Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular aspects of poliovirus pathogenesis

The development of a transgenic mouse model carrying the human poliovirus receptor has made it possible to investigate the molecular mechanisms of the viral dissemination process in a whole organism. Studies on this have provided an insight into the mechanisms for viral permeation through the blood-brain barrier and retrograde axonal transport of the virus. In addition, strain-specific neurovirulence levels are shown to depend mainly on the replicating capacity of the virus in the central nervous system rather than the efficiency of the 2 dissemination pathways indicated above. Studies of poliovirus-induced cytopathic effects on neural cells revealed that neural cells possess anti-poliovirus characteristics that may offer a new avenue for investigating the molecular mechanisms of poliovirus neurovirulence.
Early peritoneal lavage with ulinastatin improves outcome and enhances multi-organ protection in a model of severe acute pancreatitis

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early peritoneal lavage with ulinastatin on the outcome of a rat model of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). A total of 80 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into the following groups: Sham-operated (C), SAP model (M), saline lavage (SL), intravenous ulinastatin (IU), early ulinastatin lavage (EUL) and late ulinastatin lavage (LUL). Intraperitoneal lavage or injection were performed immediately subsequent to the establishment of the SAP model in groups SL, IU and EUL and 3 h later in group LUL. Intraperitoneal lavage with or without ulinastatin was performed for 3 h. The survival time of the rats in groups C, M, EUL and LUL was recorded over a 12-h period and the median survival time was calculated. At 3 h after the induction of SAP, histopathological analyses were performed and the biochemical parameters of groups C, M, SL, IU and EUL were assessed. Groups EUL and LUL exhibited an increased median survival time compared with Group M, with the survival time of the rats in group EUL markedly longer than that in the group LUL rats. Group SL, IU and EUL rats were found to have reduced plasma activities of amylase, lipase, aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase, with the biggest change observed in the group EUL rats. Furthermore, the intervention in groups SL and EUL was more effective at reducing creatinine and urea levels than that in group IU. Rats in group EUL exhibited a greater inhibition of the SAP-induced increase in troponin T levels than rats in groups SL and IU. The pathological severity scores of the pancreas, liver, kidney and lung in group EUL were significantly lower than those in groups M and better than those in groups SL and IU. In conclusion, early intraperitoneal lavage with ulinastatin significantly improves the median survival time and protects multi-organ function in an SAP model.
Differential Immune Response Associated to Malaria Outcome Is Detectable in Peripheral Blood following Plasmodium yoelii Infection in Mice

Malaria infection in humans elicits a wide range of immune responses that can be detected in peripheral blood, but we lack detailed long-term follow-up data on the primary and subsequent infections that lead to naturally acquired immunity. Studies on antimalarial immune responses in mice have been based on models yielding homogenous infection profiles. Here, we present a mouse model in which a heterogeneous course of Plasmodium yoelii lethal malaria infection is produced in a non-congenic ICR strain to allow comparison among different immunological and clinical outcomes. Three different disease courses were observed ranging from a fatal outcome, either early or late, to a self-resolved infection that conferred long-term immunity against re-infection. Qualitative and quantitative changes produced in leukocyte subpopulations and cytokine profiles detected in peripheral blood during the first week of infection revealed that monocytes, dendritic cells and immature B cells were the main cell subsets present in highly-parasitized mice dying in the first week after infection. Besides, CD4+CD25high T cells expanded at an earlier time point in early deceased mice than in surviving mice and expressed higher levels of intracellular Foxp3 protein. In contrast, survivors showed a limited increase of cytokines release and stable circulating innate cells. From the second week of infection, mice that would die or survive showed similar immune profiles, although CD4+CD25high T cells number increased earlier in mice with the worst prognosis. In surviving mice the expansion of activated circulating T cell and switched-class B cells with a long-term protective humoral response from the second infection week is remarkable. Our results demonstrate that the follow-up studies of immunological blood parameters during a malaria infection can offer information about the course of the pathological process and the immune response.
Fall Risk Assessment Tools for Elderly Living in the Community: Can We Do Better?

Background Falls are a common, serious threat to the health and self-confidence of the elderly. Assessment of fall risk is an important aspect of effective fall prevention programs. Objectives and methods In order to test whether it is possible to outperform current prognostic tools for falls, we analyzed 1010 variables pertaining to mobility collected from 976 elderly subjects (InCHIANTI study). We trained and validated a data-driven model that issues probabilistic predictions about future falls. We benchmarked the model against other fall risk indicators: history of falls, gait speed, Short Physical Performance Battery (Guralnik et al. 1994), and the literature-based fall risk assessment tool FRAT-up (Cattelani et al. 2015). Parsimony in the number of variables included in a tool is often considered a proxy for ease of administration. We studied how constraints on the number of variables affect predictive accuracy. Results The proposed model and FRAT-up both attained the same discriminative ability; the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for multiple falls was 0.71. They outperformed the other risk scores, which reported AUCs for multiple falls between 0.64 and 0.65. Thus, it appears that both data-driven and literature-based approaches are better at estimating fall risk than commonly used fall risk indicators. The accuracy–parsimony analysis revealed that tools with a small number of predictors (~1–5) were suboptimal. Increasing the number of variables improved the predictive accuracy, reaching a plateau at ~20–30, which we can consider as the best trade-off between accuracy and parsimony. Obtaining the values of these ~20–30 variables does not compromise usability, since they are usually available in comprehensive geriatric assessments.
Recent Water Level Declines in the Lake Michigan-Huron System

Great Lakes water levels have fluctuated over thousands of years. High water levels were a problem in the 1980s, but a recent sudden drop in Lakes Michigan and Huron has caused particular concern, in part because lower water levels are consistent with many global climate change scenarios. We examined water level data (1860–2006) representing Lakes Michigan and Huron to evaluate changes in both long-term and seasonal patterns over time, and explore relationships with candidate predictor variables. Our tools for this analysis included both Seasonal Trend decomposition using Loess (STL), and dynamic linear models (DLM). In addition to the recent decline, STL results reveal a sustained decline around 1900, a long-term periodicity of ∼30 years, and an unexpected correspondence with sunspot activity. DLM results indicate a relationship with precipitation over a three-year lagged period, which has been essentially unchanging from 1900 to present. Additionally, the DLM highlights an underlying lake level decline beginning in ∼1973 and continuing to the present, which may have been obscured by concurrently increasing precipitation into the 1990s. The current underlying decline might be related to a simultaneous evaporation increase, however, our model could not confirm this relationship, possibly due to the shorter period of record for evaporation data. We cannot be certain that the present observed water level drop is caused by factorsrelatedtoglobalclimatechange,or that itportendsa longterm problem. However, because the underlying decline has been ongoing for ∼33 years it may be prudent to include lower lake levels in future management planning.
International Conference on Information Systems ( ICIS ) 1-1-2010 Social Construction of User Beliefs of Collaborative Technology : A Multi-Method Approach

In this multi-method study, we combine a longitudinal field study and agent-based modeling to examine the social construction process of user beliefs of collaborative technology over time. We argue that the primary methods in the technology acceptance literature—variance-based analysis and interpretive case study—are limited in understanding the reciprocal social influence process inherent to user beliefs of collaborative technology. Drawing on Bijker’s (1995) social construction of technology theory and Salancik and Pfeffer’s (1978) social information processing theory, research questions regarding the social construction of user beliefs are developed. We describe the longitudinal field study and agent-based modeling employed for answering the research questions. The future steps of this research-in-progress are outlined. We discuss the implications of this study at the end.
CEO Emotional Intelligence level and Compensation: Evidence From Tunisia

University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia This article focuses on the impact of emotions on Tunisian chief executive officer (CEO) compensation. It examines specifically the role of executives’ emotional intelligence (EI) level and their emotional biases, namely optimism in explaining compensation plans. An empirical study was conducted in this respect, by using a questionnaire as a method of data collection, on a sample of 100 Tunisian companies’ leaders. This research paper translates an original approach, since it highlights the behavioral aspects role in explaining the CEO’s compensation policy level. To the best of the knowledge, this represents the first study in the Tunisian context that explored this area of research. Actually, the results show that Tunisian leaders may be subject to certain emotions thereby impacting their compensation characteristics. Indeed, they opt at first to contribute to the organizational performance by establishing a mutual trust within the organizational structure in order to achieve the objectives already set up. However, this could be done at the expense of their compensation plans.
Cantus: Construction and evaluation of a software solution for real-time vocal music training and musical intonation assessment

The development of the ability to sing or play in tune is one of the most critical tasks in music training. In music education, melodic patterns are usually learned by imitative processes (modelling). Once modelled, pitch sounds are then associated to a representation according to a syllabic system such as the Guidonian system – or an arbitrary single syllable – or western graphic notation system symbols. From a didactic standpoint, few advances have been made in this area besides the use of audio-supported guides and existing software, which use a microphone to analyse the input and estimate the pitch or fundamental frequency of the given tone. However, these programmes lack the necessary analytical algo-rithm to provide the student with precise feedback on their execution; and also they do not provide adequate noise-robust solutions to minimize the student assessment
Influence of storage time on DNA of Chlamydia trachomatis, Ureaplasma urealyticum, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae for accurate detection by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

The shipment and storage conditions of clinical samples pose a major challenge to the detection accuracy of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) when using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The aim of the present study was to explore the influence of storage time at 4°C on the DNA of these pathogens and its effect on their detection by qRT-PCR. CT, NG, and UU positive genital swabs from 70 patients were collected, and DNA of all samples were extracted and divided into eight aliquots. One aliquot was immediately analyzed with qRT-PCR to assess the initial pathogen load, whereas the remaining samples were stored at 4°C and analyzed after 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days. No significant differences in CT, NG, and UU DNA loads were observed between baseline (day 0) and the subsequent time points (days 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28) in any of the 70 samples. Although a slight increase in DNA levels was observed at day 28 compared to day 0, paired sample t-test results revealed no significant differences between the mean DNA levels at different time points following storage at 4°C (all P>0.05). Overall, the CT, UU, and NG DNA loads from all genital swab samples were stable at 4°C over a 28-day period.
Preprocessing for image classification by convolutional neural networks

In recent times, the Convolutional Neural Networks have become the most powerful method for image classification. Various researchers have shown the importance of network architecture in achieving better performances by making changes in different layers of the network. Some have shown the importance of the neuron's activation by using various types of activation functions. But here we have shown the importance of preprocessing techniques for image classification using the CIFAR10 dataset and three variations of the Convolutional Neural Network. The results that we have achieved, clearly shows that the Zero Component Analysis(ZCA) outperforms both the Mean Normalization and Standardization techniques for all the three networks and thus it is the most important preprocessing technique for image classification with Convolutional Neural Networks.
Predicting the impact of hemlock woolly adelgid on carbon dynamics of eastern United States forests

The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA; Adelges tsugae Annand) is an introduced insect pest that threatens to decimate eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carriere) populations. In this study, we used the ecosystem demography model in conjunction with a stochastic model of HWA spread to predict the impact of HWA infestation on the current and future forest composition, structure, and carbon (C) dynamics in the eastern United States. The spread model predicted that on average the hemlock stands south and east of the Great Lakes would be infested by 2015, southern Michigan would be reached by 2020, and northeastern Minnesota by 2030. For the period 2000–2040, the ecosystem demography model predicted a mean reduction of 0.011 Pg C·year–1 (Pg C = 1015 g C), an 8% decrease, in the uptake of carbon from eastern United States forests as a result of HWA-caused mortality, followed by an increased uptake of 0.015 Pg C·year–1 (a 12% increase) in the period 2040–2100, as the area recovers from the loss of hemlock. Overal.
Climate Change Reporting in Great Lakes Region Newspapers: A Comparative Study of the Use of Expert Sources

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the use of science sources as experts in news stories about climate change coverage in the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada. We examine, using the hierarchy of influences model, whether the use of scientific sources in climate change coverage may be related to factors such as geographic location, reporting frequency, and authorship, in the prestige press as well as regional and local media. The study found that as many or more non-scientists than scientists are selected as sources regardless of geographic location, reporting frequency, or authorship. However, the study also found that the more stories reporters produce on this topic, the more likely their stories are to use and give prominence to science sources. In addition, the articles included few denier sources, but denier views are more likely to appear in a more prominent location in the articles than supporters when stories are framed as conflict over global warming. These results highlight the need for additional research examining the expertise of climate scientists in news stories to better understand news decision-making in the context of complex scientific reporting.
Semisupervised Wrapper Choice and Generation for Print-Oriented Documents

Information extraction from printed documents is still a crucial problem in many interorganizational workflows. Solutions for other application domains, for example, the web, do not fit this peculiar scenario well, as printed documents do not carry any explicit structural or syntactical description. Moreover, printed documents usually lack any explicit indication about their source. We present a system, which we call PATO, for extracting predefined items from printed documents in a dynamic multisource scenario. PATO selects the source-specific wrapper required by each document, determines whether no suitable wrapper exists, and generates one when necessary. PATO assumes that the need for new source-specific wrappers is a part of normal system operation: new wrappers are generated online based on a few point-and-click operations performed by a human operator on a GUI. The role of operators is an integral part of the design and PATO may be configured to accommodate a broad range of automation levels. We show that PATO exhibits very good performance on a challenging data set composed of more than 600 printed documents drawn from three different application domains: invoices, datasheets of electronic components, and patents. We also perform an extensive analysis of the crucial tradeoff between accuracy and automation level.
Systematic Risk and the Price Structure of Individual Equity Options

This study demonstrates the impact of systematic risk on the prices of individual equity options. The option prices are characterized by the level and slope of implied volatility curves, and the systematic risk is measured as the proportion of systematic variance in the total variance. Using daily option quotes on the S, and P 100 index and its 30 largest component stocks, we show that after controlling for the underlying asset's total risk, a higher amount of systematic risk leads to a higher level of implied volatility and a steeper slope of the implied volatility curve. Thus, systematic risk proportion can help differentiate the price structure across individual equity options. The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.
Examination Of Parents’ Anxıety About Their Gifted Children’s Education

Sciences and Arts Centres provide opportunities of creating and applying projects to the individuals who has superior intelligence. In this study, parents’ ideas about future job choices of their gifted children, limitations in social settings, efficiency of physical conditions of institutions, education of teachers and benefits of Sciences and Arts Centres has been searched. Twenty-one teenagers’ parents have participated voluntarily. In this qualitative research, both secondary school and Sciences and Arts Centres’ absence of physical opportunities of buildings, lack of laboratories and materials has been identified as problems. However, results emphasise that these centres lead children to be interested in natural sciences, arts and mathematics. Furthermore, the Ministry of National Education should assign the Provincial Directorates for National Education to give seminars and conferences to inform teachers and parents to realise the differences of gifted children in early ages. It may also be advantageous to prepare brochures, posters, and handbooks to give them.
Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform Based Multiclass Object Classification

Multiclass object classification is a difficult problem in computer vision application, because of highly variable nature of different objects. The primary goal of this paper is to classify object into one of the chosen classes. The proposed method uses Dual tree complex wavelet transform coefficients as a feature of object. Dual tree complex wavelet transform is having advantage of its better edge representation and approximate shift-invariant property as compared to real valued wavelet transform. We have used multiclass support vector machine classifier for classification of objects. The proposed method has been tested on dataset prepared by authors of this paper. We have tested the proposed method on multiple levels of Dual tree complex wavelet transform. Quantitative evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed method gives better performance for multiclass object classification in comparison to other state-of-the-art methods.
Star formation in Perseus - V. Outflows detected by HARP

Aims. Molecular outflows provide an alternative method of identifying protostellar cores, complementary to recent mid-infrared studies. Continuing our studies of Perseus, we investigate whether all Spitzer-identified protostars, and particularly those with low luminosities, drive outflows and if any new protostellar cores (perhaps harbouring low-mass sources) can be identified via their outflows alone. Methods. We have used the heterodyne array receiver HARP on JCMT to make deep 12 CO 3–2 maps of submm cores in Perseus, extending and deepening our earlier study with R$\times$B and bringing the total number of SCUBA cores studied up to 83. Our survey includes 23/25 of the Spitzer low-luminosity objects believed to be embedded protostars, including three VeLLOs. Results. All but one of the cores identified as harbouring embedded YSOs have outflows, confirming outflow detections as a good method for identifying protostars. We detect outflows from 20 Spitzer low-luminosity objects. We do not conclusively detect any outflows from IR-quiet cores, though confusion in clustered regions such as NGC1333 makes it impossible to identify all the individual driving sources. This similarity in detection rates despite the difference in search methods and detection limits suggests either that the sample of protostars in Perseus is now complete or that the existence of an outflow contributes to the Spitzer detectability, perhaps through the contribution of shocked H 2 emission in the IRAC bands. For five of the low-luminosity sources (including two previously believed to be embedded), there is no protostellar envelope detected at 350 μ m and the Spitzer emission is entirely due to shocks. Additionally, we detect the outflow from IRAS 03282+3035 at 850 μ m with SCUBA with 20–30% of the submm flux due to CO line contamination in the continuum passband.
Supporting Latinx Student Success via Family–School Partnerships: Preliminary Effects of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation on Student and Parent Outcomes

ABSTRACT Latinx students are the largest ethnic minority school-age population, yet they have some of the lowest reading proficiency levels and highest rates of school dropout and experience significant unmet behavioral health needs. School-based interventions addressing behavioral challenges and parent engagement are recommended to support Latinx students. Conjoint behavioral consultation is an evidence-based intervention that supports behavioral improvements and home–school partnerships for students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of CBC for a subsample of Latinx students enrolled in two large-scale randomized efficacy trials. ANCOVA and t-test analyses revealed generally positive effects for CBC on Latinx student and parent outcomes and parent-teacher relationships. These findings suggest CBC may be a promising school-based intervention addressing gaps in educational and behavioral health services for Latinx students. Given the small sample size, further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of CBC for Latinx students and their families.