Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suppression of Listeria monocytogenes colonization following adsorption of nisin onto silica surfaces

Nisin is an antimicrobial peptide proven to be an effective inhibitor of gram-positive bacteria. It is known that nisin can adsorb to various surfaces and still retain much of its original activity (M. A. Daeschel, J. McGuire, and H. Al-Makhlafi, J. Food Prot. 55:731-735, 1992). In this study, nisin films were allowed to form on silanized silica surfaces and then exposed to medium containing Listeria monocytogenes. Representative areas were selected from each surface, and images of resident listeriae were obtained at 4-h intervals for 12 h. During this time, cells on surfaces that had been in contact with a high concentration of nisin (1.0 mg/ml) exhibited no signs of growth and many displayed evidence of cellular deterioration. Surfaces treated with a lower concentration of nisin (0.1 mg/ml) had a smaller degree of inhibition. In contrast, both protein-free surfaces and those with films of heat-inactivated nisin allowed attached L. monocytogenes cells to grow and reproduce. These studies, when repeated with a nisin-resistant strain of L. monocytogenes, resulted in no inhibition of growth on surfaces with adsorbed nisin. The bactericidal effect of adsorbed nisin was also studied with iodonitrotetrazolium violet, a tetrazolium salt, which is reduced to a red formazan crystal by viable bacteria. Crystals were visible in 95% of the cells adhered to control surfaces but were present in less than 20% of the cells on surfaces with adsorbed nisin. These data indicate that adsorbed nisin may have potential for use as a food grade antimicrobial agent on food contact surfaces.
Do Labour Mobility and Networks Foster Geographical Knowledge Diffusion? The Case of European Regions

The goal of this paper is twofold: first, we aim to assess the role played by inventors’ cross-regional mobility and networks of collaboration in fostering knowledge diffusion across regions and subsequent innovation. Second, we intend to evaluate the feasibility of using mobility and networks information to build cross-regional interaction matrices to be used within the spatial econometrics toolbox. To do so, we depart from a knowledge production function where regional innovation intensity is a function not only of the own regional innovation inputs but also external accessible R&D gained through interregional interactions. Differently from much of the previous literature, cross-section gravity models of mobility and networks are estimated to use the fitted values to build our ‘spatial’ weights matrices, which characterize the intensity of knowledge interactions across a panel of 269 regions covering most European countries over 6 years.
Economic Growth and the Environment

ABSTRACT This paper provides a review of the literature on economic growth and the environment and suggests ways in which it can inform the traditional concerns of development economics. It contrasts the views of “optimists” and “pessimists” on the feasibility of continued economic growth. Optimists believe that increased scarcity of environmental goods will induce adequate conservation responses, including technological innovation, while pessimists believe that these responses will be insufficient without measures to limit the scale of the global economy. The paper looks at the causes of environmental degradation; examines the policy approaches implicit in both camps; and suggests an approach that draws on elements from both.
PECAM‐targeted delivery of SOD inhibits endothelial inflammatory response

Elevated generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by endothelial enzymes, including NADPH‐oxidase, is implicated in vascular oxidative stress and endothelial proinflammatory activation involving exposure of vascular cell adhesion molecule‐1 (VCAM‐1). Catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) conjugated with antibodies to platelet/endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM‐1) bind specifically to endothelium and inhibit effects of corresponding ROS, H2O2, and superoxide anion. In this study, anti‐PECAM/SOD, but not anti‐PECAM/catalase or nontargeted enzymes, including polyethylene glycol (PEG)‐SOD, inhibited 2‐ to 3‐fold VCAM expression caused by tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin‐1β, and lipopolysaccharide. Anti‐PECAM/SOD, but not nontargeted counterparts, accumulated in vascular endothelium after intravenous injection, localized in endothelial endosomes, and inhibited by 70% lipopolysaccharide‐caused VCAM‐1 expression in mice. Anti‐PECAM/SOD colocalized with EEA‐1‐positive endothelial vesicles and quenched ROS produced in response to TNF. Inhibitors of NADPH oxidase and anion channel ClC3 blocked TNF‐induced VCAM expression, affirming that superoxide produced and transported by these proteins, respectively, mediates inflammatory signaling. Anti‐PECAM/SOD abolished VCAM expression caused by poly(I:C)‐induced activation of toll‐like receptor 3 localized in intracellular vesicles. These results directly implicate endosomal influx of superoxide in endothelial inflammatory response and suggest that site‐specific interception of this signal attained by targeted delivery of anti‐PECAM/SOD into endothelial endo‐somes may have anti‐inflammatory effects. —Shuvaev, V. V. , Han, J., Yu, K. J., Huang, S. , Hawkins, B. J., Madesh, M. , Nakada, M. , and Muzykantov, V. R. PECAM‐targeted delivery of SOD inhibits endothelial inflammatory response. FASEB J. 25, 348–357 (2011). www.fasebj. org
Towards an adaptive ontology based model for interoperability in internet of things (IoT)

Interoperability is key in any networked system. In the IoT environments, the need is further amplified by the presence of numerous heterogeneous devices. To address device and service disparity, the things will need proper addressing, registration and de-registration. This can be implemented through abstraction technologies and models such as ontologies for semantic expressiveness. The aim of this paper is to investigate some of the requirements for semantic interoperability and expose some of the current challenges in device and service discovery. We also explore current models for resource discovery highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and how they can contribute to an ontology based IoT device and service discovery model. Furthermore, the paper concludes by proposing a model for device and service discovery.
Senior medical students' knowledge of universal precautions

BACKGROUND. Few data exist concerning the assessment of medical students' knowledge of universal precautions. The purpose of this study was to assess what students know–immediately before they graduate–about universal-precautions procedures. METHOD. The 151 fourth-year students of the class of 1992 at the University of Washington School of Medicine were given a questionnaire one week before graduation. They were asked to indicate the protective equipment required to safely complete ten common clinical procedures. For each procedure, the proportion of students who correctly indicated the protective equipment was calculated. RESULTS. The questionnaires were completed by 137 (91%) of the students. The mean percentage of correct answers by the responding students was 67%. For five of the ten procedures, from 104 to 123 (76–90%) of the students reported the proper levels of protection. For the remaining five procedures, from 58 to 75 (42–55%) of the students knew the proper levels of protection. CONCLUSION. The results of the survey are worrisome, because many students–immediately before they graduated–lacked adequate knowledge of universal precautions regarding the ten common clinical procedures. More emphasis on universal precautions during undergraduate medical education is needed.
Dating Turning Points in the Business Cycle

The author reviews and evaluates procedures for dating peaks and troughs of the business cycle. Five different methods are judged on their historical performance, age of replication, clarity, timeliness, flexibility, and the validity of underlying assumptions. In addition, the author examines the 1990-92 period in detail where two newer dating methods are especially insightful because they use statistically rigorous methods to derive turning point probabilities and, thereby, the inherent uncertainty in the data can be recognized. The author also concludes that additional research is needed on this topic to resolve some important controversies about business-cycle characteristics. Copyright 1994 by University of Chicago Press.
An Evaluation Framework for Fastest Oblivious RAM

Oblivious RAM (ORAM) is security provable approach for memory access pattern hiding. However, since ORAM incurs high computational overheads due to repeated shuffles of data blocks in a memory, numerous constructions have been proposed to reduce it. While the computational cost has been improved by these constructions as compared to early ones, it is still expensive from the practical point of view. Specifically, in its application to IoT devices, less computational cost is expected for avoiding high energy consumption. We thus focus on an ORAM construction proposed by Nakano et al. in 2012, which we call the fastest ORAM. The computational cost of this construction is much less than any other conventional ORAM constructions. However, the security has not been analyzed sufficiently, due to the lack of practical security definitions. Therefore, we formulate a new security definition for the fastest ORAM on the basis of the average minentropy, and propose a framework for evaluating the security.
Deadbeat-like approximations for sequencing non-rigid heaps

This paper demonstrates how the property of deadbeat controllers that drives discrete-time systems to their equilibria in a finite number of steps can be effectively used to develop systematic approximations of a certain class of heap systems, modeled here as input-quantized systems defined over the max-plus algebra. These systems are used to describe a class of flexible batch manufacturing processes that are important in applications such as chemical processing. The result here introduces a new, asymmetric approximation in the context of previous work [13] where a symmetric approximation was developed and analyzed.
Types of Entrepreneur and Strategic Level Goal Setting

Vesa Routamaa and Jukka Vesalainen are with the University of Vaasa, Finland. Their paper reports on the findings of an empirical study which aimed to find out what kind of entrepreneurs are best able to react to the management problems caused by the growth of firms. It was found that the manager type of entrepreneur was growth oriented but risk avoiding in comparison with the classical entrepreneur. Differences were found in goal setting which, against the background of the growth orientation of the entrepreneurs, could be interpreted to lead either to controlled or uncontrolled growth. The results indicated that even the manager type of entrepreneur at his best could not attain such a firm hold as a professional manager. To be an entrepreneur and a managing director did not always go together.
Secure Mobile Payment Employing Trusted Computing on TrustZone Enabled Platforms

Recent technological advances have accelerated the design and worldwide deployment of mobile payment systems (m-payment). However, m-payment over open devices and networks poses security challenges of a new dimension that users disclose lots of sensitive information and privacy can't be protected properly in open environment. In this paper, we propose a mobile payment architecture employing with trusted computing on an ARM TrustZone hardware isolation platform, which can ensure transactions data security, realize privacy friendly payment and provide trusted computing services to the system. We also have implemented a prototype system on a simulation environment by using ARM FastModel and Open Virtualization software stack for ARM TrustZone, and presented our implementation on a real development board by using ARM CoreTile Express A9x4. Our experiment evaluation and security analysis prove that our scheme can effectively meet the security requirements of a practical m-payment with acceptable performance.
Taste alteration, mouth dryness and teeth staining as side effects of medications taken by elderly

Elderly patients generally use several types of medication, some of which may cause oral side effects. Aim: To investigate the oral side effects caused by medication in an elderly sample. Methods: Three hundred patients were interviewed about their use of medication and were divided in two groups: institutionalized (n=150) and community-dwelling (n=150) elderly. Results: The most used drugs were antihypertensives (53%) for community-dwelling elders and antiulceratives (76%) for the institutionalized ones. The more prevalent side effects were taste alterations that occurred in 19%, dry mouth in 17% and teeth staining in 2%. Conclusions: A high prevalence of oral side effects from medications used by the elderly was found in this study. The health professionals should be aware of the possible side effects caused by prescribed medications.
Individual Differences in Rhythms of Behavioral Sleep and Its Neural Substrates in Nile Grass Rats

Laboratory populations of grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus) housed with a running wheel show considerable variation in patterns of locomotor activity. At the extremes are “day-active” (DA) animals with a monophasic distribution of running throughout the light phase and “night-active” (NA) animals exhibiting a biphasic pattern with an extended peak at the beginning of the dark phase and a brief peak shortly before lights-on. Here, the authors use this intraspecific variation to explore interactions between circadian and homeostatic influences on sleep and the effects of these interactions on the activity of brain regions involved in sleep regulation. Male animals were singly housed with running wheels in a 12:12 LD cycle, videotaped for 24 h, and perfused at ZT 4 or 16. Behavioral sleep was scored from the videotapes, and brains were processed for cFos immunoreactivity (cFos-ir). Sleep duration within the light and dark phases was higher in NA and DA animals, respectively, but these groups did not differ with respect to total sleep. In both groups, sleep bouts were shortest in the light phase and longest between ZT 20 and ZT 23. In the ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO), cFos-ir was higher at ZT 16 than at ZT 4 in DA but not NA grass rats, and it was correlated with behavioral sleep at ZT 16 but not ZT 4. In OXA neurons, cFos-ir was high at ZT 4 in DA grass rats and at ZT 16 in NA grass rats, and it was correlated with behavioral sleep at both times. In the lower subparaventricular zone (LSPV), cFos-ir was higher at ZT 16 in both DA and NA animals, and it was unrelated to behavioral sleep. Thus, patterns of cFos-ir in the LSPV and OXA neurons were most tightly linked to time and sleep, respectively, whereas cFos-ir in the VLPO was influenced by an interaction between these 2 variables.
Dog and cat allergens and asthma among school children in Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA: altitude 7,200 feet.

A survey of the Middle School in Los Alamos, N.M. , USA, identified 57 children with symptoms of asthma and 54 controls. Among these children, sensitization to cat and dog allergens was very strongly associated with bronchial reactivity and symptoms. In contrast, sensitization to mites, cockroach, or grass pollen allergens was not significantly associated with symptoms or bronchial reactivity. In keeping with these results, dust from houses in Los Alamos only contained high levels of cat or dog allergens.
Attracting College-Bound Youth into the Military: Toward the Development of New Recruiting Policy Options

Abstract : The armed services prefer to recruit high quality youth because they perform better and have lower attrition rates. Yet competition for this group is increasing because of fundamental changes in the civilian opportunities that these youth face. One of the most dramatic of these changes is the enormous increase in the relative returns from attending college that have occurred over the last 20 years. This report summarizes the findings of the first year of a two-year project that seeks to provide input necessary for the development and expansion of programs intended to improve the services' ability to compete against post-secondary institutions and subsequent civilian skilled employment. Specifically, the report examines trends in college attendance and the economic returns from attending college, describes the options that the military currently offers to combine service and college, and enumerates the types of issues that would need to be considered in developing and expanding recruiting programs that target college-bound youth.
Mean‐variance trade‐offs in supply contracts

We study the trade‐offs faced by a manufacturer signing a portfolio of long‐term contracts with its suppliers and having access to a spot market. The manufacturer incurs inventory risk when purchasing too many contracts and spot price risk when buying too few. We quantify these risks for a single selling period by studying the profit mean and variance for a given portfolio of option contracts. We characterize the set of efficient portfolios that the manufacturer must hold in order to obtain dominating mean‐variance pairs. Among these, we emphasize the maximum expectation portfolio, obtained by solving the classical newsvendor problem, and the corresponding minimum variance portfolio. We show that the upper‐level sets of a mean‐variance utility function are connected. Hence, a greedy method will find the portfolios on the efficient frontier. Finally, we provide a comparison with standard hedging strategies and show that the approximation associated with financial hedging can be relatively inaccurate. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2006
Why They Think Like Gringoes: The Discourse of U.S.–Latin American Relations

Eldon Kenworthy. America/Americas: Myth in the Making of U.S. Policy towards Latin America Martha L. Cottam. Images and Intervention: U.S. Policies in Latin America James William Park. Latin American Underdevelopment: A History of Perspectives in the United States, 1870–1965 John A. Britton. Revolution and Ideology: Images of the Mexican Revolution in the United States Frederick B. Pike. FDR's Good Neighbor Policy: Sixty Years of Gently chaotic Chaos
Assessing the performance of general practices caring for patients with asthma.

BACKGROUND General practitioners (GPs) have had to record information about chronic disease management and send this to the health authorities since the introduction of the new contract in 1990. AIM To discover the relationship between practice emergency admission rates for asthma and the characteristics of the practice's patients and chronic disease management programme. METHOD This was an ecological study comparing practice emergency admission rates of asthma by general practice with the practice's performance in measuring the prevalence, peak flow, and number of patients on regular prophylaxis. In addition, prescribing analysis and costing (PACT) data and census linkage were used to assign social class to patients and, when aggregated, to practices. The practice admission rate was correlated against each of these variables and then the relationships were explored in multiple linear regressions. RESULTS A high rate of admission in practices was correlated with deprivation of the patients, in the form of a practice Townsend score (r = 0.33, P = 0.003), and also with poorer prescribing, measured by the preventer-reliever ratio (r = -0.38, P = 0.001). Regression analysis showed that the relationship between good prescribing and low admission rates was not explained by confounding variables. Only 32% of the variation in admission rates between practices was explained by the regression equation. None of the variables recorded in the annual report were significantly related to admission rates. CONCLUSION Annual reports from the practice to the health authority are unhelpful in monitoring general practice performance, but prescribing, as measured by the preventer-reliever ratio, and hospital admission rates have limited usefulness.
Exercise training for heart failure: coming of age.

We have known for many years of the benefits of an exercise component in cardiac rehabilitation. It was initially thought that significant left ventricular impairment was a contraindication to participation in such programs. In fact, in heart failure, there was a vogue for and reports of the beneficial effects of prolonged bed rest.1 It is against this background that a few challenging reports emerged in the early 1980s that selected patients with significant left ventricular impairment had in fact participated in exercise programs and had achieved training responses with increased exercise capacity.2 3 4 It was not until the late 1980s, however, that the first reports of training patients with a history of chronic heart failure (CHF) emerged.5 6 Pioneering work from Duke University showed a significant enhancement in exercise capacity and ancillary physiological benefits, including reduced lactate production, improved use of ventilatory reserve, and increased leg blood flow during progressive exercise.5 6 This was quickly followed by the first prospective controlled trial of exercise training in CHF, an 11-patient crossover study of home-based exercise training using a cycle ergometer for 8 weeks versus a similar period of activity restriction.7 The result was an improvement in exercise capacity and an improvement in questionnaire-based heart failure–related symptoms. The era of training as a treatment of heart failure had begun. In the decade following these first reports, there have been a profusion of small trials and a long list of impressive physiological gains that could be achieved. These included increased peak oxygen consumption,8 9 10 an increase in peak cardiac output (in some8 but not all trials), and improvement in the autonomic control of the circulation with a reduction in sympathetic nervous system activity …
Cooking and eating characteristics of some newly identified inter sub-specific ( indica/japonica) rice hybrids

Experiments were conducted to determine the cooking and eating characteristics of 17 newly identified inter sub-specific ( indica/japonica) rice hybrids. Superior cooking performance over DRRH-1 was observed in 14 hybrids for length of cooked rice elongation, all the hybrids for kernel elongation ratio, 14 hybrids for elongation index, 11 hybrids for water uptake, and 6 hybrids for volume expansion. Among the hybrids, 2 hybrids showed low amylose content (18.8%) and 7 hybrids showed high amylose content (26-30%), while the remaining 8 hybrids showed intermediate amylose content (20-25%) which was considered the best from the cooking point of view. The amylose content of the hybrids depended on the amylose content of parents. Maximum hybrids showed intermediate gelatinization temperature (GT) and intermediate amylose content which is preferred by the consumers. High amylose grains had low GT, intermediate amylose grains had intermediate GT while low and very low amylose types had high GT.
Economic progress of immigrants in Sweden from 1970 to 1990: a longitudinal study

This article presents a longitudinal study of immigrants' adaptation to the Swedish labour market. The study is based on data from the 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1990 censuses. It demonstrates large differences in economic success between different immigrant groups compared with corresponding native-born Swedish groups. There are differences in both socioeconomic trends and income trends. Some of the results tend to support the corresponding studies made in the United States, but there are also results that differ from the findings in the United States. It is necessary to understand the economic progress among immigrants in a very broad perspective. The economic and the political circumstances, both in the emigrant and the immigrant countries must be added to a traditional human capital model.