Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Presence of Suppressor HIV-Specific CD8+ T Cells Is Associated with Increased PD-1 Expression on Effector CD8+ T Cells1

Mechanisms leading to the observed immune dysregulation in HIV-1 infection are not well understood. HIV-specific IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells are increased in advanced HIV disease. We have previously reported that Gag-specific IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells suppressed cytolysis. In this study we describe the suppressive effect of Nef-specific IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, simultaneous removal of both Gag- and Nef-specific IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells led to higher HIV-specific cytolysis compared with the removal of Nef-specific IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells alone. We also examined the level of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) as a measure of immune dysfunction in association with IL-10-positive suppressor CD8+ T cells. The level of PD-1 expression on CD107-positive effector CD8+ T cells was significantly increased when IL-10-positive suppressor CD8+ T cells were present (p < 0.05). Our results suggest that IL-10-positive suppressor CD8+ T cells contribute to the immune dysfunction observed in advanced HIV infection and that the concomitant presence of multiple IL-10-positive CD8+ T cell populations may have an additive suppressive effect.
Application independent greedy particle tracking method for 3D fluorescence microscopy image series

Single-particle tracking is computationally a challenging problem, and usually solved with local methods. Local methods suffer from defects in the image data or in the detection of particles, such as temporal disappearing of particles. A particle tracking method has to provide a solution also to real disappearing and appearing of particles as a result of merging and splitting. Here, we present an efficient, greedy algorithm as a solution to the particle tracking problem. This improved local method is application independent, as it has high configurability of the function used to solve particle correspondence. To demonstrate the accuracy of the method, we apply it to real microscopy image data with the BioImageXD software, validate it using simulated image data, and compare it to a well-known existing method.
Transcriptional profiling of host responses in mouse lungs following aerosol infection with type A Francisella tularensis.

Tularaemia caused by inhalation of type A Francisella tularensis bacteria is one of the most aggressive infectious diseases known, but the reasons for the very rapid spread of the organism from the lungs to internal organs and the ensuing mortality are unknown. The present study used the mouse model to examine in detail the host immune response in the lung. After an aerosol challenge with 20 c.f. u. of the type A strain FSC033, all mice developed clinical signs of severe disease, showed weight loss by day 4 of infection and died the next day. Histopathological findings in the lung revealed acute inflammation and intense vasculitis and perivasculitis on day 4. Gene transcriptional changes in the mouse lung samples were examined on days 1, 2 and 4 of infection using a cDNA microarray with 20,600 mouse clones representing 18,500 genes. In total, 424 genes were found to be differentially expressed, some of which were both up- and downregulated at different time points, 192 of which were upregulated and 234 of which were downregulated for at least one time point. A high percentage of selected genes identified by the microarray analysis were confirmed to be differentially regulated by quantitative real-time PCR. Categorization of the differentially expressed genes showed that those preferentially involved in host immune responses were activated extensively on day 4 but hardly or not at all on days 1 and 2. Further analysis revealed that several of the genes upregulated on day 4 are known to depend on gamma interferon or tumour necrosis factor alpha for their regulation. In keeping with this finding, tumour necrosis factor alpha and gamma interferon levels were found to be increased significantly in bronchoalveolar lavage on day 4.
Developing a chair side, safe and non-invasive procedure for assessment of blood glucose level using gingival crevicular bleeding in dental clinics

Aim: To study the accessibility of chair side blood glucose non-invasive screening method for diabetes mellitus during routine periodontal examination. Materials and Methods: Fifteen non-diabetics and 15 newly onset type 2 diabetics patients with moderate to severe periodontitis were selected after meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria. Periodontal pocket probing was performed using a Williams Graduated periodontal probe. Blood oozing from gingival sulcus of anterior teeth following periodontal pocket probing was collected with stick of a glucose self-monitoring device. As control, finger stick capillary blood was taken. Results: A statistically significant correlation was observed between the blood glucose level of gingival crevicular blood (GCB) and peripheral fasting blood (PFB) of diabetic subjects. The mean GCB glucose level of the subjects in diabetic group was 172.27 ± 5.02 mg/dl while mean PFB glucose was 167.80 ± 8.87 mg/dl. The correlation coefficient of diabetic and non-diabetic subjects were r = +0.715 and r = +0.619, respectively. Conclusion: The results suggested that blood oozing during routine periodontal examination may be used for diabetic mellitus screening in a dental office setting without the need for any extra procedure.
Consumption, wealth and credit liberalisation in Australia

A stable, long run consumption equation is estimated for Australia using quarterly data from 1977(2) to 2008(2). The model incorporates non-property income, income expectations, uncertainty, disaggregated household wealth, demography and, importantly, a relaxation in household credit conditions attributable to financial liberalisation and innovation (FLIB). Over 1977-2008, the log consumption to income ratio rose by around 14 percentage points. The relaxation of households' downpayment and collateral constraints together boosted the log consumption to income ratio by about 31 percentage points, given the rise in house prices. However, this was offset by around -24 percentage points because of increased indebtedness and -6 percentage points due to higher real interest rates. The remaining rise in the log consumption to income ratio is then attributed to rising optimism in household income expectations, rising illiquid financial wealth, to demographic changes and to short term factors. The indirect effects of FLIB in the model are powerful. Prior to FLIB, intertemporal consumption smoothing is difficult and housing capital gains are inaccessible: there is no "classical" housing wealth effect. Once credit markets are liberalised in the early 1980s however, there is a significant role for variable real interest rates, income expectations and housing collateral as determinants in the long run consumption equation. The estimated long run marginal propensities to consume are around 0.06 for housing assets (post-FLIB), 0.01 for illiquid financial assets and 0.20 for net liquid assets.
Effects of the ERES Pathogenicity Region Regulator Ralp3 on Streptococcus pyogenes Serotype M49 Virulence Factor Expression

ABSTRACT Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus [GAS]) is a highly virulent Gram-positive bacterium. For successful infection, GAS expresses many virulence factors, which are clustered together with transcriptional regulators in distinct genomic regions. Ralp3 is a central regulator of the ERES region. In this study, we investigated the role of Ralp3 in GAS M49 pathogenesis. The inactivation of Ralp3 resulted in reduced attachment to and internalization into human keratinocytes. The Δralp3 mutant failed to survive in human blood and serum, and the hyaluronic acid capsule was slightly decreased. In addition, the mutant showed a lower binding capacity to human plasminogen, and the SpeB activity was significantly decreased. Complementation of the Δralp3 mutant restored the wild-type phenotype. The transcriptome and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR analysis of the serotype M49 GAS strain and its isogenic Δralp3 mutant identified 16 genes as upregulated, and 43 genes were found to be downregulated. Among the downregulated genes, there were open reading frames encoding proteins involved in metabolism (e.g., both lac operons and the fru operon), genes encoding lantibiotics (e.g., the putative salivaricin operon), and ORFs encoding virulence factors (such as the whole Mga core regulon and further genes under Mga control). In summary, the ERES region regulator Ralp3 is an important serotype-specific transcriptional regulator for virulence and metabolic control.
Image Congruence and Relationship Quality in Predicting Switching Intention

The present study (a) examined the effect of image congruence on dimensions of relationship quality (satisfaction and trust) and switching intention, (b) investigated the mediating effect of relationship quality components, and (c) tested the moderating impact of the conspicuousness of product use on the links among these variables. A survey was conducted at luxury restaurants in a metropolitan city. Overall fit of the proposed model and research hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling and a series of modeling tests for metric invariance. The results showed that social and ideal social image congruencies had a critical role in explaining relationship quality and switching intention; relationship quality components significantly mediated the influence of image-congruence factors on intention; and conspicuousness of product use was found to affect the image-congruence components (satisfaction links), the social image congruence (trust link), and the trust (switching intention link). The findings emphasize the significance of study variables in decreasing restaurant customers’ intention to switch.
Randomized trial of salbutamol via metered‐dose inhaler with spacer versus nebulizer for acute wheezing in children less than 2 years of age

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of salbutamol delivered via a metered‐dose inhaler with a spacer and facial mask (MDI‐S) vs. a nebulizer (NEB) for the treatment of acute exacerbations of wheezing in children. In a single‐blind, prospective, randomized clinical trial, 123 outpatients (1–24 months of age), presenting with “moderate to severe” wheezing, were seen in the emergency department. Children were randomly assigned to one of two salbutamol treatment groups. In the first hour, the MDI‐S group received 2 puffs (100 μg/puff) every 10 min for 5 doses, and the NEB group received 0.25 mg/kg every 13 min for 3 doses. If the clinical score was >5 at the end of the first hour, the patients received another hour of the same treatment and also betamethasone (0.5 mg/kg intramuscular). On enrollment and after the first and the second hour of treatment each child had a validated clinical score assigned by a blinded investigator.
National and sectoral factors in wage formation in Central and Eastern Europe 1

The paper investigates the formation of wages in the New Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular the question what the relative role of national and sectoral factors is. While the labor relations in these countries are still in the process of change, some pattern and national differences have emerged. The question is thus to what extent these differences in labor relations are reflected in wage formation. The literature on Western OECD economies is unanimous that coordination of wage bargaining does reduce the wage spread, but disagrees on its effects on unemployment and inflation. The paper analyses wage formation in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania by means of a panel analysis for manufacturing sectors. The average wage (in the total economy) serves as a national factor and sectoral productivity serves as a sectoral factor. In variations of the basic estimation equation the role of FDI and openness and of capital intensity and skill are also discussed. The results between countries are compared with the recent index of the coordination of collective bargaining by Visser (2005) and with cross country data on union density.
A Risk-based Input–Output Methodology for Measuring the Effects of the August 2003 Northeast Blackout

The 2003 Northeast Blackout revealed vulnerabilities within the US electric power-grid system. With the economy so dependent on electric power for most aspects of life, a power-grid failure can have far-reaching higher-order effects and can impair the operability of other critical infrastructures. An inoperability of the power sector can result from different types of disasters (e.g., accidents, natural catastrophe, or willful attacks). This paper demonstrates the Inoperability Input-Output Model (IIM) to measure the financial and inoperability effects of the Northeast Blackout. The case study uses information from sources such as the US input–output tables and sector-specific reports to quantify losses for specific inoperability levels. The IIM estimated losses of the same magnitude as other published reports; however, with a detailed accounting of all affected economic sectors. Finally, a risk management framework is proposed to extend the IIM's capability for evaluating investment options in terms of their implementation costs and loss-reduction potentials.
Calving event detection by observation of seiche effects on the Greenland fjords

Abstract With mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet accelerating and spreading to higher latitudes, the quantification of mass discharge in the form of icebergs has recently received much scientific attention. Here we make use of very low-frequency (0.001–0.01 Hz) seismic data from three permanent broadband stations installed in the summers of 2009–10 in northwest Greenland in order to monitor local calving activity. At these frequencies, calving seismograms are dominated by a tilt signal produced by local ground flexure in response to fjord seiching generated by major iceberg calving events. A simple triggering algorithm is proposed to detect calving events from large calving fronts with potentially no user interaction. Our calving catalogue identifies spatial and temporal differences in calving activity between Jakobshavn Isbræ and glaciers in the Uummannaq district ∼200 km to the north. The Uummannaq glaciers show clear seasonal fluctuations in seiche-based calving detections as well as seiche amplitudes. In contrast, the detections at Jakobshavn Isbræ show little seasonal variation, which may be evidence for an ongoing transition to winter calving activity. The results offer further evidence that seismometers can provide efficient and inexpensive monitoring of calving fronts.
Finance, investment and growth: nonlinear time series evidence from 10 Asian economies

This article employs financial development as the threshold variable to construct a threshold model and to re-examine the findings in Rousseau and Vuthipadadorn (2005) for 10 Asian economies. Our results show that in the high financial development regime, financial development could fuel economic growth, which is consistent with the conclusion in Rousseau and Vuthipadadorn (2005); however, there is no evidence shows that financial development could affect investment. In the low financial development regime, financial development has negative influence on investment growth, which is contradictory to the findings in Rousseau and Vuthipadadorn (2005); as to the relation between financial development and economic growth, the causality could not be supported by the data.
How does market value earnings smoothing under uncertainty?

Evidence on whether smoothing earnings creates value remains inconclusive. This article examines the role of market uncertainty in the relationship between corporate earnings smoothing and stock returns. We find that firms with smoother earnings are viewed favourably by stockholders. However, taking into consideration the uncertainty factor, we find that market uncertainty has negative impact on the stock returns when managers smooth earnings. The results are robust to alternative measures of earnings smoothing and to subsample analyses. The results also provide supportive evidence on the importance of market uncertainty in information processing.
Imitation and Long Run Outcomes

In a number of evolutionary models the presence of mutations, or random components of choice, serve to refine predictions of long-run behavior. We analyze the effects of mutation rates that vary because of the presence of imitation. A full characterization of long-run outcomes is provided for familiar coordination and congestion games, and also a number of other games not previously considered within the evolutionary framework. Our results are often quite distinct from those in the literature. We apply these tools to a series of economic applications, including market games, where imitation can explain excess volatility of prices, and location games, where it leads to greater uniformity in choices.
Drosophila melanogaster as a Model for Study of General Anesthesia: The Quantitative Response to Clinical Anesthetics and Alkanes

Using an assay of the geotactic behavior of the fruit fly, we have quantified anesthetic effects in Drosophila melanogaster. We determined dose-responses for nine conventional anesthetics and a series of n-alkanes. For the conventional anesthetics, anesthetic potency and olive oil/gas partition coefficients are well correlated. However, as one ascends the series of alkanes of chain lengths 5–11, the increase in anesthetic potency is considerably less than that predicted by olive oil solubility. These examples of agreement and disagreement with the Meyer-Overton rule provide a basis for comparing the responses of fruit flies with those of higher organisms; such comparisons suggest that the anesthetic target is evolutionarily conserved. For alkanes with chain lengths greater than 11, anesthetic effects are variable and slow to develop. This behavior reflects limited volatility and provides no evidence for a cut-off in the action of alkanes at their target.
Decentralized meta-brokers for inter-cloud: Modeling brokering coordinators for interoperable resource management

The management of internal resources in large-scale environments is a crucial challenge due to the large number of users and service requests. In clouds, an efficient resource manager orchestrates internal resources by assigning brokers to users for acting on behalf of their clients. This is to map user requests to cloud datacenters for service allocation and execution. However, as cloud computing matures, it is crucial to enable the concept of inter-clouds, that is to say, enabling the collaboration and thus, the interoperation between several disperse (and highly likely heterogeneous) clouds. To this extend, we introduce the meta-broker concept for inter-cloud settings by modeling its conception in a total decentralized fashion. This is to coordinate different clouds brokers for establishing a reactive cross-exchange and service automation while offering transparency to users. We simulate an inter-cloud for measuring the performance of the average execution time for various users that submit concurrently a massive amount of services. The results show effective performance levels when operating under meta-brokering solution.
How Important Are Wealth Effects on China's Consumer Spending?

This paper investigates the impact of disposable income and assets on consumer spending trends in China. By employing the vector error correction model on the national quarterly data, we demonstrate that the wealth effects arising from asset value changes are remarkable. There is only one long-run cointegrating relationship among income, consumption, and assets. The long-run consumption elasticity of assets is found to be around 0.51. In addition, evidence shows that assets will restore the equilibrium relationship in the long run when the system is disturbed by external shock. Variance decomposition analysis indicates that assets render a more lasting pronounced impact than income on consumption variations in China.
CHRONOMETRY OF VISUAL WORD RECOGNITION DURING PASSIVE AND LEXICAL DECISION TASKS: AN ERP INVESTIGATION

In order to investigate the neuroanatomical chronometry of word processing, two experiments using: Event Related Potentials (ERPs) have been performed. The first one was designed to test the effects of orthographic, phonologic, and lexical properties of linguistic items on the presemantic components of ERPs during a passive reading task and massive repetition used to reduce familiarity effect between words and nonwords. In a second study, the level of familiarity was investigated by varying stimulus repetition and frequency in a lexical decision task. Overall results suggest a functional discrimination between orthographic and nonorthographic stimuli begun as early as 170 ms (N170 component) whereas the next components (N230 and N320) were sensitive to the orthographic nature of the stimuli, but also to their lexical/phonologic proprieties. The N320 associated to phonological processing (Bentin et al., 1999) was modulated by word frequency and massive repetition caused its disappearance. This suggests that this component may reflect a nonobligatory phonologic stage of graphemephoneme conversion postulated by the DRC model (Coltheart et al., 2001) or semantic phonologically mediated pathway (Harm and Seidenberg, in press).
The Trade Imbalance between the United States and China: The Role of Exchange Rate and Trade Liberalization

The pattern of trade between the United States and China has dramatically changed during the past 15 years. Until 1992, the commodity trade volume between the two countries was around $10 billion per year, but it grew to $60 billion in 1999. Because China has kept its currency (yuan or renminbi) pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1994, its current large trade surplus with the United States has led some critics to claim that the yuan is undervalued. The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of the U.S.-China bilateral exchange rate on the pattern of trade between the two countries after controlling for alternative factors influencing U.S.-Chinese bilateral trade flows. The results suggested that the U.S-China bilateral exchange rate does not have an important role in explaining bilateral trade between the two countries, while the relative exchange rate between the United States and the South-East Asian countries are more important in explaining the trade imbalance between the United States and China.