Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nature of the optical band shapes in polymethine dyes and H-aggregates: dozy chaos and excitons. Comparison with dimers, H*- and J-aggregates

Results on the theoretical explanation of the shape of optical bands in polymethine dyes, their dimers and aggregates are summarized. The theoretical dependence of the shape of optical bands for the dye monomers in the vinylogous series in line with a change in the solvent polarity is considered. A simple physical (analytical) model of the shape of optical absorption bands in H-aggregates of polymethine dyes is developed based on taking the dozy-chaos dynamics of the transient state and the Frenkel exciton effect in the theory of molecular quantum transitions into account. As an example, the details of the experimental shape of one of the known H-bands are well reproduced by this analytical model under the assumption that the main optical chromophore of H-aggregates is a tetramer resulting from the two most probable processes of inelastic binary collisions in sequence: first, monomers between themselves, and then, between the resulting dimers. The obtained results indicate that in contrast with the compact structure of J-aggregates (brickwork structure), the structure of H-aggregates is not the compact pack-of-cards structure, as stated in the literature, but a loose alternate structure. Based on this theoretical model, a simple general (analytical) method for treating the more complex shapes of optical bands in polymethine dyes in comparison with the H-band under consideration is proposed. This method mirrors the physical process of molecular aggregates forming in liquid solutions: aggregates are generated in the most probable processes of inelastic multiple binary collisions between polymethine species generally differing in complexity. The results obtained are given against a background of the theoretical results on the shape of optical bands in polymethine dyes and their aggregates (dimers, H*- and J-aggregates) previously obtained by V.V. E.
Comment on "Turbulent cascades in foreign exchange markets"

Recently, Ghashghaie et al. have shown that some statistical aspects of fully developed turbulence and exchange rate fluctuations exhibit striking similarities (Nature 381, 767 (1996)). The authors then suggested that the two problems might be deeply connected, and speculated on the existence of an `information cascade' which would play the role in finance of the well known Kolmogorov energy cascade in turbulence. Here we want to convince the reader that the two problems differ on a fundamental aspect, namely, correlations.
Evaluation of New Product Development Projects using Artificial Intelligence and Fuzzy Logic

— As a vital activity for companies, new product development (NPD) is also a very risky process due to the high uncertainty degree encountered at every development stage and the inevitable dependence on how previous steps are successfully accomplished. Hence, there is an apparent need to evaluate new product initiatives systematically and make accurate decisions under uncertainty. Another major concern is the time pressure to launch a significant number of new products to preserve and increase the competitive power of the company. In this work, we propose an integrated decision-making framework based on neural networks and fuzzy logic to make appropriate decisions and accelerate the evaluation process. We are especially interested in the two initial stages where new product ideas are selected (go/no go decision) and the implementation order of the corresponding projects are determined. We show that this two-staged intelligent approach allows practitioners to roughly and quickly separate good and bad product ideas by making use of previous experiences, and then, analyze a more shortened list rigorously.
Hepatitis E Seroprevalence in Europe: A Meta-Analysis

There have been large numbers of studies on anti-HEV IgG seroprevalence in Europe, however, the results of these studies have produced high variability of seroprevalence rates, making interpretation increasingly problematic. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a clearer understanding of anti-HEV IgG seroprevalence in Europe and identify risk groups for HEV exposure by a meta-analysis of published studies. Methods: All European HEV-seroprevalence studies from 2003 to 2015 were reviewed. Data were stratified by assay, geographical location, and patient cohort (general population, patients with HIV, solid-organ transplant recipients, chronic liver disease patients, and individuals in contact with swine/wild animals). Data were pooled using a mixed-effects model. Results: Four hundred thirty-two studies were initially identified, of which 73 studies were included in the analysis. Seroprevalence estimates ranged from 0.6% to 52.5%, increased with age, but were unrelated to gender. General population seroprevalence varied depending on assays: Wantai (WT): 17%, Mikrogen (MG): 10%, MP-diagnostics (MP): 7%, DiaPro: 4%, Abbott 2%. The WT assay reported significantly higher seroprevalence rates across all cohorts (p < 0.001). Individuals in contact with swine/wild animals had significantly higher seroprevalence rates than the general population, irrespective of assay (p < 0.0001). There was no difference between any other cohorts. The highest seroprevalence was observed in France (WT: 32%, MP: 16%) the lowest in Italy (WT: 7.5%, MP 0.9%). Seroprevalence varied between and within countries. The observed heterogeneity was attributed to geographical region (23%), assay employed (23%) and study cohort (7%). Conclusion: Seroprevalcence rates primarily depend on the seroassy that is used, followed by the geographical region and study cohort. Seroprevalence is higher in individuals exposed to swine and/or wild animals, and increases with age.
Cell cycles in cell hierarchies.

In the replacing tissues of the body, namely the bone marrow, testis, and the surface epithelia with their appendages, cell replacement would appear to be achieved using an hierarchically organized proliferative compartment with relatively few ultimate stem cells producing dividing transit cells which eventually differentiate and mature into the functional cells of the tissue. The cell cycle times of the various constituents of the hierarchy differ, and the stem cells apparently have a longer cell cycle than the transit cells. There may be variations in the cell cycle as cells pass through the transit population in some cases, e.g. in the bone marrow, while in others the cycle time remains fairly constant, e.g. in the testis. The difference in the cell cycle time between stem cells and transit cells is not completely unequivocal, and there is little or no difference in cycle time in the epithelium on the dorsal surface of the tongue while in other cases the experimental evidence for long stem-cell cycles is somewhat imprecise. However, the epithelium in the small intestine and the spermatogonia in the testis have been fairly extensively studied and here the evidence clearly shows a lengthening of the cell cycle as more primitive cells are considered.
Segregation and activation of myosin IIB creates a rear in migrating cells

We have found that MLC-dependent activation of myosin IIB in migrating cells is required to form an extended rear, which coincides with increased directional migration. Activated myosin IIB localizes prominently at the cell rear and produces large, stable actin filament bundles and adhesions, which locally inhibit protrusion and define the morphology of the tail. Myosin IIA forms de novo filaments away from the myosin IIB–enriched center and back to form regions that support protrusion. The positioning and dynamics of myosin IIA and IIB depend on the self-assembly regions in their coiled-coil C terminus. COS7 and B16 melanoma cells lack myosin IIA and IIB, respectively; and show isoform-specific front-back polarity in migrating cells. These studies demonstrate the role of MLC activation and myosin isoforms in creating a cell rear, the segregation of isoforms during filament assembly and their differential effects on adhesion and protrusion, and a key role for the noncontractile region of the isoforms in determining their localization and function.
Entropy Production of Main-Sequence Stars

The entropy production (inside the volume bounded by a photosphere) of main-sequence stars is calculated based on B–V photometry data. The entropy-production distribution function and the dependences of entropy production on temperature and luminosity are obtained for these stars for the first time. A very small range of variation of specific (per volume) entropy production discovered for main-sequence stars (only 0.5 to 1.8 solar magnitudes) is an interesting result that can be crucial for understanding thermodynamic processes of stars.
In support of breastfeeding.

We may not be able to make you love reading, but support of breastfeeding will lead you to love reading starting from now. Book is the window to open the new world. The world that you want is in the better stage and level. World will always guide you to even the prestige stage of the life. You know, this is some of how reading will give you the kindness. In this case, more books you read more knowledge you know, but it can mean also the bore is full.
Analysis of 65 pregnancies in 34 women with five different forms of inherited platelet function disorders

This study evaluated 65 pregnancies in 34 women with five different inherited platelet function disorders. Gestation was similar to that of the general population. Severe bleeds requiring blood transfusions were observed in 50% of deliveries in Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT), but not in the patients with delta storage pool disease, Hermansky‐Pudlak syndrome, P2Y12 defect or defect of thromboxane A2 receptor. Of note, severe haemorrhage also occurred in women with GT who had received prophylactic platelet transfusions, suggesting that better preventive treatments are required. Diagnosis and degree of spontaneous bleeding tendency before pregnancy were reliable parameters to predict the delivery‐related bleeding risk.
FlyBase 101 – the basics of navigating FlyBase

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is the leading database and web portal for genetic and genomic information on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and related fly species. Whether you use the fruit fly as an experimental system or want to apply Drosophila biological knowledge to another field of study, FlyBase can help you successfully navigate the wealth of available Drosophila data. Here, we review the FlyBase web site with novice and less-experienced users of FlyBase in mind and point out recent developments stemming from the availability of genome-wide data from the modENCODE project. The first section of this paper explains the organization of the web site and describes the report pages available on FlyBase, focusing on the most popular, the Gene Report. The next section introduces some of the search tools available on FlyBase, in particular, our heavily used and recently redesigned search tool QuickSearch, found on the FlyBase homepage. The final section concerns genomic data, including recent modENCODE (http://www.modencode.org) data, available through our Genome Browser, GBrowse.
REACTOR: a framework for semantic relation extraction and tagging over enterprise data

Relation extraction from Web data has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. However, little work has been done when it comes to relation extraction from enterprise data regardless of the urgent needs to such work in real applications (e.g., E-discovery). In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised hybrid framework, called REACTOR (abbreviated for a fRamework for sEmantic relAtion extraCtion and Tagging Over enteRprise data). We evaluate REACTOR over a real-world enterprise data set and empirical results show the effectiveness of REACTOR.
Bayesian Inference for Nonnegative Matrix Factorisation Models

We describe nonnegative matrix factorisation (NMF) with a Kullback-Leibler (KL) error measure in a statistical framework, with a hierarchical generative model consisting of an observation and a prior component. Omitting the prior leads to the standard KL-NMF algorithms as special cases, where maximum likelihood parameter estimation is carried out via the Expectation-Maximisation (EM) algorithm. Starting from this view, we develop full Bayesian inference via variational Bayes or Monte Carlo. Our construction retains conjugacy and enables us to develop more powerful models while retaining attractive features of standard NMF such as monotonic convergence and easy implementation. We illustrate our approach on model order selection and image reconstruction.
Network-State Modulation of Power-Law Frequency-Scaling in Visual Cortical Neurons

Various types of neural-based signals, such as EEG, local field potentials and intracellular synaptic potentials, integrate multiple sources of activity distributed across large assemblies. They have in common a power-law frequency-scaling structure at high frequencies, but it is still unclear whether this scaling property is dominated by intrinsic neuronal properties or by network activity. The latter case is particularly interesting because if frequency-scaling reflects the network state it could be used to characterize the functional impact of the connectivity. In intracellularly recorded neurons of cat primary visual cortex in vivo, the power spectral density of Vm activity displays a power-law structure at high frequencies with a fractional scaling exponent. We show that this exponent is not constant, but depends on the visual statistics used to drive the network. To investigate the determinants of this frequency-scaling, we considered a generic recurrent model of cortex receiving a retinotopically organized external input. Similarly to the in vivo case, our in computo simulations show that the scaling exponent reflects the correlation level imposed in the input. This systematic dependence was also replicated at the single cell level, by controlling independently, in a parametric way, the strength and the temporal decay of the pairwise correlation between presynaptic inputs. This last model was implemented in vitro by imposing the correlation control in artificial presynaptic spike trains through dynamic-clamp techniques. These in vitro manipulations induced a modulation of the scaling exponent, similar to that observed in vivo and predicted in computo. We conclude that the frequency-scaling exponent of the Vm reflects stimulus-driven correlations in the cortical network activity. Therefore, we propose that the scaling exponent could be used to read-out the “effective” connectivity responsible for the dynamical signature of the population signals measured at different integration levels, from Vm to LFP, EEG and fMRI.
Health System Responsiveness: A Case Study of General Hospitals in Iran

BACKGROUND Considering patients' needs and expectations in the process of healthcare delivery improves the quality of services. This study aimed to investigate the responsiveness of general public and private hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. METHODS In this cross-sectional and explanatory study, hospitalized patients (with at least 2 days of stay) in general private and public hospitals in Mashhad were investigated. In total 425 patients (259 from private and 166 from public hospitals) were selected using a stratified and simple random sampling. Standard responsiveness questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and ANOVA by SPSS 16 at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS Access to the social support during hospitalization as well as confidentiality of the patient's information achieved the highest score (3.21±0.73) while the patient participation in decision-making process of treatment received the least score (2.34±1.24). Among the research population 1.6%, 4.1%, 17.6%, 63.3% and 13.2% commented on the responsiveness level as very low, low, moderate, good, and excellent, respectively. There was no significant difference between the overall responsiveness scores of public and private hospitals ( P ≥0.05). CONCLUSION The hospitals have enough potential to improve various aspects of their responsiveness. We suggest a number of measures can help improve the non-clinical aspects of care. These include: using educational courses to improve the knowledge and attitudes of medical and nonmedical staff, changing the resource allocation method, and using quality tools such as reengineering to modify the healthcare delivery processes.
Ferritin functions as a proinflammatory cytokine via iron‐independent protein kinase C zeta/nuclear factor kappaB–regulated signaling in rat hepatic stellate cells

Circulating ferritin levels reflect body iron stores and are elevated with inflammation in chronic liver injury. H‐ferritin exhibits a number of extrahepatic immunomodulatory properties, although its role in hepatic inflammation and fibrogenesis is unknown. Hepatic stellate cells respond to liver injury through production of proinflammatory mediators that drive fibrogenesis. A specific receptor for ferritin has been demonstrated on activated hepatic stellate cells, although its identity and its role in stellate cell activation is unclear. We propose that ferritin acts as a cytokine regulating proinflammatory function via nuclear factor kappaB (NF‐κB)–regulated signaling in hepatic stellate cell biology. Hepatic stellate cells were treated with tissue ferritin and iron‐free apoferritin, recombinant H‐ferritins and L‐ferritins, to assess the role of ferritin versus ferritin‐bound iron in the production of proinflammatory mediators of fibrogenesis, and to determine whether signaling pathways act via a proposed H‐ferritin endocytosis receptor, T cell immunoglobulin‐domain and mucin‐domain 2 (Tim‐2). This study demonstrated that ferritin activates an iron‐independent signaling cascade, involving Tim‐2 independent phosphoinositide 3 (PI3)‐kinase phosphorylation, protein kinase C zeta (PKCζ) and p44/p42‐mitogen‐activated protein kinase, resulting in p50/p65‐NF‐κB activation and markedly enhanced expression of hepatic proinflammatory mediators interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), regulated on activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), inhibitor of kappa Bα (IκBα), and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM1). Conclusions:This study has defined the role of ferritin as a proinflammatory mediator of hepatic stellate cell biology acting through the NF‐κB signaling pathway, and suggests a potential role in the inflammatory processes associated with hepatic fibrogenesis. (HEPATOLOGY 2009;49:887–900.)
Local livelihoods and the tourism values chain: a case study in Siem Reap-Angkor region, Cambodia

Tourism, which has grown significantly in the Siem Reap-Angkor region, has had significant impacts on the livelihoods of local residents. This paper presents an overview of the Tourism Value Chain (TVC) in the region and examines the involvement of local residents in local TVC components. A qualitative approach, incorporating observations and semi-structured interviews with 25 local residents, was applied in this study. Secondary data were collected from the Siem Reap provincial tourism department and the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism. The results revealed that, although tourism has provided jobs and business opportunities to locals, their earnings have been consistently low. It is difficult for the poor to access tourism jobs and start tourism related businesses because of lack of financial resources, lack of small business knowledge, inability to use foreign languages and low education levels. Lack of knowledge to diversify products, of information about market needs and of capital to purchase production tools, machinery and raw materials are the main constraints facing local artisans to improve their livelihoods. Poor soil fertility, small agricultural landholdings, low agricultural technological know-how, poor extension services, inability to compete with imported products and limited connections between the tourism sector and local peasants also prevent the poor farmers from gaining economic benefits from tourism.
Preclinical Assessment of Lisdexamfetamine as an Agonist Medication Candidate for Cocaine Addiction: Effects in Rhesus Monkeys Trained to Discriminate Cocaine or to Self-Administer Cocaine in a Cocaine Versus Food Choice Procedure

Background: Chronic amphetamine treatment decreases cocaine consumption in preclinical and human laboratory studies and in clinical trials. Lisdexamfetamine is an amphetamine prodrug in which L-lysine is conjugated to the terminal nitrogen of d-amphetamine. Prodrugs may be advantageous relative to their active metabolites due to slower onsets and longer durations of action; however, lisdexamfetamine treatment’s efficacy in decreasing cocaine consumption is unknown. Methods: This study compared lisdexamfetamine and d-amphetamine effects in rhesus monkeys using two behavioral procedures: (1) a cocaine discrimination procedure (training dose = 0.32mg/kg cocaine, i.m.); and (2) a cocaine-versus-food choice self-administration procedure. Results: In the cocaine-discrimination procedure, lisdexamfetamine (0.32–3.2mg/kg, i.m.) substituted for cocaine with lower potency, slower onset, and longer duration of action than d-amphetamine (0.032–0.32mg/kg, i.m.). Consistent with the function of lisdexamfetamine as an inactive prodrug for amphetamine, the time course of lisdexamfetamine effects was related to d-amphetamine plasma levels by a counter-clockwise hysteresis loop. In the choice procedure, cocaine (0–0.1mg/kg/injection, i.v.) and food (1g banana-flavored pellets) were concurrently available, and cocaine maintained a dose-dependent increase in cocaine choice under baseline conditions. Treatment for 7 consecutive days with lisdexamfetamine (0.32–3.2mg/kg/day, i.m.) or d-amphetamine (0.032–0.1mg/kg/h, i.v.) produced similar dose-dependent rightward shifts in cocaine dose-effect curves and decreases in preference for 0.032mg/kg/injection cocaine. Conclusions: Lisdexamfetamine has a slower onset and longer duration of action than amphetamine but retains amphetamine’s efficacy to reduce the choice of cocaine in rhesus monkeys. These results support further consideration of lisdexamfetamine as an agonist-based medication candidate for cocaine addiction.
Incidence of Acinetobacter spp. and other gram-negative, oxidase-negative bacteria in fresh and spoiled ground beef

A total of 1,409 gram-negative bacterial colonies were randomly selected from 19 samples of fresh and spoiled ground beef plated on six media. Only 137 (9.7%) were oxidase negative, and 20 (14.6%) of these were Acinetobacter spp. , all of which were recovered from fresh meat samples. The importance of this group in both fresh and spoiled beef is less than is generally believed.
Automated Evaluation of RF-based Indoor Localization Systems

An important basis of many smart city applications is knowledge about the location of persons and objects. In outdoor environments, this knowledge can be acquired reliably on a global scale using the wellknown Global Positioning System (GPS). In indoor environments, both the availability and reliability of GPS is significantly limited. This, in turn, has led to active research on approaches and systems to enable indoor localization using various cooperating objects technologies. A key challenge during the development of any of these indoor localization approaches and systems is the systematic evaluation of their performance. To do this, developers have to perform extensive and time-consuming measurements at different locations over an extended period of time. In this paper, we discuss how the time requirements can be reduced by means of automation. Furthermore, based on our experiences with both, manual and automatic evaluation, we discuss the achievable benefits and possible limitations.