Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient neutralization of foot-and-mouth disease virus by monovalent antibody binding

Neutralization of an aphthovirus by monovalent binding of an antibody is reported. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) clone C-S8c1 was neutralized by monoclonal antibody (MAb) SD6, which was directed to a continuous epitope within a major antigenic site of the G-H loop of capsid protein VP1. On a molar basis, the Fab fragment was at most fivefold less active in neutralization than the intact antibody, and both blocked virus attachment to cells. Neither the antibody nor the Fab fragment caused aggregation of virions, as evidenced by sucrose gradient sedimentation studies of the antibody-virus complex formed at antibody to virion ratios of 1:50 to 1:10,000. The results of neutralization of infectivity and of ultracentrifugation are fully consistent with structural data based on X-ray crystallographic and cryoelectron microscopy studies, which showed monovalent interaction of the antibody with a critical receptor binding motif Arg-Gly-Asp. The conclusions of these neutralization studies are that (i) bivalent binding of antibody is not a requisite for strong neutralization of aphthoviruses and (ii) aggregation of viral particles, which has been proposed to be the dominant neutralization mechanism of antibodies that bind monovalently to virions, is not necessary for the neutralization of FMDV C-S8c1 by MAb SD6.
A quantitative error measure for the evaluation of roof edge detectors

Crest line extraction remains a hard task in image processing. Indeed, these roof edges represent narrow edges on the image surface and whatever undesirable pixel close to or on the crest line may disturb the detection. This communication presents a new crest line detection overall evaluation. Comparing the ground truth contour image and the candidate crest line image, the proposed algorithm is based upon a new criterion that take into account the list of ground truth, the recall and their associated spacial nearness. Doubtlessly, an efficient evaluation penalizes a misplaced edge point proportionally to the distance to the true contour. This quantitative performance evaluation proves its efficiency on several crest line images of different types, bringing a favorable indicator for tow closest edge images or a poor in the presence of a degraded/distorted candidate edge image.
Do SME Conduct Less Corporate Tax Avoidance

Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) benefit from the tax cut provisions and tax subsidies from SME support policies, and thus are considered to have less motivation to avoid taxes due to the lower tax burden than that of non-SME firms. This study empirically investigates the contrast in the motives for tax avoidance between SME and non-SME firms. Based on the sample consisting of 18,954 audited firms, 18,954 externally audited firms from 2011 to 2013, this study examines book-tax difference (BTD), the difference between accounting profits and taxable income, and estimated corporate tax avoidance (TS), which is the portion of BTD that cannot be explained by total accruals, as a proxy for tax avoidance. (Desai and Dharmapala 2006). The empirical findings are summarized as follows. First, SME hold less motivation for tax avoidance than non-SME firms, as shown by analogous results from both BTD and TS, which are the proxies for corporate tax avoidance. Second, the logistic analysis also demonstrates logistic analysis demonstrates consistent results which also contend that SME tend to hold less motivation for tax avoidance. We conclude that the consistent results can be explained by the smaller tax burden of SME from tax deduction and exemption clauses applied to SME. The present study investigates financial determinants that lead to tax avoidance in SME and empirically test the difference between SME and non-SME firms in tax avoidance. Throughout this study, we intend to propose policy implications for SME subsidies.
Response of Australian veterinarians to the announcement of a Hendra virus vaccine becoming available.

DESIGN A cross-sectional study of private veterinarians providing equine services in Queensland. RESULTS The study revealed that a majority of veterinarians would support the introduction of a Hendra virus (HeV) vaccine. Moreover, almost half of the respondents intended to make vaccination a prerequisite to horse patient presentation. However, participants also responded that a vaccine would not reduce the risk sufficiently to cease or downgrade their HeV management plan and infection control measures. CONCLUSION When devising promoting and marketing campaigns, government agencies and manufacturers should consider private veterinarians' intentions as a significant driver for the uptake of the HeV vaccine.
The effect of a geriatric education program on emergency nurses.

OBJECTIVE In a previous study, emergency nurses gave a high priority to the educational topics of geriatric depression, physical assessment of the elderly, and mental status testing. Our objective was to measure the impact of a 1-day workshop for emergency nurses that addressed these educational needs. METHODS The workshop consisted of case-based didactic sessions addressing (1) physical assessment of the elderly, (2) delirium, depression, and dementia, and (3) a practical approach to mental status testing in the elderly. The educational program was evaluated using 2 methods: (1) before, and 1 month after, the workshop, participants rated their own practice patterns; and (2) during the course of 2 years, changes in the number of referrals for geriatric assessment and home care from a large emergency department in the study area were monitored. RESULTS Of 101 ED nurses who attended the 1-day workshop, 51 completed both preworkshop and postworkshop questionnaires (response rate, 50.5%). the most significant self-reported changes in practice 1 month after the workshop were improved screening for depression and altered mental status in older adults (P <.0001 and P <.01, respectively). Other positive changes were noted for inquiring about unplanned weight loss and assistance received at home. A steady increase in the number of referrals for geriatric assessment and home care was noted from the emergency department being monitored. DISCUSSION Targeted geriatric educational programs can make an impact on the practice of emergency nurses when they are part of an overall, coordinated approach to improving assessment and discharge planning for elderly patients in emergency departments. Mechanisms for reinforcing learning several months after educational events may prove critical to the long-term success of such initiatives.
Can mild cognitive impairment be accurately diagnosed in english speakers from linguistic minorities? Results from the Sydney Memory and Ageing study.

OBJECTIVES : The aim of this article was to examine the prevalence and incidence over 2 years of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in English speakers from linguistic minorities. DESIGN : Cross-sectional and longitudinal with 2-year follow-up. SETTING : Eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. PARTICIPANTS : Eight hundred twenty-seven community-dwelling participants from English-speaking backgrounds (ESB) and 160 participants from non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) recruited through the electoral roll. MEASUREMENTS : Participants were assessed using 11 neuropsychological tests measuring memory, language, attention/processing speed, and executive function. Questionnaires measuring functional impairment and subjective cognitive complaints were completed by participants or informants. RESULTS : We found a two- to threefold higher prevalence of MCI in NESB participants than ESB participants depending on the impairment criterion applied. This difference was because of higher rates of objective cognitive impairment in NESB participants; rates of functional impairment and subjective cognitive complaints did not differ between the groups. This association between MCI prevalence and NESB status was accounted for by the proportion of time the participant spoke English and the proportion of life they had lived in Australia, but not by age, gender, and education. There were no differences between NESB and ESB groups in MCI incidence, dementia incidence, or rates of conversion from MCI to dementia. NESB participants had lower rates of reversion from MCI to normal. CONCLUSIONS : It is difficult to accurately diagnose MCI in persons from linguistic minority groups, even when proficient in English as neuropsychological test scores may not be valid for these groups. English language ability and level of acculturation should be considered when assessing older persons from ethnic minority groups.
ZODIACAL EXOPLANETS IN TIME (ZEIT). I. A NEPTUNE-SIZED PLANET ORBITING AN M4.5 DWARF IN THE HYADES STAR CLUSTER

Studying the properties of young planetary systems can shed light on how the dynamics and structure of planets evolve during their most formative years. Recent K2 observations of nearby young clusters (10–800 Myr) have facilitated the discovery of such planetary systems. Here we report the discovery of a Neptune-sized planet transiting an M4.5 dwarf (K2-25) in the Hyades cluster (650–800 Myr). The light curve shows a strong periodic signal at 1.88 days, which we attribute to spot coverage and rotation. We confirm that the planet host is a member of the Hyades by measuring the radial velocity of the system with the high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer. This enables us to calculate a distance based on K2-25's kinematics and membership to the Hyades, which in turn provides a stellar radius and mass to ≃5%–10%, better than what is currently possible for most Kepler M dwarfs (12%–20%). We use the derived stellar density as a prior on fitting the K2 transit photometry, which provides weak constraints on eccentricity. Utilizing a combination of adaptive optics imaging and high-resolution spectra, we rule out the possibility that the signal is due to a bound or background eclipsing binary, confirming the transits’ planetary origin. K2-25b has a radius ( 3.43 − 0.31 + 0.95 ? > R⊕) much larger than older Kepler planets with similar orbital periods (3.485 days) and host-star masses (0.29 M⊙). This suggests that close-in planets lose some of their atmospheres past the first few hundred million years. Additional transiting planets around the Hyades, Pleiades, and Praesepe clusters from K2 will help confirm whether this planet is atypical or representative of other close-in planets of similar age.
Reconfiguration of nucleosome-depleted regions at distal regulatory elements accompanies DNA methylation of enhancers and insulators in cancer

It is well established that cancer-associated epigenetic repression occurs concomitant with CpG island hypermethylation and loss of nucleosomes at promoters, but the role of nucleosome occupancy and epigenetic reprogramming at distal regulatory elements in cancer is still poorly understood. Here, we evaluate the scope of global epigenetic alterations at enhancers and insulator elements in prostate and breast cancer cells using simultaneous genome-wide mapping of DNA methylation and nucleosome occupancy (NOMe-seq). We find that the genomic location of nucleosome-depleted regions (NDRs) is mostly cell type specific and preferentially found at enhancers in normal cells. In cancer cells, however, we observe a global reconfiguration of NDRs at distal regulatory elements coupled with a substantial reorganization of the cancer methylome. Aberrant acquisition of nucleosomes at enhancer-associated NDRs is associated with hypermethylation and epigenetic silencing marks, and conversely, loss of nucleosomes with demethylation and epigenetic activation. Remarkably, we show that nucleosomes remain strongly organized and phased at many facultative distal regulatory elements, even in the absence of a NDR as an anchor. Finally, we find that key transcription factor (TF) binding sites also show extensive peripheral nucleosome phasing, suggesting the potential for TFs to organize NDRs genome-wide and contribute to deregulation of cancer epigenomes. Together, our findings suggest that “decommissioning” of NDRs and TFs at distal regulatory elements in cancer cells is accompanied by DNA hypermethylation susceptibility of enhancers and insulator elements, which in turn may contribute to an altered genome-wide architecture and epigenetic deregulation in malignancy.
Designing for Kinesthetic Awareness: Revealing User Experiences through Second-Person Inquiry

We consider kinesthetic awareness, the perception of our own body position and movement in space, as a critical value for embodied design within third wave HCI. We designed an interactive sound installation that supports kinesthetic awareness of a participant's micro-movements. The installation's interaction design uses continuous auditory feedback and leverages an adaptive mapping strategy, refining its sensitivity to increase sonic resolution at lower levels of movement activity. The installation uses field recordings as rich source materials to generate a sound environment that attunes to a participant's micro-movements. Through a qualitative study using a second-person interview technique, we gained nuanced insights into the participants' subjective experiences of the installation. These reveal consistent temporal patterns, as participants build on a gradual process of integration to increase the complexity and capacity of their kinesthetic awareness during interaction.
A Reduced-Function Allele Reveals That EARLY FLOWERING3 Repressive Action on the Circadian Clock Is Modulated by Phytochrome Signals in Arabidopsis[C][W]

This work characterizes a hypomorphic allele of ELF3, delineating a functional domain needed to inhibit phytochrome action at ELF3. These findings are consistent with ELF3 being a multifunctional protein that integrates light signals to the circadian clock as a core repressive component of the oscillator. Arabidopsis thaliana EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3) is essential for the generation of circadian rhythms. ELF3 has been proposed to restrict light signals to the oscillator through phytochrome photoreceptors, but that has not been explicitly shown. Furthermore, the genetic action of ELF3 within the clock had remained elusive. Here, we report a functional characterization of ELF3 through the analysis of the elf3-12 allele, which encodes an amino acid replacement in a conserved domain. Circadian oscillations persisted, and unlike elf3 null alleles, elf3-12 resulted in a short circadian period only under ambient light. The period shortening effect of elf3-12 was enhanced by the overexpression of phytochromes phyA and phyB. We found that elf3-12 was only modestly perturbed in resetting of the oscillator and in gating light-regulated gene expression. Furthermore, elf3-12 essentially displayed wild-type development. We identified targets of ELF3 transcriptional repression in the oscillator, highlighting the action at the morning gene PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR9. Taken together, we identified two separable roles for ELF3, one affecting the circadian network and the other affecting light input to the oscillator. This is consistent with a dual function of ELF3 as both an integrator of phytochrome signals and a repressor component of the core oscillator.
Mitigating the Table-Overflow Attack in Software-Defined Networking

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a promising network paradigm for future Internet. The centralized controller and simplified switches replace the traditional complex forwarding devices, and make network management convenient. However, the switches in SDN currently have limited ternary content addressable memory to store specific routing rules from the controller. This bottleneck provokes cyber attacks to overload the switches. Despite existing some countermeasures for such attacks, they are proposed based on simplified attack patterns. In this paper, we review the table-overflow attack using a sophisticated attack pattern. In the attack pattern, attack flows are targeted at their middle hops instead of endpoints. We first define potential targets in the network topology, then we propose three specific traffic features and a monitoring mechanism to detect and locate the attackers. Further, we propose a mitigation mechanism to limit the attack rate using the token bucket model. With the control of token add rate and bucket capacity, it avoids the table overflow on the victim switch. Extensive simulations in different types of topologies and experiments in our testbed are provided to show the performance of our proposal.
Severe phenotype with cis‐acting heterozygous PMP22 mutations

We report on a 20‐year‐old male with severe Charcot–Marie–Tooth (CMT) disease and a de novo deletion (c.281delG, p.G94AfsX17) on the paternal PMP22 allele harboring c.353C>T (p.T118M). RNA‐based sequence analysis confirmed the absence of nonsense‐mediated decay and the presence of the mutant transcripts in Epstein–Barr virus‐transformed lymphoblastoid cells of our patient. His clinical findings included early onset of polyneuropathy, loss of muscle mass with distal pareses, hammer toes, and progressive scoliosis. There was no neuropsychological alteration. Our results suggest that the deletion c.281delG alone is responsible for the severe CMT phenotype. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second report on a proven paternal origin of a de novo single‐base mutation in the PMP22 gene.
Microscale autoradiographic method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of apoptotic DNA fragmentation

A method combining the advantages of electrophoretic DNA fractionation and autoradiography is described for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation that occurs during apoptosis, or “programmed cell death”. This procedure utilizes terminal transferase enzyme to uniformly add one molecule of [α 32P]‐to the 3′‐of DNA fragments. Following gel electrophoresis and autoradiographic analysis, the total amount of radiolabel incorporated into the low molecular weight DNA fraction can be quantitated and used to estimate the degree of apoptotic DNA fragmentation in any given sample. This method requires as little as 15 ng of total cellular DNA and increases the sensitivity of apoptotic DNA detection by at least 100‐fold over the widely used ethidium bromide staining method. The procedure should prove valuable for the analysis of apoptosis in minute quantities of tissues and cultured cells. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
EXOPLANET CHARACTERIZATION BY PROXY: A TRANSITING 2.15 R⊕ PLANET NEAR THE HABITABLE ZONE OF THE LATE K DWARF KEPLER-61

We present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R⊕ planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with a set of spectroscopically similar stars with directly measured radii and temperatures. We apply a stellar prior drawn from the weighted mean of these properties, in tandem with the Kepler photometry, to infer a planetary radius for Kepler-61b of 2.15 ± 0.13 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 273 ± 13 K (given its period of 59.87756 ± 0.00020 days and assuming a planetary albedo of 0.3). The technique of leveraging the physical properties of nearby “proxy” stars allows for an independent check on stellar characterization via the traditional measurements with stellar spectra and evolutionary models. In this case, such a check had implications for the putative habitability of Kepler-61b: the planet is 10% warmer and larger than inferred from K-band spectral characterization. From the Kepler photometry, we estimate a stellar rotation period of 36 days, which implies a stellar age of >1 Gyr. We summarize the evidence for the planetary nature of the Kepler-61 transit signal, which we conclude is 30,000 times more likely to be due to a planet than a blend scenario. Finally, we discuss possible compositions for Kepler-61b with a comparison to theoretical models as well as to known exoplanets with similar radii and dynamically measured masses.
Chronic Blockade of Class I PI3‐Kinase Attenuates Ang II‐induced Cardiac Hypertrophy and Autophagic Alteration

Chronic Ang II stimulation is linked to cardiac remodeling. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms involved are not yet fully known. Here, we studied the chronic effect of Ang II infusion on cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and autophagy; and evaluated the role of class I PI3‐kinase in these actions of Ang II using lentiviral vector‐mediated expression of a dominant negative form of PI3‐kinase subunit p85α in the heart. Subcutaneous 4‐week infusion of Ang II induced severe cardiac hypertrophy and perivascular fibrosis in the heart. These effects of Ang II infusion were associated with a significant reduction in LC3 II, a marker of autophagy and elevated phosphorylated Akt levels. We next examined the role of class I PI3‐kinase in these actions of Ang II by cardiac transduction of Lv‐DNp85 in rats infused with Ang II versus control rats. Cardiac transduction of Lv‐DNp85 significantly abolished Ang II‐induced phosphorylation of Akt in the heart, as well as Ang II‐induced cardiac hypertrophy, perivascular fibrosis, and impairment of cardiac autophagy. Next, we validated the results in cultured cardiomyocytes with the same treatment protocol, which indicated that Ang II treatment resulted in elevated phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR, decreased autophagy, elevated ROS (reactive oxygen species) generation, and enlarged cardiomyocytes. These effects of Ang II were significantly attenuated by transduction of Lv‐DNp85. In summary, Ang II induced impairment of cardiac autophagy via a PI3‐kinase Class I/Akt/mTOR pathway, leading to elevated ROS generation, cardiac hypertrophy, and fibrosis, implicating a novel target for cardiac protection.
Evaluation of shelf stability of antioxidant rich seabuckthorn fruit yoghurt

Antioxidant rich fruit yoghurt was developed utilizing seabuckthorn fruit syrup using yoghurt culture. The resultant product had higher content of fat, protein, carbohydrate and antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, phenols, anthocyanins) when compared to a commercial yoghurt. The shelf stability studies of yoghurt were assessed at room temperature, 15°C and 4°C. The product stored at room temperature exhibited off flavor and acidic taste within a day of storage, while the product stored at 4°C and 15° C exhibited significant increase in acidity and syneresis during 9nth and 6th day of storage period respectively. The total solids, pH and viscosity significantly decreased on 18nth, 9nth and 6th day of storage at 4°C and for 15 ̊C it was on 9nth, 6th and 3rd day of storage respectively. No remarkable change was noted for fat, protein, carbohydrate and antioxidants during storage. The sensory quality of product drastically reduced after 18 days at 4°C and 9 days at 15°C. The count of both yoghurt cultures viz. Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus significantly decreased during the entire storage period. The yeast and mould count was absent in fresh samples, but were detected on 21st day at 4 ̊C and 6th day at 15 ̊C. Likewise, the coliform count was initially absent but was detected on 15th and 6th day when stored at 4 and 15 ̊C temperature respectively. The product was found to be acceptable up to a period of 12 days at 4 ̊C and 3 days at 15 ̊C without posing any threat to the consumers.
Ultraviolet Light and Reptiles, Amphibians

Ultraviolet lighting is integral for the growth and maintenance of many reptile and amphibian species. But providing an adequate source of light can be challenging. Many disease processes seen by veterinarians are attributed to ultraviolet lighting deficiencies. In mammals, disease due to excess ultraviolet lighting has been noted, and some veterinarians feel this may be a potential issue in reptiles and amphibians.