Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth and characterization of vertically aligned 1D IrO/sub 2/ nanocrystals via reactive sputtering

We report the preparation of 1D vertically aligned IrO/sub 2/ nanocrystals on LiNbO/sub 3/ (100) substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering with Ir metal target. The effects of sputtering conditions such as pressure, rf power, substrate temperature etc. have been presented and discussed. The surface morphology, structural and spectroscopic properties of the as-grown nanocrystals have been characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and micro-Raman scattering. The red-shift and asymmetric broadening of Raman lineshape have been analyzed and attributed to both the size effect and residual stress.
Rent/price ratio for English housing sub‐markets using matched sales and rental data

The ratio between the rental and sales values of residential properties are a much studied statistic in the field of real estate economics. When these values do not keep pace with each other, and in particular when the ratio is low, some commentators take this as an indication that there may be a housing bubble building. The ratios are also of interest to potential property investors. These ratios are commonly computed on aggregate statistics derived from the housing market and as such rarely provide any indication of sub‐market bubbles, that can occur with particular property types or regions of the country. In this study use is made of a data set from a property listings company that provides sales and, potentially, rental prices for the same properties within England. From the matching that takes place it is possible to calculate the rent/price ratio for individual properties. A regression model is then estimated to explain how the characteristics of the properties; the nature of their neighbourhood; and their location influence this ratio. The model consistently validates the hypothesis that the more desirable a property or affluent an area, the lower the rent/price ratio. It also begins to illustrate the range of “normal” rent/price ratios that may exist in housing sub‐markets. The regression model is then used to provide a map of the geographical distribution of the ratio for England for one property sub‐market.
Assembly of Gold Nanorods for Highly Sensitive Detection of Mercury Ions

A simple and cost-effective strategy for mercury ion sensing based on an easy and reliable colorimetric approach is investigated through L-cysteine functionalized gold nanorods (Au NRs). Detection tests are performed on several ions, such as Hg2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Pb2+, and As2+, and monitored by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). L-cysteine functionalized Au NRs demonstrated a remarkable sensitivity for Hg2+ with limit of detection (LOD) at a few ppt level. A red-shift in the maximum of the typical longitudinal plasmon band of Au NRs is observed and recognized related to aggregation phenomena occurring among functionalized Au NRs and triggered only by the presence of Hg2+ ions in solution. Interestingly, a significantly different response is recorded for the other tested ions. The results highlight that the functionalization of Au NRs with L-cysteine is an excellent route to implement a reliable colorimetric sensing device, able to push further down the LOD recorded for similar strategies based on spherical Au NPs.
Dynamics of Macroeconomic Shocks on Food Assistance Programs in the United States

Monthly national and state-level U.S. data for the period 1997-2012 associated with macroeconomic shocks and participation in food assistance programs were used to model dynamics using polynomial distributed lags and vector autoregression approaches. Contemporaneous causal flows of macroeconomic shocks and participation in food assistance programs were modeled using directed acyclic graphs. With a more accurate set of predictions associated with participation rates in food assistance programs based on macroeconomic drivers or shocks, policy makers will be in better position to assess program costs and to minimize errors in the budgetary process.
The performance of tuna processing fishery sector to sustainable fish trade and food security in Ghana

The paper presents an analysis of the performance of the tuna processing fishery sector of Ghana in order to derive the maximum benefits for the Ghanaian economy. Interviews and document analysis were carried out with approved tuna processing firms, government institutions and statistical service of the European Union. Results showed that the Ghanaian tuna processing industry is mainly supplied with raw material coming from national vessels, both purse seiners and pole and line. This raw material is only enough to have the plants operating at 60 % of their maximum capacity. There are a total of 6, 500 people employed in the tuna fish chain. A total of 58, 000 tonnes of tuna is canned annually. The market destinations are Europe, National and Ivory Coast, ranked in a descending order according to the tonnage. In conclusion, Ghana has huge potential to increase tuna fish export and can generate more economic and social benefits, such as food security, employment, foreign exchange, income and poverty reduction to the Ghanaian economy.
Architecture of the WHOIS++ service

This document describes WHOIS++, an extension to the trivial WHOIS service described in RFC 954 to permit WHOIS-like servers to make available more structured information to the Internet. We describe an extension to the simple WHOIS data model and query protocol and a companion extensible, distributed indexing service. A number of options have also been added such as the use of multiple languages and character sets, more advanced search expressions, structured data and a number of other useful features. An optional authentication mechanism for protecting all or part of the associated WHOIS++ information database from unauthorized access is also described.
A Distributional Approach to Realized Volatility

This paper proposes new measures of the integrated variance, measures which use high-frequency bid-ask spreads and quoted depths. The traditional approach assumes that the mid-quote is a good measure of frictionless price. However, the recent high-frequency econometric literature takes the mid-quote as a noisy measure of the frictionless price and proposes new and robust estimators of the integrated variance. This paper forgoes the common assumption of an additive friction term, and demonstrates how the quoted depth may be used in the construction of refined realized volatility measures under the assumption that the true frictionless price lies between the bid and the ask. More specifically, we make assumptions about the conditional distribution of the frictionless price given the available information, including quotes and depths. This distributional assumption leads to new measures of the integrated variance that explicitly incorporate the depths. We then empirically compare the new measures with the robust ones when dealing with forecasting integrated variance or trading options. We show that, in several cases, the new measures dominate the traditional measures.
Human Follicular Dendritic Cells Remain Uninfected and Capture Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 through CD54-CD11a Interaction

ABSTRACT It has been reported that human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) bound to follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) remains highly infectious to CD4+ T cells even when it forms immune complexes with neutralizing antibody (HIV-1/IC). To elucidate the role of FDCs in HIV-1 transmission to CD4+ T cells in lymph nodes, we have isolated and purified FDCs from human tonsils and examined whether the HIV-1/IC trapped on their surface is infectious to CD4+ T cells. To our surprise, not the HIV-1/IC but the antibody-free HIV-1 on FDCs could be transmitted to CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, in contrast to previous studies showing that FDCs are productively infected with HIV-1, the present study clearly demonstrated that FDCs were not the target cells for HIV-1 infection. FDCs could capture the viral particles on their surface; however, the binding of HIV-1 to FDCs was strongly inhibited by the presence of anti-CD54 (ICAM-1) monoclonal antibody (MAb) and anti-CD11a (LFA-1) MAb, suggesting that the adhesion molecules play an important role in the interaction between HIV-1 and FDCs.
Mouse model for morningness/eveningness

Human morning/evening preferences has recently been reported to be associated with polymorphism of the 3′ flanking region of the Clock gene, which was the first identified mammalian circadian clock gene. We recorded body temperature, spontaneous activity, electroencephalogram and electromyogram for 48 h in mice with Jcl:ICR genetic background and homozygous for the Clock mutation (Cl/Cl on Jcl:ICR). In both wild-type and Cl/Cl on Jcl:ICR, body temperature, activity, wake and sleep were completely entrained to LD cycle. However, phases of the rhythm for body temperature, activity and wake duration in the Cl/Cl on Jcl:ICR were about 2 h delayed in comparison with the wild-type. This study has provided further evidence on the close relationship between human morning/evening preference and the molecular basis of circadian clock system, and has suggested that Cl/Cl on Jcl:ICR is useful for an animal model for human morning/evening preference.
Food for Life: evaluation of the impact of the Hospital Food Programme in England using a case study approach

Objectives To evaluate the impact and challenges of implementing a Food for Life approach within three pilot NHS sites in 2014/2015 in England. Food for Life is an initiative led by the Soil Association, a non-governmental organisation in the UK that aims to encourage a healthy, sustainable food culture across communities. Design A case-study approach was undertaken using semi-structured interviews with staff and key stakeholders together with analysis of relevant documents such as meeting minutes, strategic plans and reports. Setting Three NHS Trusts in England. Participants Staff and key stakeholders. Main outcome measures Synthesis of key findings from semi-structured interviews and analysis of relevant documents. Results Key themes included the potential to influence contracting processes; measuring quality; food for staff and visitors; the role of food in hospitals, and longer term sustainability and impact. Participants reported that adopting the Food for Life approach had provided enormous scope to improve the quality of food in hospital settings and had provided levers and external benchmarks for use in contracting to help drive up standards of the food provided by external contractors for patients and staff. This was demonstrated by the achievement of an FFLCM for staff and visitor catering in all three organisations. Conclusions Participants all felt that the importance of food in hospitals is not always recognised. Engagement with Food for Life can produce a significant change in the focus on food within hospitals, and help to improve the quality of food and mealtime experience for staff, visitors and patients.
Plastid Genome Instability Leads to Reactive Oxygen Species Production and Plastid-to-Nucleus Retrograde Signaling in Arabidopsis1[C][W][OPEN]

Instability of the plastid genome leads to the production of reactive oxygen species and to nuclear genetic reprogramming. The plastid genome is highly conserved among plant species, suggesting that alterations of its structure would have dramatic impacts on plant fitness. Nevertheless, little is known about the direct consequences of plastid genome instability. Recently, it was reported that the plastid Whirly proteins WHY1 and WHY3 and a specialized type-I polymerase, POLIB, act as safeguards against plastid genome instability in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). In this study, we use ciprofloxacin, an organelle double-strand break-inducing agent, and the why1why3polIb-1 variegated mutant to evaluate the impact of generalized plastid DNA instability. First, we show that in why1why3polIb-1 and ciprofloxacin-treated plants, plastid genome instability is associated with increased reactive oxygen species production. Then, using different light regimens, we show that the elevated reactive oxygen species production correlates with the appearance of a yellow-variegated phenotype in the why1why3polIb-1 population. This redox imbalance also correlates to modifications of nuclear gene expression patterns, which in turn leads to acclimation to high light. Taken together, these results indicate that plastid genome instability induces an oxidative burst that favors, through nuclear genetic reprogramming, adaptation to subsequent oxidative stresses.
A new method for non-rigid registration of MRI images

In this paper, the parametric registration methods based on function expansion theory are revised and by using the wavelet transform a general and simple framework for non-rigid image registration is introduced. Simplicity and generality are two main features of this method. The model parameters are updated by using forward and inverse wavelet transforms, in each iteration. In the results section, we evaluate the performance of the proposed method on two datasets of simulated and real magnetic resonance images (MRI) and show that the proposed method has a better performance compared to well-known registration methods in the literature.
Exploration of 1/f noise origin using time measurements

Noise measurements of quartz crystal resonators have been done by using a passive phase noise measurement technique. The tested resonators have been fabricated with exactly the same process. The short-term stabilities of a large portion of these resonators are measured to be lower than 8E-14. However, rest of them shows much worse results around few 1E-12. We are consequently carrying investigations on the origin of these differences. In this paper, high speed measurements of the acoustic wave attenuation achieved on the best and worse resonators are presented. Acoustic damping due to nonlinear effects such as, interaction of the acoustic wave with crystal defects is a well-known phenomenon. Hence, we explore the possibility to extract a damping contribution with the same physical origin as 1/f noise, by studying what is left after subtraction of the classical viscoelastic exponential damping. Preliminary results are presented in this paper.
Molecular genetic analysis of virus isolates from wild and cultivated plants demonstrates that East Africa is a hotspot for the evolution and diversification of Sweet potato feathery mottle virus

Sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV, genus Potyvirus) is globally the most common pathogen of cultivated sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas; Convolvulaceae). Although more than 150 SPFMV isolates have been sequence‐characterized from cultivated sweet potatos across the world, little is known about SPFMV isolates from wild hosts and the evolutionary forces shaping SPFMV population structures. In this study, 46 SPFMV isolates from 14 wild species of genera Ipomoea, Hewittia and Lepistemon (barcoded for the matK gene in this study) and 13 isolates from cultivated sweet potatoes were partially sequenced. Wild plants were infected with the EA, C or O strain, or co‐infected with the EA and C strains of SPFMV. In East Africa, SPFMV populations in wild species and sweet potato were genetically undifferentiated, suggesting inter‐host transmission of SPFMV. Globally, spatial diversification of the 178 isolates analysed was observed, strain EA being largely geographically restricted to East Africa. Recombination was frequently detected in the 6K2‐VPg‐NIaPro region of the EA strain, demonstrating a recombination ‘hotspot’. Recombination between strains EA and C was rare, despite their frequent co‐infections in wild plants, suggesting purifying selection against strain EA/C recombinants. Positive selection was predicted on 17 amino acids distributed over the entire coat protein in the globally distributed strain C, as compared to only four amino acids in the coat protein N‐terminus of the EA strain. This selection implies a more recent introduction of the C strain and a higher adaptation of the EA strain to the local ecosystem. Thus, East Africa appears as a hotspot for evolution and diversification of SPFMV.
Interactions between Cooccurring Lactic Acid Bacteria in Honey Bee Hives

ABSTRACT In contrast to the honey bee gut, which is colonized by a few characteristic bacterial clades, the hive of the honey bee is home to a diverse array of microbes, including many lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In this study, we used culture, combined with sequencing, to sample the LAB communities found across hive environments. Specifically, we sought to use network analysis to identify microbial hubs sharing nearly identical operational taxonomic units, evidence which may indicate cooccurrence of bacteria between environments. In the process, we identified interactions between noncore bacterial members (Fructobacillus and Lactobacillaceae) and honey bee-specific “core” members. Both Fructobacillus and Lactobacillaceae colonize brood cells, bee bread, and nectar and may serve the role of pioneering species, establishing an environment conducive to the inoculation by honey bee core bacteria. Coculture assays showed that these noncore bacterial members promote the growth of honey bee-specific bacterial species. Specifically, Fructobacillus by-products in spent medium supported the growth of the Firm-5 honey bee-specific clade in vitro. Metabolic characterization of Fructobacillus using carbohydrate utilization assays revealed that this strain is capable of utilizing the simple sugars fructose and glucose, as well as the complex plant carbohydrate lignin. We tested Fructobacillus for antibiotic sensitivity and found that this bacterium, which may be important for establishment of the microbiome, is sensitive to the commonly used antibiotic tetracycline. Our results point to the possible significance of “noncore” and environmental microbial community members in the modulation of honey bee microbiome dynamics and suggest that tetracycline use by beekeepers should be limited.
Optimization in Stent Implantation by Manual Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Segment–Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Findings From the EXAMINATION Trial

Background—Manual thrombus aspiration (TA) is effective to reduce the thrombus burden during primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-elevation myocardial infarction. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of manual TA on stent implantation during primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Methods and Results—Population of the EXAMINATION trial (n=1498) was divided into 2 groups according to the use of TA. Immediate angiographic results, primary patient-oriented end point (combination of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, and any revascularization) and secondary device-oriented end point (combination of cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction, and clinically driven target lesion revascularization), definite/probable stent thrombosis, and major/minor bleeding were evaluated at 2 years. A total of 976 (65.2%) patients were classified into TA group and 522 (34.8%) patients into nonthrombus aspiration group. Manual TA was most frequently used in patients with worse initial thrombolysis in myocardial infarction flow. The TA group received less number of stents implanted (1.35±0.62 versus 1.45±0.71, P=0.005) with bigger size (3.25±0.44 versus 3.11±0.46 mm, P<0.001) compared with the nonthrombus aspiration group. A higher rate of direct stenting (69.2% versus 43.3%, P<0.001) with lower rate of postdilatation (13.0% versus 18.0%, P<0.009) was also present in the TA group compared with the nonthrombus aspiration group. At 2-year follow-up, no differences in clinical end point were observed between groups. Conclusions—Manual TA during primary percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with a higher rate of direct stenting, a lower rate of postdilatation, and larger and less stents in comparison with conventional primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Conversely, manual TA had no apparent impact on clinical outcomes at long-term follow-up. Clinical Trial Registration—http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00828087.
Diabetes and dementia incidence in Latin America; a 10/66 population-based cohort study

Background Diabetes prevalence is already high in middle income countries, particularly among older people. Current evidence on diabetes as a risk factor for dementia is limited to cohort studies in high income countries. Few studies carried out fasting glucose assessments to identify undiagnosed cases, and assess diabetes control. We aimed to determine the association between both diagnosed diabetes and total diabetes (including undiagnosed cases) and incident dementia, examining also the impact of glycaemic control on dementia risk. Methods Population-based cohort studies of those aged 65 years and over in sites in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico. Diagnosed diabetes was assessed through self-reported diagnosis, and undiagnosed diabetes through fasting blood samples (glucose >= 7mmol/L). Blood pressure, smoking, underactivity and waist circumference were assessed from questionnaires and physical examination. Incident 10/66 dementia (and subtypes), and mortality, were ascertained three to five years later. Results 12,297 interviews were completed at baseline, with 80-95% responding by site. The ‘at risk’ cohort comprised 10,945 dementia-free individuals, of whom 8,171 (75%) provided blood samples. Mean age varied from 72.0 to 75.1 years by site. Total diabetes prevalence was 43.5% in Puerto Rico, ranging from 11.5% to 27.0% in other sites. Most diabetes cases (50.2% to 68.4%) were not controlled (fasting glucose >7.0 mmol/L). 7,000 participants were followed up for 26,423 person-years with 659 incident dementia cases, and 905 dementia free deaths. Total diabetes was associated with incident 10/66 dementia (pooled meta-analysed adjusted sub-hazard ratio [pASHR] 1.25, 95% CI, 1.05-1.49, I2=48.6%), with a stronger association for uncontrolled (pASHR 1.47, 95% CI 1.19-1.81, I2=49.6%) than controlled cases (pASHR 1.29, 95% CI 0.95-1.74, I2=13.3%). Total diabetes was strongly associated with the incidence of vascular dementia (pASHR 2.25, 95% CI 1.24-4.08, I2=23.7%), but not Alzheimer’s Disease (pASHR 0.99, 95% CI 0.70-1.42, I2=49.0%). Conclusions Diabetes, particularly when poorly controlled, may increase dementia risk. There is considerable scope for improved detection and control of diabetes among older people in these settings, and hence an opportunity to carry out proof of concept prevention trials. Overlapping epidemics of these age dependent disorders will challenge poorly-resourced health systems in the future.