Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differentiation of Dextran-ProducingLeuconostoc Strains by a Modified Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Protocol

ABSTRACT Seven dextran-producing Leuconostoc strains were differentiated by using a modified randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) protocol that incorporated specific primers designed from conserved regions of dextransucrase genes. RAPD profiles showed intraspecies differences among the Leuconostoc mesenteroides strains tested. This modified RAPD protocol will aid in the differentiation of polymer-producing leuconostocs, which are currently distinguished by time-consuming analyses of the dextrans they synthesize.
Preoperative serum levels of soluble endoglin for prediction of recurrence in stage III colorectal cancer patients.

BACKGROUND To evaluate the clinical usefulness of serum levels of soluble form of endoglin in stage III colorectal adenocarcinomas (CRC) patients for detection of recurrence. METHODS The case-control study consisted of 80 stage III CRC patients who underwent surgery with curative intent and 70 age-and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Serum levels of soluble form of endoglin (sol-end) were measured in both groups. Also, predictive factors of recurrence were evaluated using multivariate analyses. RESULTS Serum levels of sol-end in stage III CRC patients were significantly higher than those in controls. There was not a significant association between serum levels of sol-end and clinicopathological features in CRC patients. Multivariate regression analysis showed the LNR (hazard ratio, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.46-4.34; p < 0.001), to be significant independent factors to estimate local recurrence in stage III CRC patients. CONCLUSION Preoperative serum levels of sol-end do not seem useful as a marker for detection of recurrence in stage III CRC patients.
A Monte Carlo model for the study of n-type strained Silicon Schottky diodes

A Monte Carlo investigation of charge transport in Strained Silicon Schottky diodes is presented. The effect of strain on the reverse current for several state-of-the-art barrier heights is discussed and extensively analyzed. The results show an important increase of current with strain, which allows achieving lower effective barrier heights due to the shifting of Δ2 conduction band valleys. However, the relative improvement provided by the strain is slightly less significant for lower barrier heights due to the changes in tunneling and thermionic components of the total current.
PCMOS-based Hardware Implementation of Bayesian Network

Bayesian network (K.B. Korb and E. Nicholson, 2004) has received considerable attention in a great variety of research areas such as for artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, medicine, engineering, image processing, and various kinds of decision support systems. But up till now, most of the investigation on Bayesian network has been on its theory, algorithms and software implementations. This paper presents the Bayesian network from a totally new perspective-hardware circuit implementation. By using the new-born technology of probabilistic CMOS (PCMOS) (K.V. Palem, 2005), (S. Cheemalavagu et al.), (S. Cheemalavagu et al., 2004), (P. Korkmaz, 2006) and taking advantage of the statistical properties of simple logic gates, the Bayesian network can be constructed using hardware circuits. Such hardware implementation revealed the advantages in aspects of power consumption, delay time and quality of randomness.
Unsupervised detection of genes of influence in lung cancer using biological networks

MOTIVATION Lung cancer is often discovered long after its onset, making identifying genes important in its initiation and progression a challenge. By the time the tumors are discovered, we only observe the final sum of changes of the few genes that initiated cancer and thousands of genes that they have influenced. Gene interactions and heterogeneity of samples make it difficult to identify genes consistent between different cohorts. Using gene and gene-product interaction networks, we propose a principled approach to identify a small subset of genes whose network neighbors exhibit consistently high expression change (in cancerous tissue versus normal) regardless of their own expression. We hypothesize that these genes can shed light on the larger scale perturbations in the overall landscape of expression levels. RESULTS We benchmark our method on simulated data, and show that we can recover a true gene list in noisy measurement data. We then apply our method to four non-small cell lung cancer and two pancreatic cancer cohorts, finding several genes that are consistent within all cohorts of the same cancer type. CONCLUSION Our model is flexible, robust and identifies gene sets that are more consistent across cohorts than several other approaches. Additionally, our method can be applied on a per-patient basis not requiring large cohorts of patients to find genes of influence. Our approach is generally applicable to gene expression studies where the goal is to identify a small set of influential genes that may in turn explain the much larger set of genome-wide expression changes.
Molecular Method for Detection of Total Coliforms in Drinking Water Samples

ABSTRACT This work demonstrates the ability of a bacterial concentration and recovery procedure combined with three different PCR assays targeting the lacZ, wecG, and 16S rRNA genes, respectively, to detect the presence of total coliforms in 100-ml samples of potable water (presence/absence test). PCR assays were first compared to the culture-based Colilert and MI agar methods to determine their ability to detect 147 coliform strains representing 76 species of Enterobacteriaceae encountered in fecal and environmental settings. Results showed that 86 (58.5%) and 109 (74.1%) strains yielded a positive signal with Colilert and MI agar methods, respectively, whereas the lacZ, wecG, and 16S rRNA PCR assays detected 133 (90.5%), 111 (75.5%), and 146 (99.3%) of the 147 total coliform strains tested. These assays were then assessed by testing 122 well water samples collected in the Québec City region of Canada. Results showed that 97 (79.5%) of the samples tested by culture-based methods and 95 (77.9%), 82 (67.2%), and 98 (80.3%) of samples tested using PCR-based methods contained total coliforms, respectively. Consequently, despite the high genetic variability of the total coliform group, this study demonstrated that it is possible to use molecular assays to detect total coliforms in potable water: the 16S rRNA molecular assay was shown to be as efficient as recommended culture-based methods. This assay might be used in combination with an Escherichia coli molecular assay to assess drinking water quality.
Antitumor effects of different administration sequences of cisplatin and Endostar on Lewis lung carcinoma

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in the growth and metastasis of a number of tumors. Anti-angiogenic drugs are able to normalize tumor vasculature and inhibit tumor growth. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that the combination of cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs and angiogenesis inhibitors may exert complementary therapeutic benefits in the treatment of cancer. In the present study, the effect of the angiogenesis inhibitor, recombinant human endostatin (Endostar), in combination with cisplatin, was evaluated in C57/BL/6 mouse xenografts under different administration sequences. The drug combinations and sequences of administration were analyzed within the cancer xenografts for any inhibitory effects. Changes in the cell cycle distribution of the cells were monitored using flow cytometry. The effects of Endostar, particularly a reduction in the density of microvessels, were assessed using a method that employed anti-cluster of differentiation 31 antibodies. The concentration of cisplatin in the blood and tumor tissue at various time-points following administration was detected by high-performance liquid chromatography. The tumor tissues that received simultaneous Endostar and cisplatin exhibited increased inhibition of tumor growth and improved cell cycle distribution compared with those that received cisplatin alone, or those in which Endostar was administered prior to cisplatin. The simultaneous administration of the drugs resulted in the lowest microvessel density in the xenografts. Under these conditions, the concentration of cisplatin was revealed to be the highest in the grafted tumor tissue. The results of the present study suggest that the co-administration of Endostar and cisplatin may aid in the optimization of the antitumor activity of cisplatin.
Heather Gell and music education in the community

Kindergartener and Dalcroze teacher, Heather Gell (1896-1988), brought music to thousands of Australian children and adults. The community touched by Gell was vast: it included her classes in studios and teacher training colleges, 'listeners in' to her radio programs, viewers of her television programs, Dalcroze trainees, and people in her theatrical productions. This paper focuses on Gell's work outside institutions and colleges, namely her studio classes in the community for children and adults, and her productions. Gell was a talented and imaginative teacher. Entrepreneurial and opportunistic, she used networks of support, and her connections with people of influence to achieve her educational goals. She also took advantage of the electronic technologies of the day. Evidence for this has come through interviews with former students, memoirs, letters, newspaper cuttings, scrapbooks, photographs, archival material, Gell's writings, syllabi from Departments of Education, and personal contact with Gell herself. Hers is not a conventional story as she was not employed full-time by any state department of education or institution, but worked all her life as a freelance specialist in Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Serverless lightweight mutual authentication protocol for small mobile computing devices

Small and inexpensive computing devices are becoming potential players in the Internet arena as they are used for collecting or generating information and later relay them to the designated servers. The information gathered must be adequately protected against all kinds of attacks during storage and communication. However, smart constrained devices have limited resources and unable to run most of the classical protocols that provide robust security. This article presents a lightweight mutual authentication protocol for resource constrained computing devices with high mobility. Our solution is novel as it facilitates resource constrained devices to autonomously perform mutual authentication and establish a session key with other parties without sharing common parameters. Our proposed protocol is lightweight, symmetric and requires few space for storing keys and parameters locally. The protocol is formally verified using AVISPA tool.
Grief and loss theory in social work practice: All changes involve loss, just as all losses require change

Working with and recognising grief and loss issues have long been identified as one of the core skills of social work practice. Despite its centrality, the exploration and application of grief and loss theory from a perspective other than death and dying has received sporadic attention in social work literature. This paper begins with a personal reflection from practice, which provided the catalyst writing in the first place. The concepts of grief and loss are then discussed in relation to losses other than death and dying. An analysis of historical and contemporary theories of grief and loss will then be explored, with the author advancing a theoretically expansive approach to grief and loss. This theoretical approach is one that is consistent with social work practice and is committed to diversity of experience and clients' strengths, as it adopts a framework for practice, which is constantly mindful of the context and meaning systems of social work clients.
Investigating the role of the active ingredients in executive coaching

Abstract Several factors termed the active ingredients have been shown to play a major role in the success of psychotherapy. These ingredients have been theoretically extended to executive coaching, but the impact of these ingredients on coaching success has not yet been tested. This study examined the effects of three active ingredients on competency change in 30 coaching engagements. The results suggest that executive involvement, perceptions of developability and individual development plans are related to coaching success. Specifically, executives rated higher on these components indicated a greater degree of competency change. This study provides support for the use of the active ingredients framework within executive coaching engagements, suggests areas for future research and offers recommendations for practicing coaches.
Neutron spectrometry with He-3 proportional counters

Helium filled proportional counters are widely used in the field of neutron detection and spectrometry. A review of some parameters and physical effects that influence the He-3 proportional counters response is presented through the experimental study of a commercially available counter. The impact of these effects is taken into account in the description of detector performance when the response is calculated with the Monte Carlo method. A method to determine neutron energy distribution with a bare He-3 counter in an unknown neutron field is presented. The neutron energy range extends up to about 7 MeV. The method does not require a hypothesis about neutron spectrum shape. It is based in the calculated counter response with Geant4, the validity of which is experimentally verified. A detailed description of the steps needed is presented.
Resisting the marginalization of science in an urban school: Coactivating social, cultural, material, and strategic resources

This study describes the resources and strategies middle school teachers, urban fellows, and a district science staff developer coactivated to resist the marginalization of science in a high-poverty, low-performing urban school. Through critical narrative inquiry, I document factors that marginalized science in three teachers' classrooms. The narratives show that constraints related to cultural, material, and social resources contributed to a more global symbolic resource constraint, the low status and priority of science in the school. The narratives develop a new category of strategic resources embodied or controlled by others and leveraged to improve students' opportunities to learn science. Attention to a broader array of resources, including social, symbolic, and strategic resources, helps to excavate some of the inertial forces that might derail efforts to teach for social justice. The findings provide a sense of how and why teachers might activate resources to resist the marginalization of science in their classrooms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:840–860, 2010
Peer Approach in Developing Resistance Skills on Drugs Among Adolescents

The Philippines is currently experiencing a “youth bulge. ” In fact, the 2000 Census counted 15.1 million adolescents comprising 19.7% of the total population. It is estimated to reach 30 million in 2030 (Berja & Ojena, as cited in Cruz & Raymundo, 2004). The population of Filipino adolescents poses a great health concern not only because of their big number but also of their vulnerability to risk-taking behaviors. To prove this, the Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS III) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute in 2002 revealed alarming statistics. It reported that of the 15-24 year-old age group, 21% smoke, 42 % drink, and 2.8% use drugs (Cruz & Raymundo, 2004). Various research studies have shown the crucial role of peers in adolescent health and development. An example is that a peer group can lead the adolescent down the road of vice (Gastardo-Conaco, Jimenez, & Billedo, 2003). A study which explored the role of peers in drinking behavior reported that the need to fit in the peer group is the primary reason why most young people start drinking alcoholic beverage and try illegal substance (Neuwirth & Frederick, 2004). Considering the strong influence of peers in the adolescents’ life and identifying peer pressure as one of the causes for the risk-taking behaviors among the youth, this study was undertaken to determine how could peers be the source of positive influence and a part of the adolescents’ health support system. Peer approach is a program strategy designed to train select members of any group of equals to effect change among members of that same group. It seeks to utilize the positive aspects of adolescent peer groups by helping them learn from each other (UNESCO, 2003).
Impact assessment for vulnerabilities in open-source software libraries

Software applications integrate more and more open-source software (OSS) to benefit from code reuse. As a drawback, each vulnerability discovered in bundled OSS may potentially affect the application that includes it. Upon the disclosure of every new vulnerability, the application vendor has to assess whether such vulnerability is exploitable in the particular usage context of the applications, and needs to determine whether customers require an urgent patch containing a non-vulnerable version of the OSS. Unfortunately, current decision making relies mostly on natural-language vulnerability descriptions and expert knowledge, and is therefore difficult, time-consuming, and error-prone. This paper proposes a novel approach to support the impact assessment based on the analysis of code changes introduced by security fixes. We describe our approach using an illustrative example and perform a comparison with both proprietary and open-source state-of-the-art solutions. Finally we report on our experience with a sample application and two industrial development projects.
New technologies and relaxation: an explorative study on obese patients with emotional eating

1 Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Psychology Research Laboratory, San Giuseppe Hospital, Verbania, Italy. 2 Department of Psychology, University of Bergamo, Italy. 3 Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCSS, Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Laboratory, Milan, Italy. 4 Research Institute Brain and Behaviour, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. 5 Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Italy. Since stress and negative emotions are critical factors in inducing overeating in obese patients, psychological and behavioural interventions for obesity should include stress management techniques. A three weeks relaxation protocol supported by the use of new technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and portable mp3 players, was developed in order to reduce stress and related emotional eating episodes in obese patients. Sixty female obese inpatients reporting emotional eating were included in the study and divided in three experimental groups (virtual reality-VR, imaginative-IM and waiting list). Psychometric and physiological variables were collected. Results show that relaxation training was effective in improving perceived self efficacy in eating control, as well as in decreasing depressive symptoms, anxiety and physiological arousal both in the VR and IM conditions.
Integrating non-coding RNAs in JAK-STAT regulatory networks

Being a well-characterized pathway, JAK-STAT signaling serves as a valuable paradigm for studying the architecture of gene regulatory networks. The discovery of untranslated or non-coding RNAs, namely microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs, provides an opportunity to elucidate their roles in such networks. In principle, these regulatory RNAs can act as downstream effectors of the JAK-STAT pathway and/or affect signaling by regulating the expression of JAK-STAT components. Examples of interactions between signaling pathways and non-coding RNAs have already emerged in basic cell biology and human diseases such as cancer, and can potentially guide the identification of novel biomarkers or drug targets for medicine.
The skin tissue is adversely affected by TNF-alpha blockers in patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis: a 5-year prospective analysis

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the incidence of and the main risk factors associated with cutaneous adverse events in patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis following anti-TNF-α therapy. METHODS: A total of 257 patients with active arthritis who were taking TNF-α blockers, including 158 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 87 with ankylosing spondylitis and 12 with psoriatic arthritis, were enrolled in a 5-year prospective analysis. Patients with overlapping or other rheumatic diseases were excluded. Anthropometric, socioeconomic, demographic and clinical data were evaluated, including the Disease Activity Score-28, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index and Psoriasis Area Severity Index. Skin conditions were evaluated by two dermatology experts, and in doubtful cases, skin lesion biopsies were performed. Associations between adverse cutaneous events and clinical, demographic and epidemiological variables were determined using the chi-square test, and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors. The significance level was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: After 60 months of follow-up, 71 adverse events (73.85/1000 patient-years) were observed, of which allergic and immune-mediated phenomena were the most frequent events, followed by infectious conditions involving bacterial (47.1%), parasitic (23.5%), fungal (20.6%) and viral (8.8%) agents. CONCLUSION: The skin is significantly affected by adverse reactions resulting from the use of TNF-α blockers, and the main risk factors for cutaneous events were advanced age, female sex, a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, disease activity and the use of infliximab.
A parametric model checking approach for real-time systems design

Timing characteristic is a crucial point of concern in the design of real-time systems, because the systems are to operates under time-critical conditions. In this paper, we present a verification-driven approach for improving the correctness in the design of real-time systems. Our approach abstracts the details of timing information of the system by using time parameters. We propose parametric timed structure, an extension of timed transition systems, as a model for describing real-time systems. We define the parametric temporal logic PARCTL for specifying timing properties with time parameters. The model checking algorithms for parametric timed system are then proposed. The algorithms derive the necessary and sufficient condition over time parameters. We illustrate the application of our approach by deriving parameter conditions for a mutual exclusion protocol and show that the result of this approach can be used as guidelines for improving the timing correctness in the design of real-time systems.
Longitudinal Study of Loneliness and Depression as Predictors of Health in Mid- to Later Life

The longitudinal relationship between loneliness and depression as predictors of chronic health conditions in middle-aged to older adults was investigated utilizing data collected by the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a national representative longitudinal study of health, retirement, and aging, conducted by the Institute for Social Research (ISR) Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Michigan, funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration. The correlation between these loneliness and depression was moderate (r = .32 to r = 51). The single-item subjective self-report of loneliness was found to be an adequate measure of loneliness. A cross-lagged panel correlation and regression design was used to examine the longitudinal relationship between loneliness, depression, and chronic health conditions. A temporal precedence was indicated implying a causal relationship with depression leading to subsequent loneliness. The relationship between recurring loneliness and chronic health conditions was weak (r = .13).