Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infectious Japanese encephalitis virus RNA can be synthesized from in vitro-ligated cDNA templates

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a positive-stranded enveloped RNA virus that belongs to the family Flaviviridae. Genomic JEV RNA is approximately 11 kb long and encodes 10 proteins, 3 structural and 7 nonstructural. A full-length cDNA copy of the JEV genome was constructed by in vitro ligation of two cDNA fragments which encode the 5' (nucleotide positions 1 to 5576) and 3' (nucleotide positions 5577 to 10976) halves of the genome. T7 RNA polymerase transcripts of the ligated full-length cDNA template were infectious when transfected into BHK-21 cells. To identify the recombinant virus, a silent mutation was introduced into the clone encoding the 3' half of the genome, which abolished an XbaI site at nucleotide position 9131. Virus recovered by transfection with the transcripts contained this silent mutation, confirming its identity. Recombinant and parent viruses were identical with respect to growth and plaque production in BHK-21 cells, envelope protein expression in C6/36 cells, and neurovirulence and immunogenicity in mice. Repeated attempts to obtain infectious RNA by transcription from full-length JEV genome cDNA templates cloned into plasmid vectors were unsuccessful. Synthesis of infectious JEV RNA from in vitro-ligated JEV cDNA templates will be useful for molecular and genetic studies of flavivirus replication and virulence.
6 P . A New System Development Life Cycle Model : Vertical , Integrative and Dynamic

Information systems (IS) building, as described in the literature, consist of two main phases: IS strategic planning and IS development. The IS strategic planning phase is performed every few years and produces a long-term strategic plan. The IS development phase is performed annually by IS management and produces a development plan for the next year and outlines development activities. The activities performed in the building process are also called in literature system development life cycle (SDLC). Existing models describe sequential activities with a limited amount of dynamism. We argue that dynamism and iterative development are necessary for business competition. Traditional development models were defined by researchers chronologically before work system theory was formalized, thus appropriate revisions are necessary. We propose a new development model that overcomes the limitations of current SDLC models, and enables better mitigation of IS activities with business management's needs as a focal point.
Synthesis of a 2‐arylsulphonylated tryptophan: the antibacterial activity of bovine lactoferricin peptides containing Trp(2‐Pmc)

A modified tryptophan, β‐[2‐(2,2,5,7,8‐pentamethylchroman‐6‐sulphonyl)‐indol‐3‐yl]alanine, Trp(2 − Pmc) = Tpc has been synthesized. Replacement of tryptophan in a bovine lactoferricin model peptide with the modified tryptophan resulted in peptides with a substantially increased antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The most active peptides against each bacterial strain displayed minimal inhibitory concentrations of 7.5 μg/ml. Copyright © 2002 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Internet Purchasing Decision Behavior And Product Involvement

Internet sales were less than 2 percent of total consumer spending in 2004 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004) and are projected to increase to 15-20 percent of total consumer spending by 2010 (The Economist, 2000). Some researchers note that the future of retailing depends on the Internet. The Internet is also an important tool for college students because it provides entertainment, socializing and study sources. Although college students were early adopters and heavy users of the Internet, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical research about college students' Internet shopping behaviors. It is important to study college students' Internet shopping behaviors because college students are moving into the adult world. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine college students' Internet shopping behaviors based on product involvement. This study focused on college consumers' clothing shopping on the Internet. Clothing was studied because it ranks third in college students' spending on the Internet. This study employed the Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (EBM) Consumer Decision Process model to describe purchasing decisions and Internet shopping behaviors of high and low involvement consumers. Results are based on responses of 4 73 college students aged 18 and older. Involvement scores were used to develop low and high involvement groups. High involvement consumers were more likely to seek information on the location of stores and availability of product or service information than the low involvement consumers. While shopping on the Internet, high product involvement consumers scored higher on shopping orientation factors; brand consciousness, individuality, store choice alternatives, and Internet shopping preference, than low product involvement consumers. Moreover,
Planification probabiliste : une heuristique pour garantir des solutions sûres

Dans ce papier, nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour resoudre les problemes de planification probabiliste en prenant en compte le risque que l'utilisateur est pret a prendre vis a vis de la probabilite d'atteindre les buts. Notre approche garantit le fait que la probabilite d'at-teindre un etat satisfaisant les buts du probleme sera tou-jours superieure a un seuil de probabilite donne. Toute-fois, un tel seuil ne permet pas toujours de tous les at-teindre. C'est pourquoi, notre heuristique estime la proba-bilite d'atteignabilite de chaque but via une version relaxee du probleme, puis selectionne le sous-ensemble de buts at-teignables avec une probabilite superieure a ce seuil. Nous illustrons nos travaux par un probleme d'exploration pla-netaire couramment utilise dans ce contexte. Nos resultats de simulation montrent que l'heuristique proposee selec-tionne les meilleurs buts et que le seuil de probabilite de les atteindre est toujours respecte. Mots Clef Planification dans l'incertain, heuristique, theorie de la de-cision. Abstract In this work, we propose a novel approach to solve pro-babilistic planning problems taking into account the risk that the decision maker is ready to accept regarding the probabilities of reaching the goals. Our approach guarantees that the probability to reach a state satisfying selected goals is above a certain limit threshold. Indeed, we relax the constraints that all goals must be satisfied, and select the most valuable set of goals whose reachability probability is above the threshold. To this end, we propose a goal selection heuristic based on the reachability probability and the cost between goals that are estimated using an abstracted version of the problem. Finally, a planetary exploration problem will be used for illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Our results show that the obtained selections cover the most valuable possible goals and respect the reachability probability threshold.
Diversity of the HO gene encoding an endonuclease for mating‐type conversion in the bottom fermenting yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus

Two types of HO gene were cloned, sequenced and characterized from the bottom fermenting yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus. The HO gene present on the 1500 kb chromosome was designated Sc‐HO (S. cerevisiae‐type HO), because the nucleotide sequence of its promoter region and the open reading frame (ORF) was almost identical to that of the S. cerevisiae laboratory strain HO gene (Lab‐HO). The other HO gene, designated Lg‐HO (Lager‐fermenting‐yeast specific HO), showed 64% and 83% homology with the promoter and ORF of the Lab‐HO at the nucleotide sequence level, respectively, and was located on the 1100 kb chromosome. Analysis of the 4 kb DNA fragment amplified from S. bayanus type strain indicated that the nucleotide sequence of S. bayanus‐HO is almost identical to that of the Lg‐HO. The SSB1 gene located downstream of the HO gene in S. cerevisiae was also found in the 3′ distal region of the Sc‐HO, Lg‐HO and S. bayanus HO genes. These results showed that the genetic arrangement around the HO loci both of S. pastorianus and S. bayanus is identical to S. cerevisiae. Southern analysis has revealed that Saccharomyces sensu stricto contain four types of HO genes; S. paradoxus‐type HO, the Sc‐HO, the Lg‐HO and S. uvarum‐type HO genes. This HO gene diversity provides useful information for the classification of strains belonging to Saccharomyces sensu stricto. The S. pastorianus Sc‐HO, Lg‐HO and S. bayanus‐HO Accession Nos in the DDBJ Nucleotide Sequence Database are AB027449, AB027450 and AB027451, respectively. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bitcoin in China: Price Discovery and Volatility Transmission

As a digit currency with wide popularity in the world, the market performance of Bitcoin in different countries is worthy of attention. This paper analyzes the price discovery and volatility transmission of BitCoin among Chinese market and U.S. market. We show that Bitcoin price in Chinese market has significant influence on U.S. market, while U.S. market has significant impact on Chinese market through volatility.
Locally Released Norepinephrine in the Oxygen-Dependent Regulation of Vascular Tone of Human Umbilical Vein

In a previous study, human umbilical vein preparations constricted at Po2 values above the physiologic intrauterine Po2 range and dilated at hypoxia. Denudation of the endothelium reversed the hypoxic vasodilatation only, suggesting the release of a nonendothelial vasoconstrictor. We therefore hypothesized that norepinephrine from adrenergic nerve terminals could be responsible for the observed constricting effects. We measured intracellular membrane potential and isometric tension of human umbilical vein strips with and without functional adrenergic denervation by 6-OH-dopamine during variation of Po2. With Po2 increasing from 5 to 104 mm Hg, intact preparations depolarized of from −58.6 ± 1.1 mV (SEM) to −53.3 ± 1.0 mV (p < 0.001) and isometric tension increased from 0.673 ± 0.037 g to 0.825 ± 0.044 g (p < 0.02). Intact preparations pretreated with 6-OH-dopamine depolarized from −58.0 ± 0.5 mV to −55.8 ± 0.6 mV (p < 0.01), and isometric tension increased from 0.598 ± 0.040 g to 0.661 ± 0.018 g (p < 0.02). At Po2 values above the physiologic intrauterine umbilical venous Po2 range, membrane potential and isometric tension were significantly lower in preparations with 6-OH-dopamine pretreatment compared with matched controls (p < 0.05). Denudation of the endothelium reversed the hypoxic hyperpolarization and vasodilatation observed in intact preparations. However, membrane potential and isometric tension were not different between endothelium-denuded preparations with and without 6-OH-dopamine pretreatment. We conclude that locally released norepinephrine contributes to the depolarization and vasoconstriction of the human umbilical vein at hyperoxia but does not antagonize the endothelium-dependent vasodilation at hypoxia.
The history of the tetracyclines

The history of the tetracyclines involves the collective contributions of thousands of dedicated researchers, scientists, clinicians, and business executives over the course of more than 60 years. Discovered as natural products from actinomycetes soil bacteria, the tetracyclines were first reported in the scientific literature in 1948. They were noted for their broad spectrum antibacterial activity and were commercialized with clinical success beginning in the late 1940s to the early 1950s. The second‐generation semisynthetic analogs and more recent third‐generation compounds show the continued evolution of the tetracycline scaffold toward derivatives with increased potency as well as efficacy against tetracycline‐resistant bacteria, with improved pharmacokinetic and chemical properties. Their biologic activity against a wide spectrum of microbial pathogens and their uses in mammalian models of inflammation, neurodegeneration, and other biological systems indicate that the tetracyclines will continue to be successful therapeutics in infectious diseases and as potential therapeutics against inflammation‐based mammalian cell diseases.
Field Trials and Performance Monitoring of Distributed Solar Panels Using a Low-Cost Wireless Sensors Network for Domestic Applications

Use of solar panels is gaining an ever increasing foothold in society, especially on the roof of the houses for feeding domestic electrical appliances in recent times. In many situations, the expensive solar panels stop working due to some external nuisances which goes unnoticed to the users. There is a need of a low-cost monitoring system to get information of the defected solar panels for timely repair and maintenance. The design, development, and trial work of a performance monitoring system of distributed solar panels along with automated data logging based on a low-cost wireless sensors network has been reported to help the current situation. The developed system can be used up to 146 V and 15.5 A solar cell systems with automatic selection of best resolutions. The system can be extended for wide range of solar cells for material research and development activities. The fabricated system has been used for field trials and very satisfactory results are obtained.
Predicting the 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease in the United Kingdom: independent and external validation of an updated version of QRISK2

Objective To evaluate the performance of the QRISK2-2011 score for predicting the 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease in an independent UK cohort of patients from general practice and to compare it with earlier versions of the model and a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence version of the Framingham equation. Design Prospective cohort study to validate a cardiovascular risk score with routinely collected data between June 1994 and June 2008. Setting 364 practices from the United Kingdom contributing to The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database. Participants Two million patients aged 30 to 84 years (11.8 million person years) with 93 564 cardiovascular events. Main outcome measure First diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction, angina, coronary heart disease, stroke, and transient ischaemic attack) recorded in general practice records. Results Results from this independent and external validation of QRISK2-2011 indicate good performance data when compared with the NICE version of the Framingham equation. QRISK2-2011 had better ability to identify those at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease than did the NICE Framingham equation. QRISK2-2011 is well calibrated, with reasonable agreement between observed and predicted outcomes, whereas the NICE Framingham equation seems to consistently over-predict risk in men by about 5% and shows poor calibration in women. Conclusions QRISK2-2011 seems to be a useful model, with good discriminative and calibration properties when compared with the NICE version of the Framingham equation. Furthermore, based on current high risk thresholds, concerns exist on the clinical usefulness of the NICE version of the Framingham equation for identifying women at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. At current thresholds the NICE version of the Framingham equation has no clinical benefit in either men or women.
Epstein-Barr Virus and the Somatic Hypermutation of Immunoglobulin Genes in Burkitt's Lymphoma Cells

ABSTRACT It has been suggested that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) might suppress antibody maturation either by facilitating bypass of the germinal center reaction or by inhibiting hypermutation directly. However, by infecting the Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell line Ramos, which hypermutates constitutively and can be considered a transformed analogue of a germinal center B cell, with EBV as well as by transfecting it with selected EBV latency genes, we demonstrate that expression of EBV gene products does not lead to an inhibition of hypermutation. Moreover, we have identified two natural EBV-positive BL cell lines (ELI-BL and BL16) that hypermutate constitutively. Thus, contrary to expectations, EBV gene products do not appear to affect somatic hypermutation.
Robust synthesis of two-degree-of-freedom system for stabilization of ground vehicle instrumentation

This paper deals with features of robust two-degree-of-freedom system assigned for stabilization of information and measuring systems operated on the ground vehicles in difficult conditions accompanied by influence of the parametric and coordinate disturbances. The optimization criterion and state space model of the augmented plant are derived. The design procedure of robust system for stabilization of equipment assigned for operation on the ground vehicles is considered. The two-degree-of-freedom controller based on the robust synthesis is obtained. The results of the synthesized system simulation and their analysis are given.
Discussion on role of forest to control agricultural non-point source pollution in Taihu Lake basin-based on source-sink analysis.

Taihu Lake is located at the center of Changjiang delta region, the Lake and its effluent rivers are important water sources for 40 million around inhabitants and rapidly increasing industrial factories in Shanghai, Ji-angsu and Zhejiang. The pollutants originate mainly from acidy rain, home sewage of the vast number of inhabitants, livestock manure, agricultural fertilizers & pesticides applied over fields in the drainage basin, and the industrial sewage. Due to the kinds of pollutants, the Lake water is getting highly eutrophic, with frequent blooms of blue-green algae. Compared with point-source pollutants, diffuse pollution is much com-plicated and difficult to control. Thus combating non-point pollution (NPP) is paid much great attention. Based on analysis on source-sink of NPP in Taihu Lake basin, it is concluded that the function of forests on NPP control is multiple and important by both source reduction and sink expansion. The primary objective of planting trees through constructing forested wetlands and establishing riparian forest buffers is to control soil & water erosion, decrease agrochemicals application, and improve farming conditions in the region of Taihu Lake basin. Moreover forests help to intercept acidy rain, protect streambanks, uptake nutrients, hold up pollutants and provide habitat for wildlife.
Soft prototyping in the design of military electronics

Reasons for including soft prototyping into the design of new military electronic products are presented. Examples of how soft prototyping has benefited the process of electronic circuit design in one large aerospace corporation are presented. The future of soft prototyping activities related to military electronic product development is discussed. It is concluded that soft prototyping techniques are an efficient and cost-effective approach to many electronic design jobs. In the case of high-complexity ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) designs, soft prototyping is often the only approach that can be effectively used. <<ETX>>
Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance in Developing Economies : The Nigerian Experience

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance. The simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of thirty five (35) companies for the period 2009-2014. The data was retrieved from corporate annual reports of the sampled companies. In this study, the descriptive statistical methods, the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and the Two Stage Least Squares regression analysis were used in the estimation of the models and in the determination of the causal relationship between the variables. Using the robust estimates generated by the 2SLS which addresses the challenge of simultaneity bias modelling corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a function of corporate financial performance (CFP). CFP is positive and also statistically significant. On the contrary, when CFP is modelled as a function of CSR and using the robust 2SLS, CSR is positive though not statistically significant. From the evaluation of the results, it appears that causality runs from CFP to CSR and not the reverse. This implies that the profitability of a firm has a positive and significant effect on the extent of its CSR disclosures and more profitable companies could result in more CSR activities. The study recommends that companies may need to be involved in more CSR activities
Copper/Zinc-Superoxide Dismutase Is Required for Oxytetracycline Resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae, along with other eukaryotes, is resistant to tetracyclines. We found that deletion ofSOD1 (encoding Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase) renderedS. cerevisiae hypersensitive to oxytetracycline (OTC): asod1Δ mutant exhibited a >95% reduction in colony-forming ability at an OTC concentration of 20 μg ml−1, whereas concentrations of up to 1,000 μg ml−1 had no effect on the growth of the wild type. OTC resistance was restored in the sod1Δ mutant by complementation with wild-type SOD1. The effect of OTC appeared to be cytotoxic and was not evident in a ctt1Δ (cytosolic catalase) mutant or in the presence of tetracycline.SOD1 transcription was not induced by OTC, suggesting that constitutive SOD1 expression is sufficient for wild-type OTC resistance. OTC uptake levels in wild-type and sod1Δ strains were similar. However, lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation were both enhanced during exposure of the sod1Δ mutant, but not the wild type, to OTC. We propose that Sod1p protects S. cerevisiae against a mode of OTC action that is dependent on oxidative damage.
ExpoNET: A Flexible Platform for Concurrent Experiments on Programmable Infrastructure

Network community needs a flexible platform for network experiment of new architectures, algorithms and protocols in the process of network innovation. However, building such a platform faces lots of challenges due to complicate requirements. In this paper, we present ExpoNet, a platform for rapid concurrent experiment of network innovation on the virtualized programmable infrastructure. ExpoNet integrates both software- and hardware-based router virtualization technologies to provide a flexible approach to configure and customize both the control plane and data plane while satisfying various experiment requirements. We implement ExpoNet, and design a management system to efficiently provide the users with convenient interface to access the platform. Based on its implementation, we present a live network experiment of Network Tomography, which infers the network inner performance according to the observed results of outside nodes. The experiment design and related results show the flexibility and effectiveness of our ExpoNet.
Review: Therapies for interstitial lung disease: past, present and future

As our understanding of the pathobiology and natural history of the various forms of interstitial lung disease (ILD) has evolved, so have our approaches to treating this heterogeneous group of lung disorders. The earliest pharmacologic agents used to treat various forms of ILD were corticosteroids, and corticosteroids are currently the mainstay of therapy for many forms of ILD. However, it has become clear that corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory agents lack efficacy for many forms of ILD, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and newer therapies that are in clinical trials target the fibrogenic process and/or secondary pulmonary hypertension (PH) that is present in various forms of fibrotic lung disease. Novel therapies, such as the use of biologic agents (antibodies and cell cycle inhibitors) or stem cell therapies will undoubtedly evolve as new research is performed and clinical trials are undertaken. Lung transplantation remains an option for advanced lung disease that is progressive and unresponsive to non-surgical therapies.