Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Comparison of direct colony count methods and the MPN-method for quantitative detection of Listeria in model and field conditions].

In order to compare the plate count method for quantitating Listeria, as published in the "Official Collection of Testing Methods" in section 35 LMBG (L. 00.00-22), to an MPN-method for Listeria based on the same mediums, these two detection methods for Listeria were tested in three sets of experiments and a routine sample status evaluation. A pure broth culture of L. monocytogenes, artificially with L. monocytogenes contaminated ground meat, artificially contaminated and cold stored ground meat as well as 77 ground beef samples from Berlin retail food stores were used in the four trials. The detection limit of the MPN-method is about 66% lower than the plate count method allowing detection of a clearly greater number of Listeria-positive samples from naturally contaminated ground meat. The MPN-method yielded more Listeria spp. -positive samples (rel. 43%) and more L. monocytogenes-positive samples (rel. 21%) versus the colony count method based on the results from the field trial using ground beef samples from retail food stores in Berlin. Nevertheless the standardized colony count method is preferred over the MPN-method for routine use because of its slightly higher productivity and much smaller variation in the results. However, the MPN-method is preferable for epidemiological studies because of the significance of the lower detection level. The random sampling evaluation of ground beef from retail stores indicated that 39% of the samples were Listeria spp. -positive and 31% were L. monocytogenes-positive when using the colony count method. A total of 56% of the meat samples were found to be Listeria spp. -positive and 38% L. monocytogenes-positive when the MPN-method was used. Population levels ranged from 10 to 580 cfu/g (Listeria spp.-positive samples) and from 10 to 270 cfu/g (L. monocytogenes-positive samples) for the colony count method. The MPN-method yielded population levels of 3.6 to 930 MPN/g for Listeria spp. -positive samples and 3.6 to 150 MPN/g for L. monocytogenes-positive samples. L. monocytogenes strains isolated using the colony count method belonged to the following serovars: 1/2a (46%), 1/2b (13%), 1/2c (33%), 3b (4%) and 4c (4%). A similar serovar isolation pattern was found for L. monocytogenes-positive MPN-tubes. The most common serotype was 1/2a (43%), followed by 1/2c (32%) and 1/2b (14%). The serotypes 3c, 4b and 4c were all isolated 4% of the time.
Multi-temporal analysis of a mangrove ecosystem in Southeastern Brazil using object-based classification applied to IKONOS II data

Construction of the Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro (COMPERJ) will introduce a new scenario to the Guapi-Mirim Environmental Protection Area (EPA) in the coming years, since it will require constant environmental monitoring so as to portray its ecological evolution. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to perform a multi-temporal analysis of the Guapi-Mirim EPA, using object-based segmentation and classification techniques applied to IKONOS II images, in order to characterize changes in land use and cover types in the investigated site. Two scenes of the IKONOS II sensor acquired on 2006 and 2008 were chosen for the study. Overall results reveal a regeneration stage for the mangrove ecosystem and a stagnation of the urban area growth within the limits of the Guapi-Mirim EPA.
An independent external validation and evaluation of QRISK cardiovascular risk prediction: a prospective open cohort study

Objective To independently evaluate the performance of the QRISK score for predicting 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease in an independent UK cohort of patients from general practice and compare the performance with Framingham equations. Design Prospective open cohort study. Setting 274 practices from England and Wales contributing to the THIN database. Participants 1.07 million patients, registered between 1 January 1995 and 1 April 2006, aged 35-74 years (5.4 million person years) with 43 990 cardiovascular events. Main outcome measures First diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, stroke, and transient ischaemic attack) recorded in general practice records. Results This independent validation indicated that QRISK offers an improved performance in predicting the 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease in a large cohort of UK patients over the Anderson Framingham equation. Discrimination and calibration statistics were better with QRISK. QRISK explained 32% of the variation in men and 37% in women, compared with 27% and 31% respectively for Anderson Framingham. QRISK underpredicted risk by 13% for men and 10% for women, whereas Anderson Framingham overpredicted risk by 32% for men and 10% for women. In total, 85 010 (8%) of patients would be reclassified from high risk (≥20%) with Anderson Framingham to low risk with QRISK, with an observed 10 year cardiovascular disease risk of 17.5% (95% confidence interval 16.9% to 18.1%) for men and 16.8% (15.7% to 18.0%) for women. The incidence rate of cardiovascular disease events among men was 30.5 per 1000 person years (95% confidence interval 29.9 to 31.2) in high risk patients identified with QRISK and 23.7 per 1000 person years (23.2 to 24.1) in high risk patients identified with Anderson Framingham. Similarly, the incidence rate of cardiovascular disease events among women was 26.7 per 1000 person years (25.8 to 27.7) in high risk patients identified with QRISK compared with 22.2 per 1000 person years (21.4 to 23.0) in high risk patients identified with Anderson Framingham. Conclusions The QRISK cardiovascular disease risk equation offers an improvement over the long established Anderson Framingham equation in terms of identifying a high risk population for cardiovascular disease in the United Kingdom. QRISK underestimates 10 year cardiovascular disease risk, but the magnitude of underprediction is smaller than the overprediction with Anderson Framingham.
AMI&ERIC: How to Learn with Naive Bayes and Prior Knowledge: an Application to Sentiment Analysis

In this paper, we describe our system that participated in SemEval-2013, Task 2.B (sentiment analysis in Twitter). Our approach consists of adapting Naive Bayes probabilities in order to take into account prior knowledge (represented in the form of a sentiment lexicon). We propose two different methods to efficiently incorporate prior knowledge. We show that our approach outperforms the classical Naive Bayes method and shows competitive results with SVM while having less computational complexity.
What is ‘Human’ in Human Capital Theory? Marking a transition from industrial to postindustrial education

Abstract This article addresses educational practice as a site for the development of human capital theory. The article considers metaphysical constructions that are broadly typical of educational thought, and shows how they are amenable to economic analysis. Using different Marxist and feminist methods, it discusses pedagogy and the family as kinds of investment. The author questions the underlying assumptions about humanity on which both economics and education are predicated. If Western educators are certain of the historical ends to which modern Western education aims, do they also fully appreciate the implications of their own certainty and confidence for the future? As educators, are we equally confident that we question ourselves about why we uphold the value of education in the way each of us does? To engage educators in a debate about these values, the article employs poststructuralist critique to place words and concepts central to education and economics, e.g. the market, under erasure. It questions the way in which idealizations of teaching and learning are seen as forms of production and exchange. The article contests the notion of ‘humanity’ advanced within a postindustrial era, and seeks to open a more prescient account of knowledge as a form of wealth, and schooling as a form of commerce.
Collaborative processing of wearable and ambient sensor system for health monitoring application

This paper describes wireless wearable and ambient sensors that cooperate to monitor a person's vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure during daily activities. Each wearable sensor is attached on different parts of the body. The wearable sensors require a high sampling rate and time synchronization to provide a precise analysis of the received signals. The trigger signal for synchronization is provided by the ambient sensors, which detect the user's presence. As wireless technologies, Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15. 4 are used for real-time sensing and time synchronization. Thus, this wearable health-monitoring sensor response is closely related to the context in which it is being used. Experimental results indicate that the system simultaneously provides information about the user's location and vital signs, and the synchronized wearable sensors successfully measures vital signs with a 1 ms resolution.
Muscarinic Agonist-Mediated Increases in Serum Corticosterone Levels Are Abolished in M2 Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor Knockout Mice

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (M1–M5) regulate many key functions in the central and peripheral nervous system. Due to the lack of receptor subtype-selective ligands, however, the physiological roles of individual muscarinic receptor subtypes remain to be determined. In this study, we examined the effects of the muscarinic M2/M4receptor-preferring agonist [5R-(exo)]-6-[4-butylthio-1,2,5-thiadiazol-3-yl]-1-azabicyclo-[3.2. 1]-octane (BuTAC) on serum corticosterone levels in M2 and M4 receptor single knockout (KO) and M2,4receptor double KO mice. Responses were compared with those obtained with the corresponding wild-type (WT) mice. BuTAC (0.03–0.3 mg/kg s.c.) dose dependently and significantly increased serum corticosterone concentrations in WT mice to 5-fold or greater levels compared with vehicle controls. In muscarinic M2 and M2,4 KO mice, however, BuTAC had no significant effect on corticosterone concentrations at doses of 0.1, 0.3, and 1 mg/kg s.c. In both WT and muscarinic M4 KO mice increases in serum corticosterone concentrations induced by BuTAC (0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg) were not significantly different and were blocked by scopolamine. In summary, the muscarinic M2,4-preferring agonist BuTAC had no effect on corticosterone levels in mice lacking functional muscarinic M2 receptors. These data suggest that the muscarinic M2 receptor subtype mediates muscarinic agonist-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in mice.
Performance Surfaces and Adaptive Landscapes1

Abstract In an earlier characterization of the relationship between morphology, performance and fitness, I focused only on directional selection (Arnold, 1983). The aim of this article is to extend that characterization to include stabilizing and other forms of nonlinear selection. As in the earlier characterization, this more general description of the morphology-performance-fitness relationship splits empirical analysis into two parts: the study of the relationship between morpholgy and performance, and the study of the relationship between performance and fitness. From a conceptual standpoint, my goal is to specify the relationship of performance studies to the adaptive landscape. I begin by reviewing the adaptive landscape concept and its importance in evolutionary biology. A central point emerging from that review is that that key descriptors of the adaptive landscape can be estimated by measuring the impact of selection on the means, variances and covariances of phenotypic traits. Those descriptors can be estimated by making a quadratic (regression) approximation to the selection surface that describes the relationship between the phenotypic traits of individuals and their fitness. Analysis of the effects of morphology on performance follows an analogous procedure: making a quadratic approximation to the individual performance surface and then using that approximation to solve for the descriptors of the performance landscape. I conclude by discussing the evolution of performance and adaptive landscapes. One possibility with biomechanical justification is that the performance landscape evolves along performance lines of least resistance.
Making the Next Move: How Experiential and Vicarious Learning Shape the Locations of Chains' Acquisitions

We examine acquisitions by multiunit chain organizations to determine why they acquire a particular target rather than others that are available to them and thus better understand chain growth. We advance experiential and vicarious learning processes as an explanation for chains' next spatial move. Our analysis of Ontario nursing home chains' acquisition location choices from 1971 to 1996 provides broad support for a learning perspective, demonstrating how experiential and vicarious processes shape and constrain the locations of chains' acquisitions. Experiential processes lead chains to replicate themselves by acquiring components geographically and organizationally similar to their own most recent and most similar prior acquisitions and their own current components. Vicarious processes lead chains to imitate location choices of other visible and comparable chains' most recent acquisitions, prior acquisitions nearest to potential targets, and their current components. Our study thus establishes organizational learning as a conceptual foundation for predicting the location of a chain's next acquisition and, more generally, the spatial expansion of chains over time.
Noise Tolerant Variants of the Perceptron Algorithm

A large number of variants of the Perceptron algorithm have been proposed and partially evaluated in recent work. One type of algorithm aims for noise tolerance by replacing the last hypothesis of the perceptron with another hypothesis or a vote among hypotheses. Another type simply adds a margin term to the perceptron in order to increase robustness and accuracy, as done in support vector machines. A third type borrows further from support vector machines and constrains the update function of the perceptron in ways that mimic soft-margin techniques. The performance of these algorithms, and the potential for combining different techniques, has not been studied in depth. This paper provides such an experimental study and reveals some interesting facts about the algorithms. In particular the perceptron with margin is an effective method for tolerating noise and stabilizing the algorithm. This is surprising since the margin in itself is not designed or used for noise tolerance, and there are no known guarantees for such performance. In most cases, similar performance is obtained by the voted-perceptron which has the advantage that it does not require parameter selection. Techniques using soft margin ideas are run-time intensive and do not give additional performance benefits. The results also highlight the difficulty with automatic parameter selection which is required with some of these variants.
Robust Speech Recognition by Combining a Robust Feature Extraction with an Adaptation of HMMs

A method is presented to extract robust features from a no isy speech signal with the intention to improve the performance of an automatic speech recognition system. The processing is based on an adaptive filtering of the short-term spectra where the frequency response of the filter is smoothed with a cepstro-temporal approach [1], [2]. It turns out that the recognition performance is comparable with the performance that can be achieved with a robust feature extraction scheme standardized by ETSI [3]. Looking at the case of a hands-free speech input in a noisy and reverberant environment the recognition rates can be improved further by additionally adapting the HMMs to the acoustic conditions [4].
Who Sees What? Demographics and the Visibility of Consumer Expenditures

A growing body of work on social phenomena (like status, peer effects, social comparisons and fashion) rests on assumptions regarding the social observability of consumption activities. The present paper provides new empirical evidence for assessing such assumptions. We analyze data from a unique visibility survey, designed to quantify the relative “cultural” visibility of different consumer expenditures among US households. We investigate the relationship between respondents’ demographics and the expenditures they perceive as visible. We discuss implications for existing and future work.
Scale and performance in a distributed file system

Andrew is a distributed computing environment being developed in a joint project by Carnegie Mellon University and IBM. One of the major components of Andrew is a distributed file system which constitutes underlying mechanism for sharing information. The goals of the Andrew file system are to support growth up to at least 7000 workstations (one for each student, faculty member, and staff at Carnegie Mellon) while providing users, application programs, and system administrators with the amenities of a shared file system. A fundamental result of our concern with scale is the design decision to transfer whole files between servers and workstations rather than some smaller unit such as records or blocks, as almost all other distributed file systems do. This paper examines the consequences of this and other design decisions and features that bear on the scalability of Andrew. Large scale affects a distributed system in two ways: it degrades performance and it complicates administration and day-to-day operation. This paper addresses both concerns and shows that the mechanisms we have incorporated cope with them successfully. We start the initial prototype of the system, what we learned from it, and how we changed the system to improve performance. We compare its performance with that of a block-oriented file system, Sun Microsystems' NFS, in order to evaluate the whole file transfer strategy. We then turn to operability, and finish with issues related peripherally to scale and with the ways the present design could be enchanced.
Excitability of the Motor Cortex Ipsilateral to the Moving Body Side Depends on Spatio-Temporal Task Complexity and Hemispheric Specialization

Unilateral movements are mainly controlled by the contralateral hemisphere, even though the primary motor cortex ipsilateral (M1ipsi) to the moving body side can undergo task-related changes of activity as well. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate whether representations of the wrist flexor (FCR) and extensor (ECR) in M1ipsi would be modulated when unilateral rhythmical wrist movements were executed in isolation or in the context of a simple or difficult hand-foot coordination pattern, and whether this modulation would differ for the left versus right hemisphere. We found that M1ipsi facilitation of the resting ECR and FCR mirrored the activation of the moving wrist such that facilitation was higher when the homologous muscle was activated during the cyclical movement. We showed that this ipsilateral facilitation increased significantly when the wrist movements were performed in the context of demanding hand-foot coordination tasks whereas foot movements alone influenced the hand representation of M1ipsi only slightly. Our data revealed a clear hemispheric asymmetry such that MEP responses were significantly larger when elicited in the left M1ipsi than in the right. In experiment 2, we tested whether the modulations of M1ipsi facilitation, caused by performing different coordination tasks with the left versus right body sides, could be explained by changes in short intracortical inhibition (SICI). We found that SICI was increasingly reduced for a complex coordination pattern as compared to rest, but only in the right M1ipsi. We argue that our results might reflect the stronger involvement of the left versus right hemisphere in performing demanding motor tasks.
Long working hours may increase risk of coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) estimated by Framingham risk score (FRS) in Korean adults. METHODS This study evaluated adult participants in Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey IV (2007-2009). After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, the final sample size for this study model was 8,350. Subjects were asked about working hours and health status. Participants also completed physical examinations and biochemical measurement necessary for estimation of FRS. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to investigate the association between working hours and 10-year risk for CHD estimated by FRS. RESULTS Compared to those who work 31-40 hr, significantly higher 10-year risk was estimated among subjects working longer hours. As working hours increased, odds ratio (OR) for upper 10 percent of estimated 10-year risk for CHD was increased up to 1.94. CONCLUSIONS Long working hours are significantly related to risk of coronary heart disease.
Correction for partial volume effects in PET: principle and validation.

UNLABELLED The accuracy of PET for measuring regional radiotracer concentrations in the human brain is limited by the finite resolution capability of the scanner and the resulting partial volume effects (PVEs). We designed a new algorithm to correct for PVEs by characterizing the geometric interaction between the PET system and the brain activity distribution. METHODS The partial volume correction (PVC) algorithm uses high-resolution volumetric MR images correlated with the PET volume. We used a PET simulator to calculate recovery and cross-contamination factors of identified tissue components in the brain model. These geometry-dependent transfer coefficients form a matrix representing the fraction of true activity from each distinct brain region observed in any given set of regions of interest. This matrix can be inverted to correct for PVEs, independent of the tracer concentrations in each tissue component. A sphere phantom was used to validate the simulated point-spread function of the PET scanner. Accuracy and precision of the PVC method were assessed using a human basal ganglia phantom. A constant contrast experiment was performed to explore the recovery capability and statistic error propagation of PVC in various noise conditions. In addition, a dual-isotope experiment was used to evaluate the ability of the PVC algorithm to recover activity concentrations in small structures surrounded by background activity with a different radioactive half-life. This models the time-variable contrast between regions that is often seen in neuroreceptor studies. RESULTS Data from the three-dimensional brain phantom demonstrated a full recovery capability of PVC with less than 10% root mean-square error in terms of absolute values, which decreased to less than 2% when results from four PET slices were averaged. Inaccuracy in the estimation of 18F tracer half-life in the presence of 11C background activity was in the range of 25%-50% before PVC and 0%-6% after PVC, for resolution varying from 6 to 14 mm FWHM. In terms of noise propagation, the degradation of the coefficient of variation after PVC was found to be easily predictable and typically on the order of 25%. CONCLUSION The PVC algorithm allows the correction for PVEs simultaneously in all identified brain regions, independent of tracer levels.