Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wildlife-Cattle Interactions in Northern Michigan: Implications for the Transmission of Bovine Tuberculosis

Bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) was discovered in northern Michigan white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in 1994, and has been known to exist in Michigan cattle herds since 1998. Despite efforts to eradicate the disease in cattle, infection and re-infection of farms continues to occur, suggesting transmission among cattle, deer, or other wildlife reservoirs. The goals of this study were to document wildlife activity on farms and evaluate the possible role wildlife play in the ecology of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in Michigan. Visual observations were conducted on farms in a 5-county area of northern Michigan to document direct wildlife-cattle interactions (i.e., <5 m between individuals) and indirect interactions (e.g., wildlife visitations to food stores and areas accessible to cattle). Observations were conducted primarily during evening and early morning hours between January and August, 2002, and on a 24-hour schedule between January and August, 2003. Total observation time accumulated iv through the duration of the study was 1,780 hours. Results indicated that direct interaction between deer and cattle was a rare event; no direct interactions were observed during the first year, and only one direct interaction was observed during the second year. However, through the duration of the study 21 direct interactions were documented between cattle and turkey, and 11 direct interactions were documented between cattle and mammals other than deer. In total, 273 indirect interactions by deer, 112 indirect interactions by turkeys, and 248 indirect interactions by mammals other than deer were observed during the 2 field seasons combined. These data supported the hypothesis that indirect interactions among wildlife and cattle are a potential mechanism for the transmission of TB in Michigan. If direct interactions were important mechanisms of TB transmission to cattle in northern Michigan, my data suggested that feral cats were the species of most concern, even though there were more observations between turkey and cattle. Unlike cats, which can become infected with and transmit TB, there is no evidence for such pathogenesis in turkey. (58 pages) v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my major professor, Tom DeLiberto, for giving me the opportunity to work on this project. Tom has always made himself available to answer questions and to help make my graduate career as problem free as possible. A special thank you to Scott Winterstein for serving on my graduate committee and for introducing me to Tom; without his help I would have missed out on a great …
An ab initio study of electron transport through nitrobenzene: the influence of leads and contacts

We present density functional theory (DFT) based calculations for the conductance through a nitrobenzene molecule, which is anchored by thiol-groups to Au electrodes. The emphasis is put on a comparison with the unsubstituted benzene molecule and the influence of segments of molecular poly-acetylene (PA) wires of different lengths inserted between the molecule and the Au surfaces. Our method uses partly occupied Wannier functions (WFs) as a maximally localized basis set for the transport calculations, which offers two distinct advantages over other similar schemes: (i) the WFs are expanded in terms of the eigenfunctions of DFT plane wave calculations, where the high accuracy of these calculations for the description of the electronic structure of the junction is preserved for the derivation of the transport characteristics; (ii) WFs are a natural tool for analysing the contributions to the transmission function coming from individual molecular orbitals (MOs), thereby facilitating a comparison between the structures investigated in this article. We illustrate within such an MO picture an earlier found mechanism for destructive interference, which explains the main differences in the transmission functions of benzene and nitrobenzene, and conclude with a qualitative discussion of their dependence on the PA wire length, where for small PA segments somewhat counter-intuitively an increase in the conductance is found.
Reproductive success and symmetry in zebra finches

Abstract Fluctuating asymmetries are small, random developmental accidents in morphological traits that would otherwise be described as being bilaterally symmetric. Experimental evidence indicates that in mate choice situations individuals possessing symmetric arbitrary traits or symmetric secondary sexual characters are preferred over those with larger asymmetries. This experiment investigated the effect of symmetric and asymmetric arbitrary traits (arrangements of coloured leg-bands) on reproductive success in captive zebra finches,Taeniopygia guttata. Six groups of six males and six females were separated into six free-flight breeding aviaries. Nestboxes and nesting material were freely available throughout the experiment. Males wore symmetric and asymmetric arrangements of the same coloured leg-bands. Each male wore two orange and two light green bands, two on each leg. There were six possible arrangements of these leg-bands. One male from each of these six leg-band treatments was present in each aviary, along with six females wearing numbered orange bands. Symmetrically banded males produced more offspring that survived past the period of parental care than males in either of the asymmetric treatments; this appeared to be the effect of female choice processes and female-based parental investment and not male intra-sexual dominance. This is the first experiment to indicate that symmetrically manipulated males gain reproductive advantages in controlled laboratory conditions and further supports recent theories indicating the evolutionary importance of symmetry in signalling-trait design.
The Effect of Comprehension Strategy Instruction on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on Taiwanese university students’ reading comprehension with reference to specific types of reading comprehension questions. The participants were 110 students from two intact classes who had low-intermediate to intermediate level of English. This study adopted a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The data mainly came from statistical results of One-Way ANOVA, but would be triangulated by multiple data sets including the questionnaire responses and transcripts of group discussions during CSR. The findings indicated that CSR had a positive effect on the Taiwanese university learners’ reading comprehension particularly in relation to the comprehension questions on getting the main idea and finding the supporting details. However, the statistical analysis did not show that CSR significantly promoted the EFL learners’ strategic reading competence in regard to predicting, making inferences and dealing with vocabulary problems. The findings of the study suggest that implementing comprehension strategy instruction for one semester may help learners adopt some degree of strategic reading behaviours, but it takes long-term efforts and practices for EFL learners to fully develop their strategic reading abilities.
Epidermal growth factor receptor transactivation mediates the tonic and fibrogenic effects of endothelin in the aortic wall of transgenic mice

Vascular remodeling and rearrangement of the extracellular matrix formation are among the major adaptive mechanisms in response to a chronic blood pressure increase. Vasoactive peptides, such as endothelin, participate in hypertension‐associated vascular fibrosis by stimulating collagen I formation and increasing contractility of arterial wall. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that activation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor pathway mediates these events. Experiments were performed in transgenic mice harboring the luciferase gene under the control of the collagen I‐α2 chain promoter. Endothelin induced a rapid phosphorylation of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK)/ERK and increased collagen I gene activity in freshly isolated aortas. This effect of endothelin was totally inhibited by an endothelin receptor antagonist, an EGF receptor phosphorylation inhibitor, and a blocker of the MAPK/ERK cascade. In parallel experiments, inhibition of EGF receptor phosphorylation decreased the endothelin‐induced pressor effect in isolated aortic rings and in anesthetized animals in vivo. In addition, the endothelin‐induced increase of blood pressure was blunted in the waved‐2 mice, a strain expressing functionally impaired EGF receptors. Our results provide the first evidence that the EGF receptor mediates at least two of the major actions of endothelin in the vascular tissue: contractility and fibrogenesis.
Greenleaf's 'Best Test' of Servant Leadership: A Multilevel Analysis

This study empirically tests Robert Greenleaf’s (1970) seminal articulation of servant leadership. The four personal outcomes he theorized (health, wisdom, freedomautonomy, and service orientation) were tested against established dimensions of servant leadership. All correlations were significant and positive. Using multilevel analysis, the predictive strength of these servant leadership dimensions were assessed at two levels within an organization, and explained. Implications and future direction of research were discussed.
Asset Allocation with Business Cycle Dependent Return Predictability

I compute economic gains for a power utility investor from taking business cycle dependent return predictability into account. Recent studies show that stock returns are only predictable in recessions, and bond returns are only predictable in expansions. I examine whether this finding can be exploited in real-time trading using modern forecasting models combined with business cycle dummies. Realized utilities are computed both for a one-period and a long-horizon investor. Given total certainty about the timing and duration of recessions, I find that there are significant economic gains to be made using these dummy switching models rather than their no switch versions. However, the gains largely disappear for even modest inaccuracy of techniques that identify business cycle turning points in real-time.
Rab7A Is Required for Efficient Production of Infectious HIV-1

Retroviruses take advantage of cellular trafficking machineries to assemble and release new infectious particles. Rab proteins regulate specific steps in intracellular membrane trafficking by recruiting tethering, docking and fusion factors, as well as the actin- and microtubule-based motor proteins that facilitate vesicle traffic. Using virological tests and RNA interference targeting Rab proteins, we demonstrate that the late endosome-associated Rab7A is required for HIV-1 propagation. Analysis of the late steps of the HIV infection cycle shows that Rab7A regulates Env processing, the incorporation of mature Env glycoproteins into viral particles and HIV-1 infectivity. We also show that siRNA-mediated Rab7A depletion induces a BST2/Tetherin phenotype on HIV-1 release. BST2/Tetherin is a restriction factor that impedes HIV-1 release by tethering mature virus particles to the plasma membrane. Our results suggest that Rab7A contributes to the mechanism by which Vpu counteracts the restriction factor BST2/Tetherin and rescues HIV-1 release. Altogether, our results highlight new roles for a major regulator of the late endocytic pathway, Rab7A, in the late stages of the HIV-1 replication cycle.
Calcium-Dependent Freezing Tolerance in Arabidopsis Involves Membrane Resealing via Synaptotagmin SYT1[W]

Plant freezing tolerance involves the prevention of lethal freeze-induced damage to the plasma membrane. We hypothesized that plant freezing tolerance involves membrane resealing, which, in animal cells, is accomplished by calcium-dependent exocytosis following mechanical disruption of the plasma membrane. In Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts, extracellular calcium enhanced not only freezing tolerance but also tolerance to electroporation, which typically punctures the plasma membrane. However, calcium did not enhance survival when protoplasts were exposed to osmotic stress that mimicked freeze-induced dehydration. Calcium-dependent freezing tolerance was also detected with leaf sections in which ice crystals intruded into tissues. Interestingly, calcium-dependent freezing tolerance was inhibited by extracellular addition of an antibody against the cytosolic region of SYT1, a homolog of synaptotagmin known to be a calcium sensor that initiates exocytosis. This inhibition indicates that the puncture allowing the antibody to flow into the cytoplasm occurs during freeze/thawing. Thus, we propose that calcium-dependent freezing tolerance results from resealing of the punctured site. Protoplasts or leaf sections isolated from Arabidopsis SYT1-RNA interference (RNAi) plants lost calcium-dependent freezing tolerance, and intact SYT1-RNAi plants had lower freezing tolerance than control plants. Taken together, these findings suggest that calcium-dependent freezing tolerance results from membrane resealing and that this mechanism involves SYT1 function.
Cluster Development in Poland a Diagnostic Study

The objective of this study was to evaluate cluster development in Poland based on the results of research conducted over the last decade as well as current information published by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the "Portal Innowacji" web portal. Research results show that Polish clusters are relatively new structures, and the majority of them are still at the embryonic stage of development. The structure of some Polish clusters differs from that described in the classical cluster theory, while the attributes of other are typical. In Poland, cluster development is financed mostly from the European Structural Funds. Thus, changes in EU policy and focus on international cluster initiatives may considerably slow down the process
Cytokine-Mediated Regulation of Plasma Cell Generation: IL-21 Takes Center Stage

During our life, we are surrounded by continuous threats from a diverse range of invading pathogens. Our immune system has evolved multiple mechanisms to efficiently deal with these threats so as to prevent them from causing disease. Terminal differentiation of mature B cells into plasma cells (PC) – the antibody (Ab) secreting cells of the immune system – is critical for the generation of protective and long-lived humoral immune responses. Indeed, efficient production of antigen (Ag)-specific Ab by activated B cells underlies the success of most currently available vaccines. The mature B-cell pool is composed of several subsets, distinguished from one according to size, surface marker expression, location, and Ag exposure, and they all have the capacity to differentiate into PCs. For a B-cell to acquire the capacity to produce Abs, it must undergo an extensive differentiation process driven by changes in gene expression. Two broad categories of Ags exist that cause B-cell activation and differentiation: T cell dependent (TD) or T cell independent (TI). In addition to the B-cell subset and nature of the Ag, it is important to consider the cytokine environment that can also influence how B-cell differentiation is achieved. Thus, while many cytokines can induce Ab-secretion by B cells after activation with mimics of TD and TI stimuli in vitro, they can have different efficacies and specificities, and can often preferentially induce production of one particular Ig isotype over another. Here, we will provide an overview of in vitro studies (mouse and human origin) that evaluated the role of different cytokines in inducing the differentiation of distinct B-cell subsets to the PC lineage. We will place particular emphasis on IL-21, which has emerged as the most potent inducer of terminal B-cell differentiation in humans. We will also focus on the role of IL-21 and defects in B-cell function and how these contribute to human immunopathologies such as primary immunodeficiencies and B-cell mediated autoimmune conditions.
Evidence, eminence and extrapolation

A full independent drug development programme to demonstrate efficacy may not be ethical and/or feasible in small populations such as paediatric populations or orphan indications. Different levels of extrapolation from a larger population to smaller target populations are widely used for supporting decisions in this situation. There are guidance documents in drug regulation, where a weakening of the statistical rigour for trials in the target population is mentioned to be an option for dealing with this problem. To this end, we propose clinical trials designs, which make use of prior knowledge on efficacy for inference. We formulate a framework based on prior beliefs in order to investigate when the significance level for the test of the primary endpoint in confirmatory trials can be relaxed (and thus the sample size can be reduced) in the target population while controlling a certain posterior belief in effectiveness after rejection of the null hypothesis in the corresponding confirmatory statistical test. We show that point‐priors may be used in the argumentation because under certain constraints, they have favourable limiting properties among other types of priors. The crucial quantity to be elicited is the prior belief in the possibility of extrapolation from a larger population to the target population. We try to illustrate an existing decision tree for extrapolation to paediatric populations within our framework. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Chorale Harmonization with Weighted Finite-state Transducers

We approach the task of harmonizing chorales through style imitation by probabilistically modelling the harmony of music pieces in the framework of weighted finite-state transducers (WFSTs), which have been used successfully for probabilistic models in speech and language processing. The framework makes it possible to place domain-specific regular constraints on generated sequences, and to integrate models of different levels of complexity. We divide the harmonization generation process into different steps, each performed by inference through transducers. We present a method for four-part harmonization that models vertical and horizontal structure in the generated harmonizations. The weights in our transducers are learned by maximum likelihood estimation from a corpus of chorales. The predictive power of own model, as measured through entropy, is competitive with that of existing approaches.
Cultural Competency and Quality of Care: Obtaining the Patient's Perspective

Provision of “culturally competent” medical care is one of the strategies advocated for reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities. This report identifies five domains of culturally competent care that can best be assessed through patients’ perspectives: 1) patient–provider communication; 2) respect for patient preferences and shared decision-making; 3) experiences leading to trust or distrust; 4) experiences of discrimination; and 5) linguistic competency. The authors review the literature focusing on these domains, summarize the salient issues and current knowledge, and discuss the policy and research implications. Incorporating patients’ perspectives on culturally and linguistically appropriate services into current measures of quality will provide important data and create opportunities for providers and health plans to make improvements. Support for this research was provided by The Commonwealth Fund. The views presented here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Commonwealth Fund or its directors, officers, or staff. This report and other Fund publications are available online at www.cmwf. org. To learn more about new publications when they become available, visit the Fund’s Web site and register to receive e-mail alerts. Commonwealth Fund pub. no. 963.
Drivers and Barriers to Energy Efficiency Management for Sustainable Development

An increasing number of industries are seeking to use energy more efficiently due to market pressure, public awareness of environmental sustainability, and rising energy costs and volatility. Energy efficiency is potentially one of the most important and cost-effective means by which industries can mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions for sustainable development. Despite the availability of cost-effective energy efficiency measures in industries, these are not always implemented due to various barriers and obstacles. This research investigates the current status of energy management practices in the Korean steel industry in order to examine how drivers and barriers to energy efficiency operate, the circumstances in which these practices arise and the extent to which public policy or organizational change may overcome them. This study finds that market-based factors, as well as organizational/individual behavioural factors, play important roles in energy efficiency investment towards sustainable development. In particular, economic factors (cost savings, energy tax, capital budget, cost of identifying and analysing business opportunities, beneficial loans for energy efficiency investments) and organizational factors (technical risk, lack of manager's influence, owner's demand, top management commitment, and corporate reputation) seriously affect energy efficiency in the steel industry. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Sequential ovulation and fertility of polyoestrus in American black bears (Ursus americanus)

In our study, we determined that each of 2-3 estruses (a.k.a. heat) that a female has during a mating season appears to be functional and fertile. Also, being pregnant does not prevent them from coming into heat again that same season. This ability may allow bears to maximize reproductive fitness.