were selected: a chemically defined growth medium (RPMI 1640 with L-glutamine) and a chemically complex medium (Casamino Acids). MICs of four antifungal agents (5-fluorocytosine, miconazole, ketoconazole, and amphotericin B) for 84 clinical isolates of various Candida species were then determined with both media in agar dilution and microtiter broth dilution systems. The resultant MICs were correlated with clinical outcome for those isolates obtained from patients treated with single antifungal agents, and susceptibility cut points were calculated. Derived MIC cut points for susceptibility were validated in a murine model of systemic candidiasis. RPMI 1640 with L-glutamine was found to have the lowest absorbance values for both nucleic acid and protein, while Casamino Acids medium was highest in both categories. We found that RPMI 1640 with L-glutamine was superior to Casamino Acids medium in the yield of MICs which correlated with actual clinical and animal outcome data. While there were no significant differences in MICs when RPMI 1640 medium was used, the microtiter broth dilution technique was superior to agar dilution in efficiency and ease of performance. We conclude that a microtiter broth system containing RPMI 1640 medium with L-glutamine is a simple, precise, and economical technique for susceptibility testing of pathogenic Candida species. We also suggest that the validation of susceptibility cut points with patient and animal outcome data make this microtiter broth system a preferential method for yeast susceptibility testing.
plprot: a comprehensive proteome database for different plastid types.

Different plant plastid types contain a distinct protein complement for specialized functions and metabolic activities. plprot was established as a plastid proteome database to provide information about the proteomes of chloroplasts, etioplasts and undifferentiated plastids. The current version of plprot features 2,043 protein entries and consists of two modules. Module one contains a BLAST search option and provides comparative information on the proteomes of different plastid types. The second module contains four searchable databases, three for each individual plastid type and one comprehensive composite database that provides the results of plastid proteome analyses from different laboratories. plprot is accessible at http://www.plprot. ethz.ch.
Identities with derivations on rings and Banach algebras

In this paper we prove the following result. Let m ≥ 1, n ≥ 1 be integers and let R be a 2mn(m+n−1)! −torsion free semiprime ring. Suppose there exist derivations D,G : R → R such that D(xm)xn + xnG(xm) = 0 holds for all x ∈ R. In this case both derivations D and G map R into its center and D = −G. We apply this purely algebraic result to obtain a range inclusion result of continuous derivations on Banach algebras.
Physical Health Status Measures Predict All-Cause Mortality in Patients With Heart Failure

Background—Physical health status measures have been shown to predict death in heart failure (HF); however, few studies found significant associations after adjustment for confounders, and most were not representative of all HF patients. Methods and Results—HF patients from southeastern MN were prospectively enrolled between 10/2007 and 12/2010, completed a 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) and a 6-minute walk, and were followed through 2011 for death from any cause. Scores ⩽25 on the SF-12 physical component indicated low self-reported physical functioning, and the first question of the SF-12 measured self-rated general health. Low functional exercise capacity was defined as ⩽300 m walked during a 6-minute walk. Over a mean follow-up of 2.3 years, 86 deaths occurred among the 352 participants. A 1.6-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.0–2.7) and 1.8-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.1–2.9) increased risk of death was observed among patients with low self-reported physical functioning and low functional exercise capacity, respectively. Poor self-rated general health corresponded to a 2.7-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.5–4.9) increased risk of death compared with good to excellent general health. All measures equally discriminated between who would die and who would survive (C-statistics: 0.729, 0.750, and 0.740 for self-reported physical functioning, self-rated general health, and functional exercise capacity, respectively). Conclusions—Three physical health status measures, captured by the SF-12 and a 6-minute walk, equally predict death among community HF patients. Therefore, the first question of the SF-12, which is the least burdensome to administer, may be sufficient to identify HF patients at greatest risk of death.
A New Presumed Commit Optimization for Two Phase Commit

Two phase commit (2PC) is used to coordinate the commitment of transactions in distributed systems. The standard 2PC optimization is the presumed abort variant, which uses fewer messages when transactions are aborted and allows the coordinator to forget about aborted transactions. The presumed commit variant of 2PC uses even fewer messages, but its coordinator must do additional logging. We describe a new form of presumed commit that reduces the number of log writes while preserving the reduction in messages, bringing both these costs below those of presumed abort. The penalty for this is the need to retain a small amount of crash related information forever.
Fabrications of a continuous-flow PCR-chip using dry film resist

In most miniaturized PCR-chip, the sample solution is introduced into a small chamber, and the DNA amplification is performed by thermal cycling. However, chamber heating and cooling rates are relatively low. But, the continuous-flow type PCR-chip involves the transfer of a PCR mixture through a micro-fluidic channel which passes through three different temperature regions. Therefore, it successfully addresses the problems of low heating and cooling rates. In this paper, a soda-lime glass substrate coated with a DFR of the fluid to cycle through different temperature zones was used to form a micro-channel structure and integrated Pt heater continuous-flow PCR.
Chemical and biomolecule patterning on 2D surfaces using atmospheric pressure microcavity plasma array devices

This paper presents a method for chemical and biomolecule patterning on planar (2D) surfaces using atmospheric pressure microplasmas. Spatially controlled surface modification is important for the development of emerging technologies such as microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices, biosensors and other diagnostics tools. A non-fouling layer of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) aldehyde (pNIPAM-ald) polymer, grafted onto heptylamine plasma polymer (HApp) modified silicon substrates, was used to achieve this goal. The non-fouling behaviour of the pNIPAM-ald coating was investigated at a temperature below its lower critical solution temperature (LCST) using human serum albumin (HSA). XPS and ToF-SIMS were used to characterise the plasma polymer coating and its subsequent modification with pNIPAM-ald before and after HSA adsorption. A 7 x 7 microcavity plasma array device (each cavity had a 250 Νm diameter and was separated by 500 μm) was used for microplasma patterning. In a non-contact mode, helium microplasma treatment of the pNIPAM-ald coating was carried out for 60 s. The polymer coating was removed from regions directly exposed to microplasma cavities, as shown by ToF-SIMS. Microplasma treated regions were able to support the adsorption of fluorescently-labelled streptavidin whereas the rest of the coating was still non-fouling. This approach therefore resulted in spatially separated areas of immobilised protein.
A multi-layer architecture of wireless network for digital video transmission

For real time digital video transmission, an innovative multi-layer design of wireless systems is needed, where information among layers is exchanged and parameters are jointly optimized for richer interfaces among the layers of the protocol stack. The growing prevalence of wireless calls for such design of wireless network to support Quality of Service (QoS). Accounting for the limited availability of radio resources, the above requirement can be met through the development of flexible or adaptable radio interfaces of multi-layer architecture. Specifically, based on the traffic analysis with QoS requirements jointly Application (APP), Media Access Control (MAC), Physical (PHY) layers can be designed to optimize the network performance. This architecture is developed in view of benefits and necessities of sharing information among different layers where parameters are jointly optimized. To this respect, this paper gives the proper relevance to resource management strategies such as coding efficiency, media access control and error control and proposes a block level model of multi-layer architecture of wireless network.
Can Ants Design Mechanical Engineering Systems?

The present contribution deals with the optimal tuning of a vibrating blade dynamic vibration absorber by using ant colony optimization (ACO). Dynamic vibration absorbers (DVAs) are systems constituted by mass, spring and damping elements, which are coupled to a mechanical system to provide vibration attenuation. The main idea behind the DVAs is the generation of a force that has the same intensity as the excitation force but in the opposite phase. This phenomenon is known as anti-resonance. The tuning of the DVA is the procedure that sets the anti-resonance frequency to a given value by adjusting the DVA parameters. Based on this theory, the optimization problem is described as the minimization of the objective function that relates the difference between the resonance frequencies of the primary system and those of the DVA. To solve the optimization problem, ACO techniques were used. In the early nineties, when the ant colony algorithm was first proposed, it was used as an approach for the solution of combinatorial optimization problems, such as the traveling salesman problem. However, the extension for operating with continuous variables is recent and is still being developed. In this context, this paper presents an engineering application for a continuous domain problem. Numerical results are reported, illustrating the success of using the methodology presented, as applied to mechanical systems.
MULTI-RESOLUTION REPRESENTATION OF DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS WITH TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES PRESERVATION

Multi-resolution TIN model is a promising solution for achieving rapid visualization speed and interactive frame rates in the contexts of visualization, virtual reality (VR), and geographic information systems (GIS). Most of previous automatic algorithms are not able to identify topographic features, such as peak, pit, ridge, channel and pass, so as to produce poor approximations when a model is simplified to a low level of detail. This paper proposes a new method for constructing multi-resolution TIN models with multi-scale topographic feature preservation. The proposed method is driven by a half-edge collapse operation in a greedy framework and employs a new quadric error metric to efficiently measure geometric errors. We define topographic features in a multi-scale manner using a center-surround operator on Gaussian-weighted mean curvatures. Then we employ an adaptive weight based on topographic features for the control of simplification process. Experimental results identify that proposed method performs better than previous methods in terms of topographic feature preservation, and can achieve multi-resolution TIN models with a higher accuracy. * Corresponding author: Zhi Wang: wangzchina@gmail.com
Eye Tracking in Visible Environment

Eye tracking is the process of measuring either the point of gaze or the motion of an eye relative to the head. To make the eye pupil more clearly, in the eye tracking relevant study, most of them introduced the infrared light as a light source. In this paper, we propose an approach of eye tracking system in visible environment base on computer vision. The method contains eye positioning, and eye tracking. The experimental results show that whether students are in turning head, blinking, squinting, forward or backward movement, the eyes can be tracked accurately.
Distribution and enrichment of phosphorus in solidified BOF steelmaking slag

The distribution of P in basic oxygen furnace steelmaking slag was investigated together with the enrichment behaviours of P in slowly cooled slag samples modified by SiO2 from high temperature remelts at 1873 K. The slag microstructures were characterised, and the results showed that only a limited fraction of P2O5 was dispersed in the matrix, whereas a large amount of P2O5 was found to form solid solutions with dicalcium silicate (2CaO.SiO2 or C2S) phase and/or with tricalcium silicate (3CaO.SiO2 or C3S) phase in original industrial slag. It was also found that when the basicity (C/S = CaO/SiO2) of slag modified by SiO2 was close to 3, the main phase was C2S, and most of the P in the modified slag was precipitated from solid solution in the C2S. The mechanism of P enrichment is also discussed.
How Integrated are the European Retail Financial Markets? A Cointegration Analysis

With the introduction of the Euro, a single European money market has emerged. Further wholesale financial markets are considered to be highly integrated within the European Union. However, integration in retail financial markets is less advanced. For measuring financial market integration this distinction between wholesale and retail markets becomes crucial. There is a wide literature relating to integration of wholesale financial markets but just a few studies that try to measure integration in European retail markets. This paper, in a first step, gives a systematisation of the literature on measuring financial market integration with a focus on the distinction between wholesale and retail financial markets. In a second step, bivariate and multivariate cointegration techniques are used to assess the degree of integration in four loans and two deposit markets in the European Union. Finally, based on this analysis obstacles to financial market integration are discussed.
Investigation of some phenomena occurring during continuous ink-jet printing of ceramics

A ceramic ink was prepared, characterised, and subjected to continuous ink-jet printing. The optimum modulation frequency for printing was estimated. The surface free energies of several substrates were determined and different patterns of the ink droplets were printed on these. Phenomena occurring during the process were investigated. The drop-by-drop resolution and ink spreading were found to be dependent on the dispersive/total surface free energy ratio of the substrates. Ink drying was accompanied by powder migration in the droplets deposited on substrates with a surface free energy lower than the surface tension of the ink. Printing of multiple layers was accompanied by the appearance of ridges, splattering, and non-vertical walls. The causes of these phenomena are discussed in this paper.
Methionine Adenosyltransferase 2B, HuR, and Sirtuin 1 Protein Cross-talk Impacts on the Effect of Resveratrol on Apoptosis and Growth in Liver Cancer Cells*

Background: Methionine adenosyltransferase 2B protein (MATβ) binds to resveratrol, but it exerts the opposite effects on growth and apoptosis. Results: Resveratrol induces HuR, SIRT1, and MATβ expression. These proteins interact, which stabilizes them. MATβ induction blunts the resveratrol effect on growth and apoptosis. Conclusion: MATβ-HuR-SIRT1 interaction impacts resveratrol actions. Significance: This is the first demonstration of MATβ in SIRT1 signaling. Resveratrol is growth-suppressive and pro-apoptotic in liver cancer cells. Methionine adenosyltransferase 2B (MAT2B) encodes for two dominant variants V1 and V2 that positively regulate growth, and V1 is anti-apoptotic when overexpressed. Interestingly, crystal structure analysis of MAT2B protein (MATβ) protomer revealed two resveratrol binding pockets, which raises the question of the role of MAT2B in resveratrol biological activities. We found that resveratrol induced the expression of MAT2BV1 and V2 in a time- and dose-dependent manner by increasing transcription, mRNA, and protein stabilization. Following resveratrol treatment, HuR expression increased first, followed by SIRT1 and MAT2B. SIRT1 induction contributes to increased MAT2B transcription whereas HuR induction increased MAT2B mRNA stability. MATβ interacts with HuR and SIRT1, and resveratrol treatment enhanced these interactions while reducing the interaction between MATβ and MATα2. Because MATβ lowers the Ki of MATα2 for S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), this allowed steady-state AdoMet level to rise. Interaction among MATβ, SIRT1, and HuR increased stability of these proteins. Induction of MAT2B is a compensatory response to resveratrol as knocking down MAT2BV1 potentiated the resveratrol pro-apoptotic and growth-suppressive effects, whereas the opposite occurred with V1 overexpression. The same effect on growth occurred with MAT2BV2. In conclusion, resveratrol induces HuR, SIRT1, and MAT2B expression; the last may represent a compensatory response against apoptosis and growth inhibition. However, MATβ induction also facilitates SIRT1 activation, as the interaction stabilizes SIRT1. This complex interplay among MATβ, HuR, and SIRT1 has not been previously reported and suggests that these proteins may regulate each other's signaling.
Image fusion for photonic quantum ring laser structures investigated by confocal scanning laser microscopy

Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) allows the acquisition of image stacks, representing optical sections on the volume of the specimen. An image corresponding to an optical section will in some cases contain defocused, low contrast or saturated regions for the areas of the sample which are not in focal plane. In the case of the Photonic Quantum Ring (PQR) laser structures, it is important to have images consisting of regions of uniform quality in order to observe morphological details that are linked to the photocurrent confinement. In this purpose we have developed an image fusion method, which based on a stack of CSLM images will output a fused image consisting of square regions from different images in the stack. In this paper we present the image fusion algorithm that we have used and the results that we have obtained on PQR laser structures.
Interactive relay assisted source coding

This paper investigates a source coding problem in which two terminals communicating through a relay wish to estimate one another's source within some distortion constraint. The relay has access to side information that is correlated with the sources. Two different schemes based on the order of communication, distributed source coding/delivery and two cascaded rounds, are proposed and inner and outer bounds for the resulting rate-distortion regions are provided. Examples are provided to show that neither rate-distortion region includes the other one.
A framework for implementing pluggable type systems

Pluggable types have been proposed to support multiple type systems in the same programming language. We have designed and implemented JavaCOP, a program constraint system for implementing practical pluggable type systems for Java. JavaCOP enforces user-defined typing constraints written in a declarative and expressive rule language. We have validated our design by (re)implementing a range of type systems and program checkers. By using a program constraint system to implement pluggable types, programmers are able to check that their programs will operate correctly in restricted environments, adhere to strict programming rules, avoid null pointer errors or scoped memory exceptions, and meet style guidelines, while programming language researchers can easily experiment with novel type systems.
Grip strength as a frailty diagnostic component in geriatric inpatients

Background Frailty has emerged as a key medical syndrome predictive of comorbidity, disability, institutionalization and death. As a component of the five frailty phenotype diagnostic criteria, patient grip strength deserves attention as a simple and objective measure of the frailty syndrome. The aim of this study was to assess conditions that influence grip strength in geriatric inpatients. Patients and methods The study group consisted of 80 patients aged 78.6±7.0 years (X¯±SD), with 68.8% women, admitted to the Department of Geriatrics. A comprehensive geriatric assessment was complemented with assessment for the frailty phenotype as described by Fried et al for all patients in the study group. Functional assessment included Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living (Barthel Index), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale and Mini-Mental State Examination. Results Three or more frailty criteria were positive in 32 patients (40%), while 56 subjects (70%) fulfilled the frailty criterion of weakness (grip strength test). Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that two independent measures showed positive association with grip strength – Mini-Mental State Examination score (β=0.239; P=0.001) and statin use (β=0.213; P=0.002) – and four independent measures were negatively associated with grip strength – female sex (β=−0.671; P<0.001), C-reactive protein (β=−0.253; P<0.001), prior myocardial infarction (β=−0.190; P=0.006) and use of an antidepressant (β=−0.163; P=0.018). Low physical activity was identified as the only independent qualitative frailty component associated with 2-year mortality in multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjustment for age and sex (odds ratio =6.000; 95% CI =1.357–26.536; P=0.018). Conclusion Cognitive function, somatic comorbidity and medical treatment affect grip strength as a measure of physical frailty in geriatric inpatients. Grip strength was not predictive of 2-year mortality in this group.
The tri-pentagonal number theorem and related identities

I revisit an automated proof of Andrews' pentagonal number theorem found by Riese. I uncover a simple polynomial identity hidden behind his proof. I explain how to use this identity to prove Andrews' result along with a variety of new formulas of similar type. I reveal an interesting relation between the tri-pentagonal theorem and items (19), (20), (94), (98) on the celebrated Slater list. Finally, I establish a new infinite family of multiple series identities.