Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Four Essays in Wine Economics: An Empirical Approach with Swiss Panel Data

This dissertation consists of four research papers discussing economic aspects of wine in Switzerland. Following the introductory chapter, the next three chapters analyze price elasticity, forecasting and climatic shocks using a panel data set with quantity and price from Swiss supermarkets. The last chapter explores Swiss fine wine pricing determinants using price lists individually extracted from wine producer websites. Chapter 2 examines the determinants of the demand for Swiss wines, estimating price elasticity in the retail market through a panel data structure. In order to eliminate unobserved heterogeneity at the wine type level, different econometric specifications such as fixed effects (FE) are used. An instrumental variable (IV) approach is defined to deal with price endogeneity, allowing a causal interpretation of price variation in wine consumption. We find that globally Swiss wine is price elastic (-2.63 for FE and -1.71 for IV estimations), confirming consumer sensitivity to price changes. Several wine specifications (i.e. color, region of origin and grape varietal) are included, confirming the statistical significance of the estimated effects as well as the initial economic assumptions. Chapter 3 provides a better understanding of prospects for the Swiss wine market, through modeling and forecasting analysis. Results show a strong heterogeneity for impulse responses functions (IRF) as well as supply-demand ratios in explaining forecasting error terms among different wine specifications such as region of origin, color and grape varietal. Panel vector autoregressive model (Panel VAR) and forecasting estimation allow for longitudinal analysis as well as cross-section data for specific types of wines. Sign restrictions strategy enables us to disentangle demand and supply shocks effect on two main variables: quantity and price equilibrium. Finally, this study provides an important tool for understanding price change persistence for both producers and consumers. Chapter 4 analyses the treatment effect of a hail weather shock in a specific Swiss wine region, using a difference-in-differences approach. We exploit a natural experiment from the Swiss wine region “Three Lakes” in 2013 on the outcomes of the Swiss retail market. We find statistically significant (1%-level) negative effects of -22.8% and
The impact of experts on tax policy in post-war Britain and Sweden

During the decades after World War II, countries began shifting taxation from income to consumption. This shift has been associated with an expanding welfare state and left-wing dominance. However, the pattern is far from uniform and while some left-wing governments indeed expanded consumption taxation, others did not. This paper seeks to explain why, by exploring how experts influenced post-war tax policy in Britain and Sweden. Experts influence is crucial when explaining how the left began to see consumption tax not as a threat but as an opportunity. Interestingly, the influence of experts such as Nicholas Kaldor in Britain was different from the impact of Swedish experts (e.g. Gosta Rehn). I make the argument that the impact of expert advice is contingent on the political risks facing governments. The low risks facing the Swedish Left made it more amenable to the advantages of broad-based sales taxes, while the high-risk environment in Britain made Labour reject these ideas.
Spatially Extended fMRI Signal Response to Stimulus in Non-Functionally Relevant Regions of the Human Brain: Preliminary Results

The blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) haemodynamic response function (HDR) in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a delayed and indirect marker of brain activity. In this single case study a small BOLD response synchronised with the stimulus paradigm is found globally, i.e. in all areas outside those of expected activation in a single subject study. The nature of the global response has similar shape properties to the archetypal BOLD HDR, with an early positive signal and a late negative response typical of the negative overshoot. Fitting Poisson curves to these responses showed that voxels were potentially split into two sets: one with dominantly positive signal and the other predominantly negative. A description, quantification and mapping of the global BOLD response is provided along with a 2 × 2 classification table test to demonstrate existence with very high statistical confidence. Potential explanations of the global response are proposed in terms of 1) global HDR balancing; 2) resting state network modulation; and 3) biological systems synchronised with the stimulus cycle. Whilst these widespread and low-level patterns seem unlikely to provide additional information for determining activation in functional neuroimaging studies as conceived in the last 15 years, knowledge of their properties may assist more comprehensive accounts of brain connectivity in the future.
Arginine Metabolic Endotypes in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Decreased synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) by NO synthases (NOS) is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Multiple factors may contribute to decreased NO bioavailability, including increased activity of arginase, the enzyme that converts arginine to ornithine and urea, which may compete with NOS for arginine; inadequate de novo arginine production from citrulline; and increased concentration of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), an endogenous inhibitor of NOS. We hypothesized that PAH patients with the lowest arginine availability secondary to increased arginase activity and/or inadequate de novo arginine synthesis might have a slower rate of NO synthesis and greater pulmonary vascular resistance. Nine patients with group 1 PAH and 10 healthy controls were given primed, constant intravenous infusions of 15N2-arginine, 13C,2H4-citrulline, 15N2-ornithine, and 13C-urea in the postabsorptive state. The results showed that, compared with healthy controls, PAH patients had a tendency toward increased arginine clearance and ornithine flux but no difference in arginine and citrulline flux, de novo arginine synthesis, or NO synthesis. Arginine-to-ADMA ratio was increased in PAH patients. Two endotypes of patients with low and high arginase activity were identified; compared with the low-arginase group, the patients with high arginase had increased arginine flux, slower NO synthesis, and lower plasma concentrations of ADMA. These results demonstrate that increased breakdown of arginine by arginase occurs in PAH and affects NO synthesis. Furthermore, there is no compensatory increase in de novo arginine synthesis to overcome this increased utilization of arginine by arginase.
The Schizosaccharomyces pombe inv1+ Regulatory Region Is Unusually Large and Contains Redundant cis-Acting Elements That Function in a SAGA- and Swi/Snf-Dependent Fashion

ABSTRACT The Schizosaccharomyces pombe inv1+ gene encodes invertase, the enzyme required for hydrolysis of sucrose and raffinose. Transcription of inv1+ is regulated by glucose levels, with transcription tightly repressed in high glucose and strongly induced in low glucose. To understand this regulation, we have analyzed the inv1+ cis-regulatory region and the requirement for the trans-acting coactivators SAGA and Swi/Snf. Surprisingly, deletion of the entire 1-kilobase intergenic region between the inv1+ TATA element and the upstream open reading frame SPCC191.10 does not significantly alter regulation of inv1+ transcription. However, a longer deletion that extends through SPCC191.10 abolishes inv1+ induction in low glucose. Additional analysis demonstrates that there are multiple, redundant regulatory regions spread over 1.5 kb 5′ of inv1+, including within SPCC191.10, that can confer glucose-mediated transcriptional regulation to inv1+. Furthermore, SPCC191.10 can regulate inv1+ transcription in an orientation-independent fashion and from a distance as great as 3 kb. With respect to trans-acting factors, both SAGA and Swi/Snf are recruited to SPCC191.10 and to other locations in the large inv1+ regulatory region in a glucose-dependent fashion, and both are required for inv1+ derepression. Taken together, these results demonstrate that inv1+ regulation in S. pombe occurs via the use of multiple regulatory elements and that activation can occur over a great distance, even from elements within other open reading frames.
The Cell End Marker Protein TeaC Is Involved in Growth Directionality and Septation in Aspergillus nidulans

ABSTRACT Polarized growth in filamentous fungi depends on the correct spatial organization of the microtubule (MT) and actin cytoskeleton. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe it was shown that the MT cytoskeleton is required for the delivery of so-called cell end marker proteins, e.g., Tea1 and Tea4, to the cell poles. Subsequently, these markers recruit several proteins required for polarized growth, e.g., a formin, which catalyzes actin cable formation. The latest results suggest that this machinery is conserved from fission yeast to Aspergillus nidulans. Here, we have characterized TeaC, a putative homologue of Tea4. Sequence identity between TeaC and Tea4 is only 12.5%, but they both share an SH3 domain in the N-terminal region. Deletion of teaC affected polarized growth and hyphal directionality. Whereas wild-type hyphae grow straight, hyphae of the mutant grow in a zig-zag way, similar to the hyphae of teaA deletion (tea1) strains. Some small, anucleate compartments were observed. Overexpression of teaC repressed septation and caused abnormal swelling of germinating conidia. In agreement with the two roles in polarized growth and in septation, TeaC localized to hyphal tips and to septa. TeaC interacted with the cell end marker protein TeaA at hyphal tips and with the formin SepA at hyphal tips and at septa.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Utilises Its Type III Secretion System to Kill the Free‐Living Amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii

ABSTRACT. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a free‐living and common environmental bacterium. It is an opportunistic and nosocomial pathogen causing serious human health problems. To overcome its predators, such as macrophages and environmental phagocytes, it utilises different survival strategies, such as the formation of microcolonies and the production of toxins mediated by a type III secretion system (TTSS). The aim of this study was to examine interaction of TTSS effector proteins of P. aeruginosa PA103 with Acanthamoeba castellanii by co‐cultivation, viable count, eosin staining, electron microscopy, apoptosis assay, and statistical analysis. The results showed that P. aeruginosa PA103 induced necrosis and apoptosis to kill A. castellanii by the effects of TTSS effector proteins ExoU, ExoS, ExoT, and ExoY. In comparison, Acanthamoeba cultured alone and co‐cultured with P. aeruginosa PA103 lacking the known four TTSS effector proteins were not killed. The results are consistent with P. aeruginosa being a strict extracellular bacterium that needs TTSS to survive in the environment, because the TTSS effector proteins are able to kill its eukaryotic predators, such as Acanthamoeba.
Anti-ETA IgG neutralizes the effects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A.

BACKGROUND The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes severe infections in immunocompromised hosts. Among P. aeruginosa-infected burn patients, mortality may reach as high as 50%. Due to their immunocompromised status, burn patients may benefit from passive immunotherapy against infection. As a potential multivalent immunoglobulin therapy, specific polyclonal antibodies against four P. aeruginosa virulence factors, including exotoxin A (ETA), were prepared. MATERIALS AND METHODS AND RESULTS In this study, we analyzed the ability of ETA antibody (ETA-Ab) to neutralize the in vivo effects of ETA. Adult mice injected with purified ETA suffered 100% mortality. The cytosolic DNA of their hepatocytes was fragmented, indicating ETA induction of apoptosis. In addition, multiprobe RNase protection assays showed that ETA upregulates the expression of the genes for proinflammatory cytokines as well as apoptosis genes in the livers of ETA-injected mice. Treatment with ETA-Ab prior to ETA injection prevented mortality, ETA-induced hepatocyte DNA fragmentation, and upregulation of the cytokine and apoptosis-related genes. The role of ETA during P. aeruginosa infection of the burn wound was examined by determining the in vivo virulence of P. aeruginosa PA103 and its isogenic, ETA-deficient mutant PA103Omega::toxA using the thermally injured mouse model. The lethality, local spread, and systemic spread of PA103Omega::toxA were significantly reduced compared to PA103. CONCLUSION These results suggest that (1) ETA induces apoptosis in hepatocytes, (2) specific cytokines are produced in response to ETA, (3) ETA-Ab neutralizes these effects, and (4) ETA contributes to the spread of P. aeruginosa during burn wound infection.
A smart-phone based privacy-preserving security framework for IoT devices

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are getting increasingly popular, becoming a core element for the next generations of informational architectures: smart city, smart factory, smart home, smart health-care and many others. IoT systems are mainly comprised of embedded devices with limited computing capabilities while having a cloud component which processes the data and delivers it to the end-users. IoT devices access the user private data, thus requiring robust security solution which must address features like usability and scalability. In this paper we discuss about an IoT authentication service for smart-home devices using a smart-phone as security anchor, QR codes and attribute based cryptography (ABC). Regarding the fact that in an IoT ecosystem some of the IoT devices and the cloud components may be considered untrusted, we propose a privacy preserving attribute based access control protocol to handle the device authentication to the cloud service. For the smart-phone centric authentication to the cloud component, we employ the FIDO UAF protocol and we extend it, by adding an attributed based privacy preserving component.
INSIGHT INTO SOME OF THE SIGNALING PATHWAYS TRIGGERED BY A LIPID IMMUNOMODULATOR

ABSTRACT The use of non specific immunomodulatory agents takes an important place in the aspecific host response to invading microorganisms. In this context, antimicrobial properties of royal jelly have been ascribed to organic acids (mainly 10 hydroxy-2-decenoic acid or 10-HDA) and proteins. We synthesized a derivative of 10-HDA, the 1-(2-methoxy-ethoxymethyl)2,3-(10-hydroxy2-decenoyl)(E) glycerol referred as diHDA-glycerol which was previously found to protect mice against virulent Salmonella typhimurium challenge through more adequate immune regulations. This study was conducted to further investigate some of the signaling pathways followed by diHDA-glycerol in cell transduction. Members of NF-κB transcription factors are key regulators of many cytokines acting on immunity and they control genes involved in responses to numerous signals such as bacterial products. Therefore, we investigated some parameters acting on NF-κB translocation in U937 cells after diHDA-glycerol treatment. Due to the chemical structure of the molecule we also investigated the sphingomyelinase pathway. Our results showed that diHDA-glycerol induced a rapid NF-κB translocation as a consequence of IκB-α proteolysis. An intracellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may also account for NF-κB activation, without de novo protein synthesis. DiHDA-glycerol induced a strong activation of neutral sphingomyelinase, suggesting an important role of sphingolipids in the regulatory responses induced by diHDA-glycerol.
Experimental liquid cooled base station

Present radios base stations are cooled by passive fins with or without fans. Fanless products are used in mast applications and they are equipped with tall fins and power is limited. For higher power applications or when size is an issue, namely indoors or cabinets, fans are used to enhance heat transfer from surface to air. Fan cooling has also its limits and power used for cooling increases rapidly when heat transfer is increased. Remaining problem is also that what is done for heat removed from the equipment. Another issue is, when miscellaneous racks are located in an indoor area, equipment are not always nicely arranged (hot and cold aisle). In these bad conditions, hot air exhausting from equipment could be blown to inlet of another one. Liquid cooling can tackle challenges coming from higher power consumption [2] need to handle higher data rates. Firstly, liquids can transfer more heat than air from the same area and heat can be transferred away from the device with one system. This allows higher capacity products in same or smaller size and new site locations as heavy ventilation or A/C is no longer needed. Despite the improved cooling performance, power consumption to run liquid cooling system is same as power needed to run rotational fans but same time more heat could be removed from system. Compared to a mechanical compression air conditioning system, energy consumption is significantly reduced. All in all liquid cooling can provide next leap in electronics cooling and allow many new opportunities for operators to provide better service for end customers. This article focuses on use experiences, performance and future opportunities of liquid cooled radio base station site compared with conventional air cooled radio base station site.
PREVALENCE OF BACTERIAL VAGINOSIS AMONG SEXUALLY ACTIVE WOMEN ATTENDING THE CDC CENTRAL CLINIC TIKO, SOUTH WEST REGION, CAMEROON

Background: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a polymicrobial, superficial vaginal infection involving a reduction in the amount of hydrogen peroxide-producing Lactobacillus and overgrowth of anaerobic bacteria. Common symptoms include increased fishy smelling vaginal discharge which is usually white or gray in color. Burning with urination may occur and itching is uncommon. Risk factors include douching, new or multiple sex partners, antibiotics, and use of intrauterine device among others. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among sexually active women aged 15-45 years. Vaginal swabs were obtained with the use of sterile swab sticks which were later smeared on clean glass slides and then Gram stained. The stained smears were observed for bacterial morphotypes with the X100 oil immersion objective and the Nugent scoring system was used to determine BV. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 17.0 and were considered significant at p < 0.05. Results: A total of 100 women participated in the study with the overall prevalence of BV rated 38%. The prevalence of BV with respect to associated factors was also investigated and it was observed that BV was more prevalent in the age groups 20-25 (48.1%) and 25-29 (44.4%), those who had attained only primary education (60.5%), married women, (68.4%), pregnant women (71.0%), and women who practiced vaginal douching, (97.4%). However, no statistical significant difference was observed in the prevalence between these parameters (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Conclusively, the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in our study population is 38% and highest among women aged between 25 and 34 years, pregnant women, married women, less educated women and women who practiced poor vaginal hygiene.
Identification of Listeria monocytogenes Genes Involved in Salt and Alkaline-pH Tolerance

ABSTRACT The capacity of Listeria monocytogenes to tolerate salt and alkaline stresses is of particular importance, as this pathogen is often exposed to such environments during food processing and food preservation. We screened a library of Tn917-lacZ insertional mutants in order to identify genes involved in salt and/or alkaline tolerance. We isolated six mutants sensitive to salt stress and 12 mutants sensitive to salt and alkaline stresses. The position of the insertion of the transposon was located in 15 of these mutants. In six mutants the transposon was inserted in intergenic regions, and in nine mutants it was inserted in genes. Most of the genes have unknown functions, but sequence comparisons indicated that they encode putative transporters.
Group analytic therapy for eating disorders: preliminary results in a single-group study.

OBJECTIVES There is a lack of empirical data on the effectiveness and process of group-analytic therapy in eating disorders. This single-group study aimed to explore the effectiveness of such treatment for anorexic and bulimic individuals. METHOD Eight patients (three anorexic and five bulimic women) entered group-analytic treatment, meeting weekly for 2 years. Eating behaviours, overall psychological distress and group process variables were regularly assessed using quantitative and qualitative measures, with comparisons made at the beginning and end of the therapy. RESULTS Treatment was discontinued in two cases. When outcome was classified on the basis of reliable change and clinical significance for the remaining patients at the end of treatment, four were recovered in terms of overall psychological distress, while one was unchanged and one had deteriorated. In terms of eating disorder symptoms, three patients were recovered, two were unchanged and one had deteriorated. Patients experienced an overall positive group climate and a positive group alliance. Perception of being understood by the therapist appeared to play an important role in the therapeutic process. CONCLUSIONS These preliminary results suggest that group-analytic therapy may be effective in helping patients with eating disorders. However, more work is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.
Role of Variable Regions A and B in Receptor Binding Domain of Amphotropic Murine Leukemia Virus Envelope Protein

ABSTRACT For the amphotropic murine leukemia virus (MuLV), a 208-amino-acid amino-terminal fragment of the surface unit (SU) of the envelope glycoprotein is sufficient to bind to its receptor, Pit2. Within this binding domain, two hypervariable regions, VRA and VRB, have been proposed to be important for receptor recognition. In order to specifically locate residues that are important for the interaction with Pit2, we generated a number of site-specific mutations in both VRA and VRB and analyzed the resulting envelope proteins when expressed on retroviral vectors. Concurrently, we substituted portions of the amphotropic SU with homologous regions from the polytropic MuLV envelope protein. The amphotropic SU was unaffected by most of the point mutations we introduced. In addition, the deletion of eight residues in a region of VRA that was previously suggested to be essential for Pit2 utilization only decreased titer on NIH 3T3 cells by 1 order of magnitude. Although the replacement of the amino-terminal two-thirds of VRA with the polytropic sequence abolished receptor binding, smaller nonoverlapping substitutions did not affect the function of the protein. We were not able to identify a single critical receptor contact point within VRA, and we suggest that the amphotropic receptor binding domain probably makes multiple contacts with the receptor and that the loss of some of these contacts can be tolerated.