Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mannan‐binding lectin‐associated serine protease 2 is critical for the development of renal ischemia reperfusion injury and mediates tissue injury in the absence of complement C4

Mannan‐binding lectin‐associated serine protease 2 (MASP‐2) has been described as the essential enzyme for the lectin pathway (LP) of complement activation. Since there is strong published evidence indicating that complement activation via the LP critically contributes to ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury, we assessed the effect of MASP‐2 deficiency in an isogenic mouse model of renal transplantation. The experimental transplantation model used included nephrectomy of the remaining native kidney at d 5 post‐transplantation. While wild‐type (WT) kidneys grafted into WT recipients (n=7) developed acute renal failure (control group), WT grafts transplanted into MASP‐2‐deficient recipients (n=7) showed significantly better kidney function, less C3 deposition, and less IR injury. In the absence of donor or recipient complement C4 (n=7), the WT to WT phenotype was preserved, indicating that the MASP‐2‐mediated damage was independent of C4 activation. This C4‐bypass MASP‐2 activity was confirmed in mice deficient for both MASP‐2 and C4 (n=7), where the protection from postoperative acute renal failure was no greater than in mice with MASP‐2 deficiency alone. Our study highlights the role of LP activation in renal IR injury and indicates that injury occurs through MASP‐2‐dependent activation events independent of C4. —Asgari, E. , Farrar, C. A. , Lynch, N. , Ali, Y. M. , Roscher, S. , Stover, C. , Zhou, W. , Schwaeble, W. J., Sacks, S. H. Mannan‐binding lectin‐associated serine protease 2 is critical for the development of renal ischemia reperfusion injury and mediates tissue injury in the absence of complement C4. FASEB J. 28, 3996‐4003 (2014). www.fasebj. org
Rotationplasty Type B IIIa According to Winkelmann: Electromyography and Gait Analysis

After resection of a malignant bone tumor of the femur, rotationplasty is considered a treatment option in addition to other limb salvage procedures such as endoprosthetic replacement, allograft, or autograft reconstruction. A Type B IIIa rotationplasty is indicated when the tumor involves the total femur or when skip lesions are detected. After the total femur is resected, the lateral tibial plateau is placed into the acetabulum after rotating the tibia and foot segment 180°. Eight patients at an average age of 5.9 years underwent a rotationplasty Type B IIIa at the authors’ institution. After a median followup of 59.6 months (range, 24–86 months) the clinical results were excellent and the functional status according to the criteria of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society was good (23 of 30 points). In electromyographic analysis the muscle activity of the affected leg revealed good function of the stance and the swing phase muscles according to their new function with comparable amplitudes to the unaffected limb. The kinematics (range of motion of the hip and knee) were slightly assymmetric. Gait analysis showed a slight lateral trunk lean over the ipsilateral limb with reduced joint moment. All patients had full weightbearing ability. Remodeling of the tibial plateau into a round form mimicking a new femoral head is confirmed by radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging scans. In young children with a tumor of the total femur, rotationplasty Type B IIIa is a good treatment modality with excellent clinical and good functional results. The electromyographic and gait analysis data underscore a good functional restoration of gait after rotationplasty.
Is the relative increase in income inequality related to tooth loss in middle-aged adults?

OBJECTIVES To assess whether Brazilian middle-aged adults living in cities that experienced a relative increase on income inequality were more likely to have severe tooth loss and lack a functional dentition. METHODS Data on Brazilian adults aged 35-44 years from state capitals and Federal District from the 2010 Brazilian Oral Health Survey (SBBrasil 2010) were analyzed. Clinically assessed tooth loss outcomes were severe tooth loss (<9 remaining natural teeth) and lack of functional dentition (<21 natural teeth). Income inequality was assessed by Gini Index in 1991, 2000, and 2003 using tertiles of distribution. Variation in Gini Index was assessed by changes in the tertiles distribution between years. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (95 percent CI) between variation in income inequality and tooth loss outcomes adjusting for individual socio-demographic characteristics. RESULTS Prevalence of severe tooth loss and lack of functional dentition was 4.8 percent and 21.2 percent, respectively. Individuals living in cities with moderate and high increase in income inequality between 1991 and 2003 were more likely to have severe tooth loss and lack a functional dentition in 2010 compared with those living in cities with stable income inequality in the same period. Relationships between low family income and both tooth loss outcomes were significantly attenuated by relative increases in income inequality. CONCLUSIONS Relative increases in income inequality were significantly associated with severe tooth loss and lack of a functional dentition in Brazilian middle-aged adults.
Banks And Politics In America From The Revolution To The Civil War

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Unlocking Spectral Efficiency in Intensity Modulation and Direct Detection Systems

A number of inherently unipolar orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation schemes have been introduced recently in an attempt to improve the energy efficiency of OFDM-based intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) systems. All such algorithms, including asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-OFDM), pulse-amplitude-modulated discrete multitone modulation (PAM-DMT) and unipolar orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (U-OFDM), experience an inherent loss in spectral efficiency caused by the restrictions imposed on the OFDM frame structure required for the generation of a unipolar signal. The current paper presents a modified modulation approach, termed enhanced U-OFDM (eU-OFDM), which compensates the spectral efficiency loss in U-OFDM. At the same time, it still allows for the generation of an inherently unipolar modulation signal that achieves better performance in terms of both electrical power and optical power dissipation compared to the conventional state-of-the-art technique direct current (DC)-biased optical OFDM (DCO-OFDM). To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current work also presents the first experimental proof-of-concept demonstration of both U-OFDM and eU-OFDM, and clearly demonstrates the significant energy advantages that these two schemes can introduce in an optical wireless communications (OWC) system.
Prokaryotic Expression and Anti-IBDV Activity of Chicken Interleukin-18 and Interferon-γ

Interferon-γ (IFN-γ), a cytokine produced by activated natural killer cells and T lymphocytes, is an important regulator of innate and adaptive immunity. Interleukin (IL)-18, also known as IFN-γ-inducing factor, is a cytokine that induces T and natural killer cells to produce IFN-γ. In this study, the chicken IL-18 (ChIL-18) and chicken IFN-γ (ChIFN-γ) genes were inserted into the pET28a prokaryotic expression vector, resulting in pET28a-IL-18 and pET28a-IFN-γ, respectively. These plasmids were transformed into Escherichia coli strain BL21, and the ChIL-18 and ChIFN-γ proteins were expressed and purified. To determine their antiviral activities, 200 ng/mL of ChIL-18 and/or ChIFN-γ were inoculated into chicken embryonic fibroblast cells. After 24 h, one 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) was inoculated into the chicken embryonic fibroblast cells. The results showed that the antiviral effect of ChIL-18 and ChIFN-γ in combination was better than that of ChIL-18 or ChIFN-γ alone. Next, 14-day-old chicken were injected with 200 µg of ChIL-18 and/or ChIFN-γ and then were challenged with 103 TCID50 of IBDV via intraperitoneal injection. The results showed that the proliferation of IBDV was inhibited by the injection of the recombinant proteins, especially the combination of ChIL-18 and ChIFN-γ, as evidenced by cytokine detection, quantitative PCR, and pathology analyses. These results indicate that ChIL-18 and ChIFN-γ could inhibit IBDV infection and the combination of ChIL-18 and ChIFN-γ has a better inhibitory effect than either cytokine alone.
Mental health of US Gulf War veterans 10 years after the war.

BACKGROUND Gulf War veterans reported multiple psychological symptoms immediately after the war; the temporal course of these symptoms remains unclear. AIMS To assess the prevalence of war era onset mental disorders in US veterans deployed to the Gulf War and in non-deployed veterans 10 years after the war. METHOD Mental disorders were diagnosed using structured clinical interviews. Standard questionnaires assessed symptoms and quality of life. RESULTS Gulf War-era onset mental disorders were more prevalent in deployed veterans (18.1%, n=1061) compared with non-deployed veterans (8.9%, n=1128). The prevalence of depression and anxiety declined 10 years later in both groups, but remained higher in the deployed group, who also reported more symptoms and a lower quality of life than the non-deployed group. Remission of depression may be related to the presence of comorbid psychiatric disorders and level of education. Remission of anxiety was related to treatment with medication. CONCLUSIONS Gulf War deployment was associated with an increased prevalence of mental disorders, psychological symptoms and a lower quality of life beginning during the war and persisting at a lower rate 10 years later.
The Impact of Capital and Financial Flows on Human Welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the last few decades, the world has become more linked owing to the increased intensity of globalisation across regions. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) has become relatively more integrated into global economy most especially in terms of capital and financial flow (foreign direct investment increased from 0.3% in 1980-84 to 2.74% in 2000 - 2012). Over the same period, the quality of life in terms of the proportion of SSA people that have access to basic necessities improved marginally (from 49% in 1980-1990 to 53% in 2000-2012 for water, 61% in 1980-1990 to 62% in 2000-2012 for health care services). The endogeneous growth theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Financial flow is captured by the foreign investment while the capital flow is proxied by the Portfolio investment. The human welfare was proxied by human development index, (HDI-a composite of three indicators: life expectancy at birth, mean year of schooling and income per head), access to basic necessities such as water, sanitation and health services were also used as alternative measure of human welfare while Governance index (GI) was considered as a control variable which stimulates globalisation and human welfare. The feasible Generalised Least Square (GLS) estimator was utilised to estimate the fixed and random effect panel regression models. Hausman test was used to determine the efficient estimator between fixed and random effects. All estimated coefficients were estimated at 1% level of significance. The panel consisted of sixteen countries selected from the four regional groups in SSA. The results revealed that foreign direct investment significantly increased HDI (0.59), infant mortality rate (-2.19), life expectancy (0.32), mean year of schooling (0.01), access to water (0.68) access to sanitation (0.27), and access to health services (0.54). The Portfolio investment was found to influence HDI access to health services and life expectancy at birth negatively but improved access
Synchrophasor data analytics in distribution grids

The deployment of high-fidelity, high-resolution sensors in distribution systems will play a key role in enabling increased resiliency and reliability in the face of a changing generation landscape. In order to leverage the full potential of such a rich dataset, it is necessary to develop an analytics framework capable of both detecting and analyzing patterns within events of interest. This work details the foundation of such an infrastructure. Here, we present an algorithm for detecting events, in the form of edges in voltage magnitude time series data, and an approach for clustering sets of events to reveal unique features that distinguish different events from one another (e.g. capacitor bank switching from transformer tap changes). We test the proposed infrastructure on distribution synchrophasor data obtained from a utility in California over a one week period. Our results indicate that event detection and clustering of archived data reveals features unique to the operation of voltage regulation equipment. The chosen data set particularly highlights the value of the derivative of the localized voltage angle as a distinguishing feature.
On the Determinants of Distribution Dynamics: a New Method and an Application to EU Regions (Preliminary version. Please do not quote without permission)

In this paper we provide a novel approach to identify the effect of growth determinants on the distribution dynamics, that integrates the counterfactual analysis of, e. g. , Beaudry et al. (2005) with the estimation of conditioned stochastic kernels of Quah (1996b) and Quah (1997). The counterfactuals are constructed from a nonparametric growth regression in which the cross-section heterogeneity in the variable of interest is removed. The methodology also allows for measuring the marginal effect of individual variables on the distribution of per capita income (labor productivity), and to test for the possible presence of distributional effects in the residuals of growth regression, as a means to assess the goodness of fit of the initial growth regression. The methodology is applied to the analysis of productivity dynamics across European regions. We show its capacity to highlight aspects of the identified tendency for polarization, otherwise missed by existing methods.
North-South Collaborations: Learning from a Decade of Intercultural Experiences for Teachers and Faculty in One Mexican and US University Partnership.

This paper focuses on an ongoing international collaboration between two large public universities, one in the US and one in Mexico, through projects in program development, faculty exchange, graduate student/teacher field experiences, student mentoring and joint research in the area of a foreign/second language teaching and teacher development. Insights from the literature on higher education collaboration and teacher exchange are presented, along with an analysis of the characteristics and conditions that have contributed to this particular network of collaborations over a ten-year period from 2004-2014 and still continues today. Consideration is given to ways in which collaborating across diverse cultures is complex and how networks can contribute to teacher learning. We conclude with implications for collaboration, especially in intercultural teacher education, among diverse higher education participants across geopolitical and cultural boundaries.
Gap Waveguide Leaky-Wave Antenna

A novel leaky-wave antenna, realized using gap waveguide concept, is here proposed. Both, the feeding structure and the antenna are realized in groove gap waveguide technology, thus simplifying the whole structure. A complete design procedure, starting from a given groove waveguide to the final radiation mechanism, is described in this communication. The results are supported with measurements of a prototype that operates in the X-band. The realized antenna has a gain around 18 dB between 9 and 11.5 GHz, demonstrating the potential of the proposed radiation technology.
The gender wage gap and the early-career effect

This paper identifies the sources of the gender wage gap across education groups and studies how the gap develops with work experience throughout the career. The analysis applies matched employer-employee register data for Norway covering hourly wages for all full-time workers 20-40 years old in 2008 and with information on actual work experience the previous 15 years. Overall, less than half the male wage premium is explained by differences in observable factors. The remaining gap follows from lower returns to worker characteristics for women, especially lower returns to experience. The gender wage gap between observable equal workers is non-existing upon entry to the labor market, while it increases rapidly throughout the early career, before stabilizing. The findings of early-career effects are robust to an analysis following cohorts during 1993-2008. The degree of gender discrimination in the labor market decreases with the level of education. Low educated women have lower returns to experience and lose more from entering family life compared to highly educated women.
A 0.22 pJ/step subsampling ADC with fast input-tracking sampling and simplified opamp sharing

This paper presents a 10-bit 40-MS/s pipelined ADC in a 0.13-μm CMOS process for subsampling applications. A simplified opamp-sharing scheme between two successive pipelined stages is proposed to reduce the power consumption. For subsampling, a cost-effective fast input-tracking switch with high linearity is introduced to sample the input signal up to 75 MHz. A two-stage amplifier with hybrid frequency compensation is developed to achieve both high bandwidth and large swing with low power dissipation. The measured result shows that the ADC achieves over 77 dB SFDR and 57.3 dB SNDR within the first Nyquist zone and maintains over 70 dB SFDR and 55.3 dB SNDR for input signal up to 75 MHz. The peak differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity (INL) are ±0.2 LSB and ±0.3 LSB respectively. The ADC consumes 15.6 mW at the sampling rate of 40 MHz from a 1.2-V supply voltage, and achieves a FOM value of 0.22 pJ/step.
Research Status and Development Trend of Laser Additive Manufacturing Technology

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology is one of the most representative of advanced manufacturing technology, and one of the most critical technology, is currently a hot research at home and abroad. This paper mainly introduces the forming principle, characteristics and research status of two typical LAM technologies--selective laser melting (SLM) technology and laser cladding deposition (LCD) technology. Moreover, some application examples of LAM technology are listed, and its future development trend is discussed.
Research on chaos complexity of output game with different decision rules

Based on the bounded rational strategy and naive decision-making rule,this paper constructs a game model of duopoly outputs and proposes a combination method with state delay and weighted average to estimate the competitor's expected output.Then the model's stability is analyzed by introducing auxiliary variable and employing Jury's criteria.The results show that the game model has an unstable boundary fixed point and a local stable Nash equilibrium point.Numerical simulations further confirm that when the combination values of the output adjustment speed and the weight are outside the local stability region,the complex output response,such as bifurcation and chaos,will appear.Obtaining Nash equilibrium profits are the optimal result for the output game of both sides.
Adaptive temperature monitoring for battery thermal management

Battery thermal management is crucial for avoiding disastrous consequences due to short circuits and thermal runaway. The temperature inside a battery (core temperature) is higher than the temperature outside (skin temperature) under high discharge/charge rates. Although the skin temperature is measurable, the core temperature is not. In this paper, a lumped thermal model is considered to estimate the core temperature from skin temperature readings. To take into account uncertainties in thermal model parameters, which are bound to occur as the battery ages, an adaptive closed-loop estimation algorithm called the adaptive Potter filter is derived. Finally, computer simulations are performed to validate the adaptive Potter filter's ability to track the skin and core temperatures under high charge/discharge current pulses and model mismatches.
Power‐law temporal autocorrelation of activity reflects severity of parkinsonism

We aimed to obtain a reliable, objective scale representing disease severity for appropriate management of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Nineteen patients with PD at the Department of Neurology, Tokyo University Hospital, were classified into mild (n = 10) or severe groups (n = 9) depending on their Hoehn‐Yahr scores, and wore accelerometers on their wrists for more than 6 consecutive days. During this time we monitored their subjective assessments of symptom severity and analyzed the power‐law exponents (α) for local maxima and minima of fluctuations in the activity time series. Statistical comparisons were made between the severe and mild groups and of individual patients on “good condition” and “bad condition” days, as well as between days before and after antiparkinsonism medication. In all patients, the α for local maxima was always lower when parkinsonism was mild than when severe. Presence of tremor did not influence the α for local maxima. As the lower α value for local maxima of fluctuations in activity records reflects more frequent switching behavior from low to high physical activities or the severity of akinesia, actigraph monitoring of parkinsonism, and analysis of its power‐law correlation may provide useful objective information for controlling parkinsonism in outpatient clinics and for evaluating new antiparkinsonism drugs. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society
The Axial Element Protein DESYNAPTIC2 Mediates Meiotic Double-Strand Break Formation and Synaptonemal Complex Assembly in Maize[OPEN]

Maize DSY2 mediates DNA double-strand-break formation to initiate recombination and connects the axial element with the central element protein ZYP1 during synapsis. During meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair and recombine via repair of programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). DSBs are formed in the context of chromatin loops, which are anchored to the proteinaceous axial element (AE). The AE later serves as a framework to assemble the synaptonemal complex (SC) that provides a transient but tight connection between homologous chromosomes. Here, we showed that DESYNAPTIC2 (DSY2), a coiled-coil protein, mediates DSB formation and is directly involved in SC assembly in maize (Zea mays). The dsy2 mutant exhibits homologous pairing defects, leading to sterility. Analyses revealed that DSB formation and the number of RADIATION SENSITIVE51 (RAD51) foci are largely reduced, and synapsis is completely abolished in dsy2 meiocytes. Super-resolution structured illumination microscopy showed that DSY2 is located on the AE and forms a distinct alternating pattern with the HORMA-domain protein ASYNAPTIC1 (ASY1). In the dsy2 mutant, localization of ASY1 is affected, and loading of the central element ZIPPER1 (ZYP1) is disrupted. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation experiments further demonstrated that ZYP1 interacts with DSY2 but does not interact with ASY1. Therefore, DSY2, an AE protein, not only mediates DSB formation but also bridges the AE and central element of SC during meiosis.