BACKGROUND We investigated the differences in HBsAg kinetics at different levels of viremia in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB). METHODS We compared HBsAg levels among HBeAg-negative CHB patients with persistently undetectable HBV DNA (≤20 IU/mL; Group A, n = 100), HBV DNA 20-2,000 IU/mL (Group B, n = 100), and HBV DNA >2,000 IU/mL (Group C, n = 100). HBsAg and...

Ascaris lumbricoides, the large human roundworm, infects approximately 1,200 million people, with children under the age of 15 being particularly at risk. Monte Carlo quantitative microbial risk analyses were undertaken to estimate median Ascaris infection risks in children under 15 from eating raw carrots irrigated with wastewater. For a tolerable additional disease burden of 10(-5) DALY (disa...

New Result EREW PRAM: Compute gcd(x, y) with probability 1 − o(1) in O(n log log n/ log n) time using n6+ processors. [16] Reduction Our inputs are integers x, y with x ≥ y > 0. • Choose a prime bound B > 0, and assume p | x or p | y implies p > B. • Choose a at random, 1 ≤ a ≤ y − 1. • Compute r := ax mod y. • Remove all prime divisors ≤ B from r producing s. Thus P (r/s) ≤ B. We use (x, y) → ...

In binary jumbled pattern matching we wish to preprocess a binary string S in order to answer queries (i, j) which ask for a substring of S that is of size i and has exactly j 1-bits. The problem naturally generalizes to node-labeled trees and graphs by replacing “substring” with “connected subgraph”. In this paper, we give an n/2 n/ log log n) 1/2 time solution for both strings and trees. This...

The shortest common superstring (SCS) problem has been studied at great length because of its connections to the de novo assembly problem in computational genomics. The base problem is APXcomplete, but several generalizations of the problem have also been studied. In particular, previous results include that SCS with Negative strings (SCSN) is in Log-APX (though there is no known hardness resul...

In this work we report on a transaction log analysis of the Dutch Folktale Database, an online repository of extensively annotated folktales ranging from old fairy tales to recent urban legends, written in (old) Dutch, Frisian and a variety of Dutch dialects. We observed that users have a preference for subgenres within folktales such as traditional legends and urban legends and prefer stories ...

The Divide & Conquer fast direct method for solving the Poisson equation in rectangular domains is formulated in the classical block cyclic reduction manner, demonstrating the close relationship between the two approaches. Diierent ways of solving the arising reduced systems are considered. The partial solution approach leads to the standard Divide & Conquer method, while the new variants are o...

UV light inactivation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Middlebrook 7H9 broth and whole and semiskim milk was investigated using a laboratory-scale UV machine that incorporated static mixers within UV-penetrable pipes. UV treatment proved to be less effective in killing M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis suspended in milk (0.5- to 1.0-log(10) reduction per 1,000 mJ/ml) than that s...

The death kinetics of Aspergillus niger spores under high-pressure carbonation were investigated with respect to the concentration of dissolved CO2 (dCO2) and treatment temperature. All of the inactivation followed first-order death kinetics. The D value (decimal reduction time, or the time required for a 1-log-cycle reduction in the microbial population) in the saline carbonated at 10 MPa was ...

Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is an antimicrobial agent recognized for its disinfectant properties. In this study, the sanitizing effects of ClO2 solutions against Salmonella enterica and Erwinia carotovora in water, on tomato surfaces, and between loads of tomatoes were evaluated. In water, ClO2 at 5, 10, and 20 ppm caused a > or = 5-log reduction of S. enterica within 6, 4, and 2 s, respectively. H...