Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of microbial granules for PCB dechlorination.

The effect of acclimating anaerobic granules from commercial bioreactors with different carbon/electron sources on their ability to reductively dechlorinate a tri- (2,3,4-CB) and heptachlorobiphenyl (2,2',3,3',4,5,6-CB) was studied. The anaerobic granules were first grown in upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors fed with two different mixtures of carbon/electron sources, i.e., propionate/butyrate/methanol and formate/methanol. Differences in dechlorination patterns for 2,2',3,3',4,5,6-CB were observed in batch experiments inoculated with granules from these two sets of UASB reactors. The reductive dechlorination of 2,2',3,3',4,5,6-CB for propionate/butyrate/methanol acclimated granules proceeded via 2,2',3,3',4,5-CB for all 2,2',3,3',4,5-CB for all 2,2',3',4,5-CB + 2,2',3',4-CB for all 2,4-CB + 2,3-CB + 2,4'-CB and 2,2',3,3',5,6-CB for all 2,2',3,5,6-CB for all 2,2',3,5-CB for all 2',3,5-CB. The dechlorination pathway for formate/methanol acclimated granules followed: 2,2',3,3',4,5-CB + 2,2',3,3',5,6-CB for all 2,2',3,3',4-CB + 2,2',3,3',6-CB for all 2,2',3,3'-CB for all 2,2',3-CB for all 2,2'-CB. This research demonstrates a successful strategy for the development of biocatalysts to serve as the inoculum of partially decontaminated sites in order to provide microorganisms with specificities complementary to those of naturally occuring dechlorinators.
Literacy and child health: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVES To assess the prevalence of low health literacy among adolescents, young adults, and child caregivers in the United States, the readability of common child-health information, and the relationship between literacy and child health. DATA SOURCES MedLine, Educational Resources Information Center, National Library of Medicine, PsychInfo, Harvard Health Literacy Bibliography, and peer-reviewed abstracts from the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meetings. STUDY SELECTION A systematic review using the following key words: health literacy, literacy, reading skill, numeracy, and Wide Range Achievement Test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Descriptive studies that used at least 1 valid measure of health literacy, studies that assessed the readability of child health information, and observational or experimental studies that included a validated measure of health literacy, literacy, or numeracy skills and an assessment of child health-related outcomes. RESULTS A total of 1267 articles were reviewed, and 215 met inclusion and exclusion criteria. At least 1 in 3 adolescents and young adults had low health literacy; most child health information was written above the tenth-grade level. Adjusted for socioeconomic status, adults with low literacy are 1.2 to 4 times more likely to exhibit negative health behaviors that affect child health, adolescents with low literacy are at least twice as likely to exhibit aggressive or antisocial behavior, and chronically ill children who have caregivers with low literacy are twice as likely to use more health services. CONCLUSIONS Low caregiver literacy is common and is associated with poor preventive care behaviors and poor child health outcomes. Future research should aim to ameliorate literacy-associated child health disparities.
An approach to incremental design of distributed embedded systems

In this paper we present an approach to incremental design of distributed embedded systems for hard real-time applications. We start from an already existing system running a set of applications and the design problem is to implement new functionality so that the already running applications are not disturbed and there is a good chance that, later, new functionality can easily be added to the resulted system. The mapping and scheduling problem are considered in the context of a realistic communication model based on a TDMA protocol.
Decreased Expression of Inhibitor of DNA-binding (Id) Proteins and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Increased Apoptosis in Ovarian Aging

This study examined the expression of inhibitor of DNA-binding (Id) proteins and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the ovary according to female age using a mice model as the first step in investigating the potential role of Ids and VEGF in ovarian aging. C57BL inbred female mice of three age groups (6-9, 14-16, and 23-26 weeks) were injected with 5 IU pregnant mare’s serum gonadotropin (PMSG) in order to synchronize the estrus cycle. After 48 h, ovarian expression of Ids and VEGF was analyzed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), western blot and immunohistochemistry. Ovarian apoptosis was examined by ovarian expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. Expression of Id-1 and VEGF was decreased with advancing female age, but not Id-2, Id-3, and Id-4. In particular, their expressions were significantly decreased in aged mice of 23-26 weeks compared with the young mice of 6-9 weeks (p < 0.05). In contrast, ovarian apoptosis was greatly increased in the aged mice compared to the young mice. This result suggests that Id-1 may have an implicated role in ovarian aging by associating with VEGF.
Looking through the Glass Ceiling: A Qualitative Study of STEM Women’s Career Narratives

Although efforts have been directed toward the advancement of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) positions, little research has directly examined women’s perspectives and bottom-up strategies for advancing in male-stereotyped disciplines. The present study utilized Photovoice, a Participatory Action Research method, to identify themes that underlie women’s experiences in traditionally male-dominated fields. Photovoice enables participants to convey unique aspects of their experiences via photographs and their in-depth knowledge of a community through personal narrative. Forty-six STEM women graduate students and postdoctoral fellows completed a Photovoice activity in small groups. They presented photographs that described their experiences pursuing leadership positions in STEM fields. Three types of narratives were discovered and classified: career strategies, barriers to achievement, and buffering strategies or methods for managing barriers. Participants described three common types of career strategies and motivational factors, including professional development, collaboration, and social impact. Moreover, the lack of rewards for these workplace activities was seen as limiting professional effectiveness. In terms of barriers to achievement, women indicated they were not recognized as authority figures and often worked to build legitimacy by fostering positive relationships. Women were vigilant to other people’s perspectives, which was costly in terms of time and energy. To manage role expectations, including those related to gender, participants engaged in numerous role transitions throughout their day to accommodate workplace demands. To buffer barriers to achievement, participants found resiliency in feelings of accomplishment and recognition. Social support, particularly from mentors, helped participants cope with negative experiences and to envision their future within the field. Work-life balance also helped participants find meaning in their work and have a sense of control over their lives. Overall, common workplace challenges included a lack of social capital and limited degrees of freedom. Implications for organizational policy and future research are discussed.
Optimized gradient waveforms for spiral scanning

Spiral scanning gradient waveforms can be optimized with respect to blurring from off‐resonance effects by minimizing the readout time. This is achieved by maximizing the gradient amplitude during the scan so that the edge of k‐space is reached as quickly as possible. Gradient hardware constraints are incorporated by considering a circuit model for the gradient coil and amplifier. The optimized gradient waveforms are determined by a set of coupled differential equations. The resulting solutions have shorter readout time than solutions that do not consider the circuit model.
Maternal experience inhibits the production of immature neurons in the hippocampus during the postpartum period through elevations in adrenal steroids

Motherhood is accompanied by alterations in numerous nonreproductive behaviors, including learning and memory, as well as anxiety and stress regulation. These functions have been linked to adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, but the effect of maternal experience on this brain region has not been completely explored. To determine whether the production of new hippocampal granule cells is altered during the postpartum period, we examined the number of proliferating cells and their progeny in the dentate gyrus of primiparous female rats at various time points during the postpartum period while they were caring for their offspring, as well as after weaning. Additionally, we investigated whether cell proliferation in the postpartum female is affected by the presence of offspring and nursing‐induced increases in glucocorticoids. Analysis of the number of BrdU‐labeled cells revealed that cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus was suppressed in lactating postpartum females until the time of weaning. This effect was temporary; a difference was detectable at 1 week after BrdU‐labeling, when the majority of cells expressed a marker of immature and mature granule neurons (TuJ1) but not at 2 weeks, when most cells expressed a marker of mature neurons (NeuN). The decrease in cell proliferation was dependent on elevated basal glucocorticoid levels associated with lactation; removal of nursing pups reduced basal corticosterone levels and prevented the decrease in the number of BrdU‐labeled cells. Moreover, preventing increased basal corticosterone levels by means of adrenalectomy and low‐dose corticosterone replacement eliminated the reduction in cell proliferation. These findings indicate that offspring interactions inhibit adult neurogenesis through changes in adrenal steroids, and further suggest a potential mechanism for alterations in hippocampal function during the postpartum period. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Validation of an Algorithm to Quantify Changes in Actin Cytoskeletal Organization

The actin cytoskeleton plays an important role in most, if not all, processes necessary for cell survival. Given the fundamental role that the actin cytoskeleton plays in the progression of cancer, it is an ideal target for chemotherapy. Although it is possible to image the actin cytoskeleton in a high-throughput manner, there is currently no validated method to quantify changes in the cytoskeleton in the same capacity, which makes research into its organization and the development of anticytoskeletal drugs difficult. We have validated the use of a linear feature detection algorithm, allowing us to measure changes in actin filament organization. Its ability to quantify changes associated with cytoskeletal disruption will make it a valuable tool in the development of compounds that target the cytoskeleton in cancer. Our results show that this algorithm can quantify cytoskeletal changes in a cell-based system after addition of both well-established and novel anticytoskeletal agents using either fluorescence microscopy or a high-content imaging approach. This novel method gives us the potential to screen compounds in a high-throughput manner for cancer and other diseases in which the cytoskeleton plays a key role.
Treating post-traumatic stress disorder in the ‘real world’: evaluation of a specialist trauma service and adaptations to standard treatment approaches

Aims and Method To evaluate the effectiveness of treatment at the Traumatic Stress Service (TSS) by comparing pre- and post-treatment scores on patient self-report measures. Through a questionnaire survey, to explore therapists' views of problems presenting in addition to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how, as a result, they adapted their approach to trauma work. Results Therapists reported that their patients present with a range of complex problems, and self-report measures show that patients suffer particularly high levels of psychopathology. Therapists identified a number of adaptations to trauma-focused work to deal with these additional problems. Of the 112 patients who completed therapy, 43% filled in pre- and post-treatment questionnaire measures. Analysis showed clinically and statistically significant improvements in levels of PTSD, depression and social functioning. Clinical Implications The typical presentation of trauma survivors is often not ‘simple’ PTSD, but PTSD resulting from chronic and multiple traumas and complicated by additional psychological and social difficulties. Adaptations to trauma-focused work can successfully treat such ‘complex’ PTSD.
Interaction-Oriented Software Engineering: Concepts and Principles

Following established tradition, software engineering today is rooted in a conceptually centralized way of thinking. The primary SE artifact is a specification of a machine -- a computational artifact -- that would meet the (elicited and) stated requirements. Therein lies a fundamental mismatch with (open) sociotechnical systems, which involve multiple autonomous social participants or principals who interact with each other to further their individual goals. No central machine governs the behaviors of the various principals. We introduce Interaction-Oriented Software Engineering (IOSE) as an approach expressly suited to the needs of open sociotechnical systems. In IOSE, specifying a system amounts to specifying the interactions among the principals as protocols. IOSE reinterprets the classical software engineering principles of modularity, abstraction, separation of concerns, and encapsulation in a manner that accords with the realities of sociotechnical systems. To highlight the novelty of IOSE, we show where well-known SE methodologies, especially those that explicitly aim to address either sociotechnical systems or the modeling of interactions among autonomous principals, fail to satisfy the IOSE principles.
Designing a Web site for a multinational research project

This paper discusses the problems and possible solutions for making a project place Web site to be used in a multinational research project. The most important function of a project place Web site has in our case proven to be a file archive. It enables all members of the project to share and access important information and research results. Since the file archive is most important it has shown to be a good solution to make it the central part of the project place Web site. Additional features can then be designed as complements to this central feature. It appears that the site is used rather sparingly between meetings with an average of only one login per day. At the time just before a meeting the site traffic has increased as the members are uploading files to be reviewed at the upcoming project meeting. It is pretty safe to assume that the traffic on the project site will drop during the meeting and then increase right after the meeting when project members will start to share information and research results that has been discussed during the meeting. As time goes by the traffic will probably drop to a low level again when the groups will continue their appointed tasks each on their own.
MRC: Multi Relational Clustering approach

— Clustering is a process of partitioning data objects into groups based on the similarity measures. Most of the existing methods perform clustering within a single table, but most of the real-world databases, however, store information in multiple tables. We propose a new method which is called Multi Relational Clustering (MRC) for clustering a relational database. The MRC approach uses existing clustering algorithms for clustering every table of database. Tables in a database are related to each other based on foreign keys. The MRC approach divides the tables into two categories: dependent and independent tables. A dependent table is a table that includes entities attributes, as well as fields related to the other entities which belong to the other tables. In fact a dependent table includes one or more foreign keys. The MRC approach firstly, clusters independent tables then utilizes these results for clustering dependent tables. The MRC clusters each table by existing clustering algorithm with respect to its fields. An important feature of the MRC approach is ability of clustering several tables in parallel. The proposed approach is very simple and is developed under SQL very efficiently. We offer a version of implementation of k-Means in SQL and use it for clustering a database by MRC approach. Our experiments show that the MRC is efficient for clustering a huge database in a relational environment.
Stress, hassles and variations in alcohol consumption, food choice and physical exercise: A diary study

Objectives. To assess the impact of daily life-stress on behaviours (alcohol consumption, food choice and physical exercise) that influence health risk. Method. Twenty-three nurses and 21 teachers completed daily assessments of mood, alcohol and food intake, together with weekly measures of hassles, perceived stress, anxiety, depression and exercise behaviour, over an eight-week period. Comparisons were made between the two highest and two lowest perceived stress weeks. Results. Work and home-related hassles were more frequent on high than low stress weeks, and anxiety and depression levels were greater, even after controlling for negative affectivity. Participants who drank alcohol to cope showed increases in consumption between low and high stress weeks. ‘Fast food’ was eaten more frequently during high stress weeks. People who reported that mood control was an important influence on their choice of food showed increases in the amount of cheese they ate, and greater consumption of sweet foods. There were no differences in exercise frequency or duration with changes in perceived stress. Conclusions. Diary studies allow changes in health behaviour with life-stress to be assessed naturalistically. The impact of stress depends on the moderating effects of motives and coping expectancies associated with specific behavioural domains. Some responses may be prejudicial to long-term health risk.
X‐linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia mutations in Brazilian families

X‐linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED) is characterized by severe hypohidrosis, hypotrichosis, and hypodontia. The gene responsible for this pleiotropic syndrome (ED1) consists of 12 exons, 8 of them coding for a transmembrane protein (ectodysplasin‐A; EDA‐A) involved in the developmental process of epithelial–mesenchymal interaction. ED1 mutations that cause alterations in this protein lead to the XLHED phenotype. The major objective of the present study was to detect ED1 mutations in four Brazilian families with the XLHED phenotype and to compare them to the more than 60 different mutations already reported. DNA of the EDA‐A coding exons was amplified by PCR, and single strand conformation analysis (SSCA) of the electrophoretic bands was carried out in polyacrylamide gel stained with silver nitrate. Two of these four families showed altered DNA band patterns. Subsequent DNA sequencing of the two mutated exons showed: (1) a 36 nucleotide deletion at exon 5 responsible for the loss of four Gly‐X‐Y repeats of the collagen subdomain of EDA‐A; (2) a guanine deletion at exon 6 (966 or 967 sites) that alters EDA‐A after amino acid 241 and leads to a premature ending at amino acid 279. This mutation at exon 6 seems not to have been reported previously and determines a truncated EDA‐A without a part of its extracellular domain that contains the whole TNF homologue subdomain. These two DNA mutations are compatible with the XLHED phenotype. In the other two families the PCR–SSCA methodology was unable to detect any mutation responsible for the XLHED phenotype. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Towards More Efficient Cardinality Estimation for Large-Scale RFID Systems

Radio frequency identification (RFID) cardinality estimation with an accuracy guarantee is of practical importance in various large-scale RFID applications. This paper proposes a fast RFID cardinality estimation protocol, named Zero-One Estimator (ZOE). ZOE only requires 1-bit response from the RFID tags per estimation round. More importantly, ZOE rapidly converges to optimal parameter configurations and achieves higher estimation efficiency compared to existing protocols. ZOE guarantees arbitrary accuracy requirement without imposing heavy computation and memory overhead at RFID tags except the routine operations of C1G2 standard. ZOE also provides reliable cardinality estimation with unreliable channels due to the robust protocol design. We prototype ZOE using the USRP software defined radio and the Intel WISP tags. We extensively evaluate the performance of ZOE compared to existing protocols, which demonstrates encouraging results in terms of estimation accuracy, time efficiency, as well as robustness over a large range of tag population.
Rhetorical Reckoning

This comment is a response to Bandura’s guest editorial (Journal of Management, Vol. 38, no. 1, January 2012) on the functional properties of perceived self-efficacy. The focus of this comment is on the limitations inherent in natural language (i.e., verbal) theories and critiques, which the research regarding self-efficacy has highlighted and Bandura’s editorial underscores. Specifically, it is argued that Bandura’s comment is replete with rhetorical fallacies and theoretical contradictions. Several examples are described to both provide a tutorial on rhetorical sleight of hand and to set the record straight. Computational modeling and logical reasoning are presented as an alternative approach to better scientific theorizing and critique.
Nucleic acid agonists for Toll‐like receptor 7 are defined by the presence of uridine ribonucleotides

Toll‐like receptor 7 (TLR7) mediates innate responses by responding to viral RNA in endocytic compartments. However, the molecular pattern recognised by TLR7 and whether it differs between RNA of viral and self origin remains unclear. Here, we identify nucleic acids that act as TLR7 agonists for mouse and human cells. We show that uridine and ribose, the two defining features of RNA, are both necessary and sufficient for TLR7 stimulation, and that short single‐stranded RNA (ssRNA) act as TLR7 agonists in a sequence‐independent manner as long as they contain several uridines in close proximity. Consistent with the notion that TLR7 lacks specificity for sequence motifs, we show that it is triggered equally efficiently by viral or self RNA delivered to endosomes. Our results support the notion that TLR7 recognises uracil repeats in RNA and that it discriminates between viral and self ligands on the basis of endosomal accessibility rather than sequence.
Polynomial-time algorithm for the orbit problem

The accessibility problem for linear sequential machines [12] is the problem of deciding whether there is an input <i>x</i> such that on <i>x</i> the machine starting in a given state <i>q</i><sub>1</sub> goes to a given state <i>q</i><sub>2</sub>. Harrison shows that this problem is reducible to the following simply stated linear algebra problem, which we call the "orbit problem": Given (<i>n, A, x, y</i>), where <i>n</i> is a natural number and <i>A, x,</i> and <i>y</i> are <i>n</i><sup>x</sup><i>n</i>, <i>n</i><sup>x</sup>1, and <i>n</i><sup>x</sup>1 matrices of rationals, respectively, decide whether there is a natural number <i>I</i> such that <i>A<sup>i</sup>x</i>=<i>y</i>. He conjectured that the orbit problem is decidable. No progress was made on the conjecture for ten years until Shank [22] showed that if <i>n</i> is fixed at 2, then the problem is decidable. This paper shows that the orbit problem for general <i>n</i> is decidable and indeed decidable in polynomial time. The orbit problem arises in several contexts; two of these, linear recurrences and the discrete logarithm problem for polynomials, are discussed, and we apply our algorithm for the orbit problem in these contexts.