Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular analysis of neutralizing epitopes on outer surface proteins A and B of Borrelia burgdorferi

The neutralizing epitopes of the major outer surface proteins A and B (OspA and OspB) of Borrelia burgdorferi B31 were investigated by epitope mapping using overlapping synthetic peptides, encompassing full-length OspA and OspB, and antiborrelial monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). OspA MAb N4B12 and OspB MAbs N5G5, W7C2, and P4D1 displayed a complement-independent antiborrelial activity, and complement failed to enhance the antiborrelial activity, as measured by a sensitive colorimetric assay. A combination of N4B12 with N5G5 displayed a higher antiborrelial activity than did the MAbs individually. OspA MAbs B3G11 and L3B5, however, exhibited a significant antiborrelial activity only in the presence of complement. Epitope mapping showed that B3G11 bound to one OspA synthetic peptide with the sequence of amino acids 247 to 256 (QYDSNGTKLE) and produced more than sixfold-higher reactivity than with other sequences, as measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. OspB MAb N5G5 bound to an OspB peptide with the sequence of amino acids 211 to 220 (TLKREIEKDG), yielding at least threefold-higher reactivity than with other sequences. These two peptide sequences were found to contain neutralizing epitopes. Other MAbs had weak binding activities with the synthetic peptides, and their specific epitopes remain to be further analyzed. Thus, this study demonstrated both complement-independent and complement-dependent antiborrelial MAbs and identified the linear epitopes on OspA and OspB capable of inducing neutralizing antibody responses.
The obstacle course to economic independence: labour force participation for people with disabilities in Australia

The 2009 Australian National Disability Strategy Consultation Report (NDSCR) paints a tragic picture of what it is to be disabled in a first world nation in the 21st Century. Despite the Australian Government passing the national Disability Discrimination Act in 1992 designed to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of disability in areas of education, employment, access and law, the legislation has failed to live up to its objective of ensuring 'that persons with disabilities have the same fundamental rights as the rest of the community'. The 2003 Survey of Disability and Aging found that the 20 per cent of Australians classed as disabled had significantly lower levels of education, higher levels of unemployment and the gross personal household income was half that of persons without disability. This report builds on past research into disability and labour force participation, investigates whether there have been any significant improvements in employment outcomes for disabled Australians over the past decade and considers the social and economic implications for policy makers.
[The relationships of Internet addiction, depression, and suicidal ideation in adolescents].

PURPOSE This study was done to identify the state of internet addiction and to investigate the relationships among internet addiction, depression and suicidal ideation in adolescents. METHOD Participants were 1,670 high school students in an urban city. The Internet Addiction Scale was used to measure internet addiction, the DISC-MDD-SQ was used to measure depression, and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-JR was used to measure suicidal ideation. RESULT 38.1% of participants were perceived to be in the early stages of internet addiction and 1.5% reported heavy addiction. Overall the internet addiction scale score was 37.57(+/-12.52). The differences of internet addiction in sample characteristics were found to be significant in rank in class. The differences in DISC-MDD-SQ and IAS scores among the states of internet addiction were statistically significant. The level of internet addiction correlated positively to the level of depression and suicidal ideation. CONCLUSION Based upon these findings, there were significant positive correlations among Internet addiction, depression, and suicidal ideation in adolescents. As schools are often the first line for the identification of potential life-threatening behaviors, nurses, especially school-based health professionals, need to be cognizant of measures and procedures for the assessment of Internet addiction, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Measurement Area and Repeatability of Semiautomated Assessment of Corneal Endothelium in the Topcon Specular Microscope SP-2000P and IMAGEnet System

Purpose: To investigate the repeatability of the semiautomatic assessment of corneal endothelial cells and its association with the measurement area in the Topcon SP-2000P microscope and IMAGEnet system. Methods: Specular microscopic images of 86 healthy subjects were captured and analyzed using the Topcon SP-2000P microscope and IMAGEnet system. The same images were analyzed twice, on separate days, by the same examiner using the built-in measurement tool of the IMAGEnet system. The measurement areas were defined with a frame mounted on a computer screen. Four different-sized measurement areas were chosen for the semiautomatic measurements: box A (5.4 × 13.9 cm2), box B (4 × 10 cm2), box C (4 × 7 cm2), and box D (2 × 5 cm2). Average cell size (ACS), endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variance, and hexagonality were measured. Repeatability was assessed based on the limit of agreement (LOA). Results: The means of ACS, ECD, and hexagonality were not statistically different across 4 measurement areas (analysis of variance, P > 0.05). The mean differences (bias) were modest for ACS (range, −1.9∼3.9 &mgr;m2), ECD (range, −27.2∼14.6 cells per square millimeter), coefficient of variance (range, −0.14∼1.00), and hexagonality (range, −1.3%∼6.8%). Limits of agreement (mean difference ± 1.96× SD) were greater in the measurements with smaller areas: limit of agreement values for ECD were 14.6 ± 99.6, −3.8 ± 101.1, −27.2 ± 179, and −15.8 ± 488 cells per square millimeter for boxes A, B, C, and D, respectively. Similar trends were found in the repeatability of ACS and hexagonality. Conclusions: Repeatability is improved when larger measurement areas are chosen.
Combined use of normal mode and Q-switched ruby lasers in the treatment of congenital melanocytic naevi.

Melanocytic naevi are common and they are often removed for cosmetic purposes. In recent years, both the normal mode ruby laser and the Q-switched ruby laser have been used, either alone or in combination, for the removal of congenital melanocytic naevi. However, their success was restricted to partial lightening and incomplete histological clearance. We report a new approach, with combined use of normal mode and Q-switched ruby lasers, that improves the effectiveness of the laser removal of pigmentation in congenital melanocytic naevi.
The effects of subchronic exposure to ciprofloxacin on zebrafish (Danio rerio).

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the impact of ciprofloxacin in Danio rerio on growth, on the development of histopathological changes in selected organs (gills, kidney, liver), and on the activity of some oxidative stress markers during a 28-day toxicity test. METHODS Juvenile growth tests were performed on D. rerio according to OECD guideline No. 215. Fish at the age of 30 days were exposed for 28 days to a range of concentrations of ciprofloxacin (0.7 μg x L(-1)--environmental concentration, 100, 650, 1100 and 3 000 μg x L(-1)). RESULTS There were no significant differences between the specific growth rates of fish from the test groups and from the control group. Histopathological examination revealed no pathological changes in organs of fish exposed to any ciprofloxacin concentration. The activity of glutathione S-transferase increased at the ciprofloxacin concentrations of 0.7 and 100 μg x L(-1) compared to the control. A significant decrease in glutathione reductase activity was obtained in fish exposed to ciprofloxacin at 1100 and 3000 μg x L(-1); a significant decrease in glutathione peroxidase activity was also found, but at all tested concentrations except for 100 μg x L(-1). A decrease in the concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances was noted only at 100 μg x L(-1) compared to the control. CONCLUSIONS According to our results, all tested concentrations of ciprofloxacin, including the environmental concentration, had an influence on oxidative stress markers and detoxifying enzymes in exposed fish, but did not affect fish growth or cause the development of histopathological changes in the fish organism.
Auditory Language Comprehension: An Event-Related fMRI Study on the Processing of Syntactic and Lexical Information

The functional specificity of different brain areas recruited in auditory language processing was investigated by means of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects listened to speech input varying in the presence or absence of semantic and syntactic information. There were two sentence conditions containing syntactic structure, i.e., normal speech (consisting of function and content words), syntactic speech (consisting of function words and pseudowords), and two word-list conditions, i.e., real words and pseudowords. The processing of auditory language, in general, correlates with significant activation in the primary auditory cortices and in adjacent compartments of the superior temporal gyrus bilaterally. Processing of normal speech appeared to have a special status, as no frontal activation was observed in this case but was seen in the three other conditions. This difference may point toward a certain automaticity of the linguistic processes used during normal speech comprehension. When considering the three other conditions, we found that these were correlated with activation in both left and right frontal cortices. An increase of activation in the planum polare bilaterally and in the deep portion of the left frontal operculum was found exclusively when syntactic processes were in focus. Thus, the present data may be taken to suggest an involvement of the left frontal and bilateral temporal cortex when processing syntactic information during comprehension.
CRTC1 rearrangements in the absence of t(11;19) in primary cutaneous mucoepidermoid carcinoma

Background Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the skin is an uncommon neoplasm with a remarkable resemblance to MEC of the salivary glands. The latter has been shown to harbour an oncogenic translocation resulting in a fusion gene consisting of exon 1 of CRTC1/MECT1/TORC1 at 19p and exons 2–5 of MAML2 at 11q.
Questions and Focus in Bulgarian

THIS DISSERTATION PROPOSES A UNIFIED APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF INTERROGATIVES IN BULGARIAN BASED ON EXPERIMENTAL DATA ON WHAND YES/NO INTERROGATIVES AND ON THE SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF POLAR QUESTIONS. IT INVESTIGATES THE HIERARCHY OF FTO-WORDS, THE SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF INTERROGATIVES, THE SEMANTICS OF POLAR QUESTIONS AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN FOCUS AND QUESTIONS IN GENERAL. THE EXPERIMENTAL PART OF THIS DISSERTATION REPORTS ON TWO GRAMMATICALLY JUDGMENT TASKS. IT IS ARGUED THAT (A) ^//-MOVEMENT IS AN INSTANCE OF FOCUS MOVEMENT; (B) ONLY THE HIGHEST ANIMATE ELEMENT IS FURTHER RAISED TO SPECCP; AND (C) IN ADDITION TO SUPERIORITY, AN ANIMACY-BASED HIERARCHY IS CRITICAL IN ^//-ORDERING IN BULGARIAN. THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA ADDS A NEW DIMENSION TO THE ONGOING DEBATE CONCERNING THE TYPES OF FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES REQUIRED IN THE LEFT EDGE OF THE CLAUSE, SUGGESTING THAT IN BULGARIAN THERE IS A NEED FOR AT LEAST TWO SYNTACTIC PROJECTIONS RELATED TO FW-MOVEMENT OF NON-D-LINKED 0W-ELEMENTS, FOCUS PHRASE AND COMPLEMENTIZER PHRASE. THE SEMANTIC PART OF THE DISSERTATION IS DEDICATED TO THE INTERPRETATION OF POLAR INTERROGATIVES IN BULGARIAN AND THEIR CLOSE RELATION TO FOCUS. I ASSUME THAT THE INTERROGATIVE PARTICLE LI HEADS THE CLAUSE-INTERNAL FOCUS PROJECTION, WHEREAS THE INTERROGATIVE WORD DALI IS A TRUE INTERROGATIVE COMPLEMENTIZER. THUS, DALIQUESTIONS PARALLEL ENGLISH POLAR INTERROGATIVES, WHEREAS /. /-QUESTIONS ARE FOCUSDEPENDENT AND THEIR INTERPRETATION IS ALWAYS RELATED TO THE CONTEXTUALLY RESTRICTED SET OF ALTERNATIVES EVOKED BY FOCUS. TWO TYPES OF QUESTION OPERATORS ARE PROPOSED. FIRST, DALI IS EQUIVALENT TO THE SILENT QUESTION OPERATOR Q IN ENGLISH. SECOND, LI IS A FOCUS-DEPENDENT QUESTION OPERATOR (QF) WHICH COMBINES WITH THE CONTEXTUALLY-RESTRICTED SET OF ALTERNATIVES. THIS DISSERTATION BRINGS NEW EVIDENCE CONFIRMING THE LONG DISCUSSED CONNECTION BETWEEN INTERROGATIVE WORDS AND FOCUS. IN CONSTITUENT QUESTIONS, THIS RELATION IS REFLECTED IN THAT WH-WORDS MOVE TO SPECFOCP. IN POLAR QUESTIONS, THE EFFECT OF FOCUS IS MANIFESTED IN THEIR FOCUS-DEPENDENT SEMANTICS. THIS WORK SHOWS THAT THERE IS AN IMPORTANT PARALLEL BETWEEN POLAR AND CONSTITUENT QUESTIONS, AND THAT FOCUS-SENSITIVE OPERATORS, PARTICLES, AND ADVERBS FUNCTION SIMILARLY ACROSS DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. THUS, THIS DISSERTATION ARGUES IN FAVOUR OF THE POSSIBILITY THAT FOCUS-DEPENDENCY IS A GENERAL PROPERTY OF INTERROGATIVES IN UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR. THESIS ADVISOR: MARIA-LUISA RIVERO (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA) EXTERNAL EXAMINER: CATHERIN RUDIN (WAYNE STATE COLLEGE) INTERNAL EXAMINERS: ANA ARREGUI (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA) ERIC MATHIEU (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA) LAURA SABOURIN (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA)
A Study of Convolutional Sparse Feature Learning for Human Age Estimate

Human age estimation plays an important role inhuman facial image analysis. Aging feature representation isone of the widely studied problems in this topic. Convolutionalmap (bio-inspired features, or BIF) has been proven to be themost successful framework, but its manual crafted filters cannot easily capture the complicated facial aging pattern. In thispaper, we adopt this convolutional map framework but proposea novel feature learning approach based on convolutional sparsecoding (CSC) that can automatically learn to characterizeaging signatures. Compared to other popular feature learningapproaches like deep convolutional neural network (CNN), weverify that our learning approach can extract localized subtleaging features like CNN, and also significantly reduce themodel size. Moreover, we employ the standard deviation (STD)pooling to summarize the aging feature. Finally, the extractedfeatures are fed into a discriminative manifold learning modelto obtain more discriminative low-dimensional representationsand further improve the computational efficiency. We evaluateour approach over the standard benchmark datasets. Theexperimental results demonstrate that our approach impressivelyoutperforms the state-of-the-art results. The proposedage estimation scheme also performs well in the cross-databaseage estimation task.
Site-Specific Association with Host and Viral Chromatin by Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus LANA and Its Reversal during Lytic Reactivation

ABSTRACT Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), a multifunctional protein expressed by the Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) in latently infected cells, is required for stable maintenance of the viral episome. This is mediated by two interactions: LANA binds to specific sequences (LBS1 and LBS2) on viral DNA and also engages host histones, tethering the viral genome to host chromosomes in mitosis. LANA has also been suggested to affect host gene expression, but both the mechanism(s) and role of this dysregulation in KSHV biology remain unclear. Here, we have examined LANA interactions with host chromatin on a genome-wide scale using chromatin immunoprecipitation with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) and show that LANA predominantly targets human genes near their transcriptional start sites (TSSs). These host LANA-binding sites are generally found within transcriptionally active promoters and display striking overrepresentation of a consensus DNA sequence virtually identical to the LANA-binding site 1 (LBS1) motif in KSHV DNA. Comparison of the ChIP-seq profile with whole-transcriptome (high-throughput sequencing of RNA transcripts [RNA-seq]) data reveals that few of the genes that are differentially regulated in latent infection are occupied by LANA at their promoters. This suggests that direct LANA binding to promoters is not the prime determinant of altered host transcription in KSHV-infected cells. Most surprisingly, the association of LANA to both host and viral DNA is strongly disrupted during the lytic cycle of KSHV. This disruption can be prevented by the inhibition of viral DNA synthesis, suggesting the existence of novel and potent regulatory mechanisms linked to either viral DNA replication or late gene expression. IMPORTANCE Here, we employ complementary genome-wide analyses to evaluate the distribution of the highly abundant latency-associated nuclear antigen, LANA, on the host genome and its impact on host gene expression during KSHV latent infection. Combined, ChIP-seq and RNA-seq reveal that LANA accumulates at active gene promoters that harbor specific short DNA sequences that are highly reminiscent of its cognate binding sites in the virus genome. Unexpectedly, we found that such association does not lead to remodeling of global host transcription during latency. We also report for the first time that LANA's ability to bind host and viral chromatin is highly dynamic and is disrupted in cells undergoing an extensive lytic reactivation. This therefore suggests that the association of LANA to chromatin during a productive infection cycle is controlled by a new regulatory mechanism.
Comparison of the Clinical Features of Children Hospitalized With Pandemic 2009 A:H1N1 and Seasonal Influenza

Introduction: We compared the demographics, clinical presentation, course and outcome of children hospitalized with pandemic A:H1N1 and seasonal influenza. Methods: Sixty seven patients hospitalized from April 1st through August 31st 2009 with pandemic A:H1N1 influenza were enrolled. Two seasonal influenza cohorts were identified: 38 inpatients from January 1st 2004 through March 31st 2009, diagnosed by viral culture or direct fluorescent antibody testing; and 42 inpatients from January 1st 2007 through December 31st 2008 diagnosed via a rapid test. The two seasonal cohorts were not significantly different and were combined. Results: Patients with pandemic influenza were older (median age 6.5 years versus 1.3 years, P <.0001); were more often black (46% versus 23%, P <.0002); more frequently had an underlying condition (72% versus 49% P <.0049); and more often had wheezing (57% versus 16%, P <.0001). Conclusion: There was no significant difference between the groups in measures of severity during hospitalization.
A DC–DC Converter Based on the Three-State Switching Cell for High Current and Voltage Step-Down Applications

This paper presents a pulsewidth modulation dc-dc nonisolated buck converter using the three-state switching cell, constituted by two active switches, two diodes, and two coupled inductors. Only part of the load power is processed by the active switches, reducing the peak current through the switches to half of the load current, as higher power levels can then be achieved by the proposed topology. The volume of reactive elements, i.e., inductors and capacitors, is also decreased since the ripple frequency of the output voltage is twice the switching frequency. Due to the intrinsic characteristics of the topology, total losses are distributed among all semiconductors. Another advantage of this converter is the reduced region for discontinuous conduction mode when compared to the conventional buck converter or, in other words, the operation range in continuous conduction mode is increased, as demonstrated by the static gain plot. The theoretical approach is detailed through qualitative and quantitative analyses by the application of the three-state switching cell to the buck converter operating in nonoverlapping mode (D <; 0.5). Besides, the mathematical analysis and development of an experimental prototype rated at 1 kW are carried out. The main experimental results are presented and adequately discussed to clearly identify its claimed advantages.
Irrational Mutual Fund Managers: Explaining Differences in Their Behavior

ABSTRACT Documenting the disposition effect for a large sample of mutual fund managers in the United States, we find that stock-level characteristics explain the cross-sectional variation of the effect. The disposition effect, which is the tendency to sell winner stocks too early and hold on to loser stocks for too long, is more pronounced for fund managers who invest in stocks that are more difficult to value. Using different measures of stock and market uncertainty, we show that mutual fund managers display a stronger disposition-driven behavior when stocks are more difficult to value. We also find that the level of the disposition effect is monotonically increasing with the level of systematic risk (i.e., beta). In addition, we document that the trading behavior of mutual fund managers is partly driven by attention-grabbing stocks (dividend-paying stocks). Overall, our results suggest that stock-level uncertainty and trading of attention-grabbing stocks amplify the disposition effect and that differences in the effect can be explained by mutual fund managers' investment styles. Given that mutual funds hold a large fraction of the U.S. equity market, our findings add to the ongoing discussion whether professional investors can create stock mispricings and shed new light on market efficiency.
Mental representation and cognitive consequences of Chinese individual classifiers

Classifier languages are spoken by a large portion of the world's population, but psychologists have only recently begun to investigate the psychological reality of classifier categories and their potential for influencing non-linguistic thought. The current work evaluates both the mental representation of classifiers and potential cognitive consequences for speakers of Mandarin Chinese. We first provide a taxonomy of 126 common classifiers and a large sample of the objects classified by each as a tool for this and future research. We then present four studies investigating potential variation in the mental representation of the classifier categories. The data provide evidence that at least three forms of mental representation need to be distinguished. Finally, we present a fifth study investigating the impact of this variation on the cognitive consequences of classifier knowledge. This study suggests that the differences identified in Experiments 1–4 have important implications for the likelihood of finding cognitive consequences.