Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cellulase and Xylanase Release from Bacteroides succinogenes and Its Importance in the Rumen Environment

During growth of Bacteroides succinogenes in a liquid medium with cellulose as the source of carbohydrate, greater than 80% of the carboxymethylcellulase (endo-β-1,4-glucanase), xylanase, and aryl-β-xylosidase and 50% of the aryl-β-glucosidase released from cells into the culture fluid. Less than 25% of the cellobiase activity was detected in the culture fluid. Approximately 50% of each of the released enzymes measured was associated with sedimentable subcellular membrane vesicles. The vesicles appeared to be released from the outer membrane of intact cells by bleb formation, primarily in pockets between the cells and the cellulose, although a few unattached cells with blebs were seen. Many vesicles were seen adhering to cellulose, and they were also seen free in the culture fluid. These data suggest that B. succinogenes releases hydrolytic enzymes in nonsedimentable and particulate forms during growth by a mechanism which has until now received little attention. Cellulose incubated in a porous nylon bag in the rumen was colonized by bacteria resembling B. succinogenes, and subcellular vesicles were seen penetrating channels and fractures in the cellulose. On this basis, it is suggested that B. succinogenes cells in the rumen contribute to an extracellular population of subcellular vesicles that possess cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic activities which probably enhance polymer digestion and provide a source of sugars for microbes lacking polymer-degrading activity, thereby contributing to a stable heterogeneous microbial population.
Multi-user MIMO downlink beamforming based on perturbation theory of generalized eigenvector

An efficient beam updating method for multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) downlink channels is considered in time-varying channels. Previously, the beam design method based on signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (SLNR) was introduced with given channel matrices. The solution maximizing SLNR is obtained by a generalized eigen-decomposition with a pair of covariance matrices of desired signal and leakage plus noise. It is burdensome to calculate directly a generalized eigenvector at each time step in time-varying channels. To reduce the computational complexity in the beam design algorithm, the perturbation theory for a generalized eigenvector without any iteration is used for a simple update formula to obtain a new generalized eigenvector corresponding to the updated channel information. Through numerical simulations, the performance of the proposed beam design algorithm is verified.
Catheter ablation versus medical rate control for persistent atrial fibrillation in patients with heart failure

Background:The effectiveness of restoring the sinus rhythm by catheter ablation relative to that of medical rate control for persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with heart failure (HF) remains to be defined. Methods:We systematically searched Embase, Pubmed, the Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov for articles that compared the outcomes of interest between catheter ablation and medical rate control therapy in persistent AF patients with HF and left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD). The primary endpoint was the change in the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) following catheter ablation or medical rate control therapy relative to baseline. Other endpoints included changes in cardiac function and exercise capacity, including the New York Heart Association (NYHA) class, the brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level, the peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2), the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) results, and quality of life (QOL). Results:Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with 143 patients were included. At the overall term follow-up, catheter ablation significantly improved the LVEF (mean difference [MD]: 6.22%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.7–11.74, P = 0.03) and peak VO2 (MD: 2.81 mL/kg/min; 95% CI: 0.78–4.85, P = 0.007) and reduced the NYHA class (MD: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.59–1.21, P < 0.001) and the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaires (MLHFQ) scores (MD: −11.05; 95% CI: −19.45 — −2.66, P = 0.01) compared with the medical rate control for persistent AF patients with HF. Alterations in parameters, such as the BNP level, 6MWT, and Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire scores also revealed trends that favored catheter ablation therapy, although these differences were not significant. Conclusion:Catheter ablation resulted in improved LVEF, cardiac function, exercise capacity, and QOL for persistent AF patients with HF compared with the medical rate control strategy.
Reservation Prices and Willingness to Accept Price Offers for Nonindustrial Forest Landowners in Western Virginia

The purpose of this thesis is to examine what motivates nonindustrial private forest landowners to accept bids of various levels for harvesting. Through the use of a survey we specifically consider what preferences and landowner characteristics effect these decisions. Landowners were randomly selected from counties in Southwest Virginia. The participants were presented a payment table in which they were asked to indicate the level of certainty with which they would accept bids of various levels for their timber. The information obtained for the survey was used in a LOGIT model to examine which variables were most important both in determining the certainty respondents attached to different bid levels, and the likelihood of accepting a bid of any size. Our most important results show that factors such as bequest motives, tract size, absentee status, and environmental preferences influence the bid acceptance decision for landowners in the sample.
ubiquitin-proteasome system Posttranslational Modification and Quality Control

Genetic mutations and environmental factors, especially those associated with increased stress and pathological conditions, can compromise the integrity of proteins and organelles in the cell, which, if not properly controlled, can be catastrophic to cell function and survival. Hence, the cell has evolved intracellular quality control (QC) mechanisms at protein and organelle levels to minimize the level and toxicity of misfolded proteins and defective organelles in the cell. Inadequate QC is associated with many forms of heart disease in their progression to congestive heart failure and implicated in cardiac pathogenesis. Hence, improving intracellular QC may potentially become a new therapeutic strategy for cardiac protection. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of intracellular QC will facilitate the development of such a novel strategy. Intracellular QC is regulated by transcriptional, translational, and posttranslational mechanisms. Posttranslational modifications (PTMs), such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination,
Diastolic Function of the Left Ventricle Depending on the Degree of Renal Dysfunction in the Background of Treatment

Background: To study the effect of lisinopril and losartan on the diastolic function of the left ventricle in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), depending on the degree of renal dysfunction (RD). Materials and methods: A total of 223 patients with I-III FC of CHF were examined, initially and after 6 months. The first group consisted of 118 patients taking lisinopril as part of standard therapy; the second group - 105 - losartan. All patients were distributed depending on the estimated of the glomerular filtration rate (eGFR): 30 60 ml / min / 1,73m2 -156 patients. Results: The analysis of baseline diastolic function in patients with CHF revealed diastolic dysfunction in 81,8% of patients with CHF, with a predominance of delayed relaxation in 59,3% of patients and an increase in the number of patients with a restrictive type of diastolic dysfunction in patients with III FC of CHF. The dependence between the parameters of the diastolic function - the rate of E and eGFR was revealed. Patients of the first and second groups with I-III FC of CHF after 6 months of treatment had an improvement in diastolic left ventricle function with advantage in patients in the group of losartan with I and III FC of CHF. On the background of treatment in patients with CHF with eGFR≤60 ml/min/1,73 m2 there was a significant increase in the rate of E in both groups of patients without statistically significant differences. Conclusion: Patients of the first and second groups with I-III FC of CHF after 6 months of treatment had an improvement in diastolic function left ventricle.
An Approach for Matching Schemas of Heterogeneous Relational Databases

Schema matching is a basic problem in many database application domains, such as data integration. The problem of schema matching can be formulated as follows, ldquogiven two schemas, Si and Sj, find the most plausible correspondences between the elements of Si and Sj, exploiting all available information, such as the schemas, instance data, and auxiliary sourcesrdquo. Given the rapidly increasing number of data sources to integrate and due to database heterogeneities, manually identifying schema matches is a tedious, time consuming, error-prone, and therefore expensive process. As systems become able to handle more complex databases and applications, their schemas become large, further increasing the number of matches to be performed. Thus, automating this process, which attempts to achieve faster and less labor-intensive, has been one of the main tasks in data integration. However, it is not possible to determine fully automatically the different correspondences between schemas, primarily because of the differing and often not explicated or documented semantics of the schemas. Several solutions in solving the issues of schema matching have been proposed. Nevertheless, these solutions are still limited, as they do not explore most of the available information related to schemas and thus affect the result of integration. This paper presents an approach for matching schemas of heterogeneous relational databases that utilizes most of the information related to schemas, which indirectly explores the implicit semantics of the schemas, that further improves the results of the integration.
In vitro and in vivo effects of suloctidil on growth and biofilm formation of the opportunistic fungus Candida albicans

As the most frequent fungal pathogen in humans, Candida albicans can develop serious drug resistance because its biofilms are resistant to most antifungal agents; this leads to an urgent need to develop novel antifungals. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of an antithrombotic drug, suloctidil, against C. albicans biofilms in vitro and in vivo. We found that suloctidil is effective to inhibit C. albicans biofilm, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC80) of 4 μg/mL, a biofilm inhibiting concentration (BIC80) of 16 μg/mL and a biofilm eradicating concentration (BEC80) of 64 μg/mL. Furthermore, the concentration-dependent characteristics of suloctidil were shown by its time-kill curves. Scanning electron microscopy images clearly revealed the morphological effects of suloctidil on biofilm. Yeast-to-hyphal form switching is a key virulence factor of C. albicans; therefore, we performed hyphal growth tests and observed that suloctidil inhibited yeast-to-hyphal form switching. This result was consistent with the down-regulation of hypha-specific gene (HWP1, ALS3, and ECE1) expression levels after suloctidil treatment. In vivo, 256 μg/mL of suloctidil significantly reduced fungal counts (P<0.01) compared to that in groups without treatment; the treatment group induced a slight histological reaction, especially when the treatment lasted for 5 days (P<0.01). Taken together, our data suggest that suloctidil is a potential antifungal agent.
Experimental oral infection of specific pathogen-free laying hens and cocks with Salmonella enteritidis strains.

A total of 105 specific pathogen-free (SPF) laying hens and eight cocks were orally infected with strains of Salmonella enteritidis. The organs of these animals were examined bacteriologically for up to 6 weeks post infectionem (p.i.). One-half of the eggs laid on a single day were examined 1 day after laying, and the other half 28 days after laying. The siderophore, ferrioxamine E, was added to the pre-enrichment medium. A high correlation was found to exist between colonization of the caecum by salmonellas and the level of contamination of the egg shell. No correlation was found between the contamination of the egg shell and that of the egg content. The strains used for infection were not recovered from any yolk out of a total of 938 eggs. S. enteritidis was isolated from the albumen in four cases (0.4%). Storage of the eggs for 28 days after laying resulted in a decrease in the frequency of salmonella detection on the egg shell and in the egg content. The strains used for infection could be isolated from various sections of the sexual organs for up to 2 weeks p.i. S. enteritidis was most frequently found in the ovary and rarely in the oviduct, but never in the pre-ovulatory mature follicles. In the groups that included salmonella-infected cocks, the salmonella detection frequency did not increase either for the egg content or for the organs of the laying hens. It seems that primary vertical transmission of salmonellas occurs, in rare cases, as a result of an infection of the albumen but not of the yolk.
Modelo de identificación, valoración y divulgación contable del capital intelectual en la universidad cubana

La presente tesis aborda temas relacionados con la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC), principalmente en lo relativo a su (re)conocimiento y su divulgacion, por parte de las empresas portuguesas cotizadas en el Euronext-Lisbon, durante el periodo de 2010 y 2011, y se inicia con un marco teorico al que le sigue una investigacion empirica. La consulta de normas sobre el tema, el encuadramiento juridico del muestreo, asi como el trabajo de investigacion realizado, tanto en Portugal, como a nivel internacional, ha suscitado los topicos y la metodologia aplicada. Mediante el analisis de los informes, de las cuentas anuales y de los informes de sostenibilidad, se realizo un estudio descriptivo sobre la divulgacion de la RSC y de la verificacion de dicha informacion. Se procedio asimismo a la formulacion de hipotesis y a la propuesta de modelos explicativos, examinando la influencia de factores, que inciden bien sobre la divulgacion, bien sobre la verificacion. Por ultimo, presentamos un paradigma basado en un enfoque holistico de modelizacion politico-contabilistica, indagando todas las variables de la investigacion empirica. A lo largo de los distintos estudios, fueron surgiendo diferentes analisis, desprendiendose que las empresas ejercen practicas socialmente responsables, registrandose una evolucion positiva y demostrandose el hecho de que el informe de sostenibilidad, publicado y auditado espontaneamente, permite difundir la posicion de su desempeno economico, social y ambiental. No obstante, se observa que tanto la divulgacion como la verificacion se ejercen de forma voluntaria y sin interferencias significativas de caracteristicas de la empresa, tales como la dimension, la rentabilidad, el endeudamiento, la concentracion de capital, el sector de actividad o la presencia de un auditor externo que forme o no parte de las BIG4. Sin embargo, cuando el indice de divulgacion de RSC es superior a la media, las empresas cotizadas tienden a proceder en gran numero, a la verificacion de su informe de sostenibilidad, pues a pesar de su gran dimension, se constata que son estas quienes suelen realizar con mayor frecuencia tales practicas. La paradoja que se cine sobre la divulgacion y la verificacion de la informacion sobre la RSC, asi como la inexistencia de normas obligatorias, suponen un largo camino a recorrer, sea en el ambito de la Contabilidad, como en el de la Auditoria. Palabras clave: Responsabilidad Social Corporativa, informes de sostenibilidad, divulgacion, verificacion.
Epidemiology of airborne infection.

In the perspective of the past 100 years the concept of airborne infection has had a rather turbulent history. ' Interest in it, on the part of scientists and the public, has swung in the extreme. Prevailing attitudes toward the importance of airborne infection have often been stronger, either pro or con, than the evidence at hand has justified. Undoubtedly we are in such a phase right now with the general underestimation of the importance of the subject. A limiting factor in the more orderly development of this field, in contrast to other fields of environmental sanitation such as the waterborne and foodborne infections, has been the lack of a sound theoretical basis. Rather than developing from a series of hypotheses based on epidemiological observations and tested repeatedly in the laboratory and in the field, there has been a tendency to empiricism and to overgeneralization from limited observations. The field of airborne infection has had no John Snow to lay down sound theoretical principles early in its development. In the past 25 years, however, and more particularly in the past 10, this field has taken on new directions and broader scope. Whereas 25 years ago there were few who claimed any importance for this field, now there is a series of diseases in which the airborne route of infection has been well substantiated. Several broad principles have become established which are based on physical, physiological, and microbiological laws and backed by quantitative experimental measurements. Together these constitute, in my opinion, an adequate basis for a Theory of Airborne Infection. Such a Theory, if well laid, is crucial to the logical development of the field. It will serve to guide future research work and permit discrimination in the development, evaluation, and use of proposed control procedures. A primary objective of this Conference should be the examination of these principles and an assessment of the de1 References 2, 5, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23, 27, and 29 represent general reviews of this subject. gree to which they may be considered sufficiently general to be included as part of the Theory of Airborne Infection. As my contribution to the opening of this Conference, I propose to discuss the historical background briefly, to propose a definition of terms, and to summarize the epidemiological evidence for those diseases that are now known to be airborne in nature.
Apply length distribution model to intonational phrase prediction

A length distribution model for intonational phrase prediction is proposed. This model presents the probability that a certain length sentence is divided into some certain length intonational phrases. We discuss how to estimate the probabilities in the model from a training corpus, and how to apply it to intonational phrase prediction. We combine this model with a maximum entropy model which implements local context information. Experiment results show that length distribution is valuable information for intonational phrase prediction, and that it is able to make significant extra contribution over the maximum entropy model in terms of average score and unacceptable rate.
EFFECT OF THE ANTIDEPRESSANT MAPROTILINE ON CA2+ MOVEMENT AND PROLIFERATION IN HUMAN PROSTATE CANCER CELLS

1. The effect of maprotiline, an antidepressant, on human prostate cells is unclear. In the present study, the effect of maprotiline on [Ca2+]i and growth in PC3 human prostate cancer cells was measured using the fluorescent dyes fura‐2 and tetrazolium, respectively.
Issues encountered in building a flexible software development environment: lessons from the Arcadia project

This paper presents some of the more significant technical lessons that the Arcadia project has learned about developing effective software development environments. The principal components of the Arcadia-1 architecture are capabilities for process definition and execution, object management, user interface development and management, measurement and evaluation, language processing, and analysis and testing. In simultaneously and cooperatively developing solutions in these areas we learned several key lessons. Among them: the need to combine and apply heterogenous componentry, multiple techniques for developing components, the pervasive need for rich type models, the need for supporting dynamism (and at what granularity), the role and value of concurrency, and the role and various forms of event-based control integration mechanisms. These lessons are explored in the paper.
On mean waiting time completeness and equivalence of EDD and HOL-PJ dynamic priority in 2-class M/G/1 queue

CT This paper identifies two different parametrized dynamic priority queue disciplines, earliest due date (EDD) based and head of line priority jump (HOL-PJ), which are found to be mean waiting time complete in two classM/G/1 queue. An explicit one-to-one non linear transformation is obtained between earliest due date and delay dependent priority policy. Mean waiting time equivalence between these queue disciplines is established. Motivation behind the mean completeness and equivalence results is discussed from optimal control perspective. Notion of minmax fairness is introduced and it is argued that a simple global FCFS policy is the only solution for minmax fairness problem in two class by exploiting completeness in the structure of EDD based dynamic priority. Further, these completeness results are used to propose a simpler way for developing optimal control policy in celebrated c/ρ rule for two class M/G/1 queues.
Automated labeling of neurites in fluorescence microscopy images

To investigate the intricate nervous processes involved in many biological activities by image analysis, accurate and reproducible labeling and measurement of neurites is a prerequisite. We have developed a fully automated neurite analysis method to assist this task. Unlike most of the previous reported manual or semiautomatic methods, our approach is fully automated. Single and connected centerlines along neurites are extracted. The computerized method can also output branching and end points. Due to its multi-scale nature, both thick and thin neurites are simultaneously detected. With the accurate and fully automated extraction of neurite centerlines and measurement of neurite lengths, the proposed method, which greatly reduces human labor and improves efficiency, can serve as a candidate tool for large-scale neurite analysis beyond the capability of manual tracing methods
Fibrosis impairs the formation of new myofibers in the soft palate after injury

Muscle repair is a crucial component of palatoplasty but little is known about muscle regeneration after cleft palate repair. We hypothesized that the formation of new myofibers is hampered by collagen accumulation after experimental injury of the soft palate of rats. One‐millimeter excisional defects were made in the soft palates of 32 rats. The wound area was evaluated after 3, 7, 28, and 56 days using azocarmine G and aniline blue to stain for collagen and immunohistochemistry to identify myofibroblasts and to monitor skeletal muscle differentiation. To evaluate age effects, 16 unwounded animals were evaluated at 3 and 56 days. Staining was quantified by image analysis, and one‐way ANOVA was used for the statistical analysis. At day 56, the area percentage of collagen‐rich tissue was higher in the injured palatal muscles (46.7 ± 6.9%) than in nonwounded controls (15.9 ± 1.0%, p < 0.05). Myofibroblasts were present in the injured muscles at days 3 and 7 only. The numbers of proliferating and differentiating myoblasts within the wound area were greater at day 7 (p < 0.05), but only a few new myofibers had formed by 56 days. No age effects were found. The results indicate that surgical wounding of the soft palate results in muscle fibrosis. Although activated satellite cells migrated into the wound area, no new myofibers formed. Thus, regeneration and function of the soft palate muscles after injury may be improved by regenerative medicine approaches.