Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasmonic enhancement of fluorescence for sensor applications

It is well established that the presence of metallic surfaces or particles in the vicinity of a fluorophore can dramatically increase the radiative decay rate, and consequently the quantum efficiency, of the fluorophore. This effect, which depends on parameters such as metal particle size and fluorophore-particle separation, is manifest as a substantial enhancement in fluorescence emission intensity. This presentation will focus on optimisation strategies to maximise the enhancement for important applications such as fluorescence-based biochip platforms. Ordered arrays of metallic nano-islands were fabricated on a range of substrates by a process of natural lithography using monodisperse polystyrene nanospheres. The metal particle dimensions were tailored in order to match the plasmon resonance wavelength to the spectral absorption of the fluorophore. The fluorophore Cy5 dye, which is widely used in optical immunoassays and has a medium quantum efficiency (~0.3), was used in this study of the plasmonic enhancement effect. The morphology of the metallic arrays was investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). Absorption and emission spectroscopies were used to elucidate the enhancement effect and its dependence on metal island morphology. Results were correlated with existing theoretical models. The applicability of this important technique to sensor platforms, such as fluorescence-based biochips, will be discussed.
Discriminating Micropathogen Lineages and Their Reticulate Evolution through Graph Theory-Based Network Analysis: The Case of Trypanosoma cruzi, the Agent of Chagas Disease

Micropathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasitic protozoa) share a common trait, which is partial clonality, with wide variance in the respective influence of clonality and sexual recombination on the dynamics and evolution of taxa. The discrimination of distinct lineages and the reconstruction of their phylogenetic history are key information to infer their biomedical properties. However, the phylogenetic picture is often clouded by occasional events of recombination across divergent lineages, limiting the relevance of classical phylogenetic analysis and dichotomic trees. We have applied a network analysis based on graph theory to illustrate the relationships among genotypes of Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasitic protozoan responsible for Chagas disease, to identify major lineages and to unravel their past history of divergence and possible recombination events. At the scale of T. cruzi subspecific diversity, graph theory-based networks applied to 22 isoenzyme loci (262 distinct Multi-Locus-Enzyme-Electrophoresis -MLEE) and 19 microsatellite loci (66 Multi-Locus-Genotypes -MLG) fully confirms the high clustering of genotypes into major lineages or “near-clades”. The release of the dichotomic constraint associated with phylogenetic reconstruction usually applied to Multilocus data allows identifying putative hybrids and their parental lineages. Reticulate topology suggests a slightly different history for some of the main “near-clades”, and a possibly more complex origin for the putative hybrids than hitherto proposed. Finally the sub-network of the near-clade T. cruzi I (28 MLG) shows a clustering subdivision into three differentiated lesser near-clades (“Russian doll pattern”), which confirms the hypothesis recently proposed by other investigators. The present study broadens and clarifies the hypotheses previously obtained from classical markers on the same sets of data, which demonstrates the added value of this approach. This underlines the potential of graph theory-based network analysis for describing the nature and relationships of major pathogens, thereby opening stimulating prospects to unravel the organization, dynamics and history of major micropathogen lineages.
African American college students' perceptions of professional dress

PROFESSIONAL DRESS by EMILY CAROL BLALOCK (Under the Direction of Jan Hathcote) ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to survey African American college students to identify their perceptions of female professional dress. The variables of self-esteem, the importance of clothing, fashion innovativeness, and the type of Land Grant institution or the geographic location of the university the student attended were tested as possible influencers of perception. A total of 251 surveys were completed by African Americans enrolled in two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and two predominantly white institutions (PWI) located in Mississippi and Louisiana. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between Mississippi and Louisiana samples, HBCU and PWI subsamples, fashion innovator and fashion follower subsamples, and male and female subsamples in their perception of professional dress. Mean scores indicated that the overall African American sample had a fair understanding of female professional dress, though the entire sample perceived inappropriate fashion-oriented suits as appropriate professional interview attire.
Differential effects of atomoxetine on executive functioning and lexical decision in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reading disorder.

OBJECTIVE The effects of a promising pharmacological treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), atomoxetine, were studied on executive functions in both ADHD and reading disorder (RD) because earlier research demonstrated an overlap in executive functioning deficits in both disorders. In addition, the effects of atomoxetine were explored on lexical decision. METHODS Sixteen children with ADHD, 20 children with ADHD + RD, 21 children with RD, and 26 normal controls were enrolled in a randomized placebo-controlled crossover study. Children were measured on visuospatial working memory, inhibition, and lexical decision on the day of randomization and following two 28-day medication periods. RESULTS Children with ADHD + RD showed improved visuospatial working memory performance and, to a lesser extent, improved inhibition following atomoxetine treatment compared to placebo. No differential effects of atomoxetine were found for lexical decision in comparison to placebo. In addition, no effects of atomoxetine were demonstrated in the ADHD and RD groups. CONCLUSION Atomoxetine improved visuospatial working memory and to a lesser degree inhibition in children with ADHD + RD, which suggests differential developmental pathways for co-morbid ADHD + RD as compared to ADHD and RD alone. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRY B4Z-MC-LYCK, NCT00191906; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00191906.
Manifold-based Similarity Adaptation for Label Propagation

Label propagation is one of the state-of-the-art methods for semi-supervised learning, which estimates labels by propagating label information through a graph. Label propagation assumes that data points (nodes) connected in a graph should have similar labels. Consequently, the label estimation heavily depends on edge weights in a graph which represent similarity of each node pair. We propose a method for a graph to capture the manifold structure of input features using edge weights parameterized by a similarity function. In this approach, edge weights represent both similarity and local reconstruction weight simultaneously, both being reasonable for label propagation. For further justification, we provide analytical considerations including an interpretation as a cross-validation of a propagation model in the feature space, and an error analysis based on a low dimensional manifold model. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach both in synthetic and real datasets.
A Conserved Virulence Plasmidic Region Contributes to the Virulence of the Multiresistant Escherichia coli Meningitis Strain S286 Belonging to Phylogenetic Group C

Recent isolation of the non-K1 Escherichia coli neonatal meningitis strain S286, belonging to phylogroup C, which is closely related to major group B1, and producing an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, encouraged us to seek the genetic determinants responsible for its virulence. We show that S286 belongs to the sequence O type ST23O78 and harbors 4 large plasmids. The largest one, pS286colV (∼120 kb), not related to resistance, contains genes characteristic of a Conserved Virulence Plasmidic (CVP) region initially identified in B2 extra-intestinal avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) strains and in the B2 neonatal meningitis E. coli strain S88. The sequence of this CVP region has a strong homology (98%) with that of the recently sequenced plasmid pChi7122-1 of the O78 APEC strain Chi7122. A CVP plasmid-cured variant of S286 was less virulent than the wild type strain in a neonatal rat sepsis model with a significant lower level of bacteremia at 24 h (4.1±1.41 versus 2.60±0.16 log CFU/ml, p = 0.001) and mortality. However, the mortality in the model of adult mice was comparable between wild type and variant indicating that pS286colV is not sufficient by itself to fully explain the virulence of S286. Gene expression analysis of pS286colV in iron depleted environment was very close to that of pS88, suggesting that genes of CVP region may be expressed similarly in two very different genetic backgrounds (group C versus group B2). Screening a collection of 178 human A/B1 extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) strains revealed that the CVP region is highly prevalent (23%) and MLST analysis indicated that these CVP positive strains belong to several clusters and mostly to phylogroup C. The virulence of S286 is explained in part by the presence of CVP region and this region has spread in different clusters of human A/B1 ExPEC, especially in group C.
Innovation Related to Future Labor Income Growth and the Cross-Section of Equity Returns

This paper proposes an Intertemporal Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM) empirical specification which includes innovations related to future labor income growth along with the market factor. The proposed two-factor model can better explain the cross section of average returns than the competing models; the CAPM, the human capital CAPM, Consumption CAPM, and LettauLudvigson’s (2001) model, Vassalou’s (2003) model, and about as well as the FF three-factor model. The Fama-French factors SMB and HML are positively associated with innovations to future labor income growth. In particular, when innovations to future labor income growth are present in the model, SMB and HML are no longer significant in explaining the cross-section of stock returns. These empirical results suggest that the size and value premiums might be compensation for higher exposure to the risk related to innovations to in future labor income growth. JEL classification: G12
Developing Elementary Preservice Teachers' Initial Conceptions of Common Practices in Science and Mathematics Teaching

This qualitative study investigated the developing conceptions of common teaching methods for mathematics and science among elementary preservice teachers when using the learning cycle as a framework for coursework. The use of tools for conceptual development, processes for meaningful learning, and common pedagogical approaches were explored using pre- and post-survey data and weekly blog entries. The study took place during a summer science and mathematics methods course sequence. Results indicated many of the participants initially thought science and mathematics should be approached in very different ways. Eventually, eighty-two percent of preservice teachers recognized commonalities in teaching approaches, including use of inquiry within a learning cycle framework.
Multicast routing with quality of service and traffic engineering requirements in the Internet, based on genetic algorithm

In order to deal with the high computational power required by the QoS routing, the use of genetic algorithm (GA) as a method to obtain the appropriate routes has been presented in various works. The GA discussed in this work was adapted from the model presented by Erdun et al. (2001), that uses bandwidth, delay and cost as metrics to evaluate the routes. Two innovations were incorporated in the GA in order to attend traffic engineering requirements: inclusion of the metric number of steps (or hops) in the route evaluation, and a mechanism to avoid the generation of repeated individuals producing several optimal and sub-optimal routes. In order to test the proposed genetic algorithm, two examples of network topology were used. The results indicate that the GA discussed in this work converges to the global optimal solution, while the implementations discussed in Ravikumar et al. (1998) and Erdun et al. did not reach it. Besides, even in the runs that the GA did not converge to the global optimum, sub-optimal solutions that attend to the constraint delay were obtained with a small increment in the cost.
Computing Consensus Translation for Multiple Machine Translation Systems Using Enhanced Hypothesis Alignment

This paper describes a novel method for computing a consensus translation from the outputs of multiple machine translation (MT) systems. The outputs are combined and a possibly new translation hypothesis can be generated. Similarly to the well-established ROVER approach of (Fiscus, 1997) for combining speech recognition hypotheses, the consensus translation is computed by voting on a confusion network. To create the confusion network, we produce pairwise word alignments of the original machine translation hypotheses with an enhanced statistical alignment algorithm that explicitly models word reordering. The context of a whole document of translations rather than a single sentence is taken into account to produce the alignment. The proposed alignment and voting approach was evaluated on several machine translation tasks, including a large vocabulary task. The method was also tested in the framework of multi-source and speech translation. On all tasks and conditions, we achieved significant improvements in translation quality, increasing e. g. the BLEU score by as much as 15% relative.
A Potential Conflict between Preserving Regional Plant Diversity and Biotic Resistance to an Invasive Grass, Microstegium vimineum

ABSTRACT: The relevance of diversity-biotic resistance studies to conservation of biodiversity could be improved by simultaneously examining the drivers of regional diversity and their effects on local species diversity and invasion. Using path analysis, I examined direct and indirect effects of various abiotic factors (i.e., flooding, treefall gaps, soil texture, proximity to roads, and stand age) on plant species richness, floristic quality (a proxy for regional plant diversity), and the abundance of a non-native invasive grass, Microstegium vimineum, in 117 3.14-m2 plots within four stands of mesic floodplain forests in northern Mississippi. Results of this study showed a significant negative effect of species richness on M. vimineum abundance in year two. However, species richness varied in response to flooding and gaps, and the positive indirect effects of flooding and gaps on M. vimineum abundance mediated through reductions in species richness in fall 2008 were not nearly as great as the positive d.
Broad Absorption Line Quasars and the Radio‐Loud/Radio‐Quiet Dichotomy

The observation that the extremely broad, blueshifted absorption troughs which characterize broad absorption line quasars (BALQs) occur exclusively in radio‐quiet quasars (RQQs) suggests that this class of active galactic nuclei (AGN) may offer important clues to the radio‐loud/radio‐quiet (RL/RQ) dichotomy in quasars. Interestingly, there is also substantial observational evidence for similar, but lower velocity, intrinsic absorption outflows in some Seyfert galaxies and radio‐loud quasars (RLQs) as well. Theoretically, however, it is difficult to interpret this broad range of mass ejection phenomena in the context of the standard model for BALQs. Thus, a new model is considered here in which the thermal gas producing the blueshifted absorption troughs is associated with a poorly collimated outflow of weakly radio‐emitting plasma—in essence, a weak jet. This model provides an appropriate framework not only for assessing the possible connection between the BAL phenomenon in RQQs and related intrinsic absorption outflows in stronger radio sources and in less luminous sources, both of which are known to possess jetlike radio structure, but also for understanding the RL/RQ dichotomy in light of recent observations which indicate that at least some RQQs possess central engines that are capable of producing weak versions of the powerful radio jets characteristic of RLQs. In the context of a weak jet model for BALQs, it is shown that observational constraints on the physical properties of the radio‐emitting plasma are consistent with other theoretical arguments suggesting that the differences amongst RL and RQ sources can be attributed to jets with intrinsically different physical properties. Similarly, theoretical constraints on the physical properties of absorbing clouds embedded in weak jets are shown to be consistent with the properties directly inferred from the observed BAL troughs. Most importantly, however, it is argued that a weak jet model provides a successful explanation for the anticorrelation between the terminal velocity of the absorption outflow and the radio power of the quasar.
Visual attention and the acquisition of information in human crowds

Pedestrian crowds can form the substrate of important socially contagious behaviors, including propagation of visual attention, violence, opinions, and emotional state. However, relating individual to collective behavior is often difficult, and quantitative studies have largely used laboratory experimentation. We present two studies in which we tracked the motion and head direction of 3,325 pedestrians in natural crowds to quantify the extent, influence, and context dependence of socially transmitted visual attention. In our first study, we instructed stimulus groups of confederates within a crowd to gaze up to a single point atop of a building. Analysis of passersby shows that visual attention spreads unevenly in space and that the probability of pedestrians adopting this behavior increases as a function of stimulus group size before saturating for larger groups. We develop a model that predicts that this gaze response will lead to the transfer of visual attention between crowd members, but it is not sufficiently strong to produce a tipping point or critical mass of gaze-following that has previously been predicted for crowd dynamics. A second experiment, in which passersby were presented with two stimulus confederates performing suspicious/irregular activity, supports the predictions of our model. This experiment reveals that visual interactions between pedestrians occur primarily within a 2-m range and that gaze-copying, although relatively weak, can facilitate response to relevant stimuli. Although the above aspects of gaze-following response are reproduced robustly between experimental setups, the overall tendency to respond to a stimulus is dependent on spatial features, social context, and sex of the passerby.
Cord Serum Concentrations of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in Relation to Weight and Size at Birth

Background Recent studies have reported developmental toxicity among rodents dosed with perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA). Objectives We examined the relationship between concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in cord serum (surrogates for in utero exposures) and gestational age, birth weight, and birth size in humans. Methods We conducted a hospital-based cross-sectional epidemiologic study of singleton deliveries in Baltimore, Maryland. Cord serum samples (n = 293) were analyzed for PFOS and PFOA by online solid-phase extraction, coupled with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography–isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry. Maternal characteristics and anthropometric measures were obtained from medical charts. Results After adjusting for potential confounders, both PFOS and PFOA were negatively associated with birth weight [per ln-unit: β = −69 g, 95% confidence interval (CI), −149 to 10 for PFOS; β = −104 g, 95% CI, −213 to 5 for PFOA], ponderal index (per ln-unit: β = −0.074 g/cm3 × 100, 95% CI, −0.123 to −0.025 for PFOS; β = −0.070 g/cm3 × 100, 95% CI, −0.138 to −0.001 for PFOA), and head circumference (per ln-unit: β = −0.32 cm, 95% CI, −0.56 to −0.07 for PFOS; β = −0.41 cm, 95% CI, −0.76 to −0.07 for PFOA). No associations were observed between either PFOS or PFOA concentrations and newborn length or gestational age. All associations were independent of cord serum lipid concentrations. Conclusions Despite relatively low cord serum concentrations, we observed small negative associations between both PFOS and PFOA concentrations and birth weight and size. Future studies should attempt to replicate these findings in other populations.
Immunization of Mice with a Recombinant Adenovirus Vaccine Inhibits the Early Growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis After Infection

Background In pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, immune responses are delayed compared to other respiratory infections, so that antigen-specific cells are not detected in the lungs earlier than day 14. Even after parenteral immunization with Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) or a subunit vaccine, the immune response after Mtb challenge is only slightly accelerated and the kinetics of pulmonary Mtb growth do not differ between naïve and immunized animals up to day 14. Methods and Findings Mice were immunized intranasally with a recombinant adenovirus expressing mycobacterial antigen 85A (Ad85A), challenged by aerosol with Mtb and the kinetics of Mtb growth in the lungs measured. Intranasal immunization with Ad85A inhibits Mtb growth in the early phase of infection, up to day 8. Protection is sustained for at least 7 months and correlates with the presence of antigen-specific activated effector CD8 T cells in the lungs. Antigen 85A-specific T cells respond to antigen presenting cells from the lungs of mice immunized with Ad85A 23 weeks previously, demonstrating the persistence of antigen in the lungs. Conclusions/Significance Intranasal immunization with Ad85A can inhibit early growth of Mtb because it establishes a lung antigen depot and maintains an activated lung-resident lymphocyte population. We propose that an optimal immunization strategy for tuberculosis should aim to induce both lung and systemic immunity, targeting the early and late phases of Mtb growth.