Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Formation by Rabbit Polyclonal Antibodies against the SesC Protein

ABSTRACT Several well-studied proteins with defined roles in Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm formation are LPXTG motif-containing proteins. Here, we investigate the possible use of the LPXTG motif-containing protein SesC (S. epidermidis surface protein C; accession no. NP_765787) as a target for antibodies to prevent biofilm formation. In vitro and in a in vivo rat model of catheter infection, gene and protein expression analysis showed that SesC is expressed more strongly in biofilm-associated cells than in planktonic cells and is expressed particularly during the late phase of in vivo biofilm formation. Polyclonal rabbit antibodies raised against SesC reduced the fibrinogen-binding ability of S. epidermidis RP62A and Staphylococcus aureus RN4220 transformants expressing SesC, inhibited in vitro biofilm formation by S. epidermidis strains 10b and 1457, and significantly reduced the numbers of bacteria in a 1-day-old in vivo biofilm (P < 0.001, one-way analysis of variance). Our findings revealed that SesC is a promising target for prevention and treatment of S. epidermidis biofilms because it affects both the primary attachment and biofilm accumulation phases. The precise role of SesC in biofilm formation remains to be identified.
La double dimension de l'apprentissage autodirigé Contribution à une théorie du sujet social apprenant

In this article the author lays the foundation for a conceptualization of self-direction from an analysis of its place in the debates occurring in both Europe and North America. The proposed model is grounded in two meanings of the concept: the self-determined will to learn and the abilities of learning self-regulation. Self-efficacy to learn underlies these two meanings in the proposed conceptualization of self-direction. Resume Cet article jette les bases d'une conceptualisation de l'autodirection a partir du debat sur cette notion en Amerique du Nord et en Europe. Le modele theorique propose est enracine dans deux dimensions conceptuelles : la volonte autodeterminee d'apprendre d'un cote et les capacites d'autoregulation de l'apprentissage de l'autre. Le sentiment d'efficacite personnelle a apprendre est sous-jacent a ces deux dimensions dans le modele propose de l'autodirection.
Left Parietal Regions Are Critical for Adaptive Visuomotor Control

The question addressed in this study is whether parietal brain circuits involved in adaptation to novel visuomotor conditions are lateralized. This information is critical for characterizing the neural mechanisms mediating adaptive behavior in humans, as well as for assessing the effects of unilateral brain damage on function. Moreover, previous research has been controversial in this regard. We compared visuomotor adaptation in 10 patients with focal, unilateral, left or right parietal lesions and healthy control participants. All subjects reached to each of eight targets over three experimental sessions: a baseline session, where the visually displayed and actual hand motion were matched; an adaptation session, where the visual feedback deviated from the actual movement direction by 30°; and an after-effect session, where visual feedback was again matched to hand motion. Adaptation was primarily quantified as a change in initial movement direction throughout the adaptation session and the presence of after-effects when the rotation was removed. Patients with right parietal damage demonstrated normal adaptation and large after-effects, which was comparable to the performance of healthy controls. In contrast, patients with left parietal damage showed a clear deficit in adaptation and showed no after-effects. Thus, our results show that left but not right parietal regions are critical for visuomotor adaptation. These findings are discussed in the context that left parietal regions are critical for the modification of stored representations of the relationship between movement commands and limb and environmental state, as is thought to occur during visuomotor adaptation.
Appendix 1: Operationalization of Constructs

The following two tables provide a summary of all constructs and their respective operationalizations as used in the two surveys conducted. Except if stated differently for measuring the indicators seven-level Likert items have been used, ranging from 1= " strongly agree " to 7= " strongly disagree ". Firstly, Table 1 lists all constructs and their respective operationalization used in the survey for the basic and the detailed research model (Recruiting Trends 2007). Secondly, Table 2 lists all constructs and their respective operationalization used in the extended research model as well as a few additional constructs not used in this book. Table 1. Constructs and operationalization used in basic and detailed research model (Recruiting Trends 2007) Construct ID Indicator BPS BPS-1 We have a well-regulated process cycle for applicant tracking in our staff recruitment. BPS-2 We have established an efficiently organized process in our staff recruitment. BPS-3 We have established highly standardized procedures in our staff recruitment. BPS-4 We have documented our actions to a great extent. BPT BPT-1 We have reduced the time between the identification of a vacancy and the posting of the job ad. BPT-2 We have reduced the time between the posting of the job ad and the first incoming applications. BPT-3 We have reduced the time between the incoming applications and the transmitted notice of arrival for the respective applicant. BPT-4 We have reduced the time between the incoming applications and the final hiring decision. BPT-5 We have reduced the time between the identification of a vacancy and its fill. BPT-6 We have reduced the time between the posting of the job ad and the final hiring decision. BPC BPC-1 We were able to reduce the costs for candidate attraction. BPC-2 We were able to reduce the average costs per each posted job ad. BPC-3 We were able to reduce the costs for the response management with the recruiting process. BPC-4 We were able to reduce the costs for the internal applicant tracking. BPC-5 We were able to reduce the costs per tracked application. BPC-6 We were able to keep the internal set budgets for staff recruitment. BPC-7 We were able to reduce the average costs per each hire. BPQ BPQ-1 We were able to enhance the overall applicant quality. BPQ-2 We were able to sustain the overall applicant quality. BPQ-3 We were able to enhance the quality of applicants' data. BPQ-4 We are satisfied …
Arabidopsis Hsa32, a Novel Heat Shock Protein, Is Essential for Acquired Thermotolerance during Long Recovery after Acclimation1[W]

Plants and animals share similar mechanisms in the heat shock (HS) response, such as synthesis of the conserved HS proteins (Hsps). However, because plants are confined to a growing environment, in general they require unique features to cope with heat stress. Here, we report on the analysis of the function of a novel Hsp, heat-stress-associated 32-kD protein (Hsa32), which is highly conserved in land plants but absent in most other organisms. The gene responds to HS at the transcriptional level in moss (Physcomitrella patens), Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), and rice (Oryza sativa). Like other Hsps, Hsa32 protein accumulates greatly in Arabidopsis seedlings after HS treatment. Disruption of Hsa32 by T-DNA insertion does not affect growth and development under normal conditions. However, the acquired thermotolerance in the knockout line was compromised following a long recovery period (>24 h) after acclimation HS treatment, when a severe HS challenge killed the mutant but not the wild-type plants, but no significant difference was observed if they were challenged within a short recovery period. Quantitative hypocotyl elongation assay also revealed that thermotolerance decayed faster in the absence of Hsa32 after a long recovery. Similar results were obtained in Arabidopsis transgenic plants with Hsa32 expression suppressed by RNA interference. Microarray analysis of the knockout mutant indicates that only the expression of Hsa32 was significantly altered in HS response. Taken together, our results suggest that Hsa32 is required not for induction but rather maintenance of acquired thermotolerance, a feature that could be important to plants.
Proceeding of the Irish Machine Vision and Image Processing Conference , September 1999 Applications of Level Set Methods for Image and Video Processing

In this paper, the level set algorithm is examined with a view to applications in image and video processing, and machine vision. Conventional parametric deformable models, which can be viewed as Lagrangian geometric models, where the boundary of the model has the ability to align itself with certain image features, are initially presented. This paper describes some of the problems associated with this approach and introduces the level set method as a step towards a solution. The main idea is to take the Lagrangian form of the parametric deformable model, and replace it with an Eulerian, initial value partial differential equation. This involves recasting the problem in a higher dimension, but it can be shown that this actually leads to a reduction in complexity. Various improvements to the basic form are presented, as well as several different formulations of the guiding speed function. For this paper, the level set method was applied to two areas; finding and tracking a human face in video-conferencing sequences, and extracting subtle contours from medical images. In applications where off-line computation is acceptable, the level set algorithm competes well with established techniques, and can be demonstrated to have several advantages over them. A disadvantage of the level set method over active contours has been found to be the high computational cost.
Experimenting Abstraction Mechanisms through an Agent-Based Hierarchical Planner

In this paper, an agent-based architecture devised to perform experiments on hierarchical planning is described. The planning activity results from the interaction of a community of agents, some of them being explicitly devoted to embed one or more existing planners. The proposed architecture allows to exploit the characteristics of any external planner, provided that a suitable wrapper –in form of planning agent– is provided. An implementation of the architecture, able to embed one planner of the graphplan family, has been used to directly assess whether or not abstraction mechanisms can help to reduce the time complexity of the search on specific domains. Some preliminary experiments are reported, focusing on problems taken from the AIPS 2000 planning competition. Comparative results, obtained by assessing the performances of the selected planner (used first in a stand-alone configuration and then emb edded into the proposed multi-agent architecture), put into evidence that abstraction may significantly speed up the search.
Visual Field Loss After Attacks of Migraine With Aura

Visual fields were mapped with kinetic arc perimetry in 23 migraine with aura subjects and, for comparison, in 20 migraine without aura subjects and in 21 non-headache controls. Central vision on the Amsler eye chart and visual perception threshold on a computer task were also investigated. Measures were obtained at least seven days after an episode of migraine. In addition, 10 of the migraine with aura subjects and 10 migraine without aura subjects were studied the day after an attack. The day after migraine with aura, visual sensitivity in the periphery of the visual fields was depressed, central vision was blurred, and visual perception threshold was elevated. These visual disturbances had resolved 7 to 10 days later. With the exception of a minor increase in visual perception threshold, vision was normal after attacks of migraine without aura. Residual effects of the migraine aura could mediate the subclinical visual disturbances which persist for at least one day after attacks of migraine with aura.
Revisiting the role of cladribine in acute myeloid leukemia: An improvement on past accomplishments or more old news?

Originally studied in lymphoid diseases, cladribine (CdA) is an adenosine deaminase resistant analog of adenosine that was later discovered to induce myeloid cell apoptosis. The activity of CdA in myeloid malignancies was first reported in relapsed/refractory (RR) pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with complete response (CR) rates of up to 47%. Consequently, several studies have confirmed the efficacy of single agent CdA or CdA combination regimens in AML. Established CR rates for combination regimens in RR adults are approximately 50%, while CR rates for newly diagnosed (ND) adults are approximately 70% and show similar toxicity profiles to previously used regimens. Despite these promising data, many centers have yet to adopt CdA combination regimens for these difficult to treat populations. We review the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, clinical data, and safety of CdA monotherapy and combination regimens for the management of pediatric and adult ND and RR‐AML. Am. J. Hematol. 90:62–72, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Two Dimensional Modeling and Fractal Characterization of Tumor Vascular Network

Tumor networks display percolation like scaling, representing the first evidence for a biological growth process whose key determinants are local substrate properties. In this paper we present a full characterization of a recently proposed model which reproduces the main features of the biological system, focusing on its dynamical properties, on the fractal properties of patterns, and on the percolative phase transition. We propose a simple model which reproduces many features of the biological system.
Towards an integrated approach for validating qualities of self-adaptive systems

Self-adaptation has been widely recognized as an effective approach to deal with the increasing complexity and dynamicity of modern software systems. One major challenge in self-adaptive systems is to provide guarantees about the required runtime qualities, such as performance and reliability. Existing research employs formal methods either to provide guarantees about the design of a self-adaptive systems, or to perform runtime analysis supporting adaptations for particular quality goals. Yet, work products of formalization are not exploited over different phases of the software life cycle. In this position paper, we argue for an integrated formally founded approach to validate the required software qualities of self-adaptive systems. This approach integrates three activities: (1) model checking of the behavior of a self-adaptive system during design, (2) model-based testing of the concrete implementation during development, and (3) runtime diagnosis after system deployment. We illustrate the approach with excerpts of an initial study and discuss for each activity research challenges ahead.
Gameplay as Exercise

We designed and evaluated an exertion video game in order to overcome two challenges that are preventing exergames from becoming a viable sustained exercise alternative; insufficient physical exertion and player retention. This was achieved by implementing common features shared by the most popular video games and seamlessly merging them with the exertion found in exergames. A user study was performed where the exergame was played 132 times over three days by 8 participants. Compared to the control condition, a moderately paced walk, the exergame scored better on both subjective enjoyment and degree of physical activity. Further research could consider alternative versions of exergames, as well as different user groups.
Participation of the lytic replicon in bacteriophage P1 plasmid maintenance

P1 bacteriophage carries at least two replicons: a plasmid replicon and a viral lytic replicon. Since the isolated plasmid replicon can maintain itself stably at the low copy number characteristic of intact P1 prophage, it has been assumed that this replicon is responsible for driving prophage replication. We provide evidence that when replication from the plasmid replicon is prevented, prophage replication continues, albeit at a reduced rate. The residual plasmid replication is due to incomplete repression of the lytic replicon by the c1 immunity repressor. Incomplete repression was particularly evident in lysogens of the thermoinducible P1 c1.100 prophage, whose replication at 32 degrees C remained almost unaffected when use of the plasmid replicon was prevented. Moreover, the average plasmid copy number of P1 in a P1 c1.100 lysogen was elevated with respect to the copy number of P1 c1+. The capacity of the lytic replicon to act as an auxiliary in plasmid maintenance may contribute to the extraordinary stability of P1 plasmid prophage.
LU factorization for accelerator-based systems

Multicore architectures enhanced with multiple GPUs are likely to become mainstream High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms in a near future. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of an LU factorization using tile algorithm that can fully exploit the potential of such platforms in spite of their complexity. We use a methodology derived from previous work on Cholesky and QR factorizations. Our contributions essentially consist of providing new CPU/GPU hybrid LU kernels, studying the impact on performance of the looking variants as well as the storage layout in presence of pivoting, tuning the kernels for two different machines composed of multiple recent NVIDIA Tesla S1070 (four GPUs total) and Fermi-based S2050 GPUs (three GPUs total), respectively. The hybrid tile LU asymptotically achieves 1 Tflop/s in single precision on both hardwares. The performance in double precision arithmetic reaches 500 Gflop/s on the Fermi-based system, twice faster than the old GPU generation of Tesla S1070. We also discuss the impact of the number of tiles on the numerical stability. We show that the numerical results of the tile LU factorization will be accurate enough for most applications as long as the computations are performed in double precision arithmetic.
From L a T E X to Html and Back

Both L A T E X and HTML are languages that can express the structure of a document, and similarities between these two systems are shown. A detailed study is made of the LaTeX2HTML program, written by Nikos Drakos, that is today the most complete utility for translating L A T E X code into HTML, providing a quasi-automatic translation for most elements. A discussion of a few other tools for translating between HTML and L A T E X concludes the article. HTML and L A T E X are both generic markup systems, and a comparison between tags for structural elements in both cases is shown in Table 1. In most cases the diierences are trivial, seeming to indicate that, at rst approximation, translating between these two systems should not prove too dii-cult. The translation programs described in this article use these similarities, but in order to exploit the richness of the L A T E X language as compared to HTML (especially HTML2, which has no support for tables or mathematics), an ad hoc approach has to be adopted. To handle correctly L A T E X commands that have no equivalent in HTML, such elements can either be transformed into pictures (an approach taken by LaTeX2HTML), or the user can specify how the given element should be handled in the target language. Before discussing the LaTeX2HTML program, we want to mention a few other programs. First there is l2x 1 , written by Henning Schulzrinne (Berlin, Ger-many), which translates L A T E X into various other formats. This program is written in C and calls a Tcl function (Ousterhout 1994) for each L A T E X command. A converter html.tcl is available for translating L A T E X les into HTML, by writing, for instance: l2x-p html.tcl article.tex Presently, only a subset of all L A T E X commands are handled (no mathematical formulae, tables, verbatim texts, etc.), yet it is not too diicult to augment the code of the converter html.tcl by introducing new Tcl commands. has developed Hyperlatex 2 , a little package written in the GNU Emacs Lisp language to translate documents marked up in (a subset of) L A T E X into HTML. Although not directly relevant to L A T E X, it is nevertheless interesting to mention the existence of tex2RTF 3 , a program …
Approximating Model-Based ABox Revision in DL-Lite: Theory and Practice

Model-based approaches provide a semantically well justified way to revise ontologies. However, in general, model-based revision operators are limited due to lack of efficient algorithms and inexpressibility of the revision results. In this paper, we make both theoretical and practical contribution to efficient computation of model-based revisions in DL-Lite. Specifically, we show that maximal approximations of two well-known model-based revisions for DL-Lite_R can be computed using a syntactic algorithm. However, such a coincidence of model-based and syntactic approaches does not hold when role functionality axioms are allowed. As a result, we identify conditions that guarantee such a coincidence for DL-Lite_FR. Our result shows that both model-based and syntactic revisions can co-exist seamlessly and the advantages of both approaches can be taken in one revision operator. Based on our theoretical results, we develop a graph-based algorithm for the revision operat
Iterative calibration method for inertial and magnetic sensors

We address the problem of three-axis sensor calibration. Our focus is on magnetometers. Usual errors (misalignment, non-orthogonality, scale factors, biases) are accounted for. We consider a method where no specific calibration hardware is required. We solely use the fact that the norm of the sensed field must remain constant irrespective of the sensors orientation. The proposed algorithm is iterative. Its convergence is studied. Experiments conducted with MEMS sensors (magnetometers) stress the relevance of the approach.
Research Methods in Education

Introduction Part 1. The Context of Educational Research: 1. The Nature of Inquiry Part 2. Planning Educational Research: 2. The Ethics of Educational and Social Research 3. Planning Educational Research 4. Sampling 5. Sensitive Educational Research 6. Validity and Reliability Part 3. Styles of Educational Research: 7. Naturalistic and Ethnographic Research 8. Historical and Documentary Research 9. Surveys, Longitudal, Cross-sectional and Trend Studies 10. Internet-based Research and Computer Usage 11. Case Studies 12. Ex Post Facto Research 13. Experiments, Quasi-experiments, Single-case Research and Meta-Analysis 14. Action Research Part 4. Strategies for Data Collection and Researching: 15. Questionnaires 16. Interviews 17. Accounts 18. Observation 19. Tests 20. Personal Constructs 21. Role Playing Part 5. Data Analysis: 22. Approaches to Qualitative Data Analysis 23. Content Analysis and Grounded Theory 24. Quantative Data Analysis 25. Multi-dimensional Measurement and Factor Analysis 26. Choosing a Statistical Test Index
THE CONTINUOUS AUDIT OF ONLINE SYSTEMS

The evolution of MIS technology has affected traditional auditing and created a new set of audit issues. This paper focuses on the Continuous Process Auditing System (CPAS) developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the Internal Audit organization. The system is an implementation of a Continuous Process Audit Methodology (CPAM) and is designed to deal with the problems of auditing large paperless database systems. The paper discusses why the methodology is important and contrasts it with the traditional audit model. An implementation of the continuous process audit methodologyis discussed. CPAS is designed to measure and monitor large systems, drawing key metrics and analytics into a workstation environment. The data are displayed in an interactive mode, providing auditors with a work platform to examine extracted data and prepare auditing reports. CPAS monitors key operational analytics, compares these with standards, and calls the auditor’s attention to any problems. Ultimately, this technology will utilize system probes that will monitor the auditee system and intervene when needed.