Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Salmonella spp. in Cane Toads (Bufo marinus) from Grenada, West Indies, and their Antimicrobial Susceptibility

Cloacal swabs and caecal contents sampled from 58 cane toads (Bufo marinus) in St George’s parish, Grenada, during a 7‐month period in 2011 were examined by an enrichment and selective culture method for presence of Salmonella spp. Twenty‐four (41%) toads were positive for Salmonella spp. of which eight were Salmonella enterica serovar Javiana, and eight were S. enterica serovar Rubislaw. The other serovars were as follows: Montevideo, 6; Arechavaleta, 1; and serovar: IV:43:‐:‐, 1. The high frequency of isolation of serovar Javiana, an emerging human pathogen associated with several outbreaks in the recent years in the eastern United States, suggests a possible role for cane toads in transmission of this serovar. Although S. Rubislaw has been isolated from lizards, bats and cases of some human infections, there is no report of its carriage by cane toads, and in such high frequency. The rate of carriage of S. Montevideo, a cause for human foodborne outbreaks around the world was also over 10% in the 58 toads sampled in this study. The antimicrobial drug susceptibility tests against amoxicillin‐clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, gentamicin, imipenem, nalidixic acid, streptomycin, tetracycline and trimethoprim‐sulfamethoxazole showed that drug resistance is minimal and is of little concern. Antimicrobial resistance was limited to ampicillin and amoxicillin‐clavulanic acid in one isolate of S. Javiana and one isolate of S. Rubislaw. This is the first report of isolation and antimicrobial susceptibilities of various Salmonella serovars not identified previously in cane toads in Grenada, West Indies.
Optimizing I/O performance in ViMo-S hypervisor with zero-copy method

ARM CPU is expanding into server market with the introduction of virtualization extensions. Virtualization is one of the key technologies that is commonly employed in servers. Virtualization is provided by hypervisor and ViMo-S is a prototype hypervisor specifically designed for ARM servers supporting full virtualization. I/O performance is one of the main challenges in hypervisor implementation. In this paper we will explain how we optimize I/O performance in virtual machines of ViMo-S hypervisor with zero-copy method. Through rigorous performance comparison between virtual machine running with zero-copy and virtual machine without zero-copy, we note that zero-copy method have increased block device's transaction-efficiency by up to 25.4% and transfer-efficiency by 31.5%.
Preferential recruitment of interferon‐γ–expressing TH17 cells in multiple sclerosis

There is substantial evidence supporting the role of interferon (IFN)‐γ–producing T helper (TH) 1 and interleukin (IL)‐17–expressing TH17 lymphocytes in multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). However, to date little is known about the potential cooperative interplay between these 2 cytokines. In the current study, we sought to evaluate the frequency of IFN‐γ–expressing TH17 lymphocytes in MS and EAE, and study their recruitment into the central nervous system (CNS).
Opposite Effects of Plasma From Human ApoA-II Transgenic Mice on Cholesterol Efflux From J 774 Macrophages and Fu 5 AH Hepatoma Cells

Overexpression of human apolipoprotein A-II (hapo A-II) in transgenic mice (hAIItg mice) induced marked hypertriglyceridemia and low levels of plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) with a high hapo A-II content. We sought to determine whether cholesterol efflux to plasma and HDL from these mice would be affected. In the Fu5AH cell system, plasma from hAIItg mice induced a markedly lower cholesterol efflux than did control plasma, in accordance with the dependence of efflux on HDL concentration. Moreover, HDLs from hAIItg mice were less effective acceptors than were control HDLs. In the J774 macrophage cell system, pretreatment with cAMP, which upregulates ATP binding cassette transporter 1, induced a marked increase in the efflux to hAIItg plasma as well as to purified hapo A-I and hapo A-II, whereas it had no effect on cholesterol efflux to control plasma. A strong positive correlation was established between percent cAMP stimulation of efflux and plasma hapo A-II concentration. The cAMP stimulation of efflux to hAIItg mouse plasma may be linked to the presence of preb migrating HDL containing hapo A-II. Thus, despite lower HDL and apolipoprotein A-I contents, the increased ability of plasma from hAIItg mice to extract cholesterol from macrophage-like cells may have an antiatherogenic influence. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol . 2002;22:●●●-●●●.)
Monaural speech segregation based on pitch track correction using an ensemble kalman filter

We propose a novel method of pitch track correction that uses an ensemble Kalman ﬁlter to improve the performance of monaural speech segregation. The proposed method considers all reliable pitch streaks for pitch track correction, whereas the conventional segregation approach relies on only the longest streak in a given speech stream. In addition, unreliable pitch streaks are corrected with an ensemble Kalman ﬁlter that uses autocorrelation functions as noisy observations for the hidden true pitch values. Our proposed approach provides more accurate pitch estimation, thus improving speech segregation performance for various types of noises, in particular, colored noise. In speech segregation experiments on mixtures of speech and various competing noises, the proposed method demonstrated superior performance to the conventional approach.
Some problems with a Scotsman and a Russian: Caveats on Bayesian and hidden-Markov models (v2.3)

This paper describes a number of fundamental and practical problems in the application of hidden-Markov models and Bayes when applied to cursive-script recognition. Several problems, however, will have an effect in other application areas. The most fundamental problem is the propagation of error in the product of probabilities. This is a common and pervasive problem which deserves more attention. On the basis of Monte Carlo modeling, tables for the expected relative error are given. It seems that it is distributed according to a continuous Poisson distribution over log probabilities. A second essential problem is related to the appropriateness of the Markov assumption. Basic tests will reveal whether a problem requires modeling of the stochastics of seriality, at all. Examples are given of lexical encodings which cover 95-99% classification accuracy of a lexicon, with removed sequence information, for several European languages. Finally, a summary of results on a non- Bayes, non-Markov method in handwriting recognition are presented, with very acceptable results and minimal modeling or training requirements using nearest-mean classification. The suggestion is to keep considering the design of features and exploiting the power and convenience of nearest-neighbour search on contemporary computing platforms.
Molecular Definition of the Ascorbate-Glutathione Cycle in Arabidopsis Mitochondria Reveals Dual Targeting of Antioxidant Defenses in Plants*

Key components of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in Arabidopsis cell organelles are encoded by single organellar targeted isoforms that are dual localized in the chloroplast stroma and the mitochondrion. We demonstrate the presence of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in purified Arabidopsis mitochondria using enzymatic activity, proteomic and in vitro and in vivo subcellular targeting data that identify the gene products responsible. In vitro experiments using a dual import assay assessing mitochondrial and chloroplast imports simultaneously show dual targeting of ascorbate peroxidase, monodehydroascorbate reductase, and glutathione reductase gene products to mitochondria and chloroplasts, while a putative dehydroascorbate reductase protein is only imported into mitochondria. In vivo subcellular localization using green fluorescent protein fusion proteins show clear targeting of all gene products to mitochondria. Transcript levels show these genes are induced by oxidative chemical stresses targeted to chloroplasts and/or mitochondria and are elevated during photosynthetic operation in the light. Together these data present a model of an integrated ascorbate-glutathione antioxidant defense common to plastids and mitochondria that is linked at the level of the genome in Arabidopsis.
Novel Method for Selective Nonlinear Flux Guide Switching for Contactless Inductive Power Transfer

Efficient inductive power transfer has become an area of increasing scientific interest as it can solve some problems associated with traditional wired or contact power transmission. These include but are not limited to corrosion, mechanical friction, clutter and impracticality in places like underwater and subterranean applications. This wireless energy transfer is made possible by the optimization of electromagnetic induction, circuit frequency resonance all achieved with advanced power electronics. One of the components of this technology is the precise delivery of the incident electromagnetic fields to the precise location to which they are converted to power via induction, without indiscriminate emission of these electromagnetic fields inefficiently into the surrounding areas. This paper presents a method in achieving bounded spatial freedom using flux-guide saturation for flux delivery to one or more secondary coils for contactless inductive power transfer. The experiments demonstrate the principle of using the nonlinearity of a ferrite flux shield in order to “open up” a flux path from the primary to the secondary coil to achieve inductive power transfer.
Differential Proteomics Analysis Reveals a Role for E2F2 in the Regulation of the Ahr Pathway in T Lymphocytes§

E2F transcription factors (E2F1-8) are best known for their role in cell proliferation, although it is clear that they regulate many other biological processes through the transcriptional modulation of distinct target genes. However, the specific set of genes regulated by each E2F remains to be characterized. To gain insight into the molecular pathways regulated by E2F2, we have analyzed the proteome of antigen receptor–activated T cells lacking E2F2. We report that loss of E2F2 results in a deregulated Aryl-hydrocarbon-receptor pathway. Proliferating E2F2−/− T lymphocytes expressed significantly higher levels of Aip, Ahr, and Arnt relative to wild-type (WT)1 controls. The mechanism for increased levels of Aip appears straightforward, involving direct regulation of the Aip gene promoter by E2F2. Although the Ahr and Arnt promoters also bind E2F2, their regulation appears to be more complex. Nevertheless, exposure to the environmental xenobiotic 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), a well-known exogenous ligand of the Ahr pathway, led to overexpression of the Ahr target gene Cyp1a1, and to increased sensitivity to TCDD-triggered apoptosis in E2F2−/− T cells compared with WT controls. These results suggest that E2F2 modulates cellular sensitivity to xenobiotic signals through the negative regulation of the Ahr pathway.
Letter by Nadir Regarding Article, "Prevalence, Clinical Features, and Prognosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction Attributable to Coronary Artery Embolism".

I read the article by Shibata et al1 entitled “Prevalence, Clinical Features, and Prognosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction Attributable to Coronary Artery Embolism” with great interest. Despite its retrospective nature, it is an important contribution to a subject that has been traditionally understudied. The authors propose new criteria to ascertain the diagnosis of a definite or probable coronary embolism. This lists atrial fibrillation (AF) in the list of minor criteria. Interestingly, three-quarters …
Control estricto de la glucosa en el perioperatorio y la memoria metabólica

En el ano 2001 y 2006 Van den Berghe et al(1,2) publicaron dos estudios que reportaron beneficios en la mortalidad y en las complicaciones postoperatorias cuando se usaba protocolos con control estricto de la glucosa (CEG). Puesto que pocas intervenciones reducen la mortalidad en pacientes criticos adultos, los resultados se recibieron con gran entusiasmo y desde entonces la Surviving Sepsis Campaign(3), recomienda un CEG en todos los pacientes con sepsis. Estas recomendaciones se han mantenido hasta ahora avaladas por numerosas Asociaciones y Sociedades, sin embargo, a raiz de estos estudios surgieron mas publicaciones donde se cuestionaba el beneficio de este CEG alegando un numero no despreciable de hipoglucemias e incluso en algunas publicaciones se reportaba un aumento de la mortalidad. Esta recomendacion del CEG persiste hasta el momento actual avaladas por 16 sociedades medicas(4) entre las que se encuentran el Institute for Healthcare Improvement(5), la Volunteer Hospital Association(6), la Michigan Health and Safety Coalision(7), la American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists(8) y la American Diabetes Association(9), todas ellas continuan recomendando el CEG en el paciente en estado critico adulto. Estas recomendaciones han logrado que en todo el mundo se adopte el CEG(10-14). Posteriormente grandes estudios controlados, randomizados, de CEG en terapias intensivas medicas y medico-quirurgicas(15-17) han fallado en replicar estos beneficios en la mortalidad. Por otra parte, un estudio reciente de mas de 10,000 pacientes adultos(18) de terapia intensiva, mostraron una tendencia de aumento en la mortalidad y mayor frecuencia de hipoglucemia de un 30 y 40% comparado con un 5% reportado en los estudios iniciales de Van der Berghe et al. La hipoglucemia no es benigna en los pacientes en estados critico y se asocia con eventos neurologicos serios que varian desde convulsiones a coma(19,20). El debate sobre el grado de CEG en los pacientes con diabetes mellitus se inicio entre los diabetologos desde que se introdujo la insulina en la practica clinica en 1920 y se pensaba por logica que un mejor control de la glucosa disminuia las complicaciones de la diabetes, las bases cientificas para confirmar esta suposicion todavia faltan. El dato que caracteriza a la diabetes es la hiperglucemia, un factor de estres que puede controlarse clinicamente con la administracion de insulina exogena o mediante farmacos que aumentan la secrecion de insulina, reducen la liberacion de glucosa procedente del higado, aumentando el uso de glucosa en el musculoesqueletico y la grasa, retrasando la absorcion de la glucosa procedente de los alimentos y productos que actuan a traves del sistema de la incretina(21). Estos avances, junto con la mejor monitorizacion de la glucosa y mayor cantidad de marcadores del control glucemico han conducido a un control mucho mas estricto de la hiperglucemia. A pesar de estos progresos terapeuticos, las complicaciones se continuan presentando en la mayoria de los pacientes diabeticos (Cuadro I).
Spanning the gap between software engineering instructor and student

Many computing degrees have a project-based software engineering course where teams of students complete a project under the guidance of the instructor and possibly one or more teaching assistants (TAs). However many instructors are unsure as to how well course objectives for these project-based courses are being met and more importantly, how best to structure the experience to optimize student learning. This paper presents the contrasting views of the instructor and a TA on the learning that occurred in an undergraduate software engineering project course. The undergraduate TA for the course is uniquely qualified to support the course, having had several years of real-world software development experience. This experience allows him to straddle the gap between the typical undergraduate student perspective and the requirements of real-world software development.
Finite element multi-physics modeling for ohmic contact of microswitches

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the thermoelectrical behaviour of ohmic microcontacts under low force. The temperature in the contact zone is very important for the reliability of microswitches. As it is very difficult to measure the inner temperature, the numerical thermal modelling of electrical contacts offers interesting perspectives. A multi-physics modelling of electrical contact is accomplished with the finite element commercial package ANSYS™. Two approaches for coupled-field analysis are investigated, namely direct and load transfer. The thermo-electro-mechanical modelling is firstly validated with a smooth sphere-plane contact, and then applied for a real rough contact computation, elastic-plastic material deformation is included in the modelling. The temperature distribution on the contact surface is plotted, and the maximum temperature is found around the asperities with the highest deformation. The multi-physics model offers a reliable method to investigate the steady-state thermal behaviour of electrical contact with rough surface included.
Sequential Bandwidth and Power Auctions for Distributed Spectrum Sharing

We study a sequential auction for sharing a wireless resource (bandwidth or power) among competing transmitters. The resource is assumed to be managed by a spectrum broker (auctioneer), who collects bids and allocates discrete units of the resource via a sequential second-price auction. It is well known that a second price auction for a single indivisible good has an efficient dominant strategy equilibrium; this is no longer the case when multiple units of a homogeneous good are sold in repeated iterations. For two users with full information, we show that such an auction has a unique equilibrium allocation. The worst-case efficiency of this allocation is characterized under the following cases: (i) both bidders have a concave valuation for the spectrum resource, and (ii) one bidder has a concave valuation and the other bidder has a convex valuation (e.g., for the other useriquests power). Although the worst-case efficiency loss can be significant, numerical results are presented, which show that for randomly placed transmitter-receiver pairs with rate utility functions, the sequential second-price auction typically achieves the efficient allocation. For more than two users it is shown that this mechanism always has a pure strategy equilibrium, but in general there may be multiple equilibria. We give a constructive procedure for finding one equilibrium; numerical results show that when all users have concave valuations the efficiency loss decreases with an increase in the number of users.
Invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast: eighty cases of an underrecognized entity.

Eighty cases of infiltrating duct carcinoma of the breast with a pure or partial micropapillary component are reported. The cases were analyzed using various parameters, including age at presentation, tumor size, tumor grade, presence of lymphatic invasion, and axillary lymph node status. The patients' age at presentation ranged from 36 to 92 years (mean, 58.8 years). Tumor size ranged from 0.1 to 10 cm (mean, 2.0 cm); 67.5% (54 of 80) were poorly differentiated, and 32.5% (26 of 80) were moderately differentiated; 62.5% (50 of 80) of the cases had lymphatic invasion; 72.3% (47 of 65) of cases with axillary dissections had positive lymph nodes; and 25% (20 of 80) of the tumors were < or = 1.0 cm and 7.5% (6 of 80) were < or = 0.5 cm. The characteristics of these small tumors with an invasive micropapillary component have not previously been reported. Despite their minute size, these small micropapillary carcinomas seem to show the same proclivity for lymphatic spread and nodal dissemination as larger tumors with this unique histologic pattern.
E-Micropayments Sweat the Small Stuff

Many people buy books, CDs, clothes, travel, and other products and services over the Internet every day. However, after years of online purchasing, one long-promised aspect of e-commerce has remained largely unfulfilled: electronic micropayments for items that cost $5 or less. There appears to be a growing demand for e-micropayment technologies that enable the purchase of items and services such as MP3 music files, magazine and newspaper articles, Web-based comics, pay-per-view videos, database access, and driving directions. Several companies are developing e-micropayment products, including BitPass's Core BitPass System and BitPass Studios; Firstgate's Click & Buy; Payloadz's PayLoadz.com system; Paystone's personal, merchant, and group-pay accounts. The technology faces several obstacles, including the need to convince sellers and users to trust and work with e-micropayments.
Molecular epidemiology of asymptomatic bacteriuria in the elderly.

OBJECTIVES to determine the incidence and the dynamics of asymptomatic bacteriuria in ambulatory nursing home residents, and to characterise bacteria according to their phenotype and genotype. DESIGN an 18 months prospective longitudinal study. SUBJECTS 42 nursing home residents (31 female, 11 males) without indwelling catheters. METHODS urine was sampled every 3 months. Antibiograms, biotyping and ribotyping were performed. RESULTS the cumulative percent of infection for females and males was 75% and 27% respectively. Osteoporosis was associated with bacteriuria. Ribotypes of consecutive Escherichia coli isolates indicated that each patient harboured a different strain. CONCLUSIONS asymptomatic bacteriuria in the elderly is a dynamic and transient phenomenon. Osteoporosis is common among this population. Ribotyping is a powerful tool in the elucidation of the epidemiology of this bacteriuria.
Implementing the Slow Life in Southwest Ireland: A Case Study of Clonakilty and Local Food

Abstract Cittaslow is an Italian‐based global network of towns and cities that grew out of the Slow Food movement. Cittaslow and Slow Food reject the standardization of culture and taste that has accompanied globalization. Instead, they focus on strategies that foster a sense of place that is derived from a town's unique environmental and cultural setting: its terroir. Clonakilty, a small town located thirty miles southwest of Cork, is Ireland's first and only “slow city. ” This paper examines how a sense of place is conveyed in the town's restaurants through the selection of menu items and locally produced food. The results indicate that independently owned restaurants are more likely to embrace Cittaslow's efforts at conveying a sense of place than restaurants in hotels and pubs. Nearly all of the town's restaurants serving Irish food use locally available food suppliers.
Experimental evolution of local parasite maladaptation

Sign and magnitude of local adaptation in host–parasite systems may vary with ecological, epidemiological or genetic parameters. To investigate the role of host genetic background, we established long‐term experimental populations of different genotypes of the protozoan Paramecium caudatum, infected with the bacterial parasite Holospora undulata. We observed the evolution of an overall pattern of parasite local maladaptation for infectivity, indicating a general coevolutionary disadvantage of this parasite. Maladaptation extended to host populations with the same genetic background, similar to extending from the local to a higher regional level in natural populations. Patterns for virulence were qualitatively similar, but with less statistical support. A nonsignificant correlation with levels of (mal)adaptation for infectivity suggests independent evolution of these traits. Our results indicate similar (co)evolutionary trajectories in populations with different genetic backgrounds. Nonetheless, the correlated clines of genetic distance and parasite performance illustrate how genetic background can shape spatial gradients of local adaptation.