Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genospecies and virulence factors of Aeromonas species in different sources in a North African country

Introduction Aeromonads of medical importance have been reported from numerous clinical, food, and water sources, but identification of genospecies and virulence factors of Aeromonas species from countries in North Africa and the Middle East are few. Methods In total 99 Aeromonas species isolates from different sources (diarrheal children [n=23], non-diarrheal children [n=16], untreated drinking water from wells [n=32], and chicken carcasses [n=28]) in Tripoli, Libya, were included in the present investigation. Genus identification was confirmed by biochemical analysis, and genospecies were determined using a combination of 16S rDNA variable region and gyrB sequence analysis. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect genes encoding toxins from 52 of the isolates. Results We identified 44 isolates (44%) as A. hydrophila (3 [3.0%] subspecies anaerogenes, 23 [23%] subspecies dhakensis, and 18 [18%] subspecies ranae); 27 isolates (27%) as A. veronii; 23 isolates (23%) as A. caviae; and 5 isolates (5.0%) as other genospecies. The genes encoding aerolysin (aer), cytolytic enterotoxin (act), and A. hydrophila isolate SSU enterotoxin (ast) were detected in 45 (87%), 4 (7.7%), and 9 (17%) of the 52 isolates tested, respectively. The gene encoding an extracellular lipase (alt) was not detected. Conclusion The majority of aeromonads from Libya fall within three genospecies (i.e. A. hydrophila, A. veronii, and A. caviae), and genes coding for toxin production are common among them.
Atracción y retención de recurso humano en salud en zonas rurales: percepción de profesionales

This article seeks to explore the motivations of health professionals in rural areas. It seeks to describe their perceptions of the permanence of professionals for the sustainability of rural health programs. For this, semi-structured interviews were conducted to doctors, midwives and nurses of 5 CECOSF and 2 CESFAM of Chiloe. These interviews were analyzed through analysis of narrative content. It is concluded that the permanence of rural RHUS is fragile, the factors that affect it are mediated by motivations, expectations and needs. A policy of financial and non-financial incentives should be implemented for physicians and other professionals.
Multi-Resolution Data Management for Opportunistic Networking

In this work, we present a multi-resolution data management scheme for efficiently storing and diffusing information, which is originating from sensors and augmenting mobile applications. The proposed mechanism exploits the discrete wavelet transform properties for providing a location-dependent data management scheme, which alleviates the constraints on the storage resources needed for running context-aware mobile applications. The data management scheme has been implemented and evaluated by means of numerical simulations.
THE ROLE OF THE KIDNEY IN THE CATABOLISM OF BENCE JONES PROTEINS AND IMMUNOGLOBULIN FRAGMENTS

The role of the kidney in the catabolism of Bence Jones proteins, intact IgG molecules, and isolated L chains, Fab and Fc fragments of IgG, was studied. The proteins were purified, radioiodinated, and their survival times measured in nephrectomized, ureter-severed, and control mice. Active endogenous catabolism was the major factor in overall Bence Jones metabolism since excretion as proteinuria accounted for less than 25% of the total metabolism. The survival times of λ- and κ-type human Bence Jones proteins and the Bence Jones protein produced by mice with MPC-2 plasma cell tumor were exceedingly short in both unoperated and ureter-severed mice, with 50% of the injected protein catabolized in from 0.8–1.6 hr. In contrast, the survival of Bence Jones protein was markedly prolonged in nephrectomized animals, with 50% of the injected dose catabolized in from 9 to 17 hr. This ten-fold decrease in catabolic rate indicates that the kidneys are the major site of breakdown of Bence Jones proteins. Similar studies with other proteins indicated that the kidneys are also the major site for catabolism of isolated L chains but not of intact IgG molecules. The Fc immunoglobulin fragment was not catabolized and the Fab fragment only partially catabolized by the kidney. When ureter-severed animals were allowed to develop advanced uremia before being studied, the survival of Bence Jones protein was greatly prolonged, indicating that the catabolic process is impaired in the presence of uremia. The nature of this renal catabolism remains unknown. These observations suggest that the Bence Jones proteins and L chains observed in the urine of patients may reflect only a small fraction of such molecules synthesized by these patients. Furthermore, they provide an explanation for the prolongation of Bence Jones protein survival and the development of Bence Jones proteinemia observed in subjects with multiple myeloma and impaired renal function.
Automated 3D Scene Reconstruction from Open Geospatial Data Sources: Airborne Laser Scanning and a 2D Topographic Database

Open geospatial data sources provide opportunities for low cost 3D scene reconstruction. In this study, based on a sparse airborne laser scanning (ALS) point cloud (0.8 points/m2) obtained from open source databases, a building reconstruction pipeline for CAD building models was developed. The pipeline includes voxel-based roof patch segmentation, extraction of the key-points representing the roof patch outline, step edge identification and adjustment, and CAD building model generation. The advantages of our method lie in generating CAD building models without the step of enforcing the edges to be parallel or building regularization. Furthermore, although it has been challenging to use sparse datasets for 3D building reconstruction, our result demonstrates the great potential in such applications. In this paper, we also investigated the applicability of open geospatial datasets for 3D road detection and reconstruction. Road central lines were acquired from an open source 2D topographic database. ALS data were utilized to obtain the height and width of the road. A constrained search method (CSM) was developed for road width detection. The CSM method was conducted by splitting a given road into patches according to height and direction criteria. The road edges were detected patch by patch. The road width was determined by the average distance from the edge points to the central line. As a result, 3D roads were reconstructed from ALS and a topographic database.
The Formative Tutoring Programme in Preventing University Drop-outs and Improving Students’ Academic Performance. The Case Study of the University of Padova (Italy)

The Spanish model of Tutoria Formativa de Carrera may be viewed as a useful strategy to improve student performance and prevent the drop-out phenomenon. In order to verify its adaptability to the Italian academic context, an experimental programme was carried out in three first-cycle degree courses in an Italian university: case studies were chosen according to their high drop-out and low performance rates. A year-long programme of tutoring, together with peer and service tutoring, was proposed to enrolled students, the main aims being to facilitate the transition between secondary school and university, to foster students' integration within the university context and their approach to university-level study, and to guide them towards conscious decisions about their personal and professional careers. By means the innovative approach based on primary prevention and student-centred perspective, substantial results were obtained, highlighting the educational dimension of tutoring, by integration of peer and service tutoring with a new tutoring role for the teaching staff.
Testing database transactions with AGENDA

AGENDA is a tool set for testing relational database applications. An earlier prototype was targeted to applications consisting of a single query and included components for populating a database with data suitable for testing the application, generating inputs to the query, and checking relatively simple aspects of the results of executing the query. This paper describes substantial extensions to AGENDA, allowing it to test transactions with multiple queries and with complex intended behavior. The paper introduces a technique for checking complex properties of the database state transition performed by the transaction under test, as well as an improved input generation heuristic. Results of using AGENDA to test three applications with seeded faults are presented.
International adjustment of Brazilian expatriates in the United States of America

ABSTRACT The adjustment of expatriates to host countries has been identified as a determinant of their success in international assignments. The literature on expatriates is largely based on cases of expatriates from developed economies; however, given the current global market scenario, companies from developing countries are also assigning expatriates to international assignments. The purpose of this study was to understand the international adjustment of Brazilian expatriates working for Brazilian multinational subsidiaries in the United States of America (USA). The study used an exploratory approach of in-depth interviews with open-ended questions conducted with 11 Brazilian expatriates working for 11 different Brazilian multinationals in the USA. The contributions of this study are twofold: (1) exploration of the adjustment perspectives of expatriates of Brazilian multinational companies, and (2) exploration of the effects of variables from the USA context, as host country, on the international adjustment of expatriates. Findings show that Brazilian expatriates perceived that rules and laws of the USA had a great effect on their international adjustment, while cross-cultural differences influenced leadership styles and interpersonal relationship.
SMS spam detection using selected text features and Boosting Classifiers

Short Message Service (also called SMS), is the product of modern mobile communication, which provides more convenience and options for communication. The unwanted advertisements sent with SMS significantly interferes the normal communication among costumers, which should have been guaranteed by the mobile service providers. In this paper, we propose a GentleBoost algorithm for SMS spam detection. Because we have unbalanced data and for this type of data, Boosting Classifiers are good choice. Also, we found that in most cases, especially when we have binary Classification and unbalanced data, GentleBoost performs better than other Boosting Classifiers and leads to better performance. Therefore, we choose GentleBoost as preferred Classifier, also we guarantee that no one use this technique for SMS spam detection and this method is a completely novel method. Another important advantage of the suggested approach is related to the way of extracting the word attributes because by removing unused features and optimizing them, we reduced the number of word attributes significantly without reducing accuracy. Therefore, Our propose approach obtained high accuracy with minimum storage consumption.
Cerebral Processes Related to Visuomotor Imagery and Generation of Simple Finger Movements Studied with Positron Emission Tomography

Positron emission tomography was used to compare the functional anatomy of visual imagination and generation of movement. Subjects were asked to generate visual images of their finger movement in response to a preparatory signal. Four conditions were tested: in two, no actual movement was required; in the other two, a second signal prompted the subjects to execute the imagined movement. Which movement to imagine was either specified by the preparatory stimulus or freely selected by the subjects. Compared with a rest condition, tasks involving only imagination activated several cortical regions (inferoparietal cortex, presupplementary motor area, anterior cingulate cortex, premotor cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) contralateral to the imagined movement. Tasks involving both imagination and movement additionally increased activity in the ipsilateral cerebellum, thalamus, contralateral anteroparietal, and motor cortex and decreased activity in the inferior frontal cortex. These results support the hypothesis that distinct functional systems are involved in visuomotor imagination and generation of simple finger movements: associative parietofrontal areas are primarily related to visuomotor imagination, with inferior frontal cortex likely engaged in active motor suppression, and primary motor structures contribute mainly to movement execution.
Progressive network-flow based power-aware broadcast addressing for pin-constrained digital microfluidic biochips

In recent emerging marketplace, designs for pin-constrained digital microfluidic biochips (PDMFBs) have received much attention due to the large impact on packaging and product cost. One of the major approaches, broadcast addressing, reduces the pin count by assigning a single control pin to multiple electrodes with mutually-compatible control signals. Prior works utilize this addressing scheme by minimally grouping electrode sets with non-conflict signal merging. However, merging control signals also introduces redundant actuations, which potentially cause a high power-consumption problem. Recent studies on PDMFBs have indicated that high power consumption not only decreases the product lifetime but also degrades the system reliability. Unfortunately, this power-aware design concern is still not readily available among current design automations of PDMFBs. To cope with these issues, we propose in this paper the first power-aware broadcast addressing for PDMFBs. Our algorithm simultaneously takes pin-count reduction and power-consumption minimization into consideration, thereby achieving higher integration and better design performance. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm.
App-Ray: User-driven and fully automated Android app security assessment

Android is currently the prevailing mobile operating system accompanied by ahuge number of apps available at various online market platforms. To protectagainst malicious or vulnerable apps, Android comprises a permission-based se-curity model and some, but yet opaque security checks conducted by GooglePlay. Under these conditions, assessing the security of an app according touser-speciﬁc requirements is hardly possible. Nevertheless, end users and pro-fessionals, such as IT administrators, need to understand apps’ security implica-tions prior to installation or rollout. To address this need, we present App-Ray,a novel security scanning framework which analyses apps according to user-speciﬁc security requirements. The contribution of our paper is a method toreﬁne such requirements to speciﬁc test criteria, and to automatically combinestatic and analysis methods for their evaluation. We demonstrate the feasibilityof our approach by implementing a prototype and running user-speciﬁc analysison 50 apps.
A 5.2GHz variable gain low noise amplifier RFIC with adaptive biasing for improved linearity

This paper presents a 5.2-GHz adaptively-biased variable gain- low noise amplifier (VG-LNA) using SiGe BiCMOS technology. Usage of bias and gain control simultaneously to achieve high input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) is demonstrated. A charge pump is used to transform the RF output signal of LNA to dc control signal. Measurement results show that with 3.3V power supply, the LNA exhibits a tunable bias from 3mA to 10.85mA with gain tuning range of 13dB, and a 14.5dBm IIP3 improvement. In the high gain mode, the noise figure of 2.82 of the LNA is achieved.
Relação entre morbilidade psicológica, variáveis sociodemográficas e clínicas, perceção de intimidade relacional, satisfação conjugal e preocupações sentidas durante a gravidez

Objectives: to assess the relationship between sociodemographic and clinical variables, relationship intimacy, marital satisfaction, worries during pregnancy and psychological morbidity (anxiety, depression and stress). Type of study: observational, cross-sectional. Location: ACES in the northern zone of the country (Barcelos/Esposende- ACES of Cavado III). Population: women in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. Methods: the sample was collected during childbirth preparation consultations in the ACES of Cavado III and women completed the questionnaires after the childbirth preparation class. Results: Greater worries were associated with more psychological morbidity, less perception of relationship intimacy and of marital satisfaction were associated with more psychological morbidity. The perception of relationship intimacy was positively associated with marital satisfaction and negatively associated with worries during pregnancy. Conclusions: pregnancy can hold considerable risks to the mental health of the woman.
Evidence Supporting the Existence of an Activity-Dependent Astrocyte-Neuron Lactate Shuttle

Mounting evidence from in vitro experiments indicates that lactate is an efficient energy substrate for neurons and that it may significantly contribute to maintain synaptic transmission, particularly during periods of intense activity. Since lactate does not cross the blood-brain barrier easily, blood-borne lactate cannot be a significant source. In vitro studies by several laboratories indicate that astrocytes release large amounts of lactate. In 1994, we proposed a mechanism whereby lactate could be produced by astrocytes in an activity-dependent, glutamate-mediated manner. Over the last 2 years we have obtained further evidence supporting the notion that a transfer of lactate from astrocytes to neurons might indeed take place. In this article, we first review data showing the presence of mRNA encoding for two monocarboxylate transporters, MCT1 and MCT2, in the adult mouse brain. Second, by using monoclonal antibodies selectively directed against the two distinct lactate dehydrogenase isoforms, LDH1 and LDH5, a specific cellular distribution between neurons and astrocytes is revealed which suggests that a population of astrocytes is a lactate ‘source’ while neurons may be a lactate ‘sink’. Third, we provide biochemical evidence that lactate is interchangeable with glucose to support oxidative metabolism in cortical neurons. This set of data is consistent with the existence of an activity-dependent astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle for the supply of energy substrates to neurons.
Cepheids and Long-Period Variables in NGC 4395

Repeated imaging observations of NGC 4395 were made with the WIYN 3.5 m and the KPNO 2.1 m telescopes. From the photometry of the resolved brighter stars in this galaxy, 11 Cepheids with periods ranging between 12 and 90 days have been identified. The true distance modulus has been derived from the apparent distance moduli in g, r, and i. The distance modulus is 28.02 ± 0.18 based on the LMC period-luminosity (P-L) relation of Sandage, Reindl, & Tammann; this corresponds to a distance of 4.0 ± 0.3 Mpc. Using the P-L relation from Madore & Freedman, the distance modulus is 28.15 ± 0.18, which corresponds to a distance of 4.3 ± 0.4 Mpc. The reddening is calculated to be E(g–r) = 0.06 ± 0.08 and E(r–i) = 0.10 ± 0.08, again from the distance moduli μg, μr, and μi. In addition, 37 other variables have been detected, the majority of which have definite periods; they are probably all red long-period variables.
The transition out of education and the initial steps into the labour market in the European Union

The general aim of this research is the study of transitions from education and into the labour market among youths under a simultaneous framework in order to control for the interdependency of such relevant events. An extended version of the human capital model has been applied using the European Community Household Panel. The empirical strategy has aimed at reflecting the independent and simultaneous determination of both labour market and education transitions. Results show that the expected labour market outcomes do not significantly contribute to explain demand for education, other factors being more important. Finally, in the school-to-work transition, demand-side and institutional factors turn to be very important, education attainment effects being blurred by the nature of our sample (students in different points of their programmes).
A study of polysemy judgements and inter-annotator agreement

This paper describes two experiments on polysemy judgement and sense annotation. The first experiment enabled us to select the most polysemous words which were used in the second experiment, and which serve as test words for the evaluation of WSD systems. We show that this selection method yields results different from selecting words on the basis of their number of senses in a dictionary, and is more appropriate in the context. Both experiments show considerable disagreement among the human judges. Disagreement on sense annotation is particularly concerning, since it sheds some doubt on the very possibility of evaluating WSD systems. However, we show that a lot of the disagreement is due to the too fine granularity of sense definitions in dictionaries. We also show that clustering techniques can enable us to re-code the individual annotations according to a small set of "super-tags", and obtain a quite satisfactory level of inter-annotator agreement. Surprisingly enough, the natural clustering provided by lexicographers in the hierarchy of dictionary entries does not provide a substantial disagreement reduction, whereas "blind" data-oriented techniques produce satisfactory results. Beyond its practical goals, this paper therefore probably raises some more general questions about lexicographic practice and the adequacy of dictionaries to NLP tasks.
C-reactive protein and bacterial infection in cirrhosis

In the general population, C-reactive protein (CRP) level increases in the presence of acute or chronic inflammation and infections. In patients with cirrhosis, the basal level is higher than in patients without cirrhosis, due to chronic hepatic and other inflammation, but when infection occurs the more severe the underlying liver dysfunction, the lower the increase in CRP. Therefore, the predictive power of CRP for infection and prognosis is weak in patients with decompensated/advanced cirrhosis and in the intensive care setting. However, higher CRP and also persistently elevated CRP levels can help identify patients with a higher short-term risk of mortality.
Effect of leaf essential oil from Piper solmsianum C.DC. in mice behaviour.

The essential oil from Piper solmsianum leaves and its major compound (sarisan) were tested to verify their influences upon mice behaviour. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation in a modified Clevenger extractor and analysed by GC/ MS. This analysis revealed in the oil the presence of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and of arylpropanoids. The compound sarisan, a myristicin analogue, was isolated from the oil to perform the pharmacological tests. Emulsions of the oil and of sarisan (5.0 and 10.0% v/v) were used in the tests. Pentobarbital (30 mg/ kg s.c.) or diazepam (2.5 mg/ kg s.c.) were tested as standard drugs to verify depressant or anxiolytic effects, respectively. Both essential oil and sarisan showed to have exciting and depressant effects in the tested animals.