Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Detection of Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG (Pasteur) in Soil

ABSTRACT PCR primers specific for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex were used to detect the presence of Mycobacterium bovis BCG (Pasteur) in soil microcosms and Mycobacterium bovis in environmental samples taken from a farm in Ireland with a history of bovine tuberculosis. M. bovis genes were detected in soil at 4 and 21 months after possible contamination. Gene levels were found in the range of 1 × 103 to 3.6 × 103 gene copies g of soil−1, depending on the sampling area. Areas around badger setts had the highest levels of detectable genes and were shown to have the highest levels of gene persistence. M. bovis-specific 16S rRNA sequences were detected, providing evidence of the presence of viable cells in Irish soils. Studies of DNA turnover in soil microcosms proved that dead cells of M. bovis BCG did not persist beyond 10 days. Further microcosm experiments revealed that M. bovis BCG survival was optimal at 37°C with moist soil (−20 kPa; 30% [vol/wt]). This study provides clear evidence that M. bovis can persist in the farm environment outside of its hosts and that climatic factors influence survival rates.
Transneuronal changes in dendrites of GABAergic parvalbumin‐containing neurons of the rat fascia dentata following entorhinal lesion

The perforant path fibers from the entorhinal cortex form synapses with both granule cells and GABAergic, parvalbumin‐containing (PARV) nongranule cells. The authors recently reported a persistent reduction of PARV‐positive dendrites in the termination zones of entorhinal fibers in the hippocampus proper and fascia dentata after lesion of the entorhinal cortex. In the present study the authors analyzed the effects of de‐entorhination on the ultrastructure of postsynaptic PARV‐positive dendrites in the molecular layer of the fascia dentata. PARV immunocytochemistry was performed 2, 8, 55, and 360 days after an ipsilateral entorhinal lesion and, for comparison, 10 days after an ipsilateral fimbria‐fornix transection that disconnects the hippocampus from its septal and commissural afferents. Two days after entorhinal lesion, the authors observed swelling of the tissue close to the hippocampal fissure. Adjacent distal dendritic tips of PARV‐positive dendrites in the former perforant path termination zone persisted 55 days after entorhinal lesion and could still be observed after postlesional survival times for 1 year. Degenerating axon terminals were still present 55 days following lesion and PARV‐positive dendrites exhibited abnormal invaginations. Fimbria transection did not result in similar dendritic changes in PARV‐positive neurons. The results indicate a long‐lasting process of reorganization in the molecular layer of the fascia dentata followin entorhinal lesion and persisting changes in the morphology of PARV‐immunoreactive dendrites. Entorhinal fibers seem to play a specific role for the maintenance of these dendrites, since similar changes did not occur following removal of septal and commissural fibers.
The quest for autonomy: a Foucauldian perspective on work‐based research

The relationship between the workplace, the researcher and the university is of a complex nature and all three stakeholders have their own influences on work‐based learning. Defining the relationship between the stakeholders provokes a consideration of the issue of power, since power relations within a workplace can affect the reliability of findings. The organisational context and conflict of interest might pose a risk of the academic investigation being compromised. Following from Foucault's conclusion that the pursuit of personal autonomy in education is destined to fail, this article argues that autonomy of the researcher in the workplace can only be guaranteed by a robust defence of academic rigour by the academy in the support it offers the learner.
Quantitative analysis in the digital Luria's alternating series tests

The focus of the present research is on the kinematic features describing performance of the tested individual during the digital Lora's alternating series tests. First goal is to demonstrate that the features computed for the Parkinson Disease patients differ from those of healthy individuals. The secondary goal is to find the subset of features allowing to distinguish disorders on the level of motion planning from those on the level of motion execution. There are two novel properties of the proposed approach, which distinguish it from the previously published techniques. The first one is, that digital Luria's alternating series tests consist of different exercises targeted to distinguish disorders on the different levels, planning the motion and executing the motion. The second one is, that the set of kinematic features which is usually used in this area will be complimented by Motion Mass parameters describing amount and smoothness of the motion.
Mining approximate multi-relational patterns

Three recent trends aim to make local pattern mining more directly suited for use on data as it presents itself in practice, namely in a multi-relational form and affected by noise. The first of these trends is the generalisation of local pattern syntaxes to approximate, noise-tolerant, variants (notably fault-tolerant itemset mining and community detection). The second of these trends is to develop pattern syntaxes that are directly applicable to multi-relational data. The third one is to better quantify the interestingness of and redundancy between such local patterns. In this paper we leverage recent results from these lines of research to introduce a noise-tolerant pattern syntax for multi-relational data. We show how enumerating all patterns of this syntax in a given database can be done remarkably efficiently. We contribute a way to quantify the interestingness of these patterns, thus overcoming the pattern explosion problem. And finally, we show the usefulness of the pattern syntax and the scalability of the algorithm by presenting experimental results on real world and synthetic data.
Development, Validation, and Application of a Fast and Simple GC–MS Method for Determination of Some Therapeutic Drugs Relevant in Emergency Toxicology

Background: To date, immunoassays are commercially available for quantification of valproic acid, salicylic acid, paracetamol, phenobarbital, phenytoin, and primidone. As they are no longer available, a fast, simple, and cost-effective quantitative gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was developed and fully validated for these drugs. Methods: After simple and fast liquid-liquid extraction, the samples were analyzed by GC-MS using the selected ion monitoring mode. The method was validated including the parameters selectivity, calibration model, precision, accuracy, and extraction efficiency. Results: The above-mentioned analytes were separated within 8.5 minutes and sensitively detected. No interfering peaks were observed in blank samples from 8 different sources. The linearity ranges were 20-200 mg/L for valproic acid, 100-1200 mg/L for salicylic acid, 10-200 mg/L for paracetamol, 10-200 mg/L for phenobarbital, 4-20 mg/L for primidone, and 2.5-30 mg/L for phenytoin. Generally accepted criteria for accuracy and precision were fulfilled for all analytes using 6-point calibration. Even 1-point calibration was applicable for all analytes. The assay was successfully applied to analysis of real plasma samples and proficiency testing material. Conclusions: The assay described allowed fast and reliable determination of analytes relevant in the diagnosis of poisonings. Furthermore, time- and cost-saving 1-point calibration was shown to be suitable for daily routine work, especially in emergency cases.
Response of alanine metabolism in humans to manipulation of dietary protein and energy intakes.

Healthy young adult men were studied with 3 different series of dietary regimens: different levels of protein intake ranging from 1.5 to 0.0 g . kg-1 . day-1; different levels of dietary energy intake; and an excessive intake of protein (3.9 g . kg-1 . day-1). Under each dietary condition, subjects were infused postabsorptively with L-[1-13C]leucine, L-[15N]alanine, and L-[3,3,3-2H3]alanine to measure leucine and alanine kinetics. Leucine flux was significantly reduced when protein intake was restricted (maximum reduction = 24%), but changed insignificantly with dietary energy change or excessive protein intake. Alanine flux and de novo synthesis increased significantly when protein intake was restricted (maximum increase = 50%), changed proportionally with changes in dietary energy, and was significantly reduced with high protein intake. Stepwise regression showed that dietary carbohydrate intake, not protein intake, was the primary factor affecting alanine de novo synthesis. In addition, the alanine 2H tracer produced a 2.5-fold greater measure of alanine de novo synthesis than did the alanine 15N tracer.
Research of wireless injection attacks based on TinyOS

Wireless sensor networks face information disclosure, information tampering, replay attacks and other threats. For wireless sensor networks in the objective conditions, this paper proposes a wireless injection attack based on the TinyOS operating system comparable to Man-in-the-middle attack, and designs a set of schemes on injection attack by hardware node platform and TinyOS platform. The results show that it successfully injects false data into the normal wireless communications in wireless sensor networks, resulting in terminal receives fake data.
Dynamics and mediators of acute graft attrition after myoblast transplantation to the heart

Survival and proliferation of skeletal myoblasts within the cardiac environment are crucial to the therapeutic efficacy of myoblast transplantation to the heart. We have analyzed the early dynamics of myoblasts implanted into the myocardium and investigated the mechanisms underlying graft attrition. At 10 min after implantation of [14C]thymidine‐labeled male myoblasts into female mice hearts, 14C measurement showed that 39.2 ± 3.0% of the grafted cells survived, and this steadily decreased to 16.0 ± 1.7% by 24 h and to 7.4 ± 0.9% by 72 h. PCR of male‐ specific Smcy gene calculated that the total (surviving plus proliferated) number of donor‐derived cells was 18.3 ± 1.6 and 23.3 ± 1.3% at 24 and 72 h, respectively, indicating that proliferation of the surviving cells began after 24 h. Acute inflammation became prominent by 24 h and was reduced by 72 h as indicated by myeloperoxidase activity and histological findings. Multiplex RT‐PCR revealed corresponding changes in IL‐1β, TGF‐β, IL‐6, and TNF‐α expression. Treatment with CuZn‐superoxide dismutase attenuated the initial rapid death and resulted in enhanced cell numbers afterward, giving a twofold increased total number at 72 h compared with the nontreatment. This effect was associated with reduced inflammatory response, suggesting a causative role for superoxide in the initial rapid graft death and subsequent inflammation. These data describe the early dynamics of myoblasts implanted into the myocardium and suggest that initial oxidative stress and following inflammatory response may be important mechanisms contributing to acute graft attrition, both of which could be potential therapeutic targets to improve the efficiency of cell transplantation to the heart.
Saccharomyces Genome Database provides mutant phenotype data

The Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD; http://www.yeastgenome.org) is a scientific database for the molecular biology and genetics of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is commonly known as baker’s or budding yeast. The information in SGD includes functional annotations, mapping and sequence information, protein domains and structure, expression data, mutant phenotypes, physical and genetic interactions and the primary literature from which these data are derived. Here we describe how published phenotypes and genetic interaction data are annotated and displayed in SGD.
Timed probabilistic automaton: bridge between automatic Raven and Song scope for species recognition

Raven and Song Scope are two, state-of-the-art automated sound analysis tools, based on machine learning techniques for detection of species vocalisations. Individually, these systems have been the subject of a number of reviews; however, to date there have been no comparisons made of their relative performance. This paper compares the tools based on six aspects: theory, software interface, ease of use, detection targets, detection accuracy, and potential applications. Examining these tools, we identified that they fail to detect both syllables and call structures, since Raven only aims to detect syllables while Song Scope targets call structures. Therefore, a Timed Probabilistic Automata (TPA) system is proposed which separates syllables and clusters them into complex structures.
Father absence, cross-sex identity, and field-dependent behavior in male adolescents.

The present study investigated the effects of father absence upon cross-sex identity and field dependency in male adolescents. It was found that father-absent male adolescents were more field dependent in Witkins terms than were father-present male adolescents. It was further found that the masculinity scores of the 2 groups did not differ significantly nor were there differences in indices of cross-sex identity at least at an overt level. The findings were related to various aspects of sex-role identification and their implications were discussed. (authors)
A model-driven approach for embedded system prototyping and design

Embedded System (ES) development complexity is increasing. This increase has several cumulative sources: some are directly related to constraints on the ES themselves (dependability, compute intensive, resource constraints) while other sources are related to the industrial context of their development (fast prototyping, early validation, parallelization of developments). Although several Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) processes have been proposed for ES development, most of them are not completely formalized. This has several drawbacks that prevent their use in prototyping where iterations need to be short and focused. Incomplete formalized processes tend to be sidestepped in these situations where quick results are expected to be obtained with limited effort. In this paper we propose a MDE-based process for ES development. This process precisely defines the development tasks and their impact on the models throughout development. In particular we define iterations width and depth for the process that allow for a fined-grained and consistent planning of developments. The short and well defined iterations characterized by the process reduce the gap between rapid prototyping, ad-hoc methods and regular development processes.
Complex support vector regression

We present a support vector regression (SVR) rationale for treating complex data, exploiting the notions of widely linear estimation and pure complex kernels. To compute the Lagrangian and derive the dual problem, we employ the recently presented Wirtinger's calculus on complex RKHS. We prove that this approach is equivalent with solving two real SVR problems exploiting a specific real kernel, which it is induced by the chosen complex kernel.
Spatial imaging of Zn and other elements in Huanglongbing-affected grapefruit by synchrotron-based micro X-ray fluorescence investigation

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a highly destructive, fast-spreading disease of citrus, causing substantial economic losses to the citrus industry worldwide. Nutrient levels and their cellular distribution patterns in stems and leaves of grapefruit were analysed after graft-inoculation with lemon scions containing ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (Las), the heat-tolerant Asian type of the HLB bacterium. After 12 months, affected plants showed typical HLB symptoms and significantly reduced Zn concentrations in leaves. Micro-XRF imaging of Zn and other nutrients showed that preferential localization of Zn to phloem tissues was observed in the stems and leaves collected from healthy grapefruit plants, but was absent from HLB-affected samples. Quantitative analysis by using standard references revealed that Zn concentration in the phloem of veins in healthy leaves was more than 10 times higher than that in HLB-affected leaves. No significant variation was observed in the distribution patterns of other elements such as Ca in stems and leaves of grapefruit plants with or without graft-inoculation of infected lemon scions. These results suggest that reduced phloem transport of Zn is an important factor contributing to HLB-induced Zn deficiency in grapefruit. Our report provides the first in situ, cellular level visualization of elemental variations within the tissues of HLB-affected citrus.
Pose-Guided Human Parsing with Deep Learned Features

Parsing human body into semantic regions is crucial to human-centric analysis. In this paper, we propose a segment-based parsing pipeline that explores human pose information, i.e. the joint location of a human model, which improves the part proposal, accelerates the inference and regularizes the parsing process at the same time. Specifically, we first generate part segment proposals with respect to human joints predicted by a deep model, then part- specific ranking models are trained for segment selection using both pose-based features and deep-learned part potential features. Finally, the best ensemble of the proposed part segments are inferred though an And-Or Graph. We evaluate our approach on the popular Penn-Fudan pedestrian parsing dataset, and demonstrate the effectiveness of using the pose information for each stage of the parsing pipeline. Finally, we show that our approach yields superior part segmentation accuracy comparing to the state-of-the-art methods.
Assessing the practical usability of an automatically annotated corpus

The creation of a gold standard corpus (GSC) is a very laborious and costly process. Silver standard corpus (SSC) annotation is a very recent direction of corpus development which relies on multiple systems instead of human annotators. In this paper, we investigate the practical usability of an SSC when a machine learning system is trained on it and tested on an unseen benchmark GSC. The main focus of this paper is how an SSC can be maximally exploited. In this process, we inspect several hypotheses which might have influenced the idea of SSC creation. Empirical results suggest that some of the hypotheses (e.g. a positive impact of a large SSC despite of having wrong and missing annotations) are not fully correct. We show that it is possible to automatically improve the quality and the quantity of the SSC annotations. We also observe that considering only those sentences of SSC which contain annotations rather than the full SSC results in a performance boost.
LocaRhythms: Real-Time Data Mining for Continuous Detection and Prediction of Stays

In distributed teams information on each other’s whereabouts is an important prerequisite for efficient communication, coordination, and cooperation. In this paper we present LocaRhythms—a novel approach for continuous detection and prediction of users’ stays. This is achieved by continuous capturing of position data, by real-time data mining with an innovative combination of machine learning algorithms, and by anytime presenting stays and follow-up stays.
Botulinum Toxin Type B in Piriformis Syndrome

Lang AM: Botulinum toxin type B in piriformis syndrome. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2004;83:198–202. ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of botulinum toxin type B (MYOBLOC) in reducing myofascial pain associated with piriformis syndrome. DesignThis was a single-center, outpatient, open-label study of patients with piriformis syndrome. Subjects were treated unilaterally or bilaterally, depending on their symptoms. Evaluations and procedures were performed by a single examiner who was not blinded, and there were no control subjects in this case series. Each piriformis muscle was infiltrated from one injection site under electromyographic guidance with 5000 units of botulinum toxin type B. ResultsA total of 20 patients were enrolled in this study. Significant reductions in mean visual analog scale scores for buttock and hip pain were noted at weeks 4, 12, and 16 and for low back pain at weeks 2, 12, and 16. Visual analog scale scores for general and low back pain, pain radiating into lower limbs, and tingling were significantly lower at week 2 after injection, suggesting early onset. A total of 95% of patients reported fair to excellent improvement in pain. Botulinum toxin type B was considered to have fair to excellent efficacy in 90% of patients, as evaluated by the investigator rating of overall efficacy. Botulinum toxin treatment was well tolerated. Dry mouth was the most common treatment emergent adverse event, reported in 6 of 20 patients. ConclusionsFindings suggest the possibility that botulinum toxin type B may be of potential benefit in the treatment of pain attributed to piriformis syndrome.
The principal as instructional leader: Guiding schools to improve instruction

AbstractSchool leaders are increasingly being challenged to take a more instructionally focused role in their schools. As pressure for improving student performance in the current standards-based accountability environment swells and test results are increasingly scrutinised, school principals are being urged to focus efforts on the core business of schooling – teaching and learning. This article focuses on school principals who are successful in improving teaching and learning in their schools. Six principals contributed their time, stories and experiences as instructional leaders as well as how they have improved teaching and learning in their respective schools. The article describes the strategies of principals who practise exemplary instructional leadership, and how these principals have influenced teaching and learning. The principals in this sample sought to focus their time and efforts on instructional improvement by shifting their priorities towards teaching and learning. Literature on instructio.
Novel Binding Partners and Differentially Regulated Phosphorylation Sites Clarify Eps8 as a Multi-Functional Adaptor

Eps8 is involved in both cell signalling and receptor trafficking. It is a known phosphorylation substrate for two proteins involved in the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signalling pathway: the receptor itself and Src. Here we report a differential proteomic analysis of Eps8 aimed to identify specific FGFR and Src family kinase dependent phosphosites and co-associated phosphodependent binding partners. This study reveals a total of 22 Eps8 pTyr and pSer/Thr phosphorylation sites, including those that are dependent on Src family and FGFR kinase activity. Peptide affinity purification of proteins that bind to a selection of the pTyr phosphosites has identified a range of novel Eps8 binding partners including members of the intracellular vesicle trafficking machinery (clathrin and AP-2), proteins which have been shown to regulate activated receptor trafficking (NBR1 and Vav2), and proteins involved in receptor signalling (IRS4 and Shp2). Collectively this study significantly extends the understanding of Eps8 post-translational modification by regulated phosphorylation, identifies novel Eps8 binding partners implicated in receptor trafficking and signalling, and confirms the functions of Eps8 at the nexus of receptor signalling and vesicular trafficking.