Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase variation of a β‐1,3 galactosyltransferase involved in generation of the ganglioside GM1‐like lipo‐oligosaccharide of Campylobacter jejuni

Ganglioside mimicry by Campylobacter jejuni lipo‐oligosaccharide (LOS) is thought to be a critical factor in the triggering of the Guillain–Barré and Miller–Fisher syndrome neuropathies after C. jejuni infection. The combination of a completed genome sequence and a ganglioside GM1‐like LOS structure makes C. jejuni NCTC 11168 a useful model strain for the identification and characterization of the genes involved in the biosynthesis of ganglioside‐mimicking LOS. Genome analysis identified a putative LOS biosynthetic cluster and, from this, we describe a putative gene (ORF Cj1139c), which we have termed wlaN, with a significant level of similarity to a number of bacterial glycosyltransferases. Mutation of this gene in C. jejuni NCTC 11168 resulted in a LOS molecule of increased electrophoretic mobility, which also failed to bind cholera toxin. Comparison of LOS structural data from wild type and the mutant strain indicated lack of a terminal β‐1,3‐linked galactose residue in the latter. The wlaN gene product was demonstrated unambiguously as a β‐1,3 galactosyltransferase responsible for converting GM2‐like LOS structures to GM1‐like by in vitro expression. We also show that the presence of an intragenic homopolymeric tract renders the expression of a functional wlaN gene product phase variable, resulting in distinct C. jejuni NCTC 11168 cell populations with alternate GM1 or GM2 ganglioside‐mimicking LOS structures. The distribution of wlaN among a number of C. jejuni strains with known LOS structure was determined and, for C. jejuni NCTC 12500, similar wlaN gene phase variation was shown to occur, so that this strain has the potential to synthesize a GM1‐like LOS structure as well as the ganglioside GM2‐like LOS structure proposed in the literature.
Design of force controller based on frequency characteristics

This paper proposes a method to design a force controller based on frequency characteristics. Generally, force control algorithms are classified into two types, the explicit force control algorithms such as hybrid position/force control and the implicit force control algorithms such as impedance control. The explicit force control algorithms control the contact force directly, while the implicit force control algorithms control the manipulator motion-force relation. Recently, Goldenberg (1992) and others have shown the equivalence of these two types of algorithms. In this paper, we propose a method to design an explicit force controller based on its equivalence to the impedance controller so that the resultant control system has desired frequency characteristics. The method is applied to a manipulator with one-degree-of-freedom and experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. <<ETX>>
The Impact of Phrases on Italian Lexical Simplification

English. Automated lexical simpliﬁcation has been performed so far focusing only on the replacement of single tokens with single tokens, and this choice has affected both the development of systems and the creation of benchmarks. In this paper, we argue that lexical simpliﬁcation in real settings should deal both with single and multi-token terms, and present a benchmark created for the task. Besides, we describe how a freely available system can be tuned to cover also the simpliﬁcation of phrases, and perform an evaluation com-paring different experimental settings.
Progression of a focal ischemic lesion in rat brain during treatment with a novel glycine/nmda antagonist: An in vivo three‐dimensional diffusion‐weighted MR microscopy study

Stroke was induced in two groups of anesthetized rats by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) and ipsilateral common carotid artery. Group 1 (control) received vehicle and group 2 received the glycine N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) antagonist ZD9379. Stroke volume was assessed by three‐dimensional diffusion‐weighted MR microscopy at 2.5 and 6 hours of MCA occlusion. At 2.5 hours, stroke volumes were identical in the two groups. At 6 hours, stroke volumes had increased by 15% in the control group; in contrast, the treated group showed a 40% reduced stroke volume. Conclusions from this in vivo study were as follows: (a) our technique allows more efficient and accurate measurement of stroke volume with an improvement in resolution over a previous method; (b) the ability to measure stroke volume at multiple time points shows volume change and assessment of time dependency of drug treatment; (c) at 6 hours, the glycine antagonist ZD9379 reduced stroke volume by 40%.
Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings From a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

OBJECTIVE. There is increasing evidence that youth exposure to sexual content on television shapes sexual attitudes and behavior in a manner that may influence reproductive health outcomes. To our knowledge, no previous work has empirically examined associations between exposure to television sexual content and adolescent pregnancy. METHODS. Data from a national longitudinal survey of teens (12–17 years of age, monitored to 15–20 years of age) were used to assess whether exposure to televised sexual content predicted subsequent pregnancy for girls or responsibility for pregnancy for boys. Multivariate logistic regression models controlled for other known correlates of exposure to sexual content and pregnancy. We measured experience of a teen pregnancy during a 3-year period. RESULTS. Exposure to sexual content on television predicted teen pregnancy, with adjustment for all covariates. Teens who were exposed to high levels of television sexual content (90th percentile) were twice as likely to experience a pregnancy in the subsequent 3 years, compared with those with lower levels of exposure (10th percentile). CONCLUSIONS. This is the first study to demonstrate a prospective link between exposure to sexual content on television and the experience of a pregnancy before the age of 20. Limiting adolescent exposure to the sexual content on television and balancing portrayals of sex in the media with information about possible negative consequences might reduce the risk of teen pregnancy. Parents may be able to mitigate the influence of this sexual content by viewing with their children and discussing these depictions of sex.
Levels of compartmentalization in Artificial Evolution

This paper addresses the use of particular encoding schemes in evolutionary systems. We define three paradigms of DNA encodings: non-compartmentalized DNA, partially compartmentalized DNA, and fully compartmentalized DNA. We demonstrate that there is a significant and increasing advantage to the use of partially and fully compartmentalized models as the complexity of a structure increases. Implications for the design of evolutionary systems including biological systems are discussed.
Full and Short Versions of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations and Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised

Inadequate problem solving is associated with recidivism in sex offenders. However, the psychometric properties of two of the most widely used coping self-report questionnaires, the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, have not been established for outpatient sex offenders. Using structural equation modeling, the present study aims to contribute to an empirically based decision as to which version of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations or Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised is best suited to use with forensic outpatient sex offenders. The sample consisted of 530 Dutch sex offenders treated in an outpatient forensic facility. Results support the use of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations-Short Form 20 for identifying problem-solving deficits among outpatient sex offenders, consequently facilitating the assessment of treatment needs.
The Roles of Direct Recognition by Animal Lectins in Antiviral Immunity and Viral Pathogenesis

Lectins are a group of proteins with carbohydrate recognition activity. Lectins are categorized into many families based on their different cellular locations as well as their specificities for a variety of carbohydrate structures due to the features of their carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) modules. Many studies have indicated that the direct recognition of particular oligosaccharides on viral components by lectins is important for interactions between hosts and viruses. Herein, we aim to globally review the roles of this recognition by animal lectins in antiviral immune responses and viral pathogenesis. The different classes of mammalian lectins can either recognize carbohydrates to activate host immunity for viral elimination or can exploit those carbohydrates as susceptibility factors to facilitate viral entry, replication or assembly. Additionally, some arthropod C-type lectins were recently identified as key susceptibility factors that directly interact with multiple viruses and then facilitate infection. Summarization of the pleiotropic roles of direct viral recognition by animal lectins will benefit our understanding of host-virus interactions and could provide insight into the role of lectins in antiviral drug and vaccine development.
Effect of muscle length on strength and dexterity after stroke

Objective: The effect of muscle length on strength and dexterity after stroke was investigated. The aim was to determine if poor function at a particular muscle length could be attributed solely to differential weakness at this joint angle or whether an additional problem of differential dexterity exists. Design: This descriptive research study measured elbow flexor and extensor strength as well as dexterity at three elbow joint angles: 30°, 60° and 90° flexion. Dexterity was measured independently of strength. Subjects: Fifteen (seven female, eight male) chronic stroke patients (mean age 67 years) who could actively flex and extend their affected elbow participated. Ten neurologically normal control subjects (mean age 67 years) acted as controls. Main outcome measures: Strength was measured as peak elbow flexor and extensor torque at three angles; and dexterity was measured as coherence for slow and fast tracking also at three angles. Results: Dexterity was not affected by muscle length but strength was and this finding was the same for both stroke and controls. While the magnitude of the torque-angle curves was not significantly different between stroke and controls, the shape of torque-angle curves was altered after stroke so that both the elbow flexors (p < 0.05) and extensors (p < 0.05) tested weaker in the testing position where they were shortest. Conclusion: Since there was no differential loss of dexterity, it appears that differential loss of strength, especially in the shortened range, may explain the clinical observation of poorer function at one muscle length than another after stroke. Specific training to strengthen the muscles in these ranges is therefore of clinical importance for rehabilitation.
Dynamic expansion of formation using local information

This work presents a behavior-based, decentralized approach for agent formations. The formation dynamically grows from a single agent to a large number of agents. The shape is such that it always makes a regular polygon and hence appears to be a circular in the end. This formation could also be expanded to other shapes. We achieve this global behavior of making dynamic formation in a group of agents by using only local sensing and interaction. The algorithm is very simple and it solves the problem with agents having camera, sonar, laser and a radio link. The basic idea is to keep immediate leader or friend in its view by panning the camera at the angle required for making a shape, and at a fixed distance so as to maintain the formation. While in the group how to keep the formation and change it with the addition of a new agent is the main issue we are dealing here which has not been done according to our information. We test our algorithm on simulation as well as on some physical agents and discuss the issues related to physical systems.
Gaussian elimination algorithm for HMM complexity reduction in continuous speech recognition systems

Nowadays, HMM-based speech recognition systems are used in many real time processing applications, from cell phones to automobile automation. In this context, one important aspect to be considered is the HMM model size, which directly determines the computational load. So, in order to make the system practical, it is interesting to optimize the HMM model size constrained to a minimum acceptable recognition performance. Furthermore, topology optimization is also important for reliable parameter estimation. Previous works in this area have used likelihood measures in order to obtain models with a better compromise between acoustic resolution and robustness. This work presents a new approach based on a Gaussian Importance Measure (GIM) used in the Gaussian Elimination Algorithm (GEA) for determining the more suitable HMM complexity. The results are compared to the classical Bayesian Information Criterion.
Antibiotic resistance and transfer factor in Salmonella, United States 1967.

Four hundred Salmonella strains isolated during 1967 from clinical sources throughout the United States were examined for resistance to 11 antibiotics, and suitable strains were tested for resistance transfer factor (RTF). Only 89 (22%) of the strains were resistant to one or more of the antibiotics. Resistance was most common to streptomycin (14.2%), tetracycline (12.5%), and sulfathiazole (11.5%). None of the strains were resistant to chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid, or colistin sulfate. Resistance was significantly more common in strains of Salmonella typhimurium than in the other Salmonella serotypes. Of 52 multiply resistant strains, 41 (79%) demonstrated RTF. Comparison with previous studies suggests that no significant change in the incidence of resistant Salmonella has occurred during the past five years.
Dedifferentiation-associated changes in morphology and gene expression in primary human articular chondrocytes in cell culture.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was the investigation of differential gene expression in primary human articular chondrocytes (HACs) and in cultivated cells derived from HACs. DESIGN Primary human articular chondrocytes (HACs) isolated from non-arthritic human articular cartilage and monolayer cultures of HACs were investigated by immunohistochemistry, Northern analysis, RT-PCR and cDNA arrays. RESULTS By immunohistochemistry we detected expression of collagen II, protein S-100, chondroitin-4-sulphate and vimentin in freshly isolated HACs. Cultivated HACs, however, showed only collagen I and vimentin expression. These data were corroborated by the results of Northern analysis using specifc cDNA probes for collagens I, II and III and chondromodulin, respectively, demonstrating collagen II and chondromodulin expression in primary HACs but not in cultivated cells. Hybridization of mRNA from primary HACs and cultivated cells to cDNA arrays revealed additional transcriptional changes associated with dedifferentiation during propagation of chondrocytes in vitro. We found a more complex hybridization pattern for primary HACs than for cultivated cells. Of the genes expressed in primary HACs the early growth response (EGR1) transcription factor showed the strongest expression whereas D-type cyclin was expressed in proliferating cells. Other factors associated with differentiated HACs were the adhesion molecules ICAM-1 and VCAM-1, VEGF, TGFbeta2, and the monocyte chemotactic protein receptor. CONCLUSIONS Our data support the hypothesis that HACs dedifferentiate when grown in monolayer cultures. Moreover, the expression patterns also show that proliferation and differentiation are exclusive features of human chondrocytes.
On the Oscillations Appearing in Numerical Solutions of Solvable and Nonsolvable Integral Equations for Thin-Wire Antennas

Differences between certain solvable and nonsolvable ill-posed integral equations, with the same nonsingular kernel, are discussed. The main results come from constructing a solvable equation in the context of straight thin-wire antennas. The kernel of this equation is the usual approximate (also called reduced) kernel, while its exact solution is the familiar sinusoidal current. Numerical solutions to this solvable equation are compared to corresponding numerical solutions of the usual-Halle¿n and Pocklington-equations with the approximate kernel; it is known from previous publications that these last two equations are nonsolvable and that their numerical solutions present severe oscillations when the number of basis functions is sufficiently large. It is found that the difficulties encountered in the former (solvable) equation are much less important compared to those of the nonsolvable ones. The same conclusion is brought out from other integral equations, arising in different contexts (thin-wire circular-loop antenna, Method of Auxiliary Sources, and straight wire antenna of infinite length). We discuss the consistency of our results with Picard's theorem. The results in this paper supplement previous publications regarding the difficulties of numerically solving thin-wire integral equations with the approximate kernel.
Hiring of people with disabilities: Perceptions of Hispanic small business owners

BACKGROUND: Employment of people with disabilities continues to be a concern in the field of rehabilitation counseling. Employment rates remain low, resulting in many people with disabilities living at or below the poverty line. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of Hispanic small business owners toward hiring people with disabilities. METHODS: The 38-item Employer Attitudes Questionnaire (EAQ) and the 33-item Small Business Owners Survey (SBOS) were used to investigate attitudes and concerns about hiring issues along with the business owners’ general feelings toward the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Survey packets were distributed in the business districts of two selected cities in southern Texas. Two hundred and seventeen participants took part in the study. RESULTS: The findings suggest that there is a range of views about the capabilities of workers from various disability categories as well as differing opinions on the cost of reasonable accommodations. The results of a regression analysis yielded three significant predictors influencing hiring decisions: whether the business owner had a family member or a friend with a disability, the business owner’s marital status, and their awareness of the ADA. CONCLUSIONS: There is a continuing need to educate small business owners about disability- and employment-rights legislation; however, cost considerations to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities seem to be significantly more important for small business owners than for large corporations.
Flow Instabilities in Cavitating and Non-Cavitating Pumps

It is well known that flow instabilities called rotating stall and surge may occur in non-cavitating turbomachines at flow rates smaller than design. Rotating stall is a local instability at the turbomachinery which is basically not dependent on the hydraulic system in which the turbomachine is installed. The stalled region rotates faster than impeller. Surge is a system instability in a hydraulic system which includes a turbomachinery and a capacitance (tank) which stores the working fluid depending on the pressure at the capacitance. For pumps, if a certain quantity of air is trapped in the pipeline it serves as a capacitance and a surge may occur even if the pipeline does not include exernalt capacitance. Both rotating stall and surge occur at smaller flow rates where the performance curve has a positive slope. On the other hand, cavitation instabilities called rotating cavitation and cavitation surge may occur even at the design flow rate. Rotating cavitation is a local instability in which the cavitated region rotates, for the most cases, faster than impeller. Cavitation surge is a system instability caused by cavitation. For cavitation surge, the cavitation at the inlet of turbomachinery serves as a capacitance and it can occur in a system without any external capacitance. The present lecture is intended to explain the mechanisms of the instabilities, rotating stall, surge, rotating cavitation, and cavitation surge, as well as the characteristics of those instabilities, based on one [1] and two [13][14] dimensional stability analyses.
Blood flow in the carotid and vertebral arteries of the sheep and calf

The indirect methods developed to study cerebral blood flow, namely, the dye dilution technique of Gibbs, Maxwell & Gibbs (1947), and the nitrous oxide gas method of Kety (1948), which have been applied with great success in man, are not applicable to the sheep and calf. This is because the venous vascular anatomy of these ruminant species has no convenient point such as the bulb of the internal jugular vein in man for sampling blood flowing exclusively from the brain. Batson (1944) has stressed the pitfalls inherent in attempts to measure the cerebral blood flow in animal species where the arterial supply to the brain is complex. He states, 'because of the extensive anastomoses between the brain vessels and the extracranial organs, it appears that any animal with a rete mirabile is unsuitable for measurement of cerebral blood flow from the arterial side'. These remarks certainly apply to the sheep and calf, for it has been shown that a vessel suitable for the insertion of a meter to measure cerebral blood flow directly and exclusively is not available (Baldwin, 1960; Baldwin & Bell, 1963 a). The direct thermoelectric technique developed by Grayson (1956) measures the flow only in the area of the recording electrodes, and does not claim to represent total cerebral blood flow. In order to make an estimate of the blood flow to the brain in the sheep and calf it was decided to make direct measurements of carotid and vertebral flow, using the density flowmeter described by Dawes, Mott & Vane (1953). In addition, the effects of clamping one or more of the carotid and vertebral arteries on flow rates in the other vessels conveying blood to the brain have been examined. Rein (1929) reported that in the dog clamping one common carotid caused an increase in flow in the contralateral carotid artery, and believed this result was initiated by cephalic reflex vasodilatation caused by the