Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rise and fall of vector infectivity during sequential strain displacements by mosquito‐borne dengue virus

Each of the four serotypes of mosquito‐borne dengue virus (DENV‐1‐4) comprises multiple, genetically distinct strains. Competitive displacement between strains within a serotype is a common feature of DENV epidemiology and can trigger outbreaks of dengue disease. We investigated the mechanisms underlying two sequential displacements by DENV‐3 strains in Sri Lanka that each coincided with abrupt increases in dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) incidence. First, the post‐DHF strain displaced the pre‐DHF strain in the 1980s. We have previously shown that post‐DHF is more infectious than pre‐DHF for the major DENV vector, Aedes aegypti. Then, the ultra‐DHF strain evolved in situ from post‐DHF and displaced its ancestor in the 2000s. We predicted that ultra‐DHF would be more infectious for Ae. aegypti than post‐DHF but found that ultra‐DHF infected a significantly lower percentage of mosquitoes than post‐DHF. We therefore hypothesized that ultra‐DHF had effected displacement by disseminating in Ae. aegypti more rapidly than post‐DHF, but this was not borne out by a time course of mosquito infection. To elucidate the mechanisms that shape these virus–vector interactions, we tested the impact of RNA interference (RNAi), the principal mosquito defence against DENV, on replication of each of the three DENV strains. Replication of all strains was similar in mosquito cells with dysfunctional RNAi, but in cells with functional RNAi, replication of pre‐DHF was significantly suppressed relative to the other two strains. Thus, differences in susceptibility to RNAi may account for the differences in mosquito infectivity between pre‐DHF and post‐DHF, but other mechanisms underlie the difference between post‐DHF and ultra‐DHF.
THE PERSISTENCE IN MICE OF CERTAIN FOREIGN PROTEINS AND AZOPROTEIN TRACER-ANTIGENS DERIVED FROM THEM

Methods have been devised whereby the persistence of foreign antigens in mice can be detected. A highly diffusible, blue azo dye, echt-säure-blau was coupled to bovine γ-globulin and human serum albumin and injected into the animals. In this way deep blue tracer antigens were obtained. These were promptly stored in cells widely distributed throughout the body, especially in the reticulo-endothelial elements of the liver, spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes. The dye as such was not stored but rapidly excreted. A blue coloration in the organs just mentioned was still perceptible after 85 to 120 days in the case of the azoglobulin and 36 to 44 days in that of the azoalbumin. To determine whether these substances had actually persisted, as well as to learn how long uncoupled globulin and albumin remained after injection, recourse was had to the phenomenon of reversed passive anaphylaxis, which was found to be characterized by extraordinary changes in the vessels of the ears (EVR) in the mouse, plainly visible under the microscope when called forth by an antiserum specific for the antigen to which the animal had been sensitized. So sensitive is the vascular response that as little as 0.5 to 0.1 µg. of protein as antigen, previously injected into the peritoneal cavity of a 30 gm. mouse, can be detected a few days later by an intravenous injection of antiserum. By means of the EVR the globulin antigen has been detected in the blood and livers of injected mice for as long as 56 and 101 days, respectively; the albumin and azoalbumin for only 21 and 36 days. In the mesenteric lymph nodes of injected mice the albumin and azoalbumin antigens were found after 42 and 44 days, respectively. The hepatic tissue and that of the mesenteric lymph nodes of mice injected with azoalbumin, containing in consequence stored blue material, when transferred to recipient mice yielded positive tests for antigen (EVR) as long as blue color could be perceived in these tissues with the unaided eye, or at low magnification. After the color had disappeared from the tissues the transfer tests were found to be negative. This fact speaks for the antigenicity of the colored material. In summary it is plain that certain antigenic proteins, after introduction into the blood stream of mice, are stored in certain tissues and that they may persist there for weeks or even months, far longer than has generally been supposed. This persistence of antigen within the body, especially after detectable amounts of antigen have apparently disappeared from the blood, provides a reason for prolonged antibody formation, a phenomenon for which no adequate explanation has hereto been offered.
Determining the KMS Success Factors for Healthcare

Although a number of studies have been conducted on KMS in healthcare, as yet little research exists that measures KMS success. This study is in tended to examine what determines the success of KMS in healthcare and how physicians’ knowledge sharing behaviour contributes to the success of KMS. Using some parts of existing model s such as the DeLone and McLean IS Success Model, the Technology Acceptance Model, and the KMS Success Model of Kulkarni, Ravindran and Freeze combined with a few new dimensions deriv ed from the literature, a new KMS Success model (KMSH) is developed to suit the healthcare en viro ment. The hyphotheses and descriptions of constructs are presented in this paper which may provide initial insights into factors that are likely to be significant antecedents of KMS success in healthcare. Future work will be conducted to test and validate these hyphotheses which might provide useful guides to successful implementation of knowledge management systems in h ealthcare.
Spotting "hot spots" in meetings: human judgments and prosodic cues

Recent interest in the automatic processing of meetings is motivated by a desire to summarize, browse, and retrieve important information from lengthy archives of spoken data. One of the most useful capabilities such a technology could provide is a way for users to locate “hot spots” or regions in which participants are highly involved in the discussion (e.g. heated arguments, points of excitement, etc.). We ask two questions about hot spots in meetings in the ICSI Meeting Recorder corpus. First, we ask whether involvement can be judged reliably by human listeners. Results show that despite the subjective nature of the task, raters show significant agreement in distinguishing involved from non-involved utterances. Second, we ask whether there is a relationship between human judgments of involvement and automatically extracted prosodic features of the associated regions. Results show that there are significant differences in both F0 and energy between involved and non-involved utterances. These findings suggest that humans do agree to some extent on the judgment of hot spots, and that acoustic-only cues could be used for automatic detection of hot spots in natural meetings.
A Comparative Study on ASIC, FPGAs, GPUs and General Purpose Processors in the O(N^2) Gravitational N-body Simulation

In this paper, we describe the implementation of gravitational force calculation for N-body simulations in the context of Astrophysics. It will describe high performance implementations on general purpose processors, GPUs, and FPGAs, and compare them using a number of criteria including speed performance, power efficiency and cost of development. These results show that, for gravitational force calculation and many-body simulations in general, GPUs are very competitive in terms of performance and performance per dollar figures, whereas FPGAs are competitive in terms of performance per Watt figures.
Molecular characterization of sodium/proton exchanger 3 (NHE3) from the yellow fever vector, Aedes aegypti

SUMMARY Transport across insect epithelia is thought to depend on the activity of a vacuolar-type proton ATPase (V-ATPase) that energizes ion transport through a secondary proton/cation exchanger. Although several of the subunits of the V-ATPase have been cloned, the molecular identity of the exchanger has not been elucidated. Here, we present the identification of sodium/proton exchanger isoform 3 (NHE3) from yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (AeNHE3). AeNHE3 localizes to the basal plasma membrane of Malpighian tubule, midgut and the ion-transporting sector of gastric caeca. Midgut expression of NHE3 shows a different pattern of enrichment between larval and adult stages, implicating it in the maintenance of regional pH in the midgut during the life cycle. In all tissues examined, NHE3 predominantly localizes to the basal membrane. In addition the limited expression in intracellular vesicles in the median Malpighian tubules may reflect a potential functional versatility of NHE3 in a tissue-specific manner. The localization of V-ATPase and NHE3, and exclusion of Na+/K+-ATPase from the distal ion-transporting sector of caeca, indicate that the role of NHE3 in ion and pH regulation is intricately associated with functions of V-ATPase. The AeNHE3 complements yeast mutants deficient in yeast NHEs, NHA1 and NHX1. To further examine the functional property of AeNHE3, we expressed it in NHE-deficient fibroblast cells. AeNHE3 expressing cells were capable of recovering intracellular pH following an acid load. The recovery was independent of the large cytoplasmic region of AeNHE3, implying this domain to be dispensable for NHE3 ion transport function. 22Na+ uptake studies indicated that AeNHE3 is relatively insensitive to amiloride and EIPA and is capable of Na+ transport in the absence of the cytoplasmic tail. Thus, the core domain containing the transmembrane regions of NHE3 is sufficient for pH recovery and ion transport. The present data facilitate refinement of the prevailing models of insect epithelial transport by incorporating basal amiloride-insensitive NHE3 as a critical mediator of transepithelial ion and fluid transport and likely in the maintenance of intracellular pH.
Evaluating the efficacy of memantine on improving cognitive functions in epileptic patients receiving anti-epileptic drugs: A double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial (Phase IIIb pilot study)

Objectives: People with epilepsy have greater cognitive and behavioral dysfunction than the general population. There is no specific treatment available for cognitive impairment of these patients. We aimed to evaluate the effects of memantine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptor noncompetitive antagonist, on improving cognition and memory functions in epileptic patients with cognitive and memory impairment, who received anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). Methods: We did a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel group trial, in SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Kattankulathur, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India between April 2013 and September 2013. Fifty-nine epileptic patients taking AEDs with subjective memory complaints were recruited and randomized to either Group 1 to receive 16 weeks of once-daily memantine, (5 mg for first 8 weeks, followed by memantine 10 mg for next 8 weeks) or Group 2 to receive once daily placebo. This trial is registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India CTRI/2013/04/003573. Results: Of 59 randomized patients, 55 patients completed the study (26 memantine and 29 placebo). Memantine group showed statistically significant improvement in total mini mental state examination score from baseline (P = 0.765) to 16 th week (P < 0.001) in comparison with the placebo. The Weshler′s Memory Scale total score in memantine group improved significantly after 8 weeks (P = 0.002) compared with baseline (P = 0.873) and highly significant at the end of 16 th week (P < 0.001). The self-rated quality of life and memory in memantine group also significantly improved at the study end. Conclusion: We conclude that once-daily memantine (10 mg) treatment significantly improved cognition, memory and quality of life in epileptic patients with mild to moderate cognitive impairment and was found to have a favorable safety profile.
When Events Change Their Nature: The Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Aspectual Coercion

The verb “pounce” describes a single, near-instantaneous event. Yet, we easily understand that, “For several minutes the cat pounced…” describes a situation in which multiple pounces occurred, although this interpretation is not overtly specified by the sentence's syntactic structure or by any of its individual words—a phenomenon known as “aspectual coercion. ” Previous psycholinguistic studies have reported processing costs in association with aspectual coercion, but the neurocognitive mechanisms giving rise to these costs remain contentious. Additionally, there is some controversy about whether readers commit to a full interpretation of the event when the aspectual information becomes available, or whether they leave it temporarily underspecified until later in the sentence. Using ERPs, we addressed these questions in a design that fully crossed context type (punctive, durative, frequentative) with verb type (punctive, durative). We found a late, sustained negativity to punctive verbs in durative contexts, but not in frequentative (e.g., explicitly iterative) contexts. This effect was distinct from the N400 in both its time course and scalp distribution, suggesting that it reflected a different underlying neurocognitive mechanism. We also found that ERPs to durative verbs were unaffected by context type. Together, our results provide strong evidence that neural activity associated with aspectual coercion is driven by the engagement of a morphosyntactically unrealized semantic operator rather than by violations of real-world knowledge, more general shifts in event representation, or event iterativity itself. More generally, our results add to a growing body of evidence that a set of late-onset sustained negativities reflect elaborative semantic processing that goes beyond simply combining the meaning of individual words with syntactic structure to arrive at a final representation of meaning.
Noah: Keyed Noise Flooding for Wireless Confidentiality

Cryptographic protocols for confidentiality are oblivious to the unique challenges and advantages that wireless communication presents, mainly due to the open and public medium. We design a protocol at the wireless-specific physical and link layers and build a system that is information-theoretically secure against eavesdropping. Leveraging both friendly jamming and signal cancellation, Noah offers a novel keyed noise flooding protocol for wireless confidentiality. In contrast to prior work in wireless security, Noah protocol and its security properties are independent of the individual receiver's channel and do not require the channel link information (such as the channel condition and the antenna location) on the transmitter side. Thus, Noah supports multicast, taking advantage of the inherent broadcast nature of wireless medium, and defeats advanced channel-controlling eavesdroppers by making it impossible to physically separate the transmission and jamming. In this paper, we present the Noah protocol and provide fundamental insights in jamming and rate control for designing Noah.
Apa Makna “Keuntungan” bagi Profesi Dokter?

Abstract: What is the meaning of “profit” for doctor profession? This research’s goal is to understand the meaning of “profit” which is seen from doctor’s side. With Intensionalism Hermeneutic as research method, this research concludes that there are four meanings of “profit” for doctor profession. The first meaning is material “profit” which is called as saving to fulfill doctor’s needs. The second meaning is spiritual “profit” addressed for fellow being and return to God. The third meaning is prestige “profit” which is respected enough in society. And the fourth meaning is satisfaction of mind “profit” when the patient is cured and healthy. Abstrak: Apa makna “keuntungan” bagi profesi dokter? Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk memahami makna “keuntungan” yang dilihat dari sudut pandang profesi dokter. Dengan menggunakan hermeneutika intensionalisme sebagai metode penelitian, penelitian ini menyimpulkan empat makna “keuntungan” bagi profesi dokter. Makna pertama adalah “keuntungan” materi yang disebut tabungan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan dokter. Makna kedua adalah “keuntungan” spiritual dalam selalu menolong orang lain maupun mengembalikannya kepada Tuhan. Makna ketiga adalah “keuntungan” martabat yang disegani oleh masyarakat. Makna keempat adalah “keuntungan” kepuasan batin apabila pasien yang dirawatnya dapat sembuh.
In Alzheimer disease, increased wake fragmentation found in those with lower hypocretin-1

Regulation of wakefulness is often disturbed in Alzheimer disease (AD). We examined CSF concentrations of hypocretin-1, a wake-stimulating peptide, in 16 patients with AD and simultaneously recorded a week of at-home sleep. Although hypocretin-1 concentrations were normal, fragmentation of daytime wake was elevated in those with low hypocretin-1 levels ( r = −0.64, p < 0.05, number of naps; r = −0.62, p < 0.05, napping hours; r = −0.63, p < 0.05, locomotor rhythm amplitude). Lower hypocretin-1 levels may be permissive for, or a consequence of, increased wake fragmentation in AD. Sleep disruption is commonly observed in older individuals with Alzheimer disease (AD)1 and may predict rapidity of cognitive decline. The biologic basis for sleep dysregulation is unknown but may be related to the degeneration of the cholinergic fibers critical to both cognition and control of sleep. A recently discovered hypothalamic neuropeptide, hypocretin-1, has been hypothesized to be involved in consolidation of wakefulness into a single daily episode2 or in consolidation of both nocturnal sleep and diurnal wake.3 Failure of this consolidation process may underlie some sleep disturbances observed in AD.1 Although previous studies have determined that there may be normal levels of hypocretin-1 in AD,4,5 we sought to determine whether there were associations between …
Effects of non-surgical factors on digital replantation survival rate: a meta-analysis

This study aimed to evaluate the risk factors affecting survival rate of digital replantation by a meta-analysis. A computer retrieval of MEDLINE, OVID, EMBASE, and CNKI databases was conducted to identify citations for digital replantation with digit or finger or thumb or digital or fingertip and replantation as keywords. RevMan 5.2 software was used to calculate the pooled odds ratios. In total, there were 4678 amputated digits in 2641 patients. Gender and ischemia time had no significant influence on the survival rate of amputation replantation (P > 0.05). Age, injured hand, injury type, zone, and the method of preservation the amputated digit significantly influence the survival rate of digital replantation (P < 0.05). Children, right hand, crush, or avulsion and little finger are the risk factors that adversely affect the outcome. The level of evidence: Level 5*.
Simultaneous determination of tocotrienols, tocopherols, retinol, and major carotenoids in human plasma.

BACKGROUND Epidemiologic evidence suggests that the concentrations of antioxidant vitamins in human plasma may play an important role in numerous chronic diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, methods for simultaneous measurement of these antioxidants are scarce. We developed and validated a new HPLC method for simultaneous determination of these vitamers in human plasma that uses a novel column-switching approach. METHODS The new method uses liquid-liquid extraction and isocratic separation with two monomeric C(18) columns maintained at 35 and 4 degrees C coupled with ultraviolet-visible and fluorometric detection. This method could separate 14 vitamers and 3 internal standards within 27 min. No additional modifier was required; the mobile phase was acetonitrile-methanol (65:35 by volume), and the flow rate was 1 mL/min. RESULTS For photodiode array detection, the detection limits (signal-to-noise ratio >3) were 0.02 mg/L for beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and canthaxanthin; 0.01 mg/L for all-trans-retinol, beta-cryptoxanthin, alpha-carotene, and lycopene; and 0.1 mg/L for all tocopherols and tocotrienols. The detection limit was at least 25-fold lower (0.004 mg/L) when fluorometry was used for measurement of delta-, gamma-, and alpha-tocotrienol and delta-tocopherol compared with ultraviolet detection. The recovery and imprecision of the assay were generally >90% and <10%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS This new method separates a wide range of fat-soluble antioxidant vitamins in human plasma, including six carotenoids, three isoforms of tocotrienols and tocopherols (delta-, gamma-, and alpha-), and all-trans-retinol. The overall findings suggest that our method is faster, more sensitive, and more comprehensive than existing methods.
Superiority of ratio based lymph node staging for bladder cancer.

PURPOSE The current study evaluated lymph node staging and the outcome in patients with lymph node positive bladder cancer after radical cystectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 162 patients with lymph node positive bladder cancer were followed a median of 7.5 years after radical cystectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection for survival and local recurrence. Lymph node disease was stratified by pN stage, the number of positive lymph nodes and the number of positive lymph nodes in relation to the number removed (ratio based pN stage). RESULTS A median of 13 lymph nodes (range 2 to 32) was examined, showing an average of 3.3 positive lymph nodes per specimen. An increased number of lymph nodes correlated with the identification of lymph node positive cases. The ratio of the number of positive-to-total number of lymph nodes removed better defined surgical outcome than conventional lymph node staging. CONCLUSIONS Ratio based lymph node staging, which reflects the number of lymph nodes examined and the quality of lymph node dissection, was a significant prognostic variable for survival and local control in patients with lymph node positive bladder cancer after radical cystectomy.
Teaching methods

Course Objectives The class will build on the audit principles learned in Audit I with an emphasis on the implementation and application of generally accepted auditing standards, and the practical application of the standards, within the context of accounting transaction cycles. This replicates the process in which audits are conducted by public accounting firms and presents specific accounting transaction cycle information that is routinely tested on standardized exams such as the CPA and CIA exams. This course will place significant importance on specific technical language and terminology, as presented in the textbook, and the student's ability to apply that language and terminology to in-class presentations, class discussions and exams. The lectures in the class will provide a description of why audits are conducted, while the textbook will provide a description of how audits of the various accounting transaction cycle are conducted. It is critical to combine an understanding of both perspectives for purposes of the midterm and final and for those of you planning on taking a standardized exam in the future. The student's responsibility is to read all material prior to the lecture/discussion and complete problem assignments prior to review in the class. It will be a significant benefit to students to read chapters in advance of presentations. This course will include podcast lectures, class discussions and in-class case presentations. Students are required to enroll in the D2L course site. All course materials, including slides, homework solutions, and supplemental materials will be available on the D2L course site.