Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability of and Attachment to Lettuce by a Culturable Porcine Sapovirus Surrogate for Human Caliciviruses

ABSTRACT Human noroviruses (HuNoVs) are the leading cause of food-borne illness, accounting for 58% of U.S. cases. Because HuNoVs are unculturable, surrogates are needed to investigate transmission routes and evaluate disinfection methods. However, the current surrogates, feline calicivirus (FCV) and murine NoV (MNV), are less tolerant than HuNoVs to acid and chlorine, respectively. Porcine sapovirus (SaV) is the only culturable enteropathogenic calicivirus. In this study, the resistance of SaV to physicochemical treatments was compared to that of HuNoVs (by reverse transcription-PCR), FCV, and MNV (by infectivity assays). Sapovirus and HuNoV (viral RNA) showed similar resistances to heat (56°C) and to different concentrations of chlorine. However, SaV was more resistant than HuNoVs to ethanol treatment (60% and 70%). Like HuNoVs, SaV was stable at pH 3.0 to 8.0, with a <1.0 log10 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) reduction at pH 3.0 compared to the value for pH 4.0 to 8.0. SaV and MNV showed similar resistances, and both were more resistant than FCV to heat inactivation (56°C). FCV was more resistant than MNV and SaV to ethanol, and all three viruses showed similar resistances to treatment with low concentrations of chlorine for 1 min. Those results indicate that SaV is a promising surrogate for HuNoVs. Next, we used SaV as a surrogate to examine virus attachment to lettuce at different pHs. Sapovirus attached to lettuce leaves significantly at its capsid isoelectric point (pH 5.0), and the attached viral particles remained infectious on lettuce after 1 week of storage at 4°C. The culturable SaV is a good surrogate for studying HuNoV contamination and transmission in leafy greens and potential disinfectants.
Self-Regulation in the Classroom: A Perspective on Assessment and Intervention

Il n’y a pas de definition simple et univoque du concept d’apprentissage autoregule. Des theoriciens de psychologie de l’education ont reduit l’eventail des aptitudes des eleves a s’autoreguler en se focalisant sur le versant scolaire de l’education, a savoir l’acquisition des connaissances et les objectifs de reussite. Toutefois, le monde complexe de l’etude en classe engendre une situation ou differents buts entrent en concurrence aux yeux des eleves. Le modele d’autoregulation a double processus de Bookaerts montre que les deux objectifs que sont l’etude et le bien-etre interagissent. Nous estimons que lorsque les eleves ont acces a des strategies autonomes bien au point se traduisant par de bonnes habitudes de travail, ils ont une plus grande probabilite de se motiver pour les etudes et de sauvegarder leur bien-etre quand une source de stress bloque l’apprentissage. There is no simple and straightforward definition of the construct of self-regulated learning. Theorists in educational psychology have narrowed the scope of students’ capability to self-regulate through a focus on the academic side of education, namely on learning and achievement goals. However, the messy world of classroom learning creates a situation in which different goals compete for students’ attention. Boekaerts’ dual processing self-regulation model describes how learning goals interact with well-being goals. We propose that when students have access to well-refined volitional strategies manifested as good work habits, they are more likely to invest effort in learning and get off the well-being track when a stressor blocks learning. Shifting definitions of SRL have led to changing measurement procedures; researchers moved away from decontextualised measures of SRL to domain-specific measures and then on to context-sensitive measures. The validity and reliability of the first generation of SR assessment has been limited and several issues remain. Recently, researchers have designed assessment packages including new instruments that better capture self-regulation as a process (including for example traces of mental events, situational manipulations, and records of student work strategies). A combination of instruments is preferable over a single instrument for assessing self-regulation as a process and the effects of interventions to improve students’ self-regulatory capacity. At present, many sound SRL interventions exist and some general lessons can be learned about classroom intervention research.
Motor unit control in Parkinson's disease and the influence of levodopa

Patients with Parkinson's disease are unable to adjust the firing rate of motor units that initiate contraction from zero to higher rates; the frequency modulation of motor units is not normal, but motor units recruit normally as effort is increased. Treatment with levodopa makes these motor units accessible to activation and frequency control. Elderly subjects also have difficulty in the activation of minimal contraction and in the maintenance of firing but to a significantly lesser degree than do parkinsonian patients. In this respect, the elderly patient and the parkinsonian patient are qualitatively similar.
PATIENT ACCIDENTS IN HOSPITAL: INCIDENCE, DOCUMENTATION AND SIGNIFICANCE

SUMMARY Many previous studies of reported patient accidents in hospital used the accident report forms as the only data source, without questioning their reliability and despite 80% of the accidents being unwitnessed. This paper reports on three studies using data from patient interviews, staff questionnaires, medical and nursing notes and the accident report forms. The studies confirm that falls amongst elderly patients are the most common type of patient accident. However, patients' and staff's versions of the event often differed widely. Accident reports are stated to be required for legal purposes, but they were often incomplete and unreliable. Patient accidents and safety are too important to remain marginalised to mere compliance with out‐of‐date regulations. A new, ‘slim‐line‘, more accurate but less time‐consuming patient accident reporting system should be developed, for which improvement in patient safety is the main aim and legal considerations the secondary aim.
Von Willebrand factor processing

Summary Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a multimeric glycoprotein essential for primary haemostasis that is produced only in endothelial cells and megakaryocytes. Key to VWF’s function in recruitment of platelets to the site of vascular injury is its multimeric structure. The individual steps of VWF multimer biosynthesis rely on distinct posttranslational modifications at specific pH conditions, which are realized by spatial separation of the involved processes to different cell organelles. Production of multimers starts with translocation and modification of the VWF prepropolypeptide in the endoplasmic reticulum to produce dimers primed for glycosylation. In the Golgi apparatus they are further processed to multimers that carry more than 300 complex glycan structures functionalized by sialylation, sulfation and blood group determinants. Of special importance is the sequential formation of disulfide bonds with different functions in structural support of VWF multimers, which are packaged, stored and further processed after secretion. Here, all these processes are being reviewed in detail including background information on the occurring biochemical reactions.
Born Globals: Investigating The Influence Of Their Business Models On Rapid Internationalization

The distinguishing characteristic of a business model is the way in which the type of product or service is linked to a particular group of customers using a specific communication and delivery method. The authors argue that the distinctive characteristic of BGs of foreign sales from the outset, or very quickly afterward, may be due to differences in their business models and their ability to adapt them to foreign markets. In contrast to other internationalization theories, the business model approach focuses on the holistic view of the firm’s core activities in which business model innovation plays a pivotal role to gain competitive advantages. Thus, a business model is a strategic and dynamic value-creation process that is adapted to foreign markets - a main accelerator of the rapid internationalization of BGs.
An algorithm for the use of Medicare claims data to identify women with incident breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate a clinically informed algorithm that uses solely Medicare claims to identify, with a high positive predictive value, incident breast cancer cases. DATA SOURCE Population-based Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Tumor Registry data linked to Medicare claims, and Medicare claims from a 5 percent random sample of beneficiaries in SEER areas. STUDY DESIGN An algorithm was developed using claims from 1995 breast cancer patients from the SEER-Medicare database, as well as 1995 claims from Medicare control subjects. The algorithm was validated on claims from breast cancer subjects and controls from 1994. The algorithm development process used both clinical insight and logistic regression methods. DATA EXTRACTION Training set: Claims from 7,700 SEER-Medicare breast cancer subjects diagnosed in 1995, and 124,884 controls. Validation set: Claims from 7,607 SEER-Medicare breast cancer subjects diagnosed in 1994, and 120,317 controls. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A four-step prediction algorithm was developed and validated. It has a positive predictive value of 89 to 93 percent, and a sensitivity of 80 percent for identifying incident breast cancer. The sensitivity is 82-87 percent for stage I or II, and lower for other stages. The sensitivity is 82-83 percent for women who underwent either breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy, and is similar across geographic sites. A cohort identified with this algorithm will have 89-93 percent incident breast cancer cases, 1.5-6 percent cancer-free cases, and 4-5 percent prevalent breast cancer cases. CONCLUSIONS This algorithm has better performance characteristics than previously proposed algorithms. The ability to examine national patterns of breast cancer care using Medicare claims data would open new avenues for the assessment of quality of care.
Leisure Marketing: A Global Perspective

Part one: Introduction - What is leisure? What is marketing? Part two: Leisure and marketing concepts - The market The business environment Strategic marketing planning Part three: Leisure and the marketing mix - Product Price Place: Promotion Part four: Key marketing issues in the different sectors of leisure Part five: Topical issues in leisure marketing Globalisation and leisure marketing Market research in leisure Ethical challenges in leisure marketing Part six: Case studies Part seven: The future of leisure marketing.
Implementation of Right CRM Strategy for Pharmaceutical Industry

Research literatures have revealed that customer contact management helps in assessing relevant information about customers, and further benefits development of appropriate marketing strategy for organizations. An organisation can keep building the relationship and adding value to customer service encounters without investing as much time and energy as it used to be the practice in traditional marketing of pharmaceutical products. Indian pharmaceutical marketing remains a very dynamic & challenging game plan for all the 250 or more organized Indian & MNC players in a market size of US $ 4 billion. Every marketer would like to maximize the marketing efforts & precious inputs by finding core customers through segmenting & targeting of potential customers in order to create uncontested market space, thus making competition irrelevant. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explore how innovative customer contacts have emerged as a standalone and comprehensive area of knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry. As such, the paper seeks to understand through suitable examples and research findings: (1) the forces driving customer relationships; and (2) the issues involved in implementing customer relationship strategy, in the pharmaceutical industry. Suggestions are also made with regards to careful collection and application of personal contact information to the customers’ database, and incorporating them into the marketing strategy of Indian pharmaceutical sector. Thus, the paper seeks to explain through suitable examples, the implementation of right marketing strategy by segmenting and targeting the market through individual customer interactions.
A novel buck-boost converter with low stresses on switches and diodes

In this paper, a novel buck-boost converter with the voltage gain of D2/(1-D) is proposed. Besides high step-down gain, the merits of the proposed buck-boost converter include that the input terminal and the output terminal share the same ground, the output voltage is positive, and the voltage stresses on the power switches and the diodes are low. The operating principles, the steady-state analyses, and the small-signal model are presented and analyzed. Finally, the PSIM simulations and the circuit experiments are implemented to validate the proposed buck-boost converter.
The Escherichia coli BarA-UvrY Two-Component System Is Needed for Efficient Switching between Glycolytic and Gluconeogenic Carbon Sources

ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli BarA and UvrY proteins were recently demonstrated to constitute a novel two-component system, although its function has remained largely elusive. Here we show that mutations in the sensor kinase gene, barA, or the response regulator gene, uvrY, in uropathogenic E. coli drastically affect survival in long-term competition cultures. Using media with gluconeogenic carbon sources, the mutants have a clear growth advantage when competing with the wild type, but using media with carbon sources feeding into the glycolysis leads to a clear growth advantage for the wild type. Results from competitions with mutants in the carbon storage regulation system, CsrA/B, known to be a master switch between glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, led us to propose that the BarA-UvrY two-component system controls the Csr system. Taking these results together, we propose the BarA-UvrY two-component system is crucial for efficient adaptation between different metabolic pathways, an essential function for adaptation to a new environment.
Cyber Security and the Internet of Things: Vulnerabilities, Threats, Intruders and Attacks

Internet of Things (IoT) devices is rapidly becoming ubiquitous while IoT services are becoming pervasive. Their success has not gone unnoticed and the number of threats and attacks against IoT devices and services are on the increase as well. Cyber-attacks are not new to IoT, but as IoT will be deeply interwoven in our lives and societies, it is becoming necessary to step up and take cyber defense seriously. Hence, there is a real need to secure IoT, which has consequently resulted in a need to comprehensively understand the threats and attacks on IoT infrastructure. This paper is an attempt to classify threat types, besides, analyze and characterize intruders and attacks facing IoT devices and services.
Application of a Broad-Range Resequencing Array for Detection of Pathogens in Desert Dust Samples from Kuwait and Iraq

ABSTRACT A significant percentage of the human population is exposed to high levels of naturally occurring airborne dusts. Although the link between airborne particulate inhalation and a variety of respiratory diseases has long been established, little is known about the pathogenic role of the microbial component of the dust. In this study, we applied highly multiplexed PCR and a high-density resequencing microarray (RPM-TEI version 1.0) to screen samples of fine topsoil particles and airborne dust collected in 19 locations in Iraq and Kuwait for the presence of a broad range of human pathogens. The results indicated the presence of potential human pathogens, including Mycobacterium, Brucella, Coxiella burnetii, Clostridium perfringens, and Bacillus. The presence of Coxiella burnetii, a highly infectious potential biowarfare agent, was confirmed and detected in additional samples by use of a more sensitive technique (real-time PCR), indicating a high prevalence of this organism in the analyzed samples. The detection of potentially viable pathogens in breathable dusts from arid regions of Iraq and Kuwait underscores the importance of further study of these environments.
A survey of cognitive beamforming techniques

Digital beamforming is a spatial-filtering technique in multi-antenna communication systems. A signal processor controls the excitation of antenna array elements to synthesize a desired radiation pattern with the general objective to increase gain in the direction of intended receivers or wanted signal sources and reduce gain in the direction of known or potential sources of interference. In the context of a cognitive radio network, where interference mitigation is a paramount concern, beamforming and precoding techniques offer significant advantages in terms of spectral efficiency, power control, link capacity, transmission security, and improved signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Cognitive beamforming approaches the selection of array coefficients as a convex optimization problem in a machine-learning algorithm. A cognitive engine stores previously derived solutions in a knowledge base and autonomously applies beamforming decisions toward the ultimate goal of predicting channel conditions and proactively adjusting antenna array patterns to maintain network connectivity and performance. This informed decision-making ability distinguishes cognitive beamformers as an evolution of traditional adaptive arrays and smart antenna systems. This paper presents a survey of various cognitive beamforming techniques in interweave, overlay, and underlay networks. Algorithms are categorized based on their applicability to multiple-input, single output (MISO) or multiple-input, multiple output (MIMO) systems and any constraints or idealization of channel state information and quality of service metrics. The techniques evaluated include distributed, joint, and cooperative beamforming strategies with optimization schemes based in game theory, communication informatics, neural networking, and genetic algorithms. Current limitations of the technology are provided and guidance for future research in the field is suggested.
Induction of Prostanoid Biosynthesis by Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide and Isoproterenol in Rat Microglial Cultures

Abstract: We have used purified microglial cultures obtained from neonatal rat cerebral cortex to investigate the ability of microglia to release prostanoids after exposure to bacterial lipopolysaccharide, a classic macrophage activator. Release of prostaglandin E2, prostaglandin D2, and thromboxane A2 was low in basal conditions and increased in a dose‐ and time‐dependent way upon lipopolysaccharide treatment (1–100 ng/ml), by a mechanism requiring de novo protein synthesis. When compared with astrocytes, microglial cells appeared to respond more effectively to lipopolysaccharide, being able to release prostanoids after exposure to a 100‐fold lower concentration of lipopolysaccharide. In addition to prostanoids, we also measured the release of leukotriene B4; although lipopolysaccharide failed to stimulate leukotriene B4 release by microglial cells, it doubled the basal production in astrocytes. Lipopolysaccharide enhanced the release of preloaded [3H]arachidonic acid from microglial membrane phospholipids by a mechanism inhibited by the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide, which suggests that the increased availability of arachidonic acid contributed to the enhanced prostanoid production. Lipopolysaccharide, however, also stimulated prostanoid synthesis by inducing cyclooxygenase activity, as shown by determining the activity of newly synthesized enzyme after inactivating the endogenous enzyme with aspirin and by assessing the level of the inducible form of cyclooxygenase by western blot analysis. Among the mechanisms potentially involved in the regulation of microglial prostanoid production, we studied the effect of β‐adrenergic receptor activation. The β‐agonist isoproterenol was inactive by itself but doubled the effect of lipopolysaccharide. The drug appeared to act mainly through the inducible cyclooxygenase; because it did not stimulate arachidonic acid release, it enhanced the lipopolysaccharide‐evoked prostanoid production observed after aspirin pretreatment and induced de novo synthesis of cyclooxygenase detectable by western blot analysis. We suggest that during cerebral inflammatory processes microglia can contribute to the establishment of high prostanoid levels, which can be further elevated by β‐adrenergic activation.
Adenoviral‐mediated gene transfer in wound healing: acute inflammatory response in human skin in the SCID mouse model

The use of an adenoviral vector as a means of therapeutic protein delivery for the treatment of impaired wound healing is a potentially effective application of current gene transfer techniques. This study was designed to investigate the ability of adenovirus to mediate gene transfer in healing wounds in human skin in vivo. The human skin/severe combined immunodeficient mouse chimera model was used to study both the response of human tissue to adenoviral infection and the nature of the acute inflammatory response. The effects of adenoviral infection and transgene expression on the rate and quality of human wound healing were then investigated. Cell‐ and species‐specific monoclonal antibodies were used to characterize the resident skin cell types participating in wound repair, the inflammatory response, and the proliferative potential of adenovirus‐treated compared to control skin. Our studies show that, following wounding, normal skin architecture is restored in the presence of adenoviral infection equivalent to noninfected controls. Despite an increased acute inflammatory response after adenovirus injection, no difference in the healing capabilities of wounded skin was observed, suggesting that adenovirus‐mediated gene transfer for growth factor‐mediated acceleration of wound healing may be feasible.