Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Murine cytomegalovirus infection of mouse macrophages stimulates early expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS)1 and SOCS3

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a species-specific β-herpesvirus that infects for life up to 80% of the world’s population and causes severe morbidity in at-risk immunocompromised populations. Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS)1 and SOCS3 are host proteins that act as inducible negative feedback regulators of cytokine signaling and have been implicated in several ocular diseases and viral infections. We recently found in our mouse model of experimental cytomegalovirus retinitis that subretinally-injected murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) stimulates ocular SOCS1 and SOCS3 during retrovirus-induced immune suppression of murine AIDS (MAIDS), and that infiltrating macrophages are prominent cellular sources of retinal SOCS1 and SOCS3 expression. Herein we investigate possible virologic mechanisms whereby MCMV infection may stimulate SOCS1 and/or SOCS3 expression in cell culture. We report that infection of IC-21 mouse macrophages with MCMV propagated through the salivary glands of BALB/c mice, but not from tissue culture in C57BL/6 fibroblasts, transiently stimulates SOCS1 and SOCS3 mRNA transcripts, but not SOCS5 mRNA. Viral tegument proteins are insufficient for this stimulation, as replication-deficient UV-inactivated MCMV fails to stimulate SOCS1 or SOCS3 in IC-21 macrophages. By contrast, infection of murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) with either productive MCMV or UV-inactivated MCMV significantly stimulates SOCS1 and SOCS3 mRNA expression early after infection. Treatment of MCMV-infected IC-21 mouse macrophages with the antiviral drug ganciclovir significantly decreases MCMV-stimulated SOCS3 expression at 3 days post-infection. These data suggest cell type-specific, different roles for viral immediate early or early gene expression and/or viral tegument proteins in the early stimulation of SOCS1 and SOCS3 during MCMV infection. Furthermore, putative biphasic stimulation of SOCS3 during late MCMV infection of IC-21 mouse macrophages may occur by divergent virologic mechanisms.
Tapping Your Own Excellence Using NLP

Explains the approach of neuro‐linguistic programming (NLP). Outlines its use in enabling managers to uncover their own wisdom and excellence and explores its distinctive features. Proposes that NLP can be applied to everyone and can help individuals to overcome their lack of confidence and can provide the techniques needed to perform at optimum levels.
Special Issue: Organizational Design: Emergent by Design: Performance and Transformation at Infosys Technologies

We explore how organizations may be designed to transform themselves even as they continue to perform seamlessly on a day-to-day basis. Our inquiry frame recognizes that organizational designs comprise several elementspeople, technologies, processes, and governance. Our study of an exemplary organization, Infosys Technologies, yields two insights. At Infosys, each design element is seeded with generative properties. As these design elements interact, reinforcing and balancing one another, an overall organizational platform of resources, capabilities, and options emerges. The company draws on this emergent platform to perform in real time even as it transforms itself to adapt to changing environments.
Optical Imaging Reveals Characteristic Seizure Onsets, Spread Patterns, and Propagation Velocities in Hippocampal–Entorhinal Cortex Slices of Juvenile Rats

We have combined recordings with extracellular microelectrodes or ion-sensitive electrodes and imaging of intrinsic optical signal changes to study the spatiotemporal pattern of seizure onset and spread during development. We have employed the entorhinal cortex-hippocampus brain slice preparation of juvenile rats at different stages of postnatal maturation. Three age groups were analyzed: 4-6 days (age group I), 10-14 days (age group II), and 20-23 days (age group III). Seizure-like events were induced by perfusion of slices with Mg(2+)-free artificial cerebrospinal fluid thereby removing the Mg(2+) block of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor. Seizure susceptibility was highest in age groups II and III. In age group I seizure-like events originated mainly in the hippocampus proper. Seizure-like events in age group II originated mainly in the entorhinal cortex and this tendency was even more pronounced in age group III. Invasion of the hippocampal formation via the perforant path-dentate gyrus and via the subiculum was seen in age groups I and II. In contrast, in age group III the hippocampus was invaded exclusively via the subiculum pathway. The velocity of spread at which seizure-like events propagated within different regions of the slice increased with postnatal age. The characteristics of onset, spread patterns, and propagation velocities as revealed by this study allow insight into the evolving properties of the developing brain.
Using Adaptive Thresholding and Skewness Correction to Detect Gray Areas in Melanoma In Situ Images

The incidence of melanoma in situ (MIS) is growing significantly. Detection at the MIS stage provides the highest cure rate for melanoma, but reliable detection of MIS with dermoscopy alone is not yet possible. Adjunct dermoscopic instrumentation using digital image analysis may allow more accurate detection of MIS. Gray areas are a critical component of MIS diagnosis, but automatic detection of these areas remains difficult because similar gray areas are also found in benign lesions. This paper proposes a novel adaptive thresholding technique for automatically detecting gray areas specific to MIS. The proposed model uses only MIS dermoscopic images to precisely determine gray area characteristics specific to MIS. To this aim, statistical histogram analysis is employed in multiple color spaces. It is demonstrated that skew deviation due to an asymmetric histogram distorts the color detection process. We introduce a skew estimation technique that enables histogram asymmetry correction facilitating improved adaptive thresholding results. These histogram statistical methods may be extended to detect any local image area defined by histograms.
Micro adaptivity in Vectorwise

Performance of query processing functions in a DBMS can be affected by many factors, including the hardware platform, data distributions, predicate parameters, compilation method, algorithmic variations and the interactions between these. Given that there are often different function implementations possible, there is a latent performance diversity which represents both a threat to performance robustness if ignored (as is usual now) and an opportunity to increase the performance if one would be able to use the best performing implementation in each situation. Micro Adaptivity, proposed here, is a framework that keeps many alternative function implementations (flavors) in a system. It uses a learning algorithm to choose the most promising flavor potentially at each function call, guided by the actual costs observed so far. We argue that Micro Adaptivity both increases performance robustness, and saves development time spent in finding and tuning heuristics and cost model thresholds in query optimization. In this paper, we (i) characterize a number of factors that cause performance diversity between primitive flavors, (ii) describe an e-greedy learning algorithm that casts the flavor selection into a multi-armed bandit problem, and (iii) describe the software framework for Micro Adaptivity that we implemented in the Vectorwise system. We provide micro-benchmarks, and an overall evaluation on TPC-H, showing consistent improvements.
New Media Practices in Brazil | Free, Social and Inclusive: Appropriation and Resistance of New Media Technologies in Brazil

This article analyzes how new media are being appropriated within the Brazilian society. Exploring a range of new media practices—from the use of social network sites, microblogging, gaming, music, video production, and digital photography to youth media programs, LAN houses, and online communities—this article examines changes in the production, consumption, and distribution of new media in Brazil. Specifically, it explores different orientations around new media technology as they emerge in relation to government policies, (new) media industries and ordinary citizens interested in social interaction, entertainment, and information-gathering through new media technologies. I further reveal how three key concepts dominate attitudes and values around new media technologies: free, inclusive, and social. Connecting these values to theories of appropriation in the Latin American region, I conclude by exploring how new media practices reflect, produce, and reproduce Brazilian cultural norms among Brazilians.
High Reflectance Multiple Step Metal Grating for Multichannel Reflector

The multiple step subwavelength metal grating with relief structure is designed and analyzed in which the profile of grating structure is having a relief structure with multiple steps. The optical presentation of traditional structure is evaluated and compared in terms of reflectivity over visible and ultra violet spectrum with the help of Opti-FDTD. It is shown that, near the ultra violet band multiple reflections can be found compared to traditional metal grating in the same parameters. With these characteristics, designed metal grating with multiple steps is expected to find applications in optical communication as multichannel reflector.
An Automated Testing Suite for Computer Music Environments

Software development beneﬁts from systematic testing with respect to implementation, optimization, and maintenance. Automated testing makes it easy to execute a large number of tests efﬁciently on a regular basis, leading to faster development and more reliable software. Systematic testing is not widely adopted within the computer music community, where software patches tend to be continuously modiﬁed and optimized during a project. Consequently, bugs are often discovered during rehearsal or performance, resulting in literal “show stoppers”. This paper presents a testing environment for computer music systems, ﬁrst developed for the Jamoma framework and Max. The testing environment works with Max 5 and 6, is independ from any 3rd-party objects, and can be used with non-Jamoma patches as well.
Autonomous measurement of speech intelligibility utilizing automatic speech recognition

Measures of speech intelligibility are an essential tool for diagnosing hearing impairment and for tuning hearing aid parameters. This study explores the potential of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for conducting autonomous listening tests. In these tests (e.g., in the Oldenburg sentence matrix test employed here) the responses of participants are usually logged by a (human) supervisor. The target value is the speech re-ception threshold (SRT), i.e., the signal-to-noise ratio at which 50% speech intelligibility is achieved. We explore what ASR error rates can be obtained for such responses, and how ASR errors affect the measured SRT value. To this end, a speech database was recorded that contains utterances from 20 speakers and covers different levels of language complexity, ranging from simple ﬁve-word sentences to utterances as produced in typical human-human interactions during testing. While for the most complex speech material, the achievable SRT accuracy was not satisfactory, the ASR performance for sentences without out-of-vocabulary words was below 1.3% and hence sufﬁ-cient to obtain a test-retest reliability of only 0.5dB, which is identical to the reliability in human-supervised tests.
Anthropology and the Making of Chumash Tradition1

Anthropologists employ concepts of cultural persistence, indigenous resistance, and primitivist imagery which mystify their own roles in the construction of Chumash identity and tradition. We attempt to demystify the scholars' remembering, forgetting, and imagining of the Chumash past that has helped to construct an influential Chumash Traditionalism since the 1960s, and we discuss how scholarly advances in understanding the fluidity of cultural identities now contest Chumash Traditionalism. We examine the variety of roles played by anthropologists in this process of identity negotiation, especially in traditional‐cultural‐property evaluation and contract archaeology. The origin of the current sacredness of Point Conception, California, provides an issue to frame this examination. We find that anthropological practice and Chumash identity and tradition are so deeply entangled that there is little hope that anthropologists can avoid participating in the self‐determination of Chumash people. We conclude that this creates a great need to historicize anthropology's role in shaping and constraining identity and tradition until further progress can be made in resolving the ethical dilemmas of the anthropological study of cultural creativity.
He listens . . . and never gossips : Dpiritual coping without Church support among older, predominantly African-American caregivers of persons with HIV

Older persons are frequently called upon to provide care to their younger relatives with advanced HIV Disease. This qualitative study of convenience sample of 20 older minority informal caregivers of HIV-infected adults and children, all but two of whom were African American, was designed to explore their experiences with HIV-related social support and HIV-related stigma. However, a serendipitous finding was that their major source of support and strength was not social; the respondents were sustained not by relationships with humans but through their personal relationships with Jesus, God, or the Lord. Although the Protestant Christian faith was their primary coping mechanism, they did not tend to disclose the presence of HIV in the family to their churches or pastors, usually due to fear of the repercussions of HIV-related stigma. Thus religion was a positive coping mechanism for their HIV caregiving but the church itself was not. Researchers and practitioners need to understand this irony, and clergy and lay persons in religious institutions should work to remove the fear of HIV-related stigma which precludes church members from asking their congregations for help and social support that is related to HIV caregiving.
Early menarche and psychopathological symptoms in young Chinese women.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the psychopathological symptoms, suicide, and self-harming behaviors among students with early, on-time, and late menarche in high school and college and the association of early menarche with these disorders. METHODS The design consisted of a cross-sectional study of 5597 high school students and 2768 college students. Menarche age, suboptimal mental health status, anxiety, depression, suicide, and self-harming behaviors were obtained by self-report questionnaire. RESULTS In high school students, all the disorders occurred at significantly higher frequency in those with early menarche than in those with on-time and late menarche. In college students, only suboptimal mental health status, depression, and suicidal ideation happened at significantly higher frequency in the early menarche group than in the other two groups. The college group had a lower frequency of all the disorders than the high school group for all three groups of girls, that is, with early, on-time, or late menarche. In a multivariate logistic regression model, early menarche persisted as a risk factor for all the disorders after other factors were controlled. CONCLUSIONS Psychopathological symptoms, suicide, and self-harming behaviors are more common in early menarche students than in on-time and late menarche students. The effects of early menarche on the disorders might dissipate over time. Early menarche might serve as a predictor for the disorders in Chinese girls.
Mobility robustness optimization beyond Doppler effect and WSS assumption

Mobility robustness is often understood as making the radio link Doppler-resistent. However, guaranteeing proper cell changes, e.g. handovers, is another, as important and at least as challenging aspect beyond Doppler and wide sense stationarity (WSS) assumption. This paper tries to describe the complex optimization problem with scientific methods, in order to catalyze future academic work in the interesting field of minimizing handover problems. Simulation results will be presented for intra-frequency mobility robustness optimization (MRO) distinguishing network-wide, cell-specific and cell-pair specific optimization.
Physical activity, fitness, and dyspnea perception in children with congenital diaphragmatic hernia

We assessed whether physical activity could influence the performance and perception of dyspnea in children who were operated on for high risk congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). We hypothesized that CDH children with normal activity would have better lung function and exercise performance level when compared to sedentary CDH subjects.
Estimation of Parameters for a Mathematical Model of Growth Hormone Secretion

Here, we describe partial calibration of a parsimonious mathematical model of growth hormone (GH) secretion. From first principles, we derived a model of the effects on GH secretion from pituitary somatotrophs of stimulation by GH‐releasing factor (GRF) or GH secretagogue, and of inhibition by somatostatin. We obtained a concise model by collapsing the many processes of the signal transduction cascade into a single step broadly reflecting the initial binding of GRF to its receptors. In the model, GH secretion is proportional to the rate of binding of GRF to activatable receptors. Desensitization occurs because of reduction of free receptors/available effector units, and resensitization occurs as those lost are replaced. This replacement is speeded up in the presence of somatostatin, which also inhibits GH secretion by reducing the constant of proportionality between the rate of GH secretion and the rate of GRF binding. We derived simple mathematical equations for the rate of GH secretion and cumulative secretion. Using these, we tested the model against data obtained from experiments performed in vitro, and made it quantitative using rigorous statistical approaches to optimize parameter estimates. The behaviour of the calibrated model matches experimental observations closely.
Genome expression and mRNA maturation at late stages of productive adenovirus type 2 infection

RNA from adenovirus 2-infected KB cells was annealed in liquid with RNA in vast excess to viral heavy (l) and light (r) 32P-labeled DNA strands. Hybridization kinetics were analyzed by computer to estimate the number of viral RNA abundance classes, their relative concentrations, and the fraction of each DNA strand from which they originated. Early whole cell RNA extracted 5 h postinfection annealed rapidly to 10 to 15% of l and r strands and then slowly to final values of 60 and 40% of l and r strands. By 9 h postinfection the expression of late genes was apparent and whole cell RNA annealed to 20 and 75% of l and r strands. Whole cell RNA extracted between 12 and 36 h postinfection annealed to 7 to 15% and 75 to 90% of l and r strands. Late nuclear RNA hybridized to 10 and 90% of l and r strands, and late polyribosomal RNA hybridized to 20 and 75% of l and r strands. Based upon kinetic analyses, we estimate that mRNA synthesized exclusively during late stages arises from about 6 to 8% and 45 to 49% of l and r strands. This assumes that the early class I mRNA (in low concentration late) originates from 8 to 10% and 6 to 10% of l and r strands and that early class II mRNA (in high concentration late) is derived from 2% and 8 to 13% of l and r strands. Mixing experiments indicated that early mRNA is a subset of RNA extracted from polyribosomes late after infection and that late nuclear RNA contains sequences complementary to early l strand class I nRNA. RNA-RNA hybrids were isolated from late mRNA containing sequences from 60% of l and r strands, but it is not known when these were synthesized, and therefore whether complementary RNA transcripts are synthesized late after infection, as they are known to be synthesized early. These results demonstrate that portions of the genome are transcribed into RNA sequences that remain confined to the nucleus and are not exported to polyribosomes as mRNA.
Assessing Exercise Involvement among Participants in Health and Fitness Centres

Abstract We tested the reproducibility of the factor structure and the predictive efficacy of the modified involvement scale (MIS) among 260 Greek-speaking exercise participants aged from 15 to 71 years. Confirmatory factor analysis did not clearly support the hypothesized five-factor structure. Subsequent exploratory factor analyses revealed three factors, labelled positive outlook, social bonding and identity expression. Linear regression analyses illustrated that the emergent solution was an effective predictor of other constructs that have demonstrated utility for leisure service providers (i.e., psychological commitment, satisfaction and behavioural loyalty). While the hypothesized factor structure of the MIS was not supported by these data, the emergent three-factor solution bore some resemblance to solutions emerging from prior work. The performance of the MIS within the Greek exercise context can be attributed to the incongruence in meaning that Greek exercise participants ascribe to the activity and item wording. Further work on item wording is required to better refine the MIS for Greek recreationists. None the less, this work adds to a growing literature documenting the utility of enduring involvement for understanding leisure behaviour and demonstrating its potential for identifying loyal consumers.
A Pheromone Based Model for Ant Based Clustering

Swarm intelligence is a collective effort of simple agents working locally but resulting in wonderful patterns. Labor division, decentralized control, stigmergy and self organization are the major components of swarm intelligence. Ant based clustering is inspired by brood sorting in ant colonies, an example of decentralized and self organized work. Stigmergy in ant colonies is via a chemical pheromone. This paper proposes a pheromone based ant clustering algorithm. In the proposed method, ant agents use pheromone to communicate the place to make the clusters, not the path as in real ants. The pheromone concentration helps to decide pick and drop of objects with less parameters and calculations. The simulations have shown good and dense cluster results.
ADAPTATION OF A STRAIN OF PLASMODIUM VIVAX FROM INDIA TO NEW WORLD MONKEYS, CHIMPANZEES, AND ANOPHELINE MOSQUITOES

A strain of Plasmodium vivax from India was adapted to develop in splenectomized Saimiri boliviensis, Aotus lemurinus griseimembra, A vociferans, A. nancymai, A. azarae boliviensis, hybrid Aotus monkeys, and splenectomized chimpanzees. Infections were induced via the inoculation of sporozoites dissected from the salivary glands of Anopheles stephensi and An. dirus mosquitoes to 12 Aotus and 8 Saimiri monkeys; transmission via the bites of infected An. stephensi was made to 1 Aotus monkey and 1 chimpanzee. The intravenous passage of infected erythrocytes was made to 9 Aotus monkeys and 4 chimpanzees. Gametocytes in 13 Aotus monkeys and 4 chimpanzees were infectious to mosquitoes. Infection rates were markedly higher in mosquitoes fed on chimpanzees. PCR studies on 10 monkeys injected with sporozoites revealed the presence of parasites before their detection by microscopic examination. The India VII strain of P. vivax develops in Aotus and Saimiri monkeys and chimpanzees following the injection of parasitized erythrocytes, or sporozoites, or both. The transmission rate via sporozoites to New World monkeys of approximately 50% may be too low for the testing of sporozoite vaccines or drugs directed against the exoerythrocytic stages. However, the strain is highly infectious to commonly available laboratory-maintained anopheline mosquitoes. Mosquito infection is especially high when feedings are made with gametocytes from splenectomized chimpanzees.