Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The GM2 Glycan Serves as a Functional Coreceptor for Serotype 1 Reovirus

Viral attachment to target cells is the first step in infection and also serves as a determinant of tropism. Like many viruses, mammalian reoviruses bind with low affinity to cell-surface carbohydrate receptors to initiate the infectious process. Reoviruses disseminate with serotype-specific tropism in the host, which may be explained by differential glycan utilization. Although α2,3-linked sialylated oligosaccharides serve as carbohydrate receptors for type 3 reoviruses, neither a specific glycan bound by any reovirus serotype nor the function of glycan binding in type 1 reovirus infection was known. We have identified the oligosaccharide portion of ganglioside GM2 (the GM2 glycan) as a receptor for the attachment protein σ1 of reovirus strain type 1 Lang (T1L) using glycan array screening. The interaction of T1L σ1 with GM2 in solution was confirmed using NMR spectroscopy. We established that GM2 glycan engagement is required for optimal infection of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) by T1L. Preincubation with GM2 specifically inhibited type 1 but not type 3 reovirus infection of MEFs. To provide a structural basis for these observations, we defined the mode of receptor recognition by determining the crystal structure of T1L σ1 in complex with the GM2 glycan. GM2 binds in a shallow groove in the globular head domain of T1L σ1. Both terminal sugar moieties of the GM2 glycan, N-acetylneuraminic acid and N-acetylgalactosamine, form contacts with the protein, providing an explanation for the observed specificity for GM2. Viruses with mutations in the glycan-binding domain display diminished hemagglutination capacity, a property dependent on glycan binding, and reduced capacity to infect MEFs. Our results define a novel mode of virus-glycan engagement and provide a mechanistic explanation for the serotype-dependent differences in glycan utilization by reovirus.
A wavelet-packet approach for analytical redundancy in frequency subbands

This paper presents an analytical redundancy approach for fault detection in frequency subbands. The proposed method employs an optimized wavelet packet decomposition tree to band-limit the signals under consideration. Dynamic consistency checks can be carried out within each frequency subband by using models identified from training data. A fault detection example involving a simulated servomechanism is presented for illustration. The wavelet packet method is compared with a similar technique employing a standard wavelet decomposition tree, as well as with a classic fault- detection scheme based on a Luenberger state-observer. The results indicate that the proposed method has better sensitivity to the fault effect.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Search Costs

In a recent paper Hong and Shum [2006. Using price distributions to estimate search costs. Rand Journal of Economics 37, 257-275] present a structural method to estimate search cost distributions. We extend their approach to the case of oligopoly and present a new maximum likelihood method to estimate search costs. We apply our method to a data set of online prices for different computer memory chips. The estimates suggest that the consumer population can be roughly split into two groups which either have quite high or quite low search costs. Search frictions confer a significant amount of market power to the firms: Despite more than 20 firms operating in each of the markets, we estimate price-cost margins to be around 25%. The paper also illustrates how the structural method can be employed to simulate the effects of the introduction of a sales tax.
Optimising human performance by reducing motion sickness and enhancing situation awareness with an intuitive artificial 3D Earth-fixed visual reference.

Human performance has been shown to be negatively correlated with seasickness. By reducing crew, ship size, and hence redundancy, sickness induced risks increase exponentially. Although medication is effective, it also causes drowsiness. Non-pharmacological countermeasures are scarce, the most popular one being to look at the horizon. We exploited the latter by creating an artificial Earth-fixed matrix of 3D crosses, that can be used wherever outside views are scarce and visual displays are available. To test such a display we performed two experiments. In Experiment 1, 14 subjects completed a number of 20-minute trials in TNO’s Desdemona motion simulator reproducing a ship motion. The crosses were presented on a computer screen in the background of a demanding task, and on a projection screen in front of the participant. Sickness severity was rated at fixed intervals. In Experiment 2, 11 subjects completed a number of 20-minute trials in the same simulator, now reproducing an aircraft motion. No task was used in Experiment 2, but the display was extended by including a roller-coaster like track showing the trajectory to be followed ahead. Results of Experiment 1 showed that the anti-seasickness display did not interfere with the computer task per se, while it did reduce sickness due to ship motion, whether presented on the computer monitor or on the projection screen. In Experiment 2, sickness was further reduced from somewhat less than a factor of 2 when only showing the crosses (with respect to a c ontrol condition without any display), by over a factor of 4 when adding an anticipatory trajectory. These results allow for optimising operator performance and situation awareness at sea, as well as in the air and on land, as well as the performance of, e.g., troops having to perform right after a sickening transport.
Improving community health worker performance through automated SMS

Community health workers (CHWs) have been shown to be an effective and powerful intervention for improving community health. Routine visits, for example, can lower maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Despite these benefits, many challenges, including supervision and support, make CHW programs difficult to maintain. An increasing number of mHealth projects are providing CHWs with mobile phones to support their work, which opens up opportunities for real-time supervision of the program. Taking advantage of this potential, we evaluated the impact of SMS reminders to improve the promptness of routine CHW visits, first in a pilot study in Dodoma, Tanzania, followed by two larger studies with 87 CHWs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The first Dar es Salaam study evaluated an escalating reminder system that sent SMS reminders directly to the CHW before notifying the CHW's supervisor after several overdue days. The reminders resulted in an 86% reduction in the average number of days a CHW's clients were overdue (9.7 to 1.4 days), with only a small number of cases ever escalating to the supervisor. However, when the step of escalating to the supervisor was removed in the second study, CHW performance significantly decreased.
Which Way Forward for Macroeconomics and Policy Analysis

This book originated from a 2010 conference marking the fortieth anniversary of the publication of the landmark "Phelps volume," Microeconomic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory, a book that is often credited with pioneering the currently dominant approach to macroeconomic analysis. However, in their provocative introductory essay, Roman Frydman and Edmund Phelps argue that the vast majority of macroeconomic and finance models developed over the last four decades derailed, rather than built on, the Phelps volume's "microfoundations" approach. Whereas the contributors to the 1970 volume recognized the fundamental importance of according market participants' expectations an autonomous role, contemporary models rely on the rational expectations hypothesis (REH), which rules out such a role by design. The financial crisis that began in 2007, preceded by a spectacular boom and bust in asset prices that REH models implied could never happen, has spurred a quest for fresh approaches to macroeconomic analysis. While the alternatives to REH presented in Rethinking Expectations differ from the approach taken in the original Phelps volume, they are notable for returning to its major theme: understanding aggregate outcomes requires according expectations an autonomous role. In the introductory essay, Frydman and Phelps interpret the various efforts to reconstruct the field--some of which promise to chart its direction for decades to come. The contributors include Philippe Aghion, Sheila Dow, George W. Evans, Roger E. A. Farmer, Roman Frydman, Michael D. Goldberg, Roger Guesnerie, Seppo Honkapohja, Katarina Juselius, Enisse Kharroubi, Blake LeBaron, Edmund S. Phelps, John B. Taylor, Michael Woodford, and Gylfi Zoega.
The Dwarf Irregular Galaxy UGC 7636 Exposed: Stripping at Work in the Virgo Cluster

We present the results of optical spectroscopy of a newly discovered H II region residing in the H I gas cloud located between the dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 7636 and the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4472 in the Virgo Cluster. By comparing UGC 7636 with dwarf irregular galaxies in the field, we show that the H I cloud must have originated from UGC 7636 because (1) the oxygen abundance of the cloud agrees with that expected for a galaxy with the blue luminosity of UGC 7636 and (2) M/LB for UGC 7636 becomes consistent with the measured oxygen abundance of the cloud if the H I mass of the cloud is added back into UGC 7636. It is likely that tides from NGC 4472 first loosened the H I gas, after which ram pressure stripping removed the gas from UGC 7636.
Supporting a child with dyslexia: how parents/carers engage with school‐based support for their children

Parents'/carers' experiences of their children's dyslexia were explored in a mainstream secondary school in England. Interviews were undertaken with the parents/carers of young people at Hilltop View School, a secondary school in south‐west England. Bourdieusian concepts of field, habitus and practice were powerful in underpinning analysis using Jenkins's (2008) 'levels of interaction' when exploring these experiences. It was found that parents/carers drew on bio‐social conceptualisations when making sense of dyslexia, and this helped them to reframe their children's dyslexia positively. However, they encountered difficulties when engaging in the development of support for their children; the role inhabited by parents versus that of professionals impeded their ability to access the field of education effectively at Hilltop View School. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Optimization, Conflict, and Nonoverlapping Foraging Ranges in Ants

An organism’s foraging range depends on the behavior of neighbors, the dynamics of resources, and the availability of information. We use a well‐studied population of the red harvester ant Pogonomyrmex barbatus to develop and independently parameterize models that include these three factors. The models solve for an allocation of foraging ants in the area around the nest in response to other colonies. We compare formulations that optimize at the colony or individual level and those that do or do not include costs of conflict. Model predictions were compared with data collected on ant time budgets and ant density. The strategy that optimizes at the colony level but neglects costs of conflict predicts unrealistic levels of overlap. In contrast, the strategy that optimizes at the individual level predicts realistic foraging ranges with or without inclusion of conflict costs. Both the individual model and the colony model that includes conflict costs show good quantitative agreement with data. Thus, an optimal foraging response to a combination of exploitation and interference competition can largely explain how individual foraging behavior creates the foraging range of a colony. Deviations between model predictions and data indicate that colonies might allocate a larger than optimal number of foragers to areas near boundaries between foraging ranges.
Tracking focus of attention in meetings

The author presents an overview of his work on tracking focus of attention in meeting situations. He has developed a system capable of estimating participants' focus of attention from multiple cues. In the system he employs an omni-directional camera to simultaneously track the faces of participants sitting around a meeting table and uses neural networks to estimate their head poses. In addition, he uses microphones to detect who is speaking. The system predicts participants' focus of attention from acoustic and visual information separately, and then combines the output of the audio- and video-based focus of attention predictors. In addition he reports recent experimental results: In order to determine how well we can predict a subject's focus of attention solely on the basis of his or her head orientation, he has conducted an experiment in which he recorded head and eye orientations of participants in a meeting using special tracking equipment. The results demonstrate that head orientation was a sufficient indicator of the subjects' focus target in 89% of the time. Furthermore he discusses how the neural networks used to estimate head orientation can be adapted to work in new locations and under new illumination conditions.
Homology Groups of Symmetric Quandles and Cocycle Invariants of Links and Surface-links

We introduce the notion of a quandle with a good involution and its homology groups. Carter et al. defined quandle cocycle invariants for oriented links and oriented surface-links. By use of good involutions, quandle cocyle invariants can be defined for links and surface-links which are not necessarily oriented or orientable. The invariants can be used in order to estimate the minimal triple point numbers of non-orientable surface-links.
Sexism and Gender Profiling: Two Decades of Stereotypical Portrayal of Women in Nollywood Films

Critics of Nollywood especially gender activists, have challenged its predominant, if not exclusive portrayal of women for its narrowly traditional occupational and domestic roles and images. This paper seeks to examine various ways women are depicted in Nollywood films, including physical appearance, domestic and family life, occupational life and interpersonal relationships over a 20 year period spanning the video film era. The research employed a quantitative content method to analyse 10 films while the coding sheet that contained established content categories served as the data gathering instrument. A multistage sampling technique was used to draw the sample. The findings revealed that although there is a higher percentage of women than men in Nollywood films, women still play diminished central roles, and continue to be portrayed less frequently in roles that reflect current social realities than men, especially regarding the professions. Nollywood continues its penchant of depicting successful and powerful women in social and domestic settings as dangerous and doomed for destruction. This characterisation apart from the potential of discouraging females from creating a niche for themselves, simultaneously severely hampers the critical role of generating new cohorts of outstanding independent and powerful females in business, politics or the professions. It can be concluded that the representation of women in Nollywood has not witnessed any radical departure from the traditional preconception of women roles in societies over the two decades. Roles and contemporary treatment of women in Nollywood films should rather emphasise, current accomplishments or successes of women in several spheres of life and do away with negative representations which only help in accentuating and perpetuating stereotypes.
Discovery of extended radio emission in the young cluster Wd1

We present 10-mu m ISO-SWS and Australia Telescope Compact Array observations of the region in the cluster Wd1 in Ara centred on the B [e] star Ara C. An ISO-SWS spectrum reveals emission from highly ionized species in the vicinity of the star, suggesting a secondary source of excitation in the region. We find strong radio emission at both 3.5 and 6.3 cm, with a total spatial extent-of over 20 arcsec. The emission is found to be concentrated in two discrete structures, separated by similar to 14 arcsec, The westerly source is resolved, with a spectral index indicative of thermal emission. The easterly source is clearly extended and non-thermal (synchrotron) in nature. Positionally, the B le] star is found to coincide with the more compact radio source, while the southerly lobe of the extended source is coincident with Ara A, an M2 I star. Observation of the region at 10 mu m reveals strong emission with an almost identical spatial distribution to the radio emission. Ara C is found to have an extreme radio luminosity in comparison with prior radio observations of hot stars such as O and B supergiants and Wolf-Rayet stars, given the estimated distance to the cluster. An origin in a detatched shell of material around the central star is therefore suggested; however given the spatial extent of the emission, such a shell must be relatively young (tau similar to 10(3) yr), The extended non-thermal emission associated with the M star Ara A is unexpected; to the best of our knowledge this is a unique phenomenon. SAX (2-10 keV) observations show no evidence of X-ray emission, which might be expected if a compact companion were present.
International authority and the emergency problematique: IO empowerment through crises

Abstract This paper applies the concept of emergency powers to the crisis politics of international organizations (IOs). In the recent past, IOs like the UN Security Council, the WHO, and the EU have reacted to large-scale crises by resorting to assertive governance modes bending the limits of their competence and infringing on the rights of the rule-addressees. In contrast to rational and sociological institutionalist notions of mission creep, this paper submits that this practice constitutes ‘authority leaps’ which follow a distinct logic of exceptionalism: the expansion of executive discretion in both the horizontal (lowering of checks and balances) and the vertical (reduction of legal protection of subjects) dimension, justified by reference to political necessity. This ‘IO exceptionalism’, as argued here, represents a class of events which is observable across fundamentally different international institutions and issue areas. It is important not least because emergency politics tend to leave longer-term imprints on a polity’s authority structures. This article shows that the emergency powers of IOs have a tendency to normalize and become permanent features of the institution. Thus IO exceptionalism and its ratcheting up represent a mechanism of abrupt but sustainable authority expansion at the level of IOs.
THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB) INFLUENCE ON INTERNATIONALIZING THE CURRICULUM IN SOUTH KOREAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: MAPPING CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE FUTURE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED K-20 SYSTEM

As globalization spreads, many people in South Korea have become aware of the importance of educating the next generation with internationalized curricula. This study examines the perspectives of schools, the government in South Korea, and transnational certifiers and curriculum designers to see how they define international curricula, what concepts they are ignoring, and what are the challenges in providing an internationally accredited curriculum such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) in the South Korean educational context. The study uses qualitative research methods, analysing documents written by the government, formal school administrators, and national associations acoording to criteria suggested by the literature. The study concludes by a map depicting the priorities and stances of the various stakeholders in the South Korea international education field. This figure is used to make recommendations regarding future actions for each stakeholder.
Speech Versus Touch: A Comparative Study of the Use of Speech and DTMF Keypad for Navigation

This article reports on an experiment that critically tests user preference for an input modality (speech vs. Dual Tone Multiple Frequency[DTMF])in a phone-based message retrieval system. Unlike previous studies that compared these two modalities, the speech system used in this study was a fully functioning natural language system, and participants in this study were working professionals, rather than college students. Results indicate that (a) DTMF was more effective and efficient for linear tasks, whereas speech was better for nonlinear tasks; (b) speech was preferred to DTMF by a majority of users; (c) speech was judged as being more satisfying, more entertaining, and easier to use than DTMF; and (d) user preference for a particular modality was better predicted by user performance in nonlinear tasks rather than linear ones. Possible reasons for users' continuing preference for the speech modality even after experiencing fairly high recognition errors are discussed. Finally, the importance of examining speech user interfaces from other perspectives, in addition to efficiency maximization, is emphasized. The results of this study have theoretical, as well as practical, implications for the design of speech user interfaces and interactive voice response applications.
Feeding Intolerance and Poor Growth in Infants with Gastroschisis: Longitudinal Experience with Consecutive Patients over Thirteen Years

Objectives: 1) To investigate in-hospital factors associated with delayed tolerance of full volume enteral nutrition and 2) To assess longitudinal growth in a contemporary population of infants with gastroschisis. Design: Retrospective single-center study of all infants with gastroschisis Setting: Level III neonatal intensive care unit in a free-standing Children’s Hospital Duration: 13.5 years Materials & Methods: Detailed data regarding demographics, nutritional support, growth, and infant outcomes was collected for all infants with gastroschisis. Linear regression was used to investigate in-hospital factors associated with feeding intolerance and poor growth. Results: For 52 infants, the median gestational age at birth was 36 weeks, the median postnatal age to achieve full feeds was 22 days, and median in-hospital weight gain was 18 gm/day. With linear regression, there was a positive association between time to full feeds and both hospital length of stay (adjusted R2=0.503, p < 0.0001) and (unexpectedly) in-hospital weight gain (adjusted R2=0.125, p=0.0248). There was a negative association between in-hospital weight gain and preterm birth (adjusted R2=0.125, p=0.0356). For infants with longitudinal growth data, 35% had a weight < 5th percentile (of whom 67% were preterm). Conclusions: Many infants with gastroschisis have poor growth before and after hospital discharge. Aggressive feeding advancement may be a contributing factor to this finding and preterm infants may be at greater risk for poor growth than term infants.