Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression and Cellular Immunogenicity of a Transgenic Antigen Driven by Endogenous Poxviral Early Promoters at Their Authentic Loci in MVA

CD8+ T cell responses to vaccinia virus are directed almost exclusively against early gene products. The attenuated strain modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) is under evaluation in clinical trials of new vaccines designed to elicit cellular immune responses against pathogens including Plasmodium spp. , M. tuberculosis and HIV-1. All of these recombinant MVAs (rMVA) utilize the well-established method of linking the gene of interest to a cloned poxviral promoter prior to insertion into the viral genome at a suitable locus by homologous recombination in infected cells. Using BAC recombineering, we show that potent early promoters that drive expression of non-functional or non-essential MVA open reading frames (ORFs) can be harnessed for immunogenic expression of recombinant antigen. Precise replacement of the MVA orthologs of C11R, F11L, A44L and B8R with a model antigen positioned to use the same translation initiation codon allowed early transgene expression similar to or slightly greater than that achieved by the commonly-used p7.5 or short synthetic promoters. The frequency of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells induced in mice by single shot or adenovirus-prime, rMVA-boost vaccination were similarly equal or marginally enhanced using endogenous promoters at their authentic genomic loci compared to the traditional constructs. The enhancement in immunogenicity observed using the C11R or F11L promoters compared with p7.5 was similar to that obtained with the mH5 promoter compared with p7.5. Furthermore, the growth rates of the viruses were unimpaired and the insertions were genetically stable. Insertion of a transgenic ORF in place of a viral ORF by BAC recombineering can thus provide not only a potent promoter, but also, concomitantly, a suitable insertion site, potentially facilitating development of MVA vaccines expressing multiple recombinant antigens.
Decreased Cerebellar-Orbitofrontal Connectivity Correlates with Stuttering Severity: Whole-Brain Functional and Structural Connectivity Associations with Persistent Developmental Stuttering

Persistent developmental stuttering is characterized by speech production disfluency and affects 1% of adults. The degree of impairment varies widely across individuals and the neural mechanisms underlying the disorder and this variability remain poorly understood. Here we elucidate compensatory mechanisms related to this variability in impairment using whole-brain functional and white matter connectivity analyses in persistent developmental stuttering. We found that people who stutter had stronger functional connectivity between cerebellum and thalamus than people with fluent speech, while stutterers with the least severe symptoms had greater functional connectivity between left cerebellum and left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Additionally, people who stutter had decreased functional and white matter connectivity among the perisylvian auditory, motor, and speech planning regions compared to typical speakers, but greater functional connectivity between the right basal ganglia and bilateral temporal auditory regions. Structurally, disfluency ratings were negatively correlated with white matter connections to left perisylvian regions and to the brain stem. Overall, we found increased connectivity among subcortical and reward network structures in people who stutter compared to controls. These connections were negatively correlated with stuttering severity, suggesting the involvement of cerebellum and OFC may underlie successful compensatory mechanisms by more fluent stutterers.
Image-Based Visual-Impedance Control of a Dual-Arm Aerial Manipulator

Three new image-based visual-impedance control laws are proposed in this letter allowing physical interaction of a dual-arm unmanned aerial manipulator equipped with a camera and a force/torque sensor. Namely, two first-order impedance behaviors are designed based on the transpose and the inverse of the system Jacobian matrix, respectively, while a second-order impedance behavior is carried out as well. Visual information is employed both to coordinate the camera motion in an eye-in-hand configuration with the assigned task executed by the other robot arm, and to define the elastic wrench component of the proposed hybrid impedance equations directly in the image plane.
Economic Growth, Trade and the Environment: An Econometric Evaluation of the Environmental Kuznets Curve

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis asserts that pollution follows an inverted-U path with respect to economic growth. The EKC has been explained in terms of structural changes in the composition of economic output and increased environmental regulation at higher income levels. Some authors have incorporated the impact of trade policy orientation on the EKC and they have generally concluded that openness is beneficial for the environment. However, the impact of the actual movement across countries of goods that embody pollution has not been considered. This paper attempts to quantify that effect. Following earlier studies, pooled cross-country and time-series data are employed to econometrically study the growth-environment-trade relationship. Commercial energy consumption per capita is used to represent stress on the environment. It is found that while both industrializing and industrialized countries have added to their energy requirements by exporting manufactured goods, the growth has been substantially higher in the former. On the other hand, countries have been able to reduce their energy requirements by importing manufactured goods and the magnitude of this effect is significantly larger in the industrialized countries. Exports of manufactured goods by industrializing countries has thus been an important factor in generating the upward sloping portion of the EKC and imports by industrialized ones have contributed to the downward slope.
Hatching order explains an extrapair chick advantage in western bluebirds

Within-family comparisons of offspring growth rates have provided important tests of genetic benefits of extrapair mating for females. Here, we demonstrate that hatching order explains the growth advantage for extrapair young in western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana); extrapair nestlings are larger than within-pair nestlings in the same nest, but they also hatch earlier in the clutch, thus benefiting from hatching asynchrony. By controlling for hatch order and other nongenetic factors and comparing mixed-paternity broods with genetically monogamous broods, we show that the extrapair nestling growth advantage is not genetically based. We cannot rule out the possibility that females benefit from extrapair mating because genetic quality indicators may appear later in life and may be independent of hatch order, however, based on our results, we do not see evidence of genetic superiority of extrapair nestlings. Although findings similar to ours have been attributed to maternal effects, it is currently unclear whether overrepresentation of extrapair nestlings early in the laying and hatching sequence results from investment patterns of females, their social mates, or extrapair males. This study highlights the need to investigate the potentially complex interactions among all players, and how these may lead to higher performance of extrapair offspring compared with within-pair offspring within the same family. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
Structural determinants of APOBEC3B non-catalytic domain for molecular assembly and catalytic regulation

Abstract The catalytic activity of human cytidine deaminase APOBEC3B (A3B) has been correlated with kataegic mutational patterns within multiple cancer types. The molecular basis of how the N-terminal non-catalytic CD1 regulates the catalytic activity and consequently, biological function of A3B remains relatively unknown. Here, we report the crystal structure of a soluble human A3B-CD1 variant and delineate several structural elements of CD1 involved in molecular assembly, nucleic acid interactions and catalytic regulation of A3B. We show that (i) A3B expressed in human cells exists in hypoactive high-molecular-weight (HMW) complexes, which can be activated without apparent dissociation into low-molecular-weight (LMW) species after RNase A treatment. (ii) Multiple surface hydrophobic residues of CD1 mediate the HMW complex assembly and affect the catalytic activity, including one tryptophan residue W127 that likely acts through regulating nucleic acid binding. (iii) One of the highly positively charged surfaces on CD1 is involved in RNA-dependent attenuation of A3B catalysis. (iv) Surface hydrophobic residues of CD1 are involved in heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) binding to A3B. The structural and biochemical insights described here suggest that unique structural features on CD1 regulate the molecular assembly and catalytic activity of A3B through distinct mechanisms.
Examining the Experiences of Peer Mentored Athletes Competing in Elite Sport

The general objective of the current study was to explore the experiences of elite level athletes who reported being peer mentored by other athletes during their sporting careers. The primary purpose was to identify the mentoring functions provided by athlete mentors, while the secondary purpose was to examine the outcomes related to peer mentored athletes’ (i.e., proteges) mentoring experiences. Individual interviews were conducted with 14 elite peer mentored athletes, and the data were analyzed using a hierarchical content analysis. The results indicated that athlete mentors provided a variety of specific functions that facilitated proteges’ progression through sport and development from a personal standpoint. The findings also showed that proteges benefitted in terms of enhanced performance and confidence, and also demonstrated a willingness to provide mentorship to their peers. In sum, the results of the current study may be used to enhance the effectiveness of peer mentoring relationships between ath.
An Extended Generative Feature Learning Algorithm for Image Recognition

Image recognition has become an increasingly important topic for its wide application. It is highly challenging when facing to large-scale database with large variance. The recognition systems rely on a key component, i.e. the low-level feature or the learned mid-level feature. The recognition performance can be potentially improved if the data distribution information is exploited using a more sophisticated way, which usually a function over hidden variable, model parameter and observed data. These methods are called generative score space. In this paper, we propose a discriminative extension for the existing generative score space methods, which exploits class label when deriving score functions for image recognition task. Specifically, we first extend the regular generative models to class conditional models over both observed variable and class label. Then, we derive the mid-level feature mapping from the extended models. At last, the derived feature mapping is embedded into a discriminative classifier for image recognition. The advantages of our proposed approach are two folds. First, the resulted methods take simple and intuitive forms which are weighted versions of existing methods, benefitting from the Bayesian inference of class label. Second, the probabilistic generative modeling allows us to exploit hidden information and is well adapt to data distribution. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we cooperate our discriminative extension with three generative models for image recognition task. The experimental results validate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.
3D View Synthesis with Feature-Based Warping

Three-dimensional video (3DV), as the new generation of video format standard, can provide the viewers with a vivid screen sense and a realistic stereo impression. Meanwhile the view synthesis has become an important issue for 3DV application. Differently from the conventional methods based on depth, in this paper we propose a new view synthesis algorithm, which can employ the correlation among views and warp in the image domain only. There are mainly two contributions. One is the incorporation of sobel edge points into feature extraction and matching, which can obtain a better stable homography and then a visual comfortable synthesis view compared to SIFT points only. The other is a novel image blending method proposed to obtain a better synthesis image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the synthesis quality both in subjectivity and objectivity.
Training Lay Health Educators to Conduct a Church-Based Weight-Loss Program for African American Women

PURPOSE Community-based lay health educators have been utilized in a range of settings and with a variety of health issues. However, little has been published about the specifics of training lay health educators to effectively deliver community-based programs. This paper describes the training used to prepare volunteer, church-based lay health educators to conduct a community-based weight-loss program, and the evaluation of that training. METHODS After recruitment through their respective churches, volunteer lay health educators were given structured training in how to conduct the PATHWAYS weight-loss program. Program sessions were observed to monitor program delivery, and participation rates and weight loss were evaluated. RESULTS The lay health educators were highly consistent in their delivery of the program content. Participant attendance was high and virtually all of the participants completed the program. Participant weight loss averaged 8.3 pounds, which correlated with session attendance. CONCLUSIONS Given training appropriate to the structure of the program and specific to the targeted health behavior, lay health educators can reliably and effectively administer even rather complex programs.
International Review of Law and Economics he Priest-Klein hypotheses : Proofs and generality

Priest and Klein’s 1984 article, “The Selection of Disputes for Litigation,” famously hypothesized a “tendency toward 50 percent plaintiff victories” among litigated cases. Despite the article’s enduring influence, its results have never been formally proved, and doubts remain about their meaning, validity, and generality. This article makes two main contributions. First, it distinguishes six hypotheses plausibly attributable to Priest and Klein. Second, it mathematically proves or disproves the hypotheses under a generalized version of Priest and Klein’s model. The Fifty-Percent Limit Hypothesis and three other hypotheses attributable to Priest and Klein (1984) are mathematically well-founded and true under the assumptions made by Priest and Klein. In fact, they are true under a wider array of assumptions. More specifically, the Trial Selection Hypothesis, Fifty-Percent Limit Hypothesis, Asymmetric Stakes Hypothesis, and Irrelevance of Dispute Distribution Hypothesis are true for any distribution of disputes that is bounded, strictly positive, and continuous. The Fifty-Percent Bias Hypothesis is true when the parties are very accurate in estimating case outcomes, but only sometimes true when they are less accurate. As shown in Klerman and Lee (2014), the No Inferences Hypothesis is false. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Non-linear conversion of HX4 uptake for automatic segmentation of hypoxic volumes and dose prescription

Abstract Background: Tumour hypoxia is associated with increased radioresistance and poor response to radiotherapy. Pre-treatment assessment of tumour oxygenation could therefore give the possibility to tailor the treatment by calculating the required boost dose needed to overcome the increased radioresistance in hypoxic tumours. This study concerned the derivation of a non-linear conversion function between the uptake of the hypoxia-PET tracer 18F-HX4 and oxygen partial pressure (pO2). Material and methods: Building on previous experience with FMISO including experimental data on tracer uptake and pO2, tracer-specific model parameters were derived for converting the normalised HX4-uptake at the optimal imaging time point to pO2. The conversion function was implemented in a Python-based computational platform utilising the scripting and the registration modules of the treatment planning system RayStation. Subsequently, the conversion function was applied to determine the pO2 in eight non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients imaged with HX4-PET before the start of radiotherapy. Automatic segmentation of hypoxic target volumes (HTVs) was then performed using thresholds around 10 mmHg. The HTVs were compared to sub-volumes segmented based on a tumour-to-blood ratio (TBR) of 1.4 using the aortic arch as the reference oxygenated region. The boost dose required to achieve 95% local control was then calculated based on the calibrated levels of hypoxia, assuming inter-fraction reoxygenation due to changes in acute hypoxia but no overall improvement of the oxygenation status. Results: Using the developed conversion tool, HTVs could be obtained using pO2 a threshold of 10 mmHg which were in agreement with the TBR segmentation. The dose levels required to the HTVs to achieve local control were feasible, being around 70–80 Gy in 24 fractions. Conclusions: Non-linear conversion of tracer uptake to pO2 in NSCLC imaged with HX4-PET allows a quantitative determination of the dose-boost needed to achieve a high probability of local control.
The Effect of Reciprocal Teaching Intervention Strategy on Reading Comprehension Skills of 5th Grade Elementary School Students with Reading Disabilities

This study investigated the effect of using reciprocal teaching intervention strategy on improving reading comprehension of reading disabled students in primary five. A total of 66 students identified with RD participated. The sample was divided into two groups; experimental (n=33 boys) and control (n=33 boys). ANCOVA and t-test were employed for data analysis. Findings from this study indicated the effectiveness of reciprocal teaching intervention strategy on improving reading comprehension in the target students. On the basis of the findings, the study advocated for the effectiveness of reciprocal teaching intervention strategy on improving reading comprehension in reading disabled students.
Incidence of Milk Fever on Dairy Cows and Its Risk Factors in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

The study was conducted on 384 dairy cows in Gondar town during October, 2009 to January, 2010 to determine the prevalence of milk fever and risk factors associated with the disease. Data was collected using regular farm visits, clinical examination of periparturient cows and response to treatment. The overall prevalence of milk fever was 30.2%. Milk fever was significantly associated with milk yield (p 30 liters of milk per day per cow had 21.83%, 22.4%and 50.92% milk fever respectively. The occurrence of milk fever was 17%, 17% and 73.3% in cows with 50% Friesian blood and 50%Friesian blood cows. Seventy five percent of the cows showed variable response to treatment with Calcium borogluconate, 16.37% did not respond and died and the remaining 8.62% of cows died due to lack of treatment. From these results, milk fever appear to be a big problem in Gondar dairy farms while milk yield, parity and breed are the associated risk factors for the occurrence of milk fever. Therefore, dairy farm owners should be aware of the disease and prepare themselves how to manage peripartum intake of calcium. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijns.v2i4.13287 International Journal of Natural Sciences (2012), 2(4) 104-107
Effect of ovarian surgery on ovarian reserve and fertility

The objective of this thesis was to investigate short- and long-term effects of ovarian surgery on the ovarian reserve of women of reproductive age. This research also considered their reproductive outcomes with regard to conceiving spontaneously or using assisted reproductive techniques (ART). We also wished to explore how women perceived the information they received about fertility when planning for ovarian surgery. In paper I, a cross-sectional study that included 106 women, we investigated patients’ perceptions of the fertility-related information they received as well as fertility distress prior to ovarian cyst surgery. Although a high proportion of the women (72 %) desired to have children in the future, only half recalled receiving information about the potential impact of surgery on fertility. In a multivariable logistic regression, desire for children was the only association with recalled fertility-related information. Additionally, more than half of the women (54 %) reported fertility distress with VAS-scores ≥ 5 prior to surgery. Paper II involves a prospective clinical cohort study that included 75 women planned for conservative ovarian cyst surgery (cystectomy, ovarian resection or unilateral oophorectomy). We investigated the effects of removed cysts’ histopathology on women’s ovarian reserve, estimated as serum concentrations of Anti-Mullerian Hormone, AMH. The AMH levels declined significantly from presurgery levels of 2.7 μg/L (0.2-16.9) to 1.6 μg/L (0.2-9.9) at three months, and the levels remained low at six months, 1.6 μg/L (0.2-8.3) (p<0.001, respectively). In patients who had a single cyst enucleation, a reduction was observed after surgery for both endometriomas and dermoid cysts. In a logistic regression, the only predictive factor found for the decline of AMH serum concentrations was a higher baseline AMH level prior to surgery. In paper III, we prospectively investigated the changes in AMH after a long-term postoperative follow-up of two years in 66 of the women included in the clinical cohort study. The progressive post-operative decline of serum AMH concentrations continued over time. The AMH serum concentration significantly reduced from 2.7 μg/L at baseline to 2.0 μg/L at six months. We observed a further reduction to 1.0 μg/L at the two-year follow-up (p = 0.001, respectively). Nonetheless, women who attempted pregnancy succeeded in 58 % of the cases. Women with normal or high AMH at baseline had a higher chance of conceiving, regardless of their AMH reduction over time. In paper IV, we examined the clinical pregnancy rate after Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in a cohort of 76 women with a history of unilateral oophorectomy (UO), as compared to 12879 controls. Exposed women with UO and unexposed controls were included at three ART Swedish clinics. In this multicentre study, single embryo transfer was performed in 77 % of cases; analysis showed a significant reduction of 30 % in the clinical pregnancy rate of women with…