Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Path Auction Games When an Agent Can Own Multiple Edges ∗

We study path auction games in which multiple edges may be owned by the same agent in this paper. The edge costs and the set of edges owned by the same agent are privately known to the owner of the edge. We show that in this setting, given the assumption the losing agent always has 0 payoff, there is no individual rational strategyproof mechanism in which only edge costs are reported. If the agents are asked to report costs as well as ownership, we show that there is no efficient mechanism that is false-name proof. We then study a first-price path auction in this model. We show that, in the special case of parallel-path graphs, there is always a purestrategy 2-Nash equilibrium in bids. We show that this result does not extend to general graphs: we construct a graph in which there is no such 2-Nash equilibrium.
Evaluation of the Becton Dickinson Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests in Outpatients in Germany during Seven Influenza Seasons

Background An extensive retrospective study spanning several seasons was undertaken to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the BD rapid influenza diagnostic test (RIDT) in comparison with the RT-PCR assay. Methods A total of 2,179 respiratory samples were tested in parallel by in-house RT-PCR and the RIDT. During the 2003-2004, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 (n=1671) seasons, the BD Directigen Flu A+B test was used, and during the 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 (n=508) seasons, the BD Directigen EZ Flu A+B test b was used. Results The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for the BD Directigen Flu A+B test calculated for types A and B together were 39%, 99%, 98%, and 56%, respectively. For the BD Directigen EZ Flu A+B test, these values were 47%, 100%, 100%, 55%, respectively. The sensitivity of the BD Directigen Flu A+B test did not differ significantly from season to season or between types A (44%) and B (37%). The sensitivity of the BD Directigen EZ Flu A+B test calculated for type A only was 59%, which was considerably higher than the sensitivity of this test for type B (23%). The sensitivity of the RIDT was approximately 40-50% in children and teenagers, but it was only 18. % in adults aged 20 years and older. The specificity of both RIDTs was very high (>99%) during all seasons. Conclusions Due to their rapid turnaround time, RIDTs can help guide decisions about the clinical management of influenza. Because of the high specificity, a positive result can be interpreted as a true positive, and antiviral therapy as well as appropriate measures to prevent the transmission of influenza can be initiated. The best sensitivity of the RIDT is achieved in children. However, even in this group, the RIDT will only recognize influenza infection in approximately half of the cases, and influenza should still be considered in patients with negative results; negative RIDT results must be confirmed by PCR.
Cytogenetic Alterations in Preimplantation Mice Embryos Following Male Mouse Gonadal Gamma-irradiation: Comparison of Two Methods for Reproductive Toxicity Screening

Background Genome instability is a main cause of chromosomal alterations in both somatic and germ cells when exposed to environmental, physical and chemical genotoxicants. Germ cells especially spermatozoa are more vulnerable to suffering from DNA damaging agents during spermatogenesis and also more potent in transmitting genome instability to next generation. Methods To investigate the effects of γ-rays on inducing abnormalities manifested as numerical Chromosome Aberrations (CA) and Micronucleus (MN) in preimplantation embryos, adult male NMRI mice were irradiated with 4 Gy of γ-rays. They were then mated at weekly intervals with superovulated, non-irradiated female mice in 6 successive weeks. About 68 hr post coitous, four to eight cell embryos were retrieved and fixed on slides using standard methods in order to screen for CA and MN. Results In embryos generated from irradiated mice, the frequency of aneuploidy and MN increased dramatically at all post-irradiation sampling times as compared to the control (p<0.01). The frequency of embryos expressed MN was much higher than chromosomally abnormal embryos, although the trend of MN formation was similar to chromosomal abnormalities seen in corresponding sampling times. Conclusion Irradiation of sperms at any stages of spermatogenesis may lead to stable chromosomal abnormalities affecting pairing and disjunction of chromosomes in successive preimplantation embryos that are expressed as MN. Although chromosome analysis of embryos showed various types of chromosomal abnormalities, MN assay provide a simpler and faster technique for investigating the genotoxicity of agents affecting embryos at preimplantation stages.
Upregulation of microRNA Processing Enzymes Drosha and Dicer in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in diverse cellular processes and linked to variety of disorders. Dicer and Drosha are two major enzymes in the miRNA biogenesis process. DGCR8 is the assistant of Drosha in the microprocessor complex. In this study, we evaluated the mRNA expression profiles of major miRNA processing machinery Drosha, Dicer, and DGCR8 in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), pregnant and healthy women. Our findings indicate that the expression levels of Drosha, Dicer and DGCR8 were upregulated in both pregnant and GDM patients compared to the control group. However, Drosha and Dicer were upregulated more than pregnant group. In conclusion, we detected dysregulation of Drosha, Dicer and DGCR8 expression in pregnant and GDM patients when compared to healthy control participants. Therefore, we favor the hypothesis that miRNAs are involved in the development of GDM.
Preparation of hydrogel from natural plant extracts having anti-diabetic and antioxidant property and its application on broiler meat at refrigeration storage (4±1°c)

The aim of the current study was to provide in vitro evidence of aglucosidase inhibitory activity of Hydrogel prepared from two natural plant extracts and its preservative effects on raw chicken meat at refrigeration storage. Okra and Green tea extracts were mixed in 80:20 ratio respectively to prepared Hydrogel which were mixed in chicken meat at the level of 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and stored at 4 0C in aerobic packaging for 0,3,7 and 14 days. The percentage inhibition at 50,100,150,200,250 /lgjml concentrations of Hydrogel showed a concentration-dependent reduction in percentage inhibition of a-glucosidase. Thus the highest concentration 250 /lg jml tests showed a maximum inhibition of nearly 90.64 %. The percentage inhibition varied from 30.76 to 90.64 % from the lowest concentration (50 /lg jml) to the highest concentration of 250 /lg jml. The ICso value of hydrogel is 138±0.35 /lg jml. Meat spoilage (total viable and coliform counts, Water holding capacity, pH, lightness, redness, yellowness, tyrosine value and TEA value) was determined. The sensory contribution of the Hydrogel was evaluated (colour, tenderness, juiciness, flavour, texture and overall acceptability). The results pointed to the possibility of using natural plant extract combinations to preserve raw meat at refrigeration temperature. Hydrogel at the level of 1.5% delayed microbial spoilage, redness loss and lipid oxidation more effectively, thus increasing the shelf life of the raw meat and resulted in greater acceptability in comparison to other treatment groups.
Tomato Plants Ectopically Expressing Arabidopsis CBF1 Show Enhanced Resistance to Water Deficit Stress1

A DNA cassette containing an Arabidopsis C repeat/dehydration-responsive element binding factor 1 (CBF1) cDNA and a nos terminator, driven by a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, was transformed into the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) genome. These transgenic tomato plants were more resistant to water deficit stress than the wild-type plants. The transgenic plants exhibited growth retardation by showing dwarf phenotype, and the fruit and seed numbers and fresh weight of the transgenic tomato plants were apparently less than those of the wild-type plants. Exogenous gibberellic acid treatment reversed the growth retardation and enhanced growth of transgenic tomato plants, but did not affect the level of water deficit resistance. The stomata of the transgenic CBF1 tomato plants closed more rapidly than the wild type after water deficit treatment with or without gibberellic acid pretreatment. The transgenic tomato plants contained higher levels of Pro than those of the wild-type plants under normal or water deficit conditions. Subtractive hybridization was used to isolate the responsive genes to heterologousCBF1 in transgenic tomato plants and theCAT1 (CATALASE1) was characterized. Catalase activity increased, and hydrogen peroxide concentration decreased in transgenic tomato plants compared with the wild-type plants with or without water deficit stress. These results indicated that the heterologous Arabidopsis CBF1 can confer water deficit resistance in transgenic tomato plants.
Testing the Underlying Motives of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Field Study of Agricultural Co-Op Workers

This study tests the relationship between sources of motivation and organizational citizenship behaviors. One hundred seventy-five employees from 31 locations of two agriculturally based companies completed the motivation sources inventory (Barbuto & Scholl, 1998) and were rated by their supervisors for demonstrated organizational citizenship behaviors (Organ, 1997; Smith, Organ & Near, 1983). Results showed significant relationships between instrumental, self-concept external, and self-concept internal motivation and organizational citizenship behaviors. Implications of these findings for research and practice, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The Derivation of Direction Selectivity in the Striate Cortex

In the central visual pathway of binocular animals, the property of directional selectivity (DS) is first exhibited in striate cortex. In this study, we sought to determine the neural circuitry underlying the transformation from non-DS neurons to DS cortical cells. In a well established model, DS receptive fields (RFs) are derived from the sum of two non-DS inputs with 90° (quadrature) spatiotemporal phase differences. We explored possible input sources for this model, which include non-DS simple cells and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons, by examination of spatiotemporal RFs of single cells and of pairs of cells. We find that distributions of non-DS simple RFs do not match the temporal predictions of the quadrature model because of a lack of long-latency responses. The long-latency inputs could potentially arise from lagged LGN afferents. However, analysis of cell pairs indicates that DS cells receive cortical input from non-DS simple cells for both short- and long-latency components, with temporal phase differences typically <90°. Furthermore, the distribution of minimum phase differences needed to generate DS cells overlaps that exhibited by non-DS simple cells. Considered together, these results are consistent with a linear model whereby DS simple cells are formed from simple-cell inputs, with temporal phase differences often less than quadrature.
Diversity of the Bacterial and Fungal Microflora from the Midgut and Cuticle of Phlebotomine Sand Flies Collected in North-Western Iran

Background Phlebotomine sand flies are the vectors of the leishmaniases, parasitic diseases caused by Leishmania spp. Little is known about the prevalence and diversity of sand fly microflora colonizing the midgut or the cuticle. Particularly, there is little information on the fungal diversity. This information is important for development of vector control strategies. Methodology/Principal Findings Five sand fly species: Phlebotomus papatasi, P. sergenti, P. kandelakii, P. perfiliewi and P. halepensis were caught in Bileh Savar and Kaleybar in North-Western Iran that are located in endemic foci of visceral leishmaniasis. A total of 35 specimens were processed. Bacterial and fungal strains were identified by routine microbiological methods. We characterized 39 fungal isolates from the cuticle and/or the midgut. They belong to six different genera including Penicillium (17 isolates), Aspergillus (14), Acremonium (5), Fusarium (1), Geotrichum (1) and Candida (1). We identified 33 Gram-negative bacteria: Serratia marcescens (9 isolates), Enterobacter cloacae (6), Pseudomonas fluorescens (6), Klebsiella ozaenae (4), Acinetobacter sp. (3), Escherichia coli (3), Asaia sp. (1) and Pantoea sp. (1) as well as Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis (5) and Micrococcus luteus (5) in 10 isolates. Conclusion/Significance Our study provides new data on the microbiotic diversity of field-collected sand flies and for the first time, evidence of the presence of Asaia sp. in sand flies. We have also found a link between physiological stages (unfed, fresh fed, semi gravid and gravid) of sand flies and number of bacteria that they carry. Interestingly Pantoea sp. and Klebsiella ozaenae have been isolated in Old World sand fly species. The presence of latter species on sand fly cuticle and in the female midgut suggests a role for this arthropod in dissemination of these pathogenic bacteria in endemic areas. Further experiments are required to clearly delineate the vectorial role (passive or active) of sand flies.
ENDOTHELIUM-DERIVED MICROPARTICLES INDUCE ENDOTHELIAL DYSFUNCTION AND ACUTE LUNG INJURY

ABSTRACT Acute lung injury (ALI) carries a high mortality in critically ill patients. Recent reports correlate elevated concentrations of endothelium-derived microparticles (EMPs) with diseases of endothelial dysfunction. Many of these diseases have ALI sequelae. We hypothesize that EMPs contribute to endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction and development of ALI. To test this hypothesis, we treated isolated vessels with EMPs and examined changes in vasodilation. Endothelial cell cultures were incubated with EMPs and examined for changes in stimulated nitric oxide (•NO) production and nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation. Finally, EMPs were injected into rats and mice and lungs examined for ALI. In both mouse and human ex vivo vessel preparations, we found a marked attenuation of endothelium-mediated vasodilation after EMP treatment (4 × 106/mL). This dysfunction was not corrected by pretreatment of EMPs with free radical scavengers. Coincubation of EMPs with EC cultures yielded a three-fold reduction in A23187-stimulated •NO release. Western analysis of these cells showed a corresponding decrease in eNOS phosphorylation at Ser1179 and a decrease in hsp90 association. Measurements of lung permeability, myeloperoxidase activity, and histology of EMPs-treated Brown Norway rats demonstrated pulmonary edema, neutrophil recruitment, and compromise of the endothelial-alveolar barrier as a second hit phenomenon. In C57BL/6 mice, exogenous EMPs caused a significant rise in pulmonary capillary permeability both as a primary and secondary injury. These findings demonstrate EMPs are capable of inducing significant lung injury at pathophysiologically relevant concentrations. Endothelium-derived microparticles inhibit endothelium-mediated vasodilation and •NO generation from eNOS. Once elucidated, EMP mechanisms of inducing ALI and endothelial dysfunction may present new therapeutic targets.
Diverse Regulation of the CreA Carbon Catabolite Repressor in Aspergillus nidulans

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) is a process that selects the energetically most favorable carbon source in an environment. CCR represses the use of less favorable carbon sources when a better source is available. Glucose is the preferential carbon source for most microorganisms because it is rapidly metabolized, generating quick energy for growth. In the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, CCR is mediated by the transcription factor CreA, a C2H2 finger domain DNA-binding protein. The aim of this work was to investigate the regulation of CreA and characterize its functionally distinct protein domains. CreA depends in part on de novo protein synthesis and is regulated in part by ubiquitination. CreC, the scaffold protein in the CreB-CreC deubiquitination (DUB) complex, is essential for CreA function and stability. Deletion of select protein domains in CreA resulted in persistent nuclear localization and target gene repression. A region in CreA conserved between Aspergillus spp. and Trichoderma reesei was identified as essential for growth on various carbon, nitrogen, and lipid sources. In addition, a role of CreA in amino acid transport and nitrogen assimilation was observed. Taken together, these results indicate previously unidentified functions of this important transcription factor. These novel functions serve as a basis for additional research in fungal carbon metabolism with the potential aim to improve fungal industrial applications.
Geant4 Model for the Stopping Power of Low Energy Negatively Charged Hadrons

An original model is presented for the simulation of the energy loss of negatively charged hadrons. It calculates the stopping power by regarding the target atoms as an ensemble of quantum harmonic oscillators; this approach allows to account for charge dependent effects in the stopping power, which are relevant at energies below a few MeV. The resulting antiproton stopping powers for different elements are shown to be in satisfactory agreement with experimental data. The model described in this paper is implemented in the Low Energy Electromagnetic package of the Geant4 Toolkit; it represents a significant improvement for the accurate simulation of low energy negative hadrons with respect to previously available models.
Cyclin-Dependent Kinases and S Phase Control in Mammalian Cells

Mammalian DNA replication is an elegantly choreographed process in which multiple components are assembled at the origins to form the prereplication complex. Formation and activation of the prereplication complex requires coordinate actions of G1 and S phase cyclin-dependent kinases. Cyclin E-CDK2 and cyclin A-CDK2, together with DBF4-CDC7, phosphorylate several components of the prereplication complex and replication machinery. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the mechanism of initiation of DNA replication in mammalian cells. The roles of cyclin A/E-CDK2 complexes in driving replication, their relationship with other regulators of S phase, and their role in keeping replication to only once per cell cycle will be discussed. In addition, an important issue is the checks and balances that prevent inappropriate DNA replication, and how a breakdown in these checkpoints can lead to genomic instability and cancer. A critical mediator of these checkpoints, ATM, signals through a comprehensive network of proteins leading to CDK2 inhibition thus preventing DNA synthesis. This will be reviewed in addition to other mechanisms involved in the intra-S phase DNA damage checkpoint.
The Pentratricopeptide Repeat Protein DELAYED GREENING1 Is Involved in the Regulation of Early Chloroplast Development and Chloroplast Gene Expression in Arabidopsis1[W][OA]

An Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant that exhibited a delayed greening phenotype (dg1) was isolated from a population of activation-tagged Arabidopsis lines. Young, inner leaves of dg1 mutants were initially very pale, but gradually greened and mature outer leaves, more than 3 weeks old, appeared similar to those of wild-type plants. Sequence and transcription analyses showed that DG1 encodes a chloroplast protein consisting of eight pentratricopeptide repeat domains and that its expression depends on both light and developmental status. In addition, analysis of the transcript profiles of chloroplast genes revealed that plastid-encoded polymerase-dependent transcript levels were markedly reduced, while nucleus-encoded polymerase-dependent transcript levels were increased, in dg1 mutants. Thus, DG1 is probably involved in the regulation of plastid-encoded polymerase-dependent chloroplast gene expression during early stages of chloroplast development.
Gender equity and trichiasis surgery in the Vietnam and Tanzania national trachoma control programmes

Aims: To calculate the gender distribution of trichiasis cases in trachoma communities in Vietnam and Tanzania, and the gender distribution of surgical cases, to determine if women are using surgical services proportional to their needs. Methods: Population based data from surveys done in Tanzania and Vietnam as part of the national trachoma control programmes were used to determine the rate of trichiasis by gender in the population. Surgical records provided data on the gender ratio of surgical cases. Results: The rates of trichiasis in both countries are from 1.4-fold to sixfold higher in females compared to males. In both countries, the female to male rate of surgery was the same or even higher than the female to male rate of trichiasis in the population. Conclusions: These data provide assurance of gender equity in the provision and use of trichiasis surgery services in the national programmes of these two countries. Such simple analyses should be used by other programmes to assure gender equity in provision and use of trichiasis surgery services.
Are fertility drugs a risk factor for persistent trophoblastic tumour?

BACKGROUND The introduction of ovulation-inducing drugs has raised concern that women exposed to these therapies may be at increased risk of cancer. We assessed the potential association between exposure to fertility drugs and the risk of developing persistent trophoblastic tumour (PTT). METHODS We conducted a systematic review of the English and non-English language literature using the National Library of Medicine's Medline to identify all observations of patients with hydatidiform mole (HM) after treatment with ovulation-inducers. RESULTS Fifty-two cases were considered including 26 singleton molar pregnancies and 26 multiple molar pregnancies consisting of an HM and one or more co-existent fetus(es) (HM-and-CF). PTT occurred in 15% of patients with singleton HM and in 42% of patients with HM-and-CF, 15% of whom had a metastatic disease. Of those patients with HM-and-CF, 16 patients delivered at <24 weeks gestation, mostly because of vaginal haemorrhage. Ten patients delivered at > or = 24 weeks of gestation, six of whom (25%) had a normal live child. These results are similar to spontaneously conceived pregnancies. CONCLUSIONS Although women having an HM after therapy with ovulation-inducing drugs seem to have no added risk of PTT, multiple pregnancies are more likely to occur, and the overall risk may be increased.
MT Detection in Web-Scraped Parallel Corpora

The Web is an invaluable source of parallel data, but in recent years it has become polluted with increasing amounts of machine-translated content. Using such data to train an MT system can introduce error and decrease the resulting quality of the system. In this paper, we present an algorithm for filtering ma-chine-translated content from Web-scraped parallel corpora, and discuss its application in cleaning such corpora for use in training statistical machine translation systems. We demonstrate that our algorithm is capable of identifying ma-chine-translated content in parallel corpora for a variety of language pairs, and that in some cases it can be very effective in improving the quality of an MT system. Trained on our filtered corpus, our most successful MT system outper-formed one trained on the full, unfiltered corpus, thus challenging the conventional wisdom in natural language processing that “more data is better data” 1 .