Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Mycobacterial α-Glucan As a Novel Ligand for DC-SIGN: Involvement of Mycobacterial Capsular Polysaccharides in Host Immune Modulation1

Mycobacterium tuberculosis possesses a variety of immunomodulatory factors that influence the host immune response. When the bacillus encounters its target cell, the outermost components of its cell envelope are the first to interact. Mycobacteria, including M. tuberculosis, are surrounded by a loosely attached capsule that is mainly composed of proteins and polysaccharides. Although the chemical composition of the capsule is relatively well studied, its biological function is only poorly understood. The aim of this study was to further assess the functional role of the mycobacterial capsule by identifying host receptors that recognize its constituents. We focused on α-glucan, which is the dominant capsular polysaccharide. Here we demonstrate that M. tuberculosis α-glucan is a novel ligand for the C-type lectin DC-SIGN (dendritic cell-specific ICAM-3-grabbing nonintegrin). By using related glycogen structures, we show that recognition of α-glucans by DC-SIGN is a general feature and that the interaction is mediated by internal glucosyl residues. As for mannose-capped lipoarabinomannan, an abundant mycobacterial cell wall-associated glycolipid, binding of α-glucan to DC-SIGN stimulated the production of immunosuppressive IL-10 by LPS-activated monocyte-derived dendritic cells. By using specific inhibitors, we show that this IL-10 induction was DC-SIGN-dependent and also required acetylation of NF-κB. Finally, we demonstrate that purified M. tuberculosis α-glucan, in contrast to what has been reported for fungal α-glucan, was unable to activate TLR2.
Cerebrospinal fluid quinolinic acid concentrations are increased in acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Dementia and brain atrophy are established features of a large proportion of patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). To investigate a potential mechanism for atrophy in AIDS, we measured the concentration of the endogenous neurotoxin quinolinic acid in the cerebrospinal fluid of 10 patients with AIDS and found that they had 3‐fold higher quinolinic acid concentrations than 9 age‐matched control subjects: 53.8 10.7 pmol/ml versus 18.4 3.4 pmol/ml, respectively (p 0.005). It remains to be determined whether increased brain quinolinic acid concentrations are involved in the pathogenesis of the neuropathology of AIDS.
Oral bisphosphonates and risk of esophageal cancer : a meta-analysis

Objectives: The association between oral bisphosphonate (BP) intake and esophageal cancer risk has been investigated in several recent studies with conflicting results. Methods: We conducted a detailed meta-analysis of observational studies with sub-analysis of duration, type of BPs and cumulative dose. We identified relevant studies by search of PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Embase in October 2014. The studies that provide the risk estimates and CIs between exposure to oral BPs and risk of esophageal cancer were included in our analysis. When data sets were from the same population, the most recent study was included unless the other studies contains largest number of esophageal cancer case or more detailed data. Results: Overall, 7 studies were included in our meta-analysis. The primary analysis suggested that the bisphosphonate treatment was not associated with risk of esophageal cancer in both cohort studies (RR 1.18, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.97) and nested case-control studies (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.22). No statistically significant risk was found in sub-analysis of both type of BPs and duration of exposure. Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests that the use of oral bisphosphonate treatment was not significantly associated with excess risk of esophageal cancer.
A Multicellular Model of the Renal Myogenic Response

One of the key autoregulatory mechanisms that controls blood flow in the kidney is the myogenic response. Subject to elevated blood pressure, the renal afferent arteriole responds with an increase in muscle tone and a decrease in diameter. We investigate the myogenic response of a vascular segment of multiple smooth muscle cells by connecting instances of afferent arteriole cell models in series. To model individual cells, we include detailed Ca signaling, transmembrane transport of major ions, the kinetics of myosin light chain phosphorylation, as well as cellular contraction and wall mechanics. The cells of the vessel are connected by gap junctions, which link the cytoplasm of neighboring cells, and by a layer of endothelial cells. Blood flow through the afferent arteriole vessel is modeled using Poiseuille flow. Simulation of an inflow pressure up-step leads to vasoconstriction in the proximal part of the vessel and to vasodilation for a down-step. The afferent arteriole model stabilizes to a significant degree a physiological range of blood pressures (80–180 mmHg) and predicts a decrease in the average segment diameter for high blood pressures. Similar responses are also observed for short-term pressure pulses. The developed model allows for the study of the effect of oscillatory perturbations to inflow pressure on the ∗Corresponding author Email addresses: alayton@math.duke. edu (Anita T. Layton) blood flow. The ability of the model to represent the myogenic response suggests that it can be incorporated as a key component into models of integrated renal hemodynamic regulation.
Comparison of automated culture systems with a CFR/USP-compliant method for sterility testing of cell-therapy products.

BACKGROUND Although widely used, commercially available automated culture methods are not US Food and Drug Administration-approved for sterility testing of cell-therapy products. For cell-therapy products regulated under Section 351 of the Public Health Service Act, sterility testing must be performed by the methods described in 21 CFR 610.12 and USP <71> (CFR/USP method), or by methods demonstrated to be equivalent. METHODS Two automated methods, BacT/Alert (BTA; bioMerieux) and Bactec (Becton Dickinson), were compared with the CFR/USP method. Representative mononuclear cell (MNC) products were formulated using six different product media. MNC product aliquots containing 10-50 x 10(6) cells in a 0.5 mL volume were seeded with organisms, and cultured for 14 days in aerobic and anaerobic bottles of each system. Ten different organisms at target concentrations of 10 and 50 colony-forming units (CFU) per bottle were tested. RESULTS Positives were detected in a mean (range) of 72% (7-100%) of cultures for CFR/USP, 82% (0-100%) for BTA, and 93% (57-100%) for Bactec. For nine of the 10 organisms tested, overall detection rates for BTA and Bactec were equivalent to or higher than CFR/USP. Of the six product media tested, detection of organisms was impaired only by the medium containing multiple antibiotics: this occurred in all three systems. Both BTA and Bactec had shorter times to detection than the CFR/USP method, with overall means (ranges) of 87 (24-264) h for CFR/USP, 24 (12-54) h for BTA, and 33 (12-80) h for Bactec. Detection occurred consistently within 7 days for both BTA and Bactec, but not for CFR/USP. DISCUSSION Both BTA and Bactec are superior to the CFR/USP method for overall detection and time to detection of organisms in MNC products suspended in commonly used media. These data support general use of either BTA or Bactec for sterility testing of a variety of cell-therapy products, and suggest that a 7-day culture period is sufficient to detect clinically relevant organisms. These results confirm the need for bacteriostasis and fungistasis testing of antibiotic-containing products, even when antibiotic-binding substances are used.
Update on home visiting for pregnant women and parents of young children.

D n the last 10 years, the number of home visiting programs for parents of young children in the United States has grown substantially. According to a recent report from the Packard Foundation, thousands of home visiting programs nbw exist, and over 500,000 children are enrolled in such programs nationwide. 1 Interest in home visiting has deepened with increased recognition that brain development is most rapid in the first 3 years of life and that opportunities to influence the course of children's lives are greatest during that time. 2 Support for such services intensified when findings from a program of prenatal and infancy home visitation by nurses showed positive effects on pregnancy outcomes, child abuse and neglect, and maternal life course among low-income, unmarried women and their children. 3-5 Although home visiting programs have a wide variety of goals and service elements, they all emphasize the importance of parental behavior in influencing the lives of children and the importance of the home as an opportune place for providing services. In principle, home visitors can observe family dynamics and the environments in which children and families live,
The Decision to Hire Managers in Mixed Markets Under Bertrand Competition

This paper analyses the decisions of firms as to whether or not to hire managers when there is a public firm competing with a private firm in the product market. It is shown that under Bertrand competition with heterogeneous goods both firms hire managers. This is in contrast with the result obtained under Cournot competition, where only the private firm hires a manager. Moreover, welfare is lower if both firms hire managers than if neither firm does. In contrast, under Cournot competition welfare is greater if both firms hire managers.
Multiple Directorships and Corporate Performance in Australian Listed Companies

How many directorships are too many? Globally, normative advice emphasises the importance of limiting the number of directorships any individual should hold due to the workloads they entail. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this view. Rather, there is a strong tradition of supporting multiple directorships as a mechanism for the firm to co-opt external resources. To explore the issue of director workloads and multiple directorships, we first consider the issues related to multiple directorships and outline the conclusions of extant international and Australian studies into multiple directorships. We then detail our objectives in undertaking this research and our approach to data collection. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
On the use of Langmuir probes for the diagnosis of atmospheric thermal plasmas

The thermal and fluid dynamic disturbances caused by the insertion of a Langmuir probe into a flowing thermal plasma are examined. Attention is paid to a 5-mm-long, free burning 200-A argon plasma at atmospheric pressure. It has been found that the disturbances caused by the probe are so severe that probe measurements cannot refer directly to an undisturbed plasma. The difficulties in interpreting the probe voltage-current (V-I) characteristics are discussed. The use of a Langmuir probe as a general diagnostic tool for the plasma conditions investigated is not yet a practical proposition.
Dividends and Momentum

This article investigates the relationship that exists between dividend yield and momentum strategies. Both have been shown to explain the cross-section of returns, and yet they are negatively related to each other. The article finds that the outperformance of zero dividend stocks disappears when returns are measured on a value-weighted basis. Both value and momentum strategies work when the other is controlled for, although momentum is found to be the more statistically significant effect. Momentum seems to be most effective in lower dividend yield quintiles. When 130/30 portfolios were formed, this generated several percentage points of return on an annualized basis, although there was a broadly commensurate increase in volatility.
Do Islamic banks use loan loss provisions to smooth their results

Purpose – The paper seeks to examine income smoothing practices in Islamic banks. It first focuses on detecting income smoothing practices. It then seeks to test whether loan loss provisions (LLPs) are used for earnings management purposes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores income smoothing practices on a sample of 66 Islamic banks over the period 2001‐2006 using Beidleman's and Eckel's coefficients. Data are obtained from the Bankscope database. To test the use of LLPs to smooth Islamic banks results, a regression model was developed and tested.Findings – The results provide evidence on an extensive use of income smoothing by Islamic banks. More than 75 per cent of the examined banks have a determination coefficient between 0.5 and 1 and 44 per cent have a variation coefficient less than 0.5. However, income smoothing is not achieved through LLPs. The variable earnings before taxes and provisions are not significant in all model specifications. The paper advances that these smoothed incomes.
Variation of HIV-1 Mutation Spectra among Cell Types

ABSTRACT The high rates of mutation, recombination, and replication drive HIV-1 diversity. In this study, we investigated how cell type affects viral mutation rate and mutation spectra. In studying four different cell types, no differences in mutation rate were observed, but intriguingly cell type differences impacted HIV-1 mutation spectra. This is the first description of significant differences in HIV-1 mutation spectra observed in different cell types in the absence of changes in the viral mutation rate.
Slavic Brothers or Rivals?

Abstract Since the advent of the market economy in the former Soviet Union, the trade between old union members has developed gradually. However, the scant market research from this area has focused exclusively on the trade between Western countries and selected former members of the Union, typically Russia. Very little is known about the nature and dynamics of the trade within the old Union area, between the new independent countries. This study addresses the role of consumer ethnocentrism in the trade between Russia and Ukraine, the two largest countries of the former Union. Due to their common historical background, consumers in the two countries could be expected to define each other as part of their “national in-groups. ” If this were the case, consumer ethnocentrism would have a positive effect on evaluations of imports from one country to the other. However, there are also historical reasons to expect the opposite effect. To some extent there are different ethnicities in the two countries, and due to the historical dominance of Russia, Ukrainian consumers might perceive Russians as imperialistic and paternalistic, whereas Russians might consider Ukrainians as provincial and less sophisticated. Such attitudes would lead to national “out-group” perceptions and negative effects of consumer ethnocentrism on the trade between the two countries. These rival hypotheses on the effects of consumer ethnocentrism were tested on data from a survey of University students in St. Petersburg (Russia) and Kiev (Ukraine). This study is the first to present empirical evidence on the existence and nature of consumer ethnocentrism in trade relationships within the former Soviet Union.
Innis Lecture: Equity and Equality

Is horizontal equity (HE) the `most widely accepted principle of equity'? Or does it stand in `opposition to the advancement of human welfare'? This paper argues that the case for the HE principle is not as straightforward as is usually thought and that it requires advanced notions of justice and well-being. The most likely ethical basis for HE appears to combine a Rawlsian maximin principle and a view of well-being that allows for relative local comparison effects. The paper also explores some of the dimensions of equality and well-being along which the HE principle can be applied and presents a number of examples showing how HE considerations can provide an important input into policy analysis.
Patterns of innovation in knowledge-intensive business services

This article develops indicators to capture six forms or types of innovation in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS): product, process, delivery, strategic, managerial and marketing innovations. It also proposes a conceptual framework inspired by the knowledge-based theory using different categories of knowledge assets as explanatory variables. Then, based on data of 1124 small and medium KIBS, multivariate probit regression models are estimated. The results show that product, process, strategic, managerial and marketing innovations are complementary. The results also show that the different forms of innovation are explained by different explanatory variables.
Software-based high-level synthesis design of FPGA beamformers for synthetic aperture imaging

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can potentially be configured as beamforming platforms for ultrasound imaging, but a long design time and skilled expertise in hardware programming are typically required. In this article, we present a novel approach to the efficient design of FPGA beamformers for synthetic aperture (SA) imaging via the use of software-based high-level synthesis techniques. Software kernels (coded in OpenCL) were first developed to stage-wise handle SA beamforming operations, and their corresponding FPGA logic circuitry was emulated through a high-level synthesis framework. After design space analysis, the fine-tuned OpenCL kernels were compiled into register transfer level descriptions to configure an FPGA as a beamformer module. The processing performance of this beamformer was assessed through a series of offline emulation experiments that sought to derive beamformed images from SA channel-domain raw data (40-MHz sampling rate, 12 bit resolution). With 128 channels, our FPGA-based SA beamformer can achieve 41 frames per second (fps) processing throughput (3.44 × 108 pixels per second for frame size of 256 × 256 pixels) at 31.5 W power consumption (1.30 fps/W power efficiency). It utilized 86.9% of the FPGA fabric and operated at a 196.5 MHz clock frequency (after optimization). Based on these findings, we anticipate that FPGA and high-level synthesis can together foster rapid prototyping of real-time ultrasound processor modules at low power consumption budgets.
Interference Stabilization Revisited

Interference stabilization of Rydberg atoms in a sufficiently strong laser field is revisited. Its main features predicted theoretically and observed experimentally are described together with the newest experimental and theoretical results. The most important new results concern the found efficient population of atomic Rydberg levels in the process of multiphoton ionization and interference stabilization of population at Rydberg levels. Another important new topic is the interference stabilization at vibrational levels of dissociating molecules.
Bridging Two Schools of Thought: Applications of Public Relations Theory to Political Marketing

The use of public relations strategies and tactics are ubiquitous in many areas of political communication. This is especially evident when considering the emerging field of political marketing. However, little application of public relations theory and research has been integrated into the study of political marketing processes. Thus, this work seeks to bridge two schools of thought and to identify some of the major conceptual perspectives from public relations theory that can be used to better understand and analyze the dynamics of political marketing processes. Specifically, the perspectives include relationship theory, contingency theory, situational theory of publics, and agenda-building theory.
The In Vivo Response of Invariant Natural Killer T Cells to Glycolipid Antigens

Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are a subset of T lymphocytes that recognizes glycolipid antigens presented by the major histocompatibility complex class I–related protein CD1d. Although iNKT cells have received a lot of attention as targets for the development of immunotherapies, few studies have investigated the in vivo response of iNKT cells to glycolipid antigen activation. Accumulating evidence indicates that iNKT cells generate a dynamic response to in vivo activation by glycolipid antigens that is characterized by surface receptor downmodulation, expansion, cytokine production, cross talk with other cells, homeostatic contraction, and acquisition of an anergic phenotype. These studies provide new insight into the biology of iNKT cells and have important implications for designing safe and effective iNKT cell–based vaccines and therapies.
Fuzzy model-reference adaptive control

This paper proposes a fuzzy model-reference adaptive control (Fuzzy-MRAC) to deal with controlling a plant with unknown parameters which are dependent on known variables. The proposed method uses the fuzzy basis function expansion (FBFE) to represent the unknown parameters and change the identification problem from identifying the original unknown parameters to identifying the coefficients of the FBFE. That is, the dependency property of unknown parameters is absorbed into the fuzzy basis functions and their linear combination coefficients. This data representation is substantiated by the Stone Weierstrass theorem which indicates that any continuous function can be represented by the FBFE. With the aid of the FBFE, the unknown parameters can be estimated more precisely and better performance can be expected from the fuzzy-MRAC than the traditional MRAC. Furthermore, the adaptation scheme of the proposed fuzzy-MRAC is based on both the tracking error and the prediction error. Combining these two sources of error information, the proposed fuzzy-MRAC will provide more adaptation power than a traditional adaptive control. Since the proposed fuzzy-MRAC can be considered as an extension of the traditional MRAC, its stability and convergence properties are preserved. Computer simulations were conducted to show the validity and the performance of the proposed fuzzy-MRAC and its improvements over the traditional MRAC.
Coherent Model-Free Implied Volatility: A Corridor Fix for High-Frequency VIX

The VIX index is computed as a weighted average of SPX option prices over a range of strikes according to specific rules regarding market liquidity. It is explicitly designed to provide a model-free option-implied volatility measure. Using tick-by-tick observations on the underlying options, we document a substantial time variation in the coverage which the stipulated strike range affords for the distribution of future S&P 500 index prices. This produces idiosyncratic biases in the measure, distorting the time series properties of VIX. We introduce a novel “Corridor Implied Volatility” index (CX) computed from a strike range covering an “economically invariant” proportion of the future S&P 500 index values. We find the CX measure superior in filtering out noise and eliminating artificial jumps, thus providing a markedly different characterization of the high-frequency volatility dynamics. Moreover, the VIX measure is particularly unreliable during periods of market stress, exactly when a “fear gauge” is most valuable.
R&D spillovers and productivity: an analysis of geographical and technological dimensions

This analysis examines whether potential spillover pools for R&D based on technological and/or geographical proximity have a positive impact on firm productivity for Danish firms, and the importance of absorptive capacity for spillover effects. Knowledge spillovers are constructed based on the research profiles of businesses. The article finds that measures of R&D spillovers based on technological proximity impact positively on firms’ productivity, while results are much weaker for geographical measures. In general, the impact of spillovers is increasing in the share of R&D personnel, indicating the importance of absorptive capacity for benefitting from private knowledge pools on a broader scale. The geographical dimension of spillovers also shows some importance when considered together with the share of R&D personnel.