Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acid protease production in fungal root endophytes

Fungal endophytes are ubiquitous in healthy root tissue, but little is known about their ecosystem functions, including their ability to utilize organic nutrient sources such as proteins. Root-associated fungi may secrete proteases to access the carbon and mineral nutrients within proteins in the soil or in the cells of their plant host. We compared the protein utilization patterns of multiple isolates of the root endophytes Phialocephala fortinii s.l. , Meliniomyces variabilis and Umbelopsis isabellina with those of two ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, Hebeloma incarnatulum and Laccaria bicolor, and the wood-decay fungus Irpex lacteus at pH values of 2–9 on liquid BSA media. We also assessed protease activity using a fluorescently labeled casein assay and gelatin zymography and characterized proteases using specific protease inhibitors. I. lacteus and U. isabellina utilized protein efficiently, while the ECM fungi exhibited poor protein utilization. ECM fungi secreted metallo-proteases and had pH optima above 4, while other fungi produced aspartic proteases with lower pH optima. The ascomycetous root endophytes M. variabilis and P. fortinii exhibited intermediate levels of protein utilization and M. variabilis exhibited a very low pH optimum. Comparing proteolytic profiles between fungal root endophytes and fungi with well defined ecological roles provides insight into the ecology of these cryptic root associates.
Postoperative antimicrobials after lung transplantation and the development of multidrug‐resistant bacterial and Clostridium difficile infections: an analysis of 500 non‐cystic fibrosis lung transplant patients

Broad‐spectrum antimicrobials are given prophylactically post‐transplant, although these agents are a risk factor for multidrug‐resistant (MDR) infections and Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). This study aimed to determine whether an association exists between the duration of antimicrobials given early post‐transplant and the development of MDR infections or CDI.
Feedback in the OSCE: What Do Residents Remember?

Abstract Theory: The move to competency-based education has heightened the importance of direct observation of clinical skills and effective feedback. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is widely used for assessment and affords an opportunity for both direct observation and feedback to occur simultaneously. For feedback to be effective, it should include direct observation, assessment of performance, provision of feedback, reflection, decision making, and use of feedback for learning and change. Hypotheses: If one of the goals of feedback is to engage students to think about their performance (i.e., reflection), it would seem imperative that they can recall this feedback both immediately and into the future. This study explores recall of feedback in the context of an OSCE. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to (a) determine the amount and the accuracy of feedback that trainees remember immediately after an OSCE, as well as 1 month later, and (b) assess whether prompting immediate recall improved delayed recall. Methods: Internal medicine residents received 2 minutes of verbal feedback from physician examiners in the context of an OSCE. The feedback was audio-recorded and later transcribed. Residents were randomly allocated to the immediate recall group (immediate-RG; n = 10) or the delayed recall group (delayed-RG; n = 8). The immediate-RG completed a questionnaire prompting recall of feedback received immediately after the OSCE, and then again 1 month later. The delayed-RG completed a questionnaire only 1 month after the OSCE. The total number and accuracy of feedback points provided by examiners were compared to the points recalled by residents. Results comparing recall at 1 month between the immediate-RG and the delayed-RG were also studied. Results: Physician examiners provided considerably more feedback points (M = 16.3) than the residents recalled immediately after the OSCE (M = 2.61, p < .001). There was no significant difference between the number of feedback points recalled upon completion of the OSCE (2.61) compared to 1 month later (M = 1.96, p = .06, Cohen's d = .70). Prompting immediate recall did not improve later recall. The mean accuracy score for feedback recall immediately after the OSCE was 4.3/9 or “somewhat representative,” and at 1 month the score dropped to 3.5/9 or “not representative” (ns). Conclusion: Residents recall very few feedback points immediately after the OSCE and 1 month later. The feedback points that are recalled are neither very accurate nor representative of the feedback actually provided.
MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC VARIATION IN IMMUNE DEFENSE OF A FRESHWATER SNAIL: ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HETEROGENEITY

Natural populations often show genetic variation in pathogen resistance, which is paradoxal because natural selection is expected to erode genetic variation in fitness‐related traits. Several different factors have been suggested to maintain such variation, but their relative importance is still poorly understood. Here we examined if environmental heterogeneity and genetic trade‐offs could contribute to the maintenance of genetic variation in immune function of a freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis. We assessed the immunocompetence of snails originating from different families and maintained in different feeding treatments (ad libitum feeding, no food) by measuring the density of circulating hemocytes, phenoloxidase activity, and antibacterial activity of snail hemolymph. Food limitation reduced snail immune function, and we found significant among‐family variation in hemocyte concentration and PO activity, but not in antibacterial activity. Interestingly, food availability modified the family‐level variation observed in PO activity so that the relative immunocompetence of different snail families changed over environmental conditions (G × E interaction). We found no evidence for genetic trade‐offs between snail growth and immune defense nor among immune traits. Thus, our findings support the idea that environmental heterogeneity may promote maintenance of genetic variation in immune defense, but also suggest that different immune traits might not respond similarly to environmental variation.
The Effects of Feedback on Targeting with Multiple Moving Targets

A number of task settings involve selection of objects from dynamic visual environments with multiple moving targets. Target selection is difficult in these settings because objects move, because there are a number of distracter objects for any targeting action, and because objects can occlude the target. Target feedback has been suggested as a way to assist targeting in visual environments. We carried out an experiment to test the effects of visual target feedback. We found that targeting does become more difficult as the number and speed of objects increases, and that feedback can improve error rates. When feedback was provided on all objects in the space, performance improved significantly over no feedback. Target-only feedback, however, was not significantly better than no feedback. This is a valuable result because all-object feedback is in most cases the only implementation option - since it is usually not possible to pre-determine the user's target among the set of objects.
ABCD: eliminating array bounds checks on demand

To guarantee typesafe execution, Java and other strongly typed languages require bounds checking of array accesses. Because array-bounds checks may raise exceptions, they block code motion of instructions with side effects, thus preventing many useful code optimizations, such as partial redundancy elimination or instruction scheduling of memory operations. Furthermore, because it is not expressible at bytecode level, the elimination of bounds checks can only be performed at run time, after the bytecode program is loaded. Using existing powerful bounds-check optimizers at run time is not feasible, however, because they are too heavyweight for the dynamic compilation setting. ABCD is a light-weight algorithm for elimination of Array Bounds Checks on Demand. Its design emphasizes simplicity and efficiency. In essence, ABCD works by adding a few edges to the SSA value graph and performing a simple traversal of the graph. Despite its simplicity, ABCD is surprisingly powerful. On our benchmarks, ABCD removes on average 45% of dynamic bound check instructions, sometimes achieving near-ideal optimization. The efficiency of ABCD stems from two factors. First, ABCD works ona sparse representation. As a result, it requires on average fewer than 10 simple analysis steps per bounds check. Second, ABCD is demand-driven. It can be applied to a set of frequently executed (hot) bounds checks, which makes it suitable for the dynamic-compilation setting, in which compile-time cost is constrained but hot statements are known.
Reactive oxygen species in periodontitis

Recent epidemiological studies reveal that more than two-third of the world's population suffers from one of the chronic forms of periodontal disease. The primary etiological agent of this inflammatory disease is a polymicrobial complex, predominantly Gram negative anaerobic or facultative bacteria within the sub-gingival biofilm. These bacterial species initiate the production of various cytokines such as interleukin-8 and TNF-α, further causing an increase in number and activity of polymorphonucleocytes (PMN) along with these cytokines, PMNs also produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) superoxide via the respiratory burst mechanism as the part of the defence response to infection. ROS just like the interleukins have deleterious effects on tissue cells when produced in excess. To counter the harmful effects of ROS, human body has its own defence mechanisms to eliminate them as soon as they are formed. The aim of this review is to focus on the role of different free radicals, ROS, and antioxidants in the pathophysiology of periodontal tissue destruction.
Developing New Small Molecular Drugs for Prostate Cancer Therapy

Most of the early prostate cancer has no obvious symptoms, but its malignancy metastasis will cause largely deaths. The treatment options for patients with prostate cancer include traditional surgery, external beam therapy, hormone therapy, small molecular drug and cryosurgery. It was considered non-traditional treatments also can be used in alternative medicines for prostate cancer therapy. There are well-known molecular mechanisms and their pathogenesis, which provide potential targets for drug screening on the prostate cancer. Currently, natural plant extracts or human tissues active ingredients are widely used for the treatment of cancer. Then isolated effective substances in the extract, and further prepared large amounts of small molecule drugs by chemical synthesis. In this review, we summarized four small molecular drugs, abiraterone, docetaxel, isochaihulactone and butylidenephthalide, and their detailed anti-tumor mechanisms. These indicate that small molecular drug is a very efficient way and can be used for prostate cancer treatment.
Receptivity to tobacco marketing and susceptibility to smoking among non-smoking male students in an urban setting in Lao PDR

Background Tobacco marketing is a contributing factor to adolescent smoking, and now targeting adolescents in low- and middle-income countries. Especially, promotional items with tobacco brand logos have a great impact on adolescent smoking. Objective The authors evaluated whether receptivity to tobacco marketing is associated with susceptibility to smoking among non-smoking male students in Lao PDR. Methods The authors conducted a cross-sectional study with self-administered questionnaires among 526 non-smoking male students in grades 8th and 11th (aged 12–19 years) in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. The authors investigated receptivity to tobacco marketing by three measurements: awareness of tobacco marketing, recognition of tobacco marketing messages and owning/being willing to use promotional items. The authors then conducted multiple logistic regression analysis to determine whether marketing receptivity had an independent association with smoking susceptibility, which is defined as the absence of a firm decision not to smoke. Results About 20% of the participants were susceptible to smoking. Recognition of marketing messages was significantly associated with susceptibility to smoking (OR=1.76, 95% CI 1.01 to 3.08), as was any owning/being willing to use promotional items with recognition of marketing messages (OR=2.39, 95% CI 1.34 to 4.24). In contrast, any owning/being willing to use promotional items without any recognition of marketing messages was not significantly associated with susceptibility. Conclusions A significant association was detected between smoking susceptibility and marketing receptivity, which has been little explored in previous research in low-income countries. Owning/being willing to use promotional items was associated with smoking susceptibility only when there is also recognition of marketing messages.
Formation of Maximum Eddy Current Force by Non Ferrous Materials

This project is concerned with the study of eddy current effects on various materials such as aluminum, copper and magnesium. Two types of magnets used in this study; magnetic ferrite (ZnFe+2O4) and magnetic neodymium (NdFeBN42). Eddy current force will be exerted to these materials due to current flows along the magnet. This force depends on the type of magnet, type of material and the gap between the magnet and the material or between the two magnets. The results show that at constant magnet to material gap, the eddy current force decreases as the magnet to magnet gap increases. Similarly, at constant magnet to magnet gap, the eddy current force decreases as the magnet to material gap increases. The minimum force was achieved when the gap of magnet to material is maximum, similarly to the gap of magnet to magnet. The weakest force was between Copper and Neodymium at a magnet to material gap of 20 mm and magnet to magnet gap of 40 mm; the eddy current force was 0.00048 N. The strongest force (maximum) was between Magnesium and Ferrite and 0.42273 N at a magnet to material gap of 3 mm and magnet to magnet gap of 5 mm.
A multiprocessor architecture for high speed network interconnections

A multiprocessor architecture suitable for the implementation of high-speed gateways is presented. It is based on a horizontal and vertical subdivision of communication systems. The resulting architecture consists of several receive and send pipelines, where every receive and send pipeline is associated with one subnetwork connected to the gateway. The pipeline stages are implemented on several processors which are combined into a processor unit. The internal structure of each processor unit is adapted to the protocol functions that are to be implemented on it. The architecture comprises pipeline structures and array structures and thus permits temporal parallelism as well as spatial parallelism. <<ETX>>
Dynamic load balancing for hybrid Li-Fi and RF indoor networks

In this paper, a dynamic load balancing problem for a mobile hybrid Li-Fi and mm wave RF network is studied. Even though Li-Fi networks can provide extremely high data throughputs, the spatial distribution of such high data rates may not be uniform. It has been shown that this spatial data rate fluctuations can be successfully reduced by a RF network augmented to the Li-Fi network. In this study, a dynamic load balancing algorithm is proposed to find the optimum access point (AP) assignment in order to satisfy certain average per user data rate constraints while achieving minimum outage performance. Furthermore, a data rate threshold is defined to identify whether users should be served by a Li-Fi AP or a RF AP. The simulation results show that this threshold has a significant effect on the outage performance of the hybrid network. The results further show that the optimum threshold which achieves the minimal outage probability is much lower than the per user data rate requirements.
HIV-1 Entry, Inhibitors, and Resistance

Entry inhibitors represent a new class of antiretroviral agents for the treatment of infection with HIV-1. While resistance to other HIV drug classes has been well described, resistance to this new class is still ill defined despite considerable clinical use. Several potential mechanisms have been proposed: tropism switching (utilization of CXCR4 instead of CCR5 for entry), increased affinity for the coreceptor, increased rate of virus entry into host cells, and utilization of inhibitor-bound receptor for entry. In this review we will address the development of attachment, fusion, and coreceptor entry inhibitors and explore recent studies describing potential mechanisms of resistance.
Effects of Compression on Language Evolution

For many adaptive complex systems information about the environment is not simply recorded in a look-up table, but is rather encoded in a theory, schema, or model, which compresses information. The grammar of a language can be viewed as such a schema or theory. In a prior study [Teal et al., 1999] we proposed several conjectures about the learning and evolution of language that should follow from these observations: (C1) compression aids in generalization; (C2) compression occurs more easily in a smooth, as opposed to a rugged, problem space; and (C3) constraints from compression make it likely that natural languages evolve towards smooth string spaces. This previous work found general, if not complete support for these three conjectures. Here we build on that study to clarify the relationship between Minimum Description Length (MDL) and error in our model and examine evolution of certain languages in more detail. Our results suggest a fourth conjecture: that all else being equal, (C4) more complex languages change more rapidly during evolution.
The toughening mechanism and mechanical properties of graphene-reinforced zirconia ceramics by microwave sintering

The graphene/ZrO2 composites were fabricated by impregnating graphene dispersion into the ZrO2 ceramic matrix and sintered by microwave, and the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. The results showed that the graphene was well dispersed in the ceramic matrix and refined the grain size. The fracture toughness reached 8.62 MPa m1/2, confirmed by single-edge notched beam, which was 42% higher than that of the pure ZrO2. Also, the toughening mechanisms were investigated by micro-hardness testing and showed that a combination of crack deflection, micro-crack and crack bridging increased the fracture toughness.
Design and Implementation of a Cognitive Command and Control System for Tower Controllers

This article describes a Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) practitioner's approach to the preliminary design and implementation of a C2 system, focusing on how the CSE approach guided the system design features. The Virtual Assistants and Persistent Sentinels project was built as a concept demonstrator to investigate the efficacy of a CSE approach to building C2 systems. The project team adopted the Decision-Centered Design (DCD) Methodology (Crandall, Klein, & Hoffman, 2006). Guided by the DCD process, from preparation to application design, this article describes 3 examples of transitions from macrocognitive challenges to design prototypes. Preliminary evaluation was conducted using cognitive indicators (Long & Cox, 2007) to evaluate if system features hindered cognitive performance as well as by obtaining feedback from subject matter experts through a cognitive wall walk.
Review article: Burnout in emergency medicine physicians

Training and the practice of emergency medicine are stressful endeavours, placing emergency medicine physicians at risk of burnout. Burnout syndrome is associated with negative outcomes for patients, institutions and the physician. The aim of this review is to summarise the available literature on burnout among emergency medicine physicians and provide recommendations for future work in this field. A search of MEDLINE (1946–present) (search terms: ‘Burnout, Professional’ AND ‘Emergency Medicine’ AND ‘Physicians’; ‘Stress, Psychological’ AND ‘Emergency Medicine’ AND ‘Physicians’) and EMBASE (1988–present) (search terms: ‘Burnout’ AND ‘Emergency Medicine’ AND ‘Physicians’; ‘Mental Stress’ AND ‘Emergency Medicine’ AND ‘Physicians’) was performed. The authors focused on articles that assessed burnout among emergency medicine physicians. Most studies used the Maslach Burnout Inventory to quantify burnout, allowing for cross‐study (and cross‐country) comparisons. Emergency medicine has burnout levels in excess of 60% compared with physicians in general (38%). Despite this, most emergency medicine physicians (>60%) are satisfied with their jobs. Both work‐related (hours of work, years of practice, professional development activities, non‐clinical duties etc.) and non‐work‐related factors (age, sex, lifestyle factors etc.) are associated with burnout. Despite the heavy burnout rates among emergency medicine physicians, little work has been performed in this field. Factors responsible for burnout among various emergency medicine populations should be determined, and appropriate interventions designed to reduce burnout.
Rotational polygon containment and minimum enclosure

An algorithm and implementation is given for rotats'onal poly~gon wntainment: given polygons A, Pz, P3,. , A and a container polygon C, find rotation8 and translations for the k polygons that place them into the container without overlapping. A version of the algorithm and implementation also oolves rotational minimum enclosure: given a class C of container polygons, find a container C E C of minimum area for which containment has a solution. Minimum enclosure algorithm8 are given for the following classes: 1) rcctanglco of fixed width, 2) scaled copies of a fixed convex polygon, 3) arbitrary rectangles. Containment and minimum cnclosuro arc NP-hard (even in the purely translational ca~o). The minimum enclosure is approximate: it bounds the the minimum area between (1-e)A and A. Experiments arc done. to determine the largest practical value of 1; for both containment and minimum enclosure. Important applicntions for these algorithm to industrial problems are dincunsed. The paper also give8 practical algorithms and numoricnl techniques for robustly calculating polygon set intcracction, Minkowski sum, and range intersection: the intcrscction of a polygon with itself as it rotates through a range of angles.
Towards a Reference Plant Trait Ontology for Modeling Knowledge of Plant Traits and Phenotypes

Ontology engineering and knowledge modeling for the plant sciences is expected to contribute to the understanding of the basis of plant traits that determine phenotypic expression in a given environment. Several crop- or clade-specific plant trait ontologies have been developed to describe plant traits important for agriculture in order to address major scientific challenges such as food security. We present three successful species and/or clade-specific ontologies which address the needs of crop scientists to quickly access a wide range of trait related data, but their scope limits their interoperability with one another. In this paper, we present our vision of a species-neutral and overarching Reference Plant Trait Ontology which would be the basis for linking the disparate knowledge domains and that will support data integration and data mining across species.
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications Fast Approximation of Centrality

Social scientists use graphs to model group activities in social networks. An important property in this context is the centrality of a vertex: the inverse of the average distance to each other vertex. We describe a randomized approximation algorithm for centrality in weighted graphs. For graphs exhibiting the small world phenomenon, our method estimates the centrality of all vertices with high probability within a (1 +) factor iñ O(m) time. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of SODA 2001.