Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Fast Volume-Gradient-Based Band Selection Method for Hyperspectral Image

In this paper, a subtle relationship is found between the volume of a subsimplex and the volume gradient of a simplex with respect to hyperspectral images. By using this relationship, we propose an efficient band selection method, namely, the volume-gradient-based band selection (VGBS) method. The VGBS method is an unsupervised method, which tries to remove the most redundant band successively. Interestingly, the VGBS method can find the most redundant band based only on the gradient of volume instead of calculating the volumes of all subsimplexes. Experiments on simulated and real hyperspectral data verify the efficiency of the proposed method.
Small Peptide Inhibitor of JNK3 Protects Dopaminergic Neurons from MPTP Induced Injury via Inhibiting the ASK1-JNK3 Signaling Pathway

Introduction and Aims The ASK1-JNK3 signaling pathway plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). The specific binding of β-arrestin2 to JNK3 is essential for activation of the ASK1-JNK3 cascade, representing a potential therapeutic target for preventing dopaminergic neuronal death in PD. The aim of this study was to identify a novel strategy for the prevention of dopaminergic neuronal death in PD. Methods Based on the specific binding of β-arrestin2 to JNK3, a 21-amino-acid fusion peptide, termed JNK3-N-Tat, was synthesized. We evaluated the ability of this peptide to inhibit the binding of β-arrestin2 to its target domain in JNK3 in vitro and in vivo. Results The JNK3-N-Tat peptide inhibited activation of the ASK1-JNK3 cascade by disrupting the interaction between β-arrestin2 and JNK3. JNK3-N-Tat exerted beneficial effects through pathways downstream of JNK3 and improved mitochondrial function, resulting in attenuated MPP+/MPTP-induced damage. JNK3-N-Tat protected mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons against MPTP-induced toxicity. Conclusions JNK3-N-Tat, a JNK3-inhibitory peptide, protects dopaminergic neurons against MPP+/MPTP-induced injury by inhibiting the ASK1-JNK3 signaling pathway.
Identification of an l-Rhamnose Synthetic Pathway in Two Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses

ABSTRACT Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) are characterized by large genomes that often encode proteins not commonly found in viruses. Two species in this group are Acanthocystis turfacea chlorella virus 1 (ATCV-1) (family Phycodnaviridae, genus Chlorovirus) and Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (family Mimiviridae), commonly known as mimivirus. ATCV-1 and other chlorovirus members encode enzymes involved in the synthesis and glycosylation of their structural proteins. In this study, we identified and characterized three enzymes responsible for the synthesis of the sugar l-rhamnose: two UDP-d-glucose 4,6-dehydratases (UGDs) encoded by ATCV-1 and mimivirus and a bifunctional UDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-d-glucose epimerase/reductase (UGER) from mimivirus. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that ATCV-1 probably acquired its UGD gene via a recent horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from a green algal host, while an earlier HGT event involving the complete pathway (UGD and UGER) probably occurred between a protozoan ancestor and mimivirus. While ATCV-1 lacks an epimerase/reductase gene, its Chlorella host may encode this enzyme. Both UGDs and UGER are expressed as late genes, which is consistent with their role in posttranslational modification of capsid proteins. The data in this study provide additional support for the hypothesis that chloroviruses, and maybe mimivirus, encode most, if not all, of the glycosylation machinery involved in the synthesis of specific glycan structures essential for virus replication and infection.
Informing practice: information experiences of ambulance officers in training and on-road practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present findings of an enquiry into the use and experience of information, in learning to become an ambulance officer. The paper aims to explore how the information environment is constituted for novice and experience practitioners. The paper also aims to consider what type of information is considered important by novice and experienced practitioners in learning about practice and profession.Design/methodology/approach – The study is approached from an information literacy (IL) perspective, where IL is viewed as the catalyst for learning about work and professional practice. It draws on constructivist‐influenced grounded theory method to explore how an IL experience is constituted for the worker.Findings – Three modalities of information which inform practice are described. IL is illustrated as more than just an experience with text or skills‐based literacy. It is viewed as socio‐cultural practice which is shaped by discourse.Research limitations/implications – T.
Dengue and other Aedes-borne viruses: a threat to Europe?

At the beginning of the 20th century, dengue outbreaks were rather common in the Mediterranean basin. The last major epidemic on the European continent occurred in 1927/28 and predominantly affected Athens and neighbouring areas of Greece. After a first mild wave, which nearly ended with the arrival of cold weather in the winter season, a small number of cases continued to occur through the winter and spring, increasing dramatically in August 1928 [1-3]. It is conceivable that both the virus and its primary vector, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, survived the winter in the city, inside heated houses. Serological surveys detected neutralising antibodies to different dengue virus (DENV) serotypes in samples of individuals living in Athens in that period [4,5]. Some time after this severe outbreak, with 1,000 to 1,500 deaths, both dengue and its primary vector ‘abandoned’ the European continent.
Enzyme specificity under dynamic control: a normal mode analysis of alpha-lytic protease.

We have used alpha-lytic protease as a model system for exploring the relationship between the internal dynamics of an enzyme and its substrate specificity. The wild-type enzyme is highly specific for small substrates in its primary specificity pocket, while the M190A mutant has a much broader specificity, efficiently catalyzing cleavage of both large and small substrates. Normal modes have been calculated for both the wild-type and the mutant enzyme to determine how internal vibrations contribute to these contrasting specificity profiles. We find that for the atoms lining the walls of the specificity pocket, the wild-type normal modes have a more symmetric character, with the walls vibrating in phase, and the size of the pocket remaining relatively fixed. This is in agreement with X-ray crystallographic data on conformational substates trapped at 120 K. In contrast, we find that in the mutant, the binding pocket normal modes have a more antisymmetric character, with the walls vibrating out of phase, and the pocket able to expand and contract. These results suggest that the internal vibrations of a molecule may play an important role in determining substrate binding and specificity. A small change in protein structure can have a significant effect on the pattern of molecular vibrations, and thus on enzymatic properties, even if the overall amplitudes of the vibrations, as measured by NMR relaxation or crystallographic B-factors, remain largely unchanged.
Online Comments on Smoking Bans in Psychiatric Hospitals Units

Objective: Individuals with mental health concerns are disproportionately affected by and suffer the negative consequences of tobacco use disorder, perhaps because smoking has historically been part of psychiatry's culture. In the early 1990s, psychiatric inpatient facilities were exempted from U.S. hospital smoking bans, in response to public outcry with national media attention. Almost 2 decades later, the current study characterizes online conversation about psychiatric hospital smoking bans. Previous commenting studies have demonstrated commenting's negativity, documenting the “nasty effect” wherein negative comments color perceptions of neutral articles. Thus, we focused particular attention on cited barriers to implementing health-positive smoke-free policies. Methods: We collected online comments (N = 261) responding to popular media articles on smoking bans in inpatient psychiatry between 2013 and 2014 and conducted an inductive and exploratory qualitative content analysis. Results: Verifying previous studies documenting the prevalence of negative commenting, of the comments explicitly supporting or refuting psychiatry smoking bans, there were over twice as many con comments (n = 44) than pro (n = 18). Many commenters argued for access to outdoor smoking areas and warned of patient agitation and risk posed to care workers. Identified content themes included psychiatric medication and negative side effects, broken mental health systems and institutions, denigration of the health risks of tobacco in the context of mental illness, typical pro-smoking arguments about “smokers’ rights” and alternatives (including e-cigarettes), addiction, and stigma. Conclusions: The current findings provide a platform to begin to understand how people talk about mental health issues and smoking. Our analysis also raised complex issues concerning forces that impact U.S. patients with serious mental illness but over which they have little control, including medication, the U.S. health system, stigma, perceptions that life with chronic serious mental illness is not worth living, and psychological and physical pain of coping with mental illness. In consideration of identified barriers raised in opposition to smoking bans in inpatient psychiatry, efforts should emphasize patient stakeholder involvement; patient, visitor, and staff protection from smoke exposure; the effectiveness of nicotine replacement for managing withdrawal; and the lack of evidence that cigarettes are therapeutic.
Do stated preferences provide clues into who adopts improved cookstoves?

This paper explores the heterogeneity in household preferences for different features of improved cookstoves (ICS), and the degree to which these are associated with actual adoption behaviors observed during a randomized ICS promotion campaign. The data come from a survey of 1060 households residing in rural communities located in Uttarakhand, India. During baseline surveys, all households participated in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in which they selected their preferred stove options in a series of stated choice tasks. Analyzing the data from the DCE, we find that households on average have a strong preference for traditional stoves and have greater willingness to pay (WTP) for the smoke emissions reduction feature of ICS than for decreased fuel requirements and increased convenience (number of cooking surfaces), but that this average masks important heterogeneity in preferences. Latent class analysis (LCA) of the choice patterns in the data allows us to identify 3 distinct categories of households, who can be characterized as disinterested in ICS (54%), interested in most features of the ICS (20%), and sensitive primarily to the smoke emissions feature of stoves (27%). We then investigate whether membership in each of these classes helps predict adoption of ICS that were promoted during a randomized promotion experiment with a subset of 770 of these households. In general, we find that the LCA preference classes do relate to stove purchase decisions and responsiveness to randomized rebates. Lastly, as the stove promotion experiment sold both biomass and electric ICS, we find that distaste for smoke emissions (relative to other negative attributes of stoves), as revealed in the LCA, appears to be a particularly strong driver for adoption of the electric ICS.
Financial Valuation and Risk Management Working Paper No . 524 Mathematical Model for Resistance and Optimal Strategy

We propose a mathematical model for one pattern of charts studied in technical analysis: in a phase of consolidation, the price of a risky asset goes down ξ times after hitting a resistance level. We construct a mathematical strategy and we calculate the expectation of the wealth for the logaritmic utility function. Via simulations, we compare the strategy with the standard one.
The Flux of Trust: Caribou Co-Management in Northern Canada

There is a presumption that the primary goal of creating alternative resource management systems is to increase the efficiency of the management decisions made. However, changing the rules of resource management leads to institutional uncertainty, and such instability is an integral part of developing alternative management systems. In the case of barren ground caribou management, these rule changes include adding the voices of resource users to decision-making, in particular, the marginalized voices of aboriginal caribou-hunting communities. Trust-building is an important process in the development of new management institutions in such crosscultural situations. Trust develops in conditions where the multiple perspectives of diverse stakeholders are addressed, so that the information for management decisions is clear, accountable and legitimate to all parties. The trust put in the knowledge of linked and dynamic social and ecological conditions changes through time. In this paper the fluctuating trust put in the knowledge of caribou ecology and behaviour is examined with the aid of panarchy thinking and common property theory. This analysis is grounded in the relationship between barren ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and people in the Dene community of Łutsel Ke on the eastern arm of Great Slave Lake, in Canadas Northwest Territories. On suppose que l'objectif premier qui sous-tend la creation de systemes alternatifs de gestion des ressources est l'amelioration de l'efficacite des decisions. Pourtant, les modifications des regles de gestion fragilisent les institutions, et cette instabilite fait partie integrante de la creation de systemes alternatifs de gestion. Dans le cas de la gestion du caribou des toundras, on compte parmi ces changements l'ajout du point de vue des utilisateurs de la ressource dans les prises de decisions, en particulier celui des collectivites autochtones qui en font la chasse. Etablir la confiance est un processus important dans la creation de nouvelles institutions de gestion dans un contexte interculturel. La confiance s'etablit lorsque les perspectives des divers intervenants sont prises en compte, afin que l'information menant a des decisions soit claire, responsable et legitime pour tous. La confiance dans la connaissance des conditions sociales et ecologiques dynamiques et interreliees se modifie dans le temps. Cet article se sert de la pensee panarchique et des theories sur la propriete commune pour examiner les fluctuations de la confiance dans les connaissances sur l'ecologie et le 44 Environments 31 (1) comportement du caribou, en particulier dans le cadre des relations entre les caribous des toundras (Rangifer tarandus) et les peuples de la communaute dene de Łutsel Ke, dans le bras est du Grand lac des Esclaves, dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest.
Estudo da interatividade entre macromoléculas asfaltênicas e compostos estabilizantes: LCC e Cardanol

O asfalteno contido no petroleo pode se depositar gerando inumeros problemas que podem afetar nao so a producao, mas tambem todas as etapas que envolvem o transporte, armazenamento e processamento do oleo cru. Este trabalho apresenta uma adaptacao matematica de modelos de interatividade para o sistema asfalteno/estabilizante capaz de prever o desempenho do estabilizante em evitar a precipitacao de asfalteno. A capacidade do liquido da casca da castanha de caju (LCC) e de um dos seus derivados, o cardanol, foi estudada empregando-se o teste de peptizacao. Tanto o LCC quanto o cardanol apresentaram propriedades estabilizadoras de asfaltenos e exibiram interatividade positiva em ambos os casos.
Role of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase in B Cell Development

X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) is one of the most frequent inherited immunodeficiency diseases in man and is characterized by an almost complete arrest of B cell differentiation at the pre-B cell stage. The gene defective in XLA encodes the cytoplasmic signaling molecule Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk). Next to the CBA/N strain of mice, carrying a single amino acid substitution mutation in the Btk gene, which results in the X-linked immunodeficiency (xid) phenotype, additional mouse models have been developed to study the role of Btk in vivo. This review discusses the analyses of Btk null-mutants, obtained by gene targeting in embryonic stem cells, and transgenic mice that express wild-type or mutated forms of the Btk gene. These studies provided information on the function of Btk at several important checkpoints throughout B cell development. Analyses of the mouse models indicated that Btk is not essential for pre-B cell receptor signaling in the mouse. By contrast, Btk-mediated B cell receptor signaling appears to be required for the survival of immature B cells in the bone marrow, that have performed a successful immunoglobulin (Ig) L chain locus rearrangement, resultirig in the expression of a non-autoreactive Ig on the membrane. Btk is also shown to be involved in signaling pathways that govern the development of peripheral B cells, including follicular entry, follicular maturation and plasma cell differentiation.
Nanostructuring and Microstructuring of Materials from a Single Agropolymer for Sustainable MAP Preservation of Fresh Food

The main objective of the present work was to determine whether a single agropolymer [wheat gluten (WG)] could fit the modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) requirements of a range of six different fresh produce in key terms of oxygen permeation (PeO2) and CO2/O2 permselectivity (S) values. The required properties for optimal packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables were first evaluated using the Tailorpack MAP modelling software (UMR IATE, Montpellier, France) with packaging dimensions and respiratory and optimal atmosphere data as input parameters. Then, the modelled values obtained were compared with the properties of a range of WG composite films: monolayer self‐supported or multilayer at microscale or nanoscale, cast or thermoplasticised, with different formulations (percentage of plasticisers or nanofillers). The experimental gas transfer properties that could be covered by these materials ranged from 0.05 × 10−10 to 2.00 × 10−10 mol/m2 s Pa for PeO2 and up to 18.0 for S. These ranges are much larger than conventional plastics that exhibit PeO2 from 0.10 × 10−10 to 0.20 × 10−10 mol/m2 s Pa and S up to 4.5. It was demonstrated from a food‐requirements‐driven (Tailorpack modelling) and a multiscale film structuring (WG‐based composites) approaches, that transfer properties of WG‐based films would fit the requirements of the six selected fruits and vegetables better than conventional plastics. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Increased Positive versus Negative Affective Perception and Memory in Healthy Volunteers following Selective Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibition

Objective: Antidepressants that inhibit the reuptake of serotonin (SSRIs) or nor-epinephrine (SNRIs) are effective in the treatment of disorders such as depression and anxiety. Cognitive psychological theories emphasize the importance of correcting negative biases of information processing in the nonpharmacological treatment of these disorders, but it is not known whether antidepressant drugs can directly modulate the neural processing of affective information. The present study therefore assessed the actions of repeated antidepressant administration on perception and memory for positive and negative emotional information in healthy volunteers. Method: Forty-two male and female volunteers were randomly assigned to 7 days of double-blind intervention with the SSRI citalopram (20 mg/day), the SNRI reboxe-tine (8 mg/day), or placebo. On the final day, facial expression recognition, emotion -potentiated startle response, and memory for affect-laden words were assessed. Questionnaires monitoring mood, hostility, and anxiety were given before and after treatment. Results: In the facial expression recognition task, citalopram and reboxetine reduced the identification of the negative facial expressions of anger and fear. Citalo-pram also abolished the increased startle response found in the context of negative affective images. Both antidepressants increased the relative recall of positive (versus negative) emotional material. These changes in emotional processing occurred in the absence of significant differences in ratings of mood and anxiety. However, re-boxetine decreased subjective ratings of hostility and elevated energy. Conclusions: Short-term administration of two different antidepressant types had similar effects on emotion-related tasks in healthy volunteers, reducing the processing of negative relative to positive emotional material. Such effects of antidepres-sants may ameliorate the negative biases in information processing that characterize mood and anxiety disorders. They also suggest a mechanism of action potentially compatible with cognitive theories of anxiety and depression. Ant idepressants that potentiate serotonin (5-HT) or norepinephrine neurotransmission are effective in the treatment of major depression and anxiety (1, 2). While the pharmacological and cellular actions of antidepres-sants are well characterized, there is little understanding of how such effects act to improve the symptoms of low mood, anxiety, and social dysfunction that define the disorders they treat. In fact, there is a growing tendency to emphasize secondary cellular effects outside the domain of the classical monoamine transmitters in trying to understand antidepressant drug action. By contrast, there has been much less attention to the actions of antidepres-sant drugs at a systems level, specifically on the emotion-related functions of neural systems believed to play a role in anxiety and …
State-dependent response times via fluid limits in shortest remaining processing time queues

We consider a single server queue with renewal arrivals and i.i. d. service times, in which the server employs the Shortest Remaining Processing Time (SRPT) policy. We provide a fluid model (or formal law of large numbers approximation) for this system. The foremost payoff of our fluid model is a fluid level approximation for the state-dependent response time of a job of arbitrary size, that is, the amount of time it spends in the system, given an arbitrary system configuration at the time of its arrival.