Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Homozygosity for the IgG2 Subclass Allotype G2M(n) Protects against Severe Infection in Hereditary C2 Deficiency1

Homozygous C2 deficiency (C2D) is the most common deficiency of the classical complement pathway in Western countries. It is mostly found in patients with autoimmune disease or susceptibility to bacterial infections and in healthy persons. We wished to assess to what extent other immunological factors might explain differences of susceptibility to infections in C2D. For this reason, 44 Swedish patients with C2D were stratified with regard to the severity of documented infections. Investigations of IgG subclass levels, IgG subclass-specific GM allotypes, concentrations of factor B, properdin, and factor H, and polymorphisms of mannan-binding lectin and the Fc receptors FcγRIIa and FcγRIIIb were performed. Homozygosity for the G2M*n allele, which is known to promote Ab responses to polysaccharide Ags, was strongly associated with the absence of severe infections (p < 0.001) in the patients, suggesting a major protective role. The combination of mannan (or mannose)-binding lectin and C2 deficiency was found to be a minor susceptibility factor for invasive infection (p = 0.03). Low concentrations of IgG2 and factor B might sometimes contribute to susceptibility to infection. Other factors investigated did not appear to be important. In conclusion, the findings indicated that efficient Ab responses to polysaccharides are protective against severe infection in C2D. Implications with regard to vaccination should be considered.
Performance evaluation of HTTP-CoAP proxy for wireless sensor and actuator networks

One of the main challenges in integrating wireless sensor networks with the Internet is the need of an intermediary mechanism for interconnecting two different protocols, i.e. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), allowing users to access the sensors over standard the Unified Resource Locator (URL). Such mechanism can be implemented using a cross-protocol reverse proxy. This paper focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of the HTTP-CoAP proxy prototype for wireless sensor and actuator networks with HTTP-CoAP mapping and a caching mechanism. The designed proxy was able to handle 25 requests per second in real-time. The proxy had a linear increment of latency with respect to the number of clients by the scale of 23.667. The caching mechanism in the proxy was proven to effectively reduce the latency with the effective value of 5 to 20 seconds of the maximum age of the data in the cache. The obtained data may be used for building Internet of Things systems for the given system requirements.
Analysis of genetic interactions between DHH1, SSD1 and ELM1 indicates their involvement in cellular morphology determination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The DHH1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae belongs to a family of genes that encode highly conserved DEAD‐box proteins commonly present in various eukaryotic organisms. Its precise function in yeast has not yet been well documented. To investigate its role in vivo, we constructed a DHH1 disruptant, characterized it genetically and searched for genes the mutations in which would cause synthetic lethality in combination with the DHH1 disruption. CDC28, ELM1 and SSD1 were thus found to be such candidates and we subsequently analysed their interactions. Mutations in ELM1 were previously reported to result in the elongation of cells. We confirmed this phenotype and observed in addition elongated bud formation in an Elm1p overproducing strain. Also, Elm1p fused with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was found to be localized at the bud neck. These and other observations seem to suggest that Elm1p plays a role during cytokinesis in S. cerevisiae. The phenotypes of strains harbouring either Δdhh1 Δelm1 or ssd1‐d Δelm1 were very similar to each other, showing abnormal cellular morphology and defects in cytokinesis and mitosis. Furthermore, DHH1 and SSD1 could functionally complement each other in the ade2 red colour pigment formation, hypersensitivity to SDS, growth on synthetic media and at high temperature. A triple mutant, Δdhh1 ssd1‐d Δelm1, apparently had very fragile cell walls and could grow only in a medium supplemented with 1 M sorbitol. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
spads 1.0: a toolbox to perform spatial analyses on DNA sequence data sets

spads 1.0 (for ‘Spatial and Population Analysis of DNA Sequences’) is a population genetic toolbox for characterizing genetic variability within and among populations from DNA sequences. In view of the drastic increase in genetic information available through sequencing methods, spads was specifically designed to deal with multilocus data sets of DNA sequences. It computes several summary statistics from populations or groups of populations, performs input file conversions for other population genetic programs and implements locus‐by‐locus and multilocus versions of two clustering algorithms to study the genetic structure of populations. The toolbox also includes two Matlab and r functions, Gdispal and Gdivpal, to display differentiation and diversity patterns across landscapes. These functions aim to generate interpolating surfaces based on multilocus distance and diversity indices. In the case of multiple loci, such surfaces can represent a useful alternative to multiple pie charts maps traditionally used in phylogeography to represent the spatial distribution of genetic diversity. These coloured surfaces can also be used to compare different data sets or different diversity and/or distance measures estimated on the same data set.
Detection of antibodies to central nervous system antigens by solid phase radioimmunoassay

A solid phase radioimmunoassay is described which employs 125I‐protein‐A to detect the presence of antibodies against a panel of cellular and soluble central nervous system (CNS) specific antigens coated onto polyvinylchloride Microtiter plates. Serum antibodies from rabbits immunized against myelin, myelin basic protein (MBP), glial acidic fibrillary protein (GFAP), astroglioma cells, and cerebellar cells were easily detected, and high specificity for each antiserum and antigen was also demonstrable. The assay is applicable to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with neurological diseases to detect antibodies against CNS‐specific antigens. The assay should be useful for examining cell lines derived from CNS tissue for the presence of brain proteins.
Production in Mice of Large Volumes of Ascites Fluid Containing

Summary Mice injected intraperitoneally with either egg albumin or bovine serum al- bumin mixed in Freund's adjuvant develop large amounts of peritoneal fluid containing antibodies to the antigen injected. As much as 28 ml of fluid has been collected from a single mouse on a single tapping. Most mice produced from 0.5-14 ml of fluid each. About 50% of the mice respond with accumulation of fluid in the peritoneum.
Influence of Type of Product on Brand and Cause Images in a Cause-Related Marketing Campaign: Evidence from Pakistan

Luxury brands and non-profit organizations (NPOs) are increasingly involved in cause-related marketing (CRM) programs. This research aims to explain how product’s nature (hedonic vs. utilitarian) may influence consumer’s decisions to purchase cause-related products. Prior and post attitude of brands analyze with repeated measure ANOVA. The results show that brand attitude increased both in case of ahedonic and utilitarian partnership. However,partnering with a luxury brand ismore efficient to raise theimage of thebrand ascompared to apartnership with non-luxury brands.In general, these results provide clear insights to marketing managers for planning and positioning of their CRM campaigns.
Reengineering the Systems Development Process: The Link Between Autonomous Teams and Business Process Outcomes

Increases in employee autonomy and the formation of teams often result from reengineering and process innovation efforts, as do moves to "downsize" or "flatten" organizations. Information systems departments have not been insulated from these trends. In spite of the rising interest in these initiatives, little is known about their impact on the systems development process. Past research in blue-collar contexts suggests that teams produce improvements in performance, while anecdotal evidence in the IS industry suggests that such improvements may never materialize. This paper reports on research conducted with 231 IS professionals from 27 systems development teams across 13 organizations. The results indicate that, while autonomy may lead to increased levels of satisfaction and motivation, the level of team development and an organization's learning capacity may be more important in achieving improved work outcomes.
Tamoxifen Downregulates Connective Tissue Growth Factor to Ameliorate Peritoneal Fibrosis

Peritoneal fibrosis (PF), including simple sclerosis and encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS), is a serious complication in patients on long-term peritoneal dialysis. Tamoxifen has successfully been used in treating EPS; however, the mechanism of tamoxifen in treating EPS fibrosis disorders remains unclear. This study demonstrates a possible antifibrotic mechanism of tamoxifen. A bleach-induced PF rat model was applied as the in vivo treatment target. Tamoxifen was intraperitoneally injected daily to treat PF. The PF scores and thickness of the submesothelial zone over the liver surface were measured as indicators for the severity of PF. Human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC) were used as an in vitro model to test the antifibrotic effect of tamoxifen. Gene expressions of transforming growth factors-β (TGF-β), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and collagen were investigated using quantitative polymerase chain reactions. In HPMC, tamoxifen showed paradoxical effects between collagen I and TGF-β. Tamoxifen also inhibited TGF-β-induced collagen and CTGF. The possible antifibrotic effect of tamoxifen is through inhibiting CTGF to block collagen synthesis, although it enhances TGF-β which increases fibrosis. These results provide a possible molecular mechanism for tamoxifen.
Complete Genome Sequence of Teviot Paramyxovirus, a Novel Rubulavirus Isolated from Fruit Bats in Australia

ABSTRACT The causative agents of a number of emerging zoonotic diseases have been identified as paramyxoviruses originating in bats. We report here the complete genome sequence of two Teviot paramyxoviruses, novel rubulaviruses isolated from urine samples collected from pteropid bats in Australia. The zoonotic potential of Teviot paramyxovirus is undetermined.
Annotation Guidelines for Rhetorical Structure

Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann and Thompson, 1988, Taboada and Mann, 2006) postulates that a coherent text can be characterized by means of a tree structure whose leaves are the “elementary discourse units” (henceforth: EDUs), and whose internal nodes are labelled with a coherence relation. The theory proposes a list of about 25 such relations, which may be said to hold between two EDUs or (recursively) between larger spans of text. With most of the relations, the two units are not of equal “weight”. Instead, one of them is said to play the central role of this local constellation, while the other one has merely a supportive function. The former unit is called the nucleus of this (instance of a) coherence relation; the latter is its satellite.
Formal model for agent-based asynchronous evolutionary computation

The model for the biologically inspired agent-based computation systems EMAS and iEMAS conformed to BDI standard is presented. System dynamics was modeled as the stationary Markov chain. The space of states and transition functions were identified. The probability transition of the whole system is composed of the conditional transitions caused by the particular actions. Such a model allows for better understanding the behavior of the proposed complex systems as well as their limitations. Because no constraint for the total number of agents was introduced, the model express the behavior of maximum configuration of the systems. Therefore it plays the similar role to the SGA infinite population model introduced by Vose. The sample application of iEMAS to the difficult global optimization problem (optimization of the artificial neural network architecture) showing its efficiency was also attached.
Physical mechanisms of endurance degradation in TMO-RRAM

We report, for the first time, three types of endurance failure behaviors in TMO based RRAM. New physical mechanisms are proposed to clarify the physical origins of these endurance failures. A physically-based optimized switching mode is developed to improve the endurance of TMO-RRAM. A significantly enhanced endurance of >10<sup>9</sup> switching cycles was demonstrated in the HfO<inf>x</inf>/TiO<inf>x</inf>/HfO<inf>x</inf>/TiO<inf>x</inf> devices.
Requirements for a modeling language to specify and match business process improvement patterns

Businesses are always looking for opportunities to improve their processes in order to become more efficient and effective. Patterns for business process improvement have been defined and used as best practices to help analysts discover such opportunities. A modeling language allowing analysts to define or use a predefined library of improvement patterns to detect improvement opportunities in business processes can be of a significant value. Based on a comprehensive set of improvement patterns from the literature, this paper defines the requirements for a modeling language to support a framework capable of defining and detecting such patterns. We use an example from the retail industry to motivate the collected requirements. The paper's contributions allow us to capture more sophisticated business process improvement patterns, bringing us one step closer to a comprehensive model-driven, aspect-oriented business process modeling language. Furthermore, the collected requirements for the desired modeling language clearly indicate that currently popular business process modeling languages are not yet capable of capturing all the required details for business process improvement patterns on a broad scale.
A comparative study of Mini-Mental Test, Clock Drawing Task and Cognitive-FIM in evaluating functional outcome of elderly hip fracture patients

Objective: To compare the clock drawing task with other cognitive tests used for the prediction of discharge functional outcome, in elderly hip fracture patients. Design: Cohort study. Setting: A department of geriatric-orthopaedic rehabilitation of a tertiary hospital. Patients: One hundred and forty-three consecutive patients undergoing inpatient comprehensive rehabilitation following hip fracture. Measurements: Cognitive status was assessed by the Clock Drawing Task, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Cognitive-FIM (cognFIM). Functional status outcome was evaluated by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), using absolute and relative parameters of ef”cacy and ef”ciency. Results: Correlation coef”cients (Pearson correlation) between the three cognitive tests resulted in values ranging from 0.607 to 0.732 (p < 0.001). Similar correlation coef”cients were observed for all cognitive tests when correlated with relative ef”cacy and ef”ciency outcome parameters (p < 0.001), but not with absolute outcome parameters. Conclusions: Clock Drawing Test is similar to Mini-Mental and Cognitive-FIM with respect to the evaluation of functional status outcome following rehabilitation of hip fractures. The similar correlations with functional outcome parameters as well as the simplicity of administration favour the use of either Clock Drawing Task or MMSE in the initial assessment of elderly patients with hip fractures.
Evaluating customer satisfaction and service quality using servqual model in the Courier Service Delivery (CSD) provider (Pilot study: Surabaya city, Indonesia)

In the last decade, the number of Courier Service Delivery (CSD) Providers has been increasing and growing rapidly, it certainly makes the characteristics of each providers more diverse as well. The Government who serve as assessors who are follow-up of monitoring and evaluation results, often find many problems in the selection of variables used as aspects of assessment. One important aspect in figuring out valuation is the value of customer satisfaction. This study aims to measure and evaluate the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) modification with the use of service qualities dimension or known as SERVQUAL model. Not only that, this paper also examines the influence of five dimensions on the model to the customer satisfaction using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method. The dimensions are Tangible, Re liability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. This research was conducted on a total of 249 respondents in 6 sample providers. According to the results obtained that CSI scores in the range of 80.27 to 84.76 (good and very good) and the dimensions of service quality that significantly affect on customer satisfaction were Tangible and Responsiveness
Star formation in galaxies: the role of spiral arms

Abstract Studying star formation in spiral arms tells us not only about the evolution of star formation, and molecular clouds, but can also tell us about the nature of spiral structure in galaxies. I will address both these topics using the results of recent simulations and observations. Galactic scale simulations are beginning to examine in detail the evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC) as they form in spiral arms, and then disperse by stellar feedback or shear. The overall timescale for this process appears comparable to the crossing time of the GMCs, a few Myrs for 105 M⊙ clouds, 20 Myr or so for more massive GMCs. Both simulations and observations show that the massive clouds are found in the spiral arms, likely as a result of cloud-cloud collisions. Simulations including stars should also tell us about the stellar age distribution in GMCs, and across spiral arms. More generally, recent work on spiral galaxies suggests that the dynamics of gas flows in spiral arms are different in longlived and transient spiral arms, resulting in different age patterns in the stars. Such results could be used to help establish the main driver of spiral structure in the Milky Way (Toomre instabilities, the bar, or nearby companion galaxies) in conjunction with future surveys.
Social capital and atmosphere of care settings for older people: A comparative study of two care sectors

Background Social capital is a resource that is created by people through networks, interactions, trust and social norms that can help facilitate mutual gain. Atmosphere (or social climate) is the ‘personality’ or feel that one gets from entering a place and plays a large role when individuals are choosing a care setting. Social capital may provide insights into our understanding of life within these care settings, but has not been extensively investigated. Aims This comparative study of care homes and hospices aimed to address three research questions: 1. What is the relationship between the social capital of older residents/patients and the atmosphere of the setting in which they are cared? 2. Are the quality and quantity of interactions between staff and those being cared for different between the two care sectors? 3.What is the role that visitors and volunteers play in the life of those being cared for within the two care sectors? Methods A mixed methods approach was used designed as two overlapping phases in two care homes and two hospices. Phase one comprised quantitative structured observation of the quality of interactions, and questionnaires measuring the atmosphere of the care setting from a staff member and volunteer perspective. Phase two comprised semi-structured interviews conducted with different groups of people who live, work and visit the care sectors. Findings There were 2115 observed interactions conducted in total across both care sectors. In the care home sector, staff members were involved in and initiated the largest proportion of interactions. In the hospice sector, volunteers were involved in and initiated most interactions. There were no significant differences between care settings in terms of quality of interaction. Hospice settings were found to have a more positive atmosphere than care homes. Three key themes were identified from interviews. Integration describes the way that visitors and volunteers help integrate the communities inside the care settings with those outside. Demarcation refers to the physical boundaries of the care settings and the roles and restrictions that are placed on those that work and volunteer within the care settings. Cohesion was observed when the people in a care setting worked together to provide a mutual service, for a common goal. Conclusion Visitors and volunteers play an important role in the care of older people and can improve the social capital of the care settings. Hospices were found to have higher levels of social capital, and more positive atmosphere than care homes. Improving the social capital of older people within these care settings while controlling for the negative aspects of social capital could result in a better atmosphere that can be experienced by those who live, work and visit these care settings.
A New Control Strategy for Improving Weighted Efficiency in Photovoltaic AC Module-Type Interleaved Flyback Inverters

In this paper, a new control strategy for improving weighted efficiency in photovoltaic (PV) ac module-type interleaved flyback inverters (ILFIs) is proposed. The efficiency of the ILFI for PV ac modules has to be high, not only for the maximum power, but also for other power levels according to weather conditions. For PV power conversion efficiency improvement in all load ranges, a new control method for an ILFI according to the output of the PV module is proposed in this paper. The proposed method controls an active clamp circuit and each converter phase of an ILFI according to the output power of the PV module. Thus, the efficiency of an ILFI as a PV power conditioner can be improved in all power range of the PV module. Theoretical analysis, simulation, and experiment are performed in order to verify the proposed control method.
Privacy Concerns and Protection Motivation Theory in the Context of Mobile Banking

Nearly 100% of Americans aged 18 to 29 own a cell phone of some kind, and there has been a move toward using mobile devices for financial services; however, such a move also implies increased opportunities for fraud. Although technology has traditionally been blamed for showing some vulnerabilities, individuals are in a better position to deter technology-based fraud when they are concerned about revealing their personal information. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of protection motivation theory (PMT) on privacy concerns (PC) and the consequences of this influence in trust, specifically in the context of mobile banking (m-banking). We tested our research model in an online survey with 351 American m-banking users from Amazon Mechanical Turk. We addressed one literature gap that is the omission of fear in PMT as an antecedent of PC, and one opportunity that is to reuse the most recent PC scale (Internet Privacy Concerns – IPC) as initially conceptualized. We found that the fear of losing information from m-banking activates PC and induces the user to have less trust in this platform. In addition, we proposed an improvement to the IPC scale by adding a new second-order factor named exposure management (individuals’ consciousness about the control users feel they have over their personal information).