Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bacteria Penetrate the Inner Mucus Layer before Inflammation in the Dextran Sulfate Colitis Model

Background Protection of the large intestine with its enormous amount of commensal bacteria is a challenge that became easier to understand when we recently could describe that colon has an inner attached mucus layer devoid of bacteria (Johansson et al. (2008) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 15064–15069). The bacteria are thus kept at a distance from the epithelial cells and lack of this layer, as in Muc2-null mice, allow bacteria to contact the epithelium. This causes colitis and later on colon cancer, similar to the human disease Ulcerative Colitis, a disease that still lacks a pathogenetic explanation. Dextran Sulfate (DSS) in the drinking water is the most widely used animal model for experimental colitis. In this model, the inflammation is observed after 3–5 days, but early events explaining why DSS causes this has not been described. Principal Findings When mucus formed on top of colon explant cultures were exposed to 3% DSS, the thickness of the inner mucus layer decreased and became permeable to 2 µm fluorescent beads after 15 min. Both DSS and Dextran readily penetrated the mucus, but Dextran had no effect on thickness or permeability. When DSS was given in the drinking water to mice and the colon was stained for bacteria and the Muc2 mucin, bacteria were shown to penetrate the inner mucus layer and reach the epithelial cells already within 12 hours, long before any infiltration of inflammatory cells. Conclusion DSS thus causes quick alterations in the inner colon mucus layer that makes it permeable to bacteria. The bacteria that reach the epithelial cells probably trigger an inflammatory reaction. These observations suggest that altered properties or lack of the inner colon mucus layer may be an initial event in the development of colitis.
Recent Trends in Antibiotics Susceptibility Pattern of Pseudomonas sp . Isolated from Clinical Samples of Punjab , Pakistan

The refractory nature of Pseudomonas infections to chemotherapy reflects its ability to rapidly acquire resistance and adapt to hostile environment. In order to keep eye on changing trends in susceptibility patterns of Pseudomonas sp. and to modify therapeutic choices, a retrospective study was carried out. Samples for culture and sensitivity testing were screened for presence of Pseudomonas sp. Resistance/susceptibility of isolates was tested against 12 drugs. A total of 256 isolates of Pseudomonas sp. were studied which were 3.4% of total clinical samples. In this study, milk (16.6%), ear (14%) and respiratory samples (10.9%) were the most important sources of Pseudomonas isolates. The resistance to cefepime, ceftazidime, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones has been significantly increased over the past years while resistance rates were consistent for some drugs like tazocin (13%). The recent susceptibility trends needs to be addressed periodically to help choice of most appropriate antibiotics for Pseudomonas infections.
A trust management model for Body Sensor Networks

Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) are used for diverse applications ranging from monitoring for medical purposes, sport coaching to computer gaming. A foreseen usage scenario for a BSN is the installation of third-party monitoring applications. Existing applications can also be extended by downloading and installing new components dynamically. Dependability and security properties must be preserved under these changes while the user of the BSN must have a transparent view on data usage and installed software. To that end we propose an efficient trust management model and we investigate policies and mechanisms to express and control the data usage.
ScatterType: a reading CAPTCHA resistant to segmentation attack

A reading-based CAPTCHA designed to resist character-segmentation attacks, called 'ScatterType,' is described. Its challenges are pseudorandomly synthesized images of text strings rendered in machine-print typefaces: within each image, characters are fragmented using horizontal and vertical cuts, and the fragments are scattered by vertical and horizontal displacements. This scattering is designed to defeat all methods known to us for automatic segmentation into characters. As in the BaffleText CAPTCHA, English-like but unspellable text-strings are used to defend against known-dictionary attacks. In contrast to the PessimalPrint and BaffleText CAPTCHAs (and others), no physics-based image degradations, occlusions, or extraneous patterns are employed. We report preliminary results from a human legibility trial with 57 volunteers that yielded 4275 CAPTCHA challenges and responses. ScatterType human legibility remains remarkably high even on extremely degraded cases. We speculate that this is due to Gestalt perception abilities assisted by style-specific (here, typeface-specific) consistency among primitive shape features of character fragments. Although recent efforts to automate style-consistent perceptual skills have reported progress, the best known methods do not yet pose a threat to ScatterType. The experimental data also show that subjective rating of difficulty is strongly (and usefully) correlated with illegibility. In addition, we present early insights emerging from these data as we explore the ScatterType design space -- choice of typefaces, 'words', cut positioning, and displacements -- with the goal of locating regimes in which ScatterType challenges remain comfortably legible to almost all people but strongly resist mahine-vision methods for automatic segmentation into characters.
Field‐based experimental water footprint study of sunflower growth in a semi‐arid region of China

Abstract BACKGROUND Field‐scale changes in the water footprint during crop growth play an important role in formulating sustainable water utilisation strategies. This study aimed to explore field‐scale variation in the water footprint of growing sunflowers in the western Jilin Province, China, during a 3‐year field experiment. The goals of this study were to (1) determine the components of the ‘blue’ and ‘green’ water footprints for sunflowers sown with water, and (2) analyse variations in water footprints and soil water balance under different combinations of temperature and precipitation. Specific actions could be adopted to maintain sustainable agricultural water utilisation in the semi‐arid region based on this study. RESULTS The green, blue, and grey water footprints accounted for 93.7–94.7%, 0.4–0.5%, and 4.9–5.8%, respectively, of the water footprint of growing sunflowers. The green water footprint for effective precipitation during the growing season accounted for 58.8% in a normal drought year but 48.2% in an extreme drought year. When the effective precipitation during the growing season could not meet the green water use, a moisture deficit arose. This increase in the moisture deficit can have a significant impact on soil water balance. CONCLUSION Green water was the primary water source for sunflower growth in the study area, where a scarcity of irrigation water during sunflower growth damaged the soil water balance, particularly in years with continuous drought. The combination of temperature and precipitation effected the growing environment, leading to differences in yield and water footprint. The field experiments in this area may benefit from further water footprint studies at the global, national and regional scale. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
Associação entre consumo alimentar, horários atípicos de trabalho e padrão de sono: um estudo com trabalhadores em turnos fixos

Background: It is well documented in the literature that shift workers present alterations in the sleep patterns, especially the reduction of sleep time, which predisposes them to alterations in the food pattern. Objectives: To study the association between food intake, shift work and sleep time in fixed shift workers of a poultry processing agroindustry. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1.215 individuals working on four fixed work schedules: 461 morning, 233 day, 146 evening and 375 night. The subjects were submitted to the following measurements: blood pressure, weight, height and waist circumference, and calculated the Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated. The self-reported sleep duration on work and off days were calculated. Sleep time was categorized as <6: short duration and > 6 hours: adequate. Food intake was evaluated by the semiquantitative validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for the Brazilian adult population. The daily consumption frequency and the prevalence of inadequacy of the eight food groups proposed by the Food Pyramid Adapted for the Brazilian Population were calculated. The diet quality was also evaluated by estimating the Adapted Healthy Diet Index (IASad) for the Brazilian population. Adjusted binary logistic regression was performed for the potentially confounding variables: sex, age and schooling, to verify the association between work shifts and the inadequacy of food consumption. In addition, we performed the Poisson regression analysis with robust variance adjusted for the potentially confounding variables in order to verify the association between sleep duration and poor diet quality. Results: The data collected gave rise to two scientific papers. In the first article we found an association between the morning and night shifts and the inadequacy of the consumption of the milk and dairy products group (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR]: 2.49, 95% CI = 1.29-4.81, p <0.01), meat and eggs (AOR: 1.61­ 95% CI = 1.07-2.42, p <0.05), cereals and pasta (AOR: 1.44, 95% CI = 1.01-2, P <0.05) and fruits and natural fruit juices (AOR: 2.04, 95% CI = 1.06-3.93, p <0.05). The night shift had a greater chance of inadequacy for milks and derivatives (AOR: 2.25, 95% CI = 1.19-4.25, p <0.0, meat and eggs (AOR: 1.62, 95% CI = 1.07-2.45, p <0.05) and cereals and pasta (AOR: 1.56, 95% CI = 1.09-2.24, p <0.05) compared to day shift. In the second article, the median IASad total score was 67.0 (IQR = 56.6-79.9) and 59.3% (n = 720) of the workers presented poor diet quality. Short sleep duration (mean sleep duration <6 hours) on days off and work days were associated with poor diet quality [Adjusted Prevalence Ratio (APR: 1.12, 95% CI = 1.02-1, 24, p = 0.016, APR: 1.14, 95% CI = 1.01-1.28, p = 0.028 respectively). Conclusion: Workers at atypical work schedules are more likely to exhibit inadequate consumption of various food groups. In addition, workers with short sleep duration have a higher prevalence of poor diet consumption based on IASad.
Hepatitis B Awareness among Medical Students and Their Vaccination Status at Syrian Private University

Background. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a potentially life-threating infection and a well-recognized occupational hazard for health-care workers including medical students. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Syrian Private University (SPU), Faculty of Medicine, to assess the knowledge and awareness about hepatitis B, the status of hepatitis B vaccination, and the reasons for not getting vaccinated among the first- and the fifth-year medical students. Results. The present study demonstrates surprising results and raises issues about the high number of medical students that are not vaccinated or not sure about their vaccination status, which puts them at a higher risk of being infected in the future. Another important issue is the medical students' overall knowledge about this life-threating infection. The students have not been totally educated about the gravity of the situation which requires the need of further HBV education. It is highly recommended that SPU provides the HBV vaccine to all nonvaccinated students attending the faculty of medicine at no cost to encourage them to take the HBV vaccine and to reform some of its educational curriculum to effectively limit the hazardous effects of this disease and elaborate on the serious health consequences of HBV.
Cooperating distributed garbage collectors for clusters and beyond

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First a distributed garbage collector (DGC) is presented that is optimized for remote method invocation in reliable networks, such as current clusters of workstations. Since the algorithm does not require extra acknowledgement messages, even while collecting, it does not increase the latency of a remote call. Then it is discussed how several DGCs can cooperate in networks that consist of different areas with respect to communication, i.e., of areas with different reliability properties. Proper placement and use of bridge objects allow to select an optimized DGC for every area.
Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Aldosterone Producing Adenoma Development

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common form of secondary hypertension with an estimated prevalence of ~10% in referred patients. PA occurs as a result of a dysregulation of the normal mechanisms controlling adrenal aldosterone production. It is characterized by hypertension with low plasma renin and elevated aldosterone and often associated with hypokalemia. The two major causes of PA are unilateral aldosterone producing adenoma (APA) and bilateral adrenal hyperplasia, accounting together for ~95% of cases. In addition to the well-characterized effect of excess mineralocorticoids on blood pressure, high levels of aldosterone also have cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic consequences. Hence, long-term consequences of PA include increased risk of coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. Despite recent progress in the management of patients with PA, critical issues related to diagnosis, subtype differentiation, and treatment of non-surgically correctable forms still persist. A better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of the disease should lead to the identification of more reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for a more sensitive and specific screening and new therapeutic options. In this review, we will summarize our current knowledge on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of APA development. On one hand, we will discuss how various animal models have improved our understanding of the pathophysiology of excess aldosterone production. On the other hand, we will summarize the major advances made during the last few years in the genetics of APA due to transcriptomic studies and whole exome sequencing. The identification of recurrent and somatic mutations in genes coding for ion channels (KCNJ5 and CACNA1D) and ATPases (ATP1A1 and ATP2B3) allowed highlighting the central role of calcium signaling in autonomous aldosterone production by the adrenal.
Deconstructing clusters: chaotic concept or policy panacea?

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in local industrial agglomeration and specialization, not only by economic geographers but also by economists and by policy-makers. Of the many ideas and concepts to have emerged from this new-found focus, Michael Porter's work on 'clusters' has proved by far the most influential. His 'cluster theory' has become the standard concept in the field, and policy-makers the world over have seized upon Porter's cluster model as a tool for promoting national, regional, and local competitiveness, innovation and growth. But the mere popularity of a construct is by no means a guarantee of its profundity. Seductive though the cluster concept is, there is much about it that is problematic, and the rush to employ 'cluster ideas' has run ahead of many fundamental conceptual, theoretical and empirical questions. Our aim is to deconstruct the cluster concept in order to reveal and highlight these issues. Our concerns relate to the definition of the cluster concept, its theorization, its empirics, the claims made for its benefits and advantages, and its use in policy-making. Whilst we do not wish to debunk the cluster idea outright, we do argue for a much more cautious and circumspect use of the notion, especially within a policy context: the cluster concept should carry a public policy health warning. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
Research on Trusted Evaluation Method of User Behavior Based on AHP Algorithm

The research of trustworthiness measurement of user behavior is the hotpot in the network security. According to the existing problems of the user behavior trust evaluation method in the subjective weight and dynamic adaptability, in this paper, the calculation method of indirect credibility has been improved, and combined with the previously proposed user behavior evaluation method based on Analytic Hierarchy Process, the method of user behavior evaluation is more effectively and accurately. In this method, user behavior activity and reward and punishment factor, and the improved calculation method of indirect credibility are combined to evaluate the user's behavior, and the feasibility of the method is demonstrated by an example. The results show that the proposed method can adapt to the dynamic changes of user behavior trust, and can accurately evaluate the credibility of user behaviors.
A Closed-Form Description for the Continuous Frequency Response of Lagrange Interpolators

In this letter, we present a closed formula for the continuous frequency response of Lagrange interpolators. The continuous frequency response is one of the most useful characterizations of an interpolation system. The proposed formula holds for arbitrary interpolation orders and enables efficient and numerically stable evaluation. Until now, several properties of Lagrange interpolators such as zero locations were described only empirically. Due the concise form of the proposed formula, these properties can now be characterized in an exact way.
Stochastic differential equations

The work of which this paper is an account began as a study of differential equations for functions whose values are random variables of finite variance. It was intended that all questions of convergence should be treated from the standpoint of strong convergence in Hilbert space—familiar to probabilists from the writings of Karhunen(11) and Loève(13) as mean-square convergence. The more general Banach-space approach now adopted was made possible by the discovery of a theorem (Theorem 1 of this paper) which Mr D. G. Kendall, its apparent author, kindly communicated to us.
Cortisol dynamics are associated with electrocardiographic abnormalities following the aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

Context: Electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities are common following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). It probably represents cardiovascular stress after SAH. Aims: The purpose of this study was to assess cortisol dynamics in relation to the ECG abnormality and disease course of SAH. Settings and Design: The study follows a consecutive cohort of aneurysmal SAH patients, who underwent surgery within 72 hours of onset, and they were followed up for 10 days. Materials and Methods: Serum cortisols, cortisol-binding globulin (CGB), adenocorticotropic hormone were measured (between 08.00-09.00 hours) preoperatively and then on postoperative days (PODs) 2, 4, 7, and 10. Electrocardiographs (ECG) were recorded on initial assessment and after surgery on daily basis in ICU. ECG abnormalities will be followed up by measurement of cardiac troponin T to quantify the myocyte necrosis. Statistical Analysis Used: Logistic regression analysis using commercial available software STATA 9. Results: A total of 44 patients (20 M and 24 F) were eligible for the cohort analysis. Average patient age is 52.02 years (52.02 ± 11.23), and 86% (6/44) arrived with World Federation of Neurosurgical Society Scale grade 3 or better. The ECG abnormality was found in 10 cases (22.7%), but the abnormal TnT (>1 μg/l) were found in eight cases, and two cases contribute to the mortality. The ECG abnormalities are significantly associated with total cortisol on day 4 (P < 0.05) and free cortisol on day 2 (P = 0.0065). Conclusions: Elevated levels of morning cortisol within the first four days after surgery are associated with the ECG abnormality.
Replica Placement Algorithms in Content Distribution Networks

The replica placement problems (RPPs) in the Content Distribution Networks have been widely studied. In this paper, we propose an optimization model for the RPPs and design efficient algorithms to minimize the total cost of the network. The algorithms include three parts: replication algorithm preprocess, constraint p-median model and algorithm of solving constraint p-median models. In the simulation, we compare our algorithms to other heuristic methods numerically. The results show that our algorithms perform better with less cost.
Designing very compact decision trees for grapheme-to-phoneme transcription

Decision trees are a popular technique for automatic generation of a phonetic transcription for a given word spelling. We investigate different methods of decision tree design to obtain more compact trees and at the same time better graphemeto-phoneme transcription quality. We evaluate different approaches to decision tree question selection and pruning using one English and two German grapheme-to-phoneme transcription tasks. In particular, we present a method of automatic generation of decision tree questions from the training data that significantly improves decision tree design.
Theory of point defects in GaN, AlN, and BN: Relaxation and pressure effects

Native defects and some common dopants in cubic GaN, AlN, and BN are examined by means of ab initio calculations using a supercell approach in connection with the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital method. The atomic positions, the electronic structure, and the defect formation energies are calculated. In particular, the vacancies are calculated to be abundant defects. The high-pressure behavior of the defect states is also studied, and it is found that the pressure coefficients of the defect states depend mainly on their position in the energy gap.
Modeling Drivers' Dynamic Decision-Making Behavior During the Phase Transition Period: An Analytical Approach Based on Hidden Markov Model Theory

A flashing green indication of 3 s followed by a yellow indication of 3s is commonly applied to end a green phase at signalized intersections in many Chinese cities. This paper proposes an analytical approach based on the hidden Markov model theory to interpret the dynamic decision-making process of drivers during the phase transition period at high-speed signalized intersections. In the proposed model, the hidden states are the unobservable time-dependent decisions of drivers concerning whether to stop or pass, and the observable states are the instantaneous vehicle speeds and acceleration/deceleration rates that are obtained from the high-resolution vehicle trajectory data. The data were collected by videotaping four typical high-speed intersection approaches with a speed limit of 80 km/h in Shanghai. Eventually, 698 vehicle trajectories including 179 trucks and 519 passenger cars were extracted from the videos and used for model estimation and validation. It was found that the proposed model could predict stop-pass decisions with very high accuracy and revealed that approximately 50% of drivers used a two-step decision-making process. In addition, a large percentage of decision changes occurred 0-1.2 s after the onset of yellow, which is based on a driver's perceived environment. The important implications of the proposed model and the findings are also discussed in this paper.