Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION OF URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS CAUSED BY A MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT ESCHERICHIA COLI CLONAL GROUP

A BSTRACT Background The management of urinary tract infections is complicated by the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of Escherichia coli. We studied the clonal composition of E. coli isolates that were resistant to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole from women with community-acquired urinary tract infections. Methods Prospectively collected E. coli isolates from women with urinary tract infections in a university community in California were evaluated for antibiotic susceptibility, O:H serotype, DNA fingerprinting, pulsed-field gel electrophoretic pattern, and virulence factors. The prevalence and characteristics of an antibiotic-resistant clone were evaluated in this group of isolates and in those from comparison cohorts in Michigan and Minnesota. Results Fifty-five of the 255 E. coli isolates (22 percent) from the California cohort were resistant to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole as well as other antibiotics. There was a common pattern of DNA fingerprinting, suggesting that the isolates belonged to the same clonal group (clonal group A), in 28 of 55 isolates with trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole resistance (51 percent) and in 2 of 50 randomly selected isolates that were susceptible to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (4 percent, P<0.001). In addition, 11 of 29 resistant isolates (38 percent) from the Michigan cohort and 7 of 18 (39 percent) from the Minnesota cohort belonged to clonal group A. Most of the clonal group A isolates were serotype O11:H(nt) or O77:H(nt), with similar patterns of virulence factors, antibiotic susceptibility, and electrophoretic features. Conclusions In three geographically diverse communities, a single clonal group accounted for nearly half of community-acquired urinary tract infections in women that were caused by E. coli strains with resistance to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole. The widespread distribution and high prevalence of E. coli clonal group A have major public health implications. (N Engl J Med 2001;345:1007-13.)
Helicobacter pylori infection reduces the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a case-control study in iran.

BACKGROUND Some studies have indicated a protective role of H.pylori against risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The purpose of this study was to explore this possible relationship in a case-control study. METHODS One hundred consecutive patients diagnosed with ESCC and 100 healthy people were entered with informed consent. All were asked to provide a blood sample and serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against HP-CSAs were measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS There was significant reverse association between H. pylori positivity and tumour development (OR=0.28, 95% CI: 0.15-0.54), but not with a Cag A positive status. CONCLUSION Our findings provide further evidence that H. pylori infection decreases the risk of ESCC but that this is not linked to a Cag A positive status.
Hypersulfated Low Molecular Weight Heparin with Reduced Affinity for Antithrombin Acts as an Anticoagulant by Inhibiting Intrinsic Tenase and Prothrombinase*

In buffer systems, heparin and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) directly inhibit the intrinsic factor X-activating complex (intrinsic tenase) but have no effect on the prothrombin-activating complex (prothrombinase). Although chemical modification of LMWH, to lower its affinity for antithrombin (LA-LMWH) has no effect on its ability to inhibit intrinsic tenase,N-desulfation of LMWH reduces its activity 12-fold. To further explore the role of sulfation, hypersulfated LA-LMWH was synthesized (sLA-LMWH). sLA-LMWH is not only a 32-fold more potent inhibitor of intrinsic tenase than LA-LMWH; it also acquires prothrombinase inhibitory activity. A direct correlation between the extent of sulfation of LA-LMWH and its inhibitory activity against intrinsic tenase and prothrombinase is observed. In plasma-based assays of tenase and prothrombinase, sLA-LMWH produces similar prolongation of clotting times in plasma depleted of antithrombin and/or heparin cofactor II as it does in control plasma. In contrast, heparin has no effect in antithrombin-depleted plasma. When the effect of sLA-LMWH on various components of tenase and prothrombinase was examined, its inhibitory activity was found to be cofactor-dependent (factors Va and VIIIa) and phospholipid-independent. These studies reveal that sLA-LMWH acts as a potent antithrombin-independent inhibitor of coagulation by attenuating intrinsic tenase and prothrombinase.
SBQL Object Views - Unlimited Mapping Updatability

The paper presents updatable object views defined in SBQL. They are unlimited in two important dimensions. First, because they are defined in a query/programming language with the full algorithmic power, they allow for any mapping of stored data onto virtual one. Second, the mechanism does not restrict updates of virtual data. A view definer can explicitly determine view updates intention through procedures (being a part of a view definition) which dynamically overload generic view updating operations. Again, he/she has the full algorithmic power at hand. We follow the Stack-Based Architecture, a theory of object-oriented query languages based on the classical concepts of programming languages, such as environment stack and namingscoping-binding ideas. The described mechanism has been successfully implemented an tested in ODRA, a prototype object-oriented DBMS.
Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis – an important food borne pathogen of high public health significance with special reference to India: an update

ABSTRACT This review underlines the public health significance of ‘Indian Bison Type’ of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) and also its potential as ‘zoonotic infection’. In the absence of control programs, bio-load of MAP is increasing and if we take total population of animals (500 million plus) and human beings (1.23 billion plus) into account, the number of infected animals and human beings will run into millions in India. Our research on screening of over 26,000 domestic livestock for MAP infection using 4 different diagnostic tests (microscopy, culture, ELISA and PCR), during last 31 years has shown that the average bio-load of MAP in the livestock population of India is very high (cattle 43%, buffaloes 36%, goats 23% and sheep 41%). ‘Mass screening’ of 28,291 human samples between 2008–2016 revealed also high bio-load of MAP. It has been proved that MAP is not in-activated during pasteurization and therefore live bacilli are continuously reaching human population by consumption of even pasteurized milk and other milk products. Live bacilli have also been recovered from meat products and the environment thus illustrating the potential of MAP as pathogen of public health concern. However, at present, there is inadequate scientific evidence to confirm a conclusive link between MAP infection and Johne's disease in ruminants and some cases of Crohn's disease in human beings.
Hidden Automotive Antenna Performance and Simulation

A new printed antenna system mounted in an aperture in the roof of a car is evaluated for broadcast signal reception from 88-108 MHz. Results from simulations on the vehicle are compared with measurements. The overall performance of the antenna is also compared to common types of vehicle antennas, the roof monopole and a glass based antenna. Overall the average gain of the antennas was better than -3 dBi for vertical polarization and -10 dBi for horizontal while the input return loss was generally better than -2 dB before matching sections in the tuners and comparable with common automotive antennas. The antennas in the roof aperture offer an alternative place to mount antennas on automobiles
Markov Model for Admission Control in the Wireless AMC Networks

In wireless adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) systems, modulation type of a user's connection can change and the ongoing connection might fail due to the change of modulation. In this paper, we approach the AMC-induced call admission control (CAC) problem by focusing on the guaranteed connection. Three classes of calls, new, handoff, and modulation-changed, are considered. We modify the guard-channel CAC scheme such that the modulation-changed calls, in addition to the handoff calls, are allowed to use the guard channel. Then we analyze a Markov model for the CAC scheme designed with long-term AMC in mind. The proposed approach will be an essential tool to determine the guard-channel thresholds in the wireless AMC networks.
Representations of the Free Profinite Object over da

In this paper, we extend to DA some techniques developed by Almeida and Weil, and Almeida and Zeitoun for the pseudovariety R to obtain representations of the implicit operations on DA: by labeled trees of finite height, by quasi-ternary labeled trees, and by labeled linear orderings. We prove that two implicit operations are equal over DA if and only if they have the same representation, for any of the three representations. We end the paper by relating these representations.
Palliative Bile Duct Drainage - A New Endoscopic Method of Introducing a Transpapillary Drain

An endoscopic method for placing an internal drain in the bile-duct is described. Compared to the nasobiliary suction-tube this method has the advantage that it guarantees the physiological flow of the bile into the duodenum, and that the patient is in no way inconvenienced. For high-risk or inoperable cases the method can be considered as an alternative to choledochoduodenostomy.
How continuous improvement evolves as companies gain experience

We use the term Continuous Improvement to denote the process of focused and systematic incremental changes that are aimed at small step improvements, and to a large extent rely on employee participation. The article takes its outset in the problems that many Western companies seem to have when trying to implement and sustain an efficient process of Continuous Improvement within their business. The purpose of the article is to contribute to a better understanding of these problems by exploring how Continuous Improvement evolves as companies gain experience. A twofold objective is derived from this purpose how does experience with Continuous Improvement relate to the context, practices and outcomes of Continuous Improvement; and what can be learned about the path of evolution towards Continuous Improvement? The study is based on a survey of 87 manufacturing units in Denmark. The sample is segmented into three sub-samples with different levels of experience. Several differences among these three groups of manufacturing units are found and discussed. These differences concern: Continuous Improvement practices, such as motives, content, organisation, support and tools; outcomes, in particular CI performance; and context, such as manufacturing unit size. Some implications for the path of Continuous Improvement evolution are suggested.
Increasing Telemetry Throughput Using Customized and Adaptive Data Compression

Due to the increasing generation of massive amounts of data by space-based instruments, it has become a challenge to transmit even a fraction of a typical spacecraft data volume back to Earth in a feasible amount of time. Thus, improvements in the ability to losslessly compress data on-board before transmission represent an important method of increasing overall data return rates. We describe a custom methodology for compressing spacecraft data on-board that provides significant improvements in both compression ratio and speed. We have used data returned by the five-probe THEMIS/ARTEMIS constellation to quantify the compression ratio and compression speed improvements over a variety of data types (e.g., time-series and particle data). Our approach results in a 38% improvement in compression ratio and up to a threefold improvement in compression throughput and energy efficiency. We argue that such methods should be adopted by future space missions to maximize the data return to Earth, thus enabling greater insight and scientific discovery.
Serum Cortisol Levels in Goats Exhibit Seasonal But Not Daily Rhythmicity

The aim of the study was to find out whether there is a daily rhythm in goat serum cortisol concentrations, whether the concentration profiles differ between normal light:dark and constant dark conditions, and whether any seasonal variations might be detected in daily cortisol secretion patterns. Seven Finnish landrace goats were kept at indoor temperature (18–23°C) under artficial lighting that approximately simulated the annual changes of daylength at 60°N. Blood samples were collected for cortisol measurements by radioimmunoassay at 2h intervals during six times of the year: winter (light:dark 6:18h), early spring (10:14h), late spring (14:10h), summer (18:6h), early fall (14:10h), and late fall (10:14h). Cortisol profiles were determined for two consecutive days, first in light:dark (LD) conditions and then in continuous darkness (DD). There was no significant daily rhythm in serum cortisol levels in any time of the year, nor did the profiles in LD and DD conditions show any differences. A significant seasonal variation was, however, detected among the overall cortisol levels. In winter, the concentrations were higher than in any other season, and from early spring to summer they were at their lowest. Under equal photoperiods, the cortisol levels were higher in fall than spring. The difference between winter and summer was confirmed in the following year in LD conditions. There was no correlation between the serum cortisol and progesterone levels. The results suggest that the possible circadian variation of cortisol secretion in goats is completely masked by external factors, and the lighting conditions do not have immediate effects on the daily secretion patterns. The seasonal variation in the overall cortisol levels is most probably related to the changes in photoperiod, because other conditions were relatively constant during the experiment.
Larger femoral periprosthetic bone mineral density decrease following total hip arthroplasty for femoral neck fracture than for osteoarthritis: A prospective, observational cohort study

Studies on patients with degenerative joint disease of the hip show that femoral periprosthetic bone mineral decreases following total hip arthroplasty. Scarcely any osteodensitometric data exist on femoral neck fracture (FNF) patients and periprosthetic bone remodelling. In two parallel cohorts we enrolled 87 patients (mean age, 72 ± 12 years; male:female ratio, 30:57) undergoing total hip arthroplasty for either primary osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip (n = 37) or for an acute FNF (n = 50) and followed them for a mean of 5.4 years. Outcomes were bone mineral density (BMD) changes in the periprosthetic Gruen zones 1–7, the incidence of periprosthetic fractures and clinical outcome. The bone mineral loss in the fracture group was more than twice that of the osteoarthritis group, −16.9% versus −6.8% (p = 0.004). The incidence of periprosthetic fractures was 12% (6/50) in the fracture cohort compared with none (0%) in the OA cohort (p = 0.03). Periprosthetic bone mineral loss following total hip arthroplasty is significantly greater in patients who are treated for acute FNF than in OA patients. This decrease of BMD follows a different pattern with the FNF patients losing larger proportions of bone in Gruen zones 1, 2, 6, and 7 while the OA patients tend to have larger losses only in zones 1 and 7. © 2015 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 33:504–512, 2015.
A Literature Survey of the Development Processes for Secure Software

Secure software development processes are critical part of designing secure software. However, it is hard for the various stakeholders to make the decision about which software development process to choose without a comparison between them. Even further, after choosing the process, stakeholders have to decide which methods and techniques to use to fulfil activities required to develop secure software development processes. This is a problem, because there are a number of methods a stakeholder could use to fulfil these activities, but no explicit links between a method and development process. In this thesis firstly we perform comparison of three secure system development approaches namely Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle, OWASP CLASP and Cigital’s Security Touchpoints. In the next step we focus on step within these approaches, namely the security risk management and carry out an analytical survey to find out current methods for security risk management. We give a short overview and comparison between found methods, which potentially will help stakeholders to select their approach for designing secure software with the focus on security risk analysis. We also provide them with opportunity to perform all activities required in risk analysis phase of the development by giving them an aggregate view of risk management methods. This is essential, because risk analysis is a major part of developing secure software and combining different techniques can be used to discover and mitigate more risks in software under development.
Detecting Black Hole Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks using Mobile Agent

Wireless sensor network (WSN) have diverse field of application, but it is very much prone to the security threats.This paper proposes a lightweight, fast, efficient and mobile agent technology based security solution against black attack for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSN has a dynamic topology, intermittent connectivity, and resource constrained device nodes. The proposed scheme is to defend against black hole attack using multiple base stations deployed in network by using mobile agents. A packet drop attack or black hole attack is a type of denial-of-service attack accomplished by dropping packets. The attack can be accomplished either selectively (e.g. by dropping packets for a particular network destination, a packet every n packets or every t seconds, or a randomly selected portion of the packets, which is called "Gray hole attack") or in bulk (by dropping all packets). Mobile agent is a program segment which is self-controlling. They navigate from node to node not only transmitting data but also doing computation. They are effective paradigm for distributed applications, and especially attractive in a dynamic network environment. This mechanism does not require more energy. Here we implement a simulation-based model of our solution to recover from black hole attack in a Wireless Sensor Network. Comparison of communication overhead and cost were made between the system without using multiple base stations and the system with multiple base stations to prevent black hole attacks. Comparison was also made between the proposed attack detection system using mobile agent against the security system in the absence of mobile agents. The mobile agents were developed using the Aglet.
Sex, Parental Incarceration, and Violence Perpetration Among a Sample of Young Adults

Limited attention has been directed at adult children with a history of parental incarceration. The goal of the current study is to expand our understanding of the gendered effects of imprisonment on the adult offspring of incarcerated parents through the exploration of violence perpetration among a sample of young adults. Congruent with problem behavior theory, it is hypothesized that young adults who have been affected by parental incarceration will report greater aversive outcomes (i.e., more risk factors and violence perpetration) than their peers without a history of parental incarceration. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that parental incarceration predicts violent perpetration even after controlling for individual and familial risk factors and demographic characteristics. A series of bivariate and multivariate statistical models utilizing self-report data from 534 college students were generated to test said hypotheses. In addition, the moderating effects of students’ sex and exposure to parental incarceration on the relationship between violence perpetration and risk factors were explored through the utilization of split logistic regression models. Roughly 1 in 10 (13.3%) students surveyed had experienced parental incarceration. As expected, students affected by parental incarceration were significantly more likely to perpetrate violence than their peers not affected by parental incarceration, net individual and familial risk. Although only a small percentage of students had experienced the imprisonment of a parent, parental incarceration predicted violence perpetration in young adulthood. These findings highlight the need to explore the long-lasting effects of parental incarceration on prisoners’ offspring across the life course.
Circadian Ovulatory Rhythms in Japanese Quail: Role of Ocular and Extraocular Pacemakers

Previous studies have shown that the circadian system of Japanese quail is composed of multiple photic inputs and multiple oscillators. Among these are extraretinal photoreceptors that mediate both circadian and photoperiodic responses and circadian pacemakers in the eyes that, via neural and hormonal outputs, help to maintain rhythmicity of central circadian clocks (presumably located in the suprachiasmatic area of the hypothalamus). Furthermore, a component of the central circadian system is influenced by reproductive hormones. Under certain conditions, the circadian system of female quail can be induced to split into two circadian components: one driven by ocular pacemakers and one driven by feedback from reproductive hormones. Importantly, ovulation is either inhibited or permitted as these two oscillators (or sets of oscillators) constantly change internal phase relationships with each other, suggesting an “internal coincidence” mechanism in the control of ovulation. The oviposition patterns of quail in light-dark (LD) cycles also support an internal coincidence mechanism. The authors tested the hypothesis that the ocular pacemakers are an important component of an internal coincidence mechanism controlling ovulation by examining the effects of blinding by complete eye removal (EX), and the effects of eye-patching, on the body temperature and oviposition patterns of quail exposed to 24-h LD cycles. They also examined the effects of EX on quail exposed to continuous light (LL) and to continuous darkness (DD). Neither EX nor eyepatching affected the oviposition patterns of birds in LD. Furthermore, robust body temperature and oviposition rhythms continued in EX birds in LL, but body temperature became arrhythmic in DD with the cessation of ovulation. The results do not show a role for ocular pacemakers in the control of ovulation, but they do support the hypotheses that (1) entrainment of the central oscillators by extraretinally perceived light is sufficient to preserve a normal ovulatory pattern in LD in the absence of the ocular pacemakers, and (2) in LL, feedback of reproductive hormones onto the central oscillators is sufficient to organize the circadian system even in the absence of the ocular pacemakers. Whether or not the ocular pacemakers are normally involved in the control of ovulation is still an open question.
Effect of Salivary Pellicle on Enamel Subsurface Demineralization In Vitro

Diffusion fluxes of two anionic species through hydroxyapatite membranes were found to be reduced up to 50% by the presence of adsorbed salivary pellicles developed on the membrane surfaces. By contrast, water fluxes were only marginally affected, indicating that salivary pellicles display ionic permselectivity. This property is used to explain a remarkable protection of the enamel observed when salivary pellicles were developed on extracted teeth before exposure to acid lactate buffers.