Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel Variant Serotype of Streptococcus suis Isolated from Piglets with Meningitis

ABSTRACT Streptococcus suis is an emerging zoonotic pathogen causing severe infections in pigs and humans. In previous studies, 33 serotypes of S. suis have been identified using serum agglutination. Here, we describe a novel S. suis strain, CZ130302, isolated from an outbreak of acute piglet meningitis in eastern China. Strong pathogenicity of meningitis caused by strain CZ130302 was reproduced in the BALB/c mouse model. The strain showed a high fatality rate (8/10), higher than those for known virulent serotype 2 strains P1/7 (1/10) and 9801 (2/10). Cell adhesion assay results with bEnd.3 and HEp2 cells showed that CZ130302 was significantly close to P1/7 and 9801. Both the agglutination test and its complementary test showed that strain CZ130302 had no strong cross-reaction with the other 33 S. suis serotypes. The multiplex PCR assays revealed no specified bands for all four sets used to detect the other 33 serotypes. In addition, genetic analysis of the whole cps gene clusters of all serotypes was performed in this study. The results of comparative genomics showed that the cps gene cluster of CZ130302, which was not previously reported, showed no homology to the gene sequences of the other strains. Especially, the wzy, wzx, and acetyltransferase genes of strain CZ130302 are phylogenetically distinct from strains of the other 33 serotypes. Therefore, this study suggested that strain CZ130302 represents a novel variant serotype of S. suis (designated serotype Chz) which has a high potential to be virulent and associated with meningitis in animals.
Still's Disease and Recurrent Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type-I: The First Description

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic neuropathic pain disorder characterized by neuropathic pain associated with local edema and changes suggestive of autonomic involvement such as altered sweating, skin color, and skin temperature of the affected region. CRPS was described associated with several diseases, such as trauma, psychiatric conditions, and cancer. However, no case associated with Still's disease has been previously described. In this paper, the authors describe the first case of CRPS associated with Still's disease.
Enhancing the efficiency of a PCR using gold nanoparticles

We found that the PCR could be dramatically enhanced by Au nanoparticles. With the addition of 0.7 nM of 13 nm Au nanoparticles into the PCR reagent, the PCR efficiency was increased. Especially when maintaining the same or higher amplification yields, the reaction time could be shortened, and the heating/cooling rates could be increased. The excellent heat transfer property of the nanoparticles should be the major factor in improving the PCR efficiency. Different PCR systems, DNA polymerases, DNA sizes and complex samples were compared in this study. Our results demonstrated that Au nanoparticles increase the sensitivity of PCR detection 5- to 10-fold in a slower PCR system (i.e. conventional PCR) and at least 104-fold in a quicker PCR system (i.e. real-time PCR). After the PCR time was shortened by half, the 100 copies/µl DNA were detectable in real-time PCR with gold colloid added, however, at least 106 copies/µl of DNA were needed to reach a detectable signal level using the PCR reagent without gold colloid. This innovation could improve the PCR efficiency using non-expensive polymerases, and general PCR reagent. It is a new viewpoint in PCR, that nanoparticles can be used to enhance PCR efficiency and shorten reaction times.
Prefix Computations on a Generalized Mesh-Connected Computer with Multiple Buses

The mesh-connected computer with multiple buses (MC-CMB) is a well-known parallel organization, providing broadcast facilities in each row and each column. In this paper, we propose a 2D generalized MCCMB (2-GMCCMB) for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of executing some important applications of prefix computations such as solving Linear recurrences and tridiagonaI systems, etc. A k/sub 1/n/sub 1spl times/k/sub 1/n/sub 2/ 2-GMCCMB is constructed from a k/sub 1/n/sub 1spl times/k/sub 1/n/sub 2/ mesh organization by enhancing the power of each disjoint n/sub 1spl times/n/sub 2/ submesh with multiple buses (sub-2-MCCMB). Given n data, a prefix computation can be performed in O(n/sup 1/10/) time on an n/sup 3/5spl times/n/sup 2/5/ 2-GMCCMB, where each disjoint sub-2-MCCMB is of size n/sup 1/2spl times/n/sup 3/10/. This time bound is faster than the previous time bound of O(n/sup 1/8/) for the same computation on an n/sup 5/8spl times/n/sup 3/8/ 2-MCCMB. Furthermore, the time bound of our parallel prefix algorithm can be further reduced to O(n/sup 1/11/) if fewer processors are used. Our result can be extended to the d-dimensional GMCCMB, giving a time bound of O(n/sup 1/(d2(d)+d)/) for any constant d; here, we omit the constant factors. This time bound is less than the previous time bound of O(n/sup 1/(d2(d))/) on the d-dimensional MCCMB. >
Processive movement of single 22S dynein molecules occurs only at low ATP concentrations.

We have analyzed the movement of single 22S dynein molecules from Tetrahymena cilia by using a nanometer measuring system equipped with optical tweezers. Statistical analysis proved that a single molecule of 22S dynein can move processively and develop force at low concentrations of ATP (<20 microM). The maximum force was approximately 4.7 pN, and the force-velocity curve was convex down. During force development, dynein molecules showed stepwise displacement of approximately 8 nm and frequently exhibited backward steps of approximately 8 nm. At higher concentrations of ATP (>/=20 microM) single molecules of 22S dynein were not observed to move processively. Twenty-two S dynein seems to switch over from a processive mode to a nonprocessive mode, sensing a subtle change of ATP concentrations. These observations indicate that the processivity, maximum force, and step size of dynein are similar to those of kinesin, but the ATP concentration-dependence, force-velocity relationship, and backward steps are clearly distinct from kinesin.
ANTIGEN-REACTIVE CELLS IN NORMAL, IMMUNIZED, AND TOLERANT MICE

The numbers of antigen-reactive cells (ARC) responding to a purified protein, the polymer of S. adelaide flagellin, have been assayed in cell populations derived from several lymphoid tissues of mice. The assay, which employs the cell transfer into lethally irradiated mice, indicates that there is a response of ARC in bone marrow in the absence of thymus cells. This suggests that the immune response to this protein antigen is not thymus dependent. The presence of relatively large numbers of ARC in Peyer's patches argues for their direct participation in the immune response in the adult mouse. The kinetics of ARC and antibody-forming cells in the early primary response employing the transfer system is described. The numbers of ARC declined during the first 2 days of the immune response, but by day 6 had increased to about five times the number in unprimed spleen cells. The rise is believed to be a result of the primary injection of antigen and therefore may be described as memory; however, these experiments have not been able to further elucidate any specific qualities of the "memory cell. " Tolerance induction in C57BL/Brad mice produced by repeated injections of a cyanogen bromide digest of the antigen is described. The ARC or its precursor is shown to be the site of the lesion of tolerance by direct investigation.
The 7 th International Conference on Ambient Systems , Networks and Technologies ( ANT 2016 ) Modeling and Simulation of Renewable Energy Sources in Smart Grid Using DEVS Formalism

Because of safety, economical, and environmental reasons, the community of power systems is being working on developing a new and clean power grid, the smart grid. Smart grid infrastructure brings together renewable energy sources with information technology domain to find optimal and clean power generation, storage, and consumption. The first step in designing an intelligent power and data infrastructure, is to model and simulate the different components of smart grid in order to make accurate design decisions. In this paper, a modeling and simulation approach in the Discrete EVent System Specification (DEVS) environment is proposed. The approach models four main components in smart grid which are: photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines, storage devices, and load demand. Also, other components are being developed as well and will be discussed. Real wind speed and solar radiation profiles were used in the simulation. The tool results of the maximum amount of stored power and the power shortage are used to help the power system designer at a specific location in making decisions on the capacities needed for photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines, and storage. c © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chairs.
Rapid evolution of disease resistance is accompanied by functional changes in gene expression in a wild bird

Wild organisms are under increasing pressure to adapt rapidly to environmental changes. Predicting the impact of these changes on natural populations requires an understanding of the speed with which adaptive phenotypes can arise and spread, as well as of the underlying mechanisms. However, our understanding of these parameters is poor in natural populations. Here we use experimental and molecular approaches to investigate the recent emergence of resistance in eastern populations of North American house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) to Mycoplasma galliseptum (MG), a severe conjunctivitis-causing bacterium. Two weeks following an experimental infection that took place in 2007, finches from eastern US populations with a 12-y history of exposure to MG harbored 33% lower MG loads in their conjunctivae than finches from western US populations with no prior exposure to MG. Using a cDNA microarray, we show that this phenotypic difference in resistance was associated with differences in splenic gene expression, with finches from the exposed populations up-regulating immune genes postinfection and those from the unexposed populations generally down-regulating them. The expression response of western US birds to experimental infection in 2007 was more similar to that of the eastern US birds studied in 2000, 7 y earlier in the epizootic, than to that of eastern birds in 2007. These results support the hypothesis that resistance has evolved by natural selection in the exposed populations over the 12 y of the epizootic. We hypothesize that host resistance arose and spread from standing genetic variation in the eastern US and highlight that natural selection can lead to rapid phenotypic evolution in populations when acting on such variation.
Design and Application Considerations for User-Programmable Bits Over Protection Channels

Modern digital relays use a wide variety of communications channels designed for protection applications. Communications channels can include a dedicated serial peer-topeer communications channel, a line current differential (87L) channel used to exchange analog samples, and high-speed Generic Object-Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) messaging over Ethernet. Communications channels are used to exchange a wide variety of status bits that can be predefined or programmed by the user. Exchanged bits are often very critical and must be protected in order to prevent protection system misoperation. This paper describes the methods used to detect communications errors, explains how to convert the commonly used bit error rate (BER) measurement obtained from a given communications channel into a quantitative estimate of undetected bit errors, and discusses diagnostic features found in modern digital relays. The discussion is supported with realworld application examples and further verified using mathematical analysis and long-term tests. The paper describes the typical solutions of using timers or combining multiple bits to ensure security for very noisy channels. Disturbance detection and redundant channels provide an opportunity to dramatically improve security for critical signals, such as direct transfer tripping. Two field misoperation events are included to prove the importance of correctly applying channel addressing. The paper reviews the preferable treatment (logic) for a number of typical bits used in line current differential applications. This discussion explains different fallback schemes when a packet is corrupted or lost. Recommendations are given for selecting the optimal protocol in the contexts of security and speed while taking into account the intended application and channel characteristics.
Evaluation of Anticataract Activity of Methanolic Extract of Trianthema Decandra Leaves against Galactose Induced Cataractogenesis

Opacification of the lens of the eye, cataract is the foremost cause of sightlessness it accounts for approximately 50% of all blindness worldwide. World Health Organization launched Vision 2020, to get rid of cataract as priority diseases [1,2]. In India, cataract is responsible for almost 80% of blindness [3,4]. Apart from senile cataract various risk factors such as nutritional deficiency, sunlight, smoking environmental factors, lack of consumption of antioxidants and diabetes are known to increase the risk of cataract [5-8].
Consistent response of vegetation dynamics to recent climate change in tropical mountain regions

Global climate change has emerged as a major driver of ecosystem change. Here, we present evidence for globally consistent responses in vegetation dynamics to recent climate change in the world's mountain ecosystems located in the pan‐tropical belt (30°N–30°S). We analyzed decadal‐scale trends and seasonal cycles of vegetation greenness using monthly time series of satellite greenness (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and climate data for the period 1982–2006 for 47 mountain protected areas in five biodiversity hotspots. The time series of annual maximum NDVI for each of five continental regions shows mild greening trends followed by reversal to stronger browning trends around the mid‐1990s. During the same period we found increasing trends in temperature but only marginal change in precipitation. The amplitude of the annual greenness cycle increased with time, and was strongly associated with the observed increase in temperature amplitude. We applied dynamic models with time‐dependent regression parameters to study the time evolution of NDVI–climate relationships. We found that the relationship between vegetation greenness and temperature weakened over time or was negative. Such loss of positive temperature sensitivity has been documented in other regions as a response to temperature‐induced moisture stress. We also used dynamic models to extract the trends in vegetation greenness that remain after accounting for the effects of temperature and precipitation. We found residual browning and greening trends in all regions, which indicate that factors other than temperature and precipitation also influence vegetation dynamics. Browning rates became progressively weaker with increase in elevation as indicated by quantile regression models. Tropical mountain vegetation is considered sensitive to climatic changes, so these consistent vegetation responses across widespread regions indicate persistent global‐scale effects of climate warming and associated moisture stresses.
Dual Band E-Shape Microstrip Antenna for GPS Application

A dual band E-shape microstrip antenna has simulated and analysed at frequencies 1.625GHz and 1.725 GHz. The antenna was analysed to operate at 1.625 GHz and with reconfigurability of frequency it will operate at 1.725 GHz. The physical parameter of the structure has been analysed using Zealand IE3D simulator. Return loss (S11), VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio has been carried out. The return loss of Eshape microstrip antenna has been less then -10dB at frequencies 1.625 GHz and 1.725 Hz. The E-shape microstrip antenna is very promising for various modern communication applications such as wireless and satellite application.
ScanRanker: Quality assessment of tandem mass spectra via sequence tagging.

In shotgun proteomics, protein identification by tandem mass spectrometry relies on bioinformatics tools. Despite recent improvements in identification algorithms, a significant number of high quality spectra remain unidentified for various reasons. Here we present ScanRanker, an open-source tool that evaluates the quality of tandem mass spectra via sequence tagging with reliable performance in data from different instruments. The superior performance of ScanRanker enables it not only to find unassigned high quality spectra that evade identification through database search but also to select spectra for de novo sequencing and cross-linking analysis. In addition, we demonstrate that the distribution of ScanRanker scores predicts the richness of identifiable spectra among multiple LC-MS/MS runs in an experiment, and ScanRanker scores assist the process of peptide assignment validation to increase confident spectrum identifications. The source code and executable versions of ScanRanker are available from http://fenchurch.mc. vanderbilt.edu.
Security Impact of High Resolution Smartphone Cameras

Nearly every modern mobile device includes two cameras. With advances in technology the resolution of these sensors has constantly increased. While this development provides great convenience for users, for example with video-telephony or as dedicated camera replacement, the security implications of including high resolution cameras on such devices has yet to be considered in greater detail. With this paper we demonstrate that an attacker may abuse the cameras in modern smartphones to extract valuable information from a victim. First, we consider exploiting a front-facing camera to capture a user's keystrokes. By observing facial reflections, it is possible to capture user input with the camera. Subsequently, individual keystrokes can be extracted from the images acquired with the camera. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these cameras can be used by an attacker to extract and forge the fingerprints of a victim. This enables an attacker to perform a wide range of malicious actions, including authentication bypass on modern biometric systems and falsely implicating a person by planting fingerprints in a crime scene. Finally, we introduce several mitigation strategies for the identified threats.
Urine NGAL predicts severity of acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The authors have previously shown that urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), measured by a research ELISA, is an early predictive biomarker of acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In this study, whether an NGAL immunoassay developed for a standardized clinical platform (ARCHITECT analyzer, Abbott Diagnostics Division, Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL) can predict AKI after CPB was tested. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS In a pilot study with 136 urine samples (NGAL range, 0.3 to 815 ng/ml) and 6 calibration standards (NGAL range, 0 to 1000 ng/ml), NGAL measurements by research ELISA and by the ARCHITECT assay were highly correlated (r = 0.99). In a subsequent study, 196 children undergoing CPB were prospectively enrolled and serial urine NGAL measurements obtained by ARCHITECT assay. The primary outcome was AKI, defined as a > or = 50% increase in serum creatinine. RESULTS AKI developed in 99 patients (51%), but the diagnosis using serum creatinine was delayed by 2 to 3 d after CPB. In contrast, mean urine NGAL levels increased 15-fold within 2 h and by 25-fold at 4 and 6 h after CPB. For the 2-h urine NGAL measurement, the area under the curve was 0.95, sensitivity was 0.82, and the specificity was 0.90 for prediction of AKI using a cutoff value of 100 ng/ml. The 2-h urine NGAL levels correlated with severity and duration of AKI, length of stay, dialysis requirement, and death. CONCLUSIONS Accurate measurements of urine NGAL are obtained using the ARCHITECT platform. Urine NGAL is an early predictive biomarker of AKI severity after CPB.
Molecular Evolution of Aralkylamine N-Acetyltransferase in Fish: A Genomic Survey

All living organisms synchronize biological functions with environmental changes; melatonin plays a vital role in regulating daily and seasonal variations. Due to rhythmic activity of the timezyme aralkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT), the blood level of melatonin increases at night and decreases during daytime. Whereas other vertebrates have a single form of AANAT, bony fishes possess various isoforms of aanat genes, though the reasons are still unclear. Here, we have taken advantage of multiple unpublished teleost aanat sequences to explore and expand our understanding of the molecular evolution of aanat in fish. Our results confirm that two rounds of whole-genome duplication (WGD) led to the existence of three fish isoforms of aanat, i.e., aanat1a, aanat1b, and aanat2; in addition, gene loss led to the absence of some forms from certain special fish species. Furthermore, we suggest the different roles of two aanat1s in amphibious mudskippers, and speculate that the loss of aanat1a, may be related to terrestrial vision change. Several important sites of AANAT proteins and regulatory elements of aanat genes were analyzed for structural comparison and functional forecasting, respectively, which provides insights into the molecular evolution of the differences between AANAT1 and AANAT2.
On the Morphology of Cells of Posterior Cornea in the Iridocorneal Endothelial Syndrome

The iridocorneal endothelial (ICE) syndrome is potentially a blinding condition as a result of glaucoma and/or corneal decompensation. The basic pathology seems to be in the corneal endothelium, which many studies confirm takes on a characteristic slit lamp appearance of hammered silver and image reversal with the specular microscope. The origin and morphology of the abnormal cells are unknown. Many histopathological studies of keratoplasty and trabeculectomy specimens reveal as many cell types. This paper reports some general and specular microscopical data from 57 cases of the syndrome, argues that the reason for the variety of histopathological findings in other studies is due to poor sampling of the study material, deduces the morphology of the abnormal cells on specular microscopical criteria, and compares the specular and scanning electron microscopical images in one case with those of other reports. It is tentatively concluded that the appearance of the abnormal cells is a function of their three-dimensional shape and that they produce blister-like vesicles that rupture, collapse, and eventually invaginate.
Sparse Reduced-Rank Regression for Simultaneous Dimension Reduction and Variable Selection

The reduced-rank regression is an effective method in predicting multiple response variables from the same set of predictor variables. It reduces the number of model parameters and takes advantage of interrelations between the response variables and hence improves predictive accuracy. We propose to select relevant variables for reduced-rank regression by using a sparsity-inducing penalty. We apply a group-lasso type penalty that treats each row of the matrix of the regression coefficients as a group and show that this penalty satisfies certain desirable invariance properties. We develop two numerical algorithms to solve the penalized regression problem and establish the asymptotic consistency of the proposed method. In particular, the manifold structure of the reduced-rank regression coefficient matrix is considered and studied in our theoretical analysis. In our simulation study and real data analysis, the new method is compared with several existing variable selection methods for multivariate regression and exhibits competitive performance in prediction and variable selection.