Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ATROSAB, a humanized antagonistic anti-tumor necrosis factor receptor one-specific antibody

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signals through two membrane receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2, and TNFR1 is known to be the major pathogenic mediator of chronic and acute inflammatory diseases. Present clinical intervention is based on neutralization of the ligand TNF. Selective inhibition of TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) provides an alternative opportunity to neutralize the pro-inflammatory activity of TNF while maintaining the advantageous immunological responses mediated by TNFR2, including immune regulation, tissue homeostasis and neuroprotection. We recently humanized a mouse anti-human TNFR1 monoclonal antibody exhibiting TNFR1-neutralizing activity. This humanized antibody has been converted into an IgG1 molecule (ATROSAB) containing a modified Fc region previously demonstrated to have greatly reduced effector functions. Purified ATROSAB, produced in CHO cells, showed strong binding to human and rhesus TNFR1-Fc fusion protein and mouse embryonic fibroblasts transfected with a recombinant TNFR1 fusion protein with an affinity identical to the parental mouse antibody H398. Using chimeric human/mouse TNFR1 molecules, the epitope of ATROSAB was mapped to the N-terminal region (amino acid residues 1-70) comprising the first cysteine-rich domain (CRD1) and the A1 sub-domain of CRD2. In vitro, ATROSAB inhibited typical TNF-mediated responses like apoptosis induction and activation of NFκB-dependent gene expression such as IL-6 and IL-8 production. These findings open the way to further analyze the therapeutic activity of ATROSAB in relevant disease models in non-human primates.
The role of organizational culture in the adoption of customer profitability analysis: a field study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organizational culture as a company migrates through a four-stage model for designing a performance measurement system (PMS) focused on customer profitability. Design/methodology/approach - This is a single-site phenomenological case study, at Growth Spurt Marine Accessories (Growth Spurt), a manufacturing organization headquartered in the USA. Data were collected over a two-year period through interviews with accounting staff, internal company documents and recording observational notes. Findings - The paper identifies three major factors that prevented Growth Spurt from transitioning its customer profitability analysis (CPA) reporting package through Kaplan and Cooper’s four-stage model of PMS design: executives exerting their power and spending political capital to prevent implementation without providing rationale, executives believing that the allocation methods were too subjective and executives relying on their own intuition in analyzing customer profitability rather than relying on data. These factors suggest that organizational culture plays an important role in migrating a customer-focused profitability PMS through Kaplan and Cooper’s four-stage model of PMS system design. Research limitations/implications - The findings suggest that a PMS focused on customer profitability that does not advance beyond Stage II (financial reporting-driven) may still suit the needs of an organization. Additionally, managers should advocate for a multidisciplinary PMS design and implementation team to minimize potentially adverse effects of organizational culture. Originality/value - This paper is unique because it applies Kaplan and Cooper’s four-stage model for PMS design to CPA and it uses a phenomenological case approach to explore impediments to a comprehensive CPA implementation.
Smart Governance: A Cross-Case Analysis of Smart City Initiatives

City governments around the world have embarked on smart-city initiatives and projects with the aim of creating a future-ready urban environment, in which critical infrastructure components and online services are intelligent, efficient, and highly interconnected. Reshaping administrative structures and processes across multiple local government agencies and departments appears as an important prerequisite to success in these initiatives. Moreover, the model of governance in such multi-agency initiatives is key to achieving desired outcomes and sustainability. Such "smart" governance is viewed as foundational to creating smart cities. This study investigates and documents the governance models that emerged in four recent smart city initiatives (Seattle/USA, eCityGov Alliance/USA, Munich/Germany, and Turin/Italy). The findings indicate that governance models vary from one case to another depending on a number of factors. Furthermore, despite notable similarities decision-making processes differed across the cases, and each case exhibits specific methods of conflict resolution. However, stakeholder involvement in governance was found fundamental across all cases.
Drought, Local Institutional Contexts, and Support for Violence in Kenya

We address two questions on the effects of climate change for social instability. First, do droughts and their associated environmental impacts affect support for the use of violence? Second, do local-level formal and informal institutions moderate support for violence when and where droughts worsen? To answer these questions, we conducted a national survey of 1,400 Kenyans in 2014. Respondents were asked about patterns of rainfall and the presence of rules regulating natural resource use and access. Survey data are joined to spatially disaggregated observed rainfall trends. The survey uses endorsement experiments to elicit honest responses about support for using violence. There is some evidence of a direct, though limited, link between observed drought and violent attitudes. Certain local-level natural resource use rules have moderating effects on support for violence where drought is reported and precipitation is less frequent. This conditional and contextual effect is an important modification of overly simplistic narratives of universal climate change effects.
Learning a Rotation Invariant Detector with Rotatable Bounding Box

Detection of arbitrarily rotated objects is a challenging task due to the difficulties of locating the multi-angle objects and separating them effectively from the background. The existing methods are not robust to angle varies of the objects because of the use of traditional bounding box, which is a rotation variant structure for locating rotated objects. In this article, a new detection method is proposed which applies the newly defined rotatable bounding box (RBox). The proposed detector (DRBox) can effectively handle the situation where the orientation angles of the objects are arbitrary. The training of DRBox forces the detection networks to learn the correct orientation angle of the objects, so that the rotation invariant property can be achieved. DRBox is tested to detect vehicles, ships and airplanes on satellite images, compared with Faster R-CNN and SSD, which are chosen as the benchmark of the traditional bounding box based methods. The results shows that DRBox performs much better than traditional bounding box based methods do on the given tasks, and is more robust against rotation of input image and target objects. Besides, results show that DRBox correctly outputs the orientation angles of the objects, which is very useful for locating multi-angle objects efficiently. The code and models are available at this https URL
Strategic Valuation Management in Private Equity Fundraising

This paper investigates the effect of fundraising events on private equity funds self-reported valuations of existing portfolio companies. In the typical private equity fund structure, the general partners (GP) of the funds have both the incentives and the ability to manage their current fund’s track record in order to facilitate fundraising. We show that GPs actively use this ability to manage the valuations of their portfolio companies in practice. For this purpose, we construct a unique dataset containing quarterly valuations for the portfolio companies of a sample of Nordic GPs. Using a matching approach with double treatment, we isolate the fundraising specific valuation effect for Norwegian portfolio companies. We find that this effect materialises through a particular valuation pattern where unrealised returns are shifted in time in order to enable a boost in returns during the run-up to fundraising. This pattern cannot be explained by underlying (good) firm performance.
Diffusion tensor imaging detects white matter abnormalities and associated cognitive deficits in chronic adolescent TBI

Primary objective: This study examined long-term alterations in white matter microstructure following TBI in adolescence using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). It was hypothesized that white matter integrity would be compromised in adolescents with TBI and would correlate with measures of executive functioning and cognitive abilities. Research design: This study employed whole-brain, voxel-wise, statistical comparison of DTI indices in youth of 12–17 years old (mean = 15.06) with TBI vs an age- and gender-matched cohort (mean age = 15.37). Methods and procedures: This study scanned 17 adolescents with complicated-mild-to-severe TBI, 1–3 years after injury, and 13 healthy adolescents. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) was employed for DTI analysis. Main outcomes and results: Overall diffusivity elevations were found in the TBI group with increases in axial diffusivity in the right hemisphere. White matter integrity was associated with word reading, planning and processing times in the TBI group, but not healthy controls. Conclusions: The detected abnormalities in axial diffusivity may reflect neuronal regeneration and cerebral reorganization after injury. These findings provide tentative evidence of persistent white matter alteration following TBI in adolescence. Associations of DTI indices with cognitive performance following TBI provide tentative support for links between white matter integrity and performance post-TBI.
Office pediatrics: current issues in lower respiratory infections in children

Purpose of review Recent estimates indicate that 1.9 million children worldwide die each year from acute respiratory illnesses, many of which are lower respiratory infections (LRIs). Global threats from indoor and outdoor air pollution, urban crowding, biologic weapons, and worldwide rapid transportation complicate our efforts to reduce the impact of LRI disease in children. As new strategies are developed to limit the spread of LRI disease in children, existing pathogens become more complex to treat and newer pathogens emerge as causes of clinical disease. Most LRI disease is managed in outpatient settings and remains a challenge to those who care for children. Recent findings Atypical pathogens (notably mycoplasma pneumoniae) are now known to cause a wide spectrum of disease, and with more extensive complications than previously recognized. Available data suggest a rapid increase in S. pneumoniae resistance to penicillin and macrolides in many cases of community acquired pneumonia, which has resulted in shifts in outpatient (and inpatient) antibiotic treatment regimens. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is now recognized to cause LRI illness similar to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and children. General strategies for the prevention of influenza infection are expanded to include many infants and young children, and are projected to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality from this key LRI pathogen. Summary The spectrum of LRI pathogens-and the clinical illnesses caused by them-continues to change. Innovations in immunotherapy and vaccines will be instrumental to reducing the burden of LRI morbidity in infants and children worldwide in the future.
Human polymorphonuclear leukocyte-mediated cytotoxicity against varicella-zoster virus-infected fibroblasts

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) were studied for their ability to mediate cytotoxicity against varicella-zoster virus (VZV)-infected and uninfected human fibroblasts in 51Cr release assays. PMN were capable of mediating antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against VZV-infected targets. Maximal ADCC was obtained with effector-to-target ratios of 100:1 and 18 h of incubation. Percent 51Cr release for 26 normal adults was 14.1 +/- 0.6 (mean +/- standard error) in the presence of pooled human seropositive sera (final dilution, 1:100) and 0.5 +/- 0.6 in the presence of pooled human seronegative sera. Addition of phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) enhanced PMN-mediated cytotoxicity against VZV-infected and uninfected targets. PMA-stimulated cytotoxicity was optimal with PMA concentrations of 200 ng/ml and effector-to-target ratios of 10:1, and antibody was not required; killing was detected as early as 3 h after incubation and was maximal after 18 h. Highly purified PMN were capable of mediating both ADCC and PMA-stimulated lysis. Catalase completely inhibited PMA-stimulated PMN cytotoxicity, but had no effect on PMN-mediated ADCC. PMN from patients with chronic granulomatous disease were capable of mediating ADCC, but not PMA-stimulated killing, against VZV-infected targets. Thus, PMN could kill VZV-infected targets by two different mechanisms: ADCC, which required antibody but not hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and PMA-stimulated cytotoxicity, which required H2O2 but not antibody.
Phasic maximal and local maximal occurrence representation for video-based person re-identification

This paper proposes a new spatio-temporal appearance feature named Phasic Maximal and Local Maximal Occurrence (PM-LOMO) representation for video-based person re-identification. To perform temporal alignment of the sequence, we selected the optimal period of walking cycle and divide frames into several phases based on the extreme points of the sequence's Flow Energy Profile (FEP). To describe the appearance of the video, we averaged the local maximal occurrence representations of all the frames in a same phase, and then we chose maximal features among the phases. Extensive experiments on public datasets demonstrate the better effectiveness of the proposed method compared with the state-of-art approaches.
Patient Satisfaction with the SpaceLabs 90207 Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor in Pregnancy

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of the SpaceLabs 90207 ambulatory blood pressure monitor among pregnant women. Methods: Patients participating in research projects involving ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in pregnancy (N = 110) were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to patient satisfaction on completion of the monitoring period. The first part of the questionnaire involved rating on a visual Likert scale (0–10) whether they found the monitor heavy, noisy, cumbersome, disturbing, or embarrassing to wear. The second part of the questionnaire addressed whether cuff inflation caused significant sleep disturbance or physical discomfort. Outcome Measures: The mean (SD) and range of the Likert scores are reported. The number of patients reporting sleep disturbance or physical discomfort was calculated. Logistic regression was used to examine which factors were significant predictors of discontinuing monitoring. Results: The mean (SD) responses measured by the Liken scores were: finding the monitor heavy 3.2 (2.3); comfortable 4.8 (2.3); straightforward to use 8.8 (1.8); cumbersome 3.8 (2.3); disturbing 4.5 (2.7); noisy 1.6 (2.2); and embarrassing to wear 1.7 (2.1). Difficulty initiating sleep was reported by 28.8% of patients, and a further 56.3% reported difficulty maintaining sleep due to the monitor. Sleep disturbance was found to be the strongest predictor [r = 0.52; OR 1.68 (1.23, 2.27), p = 0.0009] for the 15% of patients discontinuing the monitoring. Conclusions: While pregnant women tolerate the noise, weight, inconvenience, and disturbance associated with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) well, sleep disturbance is a major cause of dissatisfaction and noncompliance. Future studies should evaluate critically the number of nocturnal blood pressure assessments required, and should allow for a withdrawal rate of approximately 15% when performing sample size calculations for ABPM studies in pregnancy.
Camera-based heart rate monitoring in highly dynamic light conditions

Recent advances in biomedical engineering have shown that heart rate can be monitored remotely using regular RGB cameras by analyzing minute skin color changes caused by periodic blood flow. In this paper an infrared-based alternative for light-robust camera-based heart rate measurements suitable for automotive applications is presented. The results obtained by this system show high accuracy (RMSE <; 1BPM under discolight) and a correlation score above 0.99 when compared with a reference measurement method. The proposed system enables new applications in the automotive field, especially since heart rate measurement can be integrated with other camera-based driver monitoring solutions like eye tracking.
Volumetric spectroscopic imaging with spiral‐based k‐space trajectories

Spiral‐based k‐space trajectories were applied in a spectroscopic imaging sequence with time‐varying readout gradients to collect volumetric chemical shift information. In addition to spectroscopic imaging of low signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) brain metabolites, the spiral trajectories were used to rapidly collect reference signals from the high SNR water signal to automatically phase the spectra and to aid the reconstruction of metabolite maps. Spectral‐spatial pulses were used for excitation and water suppression. The pulses were designed to achieve stable phase profiles in the presence of up to 20% variation in the radiofrequency field. A gridding algorithm was used to resample the data onto a rectilinear grid before fast Fourier transforms. This method was demonstrated by in vivo imaging of brain metabolites at 1.5 T with 10 slices of 18 × 18 pixels each. Nominal voxel size was 1.1 cc, spectral bandwidth was 400 Hz, scan time was 18 min for the metabolite scan and 3 min for the reference scan.
Better together: reduced compliance after sequential versus simultaneous bilateral hearing aids fitting.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of sequential versus simultaneous bilateral hearing aids fitting on patient compliance. METHOD Thirty-six older adults with hearing impairment participated in this study. Twelve were fitted with bilateral hearing aids simultaneously. The remaining participants were fitted sequentially: One hearing aid (to the left or to the right ear) was used initially; 1 month later, the other ear was also fitted with a hearing aid for bilateral use. Self-reports on usefulness and compliance were elicited after the first and second months of hearing aid use. In addition, the number of hours the hearing aids were used was extracted from the data loggings of each device. RESULTS Simultaneous fitting resulted in high levels of compliance and consistent usage throughout the study period. Sequential fitting resulted in abrupt reduction in compliance and hours of use once the second hearing aid was added, both in the clinical scoring and in the data loggings. CONCLUSIONS Simultaneous fitting of bilateral hearing aids results in better compliance compared with sequential fitting. The addition of a second hearing aid after a relatively short period of monaural use may lead to inconsistent use of both hearing aids.
Bioavailability of aminolaevulinic acid and methylaminolaevulinate in basal cell carcinomas: a perfusion study using microdialysis in vivo

Background Photodynamic therapy is becoming a popular treatment for superficial nonmelanoma precancerous and cancerous lesions, showing excellent cosmetic results. Nevertheless, the reported cure rates vary and the transdermal penetration of drugs has been discussed as a limiting factor, particularly for treatment of nodular basal cell carcinoma (BCC).
Fiscal Policy and Redistribution in the Dominican Republic

This paper assesses whether limited redistributive effect of fiscal policy in the Dominican Republic has slowed improvements in poverty and inequality during a period of strong economic growth. Departing from the Commitment to Equity methodology for fiscal incidence analysis (Lustig and Higgins, 2013) this paper introduces new methodological considerations and addresses the time gap between the current fiscal structure (2013) and the latest available household survey (2007) by deflating public revenue and spending data to 2007 prices. Results show that fiscal policy in the Dominican Republic is overall progressive given that, compared to other countries, the fiscal system achieves intermediate levels of inequality reduction (5 Gini points) through direct and indirect taxes, transfers and subsidies, and it generates very little horizontal inequality. At the same time, the impact of direct transfers on poverty reduction is modest, due to the limited cash amounts granted, and there seems to be scope to boosting revenue and enhancing progressivity by revising tax exemptions and indirect electricity subsidies.
Association of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Variant (G894T) With Coronary Artery Disease in Western Iran

There are conflicting reports about the association of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphism and the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). To determine the frequency of eNOS G894T variant and to find the possible association between this polymorphism with CAD we studied 207 unrelated patients with total CAD (with and without diabetes) and 92 controls. The eNOS variants were detected by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The presence of GT + TT genotype was associated with 2.1-fold (P = .006), 2.29-fold (P = .006), and 1.93-fold (P = .032) increased risk of CAD in total CAD, CAD with diabetes, and in CAD without diabetes patients, respectively. The presence of T allele of eNOS increased the risk of CAD 2.15-fold (P = .001). The levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) tended to be higher in patients carrier for T allele compared to those with G allele. The results of present study revealed that eNOS G894T polymorphism is associated with increased risk of CAD in our population.
Optimized green fluorescent protein variants provide improved single cell resolution of transgene expression in ascidian embryos

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is used extensively to monitor gene expression and protein localization in living cells, particularly in developing embryos from a variety of species. Several GFP mutations have been characterized that improve protein expression and alter the emission spectra to produce proteins that emit green, blue, cyan, and yellow wavelengths. DsRed and its variants encode proteins that emit in the orange to red wavelengths. Many of these commercially available fluorescent proteins have been “codon optimized” for maximal levels of expression in mammalian cells. We have generated several fluorescent protein color variants that have been codon optimized for maximal expression in the ascidian Ciona intestinalis. By analyzing quantitative time‐lapse recordings of transgenic embryos, we demonstrate that, in general, our Ciona optimized variants are detected and expressed at higher levels than commercially available fluorescent proteins. We show that three of these proteins, expressed simultaneously in different spatial domains within the same transgenic embryo are easily detectable using optimized fluorescent filter sets for epifluorescent microscopy. Coupled with recently developed quantitative imaging techniques, our GFP variants should provide useful reagents for monitoring the simultaneous expression of multiple genes in transgenic ascidian embryos. Developmental Dynamics 235:456–467, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.