Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel adeno-associated viruses from rhesus monkeys as vectors for human gene therapy

Tissues from rhesus monkeys were screened by PCR for the presence of sequences homologous to known adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotypes 1–6. DNA spanning entire rep-cap ORFs from two novel AAVs, called AAV7 and AAV8, were isolated. Sequence comparisons among these and previously described AAVs revealed the greatest divergence in capsid proteins. AAV7 and AAV8 were not neutralized by heterologous antisera raised to the other serotypes. Neutralizing antibodies to AAV7 and AAV8 were rare in human serum and, when present, were low in activity. Vectors formed with capsids from AAV7 and AAV8 were generated by using rep and inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) from AAV2 and were compared with similarly constructed vectors made from capsids of AAV1, AAV2, and AAV5. Murine models of skeletal muscle and liver-directed gene transfer were used to evaluate relative vector performance. AAV7 vectors demonstrated efficiencies of transgene expression in skeletal muscle equivalent to that observed with AAV1, the most efficient known serotype for this application. In liver, transgene expression was 10- to 100-fold higher with AAV8 than observed with other serotypes. This improved efficiency correlated with increased persistence of vector DNA and higher number of transduced hepatocytes. The efficiency of AAV8 vector for liver-directed gene transfer of factor IX was not impacted by preimmunization with the other AAV serotypes. Vectors based on these novel, nonhuman primate AAVs should be considered for human gene therapy because of low reactivity to antibodies directed to human AAVs and because gene transfer efficiency in muscle was similar to that obtained with the best known serotype, whereas, in liver, gene transfer was substantially higher than previously described.
Self-harm in adolescents: self-report survey in schools in Scotland

Background The suicide rate in Scotland is twice as high as that in England. However, the prevalence of self-harm is unknown. Aims To determine the prevalence of self-harm in adolescents in Scotland and the factors associated with it. Method A total of 2008 pupils aged 15–16 years completed an anonymous lifestyle and coping survey. Information was obtained on demographic characteristics, lifestyle, life events and problems, social influences, psychological variables and self-harm. Results Self-harm was reported by 13.8% of the respondents. The majority (71%) of those who had self-harmed had done so in the past 12 months and girls were approximately 3.4 times more likely to report self-harm than boys. In multivariate analyses, smoking, bullying, worries about sexual orientation, self-harm by family and anxiety were associated with self-harm in both genders. In addition, drug use, physical abuse, serious boy/girlfriend problems, self-harm by friends and low levels of optimism were also associated with self-harm in girls. Conclusions Despite markedly different national suicide rates, the prevalence of self-harm in Scotland is similar to that in England with girls at least three times more likely to report self-harm than boys. The findings suggest a role for emotional literacy programmes in schools and highlight the importance of promoting positive mental health among adolescents.
Dispersal of Rhyzopertha dominica (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in Different Habitats

ABSTRACT The lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae), a serious pest of stored cereal grains, is widely distributed and has been collected in different habitats in North America, such as those from agricultural and nonagricultural settings. Our objective was to study the dispersal distances and direction of dispersal by R. dominica after external marking using fluorescent powder, releasing marked beetles, and recapturing adults using pheromone traps in distinctively different ecological habitats, wooded sites and open grasslands, for 2 consecutive yr. The recapture rate of marked beetles ranged from 6 to 26% in both sites and was generally higher in the wooded site than the open field site for both years. There was a significant difference in dispersal distances between wooded and open sites. Mean dispersal distances in the wooded site ranged from 337 to 375 m, whereas in the open site, they varied from 261 to 333 m. Trap captures for both marked and feral beetles were related to the ambient temperature such that increase in trap captures occurred with increasing temperature. Significant differences were observed for directional movement of R. dominica in both sites and indicated that most beetles dispersed in the northwest direction. Correlation analyses showed that the relationship between numbers of marked-released-recaptured beetles significantly decreased with increasing trap distances. Understanding dispersal distances and directions provide insight to flight behavior of R. dominica and to the relationship between ecologically diverse breeding habitats. Knowledge of R. dominica habitat ecology outside of grain storage facilities may be useful in designing suitable management tactics to minimize the onset of infestations in grain storages.
S-vector: A discriminative representation derived from i-vector for speaker verification

Representing data in ways to disentangle and factor out hidden dependencies is a critical step in speaker recognition systems. In this work, we employ deep neural networks (DNN) as a feature extractor to disentangle and emphasize the speaker factors from other sources of variability in the commonly used i-vector features. Denoising autoencoder based unsupervised pre-training, random dropout fine-tuning, and Nesterov accelerated gradient based momentum is used in DNN training. Replacing the i-vectors with the resulting speaker vectors (s-vectors), we obtain superior results on NIST SRE corpora on a wide range of operating points using probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA) back-end.
Productivity , Nutrient Balance and Profitability of Foxtail Millet ( Setaria italica L . ) Varieties As Influenced By Levels of Nitrogen Karanam

A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2014 at Tirupati with four foxtail millet varieties (SiA 3088, SiA 3085, SiA 3156 and Srilaxmi) in combination with three nitrogen levels (0, 25, 50 kg N ha -1 ). The results of the experiment revealed that among the four foxtail millet varieties, SiA 3085 recorded the higher grain and straw yield. Application of 50 kg N ha -1 markedly improved the growth and yield. While, they were found to be at their lowest with no nitrogen application. The nutrient uptake and economic returns also followed the same trend both in case of varieties and nitrogen levels. The results concluded that the foxtail millet variety SiA 3085 with the application of 50 kg N ha -1 was more productive, profitable and maintains the soil health.
Statement on cardiopulmonary exercise testing in chronic heart failure due to left ventricular dysfunction. Recommendations for performance and interpretation

Optimal use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in clinical practice and chronic heart failure (CHF) requires appropriate data presentation and a flexible interpretative strategy. The greatest potential impact on the decision-making process may rest not on the value of any individual measurement, although some are obviously more important than others, but rather on their integrative use. Such an integrative approach relies on interrelationship, trending phenomena and patterns of key gas exchange variable responses. An multiparametric approach will be discussed in different clinical applications, for exercise prescription and monitoring, functional evaluation of drug therapy or cardiac resynchronisation therapy efficacy, and risk stratification. The role of CPET in the daily clinical decision-making process will be underscored. Future indications of CPET will be addressed, suggesting and promoting an extended candidacy either to all CHF patients, including those at high risk or most vulnerable, such as female, elderly patients, and patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator or in every clinical setting where objective definition of exercise capacity provides implications for medical, surgical, and social decision making.
Haystack: In Situ Mobile Traffic Analysis in User Space

Mobile phones now offer users capabilities that rival those of general purpose computers. However, despite the myriad applications they support, mobile systems remain notoriously opaque. Mobile operating systems tightly control access to system resources and network traffic. The opacity of mobile systems to monitoring presents two serious drawbacks. First, it makes it very hard for researchers to understand performance of mobile systems and applications in the wild, requiring them to rely upon instrumenting individual phones to run experiments [1], privileged access to ISPs [2,4] and even redirecting traffic through instrumented VPNs [3] to obtain large-scale traffic traces, which often lack local phone context (e.g., app context, device status). Second, it opens the door for potentially unchecked exfiltration of personal data by applications, especially since we rely upon these devices for an increasing number of tasks and entrust them with increasingly sensitive data.
A photoluminescence study of poly(phenylene vinylene) derivatives: The effect of intrinsic persistence length

We report the results of light scattering, absorption, excitation, and emission spectroscopy of three polyphenylene vinylene (PPV) derivatives; poly[2‐methoxy, 5‐(2’‐ethyl‐hexyloxy‐p‐phenylene‐ vinylene] (MEH‐PPV), poly[2‐butoxy, 5‐(2’‐ethyl‐hexyloxy‐p‐phenylene‐vinylene] (BEH‐PPV), and poly[2‐dicholestanoxy‐p‐phenylene‐vinylene] (BCHA‐PPV) in solution with p‐xylene. We find that increasing the size of the solubilizing side chains increases the intrinsic persistence length of the polyphenylene vinylene backbone and that this change in stiffness has dramatic effects on the photoluminescence of polyphenylene vinylene. We have determined the luminescence quantum efficiencies of the polyphenylene vinylene derivatives relative to a known standard, Rhodamine 6G, and find that the photoluminescence can be greatly enhanced by increasing the intrinsic stiffness of the polymer backbone. The stiffest polymer, poly[2‐dicholestanoxy‐p‐phenylene‐vinylene] (BCHA‐PPV), has a quantum efficiency of 0.66±0.05. The quantum e.
Affordances of 3D virtual environments for English language learning: An ecological psychological analysis

This study explores affective factors in learning English as a foreign language in a 3D game-like multi-user virtual environment, Quest Atlantis (QA). Through communication tools (e.g., chat, bulletin board, telegrams, and email), 3D avatar, and 2D web page navigation tools in virtual space, Non-Native English Speakers (NNES) co-solved online content-related problem quests with native English speakers (NES). The QA group rated themselves higher than the non-QA group in self-efficacy toward advanced use of English, attitude toward English, and selfefficacy toward E-communication. These findings suggest that virtual worlds may provide a space for English Language Learners (ELLs) in the States and other countries to increase confidence and comfort, and overcome cultural barriers for learning English.
Theta and Gamma Oscillations Predict Encoding and Retrieval of Declarative Memory

Although studies in animals and patients have demonstrated that brain oscillations play a role in declarative memory encoding and retrieval, little has been done to investigate the temporal dynamics and sources of brain activity in healthy human subjects performing such tasks. In a magnetoencephalography study using pictorial stimuli, we have now identified oscillatory activity in the gamma (60–90 Hz) and theta (4.5–8.5 Hz) band during declarative memory operations in healthy participants. Both theta and gamma activity was stronger for the later remembered compared with the later forgotten items (the “subsequent memory effect”). In the retrieval session, theta and gamma activity was stronger for recognized items compared with correctly rejected new items (the “old/new effect”). The gamma activity was also stronger for recognized compared with forgotten old items (the “recognition effect”). The effects in the theta band were observed over right parietotemporal areas, whereas the sources of the effects in the gamma band were identified in Brodmann area 18/19. We propose that the theta activity is directly engaged in mnemonic operations. The increase in neuronal synchronization in the gamma band in occipital areas may result in a stronger drive to subsequent areas, thus facilitating both memory encoding and retrieval. Alternatively, the gamma synchronization might reflect representations being reinforced by top-down activity from higher-level memory areas. Our results provide additional insight on human declarative memory operations and oscillatory brain activity that complements previous electrophysiological and brain imaging studies.
Dairy Intake and Anthropometric Measures of Body Fat among Children and Adolescents in NHANES

Objective: To explore the relation between dairy intake and body fat among children and adolescents. Materials and Methods: Children (5–11 years) and adolescents (12–16 years) were included who had data on diet, anthropometry measures of body fat, and relevant potential confounders (children: n = 3,864 and 2,231; adolescents: n = 1,884 and 2,636 in NHANES III and NHANES 1999–2002, respectively). Each child's daily dairy intake from 24-hour recalls was classified as low, moderate or high. For girls and boys, respectively: low intake: <1 and <2 servings; moderate intake: 1–<3 and 2–<4 servings; and high intake: ≥3 and ≥4 servings per day. ) Analysis of covariance was used to control for potential confounding by age, gender, socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, height and television watching. Results: Among children, there was no consistent association between dairy intake and anthropometric indices of body fat. Among adolescents, the lowest dairy intake group (< one serving per day for girls and < two per day for boys) had higher estimated levels of body fat than those in the highest dairy group. Compared with the lowest intake level, adolescent girls in NHANES III who consumed 1–<3 servings per day of dairy had about 2.5 mm less subcutaneous body fat (95% CI: −4.70 mm, −0.39 mm) while girls consuming three or more servings had about 5 mm less fat in their sum of two skinfolds. Adolescent boys consuming 4 or more servings of dairy per day had lower anthropometry levels than did those consuming less than two servings. Conclusion: Among adolescents, suboptimal dairy intake was associated with higher anthropometric measures of body fat.
TRAJECTORIES OF DSM-IV SYMPTOMS OF ADHD, ODD AND ADHD+ODD IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD: EXAMINING THE CO-VARIATION OF ADHD AND ODD SYMPTOMS AND THEIR DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTORS AND OUTCOMES

Although the importance of investigating the developmental course of problem behavior has been emphasized in the developmental psychopathology literature, few studies have examined both ADHD and ODD symptoms longitudinally to ascertain developmental changes in symptom patterns or their co-occurrence across time. Furthermore, few studies control for comorbid symptoms, making it unclear whether ADHD, ODD or their combination drive the reported associations with early risk factors and later negative outcomes. Consequently, the current study aimed to (1) explicate longitudinal patterns of DSM-IV defined ADHD and ODD symptoms and their co-occurrence across middle childhood (ages 9 to 12) using a person-centered, semi-parametric group-based modeling approach (Nagin, 1999); (2) examine the associations of trajectories of ADHD, ODD and ADHD+ODD symptoms with possible early risk factors, children's executive functioning and maternal parenting at 54 months; and (3) investigate whether academic and social outcomes at age 12 varied as a function of symptom trajectories. Prospective data were collected from birth through sixth grade from a community sample of 1081 children participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Five longitudinal patterns of ADHD symptoms were identified: very low, low, increasing, decreasing, and high stable symptom trajectories. Only three trajectories of ODD symptoms were identified: very low, low, and high stable symptom groups. The dual symptom trajectory model did not converge making it impossible to explore dual symptom trajectories. Differential associations with early risk factors and later outcomes were found after controlling for comorbid disruptive symptoms. Preschool measures of children's executive functioning predicted later levels of ADHD symptoms, but not ODD symptoms. Maternal sensitivity predicted later ODD and ADHD symptoms and harsh maternal control predicted ADHD symptoms. Later academic performance was associated with ADHD symptoms after controlling for ODD symptoms, but not with ODD symptoms alone. Finally, both ADHD and ODD symptoms were significantly associated with mother- and teacher-reported social skills. These results underscore the importance of early cognitive skills in predicting elevated ADHD symptoms and of early relationship quality in predicting symptoms of both ADHD and ODD; implications for intervention are discussed.
Sevoflurane Inhibits Guanosine 5′-[&ggr;-thio]triphosphate–stimulated, Rho/Rho-kinase–mediated Contraction of Isolated Rat Aortic Smooth Muscle

Background The Rho/Rho-kinase signaling pathway plays an important role in mediating Ca2+ sensitization of vascular smooth muscle. The effect of anesthetics on Rho/Rho-kinase–mediated vasoconstriction has not been determined to date. This study is designed to examine the possible inhibitory effects of sevoflurane on the Rho/Rho-kinase pathway by measuring guanosine 5′-[&ggr;-thio]triphosphate (GTP&ggr;S)-stimulated contraction and translocation of RhoA (one of the three Rho subtypes) and Rock-2 (one of the two Rho-kinase subtypes) from the cytosol to the membrane in rat aortic smooth muscle. Methods GTP&ggr;S-induced contraction of rat aortic endothelium-denuded rings was measured using an isometric force transducer, and GTP&ggr;S-stimulated membrane translocation of RhoA and Rock-2 in smooth muscle cells was detected with Western blotting in the presence and absence of sevoflurane. Results GTP&ggr;S (10−4 m) induced a sustained contraction, which was significantly inhibited by the Rho-kinase inhibitor, Y27632 (3 × 10−6 m). Before treatment with GTP&ggr;S, RhoA and Rock-2 were detected primarily in the cytosolic fraction. GTP&ggr;S (10−4 m) stimulated the translocation of RhoA and Rock-2 from the cytosol to the membrane, which was sustained for more than 60 min. Sevoflurane (1.7, 3.4, and 5.1%) concentration dependently inhibited the GTP&ggr;S-induced constriction of rat aortic smooth muscle with a reduction of constriction of 52–75% (P < 0.01, n = 8), and attenuated the translocation of RhoA and Rock-2 by 31–66% and 34–78%, respectively (P < 0.05–0.01, respectively; n = 4). Conclusion The current findings show that sevoflurane depresses the GTP&ggr;S-stimulated contraction and translocation of both Rho and Rho-kinase from the cytosol in a concentration-dependent manner, indicating that sevoflurane is able to inhibit vasoconstriction mediated by the Rho/Rho-kinase pathway in rat aortic smooth muscle.
A Review on Bladder Wound Healing after Mechanical Injury

Congenital defects of the urinary bladder that requires surgical intervention with mechanical wounding are common situations among pediatric urology patients. In conditions with severe lack of tissue, regenerative medicine with autologous cells has become a field of interest for future cure. In both situations, normal bladder wound healing is of major importance for an uneventful healing process and for the final results. Much effort has been put into increasing our understanding in the area of urinary bladder wound healing. Several methods have been used in different studies, all representing different clinical settings to address the issue of normal healing. However, little is known about the differences between these different wound-healing models. In this review, we aimed at summarizing what is known about the process of bladder wound healing after mechanical injury. We present the most commonly used methods in this area; describe the process of healing and the current knowledge on involved signaling transduction factors.
Wage Structure Effects of International Trade: Evidence from a Small Open Economy

In the last decades, international trade has increased between industrialised countries and between high- and low-wage countries. This important change has raised questions on how international trade affects the labour market. In this spirit, this paper aims to investigate the impact of international trade on wage dispersion in a small open economy. It is one of the few to: i) use detailed matched employer-employee data to compute industry wage premia and disaggregated industry level panel data to examine the impact of changes in international trade on changes in wage differentials, ii) simultaneously analyse both imports and exports, and iii) examine the impact of imports according to the country of origin. Looking at the export side, we find (on the basis of the system GMM estimator) a positive effect of exports on industry wage premia. The results also show that import penetration has a significant and negative impact on industry wage differentials whatever the country of origin. However, the country of origin appears to matter quite a lot. Indeed, the detrimental effect of imports on wages is found to be significantly bigger when the latter come from low-income countries than from high-income countries.
On the Dynamics of Conversation

There is a longstanding debate in the literature about static versus dynamic approaches to meaning and conversation. A formal result due to van Benthem (1986, 1996) is often thought to be important for understanding what, conceptually speaking, is at issue in the debate. We introduce the concept of a conversation system, and we use it to clarify the import of van Benthem’s result. We then distinguish two classes of conversation systems, corresponding to two concepts of staticness. The first class, the strongly static conversation systems, corresponds to a generalization of the class of systems that van Benthem’s result concerns. The second class, the weakly static conversation systems, corresponds to a broader class, one permitting a certain commonly recognized form of context sensitivity. In the vein of van Benthem’s result, we supply representation theorems which independently characterize these two varieties of conversation system. We observe that some canonically dynamic semantic systems correspond to weakly static conversation systems. We close by discussing some hazards that arise in trying to bring our formal results to bear on natural language phenomena, and on the debate about whether the compositional semantics for natural language should take a dynamic shape.
Subspace clustering by Mixture of Gaussian Regression

Subspace clustering is a problem of finding a multi-subspace representation that best fits sample points drawn from a high-dimensional space. The existing clustering models generally adopt different norms to describe noise, which is equivalent to assuming that the data are corrupted by specific types of noise. In practice, however, noise is much more complex. So it is inappropriate to simply use a certain norm to model noise. Therefore, we propose Mixture of Gaussian Regression (MoG Regression) for subspace clustering by modeling noise as a Mixture of Gaussians (MoG). The MoG Regression provides an effective way to model a much broader range of noise distributions. As a result, the obtained affinity matrix is better at characterizing the structure of data in real applications. Experimental results on multiple datasets demonstrate that MoG Regression significantly outperforms state-of-the-art subspace clustering methods.