Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Skin Microbiome in Healthy and Allergic Dogs

Background Changes in the microbial populations on the skin of animals have traditionally been evaluated using conventional microbiology techniques. The sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes has revealed that the human skin is inhabited by a highly diverse and variable microbiome that had previously not been demonstrated by culture-based methods. The goals of this study were to describe the microbiome inhabiting different areas of the canine skin, and to compare the skin microbiome of healthy and allergic dogs. Methodology/Principal Findings DNA extracted from superficial skin swabs from healthy (n = 12) and allergic dogs (n = 6) from different regions of haired skin and mucosal surfaces were used for 454-pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Principal coordinates analysis revealed clustering for the different skin sites across all dogs, with some mucosal sites and the perianal regions clustering separately from the haired skin sites. The rarefaction analysis revealed high individual variability between samples collected from healthy dogs and between the different skin sites. Higher species richness and microbial diversity were observed in the samples from haired skin when compared to mucosal surfaces or mucocutaneous junctions. In all examined regions, the most abundant phylum and family identified in the different regions of skin and mucosal surfaces were Proteobacteria and Oxalobacteriaceae. The skin of allergic dogs had lower species richness when compared to the healthy dogs. The allergic dogs had lower proportions of the Betaproteobacteria Ralstonia spp. when compared to the healthy dogs. Conclusions/Significance The study demonstrates that the skin of dogs is inhabited by much more rich and diverse microbial communities than previously thought using culture-based methods. Our sequence data reveal high individual variability between samples collected from different patients. Differences in species richness was also seen between healthy and allergic dogs, with allergic dogs having lower species richness when compared to healthy dogs.
Robust Growth Determinants

This paper investigates the robustness of determinants of economic growth in the presence of model uncertainty, parameter heterogeneity and outliers. The robust model averaging approach introduced in the paper uses a flexible and parsimonious mixture modeling that allows for fat-tailed errors compared to the normal benchmark case. Applying robust model averaging to growth determinants, the paper finds that eight out of eighteen variables found to be significantly related to economic growth by Sala-i-Martin et al. (2004) are sensitive to deviations from benchmark model averaging. For example, the GDP shares of mining or government consumption, are no longer robust or economically significant once deviations from the normal benchmark assumptions are allowed. The paper identifies outlying observations - most notably Botswana - in explaining economic growth in a cross-section of countries.
Bluetongue

ENY-743, a 4-page illustrated fact sheet by Walter J. Tabachnick, Chelsea T. Smartt, and C. Roxanne Connelly, answers common questions about this viral disease of ruminant livestock transmitted by biting midges, the virus, clinical signs of bluetongue, economic impact, transmission, diagnosis, cure, distribution, presence in Florida, and prevention. Includes references. Published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, April 2008. ENY-743/IN768: Bluetongue (ufl.edu)
Studying Socially Assistive Robots in Their Organizational Context: Studies with PARO in a Nursing Home

We explore human-robot interaction (HRI) with socially assistive robots within a broader social context instead of one-on-one interaction. In this paper, we describe two in situ studies of the socially assistive robot PARO in a local nursing home -- one in a controlled small group setting, and one in free-form interaction in a public space -- as well as our future research agenda to facilitate socially situated exploration of assistive robotics in the wild. We particularly focus on how people and institutions scaffold successful HRI, and identify how social mediation, individual sensemaking, and other social factors affect the success of HRI.
Muslim minorities in the West : visible and invisible

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 The American Experience Chapter 3 Spreading the Word: Communicating Islam in America Chapter 4 The Politics of Transfiguration: Constitutive Aspects of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 Chapter 5 American Muslim Paradox Chapter 6 The Greatest Migration? Chapter 7 Islamic Party in North America: A Quiet Storm of Political Activism Chapter 8 The Complexity of Belonging: Sunni Muslim Immigrants in Chicago Chapter 9 Being Arab and Becoming Americanized: Mediated Assimilation in Metropolitan Detroit Part 10 The European Experience Chapter 11 Invisible Muslims: The Sahelians in France Chapter 12 The Northern Way: Muslim Communities in Norway Chapter 13 Turks in Germany: Muslim Idenity "Between" States Part 14 The Experience in Areas of European Settlement Chapter 15 The Muslim Communities in Australia: The Building of a Community Chapter 16 Muslim Women as Citizens in Australia: Perth as a Case Study Chapter 17 Muslims in New Zealand Chapter 18 Muslims in South Africa 19 Muslims in the Caribbean: Ethnic Sojourners and Citizens
eCEO: an efficient Cloud Epistasis cOmputing model in genome-wide association study

MOTIVATION Recent studies suggested that a combination of multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could have more significant associations with a specific phenotype. However, to discover epistasis, the epistatic interactions of SNPs, in a large number of SNPs, is a computationally challenging task. We are, therefore, motivated to develop efficient and effective solutions for identifying epistatic interactions of SNPs. RESULTS In this article, we propose an efficient Cloud-based Epistasis cOmputing (eCEO) model for large-scale epistatic interaction in genome-wide association study (GWAS). Given a large number of combinations of SNPs, our eCEO model is able to distribute them to balance the load across the processing nodes. Moreover, our eCEO model can efficiently process each combination of SNPs to determine the significance of its association with the phenotype. We have implemented and evaluated our eCEO model on our own cluster of more than 40 nodes. The experiment results demonstrate that the eCEO model is computationally efficient, flexible, scalable and practical. In addition, we have also deployed our eCEO model on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Our study further confirms its efficiency and ease of use in a public cloud. AVAILABILITY The source code of eCEO is available at http://www.comp.nus.edu. sg/~wangzk/eCEO.html. CONTACT wangzhengkui@nus.edu. sg.
Preventive services received by adolescents with cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease.

OBJECTIVE To determine the proportion of adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) or sickle cell disease (SCD) who reported speaking with their physicians about health-promoting and risky behaviors and whether the rate of discussions varied by whether the main physician was a primary care provider or specialist. HYPOTHESIS Adolescents reporting a primary care provider as their main physician would be more likely to have received risk behavior counseling and other preventive services. DESIGN Survey. SETTING Comprehensive CF and SCD centers in 5 North Carolina referral hospitals. PARTICIPANTS Three hundred twenty-one (74%) of 437 adolescents aged 12 through 19 years (mean age, 15.6 years; 51% male) with CF or SCD identified through center registries. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sources of health care, main physician, and recall of discussions with physicians regarding sexual issues, substance use, weight or dieting, safety issues, depression, and violence. RESULTS Adolescents with CF (53%) or SCD (46%) most commonly reported a specialist as their main physician. For those (83%) who saw their main physician in the past year, adolescents with SCD reported counseling rates ranging from 43% for sexuality to 15% for weapon carrying or fighting. For adolescents with CF, rates ranged from 65% for weight and dieting to 30% for sexuality and 6% for weapon carrying or fighting. Adolescents whose main physician was a primary care provider were no more or less likely to report counseling for any topic (all P>.05). CONCLUSIONS Physicians, regardless of specialty, infrequently discussed common behavioral issues with these adolescents with CF or SCD. A coordinated effort between primary care physicians and specialists may be helpful in delivering optimal preventive services to this population.
Expressions of Fas ligand and other apoptosis-related genes and their prognostic significance in epithelial ovarian neoplasms

Expression of apoptosis-related proteins, bcl-2, Bax, Fas and Fas ligand (L), in ovarian epithelial neoplasms together with its clinical relevance was examined by immunohistochemistry. They included 36 cases with adenoma, 33 with low potential malignancy (LPM) and 63 with carcinomas. bcl-2 expression was observed in 14 of 36 cases (39%) with adenoma, five of 33 (15%) with LPM (P< 0.05) and 12 of 63 (19%) with carcinoma (P< 0.05). Cases with bcl-2 expression showed more favourable prognosis than those without, but the difference was not statistically significant. There was no difference in frequency of Bax and Fas expression between each histologic category. Fas L expression was observed in one of 36 cases (3%) with adenoma, but in 12 of 33 (36%) with LPM (P< 0.001) and 42 of 63 (67%) with carcinoma (P< 0.0001). In carcinomas, cases expressing Fas L showed a less favourable prognosis than those without (P= 0.02). Density of CD8+ lymphocytes, possibly cytotoxic T-cells, was higher in serous carcinoma with negative Fas L expression than those with positive Fas L expression. These findings suggest that Fas L expressing carcinomas induce apoptosis in infiltrating CTL with Fas expression, and escape from immune surveillance. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
THE DETERMINANTS OF THE TUNISIAN BANKING INDUSTRY PROFITABILITY: PANEL EVIDENCE

This paper investigates the impact of bank’s characteristics, financial structure and macroeconomic indicators on bank’s net interest margins and profitability in the Tunisian banking industry for the 1980-2000 period. First, individual bank characteristics explain a substantial part of the within-country variation in bank interest margins and net profitability. High net interest margin and profitability tend to be associated with banks that hold a relatively high amount of capital, and with large overheads. Other important internal determinants of bank’s interest margins bank loans which have a positive and significant impact. The size has mostly negative and significant coefficients on the net interest margins. This latter result may simply reflect scale inefficiencies. Second, the paper finds that the macro-economic indicators such inflation and growth rates have no impact on bank’s interest margins and profitability. Third, turning to financial structure and its impact on bank’s interest margin and profitability, we find that concentration is less beneficial to the Tunisian commercial banks than competition. Stock market development has a positive effect on bank profitability. This reflects the complementarities between bank and stock market growth. We have found that the disintermediation of the Tunisian financial system is favourable to the banking sector profitability.
Influencing Factors and Applicability of the Viability EMA-qPCR for a Detection and Quantification of Campylobacter Cells from Water Samples

In recent years, increasing numbers of human campylobacteriosis cases caused by contaminated water have been reported. As the culture-based detection of Campylobacter is time consuming and can yield false-negative results, the suitability of a quantitative real-time PCR method in combination with an ethidium monoazide pretreatment of samples (EMA-qPCR) for the rapid, quantitative detection of viable Campylobacter cells from water samples was investigated. EMA-qPCR has been shown to be a promising rapid method for the detection of viable Campylobacter spp. from food samples. Application of membrane filtration and centrifugation, two methods frequently used for the isolation of bacteria from water, revealed a mean loss of up to 1.08 log10 cells/ml from spiked samples. Both methods used alone lead to a loss of dead bacteria and accumulation of viable bacteria in the sample as shown by fluorescence microscopy. After filtration of samples, no significant differences could be detected in subsequent qPCR experiments with and without EMA pretreatment compared to culture-based enumeration. High correlations (R2 = 0.942 without EMA, R2 = 0.893 with EMA) were obtained. After centrifugation of samples, qPCR results overestimated Campylobacter counts, whereas results from both EMA-qPCR and the reference method were comparable. As up to 81.59% of nonviable cells were detected in pond water, EMA-qPCR failed to detect correct quantities of viable cells. However, analyses of spiked tap water samples revealed a high correlation (R2 = 0.863) between results from EMA-qPCR and the reference method. After membrane filtration, EMA-qPCR was successfully applied to Campylobacter field isolates, and results indicated an advantage over qPCR by analysing defined mixtures of viable and nonviable cells. In conclusion, EMA-qPCR is a suitable method to detect viable Campylobacter from water samples, but the isolation technique and the type/quality of the water sample impact the results.
The impact of text framing on the understanding of political conflict

The present paper reports on the initial results of a pilot study for a planned cross-cultural project intended to investigate the impact of text framing on the understanding of political conflict. Following the design of a prior experiment by Peleg & Alimi (2005), the pilot study examines the impact of differently framed texts about the approval of the Road Map by the Knesset on German students’ assessments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The results of the study confirmed our theoretical position, according to which media effects cannot be explained using simple stimulusresponse models. They depend instead on the Ss’ a priori mental models, into which new information is integrated. In contrast to the Israeli study, however, the experiment failed to demonstrate an impact of text faming on the Ss’ mental models. Possible reasons might be that the framing was too mild, that the Ss in the present study were politically far less interested and informed, or that they were too detached from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  2006 by verlag irena regener berlin Diskussionsbeitrage der Projektgruppe Friedensforschung Konstanz, Nr. 59, 2006 2
PERIODIC RADIO AND Hα EMISSION FROM THE L DWARF BINARY 2MASSW J0746425+200032: EXPLORING THE MAGNETIC FIELD TOPOLOGY AND RADIUS OF AN L DWARF

We present an 8.5 hr simultaneous radio, X-ray, UV, and optical observation of the L dwarf binary 2MASSW J0746425+200032. We detect strong radio emission, dominated by short-duration periodic pulses at 4.86 GHz with P = 124.32 ± 0.11 min. The stability of the pulse profiles and arrival times demonstrates that they are due to the rotational modulation of a B ≈ 1.7 kG magnetic field. A quiescent nonvariable component is also detected, likely due to emission from a uniform large-scale field. The Hα emission exhibits identical periodicity, but unlike the radio pulses it varies sinusoidally and is offset by exactly 1/4 of a phase. The sinusoidal variations require chromospheric emission from a large-scale field structure, with the radio pulses likely emanating from the magnetic poles. While both light curves can be explained by a rotating misaligned magnetic field, the 1/4 phase lag rules out a symmetric dipole topology since it would result in a phase lag of 1/2 (poloidal field) or zero (toroidal field). We therefore conclude that either (1) the field is dominated by a quadrupole configuration, which can naturally explain the 1/4 phase lag; or (2) the Hα and/or radio emission regions are not trivially aligned with the field. Regardless of the field topology, we use the measured period along with the known rotation velocity (v sin i ≈ 27 km s−1), and the binary orbital inclination (i ≈ 142°), to derive a radius for the primary star of 0.078 ± 0.010 R☉. This is the first measurement of the radius of an L dwarf, and along with a mass of 0.085 ± 0.010 M☉ it provides a constraint on the mass–radius relation below 0.1 M☉. We find that the radius is about 30% smaller than expected from theoretical models, even for an age of a few Gyr. The origin of this discrepancy is either a breakdown of the models at the bottom of the main sequence, or a significant misalignment between the rotational and orbital axes.
Design and Implementation of a Web-Services-Based Network File System

Web services are Web-based enterprise applications that use open, XML-based standards and transport protocols to exchange data between calling clients and servers. In this paper, we demonstrate that Web services can be used to construct a distributed file system, called the Web-services-based network file system (WSNFS). One of the goals of the WSNFS is to provide a platform for file sharing among heterogeneous distributed file systems. Also, as the technology of Web services is widely applied to the field of grid computing, the proposed system can aid the deployment of Web services to the data grid applications. We present the architecture of the WSNFS and define the communication-protocol standard based on Web services. Our experiences in implementing the prototype as well as the experimental results demonstrate that the practicality of the WSNFS; the performance of the prototype is comparable to that of the Sun network file system.
Parallel Neural Responses in Amygdala Subregions and Sensory Cortex during Implicit Fear Conditioning

We used event-related fMRI to measure neural activity in volunteer subjects during acquisition of an implicit association between a visual conditioned stimulus (CS+) (angry face) and an auditory unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (aversive, loud noise). Three distinct functional regions were identified within left amygdala: a UCS (noise)-related lateral region, a CS+-related ventral region, and a dorsal region where CS+-related responses changed progressively across the learning session. Differential neural responses to the visual CS+ were also evoked in extrastriate and auditory cortices. Our results indicate that learning an association between biologically salient stimuli of different sensory modalities involves parallel changes of neural activity in segregated amygdala subregions and unimodal sensory cortices.
Hawkes Processes in Finance

In this paper we propose an overview of the recent academic literature devoted to the applications of Hawkes processes in finance. Hawkes processes constitute a particular class of multivariate point processes that has become very popular in empirical high-frequency finance this last decade. After a reminder of the main definitions and properties that characterize Hawkes processes, we review their main empirical applications to address many different problems in high-frequency finance. Because of their great flexibility and versatility, we show that they have been successfully involved in issues as diverse as estimating the volatility at the level of transaction data, estimating the market stability, accounting for systemic risk contagion, devising optimal execution strategies or capturing the dynamics of the full order book.
Trace Elemental Analysis of Nigerian Petroleum Products Using AAS Method

Some physico-chemical analysis of samples of Gasoline, Kerosene, Diesel Oil, Low Pour Point Oil and Residual fuel have been studied. The samples were also analyzed for trace elements. The results confirmed that Heavy distillates fractions(Residual fuel and LPFO) contains trace metals higher than the distillates fraction(Automobile Gas Oil or Diesel) followed by intermediates (Dual Purpose Kerosene) and lights ends fractions(Premium Motor Sprit / Gasoline). The samples were analyzed by gravimetric and micro-kjeldahl methods for sulphur and nitrogen content respectively. The experiment data indicated that, the total sulphur and nitrogen contents increased from light ends, intermediates, distillates to heavy distillates fractions and also the concentrations of the trace metals in the petroleum products follows the same trend i.e. from less viscous petro leum products (Gasoline, Kerosene and Diesel Fuel) to high viscous petroleum products sample (residual fuel and LPFO) . The results were discussed in terms of effects of this impurities on the refinery process. Keyword: Ashing Method, Pour Point, Specif ic Gravity, Sulphur Content, Trace metals, Gravimetric and micro-kjeldahl methods. ——————————  ——————————
What drives café customers to spread eWOM?: Examining self-relevant value, quality value, and opinion leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine hidden drivers of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by modeling attributes of self-relevant and quality-relevant values. This is a meaningful extension of previous consumer behavior research regarding the association of eWOM and self-constructs. Design/methodology/approach – An on-site survey was conducted to collect data. Statistical analyses, including structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis, were used to empirically examine which factors significantly influence cafe customers to engage in eWOM. Findings – The study found significant drivers of eWOM intentions by examining self-relevant values connected with the cafe, such as conveying reflected appraisal of self, conspicuous presentation and self-image congruity beyond the simple evaluation of service quality. The moderating effect of consumer opinion leadership on the relationships between those drivers and eWOM intentions was also investigated. Practical implications – The results demonst.
Impact of anode layer thruster plumes on satellite communications

Microwave interferometry was used to investigate the impact of the plume of a D-55 anode layer thruster on satellite communications. A 17 GHz microwave signal was transmitted through the plume in order to measure phase shift and signal attenuation at various axial positions and discharge voltages. At 0.25 m from the thruster exit plane, a centerline phase shift of 37° was measured with a half-angle at full width half maximum of 22° for the nominal 300 V discharge. At 1.00 m, the phase shift had decreased to 20° and the half-angle to 13.5°. Signal attenuation measurements showed attenuations of -1.0 dB to -1.4 dB near centerline, but in a double peaked structure that appeared to reflect the annular nature of the plume. Increasing the discharge voltage had no measurable effect on either the phase shift or signal attenuation. Electron number density distributions were calculated by Abel inverting the signal phase shift. For the 300 V discharge, the centerline number density decreased from 1.0*10" cm'3 at 0.25 m to 2.1*1010 cm"3 at 1.00 m. Analysis of the distributions indicates that electrons are not focused by increasing discharge voltage.
Thoughts on clustering ∗

Clustering is a somewhat confusing topic theoretically. In large part this is because there are many different kinds of clustering problems. In addition, the true goals in clustering are often difficult to measure, making the task seem not well-defined and under-specified. In this note we discuss one approach from [6] to theoretically formulating a certain broad class of clustering problems, and discuss relations between this and other approaches. We also make a few suggestions and state a few open directions.