Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation of Surfactant-Resistant Bacteria from Natural, Surfactant-Rich Marine Habitats

ABSTRACT Environmental remediation efforts often utilize either biodegradative microbes or surfactants, but not in combination. Coupling both strategies holds the potential to dramatically increase the rate and extent of remediation because surfactants can enhance the bioavailability of contaminants to microbes. However, many surfactants permeabilize bacterial cell membranes and are effective disinfectants. An important goal then is to find or genetically modify microorganisms that possess both desirable degradative capabilities and the ability to thrive in the presence of surfactants. The guts of some marine invertebrates, particularly deposit feeders, have previously been shown to contain high levels of biosurfactants. Our primary aim was to mine these natural, surfactant-rich habitats for surfactant-resistant bacteria. Relative to sediment porewaters, the gut contents of two polychaete deposit feeders, Nereis succinea and Amphitrite ornata, exhibited a significantly higher ratio of bacteria resistant to both cationic and anionic surfactants. In contrast, bacteria in the gut fluids of a holothuroid, Leptosynapta tenuis, showed surfactant susceptibility similar to that of bacteria from sediments. Analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the majority of surfactant-resistant isolates were previously undescribed species of the genus Vibrio or were of a group most closely related to Spongiobacter spp. We also tested a subset of resistant bacteria for the production of biosurfactants. The majority did produce biosurfactants, as demonstrated via the oil-spreading method, but in all cases, production was relatively weak under the culture conditions employed. Novel surfactant-resistant, biosurfactant-producing bacteria, and the habitats from which they were isolated, provide a new source pool for potential microorganisms to be exploited in the in situ bioremediation of marine sediments.
Mobilizar: Capturing User Behavior with Mobile Digital Diaries

In this paper we present Mobilizar, a web-based mobile tool that facilitates the implementation and data collection of self-reported user behavior. Mobilizar was designed with both the researcher and the participant in mind. It provides investigators with a way to setup a new diary study in a matter of minutes and to electronically collect diary data from participants by using internet-enabled mobile devices. These devices promise to alleviate the burden of carrying a paper-and-pencil diary by instead using the participant’s own device. It also gives participants the flexibility to report their behavior in different ways such as making text, voice, or picture entries that fit their current situational constraints. In this paper, we describe the user interface design of Mobilizar and how it may be used to conduct diary studies with mobile devices.
Measurement of Cardiac Chamber Volumes by Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Cardiac chamber volumes (both atria and ventricles) in 19 healthy volun teers were measured noninvasively by cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). First, cardiac localization was determined from the coronal image by 0.5-T superconducting magnetic imager. Then, transaxial ECG gated multislice spin echo images were obtained from the bottom to the top of the heart. In the last step, cine MRI was performed at each level of all these transaxial spin echo MR images involving the heart. Each cardiac chamber volume at the same phase was calculated by adding chamber areas in each anatomic section multiplied by slice thickness. Left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume (EDV) (132.0±26.9 mL) and LV end-systolic volume (ESV) (47.8 ±13.9 mL) were smaller than right ventricular (RV) EDV (141.1 ±24.8 mL) and RVESV (57.0± 12.6 mL), respec tively (p < 0.01). LV stroke volume (84.3±17.9 mL) was equivalent to RV stroke volume (84.2±17.6 mL) (r=0.91, p < 0.01). Left atrial (LA) and right atrial (RA) maximal volumes were 75.8 ±15.4 mL and 84.4±18.7 mL, respectively. LA minimal volume (37.5 ± 10.7 mL) was smaller than RA minimal volume (47.8 ± 12.2 mL). These values measured by cine MRI are satisfactory and cine MRI will be a useful method of determining cardiac chamber volumes, espe cially atrial volumes.
Evaluation of the prevalence of burnout and psychological morbidity among radiation oncologist members of the Kyoto Radiation Oncology Study Group (KROSG)

Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the self-reported prevalence of burnout and psychological morbidity among radiation oncologists members of the Kyoto Radiation Oncology Study Group (KROSG) and to identify factors contributing to burnout. We mailed an anonymous survey to 125 radiation oncologists members of the KROSG. The survey included; the demographic data, the Maslach Burnout Inventory – Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). There were 87 responses out of 125 eligible respondents (69.6% response rate). In terms of burnout, three participants (3.4%) fulfilled the MBI-HSS criteria of having simultaneously high emotional exhaustion (EE), high depersonalization (DP) and low sense of personal accomplishment (PA). Eighteen (20.6%) reported a high score for either EE or DP meeting the alternative criteria for burnout with three of these simultaneously having high EE and high DP. The prevalence of psychological morbidity estimated using GHQ-12 was 32%. A high level of EE and low level of PA significantly correlated with high level of psychological morbidity with P < 0.001 and <0.01 respectively. Having palliative care activities other than radiotherapy and number of patients treated per year were the only factors associated with burnout. This is the first study investigating the prevalence of burnout and psychological morbidity among radiation oncologists in Japan. Compared with other studies involving radiation oncologists, the prevalence of low personal accomplishment was particularly high in the present study. The prevalence of psychological morbidity was almost the double that of the Japanese general population and was significantly associated with low PA and high EE.
Multilingual bottleneck features for language recognition

In this paper, we investigate Multilingual Stacked Bottleneck Features (SBN) in language recognition domain. These features are extracted using bottleneck neural networks trained on data from multiple languages. Previous results have shown bene-ﬁts of multilingual training of SBN feature extractor for speech recognition. Here we focus on its impact on language recognition. We present results obtained with monolingual and multi-lingual networks, and their fusions. Using multilingual features, we obtain 16% relative improvement on 3s condition of NIST LRE09 dataset with respect to features trained on a single language.
Multi-radio resource management for ambient networks

The ambient networks concept targets forthcoming dynamic communication environments, characterized by the presence of a multitude of different wireless devices, radio access technologies, network operators and business actors, which can form instant inter-network agreements with each other. Multi-radio resource management (MRRM) mechanisms, coordinating several radio accesses, fulfill a key role for providing wireless services with improved resource efficiency, coverage and service quality. This paper presents an MRRM concept for Ambient Networks, describes the principal MRRM functions and discusses design criteria
Acetylcholine Attenuates Hypoxia/Reoxygenation Injury by Inducing Mitophagy Through PINK1/Parkin Signal Pathway in H9c2 Cells

Acetylcholine (ACh) protected against cardiac injury via promoting autophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis, however, the involvement of mitophagy in ACh‐elicited cardioprotection remains unknown. In the present study, H9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) and ACh treatment during reoxygenation. Mitophagy markers PTEN‐induced kinase 1 (PINK1) and Parkin translocation were examined using western blot and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were detected with fluorescence staining. We found that H/R‐treated cells exhibited reduced levels of PINK1 and Parkin in mitochondria, accompanied with decreased autophagy flux (reduced LC3‐II/LC3‐I and increased p62). Conversely, ACh increased PINK1 and Parkin translocation to mitochondria and enhanced autophagy proteins. Confocal imaging of Parkin and MitoTracker Green‐labeled mitochondria further confirmed ACh‐induced mitochondrial translocation of Parkin, which was reversed by M2 receptor antagonist methoctramine and M2 receptor siRNA, suggesting ACh could induce mitophagy by M2 receptor after H/R. Mitophagy inhibitor 3‐methaladenine abolished ACh‐induced mitoprotection, manifesting as aggravated mitochondrial morphology disruption, ATP and membrane potential depletion, increased ROS overproduction, and apoptosis. Furthermore, PINK1/Parkin siRNA attenuated the protective effects of ACh against ATP loss and oxidative stress due to mitochondrial‐dependent injury. Taken together, ACh promoted mitochondrial translocation of PINK1/Parkin to stimulate cytoprotective mitophagy via M2 receptor, which may provide beneficial targets in the preservation of cardiac homeostasis against H/R injury. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 1171–1181, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
On the orbital evolution and growth of protoplanets embedded in a gaseous disc

ABSTRA C T We present a new computation of the linear tidal interaction of a protoplanetary core with a thin gaseous disc in which it is fully embedded. For the first time a discussion of the orbital evolution of cores on eccentric orbits with eccentricity (e) significantly larger than the gasdisc scaleheight-to-radius ratioOH=rU is given. We find that the direction of orbital migration reverses for e . 1:1H=r: This occurs as a result of the orbital crossing of resonances in the disc that do not overlap the orbit when the eccentricity is very small. In that case, resonances always give a net torque corresponding to inward migration. Simple expressions giving approximate fits to the eccentricity damping rate and the orbital migration rate are presented. We go on to calculate the rate of increase of the mean eccentricity for a system of protoplanetary cores caused by dynamical relaxation. By equating the eccentricity damping time-scale with the dynamical relaxation time-scale we deduce that, for parameters thought to be applicable to protoplanetary discs, an equilibrium between eccentricity damping and excitation through scattering is attained on a 10 3 ‐10 4 yr time-scale, at 1 au. This equilibrium is maintained during the further migrational and collisional evolution of the system, which occurs on much longer time-scales. The equilibrium thickness of the protoplanet distribution is related to the equilibrium eccentricity, and is such that it is generally well confined within the gas disc. By use of a three-dimensional direct summation N-body code we simulate the evolution of a system of protoplanetary cores, initialized with a uniform isolation mass of 0.1 M%, incorporating our eccentricity damping and migration rates. Assuming that collisions lead to agglomeration, we find that the vertical confinement of the protoplanet distribution permits cores to build up in mass by a factor of ,10 in only ,10 4 yr, within 1 au. The time-scale required to achieve this is comparable to the migration time-scale. In the context of our model and its particular initial conditions, we deduce that it is not possible to build up a massive enough core to form a gas giant planet, before orbital migration ultimately results in the preferential delivery of all such bodies to the neighbourhood of the central star. This problem could be overcome by allowing for the formation of massive cores at much larger radii than are usually considered. It remains to be investigated whether different disc models or initial planetesimal distributions might be more favourable for slowing or halting the migration, leading to possible giant planet formation at intermediate radii.
Error-voltage based open-switch fault diagnosis strategy for matrix converters with model predictive control method

This paper proposes an error-voltage based open-switch fault diagnosis strategy for matrix converter (MC). First, finite control set-model predictive control (FCS-MPC) method is used to operate the MC. Meanwhile, based on the analysis of the operating state under fault condition, the fault model of MC is established. Second, the fault diagnosis strategy is implemented in three steps: to begin with, the occurrence of fault is detected by monitoring the measured load currents. Then, the faulty phase is identified considering the output line-to-line voltage error. After that, by using the switching state of the faulty phase, the faulty switch is located. The fault diagnosis method can accurately and quickly locate the faulty switch without additional voltage sensors. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Image registration for text-gaze alignment

Applications using eye-tracking devices need a higher accuracy in recognition when the task reaches a certain complexity. Thus, more sophisticated methods to correct eye-tracking measurement errors are necessary to lower the penetration barrier of eye-trackers in unconstrained tasks. We propose to take advantage of the content or the structure of textual information displayed on the screen to build informed error-correction algorithms that generalize well. The idea is to use feature-based image registration techniques to perform a linear transformation of gaze coordinates to find a good alignment with text printed on the screen. In order to estimate the parameters of the linear transformation, three optimization strategies are proposed to avoid the problem of local minima, namely Monte Carlo, multi-resolution and multi-blur optimization. Experimental results show that a more precise alignment of gaze data with words on the screen can be achieved by using these methods, allowing a more reliable use of eye-trackers in complex and unconstrained tasks.
Adaptive differential evolution with optimization state estimation

The performance of differential evolution (DE) largely depends on an appropriate selection of the values of the algorithmic parameters. Usually, it is difficult to choose optimal parameter values, because they are often ad hoc to the specific problem in question and also related to the optimization states that the DE is in during its search process. In this paper, a novel adaptive parameter control scheme is proposed for DE. Improving from existing parameter control schemes, the parameters F and CR in DE are adaptively controlled according to the optimization states, namely, exploration state and exploitation state in each generation. These optimization states are estimated by measuring the population distribution. During the optimization process of DE, the distribution of population varies and reflects the search maturity. In the exploration state, individuals in the population distribute evenly in the search space. As the optimization matures, the population gradually converges on a global or local optimum in the exploitation state. This feature enables parameter adaptation with a fuller utilization of the prevailing optimization information and hence reduces inappropriate adjustments. The proposed adaptive parameter control scheme is applied to the famous DE/rand/1 algorithm. Experimental results show that this scheme can effectively improve the efficiency and robustness of the algorithm.
Becoming a Model Minority: The Depiction of Japanese Canadians in the Globe and Mail, 1946–2000

This paper examines the questions of whether the portrayal of Japanese Canadians in the media has changed over time and what accounts for the change or the lack thereof. These questions were addressed by conducting a content analysis of the portrayal of Japanese Canadians in the Globe and Mail from 1946 to 2000. Using frame analysis, this paper shows that the frames used to portray Japanese Canadians changed from the Unthreatening Community Frame, 1946–1980, to the Justified Victims Frame, 1981–1990, to the Model Minority Frame, 1991–2000. The findings indicate that the frames are not just imposed on Japanese Canadians by the media, but that they reflect the interaction of the changing norms of the Globe and Mail, as well as the changing Japanese Canadian experience. However, all the frames overlook the complex nature of the Japanese Canadian community and minimize past and current discrimination. Dans cet article, nous examinons si le portrait des Canadiens japonais a changé dans les média avec le temps et ce qui explique cette évolution ou ce statu quo. Pour traiter de ces questions, nous avons analysé comment le journal le Globe and Mail les a dépeints de 1946 à l’an 2000. À partir d’une analyse du cadrage de Goffman, nous démontrons que celui servant à représenter les Nippo-Canadiens a changé du temps du « cadrage d’une communauté non-menaçante » (1946 –1980), au « cadrage des victimes justifiées » (1981 – 1990) et au « cadrage d’une minorité mo-dèle » (1991 – 2000). Les résultats indiquent que ces cadrages ne sont pas simplement imposés à ces derniers par les média, mais qu’ils reflètent l’interaction des changements normatifs du Globe and Mail autant qu’une mutation de l’expérience des Canadiens japonais. Pourtant, aucun ne tient compte de la complexité qui règne au sein de la communauté nippo-canadienne, et tous minimisent la discrimination passée et actuelle.
Analysis of TCP throughput in IEEE 802.11 based multi-hop ad hoc networks

This paper analyzes the TCP performance in an 802.11 based multi-hop ad hoc network. The analysis is unique because it tries to quantify the throughput of a TCP flow after considering the interaction between TCP's congestion window size and 802.11's MAC (medium access control) contention window size. The analysis results in formulae to compute the throughput of a single TCP flow for an n-hop string topology under the ideal situation where there is no packet loss in the network. The analytical results have been validated by benchmarking against simulation results from ns-2. The outcome of the analysis is useful when ad hoc networks are adopted as an extension to the Internet because TCP is the prevalent transport protocol for reliable data transmissions in the Internet.
Updating spatial layouts mediated by pointing and labelling under physical and imaginary rotation

The present experiments manipulated the modality in which participants communicated object directions (by pointing or verbal labelling) in a learned layout, and the mode in which they were required to rotate (physically or imaginary). The results showed that the pointing modality was strongly influenced by the mode of rotation (Experiment 1). Pointing was faster and more accurate in the physical than in the imaginary rotation. In addition, a different pattern of dimension accessibility was observed: equi-accessibility in physical rotation (front-back = right-left) and standard in imaginary rotation (front-back < right-left). By contrast, the verbal modality was less influenced by the mode of rotation. The same standard pattern of dimension accessibility and similar speed was obtained in physical and imaginary rotation. These results are explained by proposing a first-order embodiment, typical of ordinary pointing, which involves a low-cost sensory-motor updating of object positions and a second-order embodiment, most typical of language, which involves a represented (rather than physical) self and an object-to-frame high-cost updating.
Facades Modeling from a Ground-View Video with Map Constraints

We present a 3D modeling approach to reconstruct urban facades with map constraints. Our main constribution is to use GIS data to filter the points cloud to improve the reconstruction process. The method’s input is a ground-view video sequence captured by a common webcam. We extract original feature points cloud by using structure-from-motion technique. First, the footprint from GIS enables us to achieve filtering process, which is a key step to generate a quality reconstruction result in our method. Secondly, our method reconstructs the final facades based on the footprint. We show a simple and accurate facades modeling system to reconstruct building facades.
Does universally accessible child care protect children from late talking? Results from a Norwegian population-based prospective study

This study examines the association between type of child care arrangement at age 1, 1.5 and 3 years and late talking (LT). The data were from 19,919 children in the population-based prospective Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and included information about child care arrangement, LT and a variety of covariates. Attendance at universally accessible child care at 1.5 and 3 years of age was related to a reduced risk for LT, even after controlling for covariates, including early social communication skills before entering child care. However, type of child care at one year of age did not predict LT. Children attending centre care full-time at age three years showed less LT than children attending centre care part-time, whereas no such relationship was found for children at age 1.5 years or for children attending family day care. The results indicate that high-quality universal child care protects children from LT.
How exclusive are inclusive organisations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to anchor the buzzword “inclusive organisation” in a theory-based perspective by identifying meanings of inclusion and exclusion in various scientific discourses. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an overview about inclusion/exclusion and its different usage in four “western” scientific discourses. By analysing the role of organisations in each discourse, relevant aspects for specifying the concept of “inclusive organisations” are identified. Findings – The concept of “inclusive organisations” needs to be grounded in a wider industry context for determining adequate action strategies towards inclusiveness. More attention should be paid to the excluding effects of including measures and resulting changes in power relations. Research limitations/implications – The conceptual approach of the paper needs to be anchored in further empirical research on the measurability of inclusion/exclusion within organisations and on the implementation of organisational .
Label-free electrical detection of DNA hybridization using carbon nanotubes and graphene

The interface between biosystems and nanomaterials is emerging for detection of various biomolecules and subtle cellular activities. In particular, the development of cost-effective and sequence-selective DNA detection is urgent for the diagnosis of genetic or pathogenic diseases. Graphene-based nanocarbon materials, such as carbon nanotubes and thin graphene layers, have been employed as biosensors because they are biocompatible, extraordinarily sensitive, and promising for large-area detection. Electrical and label-free detection of DNA can be achieved by monitoring the conductance change of devices fabricated from these carbon materials. Here, the recent advances in this research area are briefly reviewed. The key issues and perspectives of future development are also discussed.