bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
CD8
+
T Cell Exhaustion, Suppressed Gamma Interferon Production, and Delayed Memory Response Induced by Chronic Brucella melitensis Infection
Authors: Durward-Diioia Marina , Harms Jerome , Khan Mike , Hall Cherisse , Smith Judith A. , Splitter Gary A. 
Published: September 2015

ABSTRACT

Brucella melitensis
is a well-adapted zoonotic pathogen considered a scourge of mankind since recorded history. In some cases, initial infection leads to chronic and reactivating brucellosis, incurring significant morbidity and economic loss. The mechanism by which
B. melitensis
subverts adaptive immunological memory is poorly understood. Previous work has shown that
Brucella
-specific CD8
+
T cells express gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and can transition to long-lived memory cells but are not polyfunctional. In this study, chronic infection of mice with
B. melitensis
led to CD8
+
T cell exhaustion, manifested by programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3) expression and a lack of IFN-γ production. The
B. melitensis
-specific CD8
+
T cells that produced IFN-γ expressed less IFN-γ per cell than did CD8
+
cells from uninfected mice. Both memory precursor (CD8
+
LFA1
HI
CD127
HI
KLRG1
LO
) and long-lived memory (CD8
+
CD27
HI
CD127
HI
KLRG1
LO
) cells were identified during chronic infection. Interestingly, after adoptive transfer, mice receiving cells from chronically infected animals were able to contain infection more rapidly than recipients of cells from acutely infected or uninfected donors, although the proportions of exhausted CD8
+
T cells increased after adoptive transfer in both challenged and unchallenged recipients. CD8
+
T cells of challenged recipients initially retained the stunted IFN-γ production found prior to transfer, and cells from acutely infected mice were never seen to transition to either memory subset at all time points tested, up to 30 days post-primary infection, suggesting a delay in the generation of memory. Here we have identified defects in
Brucella
-responsive CD8
+
T cells that allow chronic persistence of infection.
AraR, an
l
-Arabinose-Responsive Transcriptional Regulator in Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 31831, Exerts Different Degrees of Repression Depending on the Location of Its Binding Sites within the Three Target Promoter Regions
Authors: Kuge Takayuki , Teramoto Haruhiko , Inui Masayuki 
Published: September 2015

ABSTRACT

In
Corynebacterium glutamicum
ATCC 31831, a LacI-type transcriptional regulator AraR, represses the expression of
l
-arabinose catabolism (
araBDA
), uptake (
araE
), and the regulator (
araR
) genes clustered on the chromosome. AraR binds to three sites: one (BS
B
) between the divergent operons (
araBDA
and
galM-araR
) and two (BS
E1
and BS
E2
) upstream of
araE
.
l
-Arabinose acts as an inducer of the AraR-mediated regulation. Here, we examined the roles of these AraR-binding sites in the expression of the AraR regulon. BS
B
mutation resulted in derepression of both
araBDA
and
galM-araR
operons. The effects of BS
E1
and/or BS
E2
mutation on
araE
expression revealed that the two sites independently function as the
cis
elements, but BS
E1
plays the primary role. However, AraR was shown to bind to these sites with almost the same affinity
in vitro
. Taken together, the expression of
araBDA
and
araE
is strongly repressed by binding of AraR to a single site immediately downstream of the respective transcriptional start sites, whereas the binding site overlapping the −10 or −35 region of the
galM-araR
and
araE
promoters is less effective in repression. Furthermore, downregulation of
araBDA
and
araE
dependent on
l
-arabinose catabolism observed in the BS
B
mutant and the AraR-independent
araR
promoter identified within
galM-araR
add complexity to regulation of the AraR regulon derepressed by
l
-arabinose.

IMPORTANCE
Corynebacterium glutamicum
has a long history as an industrial workhorse for large-scale production of amino acids. An important aspect of industrial microorganisms is the utilization of the broad range of sugars for cell growth and production process. Most
C. glutamicum
strains are unable to use a pentose sugar
l
-arabinose as a carbon source. However, genes for
l
-arabinose utilization and its regulation have been recently identified in
C. glutamicum
ATCC 31831. This study elucidates the roles of the multiple binding sites of the transcriptional repressor AraR in the derepression by
l
-arabinose and thereby highlights the complex regulatory feedback loops in combination with
l
-arabinose catabolism-dependent repression of the AraR regulon in an AraR-independent manner.
Inpatient Falls: Improving assessment, documentation, and management
Authors: Nelson Eleanor , Reynolds Patrick 
Published: September 2015

AbstractA frequently occurring job during on-call and out-of-hours shifts is reviewing a patient following a fall with this often being the responsibility of the most junior and inexperienced doctors. Following a pilot audit we identified inconsistencies in medical assessment and documentation, with 50% of expected data points not recorded.Failure to complete a thorough assessment can lead to missed injuries, prolonged length of stay, and litigation. Using the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) cycle model this project sought to address this through providing teaching to junior doctors and the development of a pro-forma.Three style cycles of data collection were performed; a formal baseline dataset, after delivering a teaching session to new junior doctors and following the trial of the new fall pro-forma. We selected 15 to 17 patient notes to review at random during a one month period for each data collection cycle and compared the medical assessment to the standards outlined by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) guidelines.[1]There were two key areas of improvement identified following the teaching session and introduction of the proforma. Documentation of a fall history was improved by nearly 30% being recorded in 100% of cases after the interventions. Documentation of a thorough musculoskeletal examination was improved from being recorded in just 54% of cases to 77% of cases; it was recorded in 100% of the cases where the proforma was used.The project demonstrated the need to improve documentation and assessment of a patient who has fallen. Initial data collection has shown that assessment and documentation were improved providing teaching to junior doctors and by use of the document. The pro-forma has since been incorporated into hospital policy and now forms the compulsory documentation expected of the doctors and nurses managing patients following a fall. Ensuring easy access to the proforma and re-auditing after editing the document will be the next steps.
Estimating Clustering Coefficients and Size of Social Networks via Random Walk
Authors: Katzir Liran , Hardiman Stephen J. 
Published: September 2015

This work addresses the problem of estimating social network measures. Specifically, the measures at hand are the network average and global clustering coefficients and the number of registered users. The algorithms at hand (1) assume no prior knowledge about the network and (2) access the network using only the publicly available interface. More precisely, this work provides (a) a unified approach for clustering coefficients estimation and (b) a new network size estimator. The unified approach for the clustering coefficients yields the first external access algorithm for estimating the global clustering coefficient. The new network size estimator offers improved accuracy compared to prior art estimators.
Our approach is to view a social network as an undirected graph and use the public interface to retrieve a random walk. To estimate the clustering coefficient, the connectivity of each node in the random walk sequence is tested in turn. We show that the error drops exponentially in the number of random walk steps. For the network size estimation we offer a generalized view of prior art estimators that in turn yields an improved estimator. All algorithms are validated on several publicly available social network datasets.
From Security Protocols to Pushdown Automata
Authors: Chrétien Rémy , Cortier Véronique , Delaune Stéphanie 
Published: September 2015

Formal methods have been very successful in analyzing security protocols for reachability properties such as secrecy or authentication. In contrast, there are very few results for equivalence-based properties, crucial for studying, for example, privacy-like properties such as anonymity or vote secrecy.
We study the problem of checking equivalence of security protocols for an unbounded number of sessions. Since replication leads very quickly to undecidability (even in the simple case of secrecy), we focus on a limited fragment of protocols (standard primitives but pairs, one variable per protocol’s rules) for which the secrecy preservation problem is known to be decidable. Surprisingly, this fragment turns out to be undecidable for equivalence. Then, restricting our attention to deterministic protocols, we propose the first decidability result for checking equivalence of protocols for an unbounded number of sessions. This result is obtained through a characterization of equivalence of protocols in terms of equality of languages of (generalized, real-time) deterministic pushdown automata. We further show that checking for equivalence of protocols is actually equivalent to checking for equivalence of generalized, real-time deterministic pushdown automata.
Very recently, the algorithm for checking for equivalence of deterministic pushdown automata has been implemented. We have implemented our translation from protocols to pushdown automata, yielding the first tool that decides equivalence of (some class of) protocols, for an unbounded number of sessions. As an application, we have analyzed some protocols of the literature including a simplified version of the basic access control (BAC) protocol used in biometric passports.
Inside the Social Network's (Datacenter) Network
Authors: Roy Arjun , Zeng Hongyi , Bagga Jasmeet , Porter George , Snoeren Alex C. 
Published: September 2015

Large cloud service providers have invested in increasingly larger datacenters to house the computing infrastructure required to support their services. Accordingly, researchers and industry practitioners alike have focused a great deal of effort designing network fabrics to efficiently interconnect and manage the traffic within these datacenters in performant yet efficient fashions. Unfortunately, datacenter operators are generally reticent to share the actual requirements of their applications, making it challenging to evaluate the practicality of any particular design.
Moreover, the limited large-scale workload information available in the literature has, for better or worse, heretofore largely been provided by a single datacenter operator whose use cases may not be widespread. In this work, we report upon the network traffic observed in some of Facebook's datacenters. While Facebook operates a number of traditional datacenter services like Hadoop, its core Web service and supporting cache infrastructure exhibit a number of behaviors that contrast with those reported in the literature. We report on the contrasting locality, stability, and predictability of network traffic in Facebook's datacenters, and comment on their implications for network architecture, traffic engineering, and switch design.
SECURITIZAÇÃO COMO MECANISMO DE GERENCIAMENTO DE RESULTADOS EM BANCOS BRASILEIROS
Authors: Camara Gilberto Ataide , Galdi Fernando Caio 
Published: September 2015

<p>Este estudo tem como objetivo investigar a prática de gerenciamento de resultados nas instituições financeiras brasileiras por meio da realização de operações de securitização. Em linha com a literatura internacional, verificou-se uma relação negativa entre os ganhos com securitização e os ganhos antes da securitização das instituições financeiras. Adicionalmente foi identificada uma relação negativa dos ganhos com securitização e a variação dos ganhos antes da securitização entre o exercício atual e o exercício anterior. Finalmente, não foram encontradas evidências de que a estruturação das operações com FIDCs influenciam o resultado com a transferência. </p>
EFEITOS DO REGIME TRIBUTÁRIO DE TRANSIÇÃO NA CARGA TRIBUTÁRIA DAS COMPANHIAS BRASILEIRAS
Authors: Mello Helio Rieger de , Salotti Bruno Meirelles 
Published: September 2015

A Lei nº 11.638/07 iniciou a convergência da contabilidade brasileira para as normas internacionais do IASB promovendo, entre outras, uma relevante modificação: a implementação da ampla hegemonia da essência sobre a forma – dito de outro modo, a prevalência da visão econômica na contabilidade financeira –, enquanto se manteve na contabilidade fiscal, majoritariamente, a predominância da perspectiva civil, que de forma inversa, privilegia a forma. Como os efeitos das novas regras contábeis causariam impacto positivo, nulo ou negativo no lucro tributário, a partir de 2008, foi instituído o Regime Tributário de Transição–RTT, com o objetivo de neutralizar-se todos os novos critérios de reconhecimento de receitas, despesas ou custos. As empresas ainda puderam, no biênio 2008-2009, optar ou não por esse novo regime, mas, a partir de 2010, sua adoção se tornou obrigatória. Entretanto, tratou-se de decisão difícil, principalmente, porque o prazo original era até 16/10/2009, quando o último trimestre ainda não estava encerrado e, também, pela insegurança na interpretação das novas normas contábeis e dos seus efeitos na legislação fiscal. O objetivo principal deste artigo é avaliar se houve redução da carga tributária com a não opção pelo RTT. Para tal, analisou-se o efeito do RTT nos resultados fiscal e contábil dos anos de 2008 e 2009 em comparação com a média no período de 2005 a 2007 para as empresas de lucro real que não optaram por esse regime, discriminados pelos quatro setores: agricultura, comércio, indústria e serviços. A metodologia baseou-se nos dados de 2005 a 2009, autorizados pela Receita Federal do Brasil, e a amostra pesquisada foi composta por 69.712 empresas de lucro real (65%) que não optaram pelo RTT. Em 13/04/2010, a IN RFB nº 1.023/10 reabriu o prazo para opção, mas apenas 973 empresas modificaram a opção – de não para sim – pelo RTT que sugere uma boa análise dos contadores. A partir da comparação dos períodos 2008-2009 com 2005-2007, foram apurados os valores de cinco variáveis, quais sejam, receita e lucro brutos, lucros fiscal e contábil e a diferença entre os dois últimos e foram encontradas evidências estatísticas com base no teste de Wilcoxon de que as empresas que não optaram pelo RTT pagaram menos IRPJ e CSLL em 2008-2009.
ADERÊNCIA AO DISCLOSURE RELATIVO À AJUSTE A VALOR PRESENTE NAS EMPRESAS LISTADAS NA BM&FBOVESPA
Authors: Sousa Falber Cristiano Oliveira de , Mapurunga Patrícia Vasconcelos Rocha , Ponte Vera Maria Rodrigues 
Published: September 2015

<p>A presente pesquisa teve dois objetivos principais: levantar os graus de cumprimento às orientações de divulgação definidas no CPC 12 pelas companhias listadas na Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros (BM&amp;FBovespa); e identificar os incentivos capazes de explicar a aderência das firmas ao <em>disclosure</em> além da exigência normativa. Para tanto, a partir do normativo, construiu-se métrica de pesquisa contendo 17 itens passíveis de divulgação pelas firmas, e, em seguida, verificou-se a sua aderência por 315 companhias listadas na BM&amp;FBovespa. Constatou-se que as empresas apresentaram baixo grau de cumprimento às orientações de divulgação. A partir de testes de diferenças entre médias, verificou-se que as variáveis Setor Construção, Internacionalização, Firma de Auditoria e Governança Corporativa estão associadas às empresas de maiores níveis de <em>disclosure</em>. Além disso, com base na Análise de Regressão, não se pode rejeitar a hipótese de que o<em> disclosure</em> relativo ao Ajuste a Valor Presente pode ser explicado por fatores econômicos, patrimoniais e institucionais das firmas.</p>
ATIVOS BIOLÓGICOS NA DVA: O QUE VEM SENDO DIVULGADO NO BRASIL
Authors: Salotti Bruno Meirelles , Santos Ariovaldo Dos 
Published: September 2015

<p>A Demonstração do Valor Adicionado (DVA) é uma demonstração contábil que evidencia a riqueza criada pela entidade e como essa riqueza é distribuída. Sua divulgação tornou-se obrigatória às companhias abertas no Brasil a partir de 2008. O objetivo desse trabalho é estudar como vem sendo feita a divulgação de mensurações a valor justo de ativos biológicos na DVA. Esses ativos foram escolhidos pois, desde 2010, por ocasião da adoção das Normas Internacionais de Relatório Financeiro (IFRS) no Brasil, os ativos biológicos passaram a ser avaliados a valor justo. A partir da base de dados da Fipecafi, foram selecionadas todas as empresas que em 2012 destacaram saldo de ativos biológicos em seu Balanço Patrimonial e que, ao mesmo tempo, divulgaram a DVA. A partir desse critério, foram selecionadas 54 empresas. Destas, apenas 39 adotaram o valor justo para a mensuração dos ativos biológicos. Os resultados revelam que a ampla maioria das empresas da amostra que adotou o valor justo na avaliação desses ativos não evidenciou explicitamente tais efeitos na DVA (32 casos) e as poucas empresas que o fizeram utilizaram classificações distintas. Esses resultados demonstram aos preparadores e auditores a necessidade de uma melhor apresentação dessas informações na DVA e ressaltam aos usuários a necessidade de maiores cuidados na análise e interpretação das informações divulgadas nessa demonstração. As evidências encontradas podem motivar o Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis a avaliar a necessidade de revisão do CPC 09 com o objetivo de clarificar o tratamento dos ganhos e perdas a valor justo na DVA.<strong></strong></p>
Epidemiology and Mechanisms of De Novo and Persistent Hypertension in the Postpartum Period
Authors: Goel Arvind , Maski Manish R. , Bajracharya Surichhya , Wenger Julia B. , Zhang Dongsheng , Salahuddin Saira , Shahul Sajid S. , Thadhani Ravi , Seely Ellen W. , Karumanchi S. Ananth , Rana Sarosh 
Published: September 2015

Background—
The pathophysiology of hypertension in the immediate postpartum period is unclear.

Methods and Results—

We studied 988 consecutive women admitted to a tertiary medical center for cesarean section of a singleton pregnancy. The angiogenic factors soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 and placental growth factor, both biomarkers associated with preeclampsia, were measured on antepartum blood samples. We then performed multivariable analyses to determine factors associated with the risk of developing postpartum hypertension. Of the 988 women, 184 women (18.6%) developed postpartum hypertension. Of the 184 women, 77 developed de novo hypertension in the postpartum period, and the remainder had a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy in the antepartum period. A higher body mass index and history of diabetes mellitus were associated with the development of postpartum hypertension. The antepartum ratio of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 to placental growth factor positively correlated with blood pressures in the postpartum period (highest postpartum systolic blood pressure [
r
=0.29,
P
<0.001] and diastolic blood pressure [
r
=0.28,
P
<0.001]). Moreover, the highest tertile of the antepartum ratio of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 to placental growth factor was independently associated with postpartum hypertension (de novo hypertensive group: odds ratio, 2.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.19–4.25;
P
=0.01; in the persistent hypertensive group: odds ratio, 2.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.12–6.05;
P
=0.02) in multivariable analysis. Women developing postpartum hypertension had longer hospitalizations than those who remained normotensive (6.5±3.5 versus 5.7±3.4 days;
P
<0.001).

Conclusions—
Hypertension in the postpartum period is relatively common and is associated with prolonged hospitalization. Women with postpartum hypertension have clinical risk factors and an antepartum plasma angiogenic profile similar to those found in women with preeclampsia. These data suggest that women with postpartum hypertension may represent a group of women with subclinical or unresolved preeclampsia.
A tale of five cities: Using recycling frameworks to analyse inclusive recycling performance
Authors: Scheinberg Anne , Simpson Michael 
Published: September 2015

‘Recycling’ is a source of much confusion, particularly when comparing solid waste systems in high-income countries with those in low- and middle-income countries. Few analysts can explain why the performance and structure of recycling appears to be so different in rich countries from poor ones, nor why well-meaning efforts to implement recycling so often fail. The analysis of policy drivers, and the Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) framework, come close to an explanation. This article builds on these earlier works, focusing in on five cities profiled in the 2010 UN-Habitat publication (Scheinberg A, Wilson DC and Rodic L (2010) Solid Waste Management in the World’s Cities. UN-Habitat’s Third Global Report on the State of Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities. Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK: Earthscan Publications). Data from these cities and others provides the basis for developing a new tool to analyse inclusive recycling performance. The points of departure are the institutional and economic relationships between the service chain, the public obligation to remove waste, pollution, and other forms of disvalue, and the value chain, a system of private enterprises trading valuable materials and providing markets for recyclables. The methodological innovation is to use flows of materials and money as indicators of institutional relationships, and is an extension of process flow diagramming. The authors are using the term ‘recycling framework analysis’ to describe this new form of institutional analysis. The diagrams increase our understanding of the factors that contribute to high-performance inclusive recycling. By focusing on institutional relationships, the article seeks to improve analysis, planning, and ultimately, outcomes, of recycling interventions.
Pedogenic, palustrine and groundwater dolomite formation in non-marine bentonites (Bavaria, Germany)
Authors: Köster M.H. , Gilg H.A. 
Published: September 2015

AbstractDolomite and calcite in Bavarian bentonites, southern Germany, were investigated using petrography, field-emission scanning electron microscopy and stable isotope geochemistry to explore the role of authigenic carbonate formation during bentonitization. Pedogenic, palustrine and groundwater carbonates were distinguished on the basis of X-ray diffraction, micromorphological and stable isotope analysis. The δ13CV-PDB and δ18OV-PDB values of dolomite range from −8.0% to −6.1% and −5.4% to −3.4%, respectively. Calcites show a range from −11.9% to −8.1% for carbon and from −9.1% to −6.2% for oxygen. Carbon isotope compositions imply a C3-plant-dominated carbon source and repeated wetting and drying cycles. The oxygen isotope data points to an evaporation and temperature controlled δ18OV-SMOW value of meteoric water of −7.0% to −4.8%. A syngenetic to early diagenetic timing of dolomitization is indicated, suggesting both dolomite and bentonite formation in non-saline, non-arid and repeatedly partially-oxygenated and reducing soil and groundwater environments during pedogenesis.