Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Civic crowdfunding research: Challenges, opportunities, and future agenda

Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding through which citizens, in collaboration with government, fund projects providing a community service. Although in the early stages of development, civic crowdfunding is a promising area for both research and application due to its potential impact on citizen engagement, as well as its influence on the success of a wide range of civic projects ranging from physical structures to amenities and local services. However, the field remains under-addressed in academic research and underdeveloped in terms of the number of civic projects posted to crowdfunding platforms. Acknowledging these issues, we outline the history of civic crowdfunding and describe the current landscape, focusing on online crowdfunding platforms established specifically for the funding of civic projects (Citizinvestor, ioby, Neighbor.ly, Spacehive). The challenges and the opportunities of civic crowdfunding are examined, and its distinguishing characteristics are outlined, including a consideration of the impact of social media and platform features. We then propose a research agenda to help shape the future of this emergent field.
Monotreme Lactation Protein Is Highly Expressed in Monotreme Milk and Provides Antimicrobial Protection

Monotremes (platypus and echidna) are the descendants of the oldest ancestor of all extant mammals distinguished from other mammals by mode of reproduction. Monotremes lay eggs following a short gestation period and after an even briefer incubation period, altricial hatchlings are nourished over a long lactation period with milk secreted by nipple-less mammary patches located on the female’s abdomen. Milk is the sole source of nutrition and immune protection for the developing young until weaning. Using transcriptome and mass spectrometry analysis of milk cells and milk proteins, respectively, a novel Monotreme Lactation Protein (MLP) was identified as a major secreted protein in milk. We show that platypus and short-beaked echidna MLP genes show significant homology and are unique to monotremes. The MLP transcript was shown to be expressed in a variety of tissues; however, highest expression was observed in milk cells and was expressed constitutively from early to late lactation. Analysis of recombinant MLP showed that it is an N-linked glycosylated protein and biophysical studies predicted that MLP is an amphipathic, α-helical protein, a typical feature of antimicrobial proteins. Functional analysis revealed MLP antibacterial activity against both opportunistic pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus and commensal Enterococcus faecalis bacteria but showed no effect on Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Salmonella enterica. Our data suggest that MLP is an evolutionarily ancient component of milk-mediated innate immunity absent in other mammals. We propose that MLP evolved specifically in the monotreme lineage supporting the evolution of lactation in these species to provide bacterial protection, at a time when mammals lacked nipples.
Water sources are associated with childhood diarrhoea prevalence in rural east‐central Mali

Background Water supply improvements generally reduce the incidence of diarrhoea. However, populations with limited access to a safe water supply may continue to draw water from unimproved sources, thereby increasing their risk of diarrhoea. Furthermore, young children who are not breastfed may be even more susceptible to water‐borne diarrhoeal pathogens. Our study explored the interactive protective effects against diarrhoea of exclusively using improved water sources and breastfeeding among children in rural Mali.
Differential Immune Response Patterns Induced by Anionic and Cationic Lipid Adjuvants in Intranasal Anti-Influenza Immunization

Currently, vaccine development against different respiratory diseases is at its peak. It is of utmost importance to find suitajble adjuvants that can increase the potency of the vaccine candidates. This study aimed to determine the systemic and splenic immune mechanisms in mice models induced by anionic and cationic lipid adjuvants in the presence of the vaccine-candidate influenza antigen hemagglutinin (HA). In the presence of the HA antigen, the cationic adjuvant (N3) increased conventional dendritic cell 1 (cDC1) abundance with enhanced MHCI and CD80-CD86 costimulatory marker expression, and significantly higher CD8T and Th17 populations with enhanced interferon-gamma (IFNγ) expression in CD8T and CD4T populations. Conversely, the anionic adjuvant (L3) increased the cDC2 population percentage with significantly higher MHCII and DEC205 expression, along with an increase in the CD4T and regulatory T cell populations. The L3-treated group also exhibited higher percentages of activated B and plasma cell populations with significantly higher antigen-specific IgG and IgA titer and virus neutralization potential. While the anionic adjuvant induced significantly higher humoral responses than the cationic adjuvant, the latter influenced a significantly higher Th1/Th17 response. For customized vaccine development, it is beneficial to have alternative adjuvants that can generate differential immune responses with the same vaccine candidate antigen. This study will aid the selection of adjuvants based on their charges to improve specific immune response arms in the future development of vaccine formulation.
Catecholamines and cognition after traumatic brain injury

Cognitive impairment following traumatic brain injury is common, poorly understood and difficult to treat. Jenkins et al. review evidence that disruption to certain neurotransmitters (dopamine and noradrenaline) is a common cause of these persistent cognitive impairments and propose using neuroimaging techniques to guide treatment selection and monitor response.
Effect of Immersion Duration in Coffee Beverage on Colour Stability of Polymethyl Methacrylate Denture Base Reinforced with 1% Chitosan Nanogel (Laboratory Study)

Hot polymerized acrylic resin (RAPP) denture bases have several weaknesses, so RAPP requires reinforcing materials, one of which is chitosan. Extrinsic factors cause color changes in RAPP. The aim of this research was to determine the effect of soaking time for RAPP denture base material after adding 1% chitosan nanogel in coffee solution on color stability. Laboratory experimental research, using 16 cylindrical plates, diameter 15 x 2 mm (n = 8 from each group). There are 2 groups, the water-soaked group and the coffee drink group. Color stability measurements were carried out before and after soaking for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 days. The color stability of the samples was tested using a colorimeter and color changes were analyzed using the Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Withney tests. There is an effect of soaking time for RAPP denture base material on color stability with a value of p = 0.0001. Soaking the RAPP denture base material after adding 1% chitosan nanogel in a coffee solution for color stability for 4 days is still clinically acceptable.
Hybrid transactional memory

Transactional memory (TM) promises to substantially reduce the difficulty of writing correct, efficient, and scalable concurrent programs. But "bounded" and "best-effort" hardware TM proposals impose unreasonable constraints on programmers, while more flexible software TM implementations are considered too slow. Proposals for supporting "unbounded" transactions in hardware entail significantly higher complexity and risk than best-effort designs.We introduce Hybrid Transactional Memory (HyTM), an approach to implementing TMin software so that it can use best effort hardware TM (HTM) to boost performance but does not depend on HTM. Thus programmers can develop and test transactional programs in existing systems today, and can enjoy the performance benefits of HTM support when it becomes available.We describe our prototype HyTM system, comprising a compiler and a library. The compiler allows a transaction to be attempted using best-effort HTM, and retried using the software library if it fails. We have used our prototype to "transactify" part of the Berkeley DB system, as well as several benchmarks. By disabling the optional use of HTM, we can run all of these tests on existing systems. Furthermore, by using a simulated multiprocessor with HTM support, we demonstrate the viability of the HyTM approach: it can provide performance and scalability approaching that of an unbounded HTM implementation, without the need to support all transactions with complicated HTM support.
Evaluation of the Role of Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes on Contractile Function in Myocardial Reperfusion Injury Evidence for Plasma‐Mediated Leukocyte Activation

BackgroundIt has been hypothesized that chemotaxis and activation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) occur upon reperfusion of ischemic myocardium. Questions remain, however, regarding the mechanisms by which PMNs are chemotaxed and activated and how this process causes contractile failure. Methods and ResultsStudies were performed in an isolated rat heart model in which the effects of isolated cellular or humoral factors could be studied. Isolated rat hearts were perfused by the method of Langendorff, subjected to 20 minutes of global ischemia, and reperfused with perfusate alone or with perfusate containing PMNs, plasma, PMNs plus plasma, or PMNs plus inactivated plasma (preheated to 56 °C for 30 minutes to denature complement) (n=10 in each group). Left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) was measured during 1 minute of preischemic control infusion and on reflow after a 20-minute period of global ischemia. Additional measurements of free-radical generation were also performed on the coronary effluent by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) with the spin trap 5,5'- dimethyl-l-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO). During control infusion, no significant alterations in LVDP were observed, and there was no measurable free-radical generation. Reperfusion with plasma or PMNs alone did not alter postischemic LVDP, whereas plasma and PMNs together caused marked injury. LVDP after 45 minutes of reflow with PMNs plus plasma was 31.9±6.1% of control compared with 60.6±9.9% with plasma, 64.5±8.8% with PMNs, and 63.6±7.2% with perfusate alone (p<0.01). With plasma, which was preheated to deplete complement, this injury was not seen; LVDP was 70.8±10.9%. EPR measurements with the spin trap DMPO in the absence of PMNs demonstrated that oxygen free-radical generation is observed only during the first 1-2 minutes of reflow. Upon reperfusion with PMNs and plasma, however, radical generation persisted for more than 10 minutes. Increased neutrophil accumulation was observed in the postischemic heart in the absence of plasma; however, plasma factors were required for neutrophil-mediated contractile failure. C5a alone did not cause significant injury, but in the presence of PMNs it effectively substituted for plasma, causing marked injury. ConclusionThus, plasma factors, most likely complement, are required for neutrophil activation with oxygen free-radical generation and secondary contractile dysfunction.
SERPING1 polymorphisms in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

Purpose To investigate whether common genetic variants in the complement component 1 inhibitor gene (serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade G, member 1, SERPING1) are associated with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) in a Chinese Han population. Methods DNA samples were obtained from 118 PCV patients and 115 healthy subjects. Data derived from the HapMap project were used to select tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the extended SERPING1 region. A previously reported age-related macular degeneration-related risk factor (rs2511989) was forcibly included. Genotyping of each tag SNP was performed by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism and direct DNA sequencing techniques. Results Four SNPs for SERPING1, rs2509897, rs1005510, rs11603020, and rs2511989, were chosen as tag SNPs. None of these tag SNPs were associated with PCV, according to the single-SNP association test (p=0.41–0.83). Evaluation of common haplotypes across SERPING1 did not reveal any association with PCV (p=0.49–0.82). Conclusions We found no evidence to support the role of any common SERPING1 variants, including the rs2511989 variant, in the susceptibility to PCV in a Chinese Han population.
Development Discussion Papers Are the Costs of Pollution Abatement Lower in Central and Eastern Europe ? Evidence from Lithuania

It is often claimed that pollution reductions can be achieved at lower cost in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, because more possibilities exist to update production processes and reduce waste. To date, however, there has been little or no systematic evaluation of what the costs actually are in these countries. The main purpose of this paper is to partially fill this research gap using firm-level data from Lithuania. Abatement cost estimates for key air pollutants are presented based on investments made in Lithuania during 1993-94. The paper also attempts to estimate the demand for pollution directly using data on pollution charges from 1994. Lithuania offers a relatively unique opportunity to conduct such an analysis, because the system of pollution charges sets different rates for different polluters emitting the same pollutant. Using both methods it is shown that for at least some key pollutants marginal and average abatement costs are probably substantially lower in Lithuania than in western countries. Randall A. Bluffstone, Development Associate, Harvard Institute for International Development. Dr. Bluffstone has been with the International Environment Program of the Harvard Institute for International Development since January, 1993, and during the period 19941997 was Senior Environmental Policy Advisor to the government of Lithuania. His research has focused on economic instruments for environmental management, privatization and the environment, environmental finance, and deforestation in low-income countries. *The author would like to thank the US Agency for International Development for providing funding for this research under cooperative agreement EUR-00040A-00-4014. The author would also like to thank officials of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Lithuania for allowing him the opportunity to conduct the work. Comments by Winston Harrington, Bruce A. Larson, Robert Stavins and Jeffrey Vincent are gratefully acknowledged. Research assistance was provided by Juratë Varneckienë.
The Present Value of Profits and Cyclical Movements in Investment

Most of the empirical work on investment is based on the existence of a relation between investment and the expected present val of marginal profits.Thus, in this paper we compute such a present value series, under various assumptions about demand and technology and examine its relation to investment.We find that variations in this present value series are, surprisingly,due more to variations in the cost of capital than to variations in marginal profit. We also find that the present value series, although significantly related to investment, still leaves unexplained a large, serially correlated fraction of investment.
Introduction to the non-asymptotic analysis of random matrices

This is a tutorial on some basic non-asymptotic methods and concepts in random matrix theory. The reader will learn several tools for the analysis of the extreme singular values of random matrices with independent rows or columns. Many of these methods sprung off from the development of geometric functional analysis since the 1970's. They have applications in several fields, most notably in theoretical computer science, statistics and signal processing. A few basic applications are covered in this text, particularly for the problem of estimating covariance matrices in statistics and for validating probabilistic constructions of measurement matrices in compressed sensing. These notes are written particularly for graduate students and beginning researchers in different areas, including functional analysts, probabilists, theoretical statisticians, electrical engineers, and theoretical computer scientists.
Efficacy and Safety of Autologous Platelet-Rich Plasma Gel in the Treatment of Chronic Skin Ulcerations

Background: Chronic wounds, which are persistent disruptions in skin integrity, represent a significant global health challenge. Various types of ulcers, including venous, arterial, diabetic, pressure, and traumatic ulcers, contribute to personal, professional, and societal burdens. Autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has emerged as a promising therapeutic option by leveraging the growth factors in platelets for tissue regeneration. Methods: This prospective study, conducted from December 2021 to December 2023, enrolled 10 patients with chronic ulcers. The PRP gel was prepared through a systematic process that included blood collection, centrifugation, and activation. Results: The study included 8 males and 2 females, with an average age of 48.8 years. Ulcer etiologies encompassed diabetic foot ulcers, arterial ulcers, and venous ulcers, among others. The initial average surface area of the ulcers was 18.7 cm2. Complete healing was observed in a case of Buerger's disease, while very good healing was achieved in one diabetic foot ulcer, one venous ulcer, and another case of Buerger's disease. Moderate healing was noted in five cases of arterial ulcers, and poor healing was observed in one case of prolidase deficiency. The average surface area post-treatment for all patients was reduced to 8.05 cm2, with no reported pain or adverse effects. Conclusions: Platelet-rich plasma gel emerges as a promising alternative to traditional treatments, potentially lessening the overall impact on healthcare resources and enhancing the quality of life for individuals with chronic ulcers.
The cytoplasmic peptidoglycan precursor of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis terminates in lactate

Vancomycin resistance plasmids in enterococci carry the genes vanH and vanA, which encode enzymes catalyzing, respectively, the reduction of 2-keto acids to 2-D-hydroxy acids and the addition of D-hydroxy acids to D-alanine. It has therefore been postulated that resistant cells produce peptidoglycan precursors that terminate in the depsipeptide D-alanine-2-D-hydroxy acid rather than the dipeptide D-alanine-D-alanine, thus preventing vancomycin binding (M. Arthur, C. Molinas, T. D. H. Bugg, G. D. Wright, C. T. Walsh, and P. Courvalin, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 36:867-869, 1992). In the present work, a cytoplasmic peptidoglycan precursor was isolated from vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis and analyzed by mass spectrometry, which suggested the structure UDP-N-acetyl-muramyl-L-Ala-D-Glu-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-lactate.
Integrated failure model for analog circuit simulation based on Saber platform

A new failure model based on Saber platform is proposed to simulate familiar failure mode of analog circuit, such as open-circuit and short-circuit mode. With this new model, it becomes much easier and more convenient to carry out fault injection and failure simulation in analog circuit simulation. By using a representative case, it is validated that the integrated fault model is correct and the injection of this fault model is feasible.
Modeling Freeway Traffic with Coupled HMMs

We consider the problem of modeling loop detector data colle ted from freeways. The data, which is a vector time-series, contains the peed of vehicles, averaged over a 30 second sampling window, at a num ber of sites along the freeway. We assume the measured speed at each loc tion is generated from a hidden discrete variable, which represe nts the underlying state (e.g., congested or free-flowing) of the traffic a t th t point in space and time. We further assume that the hidden variables o n y depend on their spatial-temporal neighbors. Such a model is called a coupled hidden Markov model (CHMM). We can fit the parameters of this m odel using EM. However, since exact inference is intractable, we consider two different approximation schemes: one based on a sequential Monte Carlo technique (particle filtering), and the other based on the Bo yen-Koller (BK) algorithm. We show that both algorithms perform well, c ompared to exact inference, and that the resulting learned model cap tures many important features of the data. Such a macroscopic model cou ld prove useful for fault diagnosis, and in predicting future traffic patterns, particularly in response to causal interventions.
Quantum Lambda Calculi with Classical Control: Syntax and Expressive Power

We study an untyped lambda calculus with quantum data and classical control. This work stems from previous proposals by Selinger and Valiron and by Van Tonder. We focus on syntax and expressiveness, rather than (denotational) semantics. We prove subject reduction, confluence and a standardization theorem. Moreover, we prove the computational equivalence of the proposed calculus with a suitable class of quantum circuit families.
Differences in Orofacial Muscle Strength According to Age and Sex in East Asian Healthy Adults

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to identify differences in orofacial muscle strength according to age and sex in healthy East Asian adults. DesignA total of 382 subjects participated in this study (age range, 20–93 yrs). They were divided into two groups according to sex (male, n = 192; female, n = 190). The two groups were further divided on the basis of age into young (20–39 yrs), middle-aged (40–59 yrs), old (60–79 yrs), and very old (>80 yrs) groups. Assessments were performed using the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument. Measures included the anterior tongue elevation pressure, posterior tongue elevation pressure, buccodental pressure, and lip pressure. ResultsAll measures were higher in the male than in the female subjects (P < 0.001). The male subjects showed noticeably lower tongue strength in the old and very old groups relative to the young and middle-aged groups (P < 0.01); the female subjects showed a similar result in the very old group as compared with all younger groups. ConclusionsSignificant age-related differences in orofacial muscle strength were observed mainly of the tongue musculature. The male subjects had significantly lower tongue strength in the seventh decade or older as compared with the younger individuals, whereas in the female subjects, a similar result was noted, although tongue strength was not significantly lower until the ninth decade.