Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Update on adenovirus and its vectors.

IP: 54.70. 40.11 On: Thu, 03 Jan 2019 17:11:19 Journal of General Virology (2000), 81, 2573–2604. Printed in Great Britain .
Association between severity of depression and self-perceived cognitive difficulties among full-time employees.

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship between self-perceived deficits in cognition and severity of depression reported by individuals in full-time employment. METHOD Individuals ≥ 18 years of age employed full-time with diagnosed depression excluding bipolar disorder (participants had to be told by a doctor that they had depression based on DSM-IV criteria) completed a 25-minute Web-based survey in February 2010 (study population identified by Harris Interactive, Rochester, New York). The survey used the Perceived Deficits Questionnaire (PDQ) to assess self-perceived cognitive impairment and the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess depression severity. The 20-question PDQ was used to assess self-perceived cognitive difficulties within the domains of prospective memory, retrospective memory, attention/concentration, and planning/organization (range, 0-20: higher scores indicate greater impairment). Subjects answered how often they experienced such difficulties during the previous 4 weeks (0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, 4 = almost always). The scale ranges from 0-20 for each of the 4 subscales, with higher scores indicating greater cognitive impairment. The impact of depression on PDQ scores was assessed using a trend test based on an analysis of covariance controlling for potential confounders. RESULTS Subjects (N = 1,051) (58% women) had a mean ± SD age of 47 ± 12 years; 38% held professional employment. PHQ-9 scores indicated that 423 employees (40.3%) had no depressive symptoms at the time of the survey, 319 (30.4%) had mild depression, 166 (15.8%) had moderate depression, 82 (7.8%) had moderately severe depression, and 61 (5.8%) had severe depression. Perceived cognitive functioning worsened with increasing severity of depression symptoms (P < .0001) on the basis of PDQ scores. On the basis of responses to the PDQ, in the current study, most impairment was seen in the attention/concentration and planning/organization subscales in severely depressed subjects (12.2 for both) compared with those with no depressive symptoms (4.4 and 3.5, respectively), indicating more cognitive impairment in the severely depressed subjects compared to the subjects with no depression. CONCLUSIONS In currently employed individuals, self-perceived cognitive dysfunction worsened with increasing severity of depressive symptoms. This association was independent of antidepressant use. The greatest impairment in self-perceived cognition was observed in the planning/organization and attention/concentration subscales.
Molecular Chaperones as Targets to Circumvent the CFTR Defect in Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common autosomal recessive lethal disorder among Caucasian populations. CF results from mutations and resulting dysfunction of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR). CFTR is a cyclic AMP-dependent chloride channel that is localized to the apical membrane in epithelial cells where it plays a key role in salt and water homeostasis. An intricate network of molecular chaperone proteins regulates CFTR’s proper maturation and trafficking to the apical membrane. Understanding and manipulation of this network may lead to therapeutics for CF in cases where mutant CFTR has aberrant trafficking.
Superior Temperature-Sensing Performance in Cladding-Modulated Si Waveguide Gratings

This paper presents a silicon photonic temperature sensor based on a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible cladding-modulated (CladMod) grating design on the silicon-on-insulator platform. The resulting device achieves narrow-band reflection (Δλ = 0.63 nm), a high extinction ratio (21 dB), high temperature sensitivity (83.4 pm/°C), and a wide temperature-sensing range. More importantly, this grating design allows stable reflection bandwidth (Δλ/ΔW<sub>g</sub> = 0.013), Bragg wavelength (λ<sub>B</sub>/ΔW<sub>g</sub> = 0.002), and temperature sensitivity (δλ /δT/ΔW<sub>g</sub> = -1.3 × 10<sup>-5</sup> K<sup>-1</sup>) against variations in grating width. This level of temperature-sensing performance is difficult to achieve using a strip/slab-type grating or microring resonator. The CladMod gratings were further implemented on a polysilicon gate in a standard bulk CMOS process, thereby enabling integration with other microelectronic devices to serve as an on-chip distributed temperature-sensing element This approach shows considerable promise for applications such as future photonic-electronic integrated circuits requiring in situ temperature monitoring for wavelength stabilization, or high-temperature microelectronics where silicon bandgap temperature sensors are unable to operate properly.
Delta Wing Flutter Control Using Spatially Optimized Transducers

This work focuses on the development of a design methodology for optimized flutter control of an aeroelastic delta wing. The approach rests on two main premises. The first is that the application of linear modeling and control design techniques can be used to control the predominantly nonlinear phenomenon of flutter by preventing its onset. This phenomenon is characterized by limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) of very high magnitude. These high magnitude deflections, along with the distinct harmonics commonly seen in fluttering plates, typically require cumbersome nonlinear modeling schemes for analysis. The second lies in the spatial optimization of actuator and sensor parameters to facilitate control of targeted modes while providing roll-off of higher order modes without the need for phase-inducing filters. In order to facilitate these optimizations, a versatile and computationally efficient technique for the modeling of piezo structures into analytical systems is developed. The method uses one a priori calculation of the coupling characteristics of gridded piezoelectric elements, contiguously covering the entire structure. This allows for the rapid calculation of the coupling characteristics of any patch configuration by summing the effects of the elements contained within the patch boundaries. Some additional advantages of this approach include the lack of error checking necessary with respect to trial patches being located within structural boundaries. Also, patch shape restrictions are not tied to difficulties associated with complicated integration limits, and reversed phasing of patch segments is a trivial matter. Another technique used estimates the effects of patch mass and stiffness contributions on the system. This method is entirely parameter-based and does not require explicit system modeling. It is illustrated how these techniques can dramatically expand the range, versatility, and efficiency of transducer optimization routines. Implementation examples as applied to a delta wing are shown. The experiments employing these optimized transducers show substantially increased flutter control authority over nonoptimized systems, and point to the importance of this spatial coupling as well as the transducer mass and stiffness effects.
The Stability of Strategic Plasticity

Recent research into the evolution of higher cognition has piqued an interest in the effect of natural selection on the ability of creatures to respond to their environment (behavioral plasticity). It is believed that environmental variation is required for plasticity to evolve in cases where the ability to be plastic is costly. We investigate one form of environmental variation: frequency dependent selection. Using tools in game theory, we investigate a few models of plasticity and outline the cases where selection would be expected to maintain it. Ultimately we conclude that frequency dependent selection is likely insufficient to maintain plasticity given reasonable assumptions about its costs. This result is very similar to one aspect of the well-discussed Baldwin effect, where plasticity is first selected for and then later selected against. We show how in these models one would expect plasticity to grow in the population and then be later reduced. Ultimately we conclude that if one is to account for the evolution of behavioral plasticity in this way, one must appeal to a very particular sort of external environmental variation.
Privacy integrated queries: an extensible platform for privacy-preserving data analysis

We report on the design and implementation of the Privacy Integrated Queries (PINQ) platform for privacy-preserving data analysis. PINQ provides analysts with a programming interface to unscrubbed data through a SQL-like language. At the same time, the design of PINQ's analysis language and its careful implementation provide formal guarantees of differential privacy for any and all uses of the platform. PINQ's unconditional structural guarantees require no trust placed in the expertise or diligence of the analysts, substantially broadening the scope for design and deployment of privacy-preserving data analysis, especially by non-experts.
Potential for combined biocontrol activity against fungal fish and plant pathogens by bacterial isolates from a model aquaponic system

One of the main challenges in aquaponics is disease control. One possible solution for this is biological control with organisms exerting inhibitory effects on fish and plant pathogens. The aim of this study was to examine the potential of isolating microorganisms that exert an inhibitory effect on both plant and fish pathogens from an established aquaponic system. We obtained 924 isolates on selective King’s B agar and 101 isolates on MRS agar from different compartments of a model aquaponic system and tested them for antagonism against the plant pathogen Pythium ultimum and fish pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica. Overall, 42 isolates were able to inhibit both fungi. Although not yet tested in vivo, these findings open new options for the implementation of biological control of diseases in aquaponics, where plants and fish are cultivated in the same water recirculating system.
Increased Axonal Ribosome Numbers Is an Early Event in the Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Myelinating glia cells support axon survival and functions through mechanisms independent of myelination, and their dysfunction leads to axonal degeneration in several diseases. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal motor neurons undergo retrograde degeneration, and slowing of axonal transport is an early event that in ALS mutant mice occurs well before motor neuron degeneration. Interestingly, in familial forms of ALS, Schwann cells have been proposed to slow disease progression. We demonstrated previously that Schwann cells transfer polyribosomes to diseased and regenerating axons, a possible rescue mechanism for disease-induced reductions in axonal proteins. Here, we investigated whether elevated levels of axonal ribosomes are also found in ALS, by analysis of a superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1)G93A mouse model for human familial ALS and a patient suffering from sporadic ALS. In both cases, we found that the disorder was associated with an increase in the population of axonal ribosomes in myelinated axons. Importantly, in SOD1G93A mice, the appearance of axonal ribosomes preceded the manifestation of behavioral symptoms, indicating that upregulation of axonal ribosomes occurs early in the pathogenesis of ALS. In line with our previous studies, electron microscopy analysis showed that Schwann cells might serve as a source of axonal ribosomes in the disease-compromised axons. The early appearance of axonal ribosomes indicates an involvement of Schwann cells early in ALS neuropathology, and may serve as an early marker for disease-affected axons, not only in ALS, but also for other central and peripheral neurodegenerative disorders.
On generalized authorization problems

This paper defines a framework in which one can formalize a variety of authorization and policy issues that arise in access control of shared computing resources. Instantiations of the framework address such issues as privacy, recency, validity, and trust. The paper presents an efficient algorithm for solving all authorization problems in the framework; this approach yields new algorithms for a number of specific authorization problems.
Diet-Induced Plumage Erythrism in Baltimore Orioles as a Result of the Spread of Introduced Shrubs

Abstract Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) of unusual redness over large sections of their plumages were recently discovered in southeastern Canada. Reddish feathers from six of nine specimens sampled at the McGill Bird Observatory in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal, Quebec in fall 2006 contained rhodoxanthin, a keto-carotenoid of deep red hue usually found in plants. Rhodoxanthin comprised ∼5% of carotenoids in many oriole feathers, and up to 18% in the reddest one. Redness in oriole feathers with rhodoxanthin correlated with amounts of that pigment, rather than with amounts of red 4-keto-carotenoids like canthaxanthin normally present in orange oriole feathers. Redness in feathers with rhodoxanthin also tended to be greatest in feathers with the least amounts of carotenoids. The anomalous rhodoxanthin altered the normal relationship between redness and 4-keto-carotenoid concentration, and total feather carotenoid concentration in Baltimore Orioles. We believe rhodoxanthin and the associated aberrant reddish tones result from consumption of berries of exotic bush honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.), now widely propagated in eastern North America and the Midwestern United States. We confirm the presence of rhodoxanthin in the berries of Tatarian honeysuckle (L. tatarica). Rhodoxanthin produces a shoulder at ∼520 nm of the reflectance spectrum of feathers in which it occurs.
Renormalization of Spontaneously Broken SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory with Flow Equations

We present a renormalizability proof for spontaneously broken SU(2) gauge theory based on flow equations. It is a conceptually and technically simplified version of the earlier paper [5] including some extensions. The proof of [5] was also incomplete since an important assumption made implicitly in the proof of Lemma 2 there was not verified. So the present paper is also a corrected version of [5].
Rule-based prosody prediction for German text-to-speech synthesis

This paper presents two empirical studies that examine the influence of different linguistic aspects on prosody in German. First, we analysed a German corpus with respect to the effect of syntax and information status on prosody. Second, we conducted a listening test which investigated the prosodic realisation of constituents in the German ’Vorfeld’ depending on their information status. The results were used to improve the prosody prediction in the German text-to-speech synthesis system MARY.
Light Microscopy of Polymer-Treated Wool

l'hotomicrographs are shown which confirm previous deductions that the effective ness of polymer treatments in reducing felting shrinkage of wool is rdated to the spreading of polymer over the surface of fibers. Chemical pretreatments which increase the critical surface tension of wool allow better spreading so that polymers are then deposited as thin surface films instead of in relatively large lumps as on normal wool. Only small amounts (1-2%; on the weight of wool) of polymer are therefore required when conditions for good spreading of polymer on wool are realized. Shrinkage-time curves of polymer-treated wool have the same shape as those of untreated wool and of wool made shrink-resistant by oxidative treatments. Polymer is not removed during the shrinkage tests. so that the actual mechanism of felting is probably the same in all cases.
Business Process Configuration with NFRs and Context-Awereness

[Context] Business process models are an important source of information for the development of information systems. Good business processes need to be up-to-date and automated to represent the organizational environment. Representing and configuring business processes variability for a specific organization allows the proper execution of processes. In addition, dynamic environment calls for flexible configuration processes that can meet stakeholders’ goals. [Question/Problem] Even though current approaches allow the representation of variability of business process models, the selection of business variants in a given context remains a challenging issue. [Main idea] In this proposal, we advocate the use of Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) and contextawareness information to drive the configuration of process models at run-time. In particular, we evaluate the use of NFRs to describe the stakeholders’ preferences. [Contribution] We propose a model-driven business process configuration approach that is driven by NFRs and contextual information.
802.11s QoS Routing for Telemedicine Service

The merits of 802.11s as the wireless mesh network standard provide a low cost and high independent scalability telemedicine infrastructure. However, challenges in degradation of performance as hops increase and the absent of Quality of Service (QoS) provision need to be resolved. The reliability and timely manner are the important factor for successful telemedicine service. This research investigates the use of 802.11s for telemedicine services. A new model of 802.11s based telemedicine infrastructure has been developed for this purpose. A non deterministic polynomial path selection is proposed to provide end-to-end QoS provisioning in 802.11s. A multi-metric called QoS Price metric is proposed as measurement of link quality. The QoS Price is derived from multi layers values that reflect telemedicine traffic requirement and the resource availability of the network. The proposed solution has modified the path management of 802.11s and added resource allocation in distributed scheme. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/ijece.v4i2. 5597
A Method for Probing Disease Relatedness Using Common Clinical Eligibility Criteria

Clinical trial eligibility criteria define fine-grained characteristics of research volunteers for various disease trials and hence are a promising data source for disease profiling. This paper explores the feasibility of using disease-specific common eligibility features (CEFs) for representing diseases and understanding their relatedness. We extracted disease-specific CEFs from eligibility criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov for three illustrative categories - cancers, mental disorders and chronic diseases - each including seven diseases. We then constructed disease-specific CEF networks to assess the degree of overlap among the diseases. Using these automatically derived networks, we observed several findings that were confirmed in medicine. For example, we highlighted connections among schizophrenia, epilepsy and depression. We also identified a link between Crohn's disease and arthritis. These observations confirm the value of using clinical trial eligibility criteria for identifying disease relatedness. We further discuss the implications of CEFs for standardizing clinical trial eligibility criteria through reuse.
Enhanced Bezier curve models incorporating local information

The Bezier curve is fundamental to many challenging and practical applications, ranging from computer aided geometric design and postscript font representations through to generic object shape descriptors and surface representation. A drawback of the Bezier curve however, is that it only considers global information about the control points, so there is often a large gap between the curve and its control polygon, leading to considerable error in curve representations. To address this issue, this paper presents enhanced Bezier curve (EBC) models which seamlessly incorporate local information. The performance of the models is empirically evaluated upon a number of natural and synthetic objects having arbitrary shape and both qualitative and quantitative results confirm the superiority of both EBC models in comparison with the classical Bezier curve representation, with no increase in the order of computational complexity.
Transcriptional regulation of mitfa accounts for the sox10 requirement in zebrafish melanophore development

The transcription factor Sox10 is required for the specification, migration and survival of all nonectomesenchymal neural crest derivatives including melanophores. sox10-/- zebrafish lack expression of the transcription factor mitfa, which itself is required for melanophore development. We demonstrate that the zebrafish mitfa promoter has sox10 binding sites necessary for activity in vitro, consistent with studies using mammalian cell cultures that have shown that Sox10 directly regulates Mitf expression. In addition, we demonstrate that these sites are necessary for promoter activity in vivo. We show that reintroduction of mitfa expression in neural crest cells can rescue melanophore development in sox10-/- embryos. This rescue of melanophores in sox10-/- embryos is quantitatively indistinguishable from rescue in mitfa-/- embryos. These findings show that the essential function of sox10 in melanophore development is limited to transcriptional regulation of mitfa. We propose that the dominant melanophore phenotype in Waardenburg syndrome IV individuals with SOX10 mutations is likely to result from failure to activate MITF in the normal number of melanoblasts.
A large-scale evaluation and analysis of personalized search strategies

Although personalized search has been proposed for many years and many personalization strategies have been investigated, it is still unclear whether personalization is consistently effective on different queries for different users, and under different search contexts. In this paper, we study this problem and get some preliminary conclusions. We present a large-scale evaluation framework for personalized search based on query logs, and then evaluate five personalized search strategies (including two click-based and three profile-based ones) using 12-day MSN query logs. By analyzing the results, we reveal that personalized search has significant improvement over common web search on some queries but it also has little effect on other queries (e.g., queries with small click entropy). It even harms search accuracy under some situations. Furthermore, we show that straightforward click-based personalization strategies perform consistently and considerably well, while profile-based ones are unstable in our experiments. We also reveal that both long-term and short-term contexts are very important in improving search performance for profile-based personalized search strategies.
Low‐cost data communication network for rural telecom network management

The backbone networking infrastructure of rural telecom networks is often costly and is of limited bandwidth. The availability of connectivity such as DSL or leased lines is scarce. In order to keep operational costs low, these rural telecom networks are often kept unmanned and are managed from a centralized network management station (NMS). This often requires a low‐cost, efficient and reliable data communication network (DCN) between the rural telecom equipment and the central NMS. The conventional DCN used for telecom management consists either of leased lines or Internet connectivity. These are often costly and not freely available in rural areas. We have developed a new DCN model, based on dial‐up, which is easily available. Using mathematical models and measurements we show that this DCN meets the QoS requirements of a telecom network at an affordable cost. We have implemented this DCN in corDECT networks. This is in use in India and Tunisia, and is under implementation in other similar countries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.