Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome Sequence of Listeria monocytogenes Plasmid pLM-C-273 Carrying Genes Related to Stress Resistance

ABSTRACT Mobile genetic elements in bacteria, such as plasmids, act as important vectors for the transfer of antibiotic resistance, virulence, and metal resistance genes. Here, we report the genome sequence of a new plasmid pLM-C-273, identified in a Listeria monocytogenes strain isolated from a clinical sample in Ontario, Canada.
Albatross sampling: robust and effective hybrid vertex sampling for social graphs

Nowadays, Online Social Networks (OSNs) have become dramatically popular and the study of social graphs attracts the interests of a large number of researchers. One critical challenge is the huge size of the social graph, which makes the graph analyzing or even the data crawling incredibly time consuming, and sometimes impossible to be completed. Thus, graph sampling algorithms have been introduced to obtain a smaller subgraph which reflects the properties of the original graph well. Breadth-First Sampling (BFS) is widely used in graph sampling, but it is biased towards high-degree vertices during the process of sampling. Besides, Metropolis-Hasting Random Walk (MHRW), which is proposed to get unbiased samples of the social graph, requires the graph to be well connected. In this paper, we propose a vertex sampling algorithm, so-called Albatross Sampling (AS), which introduces random jump strategy into MHRW during the sampling process. The embedded random jump makes the sampling procedure more flexible and avoids being trapped in some locally well connected part. According to our evaluation, we find that no matter using tightly or loosely connected graphs, AS performs significantly better than MHRW and BFS. On the one hand, AS estimates the degree distribution with much lower Normalized Mean Square Error (NMSE) by consuming the same resource budget. On the other hand, to get an acceptable estimation of the degree distribution, AS requires much less resource budget.
Effects of Morphology and Stability of Retained Austenite on the Ductility of TRIP-aided Bainitic Steels

In order to improve the ductility of carbide free bainitic microstructures, consisting of a bainitic ferrite matrix and a mixture of austenite and martensite, the TRIP effect i.e. the strain induced transformation of retained austenite to martensite, should be controlled. In this sense, the effect of the chemical composition on the mechanical stability of the retained austenite and the morphology, size, and distribution of this phase has been studied to determine the role that plays on the ductility behaviour of advanced bainitic steels. Results suggest that apart of the retained austenite, the morphology of the bainitic matrix is an important factor controlling ductility. Bainitic microstructures formed by coiling with coarse and blocky bainite morphology have shown higher uniform deformation values than those obtained by air cooling with the typical thin bainite platelets.
Neural network control of a three-link leg

Locomotion training of legged machines is a difficult and challenging problem in robotics and artificial intelligence. The work focuses on controlling the running stride of a three link leg. The objective is to control the height, distance and angular momentum of the stride, all of which are determined at takeoff from the ground. We use a CMAC neural network (J.S. Albus, 1975) to control the leg during takeoff. The CMAC network uses local learning and also permits incremental learning. This enables the net to be retrained online to produce the correct signals for locally changed conditions. The CMAC controller trains quickly and generalizes well.
Temporal pattern discovery in course-of-disease data.

Describes a system that utilizes event-set sequencing for knowledge discovery within a database of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients. The authors use the development of their temporal pattern discovery system (TEMPADIS) to help understand the overall process of knowledge discovery in a medical database environment. Results are presented for a database of HIV patients. The authors discuss the overall process of knowledge discovery including data cleaning and preprocessing, data reduction and projection, and matching goals to a particular data mining method.
Research the Relationship between the RNA Structure and Thermal Stability by Quantitative Analysis

In order to investigate the relationship between the RNA structure and thermal stability, we used real-time PCR method to survey the degradation information of Bombyx mori larvae inter reference gene RNA treated with 70 °C to 90 °C. The results showed that there were some relativities between the whole thermal stability RNA and the GC contents. The whole RNA displayed prominent degradation above 70 °C. The amplification length of the two inner reference genes were 147 bp and 150 bp, respectively, and the GC content were 59.184% and 44.667%, respectively. The risdual ratio was 67.712% and 50.849%, respectively. These results explained that there were negative correlation between the degradation rate and the GC contents. This study reported the correlation between the degradation rate and the GC contents of inner reference gene, providing the references for studying the RNA thermal stability and related molecular biology research.
Efficient analysis of nonviable poliovirus capsid mutants

Nonviable poliovirus capsid mutants were studied by an efficient infection-transfection system. Phenotypically, nonviable poliovirus capsid mutants appear to segregate into three classes: those that form only protomers, those that can form pentamers, and one that can form completed virions.
Different slopes for different folks: socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in asthma and hay fever among 173,859 U.S. men and women.

Although allergic diseases such as asthma and hay fever are a major cause of morbidity in industrialized countries, most studies have focused on patterns of prevalence among children and adolescents, with relatively few studies on variations in prevalence by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position among adults. Our study examined racial/ethnic and socioeconomic patterns in the prevalence of asthma overall, asthma with hay fever, asthma without hay fever, and hay fever overall, in a population of 173,859 women and men in a large prepaid health plan in northern California. Using education as a measure of socioeconomic position, we found evidence of a positive gradient for asthma with hay fever with increasing level of education but an inverse gradient for asthma without hay fever. Hay fever was also strongly associated with education. Compared with their White counterparts, Black women and men were more likely to report asthma without hay fever, and Black women were less likely to have asthma with hay fever. Asian men were also more likely to report asthma with hay fever, and Asian women and men were much more likely to have hay fever. Racial/ethnic disparities in prevalence of allergic diseases were largely independent of education. We discuss implications for understanding these social inequalities in allergic disease risk in relation to possible differences in exposure to allergens and determinants of immunologic susceptibility and suggest directions for future research.
Recruitment of Cytoskeletal and Signaling Proteins to Enteropathogenic and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli Pedestals

ABSTRACT Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is a human pathogen that attaches to intestinal epithelial cells and causes chronic watery diarrhea. A close relative, enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), causes severe bloody diarrhea and hemolytic-uremic syndrome. Both pathogens insert a protein, Tir, into the host cell plasma membrane where it binds intimin, the outer membrane ligand of EPEC and EHEC. This interaction triggers a cascade of signaling events within the host cell and ultimately leads to the formation of an actin-rich pedestal upon which the pathogen resides. Pedestal formation is critical in mediating EPEC- and EHEC-induced diarrhea, yet very little is known about its composition and organization. In EPEC, pedestal formation requires Tir tyrosine 474 phosphorylation. In EHEC Tir is not tyrosine phosphorylated, yet the pedestals appear similar. The composition of the EPEC and EHEC pedestals was analyzed by examining numerous cytoskeletal, signaling, and adapter proteins. Of the 25 proteins examined, only two, calpactin and CD44, were recruited to the site of bacterial attachment independently of Tir. Several others, including ezrin, talin, gelsolin, and tropomyosin, were recruited to the site of EPEC attachment independently of Tir tyrosine 474 phosphorylation but required Tir in the host membrane. The remaining proteins were recruited to the pedestal in a manner dependent on Tir tyrosine phosphorylation or were not recruited at all. Differences were also found between the EPEC and EHEC pedestals: the adapter proteins Grb2 and CrkII were recruited to the EPEC pedestal but were absent in the EHEC pedestal. These results demonstrate that although EPEC and EHEC recruit similar cytoskeletal proteins, there are also significant differences in pedestal composition.
Mechanical deformation of vessel wall and shear stress determine the basal release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor in the intact rabbit coronary vascular bed.

We investigated the mechanisms that are responsible for the basal release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), which is likely to be identical with nitric oxide, in the intact coronary circulation. The increase in cGMP content of platelets passing through the coronary bed of the isolated rabbit heart was used as an index of EDRF release. Platelet cGMP content after passage through the heart under control conditions (flow rate of 20 ml/min) amounted to 0.50 +/- 0.10 pmol/mg protein. Inhibition of endothelial nitric oxide synthesis by 30 microM NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) reduced this amount by more than 60%. Increasing flow rate from 20 ml/min to 40 and 60 ml/min led to flow-dependent dilation as reflected by the subsequent drop in perfusion pressure after an initial rise. The flow-dependent dilation was associated with a significant increase in the normalized platelet cGMP content. L-NNA abolished completely both the flow-dependent dilation and the increase in platelet cGMP content. Increasing shear stress by a strong vasoconstriction (1 nM endothelin-1) at constant flow was also accompanied by a 2.5-fold increase in platelet cGMP content. To investigate whether mechanical forces applied to the vascular wall by the myocardial contraction cycle were also a stimulus for EDRF release, cardiac arrest was induced by a continuous infusion of mepivacaine (final concentration, 0.02%). Under these conditions, a decrease in platelet cGMP content comparable to that after nitric oxide synthesis inhibition was observed in the arrested heart. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Measurement of Venous Flow by Continuous Thermodilution and its Application to Measurement of Mammary Blood Flow in the Goat

The thermodilution method of Fegler, previously used as a single injection technique to measure the flow in one of the main veins draining the mammary gland of goats, has been adapted to a continuous injection technique. Saline at room temperature is injected at rates of 10 to 50 ml/min for 20 to 60 sec and the blood flow is calculated directly from the fall in blood temperature downstream. The method has been checked in vivo by cannulation of the vessel and shown to be as accurate as the single injection technique and the measurement of mammary flow on the Fick principle. It is particularly valuable for determining rapidly the proportion of the mammary venous flow leaving by each of the two main veins.
Stretch reflex distinguished from pre‐programmed muscle activations following landing impacts in man

1 Electromyographic activity and joint rotation were measured whilst human subjects jumped down to land on a solid surface 0.45 m below them and then to a false collapsible surface at the same level. The collapsible surface did not produce ankle joint rotation. Objective evidence from post‐take‐off EMG onset latencies showed that the subjects were surprised by the false surface. 2 Following landing on the solid surface, the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles showed peak responses at latencies of 53 and 56 ms, respectively, and the antagonist m. tibialis anterior showed an early peak response with a latency of 26 ms. These responses occurred following landing on the solid surface but not following passage through the false surface. 3 The rectus femoris and biceps femoris muscles showed no clear reflex activity with this fall distance but pre‐programmed activity was clearly present following impact. 4 It is concluded that the post‐landing activity in m. soleus and m. gastrocnemius is a short‐latency spinal reflex triggered by ankle joint rotation.
Speed Control of Buck-converter Driven Dc Motor Based on Smooth Trajectory Tracking

This paper presents the detailed account on the control design of a buck converter driven dc motor. Proportional-Integral (PI) and Proportional-Integral-type Fuzzy Logic controller (PI-type FLC) are the techniques proposed in this investigation to control the speed of a dc motor. The dynamic system composed from converter/motor is considered in this investigation and derived in the state-space and transfer function forms. Complete analyses of simulation results for PI and PI-type FLC technique are presented in frequency domain and time domain, respectively. Performances of the controller are examined in terms of duty cycle input energy, armature current and angular velocity. Finally, a comparative assessment of the impact of each controller on the system performance is presented and discussed.
Partial online-synthesis for mixed-grained reconfigurable architectures

Processor architectures with Fine-Grained Reconfigurable Accelerators (FGRAs) allow for a high degree of adaptivity to address varying application requirements. When processing computation intensive kernels, multiple FGRAs may be used to execute a complex function. In order to exploit the adaptivity of a fine-grained reconfigurable fabric, a runtime system should decide when and which FGRAs to reconfigure with respect to application requirements. To enable this adaptivity, a flexible infrastructure is required that allows combining FGRAs to execute complex functions. We propose a mixed-grained reconfigurable architecture composed from a Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Infrastructure (CGRI) that connects the FGRAs. At runtime we synthesize CGRI configurations that depend on decisions of the runtime system, e.g. which FGRAs shall be reconfigured. Synthesis and place & route of the FGRAs are done at compile time for performance reasons. Combined, this results in a partial online synthesis for mixed grained reconfigurable architectures, which allows maintaining a low runtime overhead while exploiting the inherent adaptivity of the reconfigurable fabric. In this work we focus on the crucial parts of synthesizing the configurations for the CGRI at runtime, propose algorithms, and compare their performance/overhead trade-offs for different application scenarios. We are the first to exploit the increased adaptivity of FGRAs that are connected by a CGRI, by using our partial online synthesis. In comparison to a state-of-the-art reconfigurable architecture that synthesizes the configurations for the CGRI at compile time we obtain an average speedup of 1.79x.
Quadratic forms on graphs and their applications

We study the following quadratic optimization problem. MAX QP: Given a real matrix aij, maximize the quadratic form ijaijdx ixj, where variables xi take values ±1. We show that the integrality gap of the natural SDP relaxation depends on the structure of the support of the matrix A. We define a new graph parameter, the Grothendieck constant of a graph G = (V,E), to be the worst integrality gap among matrices A with support restricted to the edges of G (i.e. we require that if (i, j) ∉ E, then aij = 0). We give upper and lower estimates for the Grothendieck constant of the graph G: We show that it is less than O(log t( G)), where t(G) is the Lovasz theta function of the complement of G, which is always smaller than the chromatic number of G. This yields an efficient constant factor approximation algorithm for the above maximization problem for a wide range of graphs G. We prove that the Grothendieck constant is always at least C log w(G), where w( G) is the clique number of G. In particular it follows that the maximum possible integrality gap for the complete graph on n vertices is C log n. We present approximation algorithms for the MAX k-CSP and ADVANTAGE OVER RANDOM FOR MAXIMUM ACYCLIC SUBGRAPH problems. These algorithms solve the MAX QP problem at an intermediate step and then use the obtained solution to solve more complex combinatorial problems.
Energy Efficient and Interference Aware Provisioning in Virtualized Server Cluster Environment

IT service providers, employ server virtualization as a main building block to improve system utilization, improve system manageability, reduce operational costs which includes energy consumption driving economies of scale with shared resources. Virtualization enables co-locating and efficient assignments of virtual servers within the bounds of limited number of heterogeneous physical servers, with Virtual Machines (VM) sharing the limited physical server resources between them. Though virtualization technologies point to the fact that each virtual server has its very own isolated environment, but in reality, perfect isolation is not possible. Primary measure to achieve assignment efficiency is to ensure that system resources are utilized effectively and performance of VM (and application workloads) is consistent within the desired bounds. Interference or contention on the limited shared resources among VMs leads to performance degradation and is referred to as performance interference. This affects (a) application Quality of Service (QOS) and (b) server cluster or data centers’ energy-efficiency. In this work, we analyze the performance degradation using (a) energy efficiency heterogeneity measure and (b) interference aware measure, with the aim to reduce energy consumption in our environment. Experimental results on different scenarios with our energy efficiency and interference aware approach shows a reduction in energy consumption to the tune of 8 to 58% and 10× improvement in per request average response time in contrast to a default energy efficiency and interference oblivious approach.
The puzzle of pulsatile oxytocin secretion during lactation: some new pieces.

PROVIDING SUFFICIENT MILK to nursing young is necessary for infant survival and depends on periodic bolus secretion of oxytocin (OT) from the neurohypophysis during suckling. This pulsatile release maximizes myoepithelial cell contractions in the mammary gland by avoiding OT receptor desensitization (37, 44). Underlying the periodicity is the brief (4 – 6 s), synchronous, and explosive bursting of OT neurons in the supraoptic (SON) and paraventricular nuclei (PVN), the axons of which terminate at the neurohypophyseal neurohemal contact zone. These bursts (and the resultant OT release) appear with remarkably long intervals (5–20 min) despite the continual nipple stimulation provided by pups (30, 32, 38, 39), and are seldom observed during other periods of enhanced OT release. The bursting pattern maximizes frequency-dependent facilitation of OT release at neurohypophyseal terminals, and minimizes release fatigue (3–5). Understanding this periodicity remains one of the greatest challenges for OT neurobiologists. This system undergoes astonishing physiological plastic changes during pregnancy and lactation that should provide instructive clues to the process. It is now appreciated that OT
MRSA Causing Infections in Hospitals in Greater Metropolitan New York: Major Shift in the Dominant Clonal Type between 1996 and 2014

A surveillance study in 1996 identified the USA100 clone (ST5/SCCmecII)–also known as the “New York/Japan” clone—as the most prevalent MRSA causing infections in 12 New York City hospitals. Here we update the epidemiology of MRSA in seven of the same hospitals eighteen years later in 2013/14. Most of the current MRSA isolates (78 of 121) belonged to the MRSA clone USA300 (CC8/SCCmecIV) but the USA100 clone–dominant in the 1996 survey–still remained the second most frequent MRSA (25 of the 121 isolates) causing 32% of blood stream infections. The USA300 clone was most common in skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) and was associated with 84.5% of SSTIs compared to 5% caused by the USA100 clone. Our data indicate that by 2013/14, the USA300 clone replaced the New York/Japan clone as the most frequent cause of MRSA infections in hospitals in Metropolitan New York. In parallel with this shift in the clonal type of MRSA, there was also a striking change in the types of MRSA infections from 1996 to 2014.
Photonic crystal fibers in biophotonics

We observed recent experimental results in area of photonic crystal fibers appliance. Possibility of creation of fiber-based broadband light sources for high resolution optical coherence tomography is discussed. Using of femtosecond pulse laser allows for generation of optical radiation with large spectral width in highly nonlinear solid core photonic crystal fibers. Concept of exploitation of hollow core photonic crystal fibers in optical sensing is demonstrated. The use of photonic crystal fibers as “smart cuvette” gives rise to efficiency of modern optical biomedical analysis methods.
Evaluation of solid dispersed particles for formulation of oral ibuprofen tablets

approved: L. -,, , . ,-. --John M. Christensen, Ph.D. Redacted for privacy Dissolution profiles of two commercial products (Motrine and Rufene) were analyzed and compared at 8 pH levels, ranging from pH 2.0 to pH 8.0. It was demonstrated, as expected, that the rate and extent of ibuprofen dissolution dissolution was pH dependent. In vitro dissolution characteristics of the ibuprofen solid dispersion formulations prepared by freeze-drying method with various proportions of excipients (theobroma oil, lecithin and PEG 20,000) were investigated at 3 pH levels pH 2.0, 5.4, and 7.2. As the amount of theobroma oil increased from zero to 31%, the dissolution rate and the percent ibuprofen dissolved was decreased. Freeze-dried systems with a combination of lecithin and PEG 20,000 showed a slower dissolution rate and less amount of drug dissolved than the formulation with only PEG 20,000. The optimal ratio of drug to PEG 20,000 was 1:1. Solid dispersions of ibuprofen prepared by the freezedrying method provided the highest dissolution rate and percentage of drug dissolved when compared with the direct melting method, the solvent method or the physical-mixing method. Dissolution characteristics of the ibuprofen freeze-dried formulation (ratio of drug to PEG 20,000 1:1) were unaffected after storage in 98% relative humidity, but commercial formulation dissolution was drastically reduced. Relative bioavailability of ibuprofen solid dispersed tablets were studied in rabbits after a single oral administration of 50 mg ibuprofen preparations. The freeze-dried solid dispersion formulation with ratio of drug to PEG 1:1 exhibited the greatest relative extent of absorption (129.50 + 27.99% over control). Preparations with PEG 20,000 enhanced the extent of absorption when compared to the formulation of ibuprofen drug powder. There appeared no advantage in formulating ibuprofen in PEG by freeze-drying over the direct melting method. A slower rate of absorption of ibuprofen was obtained when the amount of theobroma oil was increased in the formulation. EVALUATION OF SOLID DISPERSED PARTICLES FOR FORMULATION OF ORAL IBUPROFEN TABLETS