Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection and identification of mycobacteria by amplification of rRNA

Oligonucleotides specific at a genus, group, or species level were defined by a systematic comparison of small-subunit rRNA sequences from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum, M. bovis BCG, M. avium, M. kansasii, M. marinum, M. gastri, M. chelonae, M. smegmatis, M. terrae, M. nonchromogenicum, M. xenopi, M. malmoense, M. szulgai, M. scrofulaceum, M. fortuitum, M. gordonae, M. intracellulare, M. simiae, M. flavescens, M. paratuberculosis, M. sphagni, M. cookii, M. komossense, M. phlei, and M. farcinica. On the basis of the defined oligonucleotides, the polymerase chain reaction technique was explored to develop a sensitive taxon-specific detection system for mycobacteria. By using M. tuberculosis as a model system, fewer than 10 bacteria could be reliably detected by this kind of assay. These results suggest that amplification of rRNA sequences by the polymerase chain reaction may provide a highly sensitive and specific tool for the direct detection of microorganisms without the need for prior cultivation.
A Cyclic di-GMP-binding Adaptor Protein Interacts with Histidine Kinase to Regulate Two-component Signaling*

The bacterial messenger cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) binds to a diverse range of effectors to exert its biological effect. Despite the fact that free-standing PilZ proteins are by far the most prevalent c-di-GMP effectors known to date, their physiological function and mechanism of action remain largely unknown. Here we report that the free-standing PilZ protein PA2799 from the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa interacts directly with the hybrid histidine kinase SagS. We show that PA2799 (named as HapZ: histidine kinase associated PilZ) binds directly to the phosphoreceiver (REC) domain of SagS, and that the SagS-HapZ interaction is further enhanced at elevated c-di-GMP concentration. We demonstrate that binding of HapZ to SagS inhibits the phosphotransfer between SagS and the downstream protein HptB in a c-di-GMP-dependent manner. In accordance with the role of SagS as a motile-sessile switch and biofilm growth factor, we show that HapZ impacts surface attachment and biofilm formation most likely by regulating the expression of a large number of genes. The observations suggest a previously unknown mechanism whereby c-di-GMP mediates two-component signaling through a PilZ adaptor protein.
Can relative skill be determined from a photographic portfolio?

In this study, our primary aim is to determine empirically the role that skill plays in determining image aesthetics, and whether it can be deciphered from the ratings given by a diverse group of judges. To this end, we have collected and analyzed data from a large number of subjects (total 168) on a set of 221 of images taken by 33 photographers having different photographic skill and experience. We also experimented with the rating scales used by previous studies in this domain by introducing a binary rating system for collecting judges’ opinions. The study also demonstrates the use of Amazon Mechanical Turk as a crowd-sourcing platform in collecting scientific data and evaluating the skill of the judges participating in the experiment. We use a variety of performance and correlation metrics to evaluate the consistency of ratings across different rating scales and compare our findings. A novel feature of our study is an attempt to define a threshold based on the consistency of ratings when judges rate duplicate images. Our conclusion deviates from earlier findings and our own expectations, with ratings not being able to determine skill levels of photographers to a statistically significant level.
Transcriptional Remodeling and G1 Arrest in Dioxygen Stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae*

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which lack a functional SOD1 gene, encoding the cytosolic Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1), exhibit a variety of metabolic defects in aerobic but not in anaerobic growth. We test here the hypothesis that some of these defects may be due to specific transcriptional changes programmed for cell survival under dioxygen stress. Analysis of the budding pattern and generation time showed that the slower proliferation of an sod1Δ mutant strain under air was due to an increase from 42 to 89 min spent in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. This delay in G1 was not due to an overall decline in biosynthetic activity since total protein and mRNA synthesis was not reduced even under 100% O2. However, rRNA synthesis was strongly decreased, e.g. by 80% in the mutant under 100% O2 (in comparison to N2). Under these conditions, the mutant permanently arrested in G1; this arrest was due to an inhibition of the Start function that prepares yeast for S phase. This Start arrest was due to an inhibition of transcription of the autoregulated G1 cyclins, CLN1 and CLN2; the transcription of the constitutive G1 cyclin, CLN3, was unaffected by the stress. Expression of a hyperstable Cln3 prevented the G1 arrest, indicating that it was due solely to the inhibition of cell cycle-dependent cyclin expression. This remodeling of transcription in oxidative stress was seen also in the inhibition of glucose derepression of SUC2 expression. In contrast, the signaling and activation of mating pheromone (FUS1) and copper-responsive (CUP1) promoter activity were not affected by dioxygen stress, while genes encoding other anti-oxidant enzymes (SOD2, CTT1 and CTA1) were strongly induced. The UBI loci, encoding ubiquitin, were particularly good examples of this pattern of negative and positive transcriptional response to the stress. UBI1-UBI3 expression was repressed in the mutant under 100% O2, while expression of UBI4 was strongly induced. The data demonstrate that extensive remodeling of transcription occurs in yeast under a strong dioxygen stress. This remodeling results in a pattern of expression of gene products needed for defense and repair, and suppression of activities associated with normal proliferative growth.
AT1 and TxA2/PGH2 receptors maintain hypertension throughout 2K,1C Goldblatt hypertension in the rat.

Angiotension II (ANG II) increases the generation of vasoconstrictor prostaglandin endoperoxides (PGH2) and thromboxane A2 (TxA2). Two-kidney, one-clip (2K,1C) Goldblatt hypertensive rats have an increased plasma renin activity (PRA) and ANG II level during the early, but not the late, phases of hypertension. Therefore, the aim of these studies was to compare the antihypertensive efficacy of an ANG II type I (AT1) and a TxA2/PGH2 receptor antagonist during different phases of 2K,1C hypertension. Rats were maintained on a fixed sodium intake for 3 days before and throughout the period of drug administration. These studies assessed the antihypertensive response to administration of the AT1 receptor antagonist losartan (20 mg.kg-1.day-1), the TxA2/PGH2 receptor antagonist ifetroban (20 mg.kg-1.day-1) or vehicle given for 3 days to rats with early (2-4 wk postclip), intermediate (10-12 wk postclip), and late (36-42 wk post-clip) 2K,1C hypertension and to two control groups of rats corresponding in age to the early or intermediate and the late 2K,1C groups. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) was measured directly with indwelling arterial cannulas. The MAP of sham-operated rats was 109 +/- 5 mmHg. In the early phase of 2K,1C hypertension, the MAP was increased to 143 +/- 6 mmHg, and it was increased further to 162 +/- 5 mmHg during the intermediate and to 179 +/- 4 mmHg during the late phase. The PRA, compared with age-matched controls, was increased during early and intermediate, but not late phase 2K,1C hypertension. Neither drug lowered blood pressure in control rats. However, both drugs significantly reduced the blood pressure in the early, intermediate, and late phases of 2K, 1C hypertension. At the end of 3 days of administration, blood pressure in early 2K, 1C rats given losartan was reduced to levels of control rats, but remained slightly elevated in other groups and in those receiving ifetroban. In conclusion, AT1 and TxA2/PGH2 receptors maintain hypertension throughout the evolution of 2K, 1C hypertension in the rat, despite changes in PRA.
Avian Cytokines in Health and Disease

Cytokines are proteins secreted by cells that play an important role in the activation and regulation of other cells and tissues during inflammation and immune responses. Although well described in several mammalian species, the role of cytokines and other related proteins is poorly understood in avian species. Recent advances in avian genetics and immunology have begun to allow the exploration of cytokines in health and disease. Cytokines may be classified in a number of ways, but may be conveniently arranged into four broad groups on the basis of their function. Proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 and interleukin-1b play a role in mediating inflammation during disease or injury. Th1 cytokines, including interleukin-12 and interferon-g, are involved in the induction of cell-mediated immunity, whereas Th2 cytokines such as interleukin-4 are involved in the induction of humoral immunity. The final group Th3 or Tr cytokines play a role in regulation of immunity. The role of various cytokines in infectious and non-infectious diseases of chickens and turkeys is now being investigated. Although there are only a few reliable ELISAs or bioassays developed for avian cytokines, the use of molecular techniques, and in particular quantitative RT-PCR (Taqman) has allowed investigation of cytokine responses in a number of diseases including salmonellosis, coccidiosis and autoimmune thyroiditis. In addition the use of recombinant cytokines as therapeutic agents or as vaccine adjuvants is now being explored.
Impurity effects on domain-growth kinetics. I. Ising model.

The development of order for the Ising model in the presence of static, random impurities is studied following a quench from high temperature (T\ensuremath{\gg}${T}_{c}$) to T${T}_{c}$. We find that for quenches to T=0, the system becomes pinned for long times for any value of c0 and never reaches its final equilibrium ferromagnetic ground state. The average linear pinned domain size scales as the inverse square root of the concentration c. For quenches to a final T0, the long-time behavior of the correlation length R and the energy E are slower than a power law, suggesting a logarithmic growth law for long times. The time that is required to reach this asymptotic logarithmic behavior increases as the impurity concentration decreases and/or the temperature increases.
13C MR Spectroscopy Study of Lactate as Substrate for Rat Brain

In order to address the question whether lactate in blood can serve as a precursor for cerebral metabolites, fully awake rats were injected intravenously with [U-13C]lactate or [U-13C]glucose followed 15 min later by decapitation. Incorporation of label from [U-13C]glucose was seen mainly in glutamate, GABA, glutamine, aspartate, alanine and lactate. More label was found in glutamate than glutamine, underscoring the predominantly neuronal metabolism of pyruvate from [U-13C]glucose. It was estimated that the neuronal metabolism of acetyl CoA from glucose accounts for at least 66% and the glial for no more than 34% of the total glucose consumption. When [U-13C]lactate was the precursor, label incorporation was similar to that observed from [U-13C]glucose, but much reduced. Plasma analysis revealed the presence of approximately equal amounts of [1,2,3-13C]- and [1,2-13C]glucose, showing gluconeogenesis from [U-13C]lactate. It was thus possible that the labeling seen in the cerebral amino acids originated from labeled glucose, not [U-13C]lactate. However, the presence of significantly more label in [U-13C]- than in [2,3-13C]alanine demonstrated that [U-13C]lactate did indeed cross the blood-brain barrier, and was metabolized further in the brain. Furthermore, contributions from pyruvate carboxylase (glial enzyme) were detectable in glutamine, glutamate and GABA, and were comparatively more pronounced in the glucose group. This indicated that relatively more pyruvate from lactate than glucose was metabolized in neurons. Surprisingly, the same amount of lactate was synthesized via the tricarboxylic acid cycle in both groups, indicating transfer of neurotransmitters from the neuronal to the astrocytic compartment, as previous studies have shown that this lactate is synthesized primarily in astrocytes. Taking into consideration that astrocytes take up glutamate more avidly than GABA, it is conceivable that neuronal lactate metabolism was more prominent in glutamatergic neurons.
Nurse handover: patient and staff experiences.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES to understand the purpose, impact and experience of nurse handover from patient and staff perspectives. BACKGROUND poor communication is increasingly recognised as a major factor in healthcare errors. Handover is a key risk point. Little consensus exists regarding the practice in nursing but the trend is towards bedside handover. Research on patient and staff experiences of handover is limited. DESIGN a qualitative and observational study on two acute wards in a large urban hospital in the UK. METHODS interviews conducted with patients and staff and observation of handovers, ward rounds and patient-staff interactions. RESULTS diverse forms of nurse handover were found, used in combination: office based (whole nursing team), nurse in charge (NIC) to NIC, and bedside. Patients' and nurses' views concurred on the purpose of bedside handover--transference of information about the patient between two nurses--and about the medical ward round, which was seen as a discussion with the patient. Views diverged regarding the purpose and value of office handover. Bedside handover differed in style, content, and place of delivery, often driven by concerns regarding confidentiality and talking over patients, and there were varied views on the benefits of patient involvement in bedside handover. Nurses worked beyond their shift end to complete handover. Communication problems within the clinical team were identified by staff and patients. CONCLUSIONS while it is important to agree the purpose of handover and develop appropriate structure, content and style, it need not be a uniform process in all clinical areas. Nurse training to deliver bedside handover and patient information on the purpose of handover and the patient's role would be beneficial.
Greenpeace cyberadvocacy: message strategies and the framing of the "say no to genetic engineering" campaign

This study focuses on Greenpeace International’s cyberadvocacy against genetic engineering (GE), an issue that threatens to remain contentious for a long time to come. How GE was framed by Greenpeace in two countries with different policy stances toward GE – Australia (which is precautionary) and Philippines (which is generally permissive) – was also compared. Content analysis was used to examine four message characteristics (objectives, arguments, appeals and proportion of text to visuals) of Greenpeace’s anti-GE website and the framing of genetic engineering in news articles and press releases published in websites dedicated to the two countries. It was found that most of Greenpeace’s website pages were meant to create awareness and encourage information seeking among its identified target audiences. Logos argumentation was employed by citing statistics and using logical reasoning. For the most part, the pages highlighted the risks of genetic engineering by means of negative appeals. Nearly all pages allocated one visual per article. Considering these message characteristics, it can be inferred that Greenpeace International targets its GE messages toward latent and aware publics, and applied message strategies pertinent to these audience segments. A content analysis of websites dedicated to Australia and the Philippines showed spikes in news items published that preceded the approval of the commercial release of genetically modified crops: GE canola in Australia (2003), Bt corn (2002) and Bayer rice (2007) in the Philippines. In both countries, biotechnology policy was the most dominant frame that structured the articles, however, a closer examination of the frames showed the use of specific generic frames culled from GE literature, suggesting that Greenpeace does not blindly employ a hodgepodge of frames. It latches on to a few and exploits these frames to explain its advocated position. The Philippines also used significantly more frames and sources in longer articles with Greenpeace representatives or spokespersons cited first.
Assessment of the sealing abilities of several root canal sealers and filling methods

Abstract Objective. To evaluate the sealing abilities of two root canal sealers (epoxy resin-based AH Plus® and polydimethylsiloxane-based GuttaFlow®) and of five root filling techniques (lateral condensation, matched taper single gutta-percha point, laterally condensed-matched taper gutta-percha point, Thermafil® and continuous wave of condensation), using a bacterial leakage model. Materials and methods. One hundred and seventy-four single-rooted human teeth were randomly divided into 10 test groups (n = 15) and two control groups (n = 12). The roots that were filled with the test material, using the different root filling techniques, were mounted in a two-chamber bacterial leakage model and Enterococcus faecalis was added to the upper chambers. The lower chambers of all of the specimens were checked every day during the test period (100 days). The day of turbidity was recorded for each sample. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier and log-rank tests. Results. There was no significant difference between the epoxy resin-based and the polydimethylsiloxane-based sealers, irrespective of the filling techniques used (p > 0.05). The continuous wave of condensation technique was found to be superior to the other techniques (p < 0.05). The difference between the other groups was insignificant (p > 0.05). Conclusions. AH Plus and GuttaFlow sealers showed similar levels of sealing ability. The continuous wave of condensation technique had the best sealing capability when compared to the other techniques.
A Simple Compensation Method for the Accurate Measurement of Magnetic Losses With a Single Strip Tester

We present a new method for the accurate characterization of soft magnetic sheets using a permeameter based on the precise compensation of the magnetomotive force (MMF) drop in the flux-closing yoke. It has been developed in order to overcome the systematic uncertainty affecting the value of the magnetic field strength in single sheet testers when obtained, according to the standards, through the measurement of the magnetizing current. This phenomenon is more critical to high-permeability materials, because of the reduced MMF drop across the sample. While additional sensors and auxiliary windings have been proposed in the literature, a novel approach is demonstrated here, based on the use of the permeameter upper half yoke as the MMF drop sensor and of an auxiliary winding on the lower half yoke, implementing compensation. This solution, dispensing one from dealing with the usually small signal levels of the conventional MMF drop sensors (e.g., Chattock coils), provides the best results with the introduction of wedge-shaped magnetic poles, in order to accurately define the magnetic path length. The method is validated by the measurements of power loss, apparent power, and hysteresis cycles on non-oriented and grain-oriented Fe-Si steel sheets, which are compared with local measurements performed on the same samples using H-coil and B-coil across a uniformly magnetized region.
On Exploiting Temporal, Social, and Geographical Relationships for Data Forwarding in Delay Tolerant Networks

Because of unpredictable node mobility and absence of global information in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs), effective data forwarding has become a significant challenge in such network. Currently, most of existing data forwarding mechanisms select nodes with high cumulative contact capability as forwarders. However, for the heterogeneity of the transient node contact patterns, these selection approaches may not be the best relay choices within a short time period. This paper proposes an appropriate data forwarding mechanism, which combines time, location, and social characteristics into one coordinate system, to improve the performance of data forwarding in DTNs. The Temporal-Social Relationship and the Temporal-Geographical Relationship reveal the implied connection information among these three factors. This mechanism is formulated and verified in the experimental studies of realistic DTN traces. The empirical results show that our proposed mechanism can achieve better performance compared to the existing schemes with similar forwarding costs (e.g. end-to-end delay and delivery success ratio).
To Legalize or Not To Legalize? Economic Approaches to the Decriminalization of Drugs

Drug legalization is gaining ever-widening support in most Western societies. A liberalization of current drug laws will most probably lead to a fall in drug prices. The present article focuses on recent economic studies examining the effects of a fall in prices on quantities consumed and recruitment. Estimates of price elasticities indicate that a substantial increase in consumption by current drug users should be expected if prices decrease, whereas estimates of participation elasticities suggest an increase in the number of users. Tests of the so-called gateway theory (i.e., whether the use of a less harmful drug increases the risk of future use of more harmful drugs) offers less unambiguous results.
O IMPACTO DA INTERNACIONALIZAÇÃO SOBRE OS SISTEMAS DE CONTROLE GERENCIAL DE EMPRESAS DO SETOR DE INDÚSTRIAS TÊXTIL BRASILEIRO: ESTUDOS DE CASOS DO SEGMENTO DE MODA FEMININA

International borders have become increasingly smaller with globalization, and companies increasingly comes surpassing these limits in order to obtain new business opportunities. Thus, the management control systems undergo changes for companies to meet the needs of the global economy. The objective of this research is: reporting the characteristics of managerial control in internationalized companies, and ascertain whether the internationalization generated impact on control systems. The target segment of this study is the textile segment womenswear. This is a descriptive and qualitative, through a multiple case study, with seven companies in this segment. For data collection, we used a questionnaire with open and closed questions. Subsequently, through analysis, the data were compared to literature. The results show that the adaptation of control systems to the process of internationalization has not occurred on large levels. Evidence also suggests that management control systems and the process of internationalization of the companies surveyed, with some exceptions, are consistent with the literature used in this research.
Functional Relationships Between Price and Volatility Jumps and Their Consequences for Discretely Observed Data

Many prominent continuous-time stochastic volatility models exhibit certain functional relationships between price jumps and volatility jumps. We show that stochastic volatility models like the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck and other continuous-time CARMA models as well as continuous-time GARCH and EGARCH models all exhibit such functional relations. We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of certain functionals of price and volatility processes for discrete observations of the price process on a grid, which are relevant for estimation and testing problems.