Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing immunomodulation on innate immunity by shape transition among RNA triangle, square and pentagon nanovehicles

Modulation of immune response is important in cancer immunotherapy, vaccine adjuvant development and inflammatory or immune disease therapy. Here we report the development of new immunomodulators via control of shape transition among RNA triangle, square and pentagon. Changing one RNA strand in polygons automatically induced the stretching of the interior angle from 60° to 90° or 108°, resulting in self-assembly of elegant RNA triangles, squares and pentagons. When immunological adjuvants were incorporated, their immunomodulation effect for cytokine TNF-α and IL-6 induction was greatly enhanced in vitro and in animals up to 100-fold, while RNA polygon controls induced unnoticeable effect. The RNA nanoparticles were delivered to macrophages specifically. The degree of immunostimulation greatly depended on the size, shape and number of the payload per nanoparticles. Stronger immune response was observed when the number of adjuvants per polygon was increased, demonstrating the advantage of shape transition from triangle to pentagon.
A Regulatory Role for Interleukin 4 in Differential Inflammatory Responses in the Lung following Infection of Mice Primed with Th1- or Th2-Inducing Pertussis Vaccines

ABSTRACT Protection against infectious pathogens at mucosal surfaces is dependent on local antibody responses, production of inflammatory mediators, and recruitment of immune effector cells to the site of infection. Since Th1 and Th2 cells produce cytokines with pro- and anti-inflammatory activities, immunization with vaccines that induce these T-cell subtypes may regulate the subsequent inflammatory response to infection. We have demonstrated that immunization of mice with pertussis whole-cell or acellular vaccines (Pw or Pa) selectively induces Th1 and Th2 cells, respectively. In this study we have used a murine respiratory-infection model to demonstrate that priming with a Th1- or Th2-inducing pertussis vaccine can influence the local inflammatory response and immune effector cells in the lung following aerosol challenge with Bordetella pertussis. Analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid taken during the course of B. pertussis infection of naı̈ve mice or mice immunized with Pw revealed an early influx of neutrophils and local production of interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in the lungs. In contrast, neutrophil infiltration and IL-1β production were not observed following challenge of mice immunized with the Th2-inducing Pa. Conversely, during infection local production of IL-6 and IL-1ra was significantly greater in mice immunized with Pa than in those immunized with Pw. Studies of knockout mice revealed neutrophil and lymphocyte infiltration in the lungs following B. pertussis infection of IL-4-defective (IL-4−/−) mice but not in wild-type mice immunized with Pa. Furthermore, the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-1ra in Pa-immunized IL-4−/− mice were comparable to those in mice immunized with Pw. These results demonstrate distinct influences of Th1- and Th2-inducing vaccines on the protective inflammatory responses in the lungs following challenge with B. pertussis and implicate IL-4 as an important regulator of inflammatory-cell recruitment.
Divergent Narratives in the Imagining of the Home amongst Middle-Class Consumers

Sociological research on consumption has typically emphasized the social ‘work’ done by consuming things, showing how consumption expresses social identities, symbolizes class and status, and assists in delineating cultural boundaries and networks. In contrast, there are relatively few studies that explore consumption from the viewpoint of actors, seeking to expose the strategies, narratives and accounts that literally constitute the consumption act. Using interview data collected from a sample of middle-class Australian householders on practices of home decoration, this article explores the way consumption practice is linked to imagination and narrative. While the style and design features of the home have been a site for frenetic commodification within Australia, these data demonstrate that people’s desires with regard to how their home is presented and understood differ markedly, with some respondents emphasizing conspicuousness and style, and others comfort and relaxation. These narratives are interpreted as markers that socially mediate symbolic boundaries of self.
Relationship between vitamin D knowledge and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels amongst pregnant women.

BACKGROUND Pregnant women living at northerly latitudes are at risk of suboptimal vitamin D status. There is a paucity of studies correlating knowledge, attitudes and practices of vitamin D with serum levels amongst pregnant women. We aimed to determine the prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D status in pregnant women of various ethnicities attending two Dublin maternity hospitals and to assess levels of knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning vitamin D. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of 116 pregnant women of Irish, Asian, Sub-Saharan African and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) origin. Vitamin D status was determined by measurement of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD). We examined knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning vitamin D using an interview-assisted questionnaire. RESULTS The median (interquartile range) 25OHD level was 25.9 (16.5-44.7) nmol L(-1). Using a cut-off point of <30 nmol L(-1) , the proportion at risk of deficiency was significantly higher among MENA (88%; P < 0.001) and Sub-Saharan African women (68%; P = 0.019) than Irish women (36%). Eighty-two women (71%) reported they had insufficient knowledge about vitamin D and its sources. Vitamin D containing supplement usage was the strongest predictor of 25OHD levels ≥30 nmol L(-1) (odds ratio = 18.03, 95% confidence interval = 5.7256.8, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Suboptimal vitamin D status is common in this cohort of pregnant women, especially among those of Sub-Saharan African and MENA origin. Awareness of vitamin D dietary sources is poor among all subgroups. Recommending vitamin D containing supplements may be the best strategy at present for improving vitamin D status with a need for increased vitamin D education.
Ecosystem respiration: Drivers of daily variability and background respiration in lakes around the globe

We assembled data from a global network of automated lake observatories to test hypotheses regarding the drivers of ecosystem metabolism. We estimated daily rates of respiration and gross primary production (GPP) for up to a full year in each lake, via maximum likelihood fits of a free‐water metabolism model to continuous high‐frequency measurements of dissolved oxygen concentrations. Uncertainties were determined by a bootstrap analysis, allowing lake‐days with poorly constrained rate estimates to be down‐weighted in subsequent analyses. GPP and respiration varied considerably among lakes and at seasonal and daily timescales. Mean annual GPP and respiration ranged from 0.1 to 5.0 mg O2 L−1 d−1 and were positively related to total phosphorus but not dissolved organic carbon concentration. Within lakes, significant day‐to‐day differences in respiration were common despite large uncertainties in estimated rates on some lake‐days. Daily variation in GPP explained 5% to 85% of the daily variation in respiration after temperature correction. Respiration was tightly coupled to GPP at a daily scale in oligotrophic and dystrophic lakes, and more weakly coupled in mesotrophic and eutrophic lakes. Background respiration ranged from 0.017 to 2.1 mg O2 L−1 d−1 and was positively related to indicators of recalcitrant allochthonous and autochthonous organic matter loads, but was not clearly related to an indicator of the quality of allochthonous organic matter inputs.
Acoustical analysis of English vowels produced by Chinese, Dutch and American speakers

The vowel systems of (Mandarin) Chinese (e.g. Wiese 1997), Dutch and American English differ considerably, both in the number of vowels in the inventory and in the details of their position within the articulatory vowel space, and possibly also in terms of their durational characteristics. When Dutch and Chinese nationals speak English as a foreign language, their pronunciation of English will deviate from the American native norm for English. As part of a larger research project, we are interested in a precise characterization of Chinese as opposed to Dutch-accented English, and in the question how these non-native varieties of English differ from the native norm. Our description of these three varieties of English will be based on objective rather than impressionistic data (as exemplified by textbooks such as Collins & Mees 1981). Specifically, we used acoustic measurements that are known to have clear correspondences with articulatory properties of vowels.
Glucose detection in human sweat using an electronic nose

In the last years attempts to develop a non-invasive glucose system based on the glucose levels in sweat have been studied. In this paper, 32 metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors operating at different temperatures have been used to develop a multisensor olfactory system that allows to study the glucose levels in sweat. In order to develop repeatable experiments, artificial sweat at different glucose concentrations were developed in the laboratory. The obtained results suggest high viability of the approach. Although, the sensitivity of the sensors system needs to be improved.
Diversity and antibiotic resistance among nonvaccine serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage isolates in the post-heptavalent conjugate vaccine era.

BACKGROUND In response to the selective pressure of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, increased asymptomatic carriage of antibiotic-nonsusceptible nonvaccine serotypes (NVTs) has been observed. Possible mechanisms include de novo acquisition of resistance, serotype switching, introduction of new clones, and expansion of existing clones. METHODS To investigate the process of increased antibiotic nonsusceptibility among replacing serotypes, we applied multilocus sequence typing to samples of 126 and 222 pneumococci collected in 2001 and 2004, respectively, from the nasopharynges of children <7 years of age in 16 Massachusetts communities. RESULTS We found no evidence of penicillin resistance due to either serotype switching or de novo acquisition. Nonetheless, resistance increased through the expansion of previously recognized clones of NVTs, particularly in serotypes 19A, 15A, and 35B. In 19A, several unrelated clones increased in frequency, whereas, in the other 2 serotypes, single resistant lineages were responsible for the increased prevalence of resistant strains. CONCLUSIONS The decreased prevalence of antibiotic resistance with the introduction of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is likely to be partially eroded over time as vaccine-included serotypes are replaced by resistant clones of NVTs. The clinical significance of this will depend on the pathogenic potential of replacing clones to cause local (e.g., otitis media) or invasive disease.
Time-course of electromagnetic field effects on human performance and tympanic temperature

The study aimed to investigate the time-course of electromagnetic field (EMF)-induced effects on human cognitive and behavioral performance and on tympanic temperature. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, exposed to a 902.40 MHz EMF before the testing session, or to the same signal during the data collecting session. Following a double-blind paradigm, subjects were tested on four performance tasks: an acoustic simple-reaction time task, a visual search task, an arithmetic descending subtraction task and an acoustic choice-reaction time task. Moreover, tympanic temperature was collected five times during each session. Results indicated an improvement of both simple- and choice-reaction times and an increase of local temperature on the exposed region under the active exposure. There was a clear time-course of the reaction time and temperature data, indicating that performance and physiological measures need a minimum of 25 min of EMF exposure to show appreciable changes.
Generalized gamma approximation with rates for urns, walks and trees

We study a new class of time inhomogeneous Polya-type urn schemes and give optimal rates of convergence for the distribution of the properly scaled number of balls of a given color to nearly the full class of generalized gamma distributions with integer parameters, a class which includes the Rayleigh, half-normal and gamma distributions. Our main tool is Stein’s method combined with characterizing the generalized gamma limiting distributions as fixed points of distributional transformations related to the equilibrium distributional transformation from renewal theory. We identify special cases of these urn models in recursive constructions of random walk paths and trees, yielding rates of convergence for local time and height statistics of simple random walk paths, as well as for the size of random subtrees of uniformly random binary and plane trees.
Exposure to Community Violence and Young Adult Crime: The Effects of Witnessing Violence, Traumatic Victimization, and Other Stressful Life Events

Evidence has accumulated that young people in America are witnesses to considerable violence at home and in the community. This study is the first to examine the association between witnessing community violence and criminal behavior in a representative sample of young adults. In addition, the authors consider whether receiving traumatic news, witnessing domestic violence, experiencing accidents, and being the direct victim of domestic and community-based violence are independently associated with young adult crime. The results indicate that recent exposure to violence in the community along with a history of receiving traumatic news, direct victimizations in the community, recent life events, and associations with criminal peers increase the risk for young adult criminal offending. The implications of these results are discussed.
The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance Proﬁt distribution management by Islamic banks: An empirical investigation

The objective of this paper is to ascertain whether Islamic banks do in fact manage proﬁt distributions and if so, what factors are associated with the extent of proﬁt distribution management. The results suggest that most Islamic banks manage proﬁt distributions, with the extent of proﬁt distribution directly related to religiosity, ﬁnancial development, asset composition, and existence of discretionary reserves, while it is inversely related to market familiarity with Islamic banking, market concentration, depositor funding reliance and the age of the Islamic bank.
Automated detecting sleep apnea syndrome: A novel system based on genetic SVM

Sleep Apnea (SA) is one of the common symptoms and important part of sleep disorders. It has consequences that affect all daily life activities and present danger to the patient and/or others. The common diagnose procedure is based on an overnight sleep test. The test is usually including recording of several bio-signals that used to detect this syndrome. The conventional approach of detecting the sleep apnea uses a manual analysis of most of bio-signals to achieve reasonable accuracy. The manual process is highly cost and time-consuming. This paper presents a novel automatic system for detecting Apnea events by using just few of bio-signals that are related to breathe defect. This work use only Air flow, thoracic and abdominal respiratory movement as inputs for the system. The proposed technique consists of three main parts which are signal segmentation, feature generation and classification based on genetic SVM. Results show efficiency of this system and its superiority versus previous methods with more bio-signals as input.
Metamorphosis of identified neurons innervating thoracic neurohemal organs in the blowfly: Transformation of cholecystokininlike immunoreactive neurons

With antisera to gastrin/cholecystokinin, we studied the postembryonic development of neurons in the thoracic ganglia of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala. There are some changes in the population of thoracico‐abdominal neurons displaying gastrin/CCK‐like immunoreactivity (CCKLI): some CCKLI neurons cannot be found after pupariation; other neurons become immunoreactive during metamorphosis. Six large thoracic CCKLI neurons could, however, be followed through metamorphosis. These CCKLI neurons innervate neuropil in thoracic ganglia and segmental neurohemal organs in the larva. In the adult insect the same neurons innervate many regions of thoracic neuropil and extensive neurohemal areas dorsally in the fused thoracico‐abdominal ganglia. The immunoreactive terminals are located in the neural sheath, and electron microscopy shows that only an extracellular basal lamina separates them from the circulating hemolymph. On the basis of the location of their terminals, it can be suggested that the six CCKLI neurons have functions as neurosecretory cells both in the larva and in the adult. In both developmental stages the neurons can interact with large portions of the thoracic nervous system and release bioactive substance into the circulation. A CCK‐like substance may be used both as a transmitter/neuromodulator and as a neurohormone by the same neuron. The larval neurohemal organs are described here for the first time. They show characteristics of thoracic perisympathetic organs known to exist in more primitive insects. The adult neurohemal regions on the other hand are typical of higher insects. Since the neurohemal areas are continuously (during development) innervated by the six large CCKLI neurons, we conclude that the larval neurohemal organs metamorphose into the adult neurohemal area in the neural sheath.
Evaluation and Application of Andragogical Assumptions to the Adult Online Learning Environment

The usefulness and application of andragogical assumptions has long been debated by adult educators. The assumptions of andragogy are often criticized due to the lack of empirical evidence to support them, even though several educational theories are represented within the assumptions. In adult online education, these assumptions represent an ideal starting point for educators to use in their instructional approach. Application of these assumptions with respect to the type of course being taught and individual student needs can help create a learner centered approach to online education.
Characterization of Acute-Phase Humoral Immunity to Monkeypox: Use of Immunoglobulin M Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Detection of Monkeypox Infection during the 2003 North American Outbreak

ABSTRACT A monkeypox outbreak occurred in the United States in 2003. Patient's sera were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a part of outbreak response measures. Clinical and epidemiologic information was abstracted from the case investigation forms. Serum samples from patients were tested by using an immunoglobulin M (IgM)-capture and an IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ELISA against Orthopoxvirus antigen. The detection of antiviral IgG and IgM antibodies and the kinetics of the antiviral IgG and IgM antibody responses were evaluated. Patients were classified as confirmed, probable, or suspect cases or were excluded as cases based on laboratory test results and epidemiologic and clinical criteria. A total of 37 confirmed case patients with monkeypox were identified, and 116 patients were excluded as case patients based on molecular testing or insufficient epidemiology and clinical data to warrant classification as a suspect or probable case. Of 37 confirmed case patients, 36 had a known history (presence or absence) of smallpox vaccination. Of those, 29 of the 36 either had or developed an IgG response, while 34 of the 36 developed an IgM response, regardless of vaccination status. Serum collected ≥5 days for IgM detection or serum collected ≥8 days after rash onset for IgG detection was most efficient for the detection of monkeypox virus infection. IgM ELISA detects recent infection with orthopoxviruses and, in this case, recent infection with monkeypox virus. In addition, analysis of paired sera for IgG and IgM detected seroconversion, another indicator of recent infection. The ELISA results correlated with the virologic PCR and viral culture results, indicating its diagnostic capabilities for monkeypox and potentially other orthopoxvirus infections due to zoonotic transmission or bioterrorism events.
Understanding stress and quality of life for clergy and clergy spouses

To better understand the stress and quality of life of clergy and clergy spouses, a survey research design was utilized involving a random sample of clergy. Of the 436 respondents involved in this study there were 259 clergy who were employed full-time and 177 clergy spouses. Various scales related to Family Stress Theory and the ABC-X model were used in this investigation. Whereas clergy spouses had greater psychological and physiological stress than clergy, clergy had a greater sense of coherence and spiritual resources. Clergy spouses, however had a greater level of coping. Findings indicated that for both clergy and clergy spouses spiritual resources had the greatest total effect on their quality of life. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Implementing “Starting Points”: A Follow‐Up Study

The article describes a follow-up study of the implementation of a group-based needs assessment program for unemployed people titled “Starting Points. ” The study was conducted using a focus group methodology that resulted in 813 statements from staff and clients involved with the program. The statements were categorized within 15 themes. The themes generated suggested that the program was successful in connecting clients with needed resources. They also pointed out the importance of the way in which clients were referred to the program and the availability of resources following completion of the program. Recommendations are made regarding future implementation of the program. The article concludes with questions raised by the study regarding the implementation of employment counseling interventions generally.
Sustainability capabilities, graduate capabilities, and Australian universities

– In the context of universities implementing education for sustainability (EfS), the aim of the research presented here is to review the extent to which capabilities related to sustainability are represented by the capabilities generally sought by employers, and to determine whether these are incorporated in the graduate capability statements of Australian universities. , – Based on the discussion of graduate capabilities and those associated with sustainability, a web-based survey of university graduate attribute statements was undertaken. , – Generally, Australian universities have established frameworks of graduate capabilities that relate to the broad needs of employers. Of eight capabilities listed as important by employers, six were identified at some two-thirds of universities. Just under half of the universities' statements contained references to sustainability, while all the literature derived sustainability capabilities, except for “systems/holistic thinking”, are represented to some degree. Those most strongly represented included understanding of social justice and equity; skills in communication and cooperation; and having commitment to social justice and equity. , – Apparently, in Australian universities, the framework for the development of sustainability capabilities is broadly in place, but not all have sustainability capabilities in place. This framework supports the implementation of EfS, but without development of pedagogy to underlie implementation, the authors have little insight about the extent of implementation, and whether graduates leave with sustainability capabilities. , – Uniquely this research identifies the extent to which Australian universities are providing direction in the development of capabilities related to the requirements of employers, and for sustainability.