Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-silico Designing of SYBR Green Based Real-Time PCR Array for the Quantification of Salmonellae and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in Water

Rapid and accurate quantification of Salmonellae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is critical for management of water-borne diseases. This needs careful computation of primers for amplification in single run. In this study, the potential of in-silico amplification of target genes of the designed SYBR Green real-time PCR array was determined to detect target pathogens. Salmonellae and ETEC signature virulent gene sequences invA and LT1 were retrieved from NCBI’s GenBank database. The primers were designed using PrimerBLAST and analysed for specificity. In-silico PCR simulations of these primers were done for validation. The computed primers exhibited melting temperatures in the narrow range of 58.75-59.890C, making them suitable in array format. The primers were highly specific towards target genes on the basis of BLAST results against known microbial genomes. In-silico PCR simulation of these assays generated amplicons for invA (115 bp) and LT1 (90 bp) genes. Genomic equivalent standards (106-1 CFU/PCR) of both the target genes on 96well PCR plate were formulated. These results indicate the computational exercises for designing and validation of primers for
Comparison and evaluation of the clinical experience of fourth-year medical students in a mandatory emergency medicine clerkship at university and community hospitals

From 1995 to 1998, 225 medical students taking the Emergency Medicine Clerkship filled out bubble sheets on 15 common clinical problems for each of their clinical shifts. All students had to take a mandatory written final examination. Of 225 students who took the clerkship, 196 students filled out all 10 sheets and took the final examination. There was an insignificant difference between the clinical problems seen at community hospitals as compared with the university hospital. There was no statistically significant difference in the final exam scores of students from the community hospitals versus those who had their clerkship at the university hospital. The medical students' experience proven by final exam and clinical problems was the same at the university hospital and the community hospitals.
Probing the effect of author self-citations on h index: A case study of environmental engineering

This study evaluates the impact of author self-citations on h index by exploring 583 authors whose works appear in key periodicals in environmental engineering. The findings show that authors’ h values have high correlation with authors’ article number, total cited count, and their rankings. There is also a high correlation with h index values and rankings of h values. The study indicates that self-citations have little impact on the values of h index and the h index rankings, whether or not articles with authors’ self-citation are included. Further investigations reveal that, for authors with high values in h index, the two h index values are both highly correlated and with significant difference either with self-citations or without. A similar pattern is seen in authors with low h values. The results suggest that there is no need to deliberately exclude self-citations in analysing or evaluating research performance in environmental engineering.
The cardiovascular morbidity associated with hyperglycaemia

Asadollahi et al. highlight some important aspects with regard to the cardiovascular mortality associated with hyperglycaemia (JRSM 2007;100:503–7). 1 More recently, the cardiovascular morbidity related to hyperglycaemia has become of interest with implications in routine clinical practice. Of late, fasting plasma glucose levels have been demonstrated to independently predict hospitalization for congestive heart failure (CHF) in patients at high cardiovascular risk.2 Of note, glucose levels have also been significantly associated with the risk of developing atrial fibrillation – the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia.3 Indeed this was also noted in the Framingham study more than a decade ago, when glucose levels were found to be more important than the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus per se.3 The pathophysiology of complications in the setting of hyperglycaemia is multifactorial, and in addition to the classical cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia and obesity, there are other factors such as urine albumin excretion, endothelial damage/dysfunction and inflammation that develop in parallel, progress with time and eventually contribute towards cardiovascular morbidity.3 Interestingly, if we take into account the results of the national diabetes audit which showed that only a quarter of people with diabetes in the UK have been diagnosed,4 and also consider the large variations in diabetes care,5 this matter becomes all the more pertinent and has substantial implications for the future given the pressing need for strategies to promote and optimize diabetes care from a practical perspective (JRSM 2007;100:67 and JRSM 2006;99:576–81). 4,5
Systematic toxicological analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD)

Abstract In recent years, photodiode array detectors (DADs) have been much improved with respect to wavelength accuracy and resolution, sensitivity, linearity and software operation. UV spectra of drugs measured with up-to-date DADs from different manufacturers are in excellent agreement, have the same quality as measured by a conventional UV spectrometer and are highly reproducible. The calculation of similarity parameters by the DAD software includes the entire range of the spectra compared and allows recognition of very small differences. It was shown in a systematic study of more than 2500 toxicologically relevant substances that UV spectra have a very high specificity with respect to substance structure. Therefore, HPLC-DAD in combination with a comprehensive database of UV spectra and retention parameters is one of the most efficient techniques used in systematic toxicological analysis (STA). Furthermore, the method is advantageous for the identification of metabolites, since in many cases they have the same or very similar UV spectra compared with their respective parent substances and their retention times on reversed-phase columns are shifted in a manner typical of the particular biotransformation reaction. Beside these general aspects, practical applications of HPLC-DAD for STA are reviewed with respect to sample preparation and chromatographic conditions. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated for an example of a routine procedure using liquid-liquid extraction with CH2Cl2 and protein precipitation for sample preparation, a system of three isocratic mobile phases with different acetonitrile/phosphate buffer ratios and RP8 columns for chromatography and a database of 2682 UV spectra and relative retention times for substance identification.
Changes in recurrent inhibition during voluntary soleus contractions in man studied by an H‐reflex technique.

1. The recurrent inhibition, brought about by a conditioning H‐reflex discharge, was estimated in human subjects by the amplitude of a test H‐reflex involving only the soleus motoneurones which fired in response to the conditioning volley. The modifications of the recurrent inhibition during contraction were evaluated by comparing the amplitude of the test H‐reflex to a reference H‐reflex. Both reflexes experienced the excitation underlying the voluntary contraction, but only the test H‐reflex was subjected to the recurrent inhibition evoked by the conditioning H‐reflex discharge. 2. Distinct differences were observed between the modifications of the test reflex and those of the reference H‐reflex during both tonic and phasic voluntary contractions. Evidence is presented that these differences were due to changes in the amount of recurrent inhibition elicited by the conditioning discharge. 3. The changes in recurrent inhibition were studied while the subjects performed voluntary tonic contractions of various forces. The weakest contractions were accompanied by a decrease in the size of the test reflex. With greater contraction forces, there was no longer an inhibition of the test reflex, but instead a facilitation which grew continuously with increased contraction forces. The test reflex could eventually exceed the reference H‐reflex amplitude at the strongest contractions. This is taken to indicate that the recurrent inhibition following the conditioning discharge was progressively decreasing, as the contraction force increased. 4. During ramp contractions, whatever the contraction velocity, the time courses of the variations of the test and reference H reflexes were almost inverse. Evidence is presented that these differential time courses were due to changes in the amount of recurrent inhibition elicited by the conditioning discharge. 5. The possibility of occlusion in the recurrent pathway ;as considered and it was concluded that the decrease in the recurrent inhibition elicited by the conditioning discharge was essentially due to an inhibitory control (spinal and/or suprasegmental) acting on Renshaw cells. This inhibition of Renshaw cells eventually counteracts the increasing excitatory inputs (resulting from the voluntary motor discharge) which they receive via motor axon collaterals during increasing tonic contractions and throughout ramp contractions. 6. The functional significance of the Renshaw cell inhibition during voluntary contraction is discussed in relation to the inhibition exerted through the recurrent pathway on both motoneurones and Ia inhibitory interneurones. It is suggested that the depression of Renshaw cell activity could play an important role during voluntary movements by favouring reciprocal Ia inhibition.
Experiments on spontaneous vortex formation in Josephson tunnel junctions

It has been argued by Zurek and Kibble that the likelihood of producing defects in a continuous phase transition depends in a characteristic way on the quench rate. In this paper we discuss an improved experiment for measuring the scaling exponent {sigma} for the production of single fluxons in annular symmetric Josephson tunnel junctions. We find {sigma}{approx_equal}0.5 and show how this can arise from the Kibble-Zurek scenario. Further, we report accurate measurements of the temperature dependence of the junction gap voltage, which allow for precise monitoring of the fast temperature variations during the quench.
MF59 Mediates Its B Cell Adjuvanticity by Promoting T Follicular Helper Cells and Thus Germinal Center Responses in Adult and Early Life

The early life influenza disease burden calls for more effective vaccines to protect this vulnerable population. Influenza vaccines including the MF59 oil-in-water adjuvant induce higher, broader, and more persistent Ab responses in adults and particularly in young, through yet undefined mechanisms. In this study, we show that MF59 enhances adult murine IgG responses to influenza hemagglutinin (HA) by promoting a potent T follicular helper cells (TFH) response, which directly controls the magnitude of the germinal center (GC) B cell response. Remarkably, this enhancement of TFH and GC B cells is already fully functional in 3-wk-old infant mice, which were fully protected by HA/MF59 but not HA/PBS immunization against intranasal challenge with the homologous H1N1 (A/California/7/2009) strain. In 1-wk-old neonatal mice, MF59 recruits and activates APCs, efficiently induces CD4+ effector T cells and primes for enhanced infant responses but induces few fully functional TFH cells, which are mostly follicular regulatory T cells, and poor GC and anti-HA responses. The B cell adjuvanticity of MF59 appears to be mediated by the potent induction of TFH cells which directly controls GC responses both in adult and early life, calling for studies assessing its capacity to enhance the efficacy of influenza immunization in young infants.
Bombyx mori Midgut Membrane Protein P252, Which Binds to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1A, Is a Chlorophyllide-Binding Protein, and the Resulting Complex Has Antimicrobial Activity

ABSTRACT The epithelial cell membrane 252-kDa protein (P252) isolated in our laboratory from Bombyx mori midgut was shown to bind strongly with Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, and Cry1Ac toxins of Bacillus thuringiensis (15). In the current paper, P252 was shown to bind with chlorophyllide (Chlide) to form red fluorescent protein (RFP) complex, termed Bm252RFP, with absorbance and fluorescence emission peaks at 600 nm and 620 nm, respectively. P252 at a concentration of 1 μM is shown to bind with about 50 μM Chlide in a positively cooperative reaction to form Bm252RFP under aerobic conditions and in the presence of light at 37°C. Various parameters influencing this reaction have been optimized for efficient in vitro chemical synthesis of Bm252RFP. Circular dichroism spectra revealed that P252 is composed of a β-structure (39.8% ± 2.2%, based on 5 samples) with negligible contribution of α-helix structure. When bound to Chlide, the β-structure content in the complex is reduced to 21.6% ± 3.1% (n = 5). Since Chlide had no secondary structure, the observed reduction suggests significant conformational changes of P252 during the formation of Bm252RFP complex. Bm252RFP had antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, B. thuringiensis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with 50% effective concentrations of 2.82, 2.94, 5.88 μM, and 21.6 μM, respectively. This is the first report ever to show clear, concrete binding characteristics of the midgut protein to form an RFP having significant antimicrobial activity.
LONG-TERM RESULTS OF VITRECTOMY FOR REMOVAL OF SUBMACULAR HARD EXUDATES IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETIC MACULOPATHY

Purpose To investigate long-term results of vitrectomy for the removal of submacular hard exudates in patients with diabetic maculopathy. Methods Thirteen eyes of 10 patients with diabetic maculopathy underwent vitrectomy to remove submacular hard exudates from December 1993 to March 1999. The mean preoperative logMAR visual acuity ± SD was 1.54 ± 0.43. Preoperatively, the exudates ranged from 0.5 to 3 disk diameters (average, 1.25 disk diameters). Exudates were removed using subretinal forceps through a minimal paramacular retinotomy after vitrectomy. In all cases, 20% SF6 gas tamponade was added. The mean postoperative observation period was 43.2 months. Results Visual acuity was improved in 7 eyes (54%) 1 year after surgery; however, visual acuity over longer periods was improved in only 5 eyes (38%) as compared with the preoperative findings. The mean final visual acuity ± SD was 1.62 ± 0.59, which did not show statistically significant improvement over that in the control group. Although submacular hard exudates and macular edema disappeared during the postoperative period, atrophic or degenerative changes occurred in many cases. Conclusion Visual improvement could not be obtained for a long period after removing submacular hard exudates in most of the patients, suggesting that diabetic maculopathy should be treated before massive exudate deposits appear in the macula.
Contribution aux méthodes de classification non supervisée via des approches prétopologiques et d'agrégation d'opinions. (Contribution to the data clustering methods via pretopological approaches and of opinions aggregation)

Le travail de these a porte sur une reflexion relative aux methodes de classification automatique des donnees pour lesquelles il est bien connu qu'un effet « methode » existe. Apres une premiere partie qui presente la problematique generale de l'analyse des donnees et propose un survey des methodes de classification, les travaux originaux de la these sont exposes. Ils relevent de trois approches interconnectees : une approche basee sur l'agregation d'opinions, une approche pretopologique et une approche basee sur l'agregation des preferences. Chacune de ces approches se fonde sur un paradigme different et propose une nouvelle vision des techniques de classification permettant d'apporter eventuellement de l'information exogene dans la methode.
A 26–28-Gb/s Full-Rate Clock and Data Recovery Circuit With Embedded Equalizer in 65-nm CMOS

This paper presents a power and area efficient approach to embed a continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE) within a clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit implemented in 65-nm CMOS. The merged equalizer/CDR circuit achieves full-rate operation up to 28 Gb/s while drawing 104 mA from a 1-V supply and occupying 0.33 mm2. Current-mode-logic (CML) circuits with shunt peaking loads using customized differential pair layout are used to maximize circuit bandwidth. To minimize the area penalty, differential stacked spiral inductors (DSSIs) are employed extensively. A novel and practical methodology is introduced for designing DSSIs based on single-layer inductors provided in foundry process design kits (PDK). The DSSI design increases the inductance density by over 3 times and the self-resonance frequency by 20% compared to standard single-layer inductors in the PDK. The measured BER of the recovered data by the CDR is less than 10-12 at 27 Gb/s for 211-1 400 mV PP pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) as input data. The measured rms jitter of the recovered clock and data are 1.0 and 2.6 ps, respectively. The CDR is able to lock to inputs ranging from 26 to 28 Gb/s with 29-1 PRBS pattern. Measurement results show that with the equalizer enabled, the CDR can recover a 26-Gb/s 27-1 PRBS data with BER ≤ 10-12 after a channel with 9-dB loss at 13 GHz.
Bacterial degradation of the nitrobenzoic acids.

material; it was also oxidized by a partially purified proto- catechuic acid oxidase from extracts of N. erythropolis, with the theoretical uptake of oxygen in manometric experi- ments. A control experiment with a boiled cell preparation gave no protocatechuate. Protocatechuic acid could also be isolated in considerable quantities from cultures of N. erythropoli8 growing on the defined medium + (NH4)2SO4 with 0x1% of p-hydroxybenzoate as the sole source of carbon. From a 3-day-old 41. culture, 0A45 g. was isolated, representing 10% of the theoretical yield.
Nerve growth factor‐stimulated mitogen‐activated protein kinase activity is not necessary for neurite outgrowth of chick dorsal root ganglion sensory and sympathetic neurons

Nerve growth factor (NGF)‐stimulated neurite outgrowth in the rat PC12 tumor cell line recently has been shown to depend on the activation of the mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase 1 (MEK1) (Pang et al.: J Biol Chem 270:13585–13588, 1995). In this study we have analyzed whether or not function of the MAP kinase pathway is necessary for NGF‐stimulated neurite outgrowth in two subtypes of primary neurons derived from the embryonic chick peripheral nervous system (PNS). Treatment of p21ras‐dependent dorsal root ganglion (DRG) sensory neurons (E9) with the MEK1 inhibitor PD98059 at concentrations up to 100 μM did not prevent NGF‐stimulated neurite outgrowth. At this concentration NGF‐stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of MAP kinase p42 as well as MAP kinase activity both were decreased by approximately 80%. Essentially the same results were obtained with p21ras‐independent sympathetic neurons (E12). We conclude that, in contrast to the PC12 tumor cell line, NGF‐stimulated MAP kinase activity is not necessary for neurite outgrowth of DRG sensory and sympathetic neurons derived from the chick PNS. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Multiband and UWB V-Shaped Antenna Configuration for Wireless Communications Applications

A new configuration of multiband/ultra-wide-band (UWB) antenna is investigated. The antenna is a V-shaped patch with unequal arms coupled electromagnetically to single feed isosceles triangular PIFA thorough two unequal slots. The six multiband operations are achieved due to the different lengths and widths of the V-shaped patch as well as the two coupling slots. Two more modes can be added by loading the triangular planar inverted F-antenna (PIFA) with V-shaped slot. Wide bandwidth of 27% is achieved by simply adjusting the feeding point position, thus generating staggered resonating modes. UWB operation with 53% bandwidth can be achieved by folding the shorting wall of the triangular PIFA.
An Adaptive TDD Network with Network Coding Embedded Two-way Relay

Using relays to receive and forward packets between a network base station and network users is a promising solution to address the cellular coverage issue. In this paper, we consider time division duplexing (TDD) networks and explore the use of network coding for implementing the relays. Several transmission scenarios are investigated, including direction transmissions, one-way relay and two-way relay. In additional, we propose an adaptive TDD network, which enables the network to adaptively configure frame structures based on channel conditions to support direct transmissions, cooperative relay and two-hop relay (one-way and two-way). An opportunistic decoding scheme and a relay operation scheme are introduced to realize the proposed adaptive TDD network in a distributed manner. Both throughput and outage probability are derived. Performance evaluations show that the proposed adaptive TDD network based on network coding achieves the maximum throughput, as compared with one-way relay (without network coding), and extends the cell coverage range (compared with direct transmissions).
MODIFIED MERGE SORT ALGORITHM

: Given a sequence of N elements a1, a2, a3, …, aN. The desired output will be a’1, a’2, a’3,…, a’N such that a’1≤, a’2≤, a’3≤…≤a’N using merge sort. In this paper, we propose a modification to the existing merge sort algorithm to sort the given elements when the input sequence (or a part of it) is in ascending or descending order in a more efficient way by reducing the number of comparisons between two sub arrays.
The mismatch repair system reduces meiotic homeologous recombination and stimulates recombination-dependent chromosome loss

Efficient genetic recombination requires near-perfect homology between participating molecules. Sequence divergence reduces the frequency of recombination, a process that is dependent on the activity of the mismatch repair system. The effects of chromosomal divergence in diploids of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in which one copy of chromosome III is derived from a closely related species, Saccharomyces paradoxus, have been examined. Meiotic recombination between the diverged chromosomes is decreased by 25-fold. Spore viability is reduced with an observable increase in the number of tetrads with only two or three viable spores. Asci with only two viable spores are disomic for chromosome III, consistent with meiosis I nondisjunction of the homeologs. Asci with three viable spores are highly enriched for recombinants relative to tetrads with four viable spores. In 96% of the class with three viable spores, only one spore possesses a recombinant chromosome III, suggesting that the recombination process itself contributes to meiotic death. This phenomenon is dependent on the activities of the mismatch repair genes PMS1 and MSH2. A model of mismatch-stimulated chromosome loss is proposed to account for this observation. As expected, crossing over is increased in pms1 and msh2 mutants. Furthermore, genetic exchange in pms1 msh2 double mutants is affected to a greater extent than in either mutant alone, suggesting that the two proteins act independently to inhibit homeologous recombination. All mismatch repair-deficient strains exhibited reductions in the rate of chromosome III nondisjunction.