Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intracellular interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ) production in normal children and children with atopic dermatitis

A reduction in the in vitro production of IFN‐γ has been consistently described in atopic dermatitis (AD). Whether this reduction is due to a decrease in the population of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) producing IFN‐γ or reduced IFN‐γ production per cell, or a combination of both is not clear. We have examined the intracellular production of IFN‐γ in children with AD and in healthy non‐atopic controls. As Staphylococcus aureus colonization is a feature of childhood AD, and is postulated to contribute to the cutaneous inflammation in atopic dermatitis, S. aureus and Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) were used to activate PBMC. Stimulated PBMC from subjects with AD had significantly fewer IFN‐γ‐containing cells in response to SEB (P < 0.001) and S. aureus (P < 0.01) than normal non‐atopic children. In addition, SEB‐stimulated PBMC from children with AD had less IFN‐γ per cell than normal non‐atopic children (P < 0.01). Reduction in the proportion of cells containing IFN‐γ was seen in CD4+, CD8+ and natural killer (NK) cells in PBMC from children with AD. Our findings indicate that reduced production of IFN‐γ observed in childhood AD is due to both a decrease in the number of IFN‐γ‐producing cells and a reduced amount of IFN‐γ production per cell. Furthermore, we found that this defect was not confined to CD4+ T cells, suggesting a more generalized defect in IFN‐γ production in childhood AD.
Pulmonary nodule size evaluation with chest tomosynthesis and CT: a phantom study.

OBJECTIVE We compared digital tomosynthesis (TOMO) and chest CT in terms of assessing the sizes of nodules located in zones where evaluation by simple radiography is limited. METHODS A total of 48 images comprising phantom nodules of four sizes in six different locations were used. Nodule size measurement errors for measurements using TOMO and CT images compared with the actual size from each observer were calculated. The inter- and intraobserver repeatability of the measured values and the agreement between the two techniques were assessed using the method described by Bland and Altman. RESULTS The mean measurement errors for all of the nodules and four observers were -0.84 mm [standard deviation (SD), 0.60 mm] on TOMO and -0.18 mm (SD, 0.71 mm) on CT images. The mean measurement errors for the different observers ranged from -1.11 to -0.55 mm for TOMO and from -0.39 to 0.08 mm for CT. Assessing the agreement between nodule size measurements using TOMO and CT resulted in mean measurement errors of -0.65 mm, with a 95% limit of agreement of -2.53 to 1.22 mm for comparison of TOMO with CT. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that nodule sizes obtained using TOMO and chest CT are comparable, even for nodules located in areas where the size measurement is limited on simple radiography. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE TOMO and CT can be used interchangeably, even for nodules located in a blind area on simple radiography.
Measurement of the CP-Violating Phase phi(s) in (B)over-bar(s)(0) -> Ds+Ds- Decays

We present a measurement of the CP-violating weak mixing phase phi(s) using the decay (B) over bar (0)(s) -> Ds+Ds- in a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. An analysis of the time evolution of the system, which does not use the constraint vertical bar lambda vertical bar = 1 to allow for the presence of CP violation in decay, yields phi(s) = 0.02 +/- 0.17(stat) +/- 0.02(syst) rad, vertical bar lambda vertical bar = 0.91(-0.15)(+0.18)(stat) +/- 0.02(syst). This result is consistent with the standard model expectation.
Disk cache replacement policies for network fileservers

Trace driven simulations were used to study the performance of several disk cache replacement policies for network file servers. It is shown that locality based approaches, such as the common least recently used (LRU) policy, which are known to work well on stand-alone disked workstations and at client workstations in distributed systems, are inappropriate at a fileserver. Quite simple frequency based approaches do better. More sophisticated frequency based policies (eg., that take into account the file type) may offer additional improvements. <<ETX>>
Transient expression of -glucuronidase gene in indica and japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) callus cultures after different stages of co-bombardment

Rapidly growing embryogenic calli of different ages derived from the scutellum of mature seed embryos of indica rice (Rasi) and mature seeds of japonica rice (Taipei 309) was biolistically transformed. Plasmid pUCGUS containing the uidA gene encoding �-glucuronidase was used to optimize transformation conditions using various combinations of helium pressure, target distance and gap distance. Plasmid pHX4 carrying hygromycin phosphotransferase (hph) gene and pUCGUS was used for co bombardment. Resistant calli were selected in the presence of hygromycin B. Successful co-transfer of DNAs to cells was monitored by analyzing transient gus expression 24 h after bombardment and 24 days after selection. Maximum level of gus expression was observed if calli were selected for transformation after 44 days in maintenance medium. Maximum callus transformation frequency of 37.5 was observed for Taipei 309 as compared to 24.2 for indica rice cv. Rasi.
The Relationship between Language Learning Anxiety and Language Learning Motivation among Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

The present study was an attempt to investigate the degree of anxiety among Iranian intermediate EFL learners and its relation to their motivation. To this end, a total number of 80 EFL learners (35 males and 45 females) were selected through cluster random sampling from two language classes at Islamic Azad University, Sardasht Branch, Hormozgan Province, Iran as the participants in this study. The instruments used to collect the data from the participants were the Foreign Language Learning Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and Gardner’s (1985) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). The results indicated that the majority of the participants experienced a mid to high level of language learning anxiety. Besides, it was found that the participants with lower levels of the language learning anxiety were more motivated to learn English while those with higher levels of the language learning anxiety were less motivated to learn English. However, there was no significant difference between the anxiety level of male and female participants. Similarly, there was no significant difference between the motivation level of male and female participants in this study. Finally, the findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the male and female participants concerning their language learning anxiety and motivation to learn English, indicating that gender did not play a determining role in these two variables.
Local differences in Leydig cell morphology in the adult rat testis: evidence for a local control of Leydig cells by adjacent seminiferous tubules.

In order to test the hypothesis that Leydig cell function in the adult rat testis is influenced by the surrounding tubules, Leydig cell morphology was compared in different types of interstitial areas. Triangular interstitial areas surrounded by 3 cross-sectioned tubules in nearly the same stage of spermatogenesis were chosen for quantitative light microscopy. It was found that the volume density of Leydig cells in such areas was about 30%, except when the surrounding tubules were in stages IX-X or XI-XII, when it was only about 20%. This variation in total Leydig cell mass seemed to be due to a variation in Leydig cell size and not in Leydig cell number. The largest Leydig cell profile area, 118 +/- 6 micrometers 2 (mean +/- SE n = 6 rats), was observed when the surrounding tubules were in stages VII-VIII, i.e. just prior to sperm release. The smallest Leydig cells were seen when the surrounding tubules were in stages IX-X and XI-XII (68 +/- 3 and 66 +/- 4 micrometers 2). The present results indicate that there may be a Leydig cell cycle in the adult rat testis, which is regulated by the adjacent tubules.
Efficient algorithms for multilevel power estimation of VLSI circuits

This paper presents a methodology for calculating highly accurate mean power estimates for integrated digital CMOS circuits. A complementary calibration scheme for ASIC library cells to extract the power relevant parameters is proposed. The circuit models presented allows the prediction of mean power dissipation of gate-level designs in CMOS technologies with an accuracy that is comparable to a SPICE simulation but up to 10 000 times faster. The outlined approach is capable of handling complex circuits consisting of more than 20 000 cells and thousands of memory elements. Very large sets of input data with several millions of patterns can, thus, be simulated in an efficient way. This allows the prediction of mean power dissipation of VLSI circuits in a realistic functional context which provides new assessment possibilities for digital CMOS low-power design methods. Experimental results for some benchmark circuits are detailed in order to demonstrate the significant improvements in terms of performance, accuracy, and flexibility of this approach compared to state-of-the-art power estimation methods
Why Is the Correlation between Gene Importance and Gene Evolutionary Rate So Weak?

One of the few commonly believed principles of molecular evolution is that functionally more important genes (or DNA sequences) evolve more slowly than less important ones. This principle is widely used by molecular biologists in daily practice. However, recent genomic analysis of a diverse array of organisms found only weak, negative correlations between the evolutionary rate of a gene and its functional importance, typically measured under a single benign lab condition. A frequently suggested cause of the above finding is that gene importance determined in the lab differs from that in an organism's natural environment. Here, we test this hypothesis in yeast using gene importance values experimentally determined in 418 lab conditions or computationally predicted for 10,000 nutritional conditions. In no single condition or combination of conditions did we find a much stronger negative correlation, which is explainable by our subsequent finding that always-essential (enzyme) genes do not evolve significantly more slowly than sometimes-essential or always-nonessential ones. Furthermore, we verified that functional density, approximated by the fraction of amino acid sites within protein domains, is uncorrelated with gene importance. Thus, neither the lab-nature mismatch nor a potentially biased among-gene distribution of functional density explains the observed weakness of the correlation between gene importance and evolutionary rate. We conclude that the weakness is factual, rather than artifactual. In addition to being weakened by population genetic reasons, the correlation is likely to have been further weakened by the presence of multiple nontrivial rate determinants that are independent from gene importance. These findings notwithstanding, we show that the principle of slower evolution of more important genes does have some predictive power when genes with vastly different evolutionary rates are compared, explaining why the principle can be practically useful despite the weakness of the correlation.
Endogenous Competition and Unemployment Fluctuations

It is well known that the standard matching model has di¢ culty replicating basic high frequency behavior of the labor market. We introduce a new mechanism which increases labor market volatility. We follow Blanchard and Giavazzi (2003) in combining imperfect competition in the goods market with frictions in the labor market, creating a distinction between rms and jobs. When a positive productivity shock hits the economy, incumbent rms post more vacancies and entrants take advantage of new pro t opportunities. The increased competitivity ampli es the response of aggregate vacancies to a productivity shock, since rms have less of an incentive to restrict output. Simulations reveal that endogenizing industry structure helps in generating greater volatility. This is achieved while still inducing responses to changes in policy in line with data. The new environment also generates new theoretical predictions. Keywords: Imperfect competition; Matching frictions; Business cycle uctuations. JEL Classi cation: C78; D43; E24: E32. For their useful comments, we wish to thank Steve Ambler, Markus Poschke, Pavel evμcík and Etienne Wasmer, as well as participants at the Midwest Macroeconomic Meetings (2010), the 10th Doctoral Workshop in Economic Theory and Econometrics (2010) and the Canadian Economic Association Meetings (2012). Delacroix would like to acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for nancial support. Please address all correspondence to: A. Delacroix, Département des Sciences Économiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case postale 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal QC H3C 3P8, Canada; Tel. : (514) 987 3000 (x6816); Fax: (514) 987-8494; E-mail: delacroix.alain@uqam.ca.
Attitudes of African American premedical students toward genetic testing and screening

Purpose: Genetic research is progressing at a rapid rate. While most view genetic advances favorably, concerns regarding eugenics and discrimination based on genetic test results have been raised. These concerns have been found among all groups studied; however, they have particular relevance for members of the African American community. Studies have shown that because of a long history of negative experiences, African Americans have a general mistrust of the medical establishment. It is unclear whether these negative attitudes encompass genetic advances. Because there is little empiric data in the literature, it is not known whether African Americans have a positive view of genetic advances or whether they have the same level of mistrust as is seen in their attitudes toward other forms of biomedical research.Methods: This study was conducted as an initial effort to examine the attitudes of African Americans toward recent genetic advances and, specifically, genetic testing. A cohort of 97 college-age minority students, including 78 African Americans, participating in the Health Career Enhancement for Minorities Program (HCEM) at Case Western Reserve University were surveyed. Surveys were made available before and after the summer long course, which included five lectures on basic genetic principles and medical genetics.Results: Both African American students and other minority students initially (questionnaire prior to HCEM course) had an overall positive view of genetic testing. The vast majority supported genetic testing for preventive care (95%) and presymptomatic detection of disease (88%) and agreed that it should be easily available (83%). However, several concerns were expressed as well, including fears about discrimination (68%), privacy (68%), that abortions will become more common (51%), and eugenics (37%). It is interesting that in the postcourse questionnaire, the percentages of positive views remained similar to those of the precourse survey, but the number of respondents expressing concerns increased.Discussion: These results suggest that the minority students surveyed view many aspects of genetic testing and other advances favorably. However, these students expressed concerns about discrimination, privacy, and eugenics. These concerns were increased, not lessened, by exposure to genetics education. One possible explanation for this observation is that the students had a greater understanding of the issues regarding genetic testing after the HCEM lectures and discussion. Of note, there was a greater negative response toward genetic screening programs among the African American students compared with the non–African American minority students. This suggests that the negative attitudes of African Americans toward biomedical research do extend to some aspects of genetics and that educational programs must be designed and implemented if this community is going to receive the maximum benefits of this advancing technology.
Assessing solar energy potential using diurnal remote-sensing observations from Kalpana-1 VHRR and validation over the Indian landmass

A spectrally integrated clear-sky and three-layer cloudy-sky models were developed to determine atmospheric transmittances and instantaneous surface insolation. Half-hourly observations at 8 km spatial resolution in optical and thermal infrared bands from an Indian geostationary satellite (Kalpana-1) Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) sensor were used to provide inputs to these models in addition to global 8 day aerosol optical depth and columnar ozone. Sensitivity analysis of the clear-sky model showed a higher influence of aerosol on global insolation, diffuse insolation, and its fraction as compared with water vapour and ozone. The root mean square error (RMSE) of insolation estimates of the daily integral was found to be 2.05 MJ m−2 (∼11.2% of measured mean) with a high correlation coefficient (r = 0.93) when compared with in situ measurements during 1 August 2008 to 31 March 2010 over six locations in India. The errors were found to reduce to 7.5% over 3 to 5 day averages. The comparison of annual estimates and equivalent reanalysis fields showed a mean difference of the order of ±1.7 MJ m−2 over the majority of the Indian landmass.
Late oligocene?–Miocene pollen of the families Compositae, Malvaceae and Polygonaceae from the Chenque formation, Golfo San Jorge Basin, southeastern Argentina

Abstract The Chenque Formation in southeastern Argentina contains a diverse palynological assemblage, from which selected taxa from three families are herein described. A new genus Baumannipollis is erected to accommodate spinose, stephanocolporate pollen grains related to the family Malvaceae. Four new species belonging to the Malvaceae and Compositae are described. These are Baumannipollis chubutensis gen. et sp. nov., B. variaperturatus gen. et sp. nov., Malvacipolloides comodoroensis sp. nov. and Tubulifloridites viteauensis sp. nov. The type material for these taxa is from the Chenque Formation, Late Oligocene? ‐Miocene of the Golfo San JorgeBasin, southeastern Argentina. Glencopollis ornatus Pocknall & Mildenhall 1984 is reported for the first time from South America. The presence of Tubulifloridites antipodica Cookson 1947 is recorded for the Chenque Formation. Finally, the species distribution and its chronostratigraphic significance are presented.
Substantial variation in leaf senescence times among 1360 temperate woody plant species: implications for phenology and ecosystem processes.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Autumn leaf senescence marks the end of the growing season in temperate ecosystems. Its timing influences a number of ecosystem processes, including carbon, water and nutrient cycling. Climate change is altering leaf senescence phenology and, as those changes continue, it will affect individual woody plants, species and ecosystems. In contrast to spring leaf out times, however, leaf senescence times remain relatively understudied. Variation in the phenology of leaf senescence among species and locations is still poorly understood. METHODS Leaf senescence phenology of 1360 deciduous plant species at six temperate botanical gardens in Asia, North America and Europe was recorded in 2012 and 2013. This large data set was used to explore ecological and phylogenetic factors associated with variation in leaf senescence. KEY RESULTS Leaf senescence dates among species varied by 3 months on average across the six locations. Plant species tended to undergo leaf senescence in the same order in the autumns of both years at each location, but the order of senescence was only weakly correlated across sites. Leaf senescence times were not related to spring leaf out times, were not evolutionarily conserved and were only minimally influenced by growth habit, wood anatomy and percentage colour change or leaf drop. These weak patterns of leaf senescence timing contrast with much stronger leaf out patterns from a previous study. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that, in contrast to the broader temperature effects that determine leaf out times, leaf senescence times are probably determined by a larger or different suite of local environmental effects, including temperature, soil moisture, frost and wind. Determining the importance of these factors for a wide range of species represents the next challenge for understanding how climate change is affecting the end of the growing season and associated ecosystem processes.
Mechanisms of setup of displacement piles in sand: laboratory creep tests

A series of triaxial creep tests is described, with the aim of shedding light on the mechanisms behind displacement pile setup in granular soils. The stress path leading to the creep stages has been designed to mimic, as far as possible, the installation of a pile adjacent to an element of soil. A complex strain response is found with creep in dense sands at high stress ratio, with rotation of the creep strain vector over time. A new hypothesis, involving kinematically restrained dilation of the soil close to the pile shaft and soil ageing, is proposed to explain pile setup. Influences on the creep behaviour, and hence degree of setup, are found to be particle shape and strength, relative density, and rate of loading. The application of small cyclic perturbations during creep is found to accelerate the onset of volumetric dilation and hence is proposed to accelerate setup.Key words: creep, setup, displacement piles, laboratory testing, sands.
EFFECT OF SOIL PROPERTIES ON THE ABUNDANCE AND DIVERSITY OF LAND MOLLUSCS IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Objectives: We studied the land mollusc fauna of four forest types in south west Nigeria and focused on the influence of the soil physico-chemical parameters on abundance and species richness. Methods: Land molluscs were collected by fixed-time search and litter sieving technique from ten plots of 400 m2 each study location. Results: We found a total of 2,523 individuals from 50 species. The most abundant species, Trochozonites talcosus, constituted about 15% of the population. Snail abundance was positively and significantly correlated with soil calcium concentration (p< 0.05) and negatively correlated with exchangeable acidity, clay and sand (p0.05). Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that soil pH, calcium, organic carbon, exchangeable acidity and texture were major determinants of species assemblages in tropical rainforest land snail fauna.
Automated label placement in theory and practice

Title page and contents 1\. An introduction to label placement 1 2\. General labeling: label-number maximization 11 3\. Point labeling: label-number maximization 31 4\. Point labeling: label-size maximization 81 5\. Line labeling 97 6\. Designing geometric algorithms 113 Conclusion 131 Bibliography 139 Thanks 137 Abstract and Zusammenfassung V
Precipitation in Britain: An analysis of area‐average data updated to 1989

The present work is a geographical extension and update of our previous analysis of spatial and temporal variations in precipitation over England and Wales. In this study the UK is divided into nine regions of coherent precipitation variability on the basis of our earlier principal components analysis. Daily and monthly time-series are assembled for seven sites within each region, and area-average series and statistics are computed. We investigate correlations among the sites within each region, among regions on daily to annual time-scales. Monthly time-series spanning the period 1931–1989 for England and Wales, for Scotland and for Northern Ireland are calculated by further combining the nine regions. No long-term trends are apparent.