Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Type I IFN Signaling Is Dispensable during Secondary Viral Infection

Innate immune responses in general, and type I interferons (T1IFNs) in particular, play an important and often essential role during primary viral infections, by directly combatting the virus and by maximizing the primary adaptive immune response. Several studies have suggested that T1IFNs also contribute very substantially to the secondary (recall) response; they are thought (i) to be required to drive the early attrition of memory T cells, (ii) to support the subsequent expansion of surviving virus-specific memory cells, and (iii) to assist in the suppression and clearance of the infectious agent. However, many of these observations were predicated upon models in which T1IFN signaling was interrupted prior to a primary immune response, raising the possibility that the resulting memory cells might be intrinsically abnormal. We have directly addressed this by using an inducible-Cre model system in which the host remains genetically-intact during the primary response to infection, and in which T1IFN signaling can be effectively ablated prior to secondary viral challenge. We report that, in stark contrast to primary infection, T1IFN signaling is not required during the recall response. IFNαβR-deficient memory CD8+ and CD4+ memory T cells undergo attrition and expansion with kinetics that are indistinguishable from those of receptor-sufficient cells. Moreover, even in the absence of functional T1IFN signaling, the host’s immune capacity to rapidly suppress, and then to eradicate, a secondary infection remains intact. Thus, this study shows that T1IFN signaling is dispensable during the recall response to a virus infection. Moreover, two broader implications may be drawn. First, a T cell’s requirement for a cytokine is highly dependent on the cell’s maturation / differentiation status. Consequently, second, these data underscore the importance of evaluating a gene’s impact by modulating its expression or function in a temporally-controllable manner.
Factors Influencing the Identification of Sustainable Opportunities by SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Zambia

This study uses the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) to examine the factors influencing the identification of sustainable opportunities among SMEs in a developing country, Zambia. The factors under investigation include knowledge of the natural/social environment, perception of threats to the natural/social environment, altruism towards others and entrepreneurial knowledge. We interviewed 220 owner-managers in the trading and service sector who supply goods and services to the mining industry in Zambia. We found that altruism towards others was partially supported by our empirical results while the positive effects of knowledge of the natural/social environment and perception of threats to the natural/social environment on the identification of sustainable opportunities were not supported. Contrary to our expectations, entrepreneurial knowledge does not positively moderate the relationship between explanatory variables and the identification of sustainable opportunities. In sum, we found only limited empirical support for the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) concerning the identification of sustainable opportunities. Our findings contribute to literature on entrepreneurship and sustainable opportunity identification by showing what factors influence the identification of sustainable opportunities. This can help us to create awareness among entrepreneurs regarding the effects of entrepreneurial activities on the environment and society; consequently, stimulating entrepreneurs to identify sustainable opportunities.
Jumps in Bond Yields at Known Times

We construct a no-arbitrage term structure model with jumps in the entire state vector at deterministic times but of random magnitudes. Jump risk premia are allowed for. We show that the model implies a closed-form representation of yields as a time-inhomogenous ane function of the state vector. We apply the model to the term structure of US Treasury rates, estimated at the daily frequency, allowing for jumps on days of employment report announcements. Our model can match the empirical fact that the term structure of interest rate volatility has a hump-shaped pattern on employment report days (but not on other days). The model also produces patterns in bond risk premia that are consistent with the empirical nding that much of the time-variation in excess bond returns accrues at times of important macroeconomic data releases.
T-Commerce : an Investigation of Non-Adoption in South Africa

This paper describes an exploratory study into the reasons why T-Commerce has not taken off in South Africa. Although more South African households own TVs than computers, there has been little or no adoption of T-Commerce contrary to its success in Europe and the USA. The study adopted a qualitative approach to investigate this through interviews with nine users and five providers. Relevant determinants of the non-adoption of T-Commerce where found to be negative perceptions about performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences and limited facilitation conditions in order to conduct T-Commerce. These determinants where found to be moderated in various degrees by access levels to DSTV, income and age. However, the two main reasons for non-adoption of T-Commerce were a lack of awareness on the side of the consumers and the high costs from the vendor perspective.
What is the psychological appeal of the serial rapist model? Worldviews predicting endorsement

The serial rapist model claims that a small number of intentional, repeat offenders are responsible for the majority of sexual assaults on college campuses. The model has formed the dominant argument for some of the most popular forms of campus intervention programs and is cited by high profile advocates and policymakers. Despite enthusiasm for the serial rapist model, it is not empirically well-supported and is contradicted by recent robust data. In this article, we ask: why does the serial rapist model have such broad and enduring appeal? In two US-based samples, one convenience and one representative, we find that people's endorsement of the serial rapist model correlates with worldviews that cohere around ideas of a just and good status quo, and a preference for simple stories. Specifically, we find a positive relationship between endorsement of the serial rapist model and belief in a just world, system justification, social dominance orientation, need for closure and essentialism.
Experiences of depression in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT People from different cultural settings may differ in their presentation with depression. Exploration of experiences was assessed through interviews with 20 Javanese adults aged from 18 to 55 years in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, who had mild to moderate depression. Five themes emerged from the interviews as characteristic of Javanese experiences of depression: internalised and externalised emotions, loss of interest in social and religious activities, disturbance in cognition, the presence of physical symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Javanese respondents used particular terms to explain their depression. Attending to how people’s expression and experiences of their depression might enhance the capacity of clinicians to understand cultural variation, in order to respond appropriately to their clients.
Plasma kisspeptin: a potential biomarker of tumor metastasis in patients with ovarian carcinoma.

To the Editor: More than 15 000 women in the US die from ovarian carcinoma annually (1). The most important determinant of survival in ovarian carcinoma cases is tumor stage. Most patients presenting with disease confined to the ovaries (stage 1) can be cured, with a 5-year survival rate of >90% (1). Spread of the tumor outside the ovaries (stages 2 to 4) confers a much poorer prognosis, however. Cure is uncommon in patients with tumor spread into the pelvis (stage 2), the abdomen (stage 3), or the liver/extra-abdominal region (stage 4), with a 5-year survival rate as low as 22% (1). It is therefore critically important to develop novel biochemical markers of ovarian carcinoma to stratify patients according to prognosis. Serum cancer antigen 125 (CA125) is a useful marker for screening and monitoring disease response but cannot be reliably used for staging, because 20% of tumors do not secrete CA125 (2). There is currently no diagnostic marker of tumor spread in patients with diagnosed ovarian carcinoma. Kisspeptin, a peptide that activates the kisspeptin receptor, is encoded by the KISS1 (KiSS-1 metastasis-suppressor) gene. KISS1 expression negatively correlates with metastasis risk in lung, pancreatic, esophago-gastrointestinal, endometrial, renal cell, and bladder carcinomas (3). In ovarian carcinoma, low KISS1 expression is associated with aggressive disease and a poor prognosis, and KISS1 overexpression inhibits cell migration and reduces metastasis (4). Kisspeptin is therefore a putative metastasis suppressor in ovarian …
Cytokine Signatures in Mucocutaneous and Ocular Behçet’s Disease

Behçet’s disease (BD) is a multi-systemic inflammatory disorder consisting of recurrent oral aphthosis, genital ulcers, and chronic relapsing bilateral uveitis; however, many other organs may be affected. Several pro-inflammatory cytokines, mainly derived from Th1 and Th17 lymphocytes, seem to be involved in different pathogenic pathways leading to development of the clinical manifestations. On this basis, the primary aim of our study was to compare a core set of pro-inflammatory cytokines between patients with BD and healthy control (HC). The secondary goal was to evaluate potential correlations between these putative circulating biomarkers, the status of disease activity, and the specific organ involvement at the time of sample collection. Fifty-four serum samples were collected from 46 BD patients (17 males, 29 females, mean age 45.5 ± 11.3 years), and 19 HC (10 males, 9 females, mean age 43 ± 8.3 years). Twenty-five serum cytokines (APRIL/TNFS13, BAFF/TNFSF13B, sCD30/TNFRSF8, sCD163, Chitinase3-like1, gp130/sIL-6Rb, IFNb, sIL-6Ra, IL-10, IL-11, IL-19, IL-20, IL-26, IL-27 (p28), IL-28A/IFN-lambda2, IL-29/IFN-lambda1, IL-32, IL-34, IL-35, LIGHT/TNFSF-14, Pentraxin-3, sTNF-R1, sTNF-R2, TSLP, and TWEAK/TNFSF-12) were simultaneously quantified using a Bio-Rad cytokine bead arrays. Serum concentration of sTNF-R1 (p < 0.01) and sTNF-R2 (p < 0.01) resulted higher in both active and inactive BD than HC, while Chitinase3-like1 (p < 0.05) and gp130/sIL-6Rb (p < 0.01) serum levels were significantly higher in inactive BD, and IL-26 (p < 0.01) in active BD than HC. No differences were observed between inactive and active BD group. In addition, we observed that gp130/sIL-6Rb, sIL-6Ra, IL-35, and TSLP serum levels were significantly enhanced in patients with mucocutaneous manifestations plus ocular involvement (MO-BD) compared to subgroup with only mucocutaneous involvement (M-BD). Our findings may suggest a signature of IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α as well as of Th17 response in BD patients due to increased levels of gp130/sIL-6Rb, sTNF-R1, sTNF-R2, IL-26, respectively. This evidence could contribute to improve the knowledge regarding the role of these citokines in the induction of specific BD clinical features.
Cannabinoids and the skeleton: From marijuana to reversal of bone loss

The active component of marijuana, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, activates the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors, thus mimicking the action of endogenous cannabinoids. CB1 is predominantly neuronal and mediates the cannabinoid psychotropic effects. CB2 is predominantly expressed in peripheral tissues, mainly in pathological conditions. So far the main endocannabinoids, anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, have been found in bone at ‘brain’ levels. The CB1 receptor is present mainly in skeletal sympathetic nerve terminals, thus regulating the adrenergic tonic restrain of bone formation. CB2 is expressed in osteoblasts and osteoclasts, stimulates bone formation, and inhibits bone resorption. Because low bone mass is the only spontaneous phenotype so far reported in CB2 mutant mice, it appears that the main physiologic involvement of CB2 is associated with maintaining bone remodeling at balance, thus protecting the skeleton against age-related bone loss. Indeed, in humans, polymorphisms in CNR2, the gene encoding CB2, are strongly associated with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Preclinical studies have shown that a synthetic CB2-specific agonist rescues ovariectomy-induced bone loss. Taken together, the reports on cannabinoid receptors in mice and humans pave the way for the development of 1) diagnostic measures to identify osteoporosis-susceptible polymorphisms in CNR2, and 2) cannabinoid drugs to combat osteoporosis.
On Schur Rings over Cyclic Groups, II

In this paper, we introduce the notion of wedge product of Schur rings. We show that for any nontrivial Schur ringS over a cyclic groupG, if there is a subgroupH such that Σg eHg Σg∈Hg ∉S, thenS is either a dot product or wedge product for some Schur rings over smaller cyclic groups.
A test of the compensatory mortality hypothesis in mountain lions: A management experiment in West‐Central Montana

Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are widely hunted for recreation, population control, and to reduce conflict with humans, but much is still unknown regarding the effects of harvest on mountain lion population dynamics. Whether human hunting mortality on mountain lions is additive or compensatory is debated. Our primary objective was to investigate population effects of harvest on mountain lions. We addressed this objective with a management experiment of 3 years of intensive harvest followed by a 6-year recovery period. In December 2000, after 3 years of hunting, approximately 66% of a single game management unit within the Blackfoot River watershed in Montana was closed to lion hunting, effectively creating a refuge representing approximately 12% (915km 2 ) of the total study area (7,908km 2 ). Hunting continued in the remainder of the study area, but harvest levels declined from approximately 9/1,000km 2 in 2001 to 2/1,000km 2 in 2006 as a result of the protected area and reduced quotas outside. We radiocollared 117 mountain lions from 1998 to 2006. We recorded known fates for 63 animals, and right-censored the remainder. Although hunting directly reduced survival, parameters such as litter size, birth interval, maternity, age at dispersal, and age of first reproduction were not significantly affected. Sensitivity analysis showed that female survival and maternity were most influential on population growth. Life-stage simulation analysis (LSA) demonstrated the effect of hunting on the population dynamics of mountain lions. In our non-hunted population, reproduction (kitten survival and maternity) accounted for approximately 62% of the variation in growth rate, whereas adult female survival accounted for 30%. Hunting reversed this, increasing the reliance of population growth on adult female survival (45% of the variation in population growth), and away from reproduction (12%). Our research showed that harvest at the levels implemented in this study did not affect population productivity (i.e., maternity), but had an additive effect on mountain lion mortality, and therefore population growth. Through harvest, wildlife managers have the ability to control mountain lion populations. Published 2014. Thisarticle is a U.S. Government work and isin thepublic domain in the USA.
Mixed analog-digital multirate signal processing

To achieve higher levels of integration there has been a growing interest in recent years in designing systems containing both analog and digital functions on a single integrated circuit. In most cases, these are inherently multirate systems because of the different sampling rates employed at various stages of the system. This paper reviews some recent developments in this area of integrated multirate analog-digital systems, with a special emphasis on their applications to communication systems.
Temporal changes in patient characteristics and prior pharmacotherapy in patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation: a Danish nationwide cohort study.

AIMS Trends in patient selection and pharmacotherapy before radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of atrial fibrillation are not well studied. We examined temporal trends in RFA utilization on a nationwide scale in Denmark. METHODS AND RESULTS Using the cross-linkage of nationwide registers, 3302 atrial fibrillation patients treated with 'first-ever' RFA between 2000 and 2009 were identified. Median age was 59 years (interquartile range 53-65) and 73.8% were males. From 2000-01 to 2008-09 the median age increased from 55 (48-61) to 61 (55-66) years (P < 0.0001). The proportion of patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus increased from 34.8 to 50.6% (P < 0.0001) and 2.2 to 5.9% (P < 0.01), respectively. The proportion of patients with heart failure, vascular disease or previous stroke remained unchanged. The percentage of patients with CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥2 increased from 23.9 to 41.5% (P < 0.0001). The proportion of patients who did not receive any class Ic or class III antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) within 2 years prior to 'first-ever' RFA increased from 8.7 to 22.7% (P < 0.0001). Prior use of sotalol and class Ic AADs decreased from 63 to 6.3% (P < 0.0001) and from 35 to 24% (P < 0.0001), respectively. Amiodarone and beta-blockers prior to RFA were used in 36 and 82% of all patients, respectively, without significant temporal changes. CONCLUSION During a 10-year period, RFA was increasingly performed in older patients with higher co-morbidity, and without prior trial of antiarrhythmic therapy. These findings may provide a framework to understand the outcomes of RFA.
Perceived social support, received social support, and depression among clergy

We argue that perceived support is best conceptualized more as a measure of how an individual appraises his/her situation rather than a true reflection of how much support he/she receives. To test this theory, we used survey data from the Clergy Health Initiative Panel Survey to examine the relationship between perceived and received social support and their association with depressive symptoms in clergy (N = 1,288). Overall, analyses revealed perceived support had a weak association with received support. Greater perceived support had a significant relationship with lower depressive symptoms. In contrast, greater received support had only a small relationship with lower depressive symptoms, which was fully mediated by perceived support. Our results raise questions about the effectiveness of many clergy social support interventions, which often aim to boost the quality and/or quantity of received social support. We suggest it may be more advantageous to boost perceptions of social support, possibly through cognitive reframing or positive mental health interventions.
THE APPLICATION OF TASK-BASED LEARNING (TBL) APPROACH TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING SKILL

In the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) and of English as a second language (ESL), writing might be a very hard language skill for learners to master. To succeed in writing, in presenting their ideas, the students need to equip themselves with at least a number of fundamental abilities such as how to create topic sentence, controlling idea, supporting sentences, concluding sentence, etc. This research was primarily conducted to improve students’ academic writing skill through the application of Task-Based Learning (TBL) approach and to find out the students’ responses after learning academic writing skill through the application of TBL approach. This research is Classroom Action Research (CAR) which was performed in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of four steps, namely planning, action, observation and reflection. There are 21 students as the subject of the research. The analysis of quantitative data showed that the students’ mean score increased continuously from 64,86 in the pretest, 74,71 in the posttest of cycle 1 to 86,14 in the posttest of cycle 2. The analysis of qualitative data showed that the application of TBL approach could increase the students’ interest, motivation and involvement in the academic writing classes. It is advisable that teachers or lecturers of English language should try applying TBL approach as one of approaches in order to improve their students’ academic writing skill.
Emotion regulation difficulties in anorexia nervosa before and after inpatient weight restoration.

OBJECTIVE This study examined: (1) changes in emotion regulation difficulties in underweight inpatients with anorexia nervosa (AN) following weight restoration, (2) differences in emotion regulation between AN subtypes at acute and weight-restored stages of illness. METHOD Repeated measure analyses of variance examined changes in scores on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer, J Psychopathol Behav Assess, 26, 41-54, 2004) and other clinical variables in a group of inpatients with AN from hospital admission (N = 65) to weight restoration (N = 51). Correlations between BMI and DERS scores at both time points were examined. Emotion regulation difficulties were compared between individuals with AN, restricting type (AN-R) and AN, binge/purge type (AN-BP) at both time points using multivariate analysis of covariance. RESULTS All clinical variables, except for the DERS, significantly improved with weight restoration (p < .001). There were no associations between BMI and DERS prior to or after weight restoration and AN subtypes did not significantly differ in emotion regulation difficulties. DISCUSSION Unlike other clinical variables, emotion regulation difficulties in AN did not improve with weight restoration. In addition, both subtypes of AN appear to have similar difficulties with emotion regulation. The treatment of AN might be enhanced by focusing on improving emotion regulation abilities.
Channel smoothing: efficient robust smoothing of low-level signal features

In this paper, we present a new and efficient method to implement robust smoothing of low-level signal features: B-spline channel smoothing. This method consists of three steps: encoding of the signal features into channels, averaging of the channels, and decoding of the channels. We show that linear smoothing of channels is equivalent to robust smoothing of the signal features if we make use of quadratic B-splines to generate the channels. The linear decoding from B-spline channels allows the derivation of a robust error norm, which is very similar to Tukey's biweight error norm. We compare channel smoothing with three other robust smoothing techniques: nonlinear diffusion, bilateral filtering, and mean-shift filtering, both theoretically and on a 2D orientation-data smoothing task. Channel smoothing is found to be superior in four respects: it has a lower computational complexity, it is easy to implement, it chooses the global minimum error instead of the nearest local minimum, and it can also be used on nonlinear spaces, such as orientation space.
On Synchronization and Control of Coupled Wilson-cowan Neural oscillators

This paper investigates the complex dynamics, synchronization and control of chaos in a system of strongly connected Wilson{Cowan neural oscillators. Some typical synchronized periodic solutions are analyzed by using the Poincar e mapping method, for which bifurcation diagrams are obtained. It is shown that topological change of the synchronization mode is mainly caused and carried out by the Neimark{Sacker bifurcation. Finally, a simple feedback control method is presented for stabilizing an in-phase synchronizing periodic solution embedded in the chaotic attractor of a higher-dimensional model of such coupled neural oscillators.