Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tobramycin inactivation by carbenicillin, ticarcillin, and piperacillin

The in vitro and in vivo inactivation of tobramycin by carbenicillin, ticarcillin, or piperacillin was investigated by the enzyme immunoassay method in clinically employed dosages. After the addition of an 80-mg dose of tobramycin to 4- to 5-g doses of a penicillin in 100 ml of 0.9% saline or distilled water, the degradation profile of tobramycin appeared to follow a biexponential pattern of decay. Remarkable losses (30 to 40%) of tobramycin combined with carbenicillin or ticarcillin were observed within 1 h, as compared with the later decline. The combination of tobramycin with piperacillin was least inactivating. When the admixture of tobramycin with carbenicillin or piperacillin used in the in vitro study was infused to six volunteers over 1 h, the observed maximum concentrations of tobramycin were on the average 66 and 74% for carbenicillin and piperacillin, respectively, of that observed after tobramycin alone was given. In contrast, the value obtained for tobramycin in combination with piperacillin was close to 90% of the control value. The elimination half-lives of tobramycin combined with the penicillins were slightly shorter than those of tobramycin alone, indicating that the interaction occurs even in patients with normal renal function.
The Impact of Age, Place, Aging in Place, and Attachment to Place on the Well-Being of the Over 50s in England

This study uses data from the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing to explore the extent and significance of the influence of “age,” “place,” and “aging in place” on the attachment to place in a large representative population of English adults aged 50 and over. It then examines the contribution of age, place, aging in place, and the attachment to place to scores on the CASP 19, a measure of well-being designed to measure some of the key sentiments and experiences of the “third age. ” The results indicate that age, aging in place, place, and the attachment to place interact in complex ways to affect levels of “third age” well-being.
Frontal Networks Associated With Command Following After Hemorrhagic Stroke

Background and Purpose— Level of consciousness is frequently assessed by command-following ability in the clinical setting. However, it is unclear what brain circuits are needed to follow commands. We sought to determine what networks differentiate command following from noncommand following patients after hemorrhagic stroke. Methods— Structural MRI, resting-state functional MRI, and electroencephalography were performed on 25 awake and unresponsive patients with acute intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Structural injury was assessed via volumetric T1-weighted MRI analysis. Functional connectivity differences were analyzed against a template of standard resting-state networks. The default mode network (DMN) and the task-positive network were investigated using seed-based functional connectivity. Networks were interrogated by pairwise coherence of electroencephalograph leads in regions of interest defined by functional MRI. Results— Functional imaging of unresponsive patients identified significant differences in 6 of 16 standard resting-state networks. Significant voxels were found in premotor cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus, and supplementary motor area. Direct interrogation of the DMN and task-positive network revealed loss of connectivity between the DMN and the orbitofrontal cortex and new connections between the task-positive network and DMN. Coherence between electrodes corresponding to right executive network and visual networks was also decreased in unresponsive patients. Conclusions— Resting-state functional MRI and electroencephalography coherence data support a model in which multiple, chiefly frontal networks are required for command following. Loss of DMN anticorrelation with task-positive network may reflect a loss of inhibitory control of the DMN by motor-executive regions. Frontal networks should thus be a target for future investigations into the mechanism of responsiveness in the intensive care unit environment.
Improving sex education programs for young adolescents: parents views.

Parents of young adolescents from 2 United States communities were surveyed regarding their attitudes toward sex education. The East Coast community Rolling Hills is an upper-middle class suburb. The population is approximately 50000--predominantly Caucasian. A curriculum from kindergarten to 12th grade has been developed and implemented. At the 7th and 8th grade levels respect and understanding of self and others; social development of the teenager; social aspects of dating growth and reproduction; and proper sexuality terminology should be taught. The Rocky Mountain site Mountain View is a small Western town of approximately 40000 predominantly Caucasian. The reproductive system fetal development and venereal diseases are covered. A survey was distributed for parents to complete in each area. 81% of the respondents were female; 71% had a child in 7th grade; 29% in 8th. They are predominantly white married Christian and middle class. The vast majority (89%) of parents "generally approved" of sex education in the schools. Most (66%) believed that there was "some" support for teaching sex education; 20% thought there was "a lot" of support--14% "a little. " 61% said the junior high school sex education program should be expanded; 33% kept the same; 4% abolished. Parents want to be the primary sex educators of their children but want the schools to supplement their efforts. Parents felt sex education should be introduced by 9th grade. Parents want to be involved in the curriculum planning and implementation of sex education programs in the schools.
Jointly Modeling Event Time and Skewed-Longitudinal Data with Missing Response and Mismeasured Covariate for AIDS Studies

In longitudinal studies it is often of interest to investigate how a repeatedly measured marker in time is associated with a time to an event of interest. This type of research question has given rise to a rapidly developing field of biostatistics research that deals with the joint modeling of longitudinal and time-to-event data. Normality of model errors in longitudinal model is a routine assumption, but it may be unrealistically obscuring important features of subject variations. Covariates are usually introduced in the models to partially explain between- and within-subject variations, but some covariates such as CD4 cell count may be often measured with substantial errors. Moreover, the responses may encounter nonignorable missing. Statistical analysis may be complicated dramatically based on longitudinal-survival joint models where longitudinal data with skewness, missing values, and measurement errors are observed. In this article, we relax the distributional assumptions for the longitudinal models using skewed (parametric) distribution and unspecified (nonparametric) distribution placed by a Dirichlet process prior, and address the simultaneous influence of skewness, missingness, covariate measurement error, and time-to-event process by jointly modeling three components (response process with missing values, covariate process with measurement errors, and time-to-event process) linked through the random-effects that characterize the underlying individual-specific longitudinal processes in Bayesian analysis. The method is illustrated with an AIDS study by jointly modeling HIV/CD4 dynamics and time to viral rebound in comparison with potential models with various scenarios and different distributional specifications.
The Early Expression of Glycoprotein B from Herpes Simplex Virus Can Be Detected by Antigen-Specific CD8+ T Cells

ABSTRACT The immune response to cutaneous herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection begins with remarkable rapidity. Activation of specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) begins within hours of infection, even though the response within the draining lymph nodes peaks nearly 5 days later. HSV gene products are classified into three main groups, α, β, and γ, based on their kinetics and requirements for expression. In C57BL/6 mice, the immunodominant epitope from HSV is derived from glycoprotein B (gB498-505). While gB is considered a γ or “late” gene product, previous reports have indicated that some level of gene expression may occur soon after infection. Using brefeldin A as a specific inhibitor of viral antigen presentation to major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted CTL, we have formally addressed the timing of gB peptide expression in an immunologically relevant manner following infection. Presentation of gB peptide detected by T-cell activation was first observed within 2 h of infection. Comparison with another viral epitope expressed early during infection, HSV-1 ribonucleotide reductase, demonstrated that gB is presented with the same kinetics as this classical early-gene product. Moreover, this rapidity of gB expression was further illustrated via rapid priming of naïve transgenic CD8+ T cells in vivo after HSV-1 infection of mice. These results establish that gB is expressed rapidly following HSV-1 infection, at levels capable of effectively stimulating CD8+ T cells.
HÁlux valgo : estudo compaRativo entRe duas técnicas ciRúRgicas de osteotomia pRoximal de adição hallux valgus : compaRative stuDy between two suRgical techniQues of pRoximal aDDition osteotomy

Citação: Lara LCR, Franco Filho N, Hita RM, Araujo BV. Hálux Valgo: Estudo comparativo entre duas técnicas cirúrgicas de osteotomia proximal de adição. Acta Ortop Bras. [online]. 2012;20(6):351-5. Disponível em URL: http://www.scielo. br/aob. Citation: Lara LCR, Franco Filho N, Hita RM, Araujo BV. Hallux Valgus: Comparative study between two surgical techniques of proximal addition osteotomy. Acta Ortop Bras. [online]. 2012;20(6):351-5. Available from URL: http://www.scielo. br/aob. RESUMO
Effects of Educational Background on Students' Attitudes, Activity Levels, and Knowledge Concerning the Environment

Abstract The objective of this study was to establish whether students in a variety of educational establishments differed in their attitudes toward nature and the environment and to discover more about their nature- and environment-related activities and knowledge. Major variations among students were found according to their gender and educational backgrounds. Female students tended to show more responsibility toward the environment than male students. Of the different educational groups studied, students of biology exhibited the most positive attitudes and the greatest levels of knowledge; they also participated in many nature-related activities. In contrast, there was some evidence that students of subjects related to technology and economics adopted a more negative attitude toward the environment and, on average, had fewer nature-related hobbies than students in general. Attitudes, the quantity of nature-related activities, and knowledge about environmentor nature-related issues correlated with one another. Although educational background seemed to affect attitudes, activity levels, and knowledge, there are without a doubt a number of other underlying factors.
A re-appraisal of the biological activity of bacteroides LPS.

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) were extracted from seven Bacteroides strains by three different techniques: the phenol-water (PW), phenol-chloroform-petroleum (PCP) and Triton-Mg2+ methods. The strains selected included two different B. fragilis strains, one of which was grown in two different media. Yields varied between the strains, growth media and extraction technique, but generally the highest yield by weight was from the PCP method and the lowest from the PW method. The PW method was selected for the greatest amounts of carbohydrate and KDO, and the PCP method for the least. Phosphorus levels were more uniform among all extraction methods. Protein contamination was found in all Bacteroides LPS extracts, with extremely low levels in PW-LPS and the highest levels in material extracted by the PCP and Triton-Mg2+ techniques. No protein contamination could be detected after proteinase K treatment. After silver staining LPS PAGE profiles showed ladder patterns characteristics of smooth LPS for B. vulgatus, B. thetaiotaomicron and the control Escherichia coli O18:K- strains, whereas the other Bacteroides strains showed mainly rough and low M(r) material only. The PCP method did not select for high M(r) material in the B. fragilis strains; otherwise the LPS profiles for all extraction methods were identical. The biological activities of native and sodium salt form LPS were investigated on a weight for weight basis and compared to that of E. coli O18:K- PW-LPS. Amongst the LPS from Bacteroides strains, those prepared by the PW method were found to have a significantly higher activity in a galactosamine mouse lethality model, in induction of TNF and the Limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) assay, than LPS extracted by the PCP or Triton-Mg2+ methods. LPS from Bacteroides strains extracted by the PCP method had consistently low activity in all assays. Comparing PW-LPS from Bacteroides strains with that from E. coli O18:K- in the galactosamine mouse model, the E. coli O18:K- LPS was c. 5000-fold more active than the most active bacteroides LPS. However, in the LAL assay native PW-LPS from both the B. fragilis strains, and B. caccae had higher activities (up to 30-fold) than E. coli O18:K- LPS, with the PW-LPS from the other Bacteroides spp. being up to 15-fold less active than the E. coli O18:K- PW-LPS. In the TNF induction assay, E. coli O18:K- PW-LPS was 4-50-fold more active than bacteroides PW-LPS. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
HIV envelope trimers and gp120 as immunogens to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies in cows

The study of immunogens capable of eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) is crucial for the development of an HIV vaccine. To date, only cows, making use of their ultralong CDRH3 loops, have reliably elicited bnAbs following immunization with HIV Envelope trimers. Antibody responses to the CD4 binding site have been readily elicited by immunization of cows with a stabilized Env trimer of the BG505 strain and, with more difficulty, to the V2-apex region of Env with a cocktail of trimers. Here, we sought to determine whether the BG505 Env trimer could be engineered to generate new bnAb specificities in cows. Since the cow CD4 binding site bnAbs bind to monomeric BG505 gp120, we also sought to determine whether gp120 immunization alone might be sufficient to induce bnAbs. We found that engineering the CD4 binding site by mutation of a key binding residue of BG505 HIV Env resulted in a reduced bnAb response that took more immunizations to develop. Monoclonal antibodies isolated from one animal were directed to the V2-apex, suggesting a re-focusing of the bnAb response. Immunization with monomeric BG505 g120 generated no serum bnAb responses, indicating that the ultralong CDRH3 bnAbs are only elicited in the context of the trimer in the absence of many other less restrictive epitopes presented on monomeric gp120. The results support the notion of a hierarchy of epitopes on HIV Env and suggest that, even with the presence in the cow repertoire of ultralong CDRH3s, bnAb epitopes are relatively disfavored.
Dietary supplements

For the athlete training hard, nutritional supplements are often seen as promoting adaptations to training, allowing more consistent and intensive training by promoting recovery between training sessions, reducing interruptions to training because of illness or injury, and enhancing competitive performance. Surveys show that the prevalence of supplement use is widespread among sportsmen and women, but the use of few of these products is supported by a sound research base and some may even be harmful to the athlete. Special sports foods, including energy bars and sports drinks, have a real role to play, and some protein supplements and meal replacements may also be useful in some circumstances. Where there is a demonstrated deficiency of an essential nutrient, an increased intake from food or from supplementation may help, but many athletes ignore the need for caution in supplement use and take supplements in doses that are not necessary or may even be harmful. Some supplements do offer the prospect of improved performance; these include creatine, caffeine, bicarbonate and, perhaps, a very few others. There is no evidence that prohormones such as androstenedione are effective in enhancing muscle mass or strength, and these prohormones may result in negative health consequences, as well as positive drug tests. Contamination of supplements that may cause an athlete to fail a doping test is widespread.
hCLCA1 and mCLCA3 Are Secreted Non-integral Membrane Proteins and Therefore Are Not Ion Channels*

Proteins of the CLCA gene family have been proposed to mediate calcium-activated chloride currents. In this study, we used detailed bioinformatics analysis and found that no transmembrane domains are predicted in hCLCA1 or mCLCA3 (Gob-5). Further analysis suggested that they are globular proteins containing domains that are likely to be involved in protein-protein interactions. In support of the bioinformatics analysis, biochemical studies showed that hCLCA1 and mCLCA3, when expressed in HEK293 cells, could be removed from the cell surface and could be detected in the extracellular medium, even after short incubation times. The accumulation in the medium was shown to be brefeldin A-sensitive, demonstrating that hCLCA1 is constitutively secreted. The N-terminal cleavage products of hCLCA1 and mCLCA3 could be detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid taken from asthmatic subjects and ovalbumin-challenged mice, demonstrating release from cells in a physiological setting. We conclude that hCLCA1 and mCLCA3 are non-integral membrane proteins and therefore cannot be chloride channels in their own right.
Efficient Resource Scheduling for Big Data Processing on Accelerator-based Heterogeneous Systems

The involvement of accelerators is becoming widespread in the field of heterogeneous processing, performing computation tasks through a wide range of applications. In this paper, we examine the heterogeneity in modern computing systems, particularly, how to achieve a good level of resource utilization and fairness, when multiple tasks with different load and computation ratios are processed. First, we present OCLSched, an OpenCL-based scheduler that is designed as a multiuser computing environment to make use of the full potential of available resources in heterogeneous compute systems. Multiple tasks can be issued by means of a C++ API that relies on the OpenCL C++ wrapper. At this point, our scheduler takes over the control immediately and performs load scheduling. Due to its implementation, our approach can be easily applicable to a common OS. We validate our method through extensive experiments deploying a set of applications, which show that the low scheduling costs remain constant in total over a wide range of input size. Then, we demonstrate the ability of our scheduling approach to manage the nontrivial applications, bringing the ability of OCLSched to handle complex applications to the front. Besides the general computation tasks used in our experiments, we want to present a new implementation concept of a recent stream data clustering algorithm DenStream. Based on a specially designed task concept, the clustering functionality is described as a single user process within our scheduler, achieving its defined targets asynchronous to other general purpose computations. Besides the different CPUs, a variety of modern GPU and other accelerator architectures are used in this work including: AMD’s Graphics Core Next, NVIDIA’s Kepler, and the Intel MIC (Many Integrated Core) architecture.
Recognition and Generation of Leg Primitive Motions for Dance Imitation by a Humanoid Robot

We have attempted to realize a dancing humanoid robot which can imitate dance performances by a human. It is impossible to realize a performance including leg actions on a robot by direct conversion of motion data captured from a dancer. Constrains of robot legs and the dynamic balance must be considered. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a framework based on primitives of leg actions. First, a sequence of primitives is recognized from the captured human motion. Then motion data for a robot are generated from the primitive sequence. The process considers both the constraints and the dynamic balance. This framework brings high flexibility to adapt the performance to various stage conditions or recomposed choreography. Generated robot motions were tested in OpenHRP dynamics simulator. A robot successfully imitated dances for both the upper and lower body.
A Decision Support System for Licensing Sewage Discharges to Aquatic Environments : Development and Demonstration

Licensing discharges to coastal waters can be complex and lengthy. It requires a substantial body of information to be prepared and assessed. Licensing officers and their technical advisors need to understand a broad range of biophysical, economic and social related issues in order to assess the quality, reliability and implications of this information when provided to them. There is also strict time frames legislated for the process and the expertise for the assessment may not always be available within the licensing agencies.
Polymatroids with network coding

The problem of network coding for multicasting a single source to multiple sinks has first been studied by Ahlswede, Cai, Li and Yeung in 2000, in which they have established the celebrated max-flow mini-cut theorem on non-physical information flow over a network of independent channels. On the other hand, in 1980, Han has studied the case with correlated multiple sources and a single sink from the viewpoint of polymatroidal functions in which a necessary and sufficient condition has been demonstrated for reliable transmission over the network. This paper presents an attempt to unify both cases, which leads to establish a necessary and sufficient condition for reliable transmission over a noisy network for multicasting all the correlated multiple sources to all the multiple sinks. Furthermore, we address also the problem of transmitting “independent” sources over a multiple-access-type of network as well as over a broadcast-type of network, which reveals that the (co-) polymatroidal structures are intrinsically involved in these types of network coding.