Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of a novel repeated sequence useful for epidemiological typing of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica.

Strains (n = 203) of Yersinia species were used in genotyping and PCR experiments in order to evaluate the genotyping potential of the YeO:3RS probe. This probe comprises a 12.5 kb genomic fragment of the Y. enterocolitica O:3 lipopolysaccharide O-antigen gene cluster cloned into plasmid pBR322. The genotyping potential of YeO:3RS was shown to reside in the region upstream of the O-antigen gene cluster, i.e., in the first 1.65 kb of the cloned genomic fragment that contains a repeated sequence (RS) present in multiple copies in the genome. In genotyping, the YeO:3RS probe was hybridised to DNA of Yersinia enterocolitica isolates (n = 112) from humans, animals and food, along with strains of other Yersinia species (n = 5) and Salmonella enterica strains (n = 3). The YeO:3RS probe efficiently detected and subtyped all European pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica isolates of the serobiotypes O:3/4, O:9/2 and O:5,27/2 studied (n = 87), whereas it hybridised only weakly or not at all with the other strains. Within Yersinia enterocolitica serobiotype O:3/4 strains, YeO:3RS genotyping was as discriminatory as genotyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of XbaI-NotI digested genomic DNA. When these two methods were combined, YeO:3RS genotyping divided both of the two predominant PFGE types into six subtypes, thus increasing the discrimination. In PCR screening of additional 86 Yersinia strains, the 1.65 kb region was detected in European pathogenic serotypes O:1 and O:2 in addition to serotypes O:3, O:5,27 and O:9, indicating that it can be exploited in detecting and typing of European pathogenic serotypes in general.
Les enjeux relatifs à la perception et à la communication dans le cadre de la gestion des risques sur la santé publique

La proliferation des technologies de toutes sortes et l'implication croissante de la population dans les dossiers de sante publique ont contribue a la consideration de la prevention et de la precaution comme outils importants dans la gestion des risques. Celle-ci est un processus complexe ou l’estimation du risque, sa perception et sa communication occupent une place majeure et essentielle. Dans un souci de transparence et d'equite, le processus de gestion des risques doit donc prendre en compte la necessite de mettre en place des mecanismes de coordination et de concertation.
From Statehouse to Schoolhouse: Education Finance Apportionment Systems in the United States

This research investigates state finance policies for public elementary and secondary education using survey methodology. The purpose is to update the existing knowledge base in the field as well as to provide a compendium of finance and policy options that are being used across the states to finance school for lawmakers, educators and others. Chief state school officers or their designee were queried; data were provided for all 50 states and posted on the web for verification. The data showed that states continue to use funding policies developed in the past but they are implementing weighted apportionment systems and other mechanisms that recognize the differential costs of students and districts. This research provides new knowledge about state apportionment policies for K-12 education, special student populations, capital outlay and transportation systems.
VALVULAR AND STRUCTURAL HEART DISEASES Original Studies Transcatheter Valve-in-Ring Implantation of a Repositionable Valve System for Treatment of Severe Mitral Regurgitation

Introduction: Years after mitral valve surgery, progressive degeneration of reconstructed mitral valves or bioprostheses might lead to severe mitral valve regurgitation. Patients with significant comorbidity, or impaired left ventricular function are poor candidates for redo surgery at an acceptable risk at that later time point. Methods and results: This study reports the first-in-man transapical valve-in-ring implantations in the mitral position of the fully repositionable Lotus valve system approved for transcatheter aortic valve replacement in Europe. Transapical valve-in-ring implantations with this valve system were successfully performed in a 64-year-old female, and a 53-year-old male patient. Both patients were NHYA class IV, and carried an unacceptably high risk of cardiac surgery due to clinical condition and comorbidity. The first patient was successfully implanted a 25 mm valve, improved to NYHA class II, and was discharged 2 weeks after the procedure. The second patient required a short episode of cardiopulmonary resuscitation after valve implantation (27 mm), and was placed on veno-venous ECMO for 24 hr to improve oxygenation. He developed stroke on day 7, and deceased from fatal, toxic rhabdomyolysis 13 days after the procedure. Conclusion: Transapical valve-in-ring implantation of the repositionable Lotus valve system in the mitral position is a feasible and promising option that merits further evaluation. VC 2015 Wiley Period-
Cash Flow Forecasting Model for General Contractors Using Moving Weights of Cost Categories

This research introduces the development of a project-level cash flow forecasting model from a general contractor’s viewpoint. While most previous models have been proposed to assist contractors in forecasting cash flow in the early stage of pretendering or the planning phase, this paper aims to provide a tool that can be applicable during the construction phase based on the planned earned value and the actual incurred cost on a jobsite level. The critical key to cash flow forecasting at this level lies in how to build a realistic cash-out model. Toward the end, this paper adopts moving weights of cost categories in a budget that are variable depending on the progress of construction works. In addition, it addresses time lags in accordance with the contractual payment conditions and credit times given by suppliers or vendors. As for the cash-in model, net planned monthly earned values are simply transferred to the cash-in forecast with a consideration of billing time and retention money. Validation of the.
Investigation of spurious resonances in thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators

A finite element analysis is performed to simulate thin film bulk acoustic wave (FBAR) structures, and a coupled finite element analysis/boundary integral method (FEA/BIM) is used to simulate accurately a radiation medium, like a Bragg mirror underneath a resonator, without having to mesh it entirely. Displacement fields are extracted from these calculations and analysed. In particular, dispersion curves are obtained by a Fourier analysis of these fields and are used to explain phenomena arising at electrode edges, like standing wave resonances under the electrodes or mode conversions.
How Reliable and Consistent are Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia?

type="main" xml:id="ecot12056-abs-0001"> This paper analyses the reliability and consistency of subjective well-being measures, using the Life in Transition Survey. Drawing on two life satisfaction questions with alternative scales, our results do not reveal substantial biases in accounts of life satisfaction due to framing. Subjective individual assessments of household relative income position, on the other hand, do not appear to be reliable predictors of objective poverty or wealth. We find that subjective relative income position is only weakly correlated with objective welfare measures. There are differences in evaluations of the household's relative standing across different household members, and these differences are correlated with respondent characteristics.
Characterization of secrecy capacity of time reversal technique for wireless physical layer security

Secrecy capacity with time reversal technique is characterized and investigated for both specular and dense diffuse scattering radio channels. The characterization of secrecy capacity of specular radio channel is conducted for two clustered channels with 6 and 60 clusters that are composed of 120 and 1200 rays, respectively. Diffuse scattering channels are tested under different delay spread values. The investigation addresses the behavior in increasing the secrecy capacity with SNR. The increase in secrecy capacity with SNR saturates at particular values of SNR for specular channels but that is not the case with diffuse radio channels. The SNR saturation threshold varies with number of multipath components in specular channels.
Comparison of CT venography with MR venography in cerebral sinovenous thrombosis.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare cerebral CT venography with MR venography and determine the reliability of CT venography in the diagnosis of cerebral sinovenous thrombosis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Fifty patients who were clinically suspected of having cerebral sinovenous thrombosis, irrespective of age and sex, underwent cerebral CT venography and MR venography. Projection venograms were displayed using maximum-intensity-projection images for both CT venography and MR venography. The CT venograms were also displayed using the integral algorithm, which depicts the average intensity value of the first five voxels deep in relation to the model surface that is nearest the viewer, allowing direct visualization of the thrombus in the sinuses. All CT venograms and MR venograms were independently evaluated by experienced neuroradiologists. RESULTS Of these 50 patients, 30 patients were diagnosed as having cerebral sinovenous thrombosis on both CT venography and MR venography. The total numbers of sinuses involved were 81 and 77 (CT venography and MR venography). When MR venography was used as the gold standard, CT venography was found to have both a sensitivity and a specificity of 75-100%, depending on the sinus and vein involved. CONCLUSION CT venography is as accurate as MR venography for diagnosing cerebral sinovenous thrombosis.
Deep vs. Diverse Architectures for Classification Problems

This study compares various superlearner and deep learning architectures (machine-learning-based and neural-network-based) for classification problems across several simulated and industrial datasets to assess performance and computational efficiency, as both methods have nice theoretical convergence properties. Superlearner formulations outperform other methods at small to moderate sample sizes (500-2500) on nonlinear and mixed linear/nonlinear predictor relationship datasets, while deep neural networks perform well on linear predictor relationship datasets of all sizes. This suggests faster convergence of the superlearner compared to deep neural network architectures on many messy classification problems for real-world data. Superlearners also yield interpretable models, allowing users to examine important signals in the data; in addition, they offer flexible formulation, where users can retain good performance with low-computational-cost base algorithms. K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) regression demonstrates improvements using the superlearner framework, as well; KNN superlearners consistently outperform deep architectures and KNN regression, suggesting that superlearners may be better able to capture local and global geometric features through utilizing a variety of algorithms to probe the data space.
A Current-Induced Channel Organic Thin-Film Transistor

An organic thin-film transistor structure is proposed in which a channel is created through formation of an electric dipole layer at the semiconductor-insulator interface. The dipole is composed of mobile carriers, electrons, and holes and results from the modification of gate insulator to allow controlled amounts of gate current to flow in the ON-state. 2-D device simulations are used to show that the proposed structure offers the potential for obtaining significantly higher channel charge and current without requiring higher voltages. It is also shown that these advantages come while maintaining OFF-current and unity gain frequency comparable with conventional transistors.
Sensitivity of Willingness-to-Pay Estimates to Bid Design in Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Models

This paper addresses the sensitivity of dichotomous choice contingent valuation method (DC CVM) based mean willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates to the DC CVM sample design and to alternative measures of WTP. This issue is examined both analytically and empirically. The analysis of ten different DC CVM data sets revealed a sensitivity in estimated mean WTP to the sample design and to the measure chosen to calculate mean WTP.
Sentiment analysis amidst ambiguities in youtube comments on yoruba language (nollywood) movies

Nollywood is the second largest movie industry in the world in terms of annual movie production. A dominant number of the movies are in Yoruba language spoken by over 20 million people across the globe. The number of Yoruba language movies uploaded to YouTube and their corresponding comments is growing exponentially. However, YouTube comments made by native speakers on Yoruba movies combine English language, Yoruba language, and other commonly used "pidgin" Yoruba language words. Since Yoruba is still a resource constrained language, existing sentiment or subjectivity analysis algorithms have poor performances on YouTube comments made on Yoruba language movies. This is because of the constrained language ambiguities. In this work, we present an automatic sentiment analysis algorithm for YouTube comments on Yoruba language movies. The algorithm uses SentiWordNet thesaurus and a lexicon of commonly used Yoruba language sentiment words and phrases. In terms of precision-recall, the algorithm performs more than a state-of-the-art sentiment analysis technique by up to 20%.
The emergence of the unmarked: A new perspective on the language‐specific function of Broca's area

A number of neuroimaging studies have implicated an involvement of Broca's area, particularly of the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), in the processing of complex (permuted) sentences. However, functional interpretations of this region's role range from very general (e.g., in terms of working memory) to highly specific (e.g., as supporting particular types of syntactic operations). A dissociation of these competing accounts is often impossible because in most cases, the language internal complexity of permuted sentence structures is accompanied invariably by increasing costs of a more general cognitive nature (e.g., working memory, task difficulty, and acceptability). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the precise nature of the pars opercularis activation in the processing of permuted sentences by examining the permutation of pronouns in German. Although clearly involving a permutation operation, sentences with an initial object pronoun behave like simple, subject‐initial sentences (e.g., in terms of acceptability) because of a rule stating that pronouns should generally precede non‐pronominal arguments. The results of the experiment show that in contrast to non‐pronominal permutations, sentences with a permuted pronoun do not engender enhanced pars opercularis activation. Our findings therefore speak against both language‐related working memory and transformation‐based accounts of this region's role in sentence comprehension. Rather, we argue that the pars opercularis of the left IFG supports the language‐specific linearization of hierarchical linguistic dependencies. Hum Brain Mapp, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Biochemical Assessment of Serotonergic and Cholinergic Dysfunction and Cerebral Atrophy in Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract: Markers of serotonin synapses in entire temporal lobe and frontal and temporal neocortex were examined for changes in Alzheimer's disease by use of both neurosurgical and autopsy samples. Uptake of [3H]sero‐tonin, binding of [3H]imipramine, and content of indola‐mines were all significantly reduced, indicating that serotonin nerve terminals are affected. Binding of [3H]serotonin was also reduced, whereas that of [3H]qui‐nuclidinyl benzilate, [3H]muscimol, and [3H]dihydroal‐prenolol were unaltered. When the Alzheimer's samples were subdivided according to age, the reduction in [3H]serotonin binding was a feature of only autopsy samples from younger patients. In contrast, presynaptic cholinergic activity was reduced in all groups of Alzheimer's samples, including neurosurgical specimens. Five markers, thought to reflect cerebral atrophy, cytoplasm, nerve cell membrane, and neuronal perikarya were measured in the entire temporal lobe. In Alzheimer's disease the reductions (mean 25%, range 20–35%) were thought to be too large to be due only to loss of structures associated with the presumed cholinergic perikarya in the basal forebrain and monoamine neurones in the brain stem.
Prevalence of Drug-Resistance Mutations and Non-Subtype B Strains Among HIV-Infected Infants From New York State

Summary: Prevalence studies indicate that transmission of drug-resistant HIV has been rising in the adult population, but data from the perinatally infected pediatric population are limited. In this retrospective study, we sequenced the pol region of HIV from perinatally infected infants diagnosed in New York State in 2001-2002. Analyses of drug resistance, subtype diversity, and perinatal antiretroviral exposure were conducted, and the results were compared with those from a previous study of HIV-infected infants identified in 1998-1999. Eight of 42 infants (19.1%) had provirus carrying at least 1 drug-resistance mutation, an increase of 58% over the 1998-1999 results. Mutations conferring resistance to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and protease inhibitors were detected in 7.1%, 11.9%, and 2.4% of specimens, respectively. Consistent with previous results, perinatal antiretroviral exposure was not associated with drug resistance (P = 0.70). Phylogenetic analysis indicated that 16.7% of infants were infected with a non-subtype B strain of HIV. It seems that drug-resistant and non-subtype B strains of HIV are becoming increasingly common in the perinatally infected population. Our results highlight the value of resistance testing for all HIV-infected infants upon diagnosis and the need to consider subtype diversity in diagnostic and treatment strategies.
Sustainable Quality Management - You Know It, But Do You Have It?

Abstract The key issue in higher education quality is the significance of strategic quality initiatives in fulfilling the desire of our stakeholders who may have different perspective views on higher education. The most important issue is to have a direct understanding of quality initiatives, the attributes of quality being used for day to day operations, and the sort of performance driven indicators that are being developed to measure quality. Therefore it is imperative to identify the best practice as a holistic approach that supersedes individual's needs and desires. Touching on soft skills based on core values to sustain strategic quality initiatives plays a vital role. Quality management (QM) initiatives in service companies have been an ongoing effort whereby some have achieved considerable success while others have been less successful. This paper highlights the experience by UNITEN in its drive towards the vision of being a leading quality university.
Multiresolution Analysis of Cosmological N-Body Simulations and Comparison with Two-Dimensional Galaxy Distributions for Estimating Large-Scale Structure

A multiresolution analysis was performed to estimate the large-scale structure of cosmological N-body simulations. To explore relations between the multiresolution analysis and the galaxy distributions, a method that is familiar to image processing engineering was utilized. We proposed a new technique for quantifying the large-scale structures, and found that this is useful to discriminate differences in galaxy distributions among power-law simulations. We next applied the multiresolution analysis to CDM simulations, and also obtained a confirmation of the usefulness of this analysis; our new technique had advantages in clearly distinguishing differences in galaxy distributions in CDM models. We finally compared the galaxy distributions in the two-dimensional observational data (LEDA2d subsample) with those in CDM mock samples, and found that the standard CDM model does not reproduce the galaxy distributions in our universe.
Tumorigenesis and Neoplastic Progression MAPK / ERK-Dependent Translation Factor Hyperactivation and Dysregulated Laminin 2 Expression in Oral Dysplasia and Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Lesions displaying a variety of dysplastic changes precede invasive oral and epidermal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); however, there are no histopathological criteria for either confirming or staging premalignancy. SCCs and dysplasias frequently contain cells that abnormally express the 2 subunit of laminin-332. We developed cell culture models to investigate 2 dysregulation. Normal human keratinocytes displayed density-dependent repression of 2, whereas premalignant keratinocytes and SCC cells overexpressed 2 and secreted laminin assembly intermediates. Neoplastic cells had hyperactive EGFR/MAPK(ERK) signaling coordinate with overexpressed 2, and EGFR and MEK inhibitors normalized 2 expression. Keratinocytes engineered to express HPV16 E6 or activated mutant HRAS, cRAF1, or MEK1 lost density repression of 2 and shared with neoplastic cells signaling abnormalities downstream of ERK, including increased phosphorylation of S6 and eIF4 translation factors. Notably, qPCR results revealed that 2 overexpression was not accompanied by increased 2 mRNA levels, consistent with ERK-dependent, eIF4Bmediated translation initiation of the stem-looped, 5=-untranslated region of 2 mRNA in neoplastic cells. Inhibitors of MEK, but not of TORC1/2, blocked S6 and eIF4B phosphorylation and 2 overexpression. Immunostaining of oral dysplasias identified 2 overexpression occurring within fields of basal cells that had elevated p-S6 levels. These results reveal a causal relationship between ERK-dependent translation factor activation and laminin 2 dysregulation and identify new markers of preinvasive neoplastic change during progression to SCC. (Am J Pathol 2012, 180:2462–2478; http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2012.02.028)
ANALYZING THE EFFICIENCY OF COLLABORATIVE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF TWO COMMUNITY WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES IN KENYA

ABSTRACT In nature conservation, interorganizational governance structures, which are typically referred to as collaborative management, have gained increasing importance in recent years. This paper deals with the assessment of the efficiency of such governance structures, taking wildlife conservation in Kenya as an example. The paper starts with theoretical considerations on allocative and organizational efficiency in nature conservation, and goes on to discuss the problems of calculating production and transaction costs and benefits in this field. Using empirical data from two wildlife community sanctuaries in Kenya, the paper then estimates the production and transaction costs of conservation and assesses the factors influencing their magnitude and distribution. To calculate interorganizational efficiency, a benefit–costs analysis of different collaborative governance structures is carried out, both from the landowners' perspective (financial analysis) and from the society's perspective (economic analy.