Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salivary Defense Factors in Herpes Simplex Virus Infection

Saliva may contribute to a lowering of the infectious herpes simplex virus (HSV) dose during transmission and consequently abrogate infection or lead to decreased reactivation. To test this hypothesis, we assayed saliva for innate defense factors, immunoglobulin content, and the capacity to interfere with HSV infection. Serum or salivary anti-HSV IgG levels did not correlate with control of recurrent labial herpes (RLH) and were significantly higher in subjects with RLH compared with asymptomatic seropositive subjects. Although no differences in levels or output rate of innate defense factors between the groups were observed, the salivary neutralizing activity correlated with lactoferrin and hypothiocyanite concentrations in the asymptomatic seropositive group. Our results suggest that saliva contains factors, in addition to anti-HSV immunoglobulins, that neutralize HSV and may indirectly contribute to the control of RLH.
PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE ISOLATES RECOVERED FROM NONHUMAN PRIMATES

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a zoonotic, Gram-negative member of the family Enterobacteriaceae and is the causative agent of nosocomial septicemic, pneumonic, and urinary tract infections. Recently, pathogenic strains of K. pneumoniae sharing a hypermucoviscosity (HMV) phenotype have been attributed to multisystemic abscessation in both human and nonhuman primates. Although K. pneumoniae is a well-recognized zoonotic agent, there is a lack of general information including adequate diagnostic methods or treatments for nonhuman primates. In an effort to increase the body of knowledge of this enigmatic pathogen, K. pneumoniae isolates from African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) on the island of St. Kitts, West Indies were genotypically and phenotypically characterized. Genetic fingerprints generated by PCR-mediated genomic fingerprinting, phenotypic characterization, and antimicrobial susceptibility all identified a high degree of similarity between the HMV and non-HMV K. pneumoniae isolates. The results obtained from this work will help establish a baseline for the development of efficacious diagnostic methods and treatment strategies for both human and nonhuman primates.
Spanning embeddings of arrangeable graphs with sublinear bandwidth

The Bandwidth Theorem of Böttcher, et al. [Mathematische Annalen 343 (2009), 175–205] gives minimum degree conditions for the containment of spanning graphs H with small bandwidth and bounded maximum degree. We generalise this result to a‐arrangeable graphs H with Δ(H)≤n/logn , where n is the number of vertices of H.
In Vitro effect of the ethanolic extract of Tephrosia Vogelii on Rhipicephalus Sanguineus in Abomey-Calavi

Objectives: Ticks are vectors of several diseases, of which many are zoonosis transmissible to humans. The use of Tephrosia leafs’ extract as a low cost acaricide is spreading among farmers in central Kenya. Materials and Methods: The present study’s aim is to inventory endogenous control methods against dogs’ ticks among which Rhipicephalus sanguineus, in the Municipality of Abomey-Calavi. From September to October 2013, a survey was made on forty randomly selected breeders and ticks samples were collected on forty dogs. The web platform, www.epicollect. net, was used for the survey. In total, 77.5% (n=40) of examined dogs were infested with ticks Results: Three species of ticks were identified: Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Haemaphysalis leachi, and Amblyomma variegatum. They were found on 77.5%, 17.5%, and 15% of examined dogs, respectively. The numerical abundance of the three species was 87.06%, 11.9%, and 1.03%, respectively. The average number of ticks per animal was 16.83±5.04, 2.3±1.64, and 0.2±0.08 for Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Haemaphysalis leachi, and Amblyomma variegatum, respectively. Farmers used manual diptank (67.5%), plant ash (37.5%), petroleum (12.5%), motor oil (2.50 %), and sea water (7.5%) to fight against ticks. Conclusion: The phytochemical screening of the leafy stem’s powder of Tephrosia vogelii revealed the presence of catechol tannins, saponins, sugars, leuco-anthocyanins, polyterpenes, and sterols. A 100% larval mortality was observed at the concentration of 20% the ethanolic extract of the leafy stem of Tephrosia vogelii. The LC50 of this ethanolic extract against Rhipicephalus sanguineus larvae was equal to 2.6%.
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE APPLIED PROBABILITY TRUST

We consider explicit formulae for equilibrium prices in a continuous-time vertical contracting model. A manufacturer sells goods to a retailer, and the objective of both parties is to maximize expected profits. Demand is an Itô–Lévy process, and to increase realism, information is delayed. We provide complete existence and uniqueness proofs for a series of special cases, including geometric Brownian motion and the Ornstein– Uhlenbeck process, both with time-variable coefficients. Moreover, explicit solution formulae are given, so these results are operational. An interesting finding is that information that is more precise may be a considerable disadvantage for the retailer.
Spiders do have melanin after all

ABSTRACT Melanin pigments are broadly distributed in nature – from bacteria to fungi to plants and animals. However, many previous attempts to identify melanins in spiders were unsuccessful, suggesting that these otherwise ubiquitous pigments were lost during spider evolution. Yet, spiders exhibit many dark colours similar to those produced by melanins in other organisms, and the low solubility of melanins makes isolation and characterization difficult. Therefore, whether melanins are truly absent or have simply not yet been detected is an open question. Raman spectroscopy provides a reliable way to detect melanins in situ, without the need for isolation. In this study, we document the presence of eumelanin in diverse species of spiders using confocal Raman microspectroscopy. Comparisons of spectra with theoretically calculated data falsify the previous hypothesis that dark colours are produced solely by ommochromes in spiders. Our data indicate that melanins are present in spiders and further supporting that they are present in most living organisms. Summary: Raman spectroscopy reveals that melanins are present in spiders.
Profile of Lymphadenopathy: An Institutional Based Cytomorphological Study

Introduction: Lymphadenopathy is one of the most common clinical presentations of patients attending the outdoor department of a hospital. Lymph node aspiration is of great value for the diagnosis of lymphadenitis, lymphomas, and metastatic carcinoma. Materials and Methods: In this study, we have reported the pattern of cytological diagnosis on fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of lymphadenopathy cases in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir state of India. The mean age of all the patients in this study was 21.67 years. The most common site of lymphadenopathy was cervical region (71.79%) followed by axillary region (11.11%). Results: Tubercular lymphadenitis (44.02%) was the single most common cause of lymphadenopathy followed by reactive lymphadenitis (42.64%), metastatic lesions (9.40%), and malignant lymphoma (4.70%). The sensitivity of 94.49%, positive predictive value of 96.26%, and diagnostic accuracy of 91.15% was achieved in our study. Conclusion: This study highlights the role of FNAC as a simple, inexpensive, relatively painless, rapid, repeatable, and reliable method of investigation for lymphadenopathy, especially in outpatient departments, peripheral hospitals, and dispensaries.
FACT Assists Base Excision Repair by Boosting the Remodeling Activity of RSC

FACT, in addition to its role in transcription, is likely implicated in both transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair and DNA double strand break repair. Here, we present evidence that FACT could be directly involved in Base Excision Repair and elucidate the chromatin remodeling mechanisms of FACT during BER. We found that, upon oxidative stress, FACT is released from transcription related protein complexes to get associated with repair proteins and chromatin remodelers from the SWI/SNF family. We also showed the rapid recruitment of FACT to the site of damage, coincident with the glycosylase OGG1, upon the local generation of oxidized DNA. Interestingly, FACT facilitates uracil-DNA glycosylase in the removal of uracil from nucleosomal DNA thanks to an enhancement in the remodeling activity of RSC. This discloses a novel property of FACT wherein it has a co-remodeling activity and strongly enhances the remodeling capacity of the chromatin remodelers. Altogether, our data suggest that FACT may acts in concert with RSC to facilitate excision of DNA lesions during the initial step of BER.
Sensory and demographic characteristics of deafblindness rehabilitation clients in Montréal, Canada

Citation information: Wittich W, Watanabe DH & Gagné J‐P. Sensory and demographic characteristics of deafblindness rehabilitation clients in Montréal Canada. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2012, 32, 242–251. doi: 10.1111/j.1475‐1313.2012. 00897.x
Using Serious Games to Improve Therapeutic Goals in Children with Special Needs

This paper describes the findings of comparative experimental research on how children with different types of disabilities or problems (such as: Down syndrome, attention difficulties, premature birth and so on) can benefit from the use of interactive systems to support them in their therapeutic experiences. The results suggest the advantages of using a digital game rather than a physical one to improve their attention significantly.
Kinematics of Tidal Debris from ω Centauri’s Progenitor Galaxy

We present the kinematic properties of a tidally disrupted dwarf galaxy in the Milky Way, based on the hypothesis that its central part once contained the most massive Galactic globular cluster, ω Cen. Dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating progenitor galaxy that follows the present-day and likely past orbits of ω Cen is calculated numerically and the kinematic nature of their tidal debris is analyzed, combined with randomly generated stars comprising spheroidal halo and flat disk components. We show that the retrograde rotation of the debris stars at ~-100 km s-1 accords with a recently discovered large radial velocity stream at ~300 km s-1 toward the Galactic longitude of ~270°. These stars also contribute, only in part, to a reported retrograde motion of the outer halo at the north Galactic pole. The prospects for future debris searches and the implications for the early evolution of the Galaxy are briefly presented.
Learning Invariants using Decision Trees

The problem of inferring an inductive invariant for verifying program safety can be formulated in terms of binary classification. This is a standard problem in machine learning: given a sample of good and bad points, one is asked to find a classifier that generalizes from the sample and separates the two sets. Here, the good points are the reachable states of the program, and the bad points are those that reach a safety property violation. Thus, a learned classifier is a candidate invariant. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm that uses decision trees to learn candidate invariants in the form of arbitrary Boolean combinations of numerical inequalities. We have used our algorithm to verify C programs taken from the literature. The algorithm is able to infer safe invariants for a range of challenging benchmarks and compares favorably to other ML-based invariant inference techniques. In particular, it scales well to large sample sets.
α‐Fetoprotein as a Marker of Embryo‐Specific Differentiations in Normal and Tumor Tissues

Reappearance of embryonic and fetal antigens in tumors is a rather common phenomenon (Alexander 1972, Anderson et al. 1972, Hirai & Miyaji 1973). Different mechanisms may be responsible for this »antigenic reversion* in different systems, but none of them has been elucidated yet. The alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) system seems to be most promising in this respect, since here we deal with a distinct elementary character, an individual and well-defined protein which dynamics in ontogenesis and pathologies have been extensively studied (for review see: Abelev 1971, Masseyeff 1972, Hirai & Miyaji 1973). Good opportunities for studying the nature of the phenomenon are provided by availability of several immunochemical and immunohistochemical methods for AFP determination as well as by versatile in vivo and in v/tro models in which its production can be examined under strictly controlled conditions.
Metastable supersymmetry breaking and supergravity at finite temperature

We study how coupling to supergravity affects the phase structure of a system exhibiting dynamical supersymmetry breaking in a meta-stable vacuum. More precisely, we consider the Seiberg dual of SQCD coupled to supergravity at finite temperature. We show that the gravitational interactions decrease the critical temperature for the second order phase transition in the quark direction, that is also present in the global case. Furthermore, we find that, due to supergravity, a new second order phase transition occurs in the meson direction, whenever there is a nonvanishing constant term in the superpotential. Notably, this phase transition is a necessary condition for the fields to roll, as the system cools down, towards the meta-stable susy breaking vacuum, because of the supergravity-induced shift of the meta-stable minimum away from zero meson vevs. Finally, we comment on the phase structure of the KKLT model with uplifting sector given by the Seiberg dual of SQCD.
Bone mineral density in chronic kidney disease patients

Background: Metabolic bone disease is common in the case of renal failure. The aim of this study is to compare mineral changes, hormonal changes and bone mineral density in pre-dialysis and post-dialysis renal failure patients. Hypothesis: Secondary hyperparathyroidism may be the cause for skeletal changes in renal failure. Materials and Methods: 20 patients of both sexes, with chronic kidney disease formed the subjects of the present study. Studies are done in pre and post dialysis states. In this study bone mineral density is measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and bone minerals are estimated by using standard lab techniques. Results and Conclusion: The results of this study indicate no gross variation in both genders in all parameters. The serum calcium levels (P-0.073) are statistically decreased. In contrast, serum phosphorus levels (P-0.98) are raised but statistically not significant. Parathyroid hormone levels (P-0.50) are increased but statistically not significant. Vitamin D3 levels (P-0.02) are significantly increased in post dialysis compared to pre-dialysis subjects. Bone mineral density in lumbar spine (L1 to L4) T-Score (P-0.007), Z–Score (P-0.009), neck of the femur T-Score (P<0.001), Z–Score (P-0.008) statistically decreased. The forearm T-Score (P-0.97), Z–Score (P-0.12) indicates small variation and statistically not significant. The mineral changes are mainly due to increased secretion of parathyroid hormone. Dialysis has no effect in bone mineral density. There is skeletal resistance to parathyroid hormone, due to reduction in number of hormone receptors and decreased level of calcitriol and loss of negative feedback on parathyroid hormone secretion by calcitriol.
Promotion of hair growth by ginseng radix on cultured mouse vibrissal hair follicles

A 70% methanol extract from red ginseng (steamed and dried roots of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer, a kind of Ginseng Radix) had superior activity to that of white ginseng (peeled and dried root of P. ginseng, another kind of Ginseng Radix) in a hair growth promoting assay using mouse vibrissal follicles in organ culture. Of the major constituents of P. ginseng, ginsenoside‐Rb1 (G‐Rb1) exhibited activity, but ginsenoside‐Rg1 (G‐Rg1) and ‐Ro (G‐Ro) were ineffective. Additionally, 20(S)‐ginsenoside‐Rg3 (20(S)‐G‐Rg3) formed by the processing of red ginseng from the crude root of P. ginseng also showed hair growth promoting activity. These results indicate that Ginseng Radix possesses hair growth promoting activity, and its bioactive components are partially attributable to the ginseng saponin components mentioned above. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
UWaterloo at SemEval-2017 Task 8: Detecting Stance towards Rumours with Topic Independent Features

This paper describes our system for subtask-A: SDQC for RumourEval, task-8 of SemEval 2017. Identifying rumours, especially for breaking news events as they unfold, is a challenging task due to the absence of sufficient information about the exact rumour stories circulating on social media. Determining the stance of Twitter users towards rumourous messages could provide an indirect way of identifying potential rumours. The proposed approach makes use of topic independent features from two categories, namely cue features and message specific features to fit a gradient boosting classifier. With an accuracy of 0.78, our system achieved the second best performance on subtask-A of RumourEval.
Polyethylene Liner Dissociation with the Depuy Pinnacle Cup: A Report of 6 Cases

The potential for liner dissociation has been well researched and a range of push-out and lever-out strengths have been reported for different modular acetabular components. The Pinnacle acetabulum from DePuy first came into use in 2003 and although in clinical testing was found to have a lower push-out and leverout strength when compared with DePuy’s older Duraloc Cup it was reported as having no greater risk of short-term dissociation [1-4].
${\rm MgB}_{2}$ Superconductors With Addition of Other Diborides and SiC

The discovery of superconductivity at 39 K in MgB2 has been catching the attention of scientists due to the possibility of applying the material in magnets and electronic devices operating with cryocoolers (temperatures around 20 K). In the present work, a methodology to optimize the critical current densities of this material is described. MgB2 bulk samples were prepared and analyzed with the addition of other diborides with the same C32 hexagonal structure as MgB2 (TaB2 , ZrB2 , VB2 , and AlB2 ) and with simultaneous addition of SiC. Microstructural characterization, performed using SEM+EDS and XRD, was extremely important to determine the distribution and compositional characterization of the superconducting phase. Magnetic superconducting characterization using SQUID was performed to determine the best material addition. As a result we could analyze the behavior of each addition on the current transport capacity, including an analysis of the magnetic flux pinning mechanisms.
Host Glycan Sugar-Specific Pathways in Streptococcus pneumonia: Galactose as a Key Sugar in Colonisation and Infection

The human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae is a strictly fermentative organism that relies on glycolytic metabolism to obtain energy. In the human nasopharynx S. pneumoniae encounters glycoconjugates composed of a variety of monosaccharides, which can potentially be used as nutrients once depolymerized by glycosidases. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesise that the pneumococcus would rely on these glycan-derived sugars to grow. Here, we identified the sugar-specific catabolic pathways used by S. pneumoniae during growth on mucin. Transcriptome analysis of cells grown on mucin showed specific upregulation of genes likely to be involved in deglycosylation, transport and catabolism of galactose, mannose and N acetylglucosamine. In contrast to growth on mannose and N-acetylglucosamine, S. pneumoniae grown on galactose re-route their metabolic pathway from homolactic fermentation to a truly mixed acid fermentation regime. By measuring intracellular metabolites, enzymatic activities and mutant analysis, we provide an accurate map of the biochemical pathways for galactose, mannose and N-acetylglucosamine catabolism in S. pneumoniae. Intranasal mouse infection models of pneumococcal colonisation and disease showed that only mutants in galactose catabolic genes were attenuated. Our data pinpoint galactose as a key nutrient for growth in the respiratory tract and highlights the importance of central carbon metabolism for pneumococcal pathogenesis.
Effect of Increased Exercise in School Children on Physical Fitness and Endothelial Progenitor Cells: A Prospective Randomized Trial

Background— The aim of this prospective, randomized study was to examine whether additional school exercise lessons would result in improved peak oxygen uptake (primary end point) and body mass index–standard deviation score, motor and coordinative abilities, circulating progenitor cells, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (major secondary end points). Methods and Results— Seven sixth-grade classes (182 children, aged 11.1±0.7 years) were randomized to an intervention group (4 classes with 109 students) with daily school exercise lessons for 1 year and a control group (3 classes with 73 students) with regular school sports twice weekly. The significant effects of intervention estimated from ANCOVA adjusted for intraclass correlation were the following: increase of peak &OV0312;o2 (3.7 mL/kg per minute; 95% confidence interval, 0.3 to 7.2) and increase of circulating progenitor cells evaluated by flow cytometry (97 cells per 1×106 leukocytes; 95% confidence interval, 13 to 181). No significant difference was seen for body mass index–standard deviation score (−0.08; 95% confidence interval, −0.28 to 0.13); however, there was a trend to reduction of the prevalence of overweight and obese children in the intervention group (from 12.8% to 7.3%). No treatment effect was seen for motor and coordinative abilities (4; 95% confidence interval, −1 to 8) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.03 mmol/L; 95% confidence interval, −0.08 to 0.14). Conclusions— Regular physical activity by means of daily school exercise lessons has a significant positive effect on physical fitness (&OV0312;o2max). Furthermore, the number of circulating progenitor cells can be increased, and there is a positive trend in body mass index–standard deviation score reduction and motor ability improvement. Therefore, we conclude that primary prevention by means of increasing physical activity should start in childhood. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Identifier: NCT00176371.
Sensing coverage for randomly distributed wireless sensor networks in shadowed environments

Sensing coverage is viewed as one of the critical measures of the performance offered by a sensor network. In previous studies, the sensing range of a node is generally assumed to be a determinate value in all directions. For most types of sensing signals emitted from a far field, the obstructions in the propagation path will induce an extra loss in the received signal power, and cause a large variation, referred to as shadowing effects, in the received signal strength. The objective of this work is to examine the impact of the shadowing effects on the sensing coverage. Analytical and simulation results for the sensing coverage of a large-scale randomly distributed WSN in shadowed environments are provided