Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disordered Lymphoid Purine Metabolism Contributes to the Pathogenesis of Persistent Borrelia garinii Infection in Mice

Extracellular ATP and adenosine are important regulators of immune responses; however, contribution of purinergic signaling to host defense during persistent microbial infections remains obscure. Lyme borreliosis is a common arthropod-borne infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. In this study, we investigated whether lymphoid purinergic signaling contributes to the mechanisms by which borreliae species evade the immune system and trigger joint inflammation. Intracutaneous inoculation of Borrelia garinii to C3H/He mice induced symptomatic infection manifested in elevated levels of borrelia-specific IgG Abs, persistent spirochete dissemination into the tissues and joint swelling, as well as ∼2- to 2.5-fold enlargement of draining lymph nodes with hyperplasia of B cell follicle area and L-selectin shedding from activated T lymphocytes. Purine catabolism was also activated in lymph nodes but not spleen and blood of infected C3H/He mice within the first 4 postinfection weeks, particularly manifested in transient upregulations of adenosine triphosphatase/ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase and ecto-5′-nucleotidase/CD73 on CD4+CD8+ T lymphocytes and adenosine deaminase activity on B220+ B lymphocytes. Compared with borrelia-susceptible C3H/He strain, lymphocytes from C57BL/6 mice displayed markedly enhanced adenosine-generating capability due to approximately three times higher ratio of ecto-5′-nucleotidase to adenosine deaminase. Borrelia-infected C57BL/6 mice efficiently eradicated the inoculated spirochetes at more chronic stage without any signs of arthritis. Strikingly, deletion of key adenosine-generating enzyme, ecto-5′-nucleotidase/CD73, was accompanied by significantly enhanced joint swelling in borrelia-infected CD73-deficient C57BL/6 mice. Collectively, these data suggest that insufficient basal adenosine level and/or pathogen-induced disordered lymphoid purine homeostasis may serve as important prerequisite for promotion of inflammatory responses and further host’s commitment to persistence of bacterial infection and arthritis development.
Re-used pacemakers--as safe as new? A retrospective case-control study.

UNLABELLED Re-use of pacemakers is of interest in an era of declining health care resources if it is proven safe and without risks to the patients. In order to investigate the safety of re-use of pacemakers we performed a retrospective case-control study. One hundred patients, who received a re-used pacemaker, were matched for date of implantation and mode (AAI; VVI; DDD) to 100 others who received a newly manufactured pacemaker and were followed for a mean of 32 +/- 11 months for complications defined as infections and signs of pacemaker malfunction and pacemaker replacement earlier than anticipated due to battery depletion. Patients who received re-used pacemakers were significantly older than those who received new units (79 +/- 9 vs 68 +/- 21 years; P < 0.0001). The number of complications did not differ significantly between groups. There were no early replacements due to battery depletion in either of the two groups. A cost-benefit analysis revealed a substantial economical advantage. CONCLUSIONS The re-use of pacemakers can be carried out without increased risk to the patients provided a proper routine for technical control and sterilization is followed. Re-use means substantial savings which possibly could make advanced pacemaker treatment available to all eligible patients irrespective of age. Whether re-use is feasible with implantable defibrillators remains to be determined.
Surveying the Service Sector

ABSTRACT A key question for researchers concerns the level of survey response rates and whether results differ between the two modes of surveying. This paper examines, within a services context, the results of using mail versus Internet survey approaches. An experimental design was used to measure differences in response rates and differences in responses to a survey of university accounting faculty concerning the impact of recent accounting scandals on accounting as a profession as well as on accounting departments. While there was a higher percentage of responses to the Internet survey, the difference was not significant. There were significant differences in the response to specific questions but the differences were in the same direction; i.e., both groups agreed with a statement but one group had a higher level of agreement than the other group. For the services marketer it appears that Internet surveys may offer the speed desired for quick input to managerial decisions without sacrificing levels of response rates.
An asynchronous power aware and adaptive NoC based circuit

A fully power aware globally asynchronous locally synchronous network-on-chip circuit is presented in this paper. The circuit is arranged around an asynchronous network-on-chip providing a 17 Gbits/s throughput and automatically reducing its power consumption by activity detection. Both dynamic and static power consumptions are globally reduced using adaptive design techniques applied locally for each NoC units. The dynamic power consumption can be reduced up to a factor of 8 while the static power consumption is reduced by 2 decades in stand-by mode.
The nonresolution of IQ inheritance by path analysis.

Table 1 lists the 11 kinship correlations of the data set of Rao et al.: 10 were listed in their earlier article [2] plus an additional spouse correlation. The list has been reordered for convenience here. The numerical values may differ slightly from those used by Rao et al. because I have untransformed their z-transforms; the discrepancies are irrelevant for present purposes. The left-hand portion of table 2 shows the proper equations for the first of the five models which they fit, that being the m = s = 0 case of the general model developed in the main body of their article. These formulas are obtained by specializing those given in their tables 24 to have m = s = 0. My notation is the same as theirs, except that I usep = cy and q = hz. In this formulation, the eight free parameters are: c = path from family environment to child's phenotype; h = path from genotype to child's phenotype; p = path from (childhood) family environment to adult's phenotype; q = path from genotype to adult's phenotype; f = path from parent's (childhood) family environment to child's family environment; u = correlation between (childhood) family environment of spouses; x = path from parent's (adult) phenotype to child's family environment; and i = path from family environment to observed index thereof. The other two symbols, namely, a = correlation between genotype and family
Vibration testing of repaired lead-tin/lead-free solder joints

Due to growing environmental concerns and recent legislation, tin-lead (Pb-Sn) solders are being phased out by lead-free (LF) solders. The most common Sn-Pb replacement is the tin-silver-copper (Sn-Ag-Cu, SAC) alloys. During the transition phase, it is expected that there will be a period where both Sn-Pb and LF solders will be used side by side, and in conjunction with one another, during assembly processes. Repaired solder joints may also be expected to contain a mixture of Sn-Pb and LF solders, especially in military systems. Very little has been reported on the vibration testing of solder joints in printed circuit boards utilizing LF solders and even less on the vibration testing of solder joints with mixed alloy systems. Aerospace systems typically experience vibration frequencies ranging from the tens of hertz to the thousands of hertz. Given the long life cycle of aerospace vehicles, there exists a need for circuit board repairs and component replacement, which adds to the complexity of the LF transition. Solder joints on these printed circuit boards have a high likelihood of containing a combination of Sn-Pb and LF solders. The vibration fatigue properties of hand-repaired solder joints containing LF solder has not been directly compared with that of hand-repaired Sn-Pb solder joints. Also a correlation between vibration endurance and the solder metallurgy in a repaired joint has not been reported. In this study vibration testing was used to determine how as assembled and repaired Sn-Pb/SAC solder joints withstand dynamic vibration. A frequency sweep from 20Hz to 2000Hz and back down to 20Hz at a constant acceleration of 15g's determined the resonant frequencies of an assembled printed circuit board and its individual components. A 30 minute resonance dwell test at 25 g's determined the vibration resistance of solder joints. The interconnect resistance of the solder joints was measured before and after vibration testing. Tested printed circuit boards were visually inspected for solder cracking and delamination. Metallographic analysis was done on areas where visible cracking or physical damage had occurred. All vibration testing was done at room temperature
Mistic's membrane association and its assistance in overexpression of a human GPCR are independent processes

The interaction of the Bacillus subtilis protein Mistic with the bacterial membrane and its role in promoting the overexpression of other membrane proteins are still matters of debate. In this study, we aimed to determine whether individual helical fragments of Mistic are sufficient for its interaction with membranes in vivo and in vitro. To this end, fragments encompassing each of Mistic's helical segments and combinations of them were produced as GFP‐fusions, and their cellular localization was studied in Escherichia coli. Furthermore, peptides corresponding to the four helical fragments were synthesized by solid‐phase peptide synthesis, and their ability to acquire secondary structure in a variety of lipids and detergents was studied by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Both types of experiments demonstrate that the third helical fragment of Mistic interacts only with LDAO micelles but does not partition into lipid bilayers. Interestingly, the other three helices interact with membranes in vivo and in vitro. Nevertheless, all of these short sequences can replace full‐length Mistic as N‐terminal fusions to achieve overexpression of a human G‐protein‐coupled receptor in E. coli, although with different effects on quantity and quality of the protein produced. A bioinformatic analysis of the Mistic family expanded the number of homologs from 4 to 20, including proteins outside the genus Bacillus. This information allowed us to discover a highly conserved Shine‐Dalgarno sequence in the operon mstX‐yugO that is important for downstream translation of the potassium ion channel yugO.
Experimental Evaluation of Predistortion Techniques for High-Power Amplifier

Modern communication systems suffer from the nonnegligible distortion caused by the inherent nonlinearity of high-power amplifiers (HPAs). As such, many methods have been proposed to mitigate this nonlinear effect. However, their performances are seldom compared, and their practicalities are rarely evaluated. In this paper, experimental setups to investigate two popular types of HPA systems have been developed: 1) the traveling wave tube amplifiers and 2) the solid-state power amplifiers. Experimental data were collected to evaluate four predistortion compensation techniques including the polynomial, rational function (RF), neural networks, and neurofuzzy methods. Using different performance measures, the experimental evaluation shows that the neuro approaches have a higher accuracy for some measures, but the tradeoff is a much higher computation cost. Overall speaking, the RF method seems to have the best balance between the compensation accuracy and complexity among the methods
Effect of mitral valve replacement on reduction of left atrial size

Introduction: asymptomatic left atrial enlargement is not uncommon in rheumatic mitral valve disease. We studied the change in size of the left atrium after mitral valve replacement. Patients and methods: between January and December 2005, 116 patients underwent isolated mitral valve replacement. Two groups were identified based on left atrial size: group 1 < 60 mm (n = 79) and group 2 > 60 mm (n = 37). The patients were followed up for 40.4 ± 19.3 months Clinical assessment, preoperative and last postoperative echocardiograms were considered for analysis. Results: the left atrium decreased by 5.84 mm ± 10.5 in group 1 compared to 20.9 mm ± 10.64 in group 2 (p = 0.0001). This correlated with preoperative mitral valve area (p = 0.009), preoperative mitral regurgitation (p = 0.000), and preoperative atrial fibrillation (p = 0.022). Linear regression analysis revealed atrial fibrillation (p = 0.001, b1 = 6.006), a high grade of mitral regurgitation (p = 0.001, b1 = −3.812), and larger size of the left atrium (p = 0.000, b1 = −0.701) predicted a greater reduction of left atrial size during follow-up. Left atrial size decreased by 28 mm in patients with a preoperative left atrium >60 mm (75% sensitivity and 100% specificity). Conclusion: the asymptomatic left atrium reduces in size considerably after mitral valve replacement, and the decrease is greater in patients with a left atrium >60 mm in size.
Measurement of primary healthcare attributes from the patient perspective.

This special issue of Healthcare Policy/Politiques de Sante presents a series of papers reporting on the concurrent validation of instruments that assess primary healthcare (PHC) delivery from the patient's perspective. The study was funded in 2004 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) at the height of the Primary Health Care Transition Fund, an $8-million investment by Health Canada to catalyze a renewal of the PHC system in Canada. In planning the evaluation for initiatives, it became evident that program evaluators and researchers had little guidance for selecting among available instruments. For example, although various instruments purported to measure accessibility, it was not obvious that all measured the same underlying construct. Nor was it clear how to compare results collected with different instruments in different jurisdictions or at different times. This research program consists of three studies. The first is a consensus consultation of PHC experts across Canada to formulate operational definitions of attributes to be evaluated (Haggerty et al. 2007). Second, we mapped the operational definitions to validated instruments (available at www.programmeprecise.ca/en/publications). Third, we administered six instruments back-to-back in Nova Scotia and Quebec to adults with a regular source of care to examine and compare how well the instruments measure essential attributes of primary healthcare. We selected six instruments in the public domain that assess usual care rather than a single visit, that are generic (not limited to a specific patient group or dimension of care) and that had been most proposed or used in Canada: Primary Care Assessment Survey (PCAS) (Safran et al. 1998); Primary Care Assessment Tool – Short Form, adult (PCAT-S) (Shi et al. 2001); Components of Primary Care Index (CPCI) (Flocke 1997); First version of the European general practice evaluation instrument (EUROPEP-I) (Grol et al. 2000); Interpersonal Processes of Care – 18-item version (IPC-II) survey (Stewart et al. 2007); Veterans Affairs National Outpatient Customer Satisfaction Survey (VANOCSS) (Borowsky et al. 2002).
Evaluating the contribution of zoos and aquariums to Aichi Biodiversity Target 1

The United Nations Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 is a key initiative within global efforts to halt and eventually reverse the loss of biodiversity. The very first target of this plan states that “by 2020, at the latest, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably. ” Zoos and aquariums worldwide, attracting more than 700 million visits every year, could potentially make a positive contribution to this target. However, a global evaluation of the educational impacts of visits to zoos and aquariums is entirely lacking in the existing literature. To address this gap, we conducted a large‐scale impact evaluation study. We used a pre‐ and postvisit repeated‐measures survey design to evaluate biodiversity literacy—understanding of biodiversity and knowledge of actions to help protect it—of zoo and aquarium visitors worldwide. Ours was the largest and most international study of zoo and aquarium visitors ever conducted. In total, 5661 visitors to 26 zoos and aquariums from 19 countries around the globe participated in the study. Aggregate biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity both significantly increased over the course of zoo and aquarium visits. There was an increase from previsit (69.8%) to postvisit (75.1%) in respondents demonstrating at least some positive evidence of biodiversity understanding. Similarly, there was an increase from previsit (50.5%) to postvisit (58.8%) in respondents who could identify actions to help protect biodiversity that could be achieved at an individual level. Our results are the most compelling evidence to date that zoo and aquarium visits contribute to increasing the number of people who understand biodiversity and know actions they can take to help protect biodiversity.
Poverty and Inequality Dynamics in South Africa: Post-apartheid Developments in the Light of the Long-Run Legacy

South Africa has a long and infamous history of high inequality with an overbearing racial footprint to this inequality. Many have seen the emergence and persistence of this inequality to be the major unifying theme of the country’s twentieth century economic history. Certainly, this is the key context to understanding why the issue of inequality has continued to dominate the post-apartheid landscape. There are two indicators of the post-apartheid political economy that have attracted special attention in this regard. The first is whether the evolving character of the post-apartheid economy and the policy efforts of the post-apartheid government have been able to start to lower these very high aggregate levels of inequality. Then, there is the related question of the composition of this inequality; specifically, whether the blunt racial footprint undergirding this inequality would start to grey and be replaced by new social strata and more subtle socioeconomic dynamics.
The Effect of New Product Preannouncements on the Evaluation of Other Brand Products

Some firms preannounce new products long before they are actually available on the market. Previous research has investigated the effects of such new product preannouncements (NPPs) on consumer and competitor responses. This paper examines how NPPs affect consumers' construal of and preferences for the new product and, in turn, how these evaluations influence their preferences for the brands' other products. Specifically, the paper demonstrates that consumers' construal level of NPPs spills over to their construal of other products in the brand family, causing a positive, biased evaluation of these products. Three experimental studies reveal that the mere information about an NPP can shift evaluation of currently available brand products in a positive direction through construal-level spillover and increased perceptions of similarity. The studies contrast NPPs to new product announcements (NPAs) and consistently find more positive results for the former. Moreover, the studies find that product newness has a moderating effect on the results, such that the positive spillover effects are more pronounced for really new products than for incrementally new products. The results also show that the effects are contingent on the credibility of the NPP: If consumers do not consider the NPPs credible, no positive spillover effects will materialize. Finally, the studies demonstrate that the positive evaluative spillover is specific to the products in the brand family and does not affect consumers' perceptions or choice of competitor products. Consumers actually rate the competing brand's remaining products lower when the focal brand engages in NPPs. The study has important implications for managers regarding how to use NPPs to influence consumers' construal and evaluations of brand products.
Piece-wise linear functions-based model predictive control of large-scale sewage systems

In this study, model predictive control (MPC) of large-scale sewage systems is addressed, considering several inherent continuous/discrete phenomena (overflows in sewers and tanks) and elements (weirs) in the system. This fact results in distinct behaviour depending on the dynamic state (flow/volume) of the network. These behaviours cannot be neglected nor can be modelled by a pure linear representation. In order to take into account these phenomena and elements in the design of the control strategy, a modelling approach based on piece-wise linear functions (PWLF) is proposed and compared against a hybrid modelling approach previously suggested by the authors. Control performance results and associated computation times of the closed-loop scheme considering both modelling approaches are compared by using a real case study based on the Barcelona sewer network. Results have shown an important reduction in the computation time when the PWLF-based model is used, with an acceptable suboptimality level in the closed-loop system performance.
Elevated serum levels of IL-10 and IFN-gamma in patients with acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Serum levels of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) were determined in 37 patients with acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Bangkok, Thailand. Serum levels of IL-10 and IFN-gamma were markedly elevated in patients with malaria prior to treatment (717 +/- 260 pg/ml versus 2.2 +/- 1.3 pg/ml in healthy controls; 123 +/- 71 pg/ml versus 29 +/- 9 pg/ml, respectively; mean +/- SD). Serum levels of IFN-gamma and IL-10 dropped significantly during treatment and were normal 14 and 21 days, respectively, after treatment was started. Prior to therapy a correlation between serum levels of IFN-gamma and IL-10 existed (r = 0.563). These results suggest that stimulatory and inhibitory cytokines for macrophage activation and/or antibody production (i.e., TH1- and TH2-type immunoreaction, respectively) are coexpressed during acute P. falciparum infection and stress the multifactorial network between host and parasite in malaria immunology.
Strategic marketing in action: A comparison of higher and lower performing manufacturing firms in the UK

Purpose – To contrast the role and practical application of strategic marketing in higher and lower‐performing firms.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth personal interviews with senior marketing executives in three matched high/low performing manufacturing firms in the UK were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The interview agenda was derived from the authors' own previous research studies, plus precedents in the literature.Findings – These are structured around four key strategic marketing activities previously found to be characteristic of higher performing firms. They clearly show that such companies implement them with a far greater degree of skill, sophistication and ingenuity than do their lower performing counterparts. Above all, for the higher performers, strategic marketing is a truly cross‐functional activity.Research limitations/implications – The methodology of this study indicates a fruitful approach to further research aimed at extending and refining the findings and recommendations, th.