Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enumeration and Characterization of Iron(III)-Reducing Microbial Communities from Acidic Subsurface Sediments Contaminated with Uranium(VI)

ABSTRACT Iron(III)-reducing bacteria have been demonstrated to rapidly catalyze the reduction and immobilization of uranium(VI) from contaminated subsurface sediments. Thus, these organisms may aid in the development of bioremediation strategies for uranium contamination, which is prevalent in acidic subsurface sediments at U.S. government facilities. Iron(III)-reducing enrichment cultures were initiated from pristine and contaminated (high in uranium, nitrate; low pH) subsurface sediments at pH 7 and pH 4 to 5. Enumeration of Fe(III)-reducing bacteria yielded cell counts of up to 240 cells ml−1 for the contaminated and background sediments at both pHs with a range of different carbon sources (glycerol, acetate, lactate, and glucose). In enrichments where nitrate contamination was removed from the sediment by washing, MPN counts of Fe(III)-reducing bacteria increased substantially. Sediments of lower pH typically yielded lower counts of Fe(III)-reducing bacteria in lactate- and acetate-amended enrichments, but higher counts were observed when glucose was used as an electron donor in acidic enrichments. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences extracted from the highest positive MPN dilutions revealed that the predominant members of Fe(III)-reducing consortia from background sediments were closely related to members of the Geobacteraceae family, whereas a recently characterized Fe(III) reducer (Anaeromyxobacter sp.) and organisms not previously shown to reduce Fe(III) (Paenibacillus and Brevibacillus spp.) predominated in the Fe(III)-reducing consortia of contaminated sediments. Analysis of enrichment cultures by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) strongly supported the cloning and sequencing results. Dominant members of the Fe(III)-reducing consortia were observed to be stable over several enrichment culture transfers by T-RFLP in conjunction with measurements of Fe(III) reduction activity and carbon substrate utilization. Enrichment cultures from contaminated sites were also shown to rapidly reduce millimolar amounts of U(VI) in comparison to killed controls. With DNA extracted directly from subsurface sediments, quantitative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences with MPN-PCR indicated that Geobacteraceae sequences were more abundant in pristine compared to contaminated environments,whereas Anaeromyxobacter sequences were more abundant in contaminated sediments. Thus, results from a combination of cultivation-based and cultivation-independent approaches indicate that the abundance/community composition of Fe(III)-reducing consortia in subsurface sediments is dependent upon geochemical parameters (pH, nitrate concentration) and that microorganisms capable of producing spores (gram positive) or spore-like bodies (Anaeromyxobacter) were representative of acidic subsurface environments.
Significance of User Participation in a Hospital Information System Success: Insights From a Case Study

User participation in the development of a system is universally prescribed as an effective strategy to ensure the success of the resultant system. However, the existing literature on the merits of user participation only provides equivocal evidence. Various analyses of this literature point out that this equivocal evidence may be due to inconsistent operational measures of the user participation and system success constructs. Planned organizational change and participative decision making, the underlying paradigms of user participation construct, suggest that the development of some information systems may require blending of users’ system-related functional expertise and developers’ technical expertise to ensure system success. These paradigms also maintain that in case of well-defined, structured information systems user participation should enhance the likelihood of system success through better user understanding of the need for the system and system content and objectives, user trust, and a sense of system ownership. This research also described a case study involving the development and implementation of a medical records system for a neonatal intensive care unit in a large hospital in Texas. The case study provides evidence that in systems that require incorporation of user functional expertise user participation will enhance the likelihood of system success.
Living with psychiatric labels

This thesis contains three papers which explore people’s experiences of living with psychiatric diagnoses. The first paper is a review of the literature relating to young people’s experiences and perceptions of stigma resulting from psychiatric diagnoses. The review identified 16 studies: eight qualitative, six quantitative, and two mixed methods. A range of stigma perceptions and experiences were reported by young people with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses. The majority of young people believed that society perceived those labelled with psychiatric diagnoses as different. Stigma was experienced within families, friendships, peer groups, and in school. Experiences ranged from being devalued to being rejected. Young people internalised stigma, resulting in loss of self-worth, feelings of shame and an altered sense of identity. The second paper is an original piece of qualitative research exploring experiences of living with a Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis, for people who have had contact with the Criminal Justice System. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the lived experience of seven people diagnosed with BPD. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, six themes emerged: A label without meaning; How others see me; How I see myself; Getting into trouble; Power and Control; and The utility of the diagnosis. Participants experienced the diagnosis in a predominantly negative way; experiencing stigma, an altered sense of self, and difficult experiences within mental health services. For some participants, their offending behaviour was attributed to their diagnosis. All participants described experiences of trauma; which was more helpful in making sense of their difficulties than was the diagnosis. The third paper integrates findings from the literature review and the empirical study, discussing implications for theory, future research and clinical practice. Finally my personal reflections of the research process are shared.
Amédée or How to Get Rid of It: Social Representations from a Dialogical

The theory of social representations and communication belongs to a broadly conceived family of approaches studying interdependencies between socially and individually shared knowledge, which are based on dialogical epistemology. This epistemology, in order to ask questions about stability in knowledge, presupposes its change. The theory of social representations as a theory of social knowledge is characterized by the following concerns. First, it conceives of the dynamics of thought, language and social practices as interdependent socio-cultural and individual phenomena which are co-constructed by means of tension and polarization of antinomies. The construction of knowledge can be represented as a dynamic semiotic triangle and the change of knowledge can be represented in terms of three-step processes. Second, the theory of social representations and communication is based on the set of interrelated and dialogically defined concepts generating hypotheses, for example themata, anchoring, objectification and communicative genres.
Saliency Region Detection Based on Markov Absorption Probabilities

In this paper, we present a novel bottom-up salient object detection approach by exploiting the relationship between the saliency detection and the Markov absorption probability. First, we calculate a preliminary saliency map by the Markov absorption probability on a weighted graph via partial image borders as background prior. Unlike most of the existing background prior-based methods which treated all image boundaries as background, we only use the left and top sides as background for simplicity. The saliency of each element is defined as the sum of the corresponding absorption probability by several left and top virtual boundary nodes, which are most similar to it. Second, a better result is obtained by ranking the relevance of the image elements with foreground cues extracted from the preliminary saliency map, which can effectively emphasize the objects against the background, whose computation is processed similarly as that in the first stage and yet substantially different from the former one. At last, three optimization techniques - content-based diffusion mechanism, superpixelwise depression function, and guided filter - are utilized to further modify the saliency map generalized at the second stage, which is proved to be effective and complementary to each other. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations on four publicly available benchmark data sets demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed method against 17 state-of-the-art methods.
Muscle recruitment with intrafascicular electrodes

The authors have studied muscle recruitment with Teflon-insulated, 24 mu m diameter, Pt-Ir intrafascicular electrodes implanted in nerves innervating the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of cats. The purpose was to measure the performance of these bipolar electrodes, which were designed to optimize their ability to record unit activity from peripheral nerves, as stimulating electrodes. Recruitment curves identified the optimal stimulus configuration as a biphasic rectangular pulse, with an interphase separation of about 500 mu s and a duration of about 50 mu s. The current required for a half-maximal twitch contraction was on the order of 50 mu A. Current and charge densities needed for stimulation were well below levels believed to be safe for the tissue and electrode materials, involved. The spinal reflex contribution was not the same in all the implants. <<ETX>>
Evaluation of a Bayesian Model Integration-Based Method for Censored Data

Objective: Non-random missing data can adversely affect family-based linkage detection through loss of power and possible introduction of bias depending on how censoring is modeled. We examined the statistical properties of a previously proposed quantitative trait threshold (QTT) model developed for when censored data can be reasonably inferred to be beyond an unknown threshold. Methods: The QTT model is a Bayesian model integration approach implemented in the PPL framework that requires neither specification of the threshold nor imputation of the missing data. This model was evaluated under a range of simulated data sets and compared to other methods with missing data imputed. Results: Across the simulated conditions, the addition of a threshold parameter did not change the PPL’s properties relative to quantitative trait analysis on non-censored data except for a slight reduction in the average PPL as a reflection of the lowered information content due to censoring. This remained the case for non-normally distributed data and extreme sampling of pedigrees. Conclusions: Overall, the QTT model showed the smallest loss of linkage information relative to alternative approaches and therefore provides a unique analysis tool that obviates the need for ad hoc imputation of censored data in gene mapping studies.
Assessment of genetic diversity among strains of Pseudomonas syringae by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of rRNA operons with special emphasis on P. syringae pv. tomato

Phylogenetic relationships among 77 bacterial strains belonging to Pseudomonas syringae and Pseudomonas viridiflava species were assessed by analysis of the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of three DNA fragments corresponding to rrs and rrl genes and the internal transcribed spacer, ITS1. No difference among all strains in rrs and rrl genes was observed with 14 restriction enzymes, which confirms the close relationships existing between these two species. The nucleotidic sequence of the internal transcripted spacer (ITS1) between rrs and rrl for the P. syringae pv. syringae strain CFBP1392 was determined. Restriction maps of the PCR-amplified ITS1 region were prepared and compared for all 77 strains. Seventeen RFLP patterns, forming three main clusters, were distinguished. One contained all strains of P. syringae pv. tomato and of other pathovars which had been previously described as closely related by either pathogenicity studies or biochemical analyses. This cluster was equally far from P. viridiflava and from other P. syringae pathovars. These other pathovars of P. syringae formed a less coherent taxon.
Regulation of Schwann cell function by the extracellular matrix

Laminins and collagens are extracellular matrix proteins that play essential roles in peripheral nervous system development. Laminin signals regulate Schwann cell proliferation and survival as well as actin cytoskeleton dynamics, which are essential steps for radial sorting and myelination of peripheral axons by Schwann cells. Collagen and their receptors promote Schwann cell adhesion, spreading, and myelination as well as neurite outgrowth. In this article, we will review the recent advances in the studies of laminin and collagen function in Schwann cell development. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Escala de mobilidade ativa no ambiente comunitário - news Brasil: retradução e reprodutibilidade

Existem, no Brasil, poucos instrumentos para avaliar a relacao entre o ambiente fisico e a pratica de atividades fisicas. O objetivo do estudo foi analisar a traducao, a retraducao e a reprodutibilidade do questionario NEWS (Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale) para o portugues do Brasil. Os procedimentos metodologicos foram estruturados em duas etapas. Primeiramente, efetuou-se a traducao e a retraducao do NEWS com o intuito de verifi car a linguagem do instrumento.Em seguida, realizou-se a reprodutibilidade do questionario por meio de teste e re-teste. A amostra desta pesquisa teve a participacao de 75 pessoas (45 mulheres e 30 homens, com media de 33 ± 15 anos). A correlacao intraclasse, afidedignidade para as dimensoes, o teste de correlacao de Spearman e a correlacao intraclasse para os indicadores de cada dimensao deste instrumento foram analisados com o auxilio do pacote estatistico SPSS (versao 11.0). O nivel de significância adotado foi de p In Brazil, there are few validated scales that establish the relationship between environmental barriers and physical activity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the translation, back translation and reliability of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) into Brazilian Portuguese. The methodological procedures werestructured in two phases. The fi rst phase was to translate and back translate NEWS to verify the instrument language. The second phase was he test and re-test reliability of the questionnaire. The sample was composed of 75 people (45 women and 30 men, mean age of 33 ± 15 years). The statistical analyses to verify the Brazilian NEWS were performed with the SPSS program (version 11.0) for intra-class correlation and reliability for the dimensions; Spearman correlationtest and intra-class correlation for all indicators from this questionnaire. The signifi cance level adopted in this survey was p
Facilitation issues in distributed group support systems

Local area networks and related computer and communication technologies are opening up new possibilities for performing group tasks in organizations. This paper provides background on the evolving use of information technology to support distributed group meetings. It identifies facilitation as a key factor in the success of group meetings. Thirty-four professional facilitators of face-to-face meetings are interviewed regarding the impacts of a distributed setting on meetings. Opinions regarding distributed meetings include concerns for group process and task accomplishment, observations of changes in the role of the facilitator, and potential impacts on how the organization functions. Concerns regarding the design of specific technologies for implementing distributed meetings are also identified.
DETERMINATION OF 5‐HYDROXYTRYPTAMINE, 5‐HYDROXYINDOLEACETIC ACID AND HOMOVANILLIC ACID IN BRAIN TISSUE FROM AN AUTOPSY MATERIAL

5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), and homovanillic acid (HVA) were determined in different parts of the human brain in an autopsy material of 20 cases. The highest values of 5-HT and 5-HIAA were found in the brain stem, basal ganglias, and medulla oblongata. In the cortex, the phylogenetic older parts belonging to the limbic structures had higher concentrations of 5-HT and 5-HIAA than the neocortex. HVA was determined in the caudate nucleus and in the putamen. There was a positive correlation between the 5-HIAA levrls in the different regions of the brain. The same correlation, but weaker, was found for the 5-HT levels. There was no positive correlation between age and the chemical variables. The female group had, at least in some areas of the brain, significantly higher levels of 5-HIAA than the male group. The same difference was found for HVA. If patients had suffered final hypoxia there seemed to be reduced concentrations of 5-HIAA. The time that elapsed between mors and autopsy and storing time of samples seemed to be of little importance if the dead bodies were kept in +4"C and the samples were quickly deep frozen.
Practical Results on the Development of a Control Moment Gyro Based Attitude Control System for Agile Small Satellites

In this paper a new practical Attitude Control System is proposed, based on Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMG). These actuators can provide unique torque, angular momentum and slew rate capabilities to small satellites without any increase in power, mass or volume. This will help small satellites become more agile and maneuverable. Agility considerably increases the operational envelope and efficiency of spacecraft and substantially increases the return of earth and science mission data. The paper focuses on the practical work on developing the hardware for a low cost, miniature CMG for agile small satellites. Experimental results indicate the potential benefits of using CMGs. Specifically, a cluster of four Single Gimbal CMGs (SGCMG) is used to practically demonstrate full 3-axis control for a microsatellite class spacecraft. Additionally, results are presented on the development of a larger SGCMG proposed as an experimental payload for future enhanced microsatellite missions. Introduction: A Single Gimbal CMG (SGCMG) is a CMG with a constant speed momentum wheel, gimbaled in one axis only. For full three-axis control of a spacecraft, a cluster of four CMGs is normally used. CMGs, due to their inherit gyroscopic properties can potentially generate large torque and angular momentum outputs, in a more efficient way than current technologies such as reaction or momentum wheels. Depending on the gimbal axes a CMG can be distinguished to a Single Gimbal CMG (SGCMG) and Double Gimbal CMG (DGCMG). The type and number of CMGs that can be used in an ACS is a trade off between performance, cost, mechanical and algorithm complexity. SGCMGs and Variable Speed CMGs (VSCMG) are the most powerful (from the torque point of view) of all, but SGCMGs require a minimum of four units for full 3-axis control in order to avoid singularities. SGCMGs have been thoroughly studied in the past and have been baselined to be used in future space missions. The most significant drawback with SGCMGs is the problem of singularities. This is the condition in which no torque can be produced for certain sets of gimbal angles. When the gimbal angles encounter singularities they ‘lock-up’, thus not being able to complete a commanded maneuver. The problem of singularities stresses the need to develop a steering logic, which will steer the CMG system away from these singularities with the minimum resources and within the system hardware (gimbal motor) constraints. Many laws have been developed in order to accommodate the problem of singularities with varying degrees of success 4-9, . Most of these have been developed for 4-SGCMGs in a pyramid configuration. A 4-SGCMG system of pyramid arrangement gives the advantage of having a spherical momentum envelope, which results to an almost equal momentum capability in all three axes. Momentum Envelope of 4-SGCMG cluster β = 54.73, h = 1 N-m-s Isometric View Satellite Reference Frame z
E-learning participation in higher education: A study of Scottish and Croatian students

E-learning is becoming increasingly important in higher education. Information was gathered on students' usage of e-learning activities in Scotland and in Croatia. An exploratory factor analysis reveals four underlying factors which may be used to classify the different types of e-learning activities, and logistic regression modelling was used to identify which student characteristics were associated with each of the different classifications of e-learning. These findings provide an insight into the different usages of e-learning activities, each of which should be considered individually in terms of design and management of e-learning systems, and in the provision of training for staff and students.
Subprime Mortgage Crisis Detection in U.S. Foreign Exchange Rate Market by Multifractal Analysis

We apply multifractal methods to analyze the impact of American subprime mortgage crisis on American foreign exchange market. By analyzing the local Holder exponent alpha and the multifractal spectrum of Japanese Yen to U.S. Dollar (USD/JPY) exchange rate and Euro to U.S. Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate ticked every hour from late 2006 to early 2008, we find that the periods where critical events took place are characterized by sudden increase in alpha, which passes above 1, followed by very small values for long period of time. To observe the effect and future trend of the subprime mortgage crisis, we compare the multifractal spectrum before, and during the crisis. The width of f(alpha) during subprime mortgage crisis is much bigger than the one before the crisis. These results provide solid and important values for further study on the dynamic mechanism of exchange market price fluctuation.
DTPA: A Reliable Datagram Transport Protocol over Ad Hoc Networks

As a prevalent reliable transport protocol in the Internet, TCP uses two key functions: the additive-increase multiplicative-decrease (AIMD) congestion control and a cumulative ACK technique for guaranteeing delivery. However, these two functions lead to the inefficiency of TCP in ad hoc networks where the TCP connections have very small bandwidth-delay products (BDPs) and there are frequent packet losses in the network due to various reasons such as route breakages and radio interference. In this paper, we show that if the BDP of a path is as low as several packets and is known before the connection establishment, any AIMD-style congestion control is costly and is hence not necessary for ad hoc networks. On the contrary, a technique for guaranteeing reliable transmission and recovering packet losses plays a more critical role in the design of a transport protocol over ad hoc networks. With this basis, we propose a novel effective datagram-oriented end-to-end reliable transport protocol for ad hoc networks, which we call Datagram Transport Protocol for Ad hoc networks (DTPA). The proposed scheme incorporates two techniques: a fixed-size- window-based flow-control algorithm and a cumulative bit-vector-based selective ACK strategy. We then develop a mathematical model for evaluating the performance of DTPA based on these two techniques. An optimum transmission window is determined for an n-hop chain and is computed to be the BDP of the path plus 3. The protocol is verified using GloMoSim, and simulation results show that our proposal substantially improves the network performance in terms of throughput, round-trip time, number of retransmissions, and IP queue size.