Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microcosm Enrichment of Biphenyl-Degrading Microbial Communities from Soils and Sediments

ABSTRACT A microcosm enrichment approach was employed to isolate bacteria which are representative of long-term biphenyl-adapted microbial communities. Growth of microorganisms was stimulated by incubating soil and sediment samples from polluted and nonpolluted sites with biphenyl crystals. After 6 months, stable population densities between 8 × 109 and 2 × 1011 CFU/ml were established in the microcosms, and a large percentage of the organisms were able to grow on biphenyl-containing minimal medium plates. A total of 177 biphenyl-degrading strains were subsequently isolated and characterized by their ability to grow on biphenyl in liquid culture and to accumulate a yellow meta cleavage product when they were sprayed with dihydroxybiphenyl. Isolates were identified by using a polyphasic approach, including fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis, 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of whole-cell proteins, and genomic fingerprinting based on sequence variability in the 16S-23S ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer region. In all of the microcosms, isolates identified as Rhodococcus opacus dominated the cultivable microbial community, comprising a cluster of 137 isolates with very similar FAME profiles (Euclidean distances, <10) and identical 16S rRNA gene sequences. The R. opacus isolates from the different microcosms studied could not be distinguished from each other by any of the fingerprint methods used. In addition, three other FAME clusters were found in one or two of the microcosms analyzed; these clusters could be assigned to Alcaligenessp. , Terrabacter sp. , and Bacillus thuringiensis on the basis of their FAME profiles and/or comparisons of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of representatives. Thus, the microcosm enrichments were strongly dominated by gram-positive bacteria, especially the species R. opacus, independent of the pollution history of the original sample. R. opacus, therefore, is a promising candidate for development of effective long-term inocula for polychlorinated biphenyl bioremediation.
Genetic algorithms for management of taxi scheduling

The increased amount of flights in airports has caused serious problems for passengers and airlines, and brings risks to the system of ground traffic. The sequencing of taxi management is responsible for coordinating the process of rolling the aircraft from gate to track, or conversely, depending on the procedure for takeoff or landing. In this paper, it presents an optimization solution of taxi aircraft at airports using genetic algorithms. For the simulation almost real data from the Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo was used. The simulations demonstrate the validity of the developed model to avoid conflicts and increase efficiency in a congested airport. The model presented shows an improvement of up to 15% in the total time by taxi from Congonhas airport, and enables its application to other airports with simply modification of new routes and flight plans.
Attribution d'auteur par ensembles de séparateurs

The authorship attribution problem can be viewed as a categorization problem. To discriminate between different writers (or categories), we must first select a list of useful features (word types in this study), and then we train our classifier. To improve effectiveness, we can consider an ensemble of models instead of a single classifier (bagging). In the current study, we propose two forms of variation: varying the author profiles on the one hand, and on the other, varying the list of selected features. To compare the effectiveness of these solutions, we have extracted two corpora from the Glasgow Herald written by five columnists, the first one is on sports (1,948 articles), and the second on politics (987 articles). Using the KLD model (Zhao & Zobel, 2007), we found that a simple classification scheme tends to produce results comparable to those obtained from using more complex ones. MOTS-CLES : Methode d’ensemble, attribution d'auteur, categorisation de textes.
Diagnostic efficacy of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI for hepatocellular carcinoma and dysplastic nodule.

AIM To evaluate the relationship between the signal intensity of hepatobiliary phase images on gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histological grade. METHODS Fifty-nine patients with 82 hepatocellular lesions were evaluated retrospectively. Hepatobiliary phase images on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI were classified into 3 groups: low, iso or high. Angiography-assisted computed tomography (CT) findings were also classified into 3 groups: CT during arterial portography, and CT hepatic arteriography: A: iso, iso or low; B: slightly low, iso or low; and C: low, high. We correlated angiography-assisted CT, hepatobiliary phase findings during gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI and histological grades. Furthermore, correlations between MRI findings and histological grade for each hemodynamic pattern were performed. Correlations among radiological and pathological findings were statistically evaluated using the chi-square test and Fisher' s exact test. RESULTS There was a significant correlation between histological grade and hemodynamic pattern (P < 0.05). There was a significant correlation between histological grade and signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase (P < 0.05) in group A lesions. There was no significant correlation between histological grade and signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase in group B or C lesions (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION Signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase correlated with histological grade in the lesions that maintained portal blood flow, but did not correlate in lesions that showed decreased or defective portal blood flow.
Oogenesis of microlecithal oocytes in the viviparous teleost Heterandria formosa

Viviparous teleosts exhibit two patterns of embryonic nutrition: lecithotrophy (when nutrients are derived from yolk that is deposited in the oocyte during oogenesis) and matrotrophy (when nutrients are derived from the maternal blood stream during gestation). Nutrients contained in oocytes of matrotrophic species are not sufficient to support embryonic development until term. The smallest oocytes formed among the viviparous poeciliid fish occur in the least killifish, Heterandria formosa, these having diameters of only 400 μm. Accordingly, H. formosa presents the highest level of matrotrophy among poeciliids. This study provides histological details occurring during development of its microlecithal oocytes. Five stages occur during oogenesis: oogonial proliferation, chromatin nucleolus, primary growth (previtellogenesis), secondary growth (vitellogenesis), and oocyte maturation. H. formosa, as in all viviparous poeciliids, has intrafollicular fertilization and gestation. Therefore, there is no ovulation stage. The full‐grown oocyte of H. formosa contains a large oil globule, which occupies most of the cell volume. The oocyte periphery contains the germinal vesicle, and ooplasm that includes cortical alveoli, small oil droplets and only a few yolk globules. The follicular cell layer is initially composed of a single layer of squamous cells during early previtellogenesis, but these become columnar during early vitellogenesis. They are pseudostratified during late vitellogenesis and reduce their height becoming almost squamous in full‐grown oocytes. The microlecithal oocytes of H. formosa represent an extreme in fish oogenesis typified by scarce yolk deposition, a characteristic directly related to matrotrophy. J. Morphol. , 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ultrasound-B scan: an indispensable tool for diagnosing ocular cysticercosis

Ocular cysticercosis is still an important parasitic infection in low/middle-income countries, as its diagnosis requires meticulous ocular examination followed by skilful usage of point-focused ultrasound imaging for confirmation of the diagnosis. A 26-year-old woman presented with a history of recurrent redness in the left eye, which was not responsive to topical medications. Clinical examination showed congestion in the inferior conjunctiva with the rest of the anterior and posterior segments being within normal limits. Subsequent ultrasound examination of the extraocular muscle showed a large cyst inferior to the rectus muscle with a high amplitude localised spike corresponding to scolex (figure 1A). In a second scenario, a middle-aged female patient presented with painless diminution of vision in the left eye; because of the hazy media, a posterior segment …
The Spring scheduling co-processor: Design, use, and performance

We present a novel VLSI co-processor for real-time multiprocessor scheduling. The co-processor can be used for sophisticated static scheduling as well as for online scheduling using many different algorithms such as earliest deadline first, highest value first, or the Spring scheduling algorithm. When such an algorithm is used online it is important to assess the performance impact of the interface of the co-processor to the host system, in this case, the Spring kernel. We focus on the interface and its implications for overall scheduling performance. We show that the current VLSI chip speeds up the main portion of the scheduling operation by over three orders of magnitude and speeds up the overall scheduling operation 30 fold. The parallel VLSI architecture for scheduling is briefly presented. This architecture can be scaled for different numbers of tasks, resources, and internal word lengths. The implementation uses an advanced clocking scheme to allow further scaling using future IC technologies. <<ETX>>
A new Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) experiment designed for climate and chemistry models

Abstract. A new Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) experiment "G4 specified stratospheric aerosols" (short name: G4SSA) is proposed to investigate the impact of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering on atmosphere, chemistry, dynamics, climate, and the environment. In contrast to the earlier G4 GeoMIP experiment, which requires an emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the model, a prescribed aerosol forcing file is provided to the community, to be consistently applied to future model experiments between 2020 and 2100. This stratospheric aerosol distribution, with a total burden of about 2 Tg S has been derived using the ECHAM5-HAM microphysical model, based on a continuous annual tropical emission of 8 Tg SO2 yr−1. A ramp-up of geoengineering in 2020 and a ramp-down in 2070 over a period of 2 years are included in the distribution, while a background aerosol burden should be used for the last 3 decades of the experiment. The performance of this experiment using climate and chemistry models in a multi-model comparison framework will allow us to better understand the impact of geoengineering and its abrupt termination after 50 years in a changing environment. The zonal and monthly mean stratospheric aerosol input data set is available at https://www2.acd. ucar.edu/gcm/geomip-g4-specified-stratospheric-aerosol-data-set .
Analysis of Moral Hazard in Virtual Enterprise Based on Random Constraints

In this paper, the moral hazard in Virtual Enterprise (VE) is studied based on principal-agent theory with random constraints. The risk coefficient is used to quantify the member's risk preferences in VE, and the principal-agent model with random parameters is used to deal with the problem. Firstly, according to uncertain environment in VE, the model with random constraints is proposed, then the model is solved using the method based on risk coefficient, and some significative conclusions are obtained through analyzing the result.
Increasing resistance of Staphylococcus aureus to ciprofloxacin

We demonstrated the marked emergence of resistance to ciprofloxacin among Staphylococcus arueus strains isolated at the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Medical Center. All S. aureus isolates tested from 1984 to 1985 were susceptible, whereas 55.1% of methicillin-resistant and 2.5% of methicillin-susceptible strains from 1989 had high-level resistance to ciprofloxacin.
Compensation en milieu variant abruptement

Nous presentons une amelioration d'un algorithme de compensation de bruit utilisant le Stochastic Matching. Cet algorithme permet de prendre en compte un bruit de type inconnu variant brusquement sans aucune hypothese prealable. Cette methode propose d'estimer les parametres d'une fonction de compensation pendant la reconnaissance. Nous avons montre experimentalement qu'un changement dans l'environnement acoustique induisait une alteration dans la distribution d'une variable derivee du processus de compensation. Des algorithmes detectant ses alterations declenchent une re-initialisation du processus de compensation et ameliorent ainsi la reconnaissance de mots de plus de 30%. Trois methodes de detection ont ete etudiees sur les bases Aurora3 et VODIS bruites artificiellement. Chaque phrase de test a ete corrompue par des bruits additifs soudains.
Topology of electron density of cadmium telluride determined from relief and contour plots

The topology of the electron density yields a faithful and a reliable mapping of the concepts of atoms, molecular structure, bonds and structure, besides providing the basis for a theory of structural stability. In quantum mechanics and in particular quantum chemistry, the electron density is a measure of the probability of an electron occupying an infinitesimal element of space surrounding any given point. Contour plots of electron density distribution of cadmiun telluride (CdTe) were obtained using the density functional theory (DFT) method and were used as the basis to qualitatively study the bond, structure and stability of the molecule when it is in bulk. We looked at the way the electron density, ρ of CdTe defines the gradient field and hence the bonding type. We identified the bond paths that coincide with the contours of electron sharing. These bond paths indicated that the molecule was slightly covalent. Our topological analysis led us to conclude that CdTe was an n-type semiconductor with covalent bond and slight ionic character.
Evolutionary Study of the Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer for the Patients with Glaucoma and Diabetes Mellitus

The aim of the paper was the evaluation of the modifications of the retinal nerve fiber layer for the patients with primary open angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension associated with diabetes mellitus. Material and method: a prospective study that included a number of 25 patients. The study group was made up of 17 patients: 12 patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and diabetes mellitus and 5 patients with ocular hypertension (OH) and diabetes mellitus. The control group included 8 patients without glaucoma. All the patients with an accurate diagnosis of primary open angle glaucoma and intraocular hypertension that were medically and/or surgically treated or not, associated with diabetes mellitus, were included in the study. The patients with other types of glaucoma (closed angle, pigmentary, cortisone related, pseudoexfoliative), the ones without an accurate diagnosis of glaucoma or without associated diabetes mellitus were excluded. The control group was made up of subjects without a glaucoma diagnosis or clinical elements related to glaucoma, without surgical interventions in their medical records. All participants were evaluated with CIRRUS HD-OCT.
Antirsesorptive treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis: review of randomized clinical studies and rationale for the Evista alendronate comparison (EVA) trial

SUMMARY Standard pharmacological antiresorptive therapy for the prevention and/or treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis now consists of four categories of drugs: estrogens, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), bisphosponates, and calcitonin. All of these drugs have been studied in randomized controlled trials, but meaningful comparisons of the efficacy of drugs have been difficult due to differences in baseline risks for fracture and differences in study design, including calcium and vitamin D supplementation, definition of fracture, and discontinuation rates. The current paper reviews results from pivotal studies of antiresorptive therapies with fracture as a primary endpoint, as well as head-to-head trials comparing these therapies using surrogate markers of fracture risk, and introduces the first head-to-head trial with fracture as a primary endpoint. The Evista* Alendronate Comparison (EVA) trial, a multi-center, double-blind, double-dummy, randomized trial with two active treatment arms is currently underway to compare directly the osteoporotic fracture risk reduction efficacy of raloxifene and alendronate in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis as defined by bone mineral density. The results from this trial will permit more informed judgment by practitioners and provider groups concerning the relative clinical utility of these two drugs. * Evista is a registered trade name of Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Reduced activity of antioxidant machinery is correlated with suppression of totipotency in plant protoplasts.

We previously showed that during protoplast isolation, an oxidative burst occurred and the generation of active oxygen species was differentially mediated in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and grapevine (Vitis vinifera), accompanied by significant quantitative differences (A.K. Papadakis, K.A. Roubelakis-Angelakis [1999] Plant Physiol 127: 197-205). We have now further tested if the expression of totipotency in protoplasts is related to the activity of cellular antioxidant machinery during protoplast culture. Totipotent (T) tobacco protoplasts had 2-fold lower contents of intracellular O2*- and H2O2 and 7-fold lower levels of O2*- and H2O2 in the culture medium, compared with non-totipotent (NT) tobacco protoplasts. Addition of alkaline dimethylsulfoxide, known to generate O2*-, resulted in isolation of tobacco protoplasts with reduced viability and cell division potential during subsequent culture. Active oxygen species levels decreased in tobacco and grapevine protoplasts during culturing, although higher contents of O2*- and H2O2 were still found in NT- compared with T-tobacco protoplasts, after 8 d in culture. In T-tobacco protoplasts, the reduced forms of ascorbate and glutathione predominated, whereas in NT-tobacco and grapevine protoplasts, the oxidized forms predominated. In addition, T-tobacco protoplasts exhibited severalfold lower lipid peroxidation than NT-tobacco and grapevine protoplasts. Furthermore, several antioxidant enzyme activities were increased in T-tobacco protoplasts. Superoxide dismutase activity increased in tobacco, but not in grapevine protoplasts during culturing due to the increased expression of cytoplasmic Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase. The increase was only sustained in T-tobacco protoplasts for d 8. Together, these results suggest that suppressed expression of totipotency in protoplasts is correlated with reduced activity of the cellular antioxidant machinery.
The kappa B enhancer motifs in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and simian virus 40 recognize different binding activities in human Jurkat and H9 T cells: evidence for NF-kappa B-independent activation of the kappa B motif

The kappa B transcriptional enhancer motif, present in many viruses, is broadly active in many cell types. It is recognized by c-Rel/HIVEN86A in DNA affinity precipitation (DNAP) assays and by the Rel-related p50 and p65 subunits of the nuclear factor NF-kappa B in electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA). We have analyzed activities that bind the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and simian virus 40 kappa B motifs in two human leukemia cell lines, Jurkat and H9. In both DNAP and EMSA analyses of Jurkat cell extracts, we detected multiple kappa B motif-binding activities in addition to c-Rel/HIVEN86A and p50-p65 NF-kappa B. In Jurkat cell nuclear extracts, EMSA analysis revealed at least six specific DNA-protein complexes, of which one comigrated with the p50-p65 NF-kappa B complex. Formation of all six complexes was enhanced by stimulation of the cells with phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate and phytohemagglutinin but was differentially affected by the salt concentration in the binding reaction and by the conditions of Jurkat cell growth. Nuclear extracts from both unstimulated and stimulated H9 cells revealed similar levels of five kappa B motif-specific complexes, all of which displayed mobilities distinct from those of the Jurkat cell complexes. Indeed, a complex corresponding to p50-p65 NF-kappa B was not detectable in nuclear extracts from unstimulated H9 cells although such a complex was apparent in nuclear extracts from stimulated H9 cells. In contrast to the inducibility of a p50-p65 NF-kappa B-like complex, transcriptional enhancers composed of multimerized kappa B motifs displayed similar high levels of activity in both the unstimulated and stimulated H9 cells. Thus, the activity of the kappa B motif in H9 cells corresponded to the abundance of the H9 cell-specific kappa B motif complexes and not to the levels of p50-p65 NF-kappa B complex. These results suggest that the broad activity of the kappa B enhancer element is not only due to the broadly distributed NF-kappa B activator but also to cell type-specific kappa B motif-binding activities.
Asynchronous Non-Convex Optimization for Separable Problems

This paper considers the distributed optimization of a sum of locally observable, nonconvex functions. The optimization is performed over a multi-agent networked system, and each local function depends only on a subset of the variables. An asynchronous and distributed alternating directions method of multipliers (ADMM) method that allows the nodes to defer or skip the computation and transmission of updates is proposed. The algorithm can tolerate any bounded level of asynchrony and converges to local minima under certain regularity conditions.
An image watermarking method in HSL color model

In this paper, an image watermarking method in HSL color model is presented. For watermark embedding, the S component of HSL color model is employed to convey a binary watermark image and the L component is employed to establish the suitable watermark strength in according to a human visual system model. For watermark extraction, the embedded watermark is blindly extracted using the 3×3 pixels Wiener filter in spatial domain. The results from the experiments demonstrate that our proposed watermarking method performed better, under no attacks and stirmark based attacks from, than the previous methods [6] and [8].
Adoptive T-Cell Therapy for EBV-Associated Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disease

Increased understanding of the mechanisms by which T lymphocytes recognize virus and tumor-specific antigens has fueled the use of adoptive immunotherapy for viral and malignant diseases. An ideal candidate for such treatment is Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). EBV-associated post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is a serious complication post-solid organ transplant (SOT) or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). The disease is essentially the result of suppression of cytotoxic T-cell function and despite various treatment strategies the course may still be fulminant and lethal. Therefore, an adoptive immunotherapeutic approach using ex vivo derived EBV-specific CTL offers a promising solution not only for the treatment but also as prophylaxis for PTLD. The infusion of EBV-CTL has been demonstrated to be safe and effective in allogeneic HSCT recipients and their use post-SOT is being evaluated.