Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Live-Attenuated Measles Virus Vaccine Targets Dendritic Cells and Macrophages in Muscle of Nonhuman Primates

ABSTRACT Although live-attenuated measles virus (MV) vaccines have been used successfully for over 50 years, the target cells that sustain virus replication in vivo are still unknown. We generated a reverse genetics system for the live-attenuated MV vaccine strain Edmonston-Zagreb (EZ), allowing recovery of recombinant (r)MVEZ. Three recombinant viruses were generated that contained the open reading frame encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) within an additional transcriptional unit (ATU) at various positions within the genome. rMVEZEGFP(1), rMVEZEGFP(3), and rMVEZEGFP(6) contained the ATU upstream of the N gene, following the P gene, and following the H gene, respectively. The viruses were compared in vitro by growth curves, which indicated that rMVEZEGFP(1) was overattenuated. Intratracheal infection of cynomolgus macaques with these recombinant viruses revealed differences in immunogenicity. rMVEZEGFP(1) and rMVEZEGFP(6) did not induce satisfactory serum antibody responses, whereas both in vitro and in vivo rMVEZEGFP(3) was functionally equivalent to the commercial MVEZ-containing vaccine. Intramuscular vaccination of macaques with rMVEZEGFP(3) resulted in the identification of EGFP+ cells in the muscle at days 3, 5, and 7 postvaccination. Phenotypic characterization of these cells demonstrated that muscle cells were not infected and that dendritic cells and macrophages were the predominant target cells of live-attenuated MV. IMPORTANCE Even though MV strain Edmonston-Zagreb has long been used as a live-attenuated vaccine (LAV) to protect against measles, nothing is known about the primary cells in which the virus replicates in vivo. This is vital information given the push to move toward needle-free routes of vaccination, since vaccine virus replication is essential for vaccination efficacy. We have generated a number of recombinant MV strains expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein. The virus that best mimicked the nonrecombinant vaccine virus was formulated according to protocols for production of commercial vaccine virus batches, and was subsequently used to assess viral tropism in nonhuman primates. The virus primarily replicated in professional antigen-presenting cells, which may explain why this LAV is so immunogenic and efficacious.
Exploring the ameliorative potential of probiotic Dahi containing Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum on dextran sodium sulphate induced colitis in mice

Conventional medical therapies for ulcerative colitis (UC) are still limited due to the adverse side effects like dose-dependent diarrhoea and insufficient potency to keep in remission for long-term periods. So, new alternatives that provide more effective and safe therapies for ulcerative colitis are constantly being sought. In the present study, probiotic LaBb Dahi was selected for investigation of its therapeutic effect on DSS-induced colitis model in mice. LaBb Dahi was prepared by co-culturing Dahi culture of Lactococci along with selected strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus LaVK2 and Bifidobacterium bifidum BbVK3 in buffalo milk. Four groups of mice (12 each) were fed for 17 d with buffalo milk (normal control), buffalo milk plus DSS (Colitis control), Dahi plus DSS, and LaBb Dahi plus DSS, respectively, with basal diet. The disease activity scores, weight loss, organ weight, colon length, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and β-glucoronidase activity was assessed, and the histopathological picture of the colon of mice was studied. All colitis control mice evidenced significant increase in MPO, β-glucoronidase activity and showed high disease activity scores along with histological damage to colonic tissue. Feeding with LaBb Dahi offered significant reduction in MPO activity, β-glucoronidase activity and improved disease activity scores. We found significant decline in length of colon, organ weight and body weight in colitis induced controls which were improved significantly by feeding LaBb Dahi. The present study suggests that LaBb Dahi can be used as a potential nutraceutical intervention to combat UC related changes and may offer effective adjunctive treatment for management of UC.
The Role of Dehumanization in Understanding Responses to Sex Offenders in the Community

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . vii LIST OF FIGURES . x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 General Findings Regarding Responses to Offenders . 2 1.2 Findings Regarding Responses to Sex Offenders . 4 1.2.1 Beliefs about Sex Offender Characteristics . 5 1.2.2 Support for Treatment and Punishment of Sex Offenders . 7 1.2.3 Support for Sex Offender Legislation . 11 1.3 Factors Influencing Responses to Sex Offenders . 16 1.3.1 Offender and Offense Characteristics . 16 1.3.2 Participant Characteristics . 18 1.3. 3 Dehumanization . 21 1.3. 3.1 Affective consequences of dehumanization . 22 1.3. 3.2 Social consequences of dehumanization . 23 1.4 Community Reintegration of Sex Offenders . 25 1.4. 1 The Role of the Community in Offender Reintegration . 26 1.4. 2 Barriers to Reintegration . 27 1.4. 2.1 Unemployment . 27 1.4. 2.2 Inadequate housing . 28 1.4. 2.3 Denial of treatment and services . 30 1.4. 2.4 Stigma and isolation . 31 1.4. 3 Humanistic Approaches to Sex Offender Reintegration . 32 1.5 Overview of Current Research and Hypotheses . 34 CHAPTER 2: PRINCIPAL STUDY . 37 2.1 Participants . 37 2.2 Materials . 37 2.2.1 Vignettes . 38 2.2.2 Dehumanization . 39 2.2.2.1 Attribution of dehumanized traits . 40 2.2.2.2 Attribution of emotional capacity . 41 2.2.2.3 Evocation of dehumanizing affect . 42
Development of Tumor-Infiltrating CD8+ T Cell Memory Precursor Effector Cells and Antimelanoma Memory Responses Are the Result of Vaccination and TGF-β Blockade during the Perioperative Period of Tumor Resection

A main goal of cancer immunology research is the formation of Ag-specific memory T cell immunity capable of activation upon tumor re-encounter. The requirements necessary to overcome the inhibitory signals present in the tumor microenvironment and form such memory T cell responses are unknown. In contrast to previous studies targeting tumors expressing highly immunogenic model Ags, we demonstrate that alleviating tumor-induced suppression along with vaccination against authentic Ags during the perioperative period provides long-lasting protection against a highly suppressive and poorly immunogenic melanoma. In this study, we employed DNA vaccination with an immunologically optimized mouse melanoma-shared Ag, Trp1ee/ng, combined with systemic TGF-β blockade during the perioperative period of primary tumor resection, to confer protection against B16 melanoma, and against JBRH, an independently derived melanoma unrelated to B16. Importantly, we demonstrate that correlative to memory responses, perioperative immunotherapy increases the formation of tumor-infiltrating and tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells expressing low levels of the transcription factor T-bet, defined as memory precursor effector cells. We show that conditions for an immunologically fertile environment are met when TGF-β blockade and vaccination are applied during the perioperative period of primary tumor resection. These findings address limitations of current CD8+ T cell immunotherapies against cancer by generating effective CD8+ T cell memory recall responses.
Can interbreeding of wild and artificially propagated animals be prevented by using broodstock selected for a divergent life history?

Two strategies have been proposed to avoid negative genetic effects of artificially propagated individuals on wild populations: (i) integration of wild and captive populations to minimize domestication selection and (ii) segregation of released individuals from the wild population to minimize interbreeding. We tested the efficacy of the strategy of segregation by divergent life history in a steelhead trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, system, where hatchery fish were selected to spawn months earlier than the indigenous wild population. The proportion of wild ancestry smolts and adults declined by 10–20% over the three generations since the hatchery program began. Up to 80% of the naturally produced steelhead in any given year were hatchery/wild hybrids. Regression model selection analysis showed that the proportion of hatchery ancestry smolts was lower in years when stream discharge was high, suggesting a negative effect of flow on reproductive success of early‐spawning hatchery fish. Furthermore, proportions of hybrid smolts and adults were higher in years when the number of naturally spawning hatchery‐produced adults was higher. Divergent life history failed to prevent interbreeding when physical isolation was ineffective, an inadequacy that is likely to prevail in many other situations.
The Intercultural Sensitivity and Social Self-esteem of High School Students

Key words: social self-esteem, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural competence ABSTRACT The Subject of this study is to examine the intercultural sensitivity and social self-esteem in a sample of adolescent, third and fourth grade students of the International School of Sarajevo. The Instruments will consist of The Social Self-Esteem Inventory (Lawson et al., 1979) and The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Chen i Starosta, 2000). The results have shown a positive correlation between these two variables, and statistically significant correlation between social self-esteem with all facets of intercultural sensitivity. The female students reported higher scores in social self-esteem and are greater in intercultural sensitivity than male students. There were no statistically significant differences in these variables between the students of the third and the fourth grade, furthermore the effect of gender or class was not determined. The female students have higher scores in performance on all five aspects of intercultural sensitivity, also third grade students have higher average scores than those from the fourth grade on three facets of this variable (the other two are equal). Pedagogical implications of intercultural communication training and increasing social self-esteem have also been discussed.
Lengths and heights of random walk excursions

Consider a simple symmetric random walk on the line. The parts of the random walk between consecutive returns to the origin are called excursions. The heights and lengths of these excursions can be arranged in decreasing order. In this paper we give the exact and limiting distributions of these ranked quantities. These results are analogues of the corresponding results of Pitman and Yor [1997, 1998, 2001] for Brownian motion.
When the going gets tough: behavioural type-dependent space use in the sleepy lizard changes as the season dries

Understanding space use remains a major challenge for animal ecology, with implications for species interactions, disease spread, and conservation. Behavioural type (BT) may shape the space use of individuals within animal populations. Bolder or more aggressive individuals tend to be more exploratory and disperse further. Yet, to date we have limited knowledge on how space use other than dispersal depends on BT. To address this question we studied BT-dependent space-use patterns of sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) in southern Australia. We combined high-resolution global positioning system (GPS) tracking of 72 free-ranging lizards with repeated behavioural assays, and with a survey of the spatial distributions of their food and refuge resources. Bayesian generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) showed that lizards responded to the spatial distribution of resources at the neighbourhood scale and to the intensity of space use by other conspecifics (showing apparent conspecific avoidance). BT (especially aggressiveness) affected space use by lizards and their response to ecological and social factors, in a seasonally dependent manner. Many of these effects and interactions were stronger later in the season when food became scarce and environmental conditions got tougher. For example, refuge and food availability became more important later in the season and unaggressive lizards were more responsive to these predictors. These findings highlight a commonly overlooked source of heterogeneity in animal space use and improve our mechanistic understanding of processes leading to behaviourally driven disease dynamics and social structure.
Exploration of Versions across Multiple Documents

Introduction T need to compare two or more documents arises in a variety of situations. Some instances include detection of plagiarism in academic settings and comparing versions of computer programs. Extensive research has been performed on comparing documents based on their content (Si et al., 1997; Brin et al., 1995) and there also exist several tools such as windiff to visually compare a pair of documents. However, little work has been done on providing an effective visual interface to facilitate the comparison of more than two documents simultaneously. The Versioning Machine (Schreibman et al., 2003) is a web-based interface that provides the facility to view multiple versions of a document, along with the changes across versions. Motivated by the Versioning Machine (VM), we build a tool MultiVersioner that facilitates viewing multiple versions of multiple documents at once, and provides the user with a rich set of information regarding their comparison. The primary user during the development of MultiVersioner was Tanya Clement, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Maryland, who researches the works of experimental poets.
A channel estimation algorithm for MIMO-SCFDE systems over fast time-varying multipath channels

This paper considers a novel pilot-assisted channel estimation algorithm for multiple-input-multiple-output with single-carrier frequency-domain-equalization (MIMO-SCFDE) systems over fast time-varying multipath channels. Given that the fast time-varying channels can no longer support the assumption that the channel frequency-domain response remains invariant for the duration of one block, most of the channel estimation methods cannot be applied directly in it. We put forward a noise-eliminated minimum-mean-square-error channel estimation (MMSE-CE) algorithm for the channel estimation. The proposed pilot-assisted MMSE-CE method utilizes a novel polynomial interpolation method to obtain the interpolation vectors. Analysis and simulation results validate the improved performance of the proposed method in fast time-varying frequency-selective MIMO channel for both dense and sparse multipath channel environments.
Perimeter-degree: a priori metric for directly measuring and homogenizing interconnection complexity in multilevel placement

In this paper, we describe an accurate metric (perimeter-degree) for measuring interconnection complexity and effective use of it for controlling congestion in a multilevel framework. Perimeter-degree is useful for uniformly spreading interconnection density. In modern designs interconnects consume significant area and power. By making interconnect spread homogeneous, it is possible to improve routability as well as power dissipation distribution.Most of the existing congestion minimization heuristics are posteriori. In this work, we extend and complement our previous work [16] on priori congestion minimization techniques. In [16], we identified and used perimeter-degree for constructing congestion friendly clusters. This paper extends that work by unveiling perimeter-degree based whitespace allocation techniques.We show why "number of external nets" is not a desirable candidate for identifying potential regions of high interconnect density and provide perimeter-degree as a possible alternative. We also provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of perimeter-degree in effectively identifying congested regions even before they are formed. By implicitly allocating resources to these potential high interconnect density regions, 19% reduction in congestion was achieved.Traditionally, bin capacity bounds are expressed in units of area. In a true interconnect centric approach we ignore area and instead use interconnect complexity as weights for clusters and capacity bounds for bins. This technique creates a placement with homogeneous interconnect density, but slightly unbalanced utilization. On average, this novel interconnect complexity driven scheme reduces congestion by 26%.
Piezoelectric aluminum nitride nanoelectromechanical actuators

This letter reports the implementation of ultrathin (100 nm) aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layers for the fabrication of vertically deflecting nanoactuators. The films exhibit an average piezoelectric coefficient (d31∼−1.9 pC/N), which is comparable to its microscale counterpart. This allows vertical deflections as large as 40 nm from 18 μm long and 350 nm thick multilayer cantilever bimorph beams with 2 V actuation. Furthermore, in-plane stress and stress gradients have been simultaneously controlled. The films exhibit leakage currents lower than 2 nA/cm2 at 1 V, and have an average relative dielectric constant of approximately 9.2 (as in thicker films). These material characteristics and actuation results make the AlN nanofilms ideal candidates for the realization of nanoelectromechanical switches for low power logic applications.
Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the Netherlands

This paper shows the trends in the prevalence of overweight (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 25 kg m−2) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg m−2) in the Netherlands. Overweight (obesity) prevalence in adult males increased from 37% (4%) in 1981 to 51% (10%) in 2004, and in adult females from 30% (6%) in 1981 to 42% (12%) in 2004, according to self‐reported data. In boys and girls, obesity prevalence doubled or even tripled from 1980 to 1997, and again from 1997 to 2002–2004 a two‐ or threefold increase was seen for almost all ages. According to the most recent data, overweight (obesity) prevalence figures range, depending on age, from 9.2% to 17.3% (2.5–4.3%) in boys, and from 14.6% to 24.6% (2.3–6.5%) in girls. There is a lack of data on the national prevalence of overweight and obesity based on measured height and weight and on prevalences in different subgroups of the population. Regular national representative health examination surveys that measure height and weight are needed to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and its distribution over subgroups in the population, and to properly direct and evaluate prevention activities.
In Their Own Words: Capital Jurors' Reactions to Mitigation Strategies

Despite decades of grappling by the Supreme Court over how to ensure capital defendants are afforded their Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury, research has shown that capital jurors are predisposed to reject mitigation and sentence defendants to death. The study presented here was designed to ascertain ways in which defense attorneys can increase jurors' receptivity to mitigating evidence and arguments. Transcripts of interviews conducted by the Capital Jury Project were analyzed using thematic analysis methods to identify and describe effective mitigation strategies. A total of 76 jurors discussed their reactions to five general mitigation themes. The results show that mitigation cases wherein multiple strategies are combined into one coherent narrative were the most successful. Mitigation that focused on the defendants' background was also relatively effective. The specific attributes of these mitigation strategies that resonate with jurors are presented. Techniques defense attorneys can employ in each strategy to increase jurors' receptivity are also discussed.
A novel compact complementary Colpitts differential CMOS VCO with low phase-noise performance

A low phase-noise Ka-band CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator is proposed in this paper. The CMOS VCO core adopts a new complementary Colpitts structure in a 0.18- mum CMOS technology to achieve the differential-ended outputs with low phase-noise performance, as well as operate at much higher frequency. The VCO oscillates from 29.8 to 30 GHz with 200 MHz tuning range. The measured phase-noise at 1-MHz offset is -109 dBc/Hz at 30 GHz and 105.5 dBc/Hz at 29.8 GHz. The power consumption of the VCO core is only 27 mW. To the authorspsila knowledge, the proposed CMOS VCO achieves the best figure of merit (FOM) of -185 dB at 29.95- GHz band.
Performance aware tasking for environmentally powered sensor networks

The use of environmental energy is now emerging as a feasible energy source for embedded and wireless computing systems such as sensor networks where manual recharging or replacement of batteries is not practical. However, energy supply from environmental sources is highly variable with time. Further, for a distributed system, the energy available at its various locations will be different. These variations strongly influence the way in which environmental energy is used. We present a harvesting theory for determining performance in such systems. First we present a model for characterizing environmental sources. Second, we state and prove two harvesting theorems that help determine the sustainable performance level from a particular source. This theory leads to practical techniques for scheduling processes in energy harvesting systems. Third, we present our implementation of a real embedded system that runs on solar energy and uses our harvesting techniques. The system adjusts its performance level in response to available resources. Fourth, we propose a localized algorithm for increasing the performance of a distributed system by adapting the process scheduling to the spatio-temporal characteristics of the environmental energy in the distributed system. While our theoretical intuition is based on certain abstractions, all the scheduling methods we present are motivated solely from the experimental behavior and resource constraints of practical sensor networking systems.
Turning Waste into Wealth: Enabling Communication in Guardband Whitespace

Similar to TV bands, the guardband frequencies are not occupied therefore are whitespace that potentially allows additional communication activities. Considering the difference to TV whitespace, we propose independent communication for guardband whitespace. In this paper, we present the Pilotfish system which realizes independent communication and turns guardband whitespace into new communication channels. To address the big challenges of interference mitigation, we employ novel PHY design which includes specially customized FBMC and an Nulled Decoding technique to null the strong background signal in guardbands. We implemented Pilotfish using software radio system. Empirical evaluation results validate the Pilotfish design in both PHY and MAC.
“The people” and resistance against international business

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyse the organisation of the Bolivian “water war” in Cochabamba that saw a social movement resist international business and the privatisation of public goods. The implications for the study of resistance in management and organisation studies will be evaluated.Design/methodology/approach – Laclau's discourse theory is used to analyse the organisation of resistance and the establishment of a new discourse of “the people”. A range of primary and secondary data are drawn upon.Findings – The study shows how the resistance movement was successfully organised in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Through various “horizontal” and “vertical” methods of organising, the Coordinadora, the overarching resistance organisation, was able to unite formerly disparate discourses into a single demand. This establishment of a united front was a key element in the formation of the discourse of “the people”, which successfully challenged neo‐liberal privatisation and management discourses put .