Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytokine-Mediated Tissue Injury in Non-human Primate Models of Viral Infections

Viral infections trigger robust secretion of interferons and other antiviral cytokines by infected and bystander cells, which in turn can tune the immune response and may lead to viral clearance or immune suppression. However, aberrant or unrestricted cytokine responses can damage host tissues, leading to organ dysfunction, and even death. To understand the cytokine milieu and immune responses in infected host tissues, non-human primate (NHP) models have emerged as important tools. NHP have been used for decades to study human infections and have played significant roles in the development of vaccines, drug therapies and other immune treatment modalities, aided by an ability to control disease parameters, and unrestricted tissue access. In addition to the genetic and physiological similarities with humans, NHP have conserved immunologic properties with over 90% amino acid similarity for most cytokines. For example, human-like symptomology and acute respiratory syndrome is found in cynomolgus macaques infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, antibody enhanced dengue disease is common in neotropical primates, and in NHP models of viral hepatitis cytokine-induced inflammation induces severe liver damage, fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma recapitulates human disease. To regulate inflammation, anti-cytokine therapy studies in NHP are underway and will provide important insights for future human interventions. This review will provide a comprehensive outline of the cytokine-mediated exacerbation of disease and tissue damage in NHP models of viral infections and therapeutic strategies that can aid in prevention/treatment of the disease syndromes.
Iron Age Mediterranean Chronology: A Reply

This article is a reply to the preceding rejoinder by Fantalkin et al., which they wrote in response to our article concerning radiocarbon dates of Iron Age sites in the Mediterranean region measured at Groningen (van der Plicht et al. 2009). We do not agree with much of their criticism. Our reply is presented in detail with new viewpoints and evaluations concerning a number of sites in the Levant, including Tel Dan, Megiddo Stratum VIA (= K/4), Horvat Haluqim, Tell el-Qudeirat, Khirbet en-Nahas, Tel Rehov, as well as sites in the central and western Mediterranean region, particularly Carthage and Huelva. Our main conclusions are that 14C dating supports an Iron Age High Chronology for the above sites, though more 14C dating is required, particularly in Greece and the central and western Mediterranean region, to substantiate and refine the current state of knowledge. We prefer detailed investigations per individual site, evaluating both 14C dates and site stratigraphy, rather than the wholesale averaging of strata over many sites, which may lead to oversimplification and erroneous results, also on stratigraphic grounds. Contrary to Fantalkin et al. (2011), we emphasize the importance of 14C dating as an independent methodology—chronostratigraphy—to evaluate site stratigraphy. The 14C dates of Megiddo Stratum VIA (=K/4) clearly indicate field-stratigraphic problems at this site.
Initial Results of Simulation of a Damping System for Electron Cloud-Driven Instabilities in the CERN SPS

Single and multi-bunch instabilities on bunch trains driven by electron clouds have been observed in the CERN SPS for some years. In this paper, we present initial results to implement a damping system in a computer simulation of a single bunch vertical instability using the HEADTAIL code. The code simulates the interaction between a proton bunch and a uniform electron cloud that has built up inside of the beam pipe. The feedback is implemented as a corrective kick calculated from the vertical centroid of each slice of the proton bunch with a one turn delay. The bandwidth of the feedback is varied by filtering the slice information along the bunch. Initial results indicate that the instability can be damped with a minimum bandwidth of 300 MHz with a relatively high gain.
Do Labour Taxes (and Their Composition) Affect Wages in the Short and the Long Run?

Measures aimed at reducing the tax burden on labour have been advocated to alleviate the EU unemployment problem. Most of the analyses document a relationship between the unemployment rate and the tax burden on labour. Hence, it is not possible to discern whether the effect on unemployment derives from labour demand, labour supply or trough the wage formation mechanism. Moreover, the empirical analyses are usually static, and may be indicative of the steady-state determinants of the unemployment rate and do not reveal the features of the adjustment process. This paper studies the relationship between labour taxes and labour costs by modelling the wage formation mechanism in a dynamic context. We test if the composition of labour taxes affects labour costs in the short- and in the long-run and whether highly centralised bargaining systems have better employment performance than decentralised ones. We apply static and dynamic panel data techniques to a panel of EU countries.
A NEW, LOW BRAKING INDEX FOR THE LMC PULSAR B0540–69

We report the results of a 16 month monitoring campaign using the Swift satellite of PSR B0540–69, a young pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Phase connection was maintained throughout the campaign so that a reliable ephemeris could be determined, and the length of the campaign is adequate to accurately determine the spin frequency ν and its first and second derivatives. The braking index n is 0.031 ± 0.013 (90% confidence), a value much lower than previously reported for B0540–69 and almost all other young pulsars. We use data from the extensive monitoring campaign with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer to show that timing noise is unlikely to significantly affect the measurement. This is the first measurement of the braking index in the pulsar's recently discovered high spin-down state. We discuss possible mechanisms for producing the low braking index.
Health Effects of Containing Moral Hazard: Evidence from Disability Insurance Reform

We exploit an age discontinuity in a Dutch disability insurance (DI) reform to identify the health impact of stricter eligibility criteria and reduced generosity. Women subject to the more stringent rule experience greater rates of hospitalization and mortality. A €1,000 reduction in annual benefits leads to a rise of 4.2 percentage points in the probability of being hospitalized and a 2.6 percentage point higher probability of death more than 10 years after the reform. There are no effects on the hospitalization of men subject to stricter rules but their mortality rate is reduced by 1.2 percentage points. The negative health effect on females is restricted to women with low pre-disability earnings. We hypothesize that the gender difference in the effect is due to the reform tightening eligibility particularly with respect to mental health conditions, which are more prevalent among female DI claimants. A simple back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that every dollar reduction in DI is almost completely offset by additional health care costs. This implies that policy makers considering a DI reform should carefully balance the welfare gains from reduced moral hazard against losses not only from less coverage of income risks but also from deteriorated health.
he efficacy of three formulations of Lippia sidoides Cham . essential oil n the reduction of salivary Streptococcus mutans in children with aries : A randomized , double-blind , controlled study atrícia

Essential oils of many plants have been previously tested in the treatment of oral diseases and other infections. This study was a randomized, double-blind, in parallel with an active control study, which aimed to evaluate the efficacy of three formulations of the Lippia sidoides Cham. essential oil (LSO) in the reduction of salivary Streptococcus mutans in children with caries. 81 volunteers, aged 6–12 years, both genders, with caries, were recruited to participate in this study, and randomly assigned to either one of five different groups. Each group received topical treatment with either 1.4% LSO toothpaste, 1.4% LSO gel, 0.8% LSO mouthwash, 1% chlorhexidine gel, or 0.12% chlorhexidine mouthwash. A 5-ml volume of each gel was placed inside disposable trays, and applied for 1 min, every 24 h, for 5 consecutive days. The mouthwash groups used 5-ml volume of a mouthwash inside disposable syringes. In the toothpaste group, children brushed their teeth for 1 min, once a day for 5 days. Saliva was collected before and after treatment. MS colonies were counted, isolated and confirmed through biochemical tests. Differences in MS levels measured in different days within the same treatment group was only verified with LSO toothpaste, chlorhexidine gel and chlorhexidine mouthwash. Comparison between groups of LSO mouthwash, toothpaste and gel showed that the toothpaste group expressed significantly lower MS levels than the mouthwash and gel groups at day-30. Chlorhexidine significantly reduced MS levels after 5 days of treatment, but these levels returned to baseline in other periods of the study. LSO toothpaste reduced MS levels after 5 days of treatment, and MS levels remained low and did not return to baseline during subsequent analysis. Hence, LSO toothpaste demonstrated the most long-lasting MS reduction in saliva, whereas other LSO formulations did not effectively reduce MS levels in children with dental caries. © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author at: Unidade de Pesquisas Clınicas, Universidade Federal o Ceará, Laboratório de Farmacologia Metabolica e Fisiologia Celular, Avenida José astos 3390, Sala 106, Caixa Postal 3229, CEP 60.436-160, Fortaleza-Ce, Brazil. Tel. : 55 85 33668232; fax: +55 85 33668232. E-mail address: cfontele@ufc.br (C.S.R. Fonteles). ttp://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.phymed. 2014.04. 021 944-7113/© 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Introduction The rise of herbal medicine has stirred interest in the effects of plant extracts for the control of plaque and other oral diseases (Buffon et al. 2001). Plaque is considered a primary factor in dental caries, thus justifying the use of measures for its control. Dental caries can progress rapidly resulting in mass destruction of primary dentition, compromising oral function and the child’s wellbeing (Den Besten and Berkowitz 2003). Since early contamination with mutans streptococci (MS) is a major issue in this population
Structural change and climate policy in developing countries

Most analyses of the cost of carbon policy for developing countries omit the potential impact of structural change; that is, the transition from industry to services as an economy develops. This may be important because services are much less carbon intensive than industry. I use a 2-sector nonbalanced growth model to study the impact of structural change on carbon intensity. To validate the model, I calibrate it to the U.S. in 1951 and show that the model roughly matches the growth of the service sector and the decrease in energy intensity for the rst 30 years. I then calibrate the
Residual Balancing Weights for Marginal Structural Models: with Application to Analyses of Time-varying Treatments and Causal Mediation

Treatment-induced confounding arises in analyses of time-varying treatments and also causal mediation where post-treatment variables affect both the mediator and outcome. In such settings, researchers often use marginal structural models (MSMs) with inverse probability weighting (IPW). However, IPW requires models for the conditional distributions of exposure to treatment and/or a mediator and is highly sensitive to their misspecification. Moreover, IPW is relatively inefficient, susceptible to finite-sample bias, and difficult to use with continuous exposures. We introduce an alternative method of constructing weights for MSMs, which we call "residual balancing. " In contrast to IPW, it requires modeling the conditional means of the treatment-induced confounders rather than the conditional distributions of exposure to treatment and/or a mediator, and it is therefore easier to use with continuous exposures. Using numeric simulations, we show that residual balancing is both more efficient and more robust to model misspecification compared with IPW and its variants. We illustrate the method by estimating (a) the cumulative effect of negative advertising on election outcomes and (b) the controlled direct effect of exposure to an impoverished neighborhood on child academic achievement while controlling for classroom size in a child's school. Open source software is available for implementing the proposed method.
Empathy, Guilt-Aversion and Patterns of Reciprocity

This paper reports the results of an experiment aimed at investigating the link between empathy, anticipated guilt and pro-social behavior. In particular we test the hypothesis that empathy modulates the anticipatory effect of guilt in bargaining situations and, more specifically, that it correlates with subjects' willingness to give and to repay trust in an investment game. We also control for the effect of individual risk attitude. Our main results show that empathy significantly influences players' pattern of restitution in the investment game and that risk-propensity weakly affects the decision to trust; we also find a significant gender difference in the distribution of empathy. These results seem to indicate that empathy affects pro-social behavior in a more complex way than previously hypothesized by existing models of social preferences.
The Relationship of Social Engagement to Psychological Well-Being of Older Adults in Assisted Living Facilities

The purpose of this study is to explore social engagement and its relationship to the psychological well-being of older adults residing in assisted living facilities (ALFs). Drawing on activity theory, the study focuses on the salience of social relationships on residents' life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. A total of 82 residents were interviewed face-to-face in eight ALFs in a southern state of the United States. The data were analyzed using hierarchical regression models in that demographic and health variables, site characteristics, and social engagement variables were entered into the model in successive steps. Results indicate that perceived friendliness of residents and staff was significantly associated with life satisfaction and depressive symptoms controlling for other variables, and enjoyment of mealtimes was related to low depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that ALFs could promote residents' psychological well-being by encouraging residents to develop meaningful relationships within the facility and by designing enjoyable mealtimes.
Spatio-Temporal Laban Features for Dance Style Recognition

This work targets Dance Style Recognition in videos as an application of Human Action Recognition. We propose a novel Spatio-Temporal Laban Feature descriptor (STLF) for dance style recognition based on Laban theory. Laban Movement Analysis has become increasingly popular as a language to describe, index and record human motion. We only exploit motion features and body-pose information without encoding the appearance. The model is tested on some action recognition benchmarks and ICD, a challenging dataset of YouTube dance videos. Unlike other works, where Laban based features have been used in constrained environments, with static camera, sensors and no background noise, we employ STLF on videos in unconstrained and natural settings. It is robust to camera jitter, zoom variations and other acquisition conditions and is computationally cheap. It performs comparable or better than the state-of-the-art.
A survey on relationship among consumer personal characteristics, brand personality and brand love

Article history: Received January 5, 2016 Received in revised format June 15, 2016 Accepted July 10, 2016 Available online July 11, 2016 Consumer’s personality traits, as one of the most important aspects of human psychological tendency, may influence people towards different brands. Therefore, the owners of most wellknown brands also try to learn more about people’s personal characteristics to gain more market shares. The purpose of this paper is to find out more about consumer personality, which creates motivation in consumer’s mind and to learn more about the effect of this image on consumer’s interest on purchasing products. The population of this survey includes all people in city of Tehran, Iran who own one of Apple’s products. The results of the survey have indicated that neuroticism, extroversion, openness, compatibility, loyalty and brand love, as the main characteristics of brand personality, maintained positive impacts on brand love. © 2016 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Patient Safety Culture and Application of Medication Safety Rules as Perceived by Nurses

Background: Patient safety is one of the biggest challenges in health care through providing safe, effective care, and one of the most significant areas of opportunity for improvement is medication safety, which is a top priority for patient harm prevention from medication errors. Aim: To assess nurses’ perceptions concerning patient safety culture and the applicability of medication safety rules. Design: A descriptive correlational design was utilized. Settings: Six hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health from three governorates in Egypt. Participants: A sample of 421 nurses was chosen from the selected hospitals to participate in a structured questionnaire dealing with twelve dimensions to determine the level of nurses’ awareness and their perceptions of patient safety culture, and the application of medication safety rules was measured by 99 questions under thirteen dimensions to collect the study data. The results revealed that only 26.13% of studied nurses indicated a high perception of overall patient safety culture, although 77.90% reported no adverse events during the last six months. Furthermore, 76.72% reported that they applied overall medication rules to prevent errors. Based on the study findings, it is recommended to develop strategies to disseminate patient safety culture and reduce punitive culture in health organizations, creating a climate of open communication and continuous learning. The development and optimizing of data collection and reporting systems and evidence-based programs for improving culture of patient safety in hospitals is necessary, and nurses must be encouraged to learn more about incident reports and how to write medication administration error reports.
Does participative management produce satisfied employees? Evidence from the automotive industry

The effect of participative management on job satisfaction was examined in an automotive sales company in Macedonia. The information was collected from 150 employees. Three components of participatory management was analyzed in the research (1) participatory management style (2) participatory strategic planning process and (3) effective supervisory communication. Results showed that there was a positive relationship between all three components of participatory management and job satisfaction. The relationship between participatory management and job satisfaction was analyzed using statistical methods to determine the correlations and OLS regression model. The study highlights methodological developments in determining the effect of participatory management on job satisfaction in the automotive sales industry. The findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between both and it is therefore important to sustain these factors in order to maintain employees’ motivation.
Serum GDF 15 Levels Correlate to Mitochondrial Disease Severity and Myocardial Strain , but Not to Disease Progression in Adult m . 3243 A > G Carriers

In this observational cohort study, we examined the prognostic value of growth and differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) in indicating and monitoring general mitochondrial disease severity and progression in adult carriers of the m.3243A>G mutation. Ninety-seven adult carriers of the m.3243A>G mutation were included in this study. The Newcastle mitochondrial disease adult scale was used for rating mitochondrial disease severity. In parallel, blood was drawn for GDF15 analysis by ELISA. Forty-nine carriers were included in a follow-up study. In a small subset of subjects of whom an echocardiogram was available from general patient care, myocardial deformation was assessed using two-dimensional speckle-tracking strain analysis. A moderate positive correlation was found between the concentration of GDF15 and disease severity (r 1⁄4 0.59; p < 0.001). The concentration of serum GDF15 was higher in m.3243A>G carriers with diabetes mellitus, cardiomyopathy, and renal abnormalities. After a 2-year follow-up, no significant correlation was found between the change in disease severity and the change in the concentration of GDF15 or between the GDF15 level at the first assessment and the change in disease severity. In the subcohort of patients of whom an echocardiogram was available, the concentration of GDF15 correlated moderately to longitudinal global strain (r 1⁄4 0.55; p 1⁄4 0.006; n 1⁄4 23) but not to circumferential or radial strain. Our results indicate that serum GDF15 is not a strong surrogate marker for general mitochondrial disease severity. Its value in indicating myocardial deformation should be confirmed in a prospective longitudinal study.
Carving language for social coordination: A dynamical approach

Human social coordination is often mediated by language. Through verbal dialogue, people direct each other’s attention to properties of their shared environment, they discuss how to jointly solve problems, share their introspections, and distribute roles and assignments. In this article, we propose a dynamical framework for the study of the coordinative role of language. Based on a review of a number of recent experimental studies, we argue that shared symbolic patterns emerge and stabilize through a process of local reciprocal linguistic alignment. Such patterns in turn come to facilitate and refine social coordination by enabling the alignment, joint construction and navigation of conceptual models and actions. Implications of the framework are illustrated and discussed in relation to a case study where dyads of interlocutors interact verbally to reach joint decisions in a perceptual discrimination task. Keywords: social coordination; language; communication; linguistic alignment; symbolic patterns; affordances; emergence; evolution; adaptivity; interaction
Complex geometry of nuclei and atoms

We propose a new geometrical model of matter, in which neutral atoms are modelled by compact, complex algebraic surfaces. Proton and neutron numbers are determined by a surface’s Chern numbers. Equivalently, they are determined by combinations of the Hodge numbers, or the Betti numbers. Geometrical constraints on algebraic surfaces allow just a finite range of neutron numbers for a given proton number. This range encompasses the known isotopes.
The pedagogy of Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan: A diacognitive analysis

Jesus of Nazareth, like Socrates, left nothing behind written by himself. Yet, the records of his teaching indicate a rich interest in dialogic pedagogy, reflected in his use of the parable, primarily an oral genre, as a dialogic provocation. Working at the interface of pedagogy, theology and philosophy, this article explores the parable of the Good Samaritan from the perspective of dialogic pedagogy. It employs an analytical approach termed diacognition, developed from the notions of dialogue, position and cognition, to analyse the moves within the parable and the teaching situation in which it is located. The article explores how Jesus engages the dialogue of and around the parable to position and reposition his interlocutor, provoking a re-cognition of what it means to love one’s neighbour. It concludes by reflecting on the implications of this analysis for the relation of meaning to knowing and doing.