Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete Genome Sequence of a Vampire Bat Rabies Virus from French Guiana

ABSTRACT A rabies virus was detected in a common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) in French Guiana. Its genomic sequence was obtained and found to be closely related to other hematophagous bat-related viruses that widely circulate in the northern Amazon region. This virus is named AT6.
Four SNPs and Systemic Level of FOXP3 in Smokers and Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

ABSTRACT Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) is the essential transcription factor for the function of regulatory T-cell (Treg). However, the gene mutation of FOXP3 in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at different stages has not been reported. We aim to investigate four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the mRNA expression of FOXP3 in smokers with normal lung function and smokers with COPD at different stages. FOXP3 mRNA expression and SNPs in FOXP3 were assessed in nonsmokers with normal lung function (N), smokers with normal lung function (S), smokers with COPD in the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 1 or 2 grade (COPD 1–2), and smokers with COPD in GOLD 3 or 4 grade (COPD 3–4). In peripheral blood sample, FOXP3 mRNA was assessed using real-time quantitative PCR and SNPs were analyzed by TaqMan PCR. FOXP3 mRNA level in peripheral blood sample was decreased when COPD was aggravated. The frequency of FOXP3 rs5902434 genotype del/del and allele del are lower in COPD 1–2 and COPD 3–4 than that in N or S. The rs5902434 genotype del/del and allele del were, respectively, associated with decreased risk of COPD and lung function decline. The rs5902434 genotypic distribution was correlated with FOXP3 mRNA level. In conclusion, both FOXP3 rs5902434 genotypes and alleles were differently distributed in COPD patients and smokers with normal lung function. The distribution of del/del genotype was associated with systemic expression of FOXP3 mRNA. More research is needed to explore the role of FOXP3 gene polymorphism in immunoinflammation of COPD.
Role of BRAFV600E mutation analysis and second cytologic review of fine‐needle aspiration for evaluating thyroid nodule

Thyroid fine‐needle aspiration (FNA) is the primary diagnostic tool used for the evaluation of thyroid nodules. Although most aspirates provide diagnostic cytology, some are classified as indeterminate. The aim of this study was to determine whether the second review of FNA cytology can improve the diagnostic values and to assess the role of proto‐oncogene B‐Raf (BRAF) mutation testing in the diagnosis of papillary carcinoma (PC).
Performance Effect of the Fits between Industrial Environment, Innovation Capacity and Innovation: Focusing on Innovation-Intensive Korean Firms

To explain the performance gap between firms in the same industry, this study focuses on innovation. It provides a new framework using the dynamic-capability view based on empirical analysis of domestic businesses. The findings of this study are as follows: First, when the uncertainty and competition intensity in the business environment and the level of innovation have “fit”, it means that when the former goes up, so does the latter. In this regard, when the innovation capability of a firm is high, being “fit” means that the level of innovation is also high. When there was fitting innovation on industrial environment and innovation capacity, companies were able to achieve relatively high performance. Also, it was confirmed that instead of innovation for innovation capacity, innovation for industrial environment led to relatively higher performances of firms.
A systematic mapping study on assessing computational thinking abilities

Several initiatives have been created to promote Computational Thinking (CT) abilities in students. There are multiple approaches of assessing CT and wide abilities and skills involved. However, the evidence on how to assess CT has not yet been systematically grouped or reviewed. The goal of our study is to identify and classify approaches to promote CT and the different ways of assessing CT abilities. To achieve this goal, a systematic mapping study was planned and executed. The results reveal that: (i) programming courses are the most common pedagogical approaches to promote CT for K-12 students; (ii) multiple skills are involved in CT, but solving problems, algorithms, and abstraction are most common abilities assessed; and (iii) codes and multi-choice questionnaires are the most common artifacts for assessing CT abilities. This study points out to the fact that there are open questions for exploring and developing new researches for promoting and assessing CT abilities.
A system level approach to the application of multiuser detection in multibeam satellite systems

We study the performance of a multibeam satellite system under different frequency reuse schemes. We provide an information theoretical framework to analyze the achievable rates in two beams sharing the same frequency, based on single-user and multiuser detection. We compare two alternative strategies to serve two users in two beams, showing that interesting gains are possible by using multiuser detection and a higher frequency reuse scheme.
The lethal lambda S gene encodes its own inhibitor.

The 107 codon reading frame of the lambda lysis gene S begins with the codon sequence Met1‐Lys2‐Met3. , and it has been demonstrated in vitro that both Met codons are used for translational starts. Furthermore, the partition of initiation events at the two start codons strongly affects the scheduling of lysis. We have presented a model in which the longer product, S107, acts as an inhibitor of the shorter product, S105, the lethal lysis effector, despite the fact that the two molecules differ only in the Met‐Lys residues at the amino terminus of S107. Using immunological and biochemical methods, we show in this report that the two predicted protein products, S105 and S107, are detectable in vivo as stable, membrane‐bound molecules. We show that S107 acts as an inhibitor in trans, and that its inhibitory function is entirely defined by the positively charged Lys2 residue. Moreover, our data show that energy poisons abolish the inhibitory function of S107 and simultaneously convert S107 into a lysis effector. We propose a two step model for the lethal action of gene S: first, induction of the S gene results in the accumulation of S105 and S107 molecules in mixed oligomeric patches in the cytoplasmic membrane; second, S monomers rearrange by lateral diffusion within the patch to form an aqueous pore. The R gene product, a transglycosylase, is released through the pore to the periplasm, resulting in destruction of the peptidoglycan and bursting of the cell. According to this model, the lateral diffusion step is inhibited by the energized state of the membrane. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Evaluation of Inapparent Nosocomial Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infection in Vietnam by Use of Highly Specific Recombinant Truncated Nucleocapsid Protein-Based Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

ABSTRACT Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently emerged human disease associated with pneumonia. Inapparent infection with SARS coronavirus (CoV) is not well characterized. To develop a safe, simple, and reliable screening method for SARS diagnosis and epidemiological study, two recombinant SARS-CoV nucleocapsid proteins (N′ protein and NΔ121 protein) were expressed in Escherichia coli, purified by affinity chromatography, and used as antigens for indirect, immunoglobulin G enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Serum samples collected from healthy volunteers and SARS patients in Vietnam were used to evaluate the newly developed methods. The N′ protein-based ELISA showed a highly nonspecific reaction. The NΔ121 protein-based ELISA, with a nonspecific reaction drastically reduced compared to that of the nearly-whole-length N′ protein-based ELISA, resulted in higher rates of positive reactions, higher titers, and earlier detection than the SARS-CoV-infected cell lysate-based ELISA. These results indicate that our newly developed SARS-CoV NΔ121 protein-based ELISA is not only safe but also a more specific and more sensitive method to diagnose SARS-CoV infection and hence a useful tool for large-scale epidemiological studies. To identify inapparent SARS-CoV infections, serum samples collected from health care workers (HCWs) in Vietnam were screened by the NΔ121 protein-based ELISA, and positive samples were confirmed by a virus neutralization test. Four out of 149 HCWs were identified to have inapparent SARS-CoV infection in Vietnam, indicating that subclinical SARS-CoV infection in Vietnam is rare but does exist.
Ultrastructure and adhesion properties of Ruminococcus albus

Morphological studies have shown that cells of the anaerobic rumen bacterium Ruminococcus albus have electron-translucent granules of reserve carbohydrate in their cytoplasm, and that they have a polysaccharide "coat" layer external to their gram-negative cell wall. This coat layer, which stains specifically with ruthenium red, forms a compact mat of fibers adjacent to the cell, and fibrous elements also project as much as 0.6 mum from the cells. These radial fibers are clearly visualized by freeze-etching, and can be seen to extend throughout the extensive intercullular space in centrifuged pellets of these bacteria. Cells of R. albus adhere to cellulose fibers added to the culture medium, and the coat material is seen to mediate this adhesion in addition to its function in the general protection of these cells.
Discussion Paper No . 819 BEHAVIORAL EFFICIENCY II : A SIMPLE LABORATORY DEMONSTRATION

Laboratory experiments reporting on shortfalls from allocative efficiency of allocation mechanisms depend on the induced-values methodology, which cannot be extended to the field. Harstad [2011] proposes to observe efficiency of allocation mechanisms without knowing motivations via behavior in appropriately designed aftermarkets. This paper demonstrates the approach in a highly simplified economy: allocation of a single unit of an abstract commodity. In the context studied, second-price auctions are observed to yield significantly greater behavioral inefficiencies than first-price auctions, both in terms of frequency of behaviorally inefficient outcomes, and in terms of the expected size of gains from aftermarket trade missed by the auction itself. The design is shown to be field-ready. 1 The Economic Science Laboratory at the University of Arizona provided facilities, recruiting and assistance for the conduct of the experiments; thanks to Cathleen Johnson and Lana Sooter for managing this. The J Rhoads Foster Professorship Endowment of the University of Missouri and the Freshwater Group Research Fund of the University of Arizona provided appreciated financial support, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Osaka University provided hospitality during the writing. I thank Eric Cardella, Raymond Chiu, Anthony Dubis and Richard Kiser for assistance in programming and conducting the experiments, and Katsunori Yamada for suggestions and assistance in data analysis.
Macros in sbt: Problem solved!

In the previous report, we described how incremental compilation was made more complicated when macro-enabled programs are involved, and we implemented the foundations of the support for metaprograms in sbt, a build tool and incremental compiler for Scala. Since then, we worked on improving the internal representation of dependency relationships between files in sbt, to make it easier to extend sbt and to define new relationships. This crucial development allowed us to fix all the remaining problems that sbt had with macros: how should we handle their transitive dependencies? How can we know what they inspect during their expansion? Are there other means by which macros could introduce dependencies? How should we use these informations? In this report, we will expose the new techniques that have been proposed and implemented to offer a complete support for metaprograms along with all their dependencies in sbt, and explain the most relevant parts of their implementation.
How Do Incumbents Respond to Low-End Firm Entry?

This article investigates how incumbents respond to low-end firm entry. Prior theory suggests that high-end incumbents raise their price in response to a profit-maximizing low-cost entrant but lower their price in response to a welfare-maximizing low-end entrant. This paper uses a dataset of 206 narrowly-defined pharmaceutical markets in India; proposes a method to identify welfare-maximizing low-end firms; identifies such a firm with a mission defined more broadly than profit maximization; and presents evidence of a decline in high-end prices and dosage sizes offered by incumbents due to anticipated and actual low-end firm entry. Next, the paper examines the reasons for the low-end firm’s success by testing for observable differences in its business model relative to that of the incumbents, arising from the underlying differences in the objective functions of firms. Understanding market competition among firms with differing motives is especially important in light of 1) the growing view that shareholder value maximization alone may be unsustainable in the long term; and 2) the growing number of low-end entrepreneurial experiments across several countries and industries to serve consumers with limited purchasing power profitably.
The achievability of sustainable reporting practices in agriculture

This research investigates the process of change in moving from a domestic accounting standard, AASB 1037, relating to self-generating and regenerating assets (SGARAs) to an international standard, AASB 141. It focuses on the achievement (or nonachievement as it may be) of sustainable reporting practices for these agricultural assets. This paper finds that the transition to AASB 141 has allowed firms the discretion to change how they value their agricultural assets in comparison to the domestic standard. Consistency may have been achieved to a limited extent with the introduction of this financial accounting standard but comparability appears not to have been. Further, there is very limited understanding of the reporting of these assets from a user's perspective. It is concluded that this lack of consistency, comparability and understandability will not help achieve sustainability in the reporting practices of agricultural assets.
The Theory of Rationally Heterogeneous Expectations: Evidence from Survey Data on Inflation Expectations

Previous work with survey data on inflationary expectations casts doubt on the Rational Expectations Hypothesis. In this paper, we develop a model of expectation formation where agents form their forecasts of inflation by selecting a predictor function from a set of costly alternatives whereby they may rationally choose a method other than the most accurate. We use this model to test whether survey data exhibit rationally heterogeneous expectations. Maximum likelihood is applied to a new discrete choice setting where the observed variable is continuous and the latent variable is discrete. The results show there is dynamic switching that depends on the relative mean squared errors of the predictors.
Efficient Fingercode Classification

In this paper, we present an efficient fingerprint classification algorithm which is an essential component in many critical security application systems e.g. systems in the e-government and e-finance domains. Fingerprint identification is one of the most important security requirements in homeland security systems such as personnel screening and anti-money laundering. The problem of fingerprint identification involves searching (matching) the fingerprint of a person against each of the fingerprints of all registered persons. To enhance performance and reliability, a common approach is to reduce the search space by firstly classifying the fingerprints and then performing the search in the respective class. Jain et al. proposed a fingerprint classification algorithm based on a two-stage classifier, which uses a K-nearest neighbor classifier in its first stage. The fingerprint classification algorithm is based on the fingercode representation which is an encoding of fingerprints that has been demonstrated to be an effective fingerprint biometric scheme because of its ability to capture both local and global details in a fingerprint image. We enhance this approach by improving the efficiency of the K-nearest neighbor classifier for fingercode-based fingerprint classification. Our research firstly investigates the various fast search algorithms in vector quantization (VQ) and the potential application in fingerprint classification, and then proposes two efficient algorithms based on the pyramid-based search algorithms in VQ. Experimental results on DB1 of FVC 2004 demonstrate that our algorithms can outperform the full search algorithm and the original pyramid-based search algorithms in terms of computational efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.
Exact solutions to fuzzy PD-LMIs via SOS

Based on recent results on Sum of Squares (SOS) to polynomial theory, we address exact relaxation to quadratic stability arisen from stability analysis and controller synthesis in the fuzzy control systems represented by TS models. In this paper, we show how to characterize the exact solution to the quadratic stability and by approximating the cone of copositive matrices via SOS that is solvable by SOSTOOLS. Certificate of convergence of such copositive relaxation is provided. Examples from current results are provided to illustrate our approach. It is shown that SOS relaxations can characterize exactness of the decision problems.
Lysine requirement of growing male Pekin ducks

1. One growth experiment and one balance test were conducted to study the response to increasing levels of dietary lysine supplementation in male Pekin ducks with special reference to the growth periods from 1 to 3 weeks and 4 to 7 weeks of age. 2. Two different low-lysine diets were used as basal diets in both periods. The basal lysine levels were 7.6 g/kg (d 1 to 21) and 6.2 g/kg (d 22 to 49) and the ranges in lysine concentration were 7.6 to 12.6 g/kg (d 1 to 21) and 6.2 to 11.2 g/kg (d 22 to 49). 3. Growth performance, feed conversion efficiency and meat yield increased ( P < 0.05) with increas6 ing lysine concentration (requirement defined as 95% of the asymptote). 4. It is concluded that the dietary lysine concentration should be 0.93 g/MJ nitrogen corrected apparent metabolisable energy (AME N ) (11.7 g/kg) for the starter period (until d 21) and 0.75 g/MJ AME N (10.0 g/kg) for the grower period (from d 22 onwards).
The New Product Process in Financial Services: Strategy for Success

How companies orchestrate the activities surrounding the development and launch of a new product or service has been shown to have a critical impact on new service performance. Most service companies, including those in the industrial financial sector, have little in the way of a highly developed new service programme. Reports the results of a major empirical investigation of 106 new industrial financial services where the factors which define the new service development process were the primary focus of study. The findings indicate that six basic factors, comprising the technical activities required for design and launch and the type of corporate environments that nurture success, define the service development function for new industrial financial services. Four factors, including the quality of execution of the up‐front activities and of the launch programme, an expert‐driven process and, in particular, a supportive and high‐involvement corporate culture, were shown to have a critical impact on new ser.
MOTIVATIONS TO USE INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN MARKETING: A STUDY IN INDIAN SERVICE BUSINESSES

Interactive technology helps marketers to inexpensively engage consumers in oneto-one relationships fueled by two-way conversations via mouse clicks on a computer, touch-tone buttons on a telephone or surveys completed at a kiosk. Several organisations especially in services businesses are increasingly strengthening their marketing function by effectively interacting with their customers with the help of sophisticated interactive technologies in an integrated manner. Enough research in the usage or adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) can be found both in information systems and marketing literature. A careful review of available literature further shows that the usage or adoption of Internet and e-mail has been studied in detail by various researchers across the world. Therefore, it appears that different interactive technologies have been studied individually by different researchers. We did not come across any study making an attempt to understand the motivation for usage of all adopted interactive technologies together in an organisation for the purpose of marketing activities in particular. This gap is wider when one tries to find out studies related to interactive technologies and their usage or adoption especially for marketing activities in a developing country like India. This paper attempts to understand the factors influencing the usage of interactive technologies in services businesses with the intention to derive implications for the development of interactive technologies to suit its intended users.
Breast self examination

Editor—Given what is now known about the long subclinical growth phase of human breast cancers, the finding of a recent study from Shanghai, that teaching breast self examination did not detectably improve survival, is not surprising.1 None the less, Austoker's related editorial, proclaiming the death of breast self examination, should not go unchallenged.2 Many studies have reported a reduction in primary tumour size dependent on breast self examination, which may in turn enable more conservative surgery.3 The editorial's implication that all such end points are rendered illusory by the Shanghai study is overstated; as if to acknowledge this, Austoker concedes that prompt symptomatic presentation (“breast awareness”) remains important. But is the timely presentation of breast symptoms—of which palpation of a lump is the commonest—so different from what most people understand by breast self examination? False positive and false negative “costs” are attached to breast self examination and to any preventive diagnostic interventions. However, an individual who is informed of both the negative randomised data and of the inverse association of tumour stage with survival might still reasonably opt for the potential costs of a biopsy dependent on breast self examination, rather than for the implied comfort of ignorance or uncertainty. In Asia, where high rates of late presentation persist owing to cultural and economic factors,4 there seems little reason to be cheered by the debunking of breast self examination. As one facet of an expanding spectrum of patient empowering initiatives, breast self examination at least provides an entry strategy towards the gradual improvement of cancer awareness and outcomes. Kline has proposed that the rhetoric of breast self examination should be modified so that healthcare consumers are accurately informed and thus empowered, rather than misled or inadvertently coerced.5 Surely this is the insight that public health in the 21st century should be striving to attain.