Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Productive Varicella-Zoster Virus Infection of Cultured Intact Human Ganglia

ABSTRACT Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a species-specific herpesvirus which infects sensory ganglia. We have developed a model of infection of human intact explant dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Following exposure of DRG to VZV, viral antigens were detected in neurons and nonneuronal cells. Enveloped virions were visualized by transmission electron microscopy in neurons and nonneuronal cells and within the extracellular space. Moreover, rather than remaining highly cell associated during infection of cultured cells, such as fibroblasts, cell-free VZV was released from infected DRG. This model enables VZV infection of ganglionic cells to be studied in the context of intact DRG.
Multiexponential T2 relaxation in degenerating peripheral nerve

The multiexponential T2 relaxation spectrum of peripheral nerve undergoing Wallerian degeneration has been measured both in vivo and in vitro. Degeneration of the sciatic nerve of the amphibian Xenopus laevis was induced by crush injury, and T2 relaxation spectra of the nerve were measured at several times up to 35 days following injury. Histologic evidence verified that the nerve underwent Wallerian degeneration. Relaxation spectra were observed to undergo measurable changes as degeneration progressed, the most evident being a reduction from three well‐resolved T2 components to one and a decline in the fraction of the spectra associated with the shortest T2 component The former appears to reflect the collapse and loss of myelinated fibers, while the latter a combination of interstitial edema and myelin loss.
Using distributional similarity to organise biomedical terminology

We investigate an application of distributional similarity techniques to the problem of structural organisation of biomedical terminology. Our application domain is the relatively small GENIA corpus. Using terms that have been accurately marked-up by hand within the corpus, we consider the problem of automatically determining semantic proximity. Terminological units are dened for our purposes as normalised classes of individual terms. Syntactic analysis of the corpus data is carried out using the Pro3Gres parser and provides the data required to calculate distributional similarity using a variety of dierent measures. Evaluation is performed against a hand-crafted gold standard for this domain in the form of the GENIA ontology. We show that distributional similarity can be used to predict semantic type with a good degree of accuracy.
Minimum-phase calibration of sampling oscilloscopes

We describe an algorithm for determining the minimum phase of a linear time-invariant response function from its magnitude. The procedure is based on Kramers-Kronig relations in combination with auxiliary direct measurements of the desired phase response. We demonstrate that truncation of the Hilbert transform gives rise to large errors in estimated phase, but that these errors may be approximated using a small number of basis functions. As an example, we obtain a minimum-phase calibration of a sampling oscilloscope in the frequency domain. This result rests on data obtained by an electrooptic sampling (EOS) technique in combination with a swept-sine calibration procedure. The EOS technique yields magnitude and phase information over a broad bandwidth, yet has degraded uncertainty estimates from dc to approximately 1 GHz. The swept-sine procedure returns only the magnitude of the oscilloscope response function, yet may be performed on a fine frequency grid from about 1 MHz to several gigahertz. The resulting minimum-phase calibration spans frequencies from dc to 110 GHz, and is traceable to fundamental units. The validity of the minimum-phase character of the oscilloscope response function at frequencies common to both measurements is determined as part of our analysis. A full uncertainty analysis is provided
Exploring continuing education needs and preferences: A pilot study

This study trialled the focus group approach to explore the continuing education needs and preferences of one health science profession in a changing area of practice. Knowledge, attitudes and skills required by occupational therapists in the field of developmental disabilities and alternative forms of continuing education provision were addressed. A list of items for continuing education was developed from two group sessions. The need for a variety of continuing education formats was highlighted. Professional associations and educational institutions were deemed to share the major responsibility for continuing education provision. Difficulty in separating undergraduate and continuing education requirements was noted. The findings of the study are discussed in the context of matching participant needs and preferences with continuing educational activities.
The development and initial validation of a telephone‐administered cognitive test battery (TACT)

Telephone interviews are increasingly recognized as a convenient assessment tool for epidemiological studies with geographically scattered samples, particularly where repeated assessments are to be made. We have compiled a telephone‐administered cognitive test battery (TACT) that aims to be sensitive enough to detect small but important degrees of early decline in cognitive function. The telephone‐administered cognitive test battery comprises tests of crystallized intelligence, logical memory, visuo‐spatial function, verbal fluency, and inductive reasoning. It incorporates a brief telephone assessment of cognitive status, the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS‐m), already validated as a screening test for dementia. We carried out a preliminary pilot study on 98 volunteer twin subjects. The test was generally administered in less than 30 minutes. Most component test scores were normally distributed with no evidence of ceiling or floor effects. We tested for the effects of age and education, and estimated test–retest reliability. A second‐order factor analysis suggested that TACT measured three dimensions of cognitive function (1) logical memory, (2) crystallized intelligence and (3) the ability to learn and apply rules to abstract material under pressure of time. The last of these dimensions was the most influenced by age. The TACT is a convenient and efficient, yet comprehensive and demanding, measure of cognitive status with wide‐ranging applications in gerontological epidemiology, genetic epidemiology and health service evaluative research. Copyright © 1999 Whurr Publishers, Ltd.
Inducible expression of human hepatitis B virus (HBV) in stably transfected hepatoblastoma cells: a novel system for screening potential inhibitors of HBV replication

We report the development and isolation of a cell line, termed HepAD38, that replicates human hepatitis B virus (HBV) under conditions that can be regulated with tetracycline. In the presence of the antibiotic, this cell line is free of virus due to the repression of pregenomic (pg) RNA synthesis. Upon removal of tetracycline from the culture medium, the cells express viral pg RNA, accumulate subviral particles in the cytoplasm that contain DNA intermediates characteristic of viral replication, and secrete virus-like particles into the supernatant. Since the HepAD38 cell line can produce high levels of HBV DNA, it should be useful for analyses of the viral replication cycle that depend upon viral DNA synthesis in a synchronized fashion. In addition, this cell line has been formatted into a high-throughput, cell-based assay that permits the large-scale screening of diverse compound libraries for new classes of inhibitors of HBV replication.
Effective Utterance Classification with Unsupervised Phonotactic Models

This paper describes a method for utterance classification that does not require manual transcription of training data. The method combines domain independent acoustic models with off-the-shelf classifiers to give utterance classification performance that is surprisingly close to what can be achieved using conventional word-trigram recognition requiring manual transcription. In our method, unsupervised training is first used to train a phone n-gram model for a particular domain; the output of recognition with this model is then passed to a phone-string classifier. The classification accuracy of the method is evaluated on three different spoken language system domains.
Mentoring Revisited: A phenomenological reading of the literature

This paper details the outcomes of an exploration to describe what the mentoring concept is and how it may best be communicated. The rationale is twofold: firstly, on a personal level, despite being a mentor and researching mentoring for several years, I still found describing and sharing explanations of mentoring with others difficult to achieve with any degree of consensus. Without such a consensus, how may we ever know that we are talking about the same thing? Secondly, my own confidence in what mentoring may be was affected by discovering that the claimed origins of the very term were erroneous. As a consequence, a phenomenological reduction—whereby the inquirer 'brackets' any suppositions and previously thought knowledge prior to exploration—was deployed in order to review a sample of mentoring research and debate covering a time period 1978-1999 across several disciplines. Mentoring appears to have the essential attributes of: a process; a supportive relationship; a helping process; a teaching-learning process; a reflective process; a career development process; a formalised process; and a role constructed by or for a mentor. The contingent attributes of the mentoring phenomenon appear as: coaching; sponsoring; role modelling; assessing; and an informal process. In addition, the consequences of the concept were explored, and a lexical definition of mentoring offered. This paper concludes that if we are ever to address the question; 'if we do not agree on what mentoring is, how do we know if we are talking about the same thing? ' then attention to and exploration and discussion of our perceptions of the concept may be a suitable starting point.
Ecological Modernisation, Ecological Modernities

The concept of ecological modernisation is increasingly being used in policy analysis to indicate deeply embedded and ecologically self‐conscious forms of cultural transformation. Its meaning varies significantly depending on author and context. Without further clarification, there is a danger that the term may serve to legitimise the continuing instrumental domination and destruction of the environment. The normative dimensions of different uses of the concept call for greater attention. These may be weak or strong, and they raise issues relating to the relationship of the term to its ecological and modernist references.
A compra por impulso em ambientes on-line

This study has as its purpose to evaluate the antecedents and consequences of impulse buying in virtual stores on the Internet. To do so, we developed a model to present the existing relationships among the web site environment, impulsivity, in-store browsing and impulse buying. From a survey design with Internet buyers, using structural equation modeling, we found that the web site environment affects the level of impulsivity, in-store browsing and the occurrence of impulse purchases, as well as a relationship between impulse purchases and positive emotions. Environmental elements influencing impulsive buying are identified and ways for future research are presented, along with academic and managerial implications of our results.
The Heun equation and the Calogero-Moser-Sutherland system V: generalized Darboux transformations

Abstract We obtain isomonodromic transformations for Heun’s equation by generalizing the Darboux transformation, and we find pairs and triplets of Heun’s equation which have the same monodromy structure. By composing generalized Darboux transformations, we establish a new construction of the commuting operator which ensures that the finite-gap property is satisfied. As an application, we prove some previous conjectures in part III.
Adenosine and nitric oxide regulate regional vascular resistance via interdependent and independent mechanisms during sepsis

Objective Adenosine receptor blockade increases regional resting vascular resistance during sepsis. In healthy subjects, part of adenosine’s actions are mediated via stimulation of nitric oxide synthase. Because nitric oxide synthase activity is thought to be a major contributor to altered vascular tone in sepsis, we tested the hypothesis that some of the nitric oxide–mediated resting regional resistance during sepsis is secondary to endogenous adenosine stimulation of nitric oxide synthase. Design Prospective, randomized, controlled experiment. Setting Shock-trauma and basic science laboratory. Subjects Male Sprague-Dawley rats. Interventions Twenty-four hours after sepsis or sham induction, rats were separated into two groups (n = 6 to 10 in each group). Group 1 received a 10-min infusion of the adenosine antagonist 8-sulfophenyltheophylline (0.9 mg/kg·min) followed by a 10-min infusion of l-nitro-arginine-methyl ester (0.5 mg/kg·min). Group 2 similarly received l-nitro-arginine-methyl ester followed by 8-sulfophenyltheophylline in the presence of l-nitro-arginine-methyl ester. Measurements and Main Results Hemodynamic and blood flow measurements (microspheres) were made before infusions, 10 mins after the administration of each single-agent infusion, and 10 mins after combined-agent infusions were administered. No significant resistance alterations were observed in nonseptic rats. In septic rats, adenosine receptor blockade alone increased hepatosplanchnic and skeletal muscle vascular resistance, but no further increases were seen when l-nitro-arginine-methyl ester was added. Nitric oxide synthase inhibition alone increased hepatosplanchnic and skeletal muscle vascular resistances. When 8-sulfophenyltheophylline was added to the infusion, skeletal muscle vascular resistance increased significantly more than with l-nitro-arginine-methyl ester alone, but there were no further increases in hepatosplanchnic resistance. Renal and adipose vascular resistances increased with l-nitro-arginine-methyl ester infusions, and 8-sulfophenyltheophylline produced no effect. Conclusions During sepsis, nitric oxide caused resting vasodilation independent of adenosine in the renal and adipose vasculature. In the hepatosplanchnic circulation, there is reciprocal adenosine-nitric oxide interaction in maintaining resting regional resistance. Skeletal muscle displayed a dual adenosine-mediated (nitric oxide–independent) and nitric oxide–mediated (adenosine receptors required) interaction to regulate resting resistance during sepsis. These data indicate that in the hepatosplanchnic and skeletal muscle vasculature, all of the resting nitric oxide–mediated vasodilation is secondary to endogenous adenosine action, but in adipose and renal vasculature, resting nitric oxide mediated vasodilation is independent of adenosine. Endogenous adenosine also appears to play a significant role in determining resting skeletal muscle resistance that is independent of nitric oxide synthase during sepsis.
Development of techniques for measurement of left ventricular ejection time

This study aimed to develop different measurement techniques for measurement of left ventricular ejection time (LVET) measurement from echocardiography, thoracic impedance cardiography (ICG) and peripheral photoplethysmography (PPG). Healthy subjects volunteered for this preliminary investigation. For each subject, cardiac aortic valve movement and aortic blood flow were examined by Mmode and Doppler echocardiography simultaneously with leG and peripheral PPG pulses for 15 s. Using all the measureable beats from each subject, the beat-by-beat measurement variability (SD of LEVT) and the mean value of L VET were compared between techniques. The L VET measured from Doppler imaging had the smallest mean of beat-by-beat SD across all subjects (9 ms), which was better than that from M-mode echocardiography and PPG (both were 11 ms). leG had the largest mean beat-by-beat SD (22 ms). The mean L VET across all subjects from the M-mode echo cardiography was 328 ms, which was longer than that from Doppler imaging (309 ms) (P <; 0.001). Mean LVETs from leG (364 ms) and PPG (348 ms) were both significantly longer those from images (P <; 0.05). In conclusion, with simultaneously recorded cardiac images and physiological signals, it has been quantitatively demonstrated that the leG and PPG not only gave longer L VET measurements, but also had larger measurement variability than the M-mode and Doppler images.
Understanding the Chaos of Airline Pricing By Alex Kons

" The airline industry's pricing system is a billion-dollar house of cards in which every customer is a futures speculator and Economics 101 is turned onto its head " (Fredrick, 1995). This statement highlights one of the most hidden frustrations that many air travelers feel. Airline pricing is so distorted that often a full-fare paying passenger is seated next to a passenger who paid more then three hundred percent less for his or her ticket. What makes this situation so exasperating is that each passenger is receiving the same quality of seat and in-flight service, regardless of the airfare each paid. This paper will attempt to uncover the forces that have created this chaotic pricing system that has confused and annoyed passengers in today's air travel industry. Very few other industries have undergone anything like the drastic changes that have rocked the U.S. domestic airline industry in the past twenty years. Over this time period, the industry has evolved from a system of long established airlines flying a regulated route structure to a dynamic, free market environment where new airlines emerged and disappeared seemingly overnight. Recently the industry has become more characterized by massive market dominance by a small group of major airlines. Given its past volatility, there is little doubt that the industry will continue to transform over time. All the while, air travelers have continued to seek an understanding of all the chaos. The focus of this paper will be on developing a model that demonstrates the effect two specific exogenous shocks had in creating the airline industry's current pricing system of vast airfare dispersion amongst passengers on the same flight. The model developed establishes that certain airlines have used market segmentation and price discrimination tactics as a result of these exogenous shocks. The organization of this paper is as follows.
Neuroprotective Transcription Factors in Animal Models of Parkinson Disease

A number of transcription factors, including En1/2, Foxa1/2, Lmx1a/b, Nurr1, Otx2, and Pitx3, with key roles in midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neuron development, also regulate adult mDA neuron survival and physiology. Mouse models with targeted disruption of some of these genes display several features reminiscent of Parkinson disease (PD), in particular the selective and progressive loss of mDA neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). The characterization of these animal models has provided valuable insights into various mechanisms of PD pathogenesis. Therefore, the dissection of the mechanisms and survival signalling pathways engaged by these transcription factors to protect mDA neuron from degeneration can suggest novel therapeutic strategies. The work on En1/2-mediated neuroprotection also highlights the potential of protein transduction technology for neuroprotective approaches in PD.
An undergraduate computer engineering option for electrical engineering

Computer engineering is concerned with the organization, design, and utilization of digital processing systems. These may be general purpose computers or more specialized digital systems that are concerned with communications, control, information processing, etc. The rapidly expanding application areas for digital processing techniques require increasing numbers of properly trained engineers, and it is the responsibility of electrical engineering education to provide the necessary educational opportunities. A means for doing this is an undergraduate computer engineering option within electrical engineering. The curriculum for such an educational program would be both hardware and software oriented, as described.
The Impact of Parenting Factors, Deviant Peers, and Coping Style upon Adolescent Drug Use.

Social learning theory and recent findings regarding stress and coping are integrated to form a model of adolescent drug use. Analysis of data obtained from interviews with 343 youth largely support the model. Parental rejection, deviant peers, and a combination of low self-esteem with an avoidant coping style served to increase an adolescent's probability of drug use. The findings suggest that treatment of adolescent drug use should utilize both individual counseling, focusing upon social/coping skills, and family therapy, with an emphasis upon parenting practices.
Envy: a theory of social behaviour

Envy was first published in German in 1966, then in an English translation in 1970. This classic study is one of the few books to explore extensively the many facets of envy -- "a drive which lies at the core of man's life as a social being. " Ranging widely over literature, philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences, Professor Schoeck -- a distinguished sociologist and anthropologist -- elucidates both the constructive and destructive consequences of envy in social life. Perhaps most importantly he demonstrates that not only the impetus toward a totalitarian regime but also the egalitarian impulse in democratic societies are alike in being rooted in envy.
Development of a Structured Interview for Assessing Student Use of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies

Forty male and female l0th-grade students from a high achievement track and 40 from other (lower) achievement tracks of a suburban high school were interviewed concerning their use of self-regulated learning strategies during class, homework, and study. Fourteen categories of self-regulation strategies were identified from student answers that dealt with six learning contexts. High achieving students displayed significantly greater use of 13 categories of self-regulated learning. The students’ membership in their respective achievement group was predicted with 93% accuracy using their reports of self-regulated learning. When compared to students’ gender and socioeconomic status indices in regression analyses, self-regulated learning measures proved to be the best predictor of standardized achievement test scores. The results were discussed in terms of a social learning view of self-regulated learning.
Forensic and general psychiatric patients' view of seclusion: a comparison study

The aim of this study was to compare the views of secluded patients in a forensic setting with the views of those in a general psychiatric setting. Subjects numbered 106 secluded patients, in the two forensic psychiatric hospitals and in the general psychiatric in-patient units of two hospital districts in Finland during a one-year recruitment period. The subjects were interviewed shortly after seclusion and re-interviewed half a year later. Regardless of more frequent and longer-term use of seclusion in the forensic group, the only difference between the two groups was that the forensic patients viewed seclusion as a form of punishment more frequently. Most of the subjects knew the reason for their seclusion, they were dissatisfied with interaction opportunities during seclusion and their opinions of seclusion as a negative experience and punishment did not change during the follow-up. Furthermore, the subjects suggested many practical improvements on the present use of seclusion. Though seclusion may not always be avoidable, its application could be done in a more therapeutic manner.