Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mutation of Two Mycoplasma arthritidis Surface Lipoproteins with Divergent Functions in Cytadherence

ABSTRACT Mycoplasma arthritidis is a natural pathogen of rats, causing an acute polyarthritis. Previous studies identified two membrane-bound lipoproteins, Maa1 and Maa2, thought to be associated with cytadherence of M. arthritidis strain 158p10p9. We have since confirmed that Maa1 is a major adhesin, although the role of Maa2 has proven more elusive. Both proteins were capable of eliciting protective immunity in rats against challenge with the virulent strain 158p10p9, suggesting that they may be important in pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to better understand the roles of Maa1 and Maa2 in cytadherence in vitro. Insertion mutants were created for both genes by transposon mutagenesis. In vitro adherence of the Maa1 mutant KOMaa1 to rat L2 lung cells was reduced to the level previously reported for a spontaneous low-adherence mutant of 158p10p9 in which Maa1 is truncated and nonfunctional. Surprisingly, adherence of the Maa2 mutant KOMaa2 was approximately fivefold greater than that of the wild type. Complementation of KOMaa1 and KOMaa2 with wild-type alleles of maa1 and maa2, respectively, returned adherence to wild-type levels. This work confirms our earlier observation that Maa1 is a major adhesin for M. arthritidis strain 158p10p9. Maa2, on the other hand, may play a suppressive or modulatory role, possibly serving to release organisms from microcolonies at certain stages of infection.
Kull, M., & Flach, P. A. (2015). Novel Decompositions of Proper Scoring Rules for Classification: Score Adjustment as Precursor to Calibration

There are several reasons to evaluate a multi-class classifier on other measures than just error rate. Perhaps most importantly, there can be uncertainty about the exact context of classifier deployment, requiring the classifier to perform well with respect to a variety of contexts. This is commonly achieved by creating a scoring classifier which outputs posterior class probability estimates. Proper scoring rules are loss evaluation measures of scoring classifiers which are minimised at the true posterior probabilities. The well-known decomposition of the proper scoring rules into calibration loss and refinement loss has facilitated the development of methods to reduce these losses, thus leading to better classifiers. We propose multiple novel decompositions including one with four terms: adjustment loss, post-adjustment calibration loss, grouping loss and irreducible loss. The separation of adjustment loss from calibration loss requires extra assumptions which we prove to be satisfied for the most frequently used proper scoring rules: Brier score and log-loss. We propose algorithms to perform adjustment as a simpler alternative to calibration.
Trend Inflation, Wage Indexation, and Determinacy in the U.S

We combine an estimated monetary policy rule featuring time-varying trend inflation and stochastic coefficients with a medium scale New Keynesian framework calibrated on the U.S. economy. We find the impact of variations in trend inflation on the likelihood of equilibrium determinacy to be both modest and limited to the second half of the 1970s. In contrast, our counterfactual exercises suggest that the change in the Federal Reserve's policy response to inflation is likely to have been the main driver leading the U.S. economy to a unique equilibrium during the Great Moderation. We highlight the impact of wage indexation on policymakers' ability to induce economic stability, and provide fresh evidence on the relationship between trend inflation, wage indexation and determinacy in the post-WWII U.S. economic environment. Further simulations show that rising the Federal Reserve's inflation target to four percent would be consistent with equilibrium uniqueness conditional on a policy as the one estimated on the U.S. post-1982 sample period.
Comparing Victims of Phishing and Malware Attacks: Unraveling Risk Factors and Possibilities for Situational Crime Prevention

This paper compares the risk factors for becoming a victim of two types of phishing: high-tech phishing (using malicious software) and low-tech phishing (using e-mails and telephone calls). These risk factors are linked to possibilities for situational crime prevention. Data from a cybercrime victim survey in the Netherlands (n=10,316) is used. Based on routine activity theory, the multivariate analyses include thirty variables. The findings show situational crime prevention has to be aimed at groups other than just the users themselves. Criminals are primarily interested in popular online places and the onus is on the owners of these virtual places to protect their visitors from getting infected.
Neuromodulation in the treatment of anorexia nervosa - a literature review

Introduction Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a disorder in which an unnaturally low body weight is deliberately maintained, with the coexistence of a distorted body image. The effectiveness of AN treatment so far is about 40%. For this reason, new methods of treatment are sought, which include brain neuromodulation techniques. Purpose The aim of this article was to determine the effectiveness of neuromodulation techniques in the treatment of AN. Materials and methods The literature on the use of neuromodulation techniques in patients with AN was reviewed via electronic databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, ClinicalTrial.gov. The scope of the search was limited to 01/01/2008-03/01/2023. Articles in English, such as: randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, case reports, were included. In order to verify the quality of the article, the six-point SANRA scale (Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles) was used. Results The results of the studies conducted so far are not homogeneous. The limitation of conclusions is primarily due to the small number and type of clinical trials conducted, involving small groups of subjects. The literature on the subject lacks systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which makes it impossible to reliably determine the effectiveness of therapy. Conclusions Based on Evidence-Based Medicine and the level of credibility of the available data, there is insufficient evidence to recommend neuromodulation techniques for the standard treatment of AN. Further randomized, double-blind clinical trials are needed to assess the effectiveness of this form of treatment. However, the existing data are promising.
Orientation of hatchling loggerhead sea turtles to regional magnetic fields along a transoceanic migratory pathway

SUMMARY Young loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) from the east coast of Florida, USA, undertake a transoceanic migration around the North Atlantic Gyre, the circular current system that flows around the Sargasso Sea. Previous experiments indicated that loggerhead hatchlings, when exposed to magnetic fields replicating those that exist at five widely separated locations along the migratory pathway, responded by swimming in directions that would, in each case, help turtles remain in the gyre and advance along the migratory route. In this study, hatchlings were exposed to several additional magnetic fields that exist along or outside of the gyre's northern boundary. Hatchlings responded to fields that exist within the gyre currents by swimming in directions consistent with their migratory route at each location, whereas turtles exposed to a field that exists north of the gyre had an orientation that was statistically indistinguishable from random. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that loggerhead turtles entering the sea for the first time possess a navigational system in which a series of regional magnetic fields sequentially trigger orientation responses that help steer turtles along the migratory route. By contrast, hatchlings may fail to respond to fields that exist in locations beyond the turtles' normal geographic range.
Athlete Pose Estimation by a Global-Local Network

Analyzing joint movements of an athlete helps to improve the pose of the athlete. Human pose estimation (HPE) algorithms regress the locations of parts such as wrists, ankles and knees. In this paper, we propose a network that combines global and local information for HPE using a 2D image. Unlike previous works that have used global or local information separately, we use the combined information to enhance the performance of HPE. General information from a global network is used as an input to a local network to refine the location of a part using a variety of regions. The global network is based on ResNet-101 [6] and trained to regress a heatmap representing parts’ locations. The output features from the global network are used as input features for the local network. The local network learns spatial information using position sensitive score maps [11]. Through the end-to-end learning, the global network is affected by the local information. We demonstrate that the proposed HPE method is efficient on the LSP and UCF sports datasets.
Quantifying Inefficiency of Fair Cost-Sharing Mechanisms for Sharing Economy

Sharing economy is a distributed peer-to-peer economic paradigm, which gives rise to a variety of social interactions for economic purposes. One fundamental distributed decision-making process is coalition formation for sharing certain replaceable resources collaboratively, for example, sharing hotel rooms among travelers, sharing taxi-rides among passengers, and sharing regular passes among users. Motivated by the applications of sharing economy, this paper studies a coalition formation game subject to the capacity of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math></inline-formula> participants per coalition. The participants in each coalition are supposed to split the associated cost according to a given cost-sharing mechanism. A stable coalition structure is established when no group of participants can opt out to form another coalition that leads to lower individual payments. We quantify the inefficiency of distributed decision-making processes under a cost-sharing mechanism by the strong price of anarchy (SPoA), comparing a worst-case stable coalition structure and a social optimum. In particular, we derive the SPoA for common fair cost-sharing mechanisms (e.g., equal-split, proportional-split, egalitarian and Nash bargaining solutions of bargaining games, and usage-based cost sharing). We show that the SPoA for equal-split, proportional-split, and usage-based cost sharing (under certain conditions) is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Theta (\log K)$</tex-math></inline-formula>, whereas the one for egalitarian and Nash bargaining solutions is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(\sqrt{K} \log K)$</tex-math></inline-formula>. Therefore, distributed decision-making processes under common fair cost-sharing mechanisms induce only moderate inefficiency.
Landsat-satellite-based analysis of spatial–temporal dynamics and drivers of CyanoHABs in the plateau Lake Dianchi

ABSTRACT Dianchi Lake, located in southwest China’s Yungui plateau, is facing severe eutrophication and frequent outbreaks of harmful cyanobacteria blooms (CyanoHABs). It is of great significance to monitor the occurrence and development of CyanoHABs in Dianchi Lake over a long period and analyse the main influences. Based on Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus/Operational Land Imager 1986–2016 data, we derived the distribution of the CyanoHABs in Dianchi Lake, and analysed spatial–temporal dynamics of the CyanoHABs by correlation with nutrition, meteorological, and humanities data. The results showed that the first outbreak of CyanoHABs in Dianchi Lake occurred in 1987, which is likely to be influenced by a rapid increase of nutrients in the lake, while the weather conditions also have some impact on the CyanoHABs occurrence. After 1990, the frequency of CyanoHABs is relatively high in the water near Longmen village, Fubao Bay, Hui Bay, and the lake inlet of the Panlong River to the north of Waihai in Dianchi Lake from June to November every year. Moreover, the CyanoHABs increased year by year until 2000. This is closely related to population growth and economic development. Furthermore, a large amount of precipitation and small wind speeds can also promote the occurrence of CyanoHABs. After 2000, the frequency of CyanoHABs decreased, as the large-scale management of water pollution in Dianchi Lake achieved certain effects. The area and frequency of CyanoHABs from 2011 to 2014 are the smallest in the last 20 years, which may be related to the large-scale planting of Eichhornia crassipes in the north of Dianchi Lake.
Interspecies pharmacokinetic scaling of oltipraz in mice, rats, rabbits and dogs, and prediction of human pharmacokinetics

Dose‐independent pharmacokinetics of oltipraz after intravenous and/or oral administration at various doses to mice, rats, rabbits and dogs were evaluated. After both intravenous and/or oral administration of oltipraz to mice (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg for intravenous and 15, 30 and 50 mg/kg for oral administration), rats (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg for intravenous and 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg for oral administration), rabbits (5, 10 and 30 mg/kg for intravenous administration) and dogs (5 and 10 mg/kg for intravenous and 50 and 100 mg/kg for oral administration), the total area under the plasma concentration‐time curve from time zero to time infinity (AUC) values of oltipraz were dose‐proportional in all animals studied. Animal scale‐up of some pharmacokinetics parameters of oltipraz was also performed based on the parameters after intravenous administration at a dose of 10 mg/kg to mice, rats, rabbits and dogs. Linear relationships were obtained between log time‐averaged total body clearance (Cl) × maximum life‐span potential (MLP) (1 year/h) and log species body weight (W) (kg) (r=0.999; p=0.0015), log Cl (l/h) and log W (kg) (r=0.979; p=0.0209), and log apparent volume of distribution at steady state (Vss) (l) and log W (kg) (r=0.999; p=0.0009). The corresponding allometric equations were Cl×MLP=49.8 W0.861, Cl=5.20 W0.523 and Vss=4.46 W0.764. Interspecies scale‐up of plasma concentration‐time data for the four species using pharmacokinetic time of dienetichron resulted in similar profiles. In addition, concentrations of oltipraz in a plasma concentration‐time profile for humans predicted using the four animal data fitted to the dienetichron time transformation of animal data. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The microbial and chemical risk analysis of drinking water in a small island, Spermonde Archipelago

Coastal areas face greater risk in terms of health and the environment. They are the most vulnerable to impacts resulting from climate change. Coastal areas with higher population density also have more environmental problems, such as natural disasters. Environmental health risks from chemicals and microbes continue threatening people living on small islands. Therefore, this study aims to: 1) conduct a chemical risk analysis of heavy metals Pb, Cr(VI), and Ni; 2) analyse the microbial risk posed by drinking water consumed daily by people on small islands. A method used to analyse the chemical risk of heavy metals was the environment health risk assessment (EHRA), whereas to analyse the microbial risk in small islands, the quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) was used. The results showed that the concentration of heavy metals in drinking water was <0.0012 mg∙dm–3 for Pb, <0.01 mg∙dm–3 for Cr(VI), and <0.0019 mg∙dm–3 for Ni. The three heavy metals showed worrying results. Assessment and obtained risk quotient were less than one (RQ < 1) in all samples. Meanwhile, the microbial analysis found Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Enterobacter sp . , and Citrobacter sp . , with risk characterised from low to high. Risk management is needed to control environmental health risks posed by heavy metals and the microbiological characteristics of drinking water on the small islands of the Spermonde Archipelago.
AKA and Authorization Scheme for 4G Mobile Networks Based on Trusted Mobile Platform

Future 4G mobile communication networks are expected to provide all IP-based services for heterogeneous wireless access technologies. Security service for mobile user as a major challenge in developing such 4G networks becomes more complicated to handle. Since the mobile equipment (ME) becomes ever more powerful but still remain open to possible attacks, the neglect of the security of ME in developing traditional security scheme for mobile networks will remain many risks in the coming 4G systems. In this paper we associate trusted computing (TC) with PKI to provide a considerable robust platform for user's access to sensitive service and data in the scenario of 4G systems. Then over the trusted mobile platform (TMP) we present an hybrid AKA (authentication and key agreement) and authorization scheme, in which password is in combination with fingerprint as well as public key to achieve mutual authentication among user/ME/USIM (universal subscriber identity module) and that among user/AN (accessed network)/HE (home environment). Compared with other AKA for future mobile networks and 3G AKA, our scheme with well scalability and acceptable efficiency is more robust and secure to resist potential attacks on/from ME and attacks in heterogeneous network infrastructure
Molecular determinants of cysteine string protein modulation of N-type calcium channels

Cysteine string proteins (CSPs) are secretory vesicle chaperones that are important for neurotransmitter release. We have previously reported an interaction of CSP with both heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins (G proteins) and N-type calcium channels that results in a tonic G protein inhibition of the channels. In this report we directly demonstrate that two separate regions of CSP associate with G proteins. The N-terminal binding site of CSP, which includes the J domain, binds Gα subunits but not Gαβ subunits whereas the C terminal binding site of CSP associates with either free Gαβ subunits or Gαβ in complex with Gα. The interaction of either binding site of CSP (CSP1-82 or CSP83-198) with G proteins elicits robust tonic inhibition of N-type calcium channel activity. However, CSP1-82 inhibition and CSP83-198 inhibition of calcium channels occur through distinct mechanisms. Calcium channel inhibition by CSP83-198 (but not CSP1-82) is completely blocked by co-expression of the synaptic protein interaction site (synprint) of the N-type channel, indicating that CSP83-198 inhibition is dependent on a physical interaction with the calcium channel. These results suggest that distinct binding sites of CSP can play a role in modulating G protein function and G protein inhibition of calcium channels.
Effects of Maternal Position on Epidural Anesthesia for Cesarean Section, Acid—Base Status, and Bupivacaine Concentrations at Delivery

In 25 patients excellent clinical anesthesia for elective cesarean section was obtained with lumbar epidural block using an average dose of bupivacaine of 130 mg (18 ml of 0.75 per cent solution). Supplemental drugs were not needed. All infants had normal Apgar scores at delivery. Ten patients were kept in a 35–40-degree semi-sitting supine position during induction, while 15 patients were similarly semi-sitting but turned into the left lateral position. Maternal position did not affect the adequacy of the anesthesia or the clinical condition of the infants, but did alter acid—base state and bupivacaine concentrations in the infants. At delivery, the infants whose mothers had been supine had significantly lower (PH values in umbilical cord blood than those whose mothers had been in the lateral position. Also, higher concentrations of bupivacaine were found in the umbilical vein blood of infants whose mothers were supine.
Lawyers and politicians: the impact of organized legal professions on institutional reforms

Organized legal professions often play a central role in successful institutional development. The paper’s model examines how legal professions affect institutional reform. Professional review of reform proposals solves a politician’s informational problem in a way that makes democracy, political stability, and professional power substitutes. The model’s applicability is examined by showing that its predictions track the fortunes of lawyers in the USSR and early transition and are consistent with events in 1688 in England and 1789 in France, indicating why these two revolutions had different consequences. The model suggests why and when civil law and common law systems differ.
EI competencies as a related but different characteristic than intelligence

Amid the swarm of debate about emotional intelligence (EI) among academics are claims that cognitive intelligence, or general mental ability (g), is a stronger predictor of life and work outcomes as well as the counter claims that EI is their strongest predictor. Nested within the tempest in a teapot are scientific questions as to what the relationship is between g and EI. Using a behavioral approach to EI, we examined the relationship of a parametric measure of g as the person’s GMAT scores and collected observations from others who live and work with the person as to the frequency of his or her EI behavior, as well as the person’s self-assessment. The results show that EI, as seen by others, is slightly related to g, especially for males with assessment from professional relations. Further, we found that cognitive competencies are more strongly related to GMAT than EI competencies. For observations from personal relationships or self-assessment, there is no relationship between EI and GMAT. Observations from professional relations reveal a positive relationship between cognitive competencies and GMAT and EI and GMAT for males, but a negative relationship between EI and GMAT for females.
The Market for (Fake) Antimalarial Medicine: Evidence from Uganda

We study the determinants of antimalarial drug quality in developing countries using data from the retail market in Uganda. We find that common biomedical misconceptions among consumers are associated with overly optimistic beliefs about quality, and lower quality sold by retailers. We use a field experiment and find that entry by an NGO selling authentic drugs significantly reduced fake drugs among incumbents, with weaker effects in markets where consumer misconceptions were relatively pervasive. The results are consistent with a simple experience good model where biomedical misconceptions decrease consumers’ ability to infer quality, which retailers exploit by selling lower quality medicines. ⇤An earlier version of this paper has previously circulated under the title ”Can Good Products Drive Out Bad? Evidence from Local Markets for (Fake? ) Antimalarial Medicine in Uganda”. We are grateful for comments and suggestions by Philippe Aghion, Tessa Bold, Raquel Fernandez, Asim Khwaja, Michael Kremer, Nancy Qian, and Richard Zeckhauser, as well as seminar participants at Harvard/MIT, IIES Stockholm U, LSE, NYU, UPF, Yale SPH, Yale Economics Dept., Tufts U, and the CEPR-Development 2012, EEA 2012, AEA/ASSA 2013, and NBER Summer Institute 2013 conferences. We would also like to thank Annalise Blum, Aletheia Donald, Deanna Ford, Sarah McCune and Charles Ntale for excellent research assistance and management, and CIFF, Living Goods and BRAC for their collaboration. All mistakes are our own. Financial support from the Swedish Research Council (421-2009-2209), the Program for Development Research, SIDA; J-PAL, the William F. Milton Fund at Harvard Medical School; and Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies is gratefully acknowledged. †Stockholm School of Economics; ⇤ IIES, Stockholm University; + Harvard University