Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathogenicity and antigenicity of a new influenza a (H5N1) virus isolated from duck meat

Avian influenza A viruses are the ancestral origin of all human influenza viruses. The outbreak of highly pathogenic (HP) avian H5N1 in Hong Kong in 1997 highlighted the potential of these viruses to infect and cause severe disease in humans. Since 1999, HP H5N1 viruses were isolated several times from domestic poultry in Asia. In 2001, a HP H5N1 virus, A/Duck/Anyang/AVL‐1/2001 (Dk/Anyang), was isolated from imported frozen duck meat in Korea. Because of this novel source of HP H5N1 virus isolation, concerns were raised about the potential for human exposure and infection; we therefore compared the Dk/Anyang virus with HP H5N1 viruses isolated from humans in 1997 in terms of antigenicity and pathogenicity for mammals. At high doses, Dk/Anyang virus caused up to 50% mortality in BALB/c mice, was isolated from the brains and lymphoid organs of mice, and caused lymphopenia. Overall Dk/Anyang virus was substantially less pathogenic for mice than the H5N1 virus isolated from a fatal human case in 1997. Likewise, Dk/Anyang virus was apathogenic for ferrets. Dk/Anyang virus was antigenically distinguishable by hemagglutination‐inhibition (HI) assay from human H5N1 viruses isolated in 1997 and avian H5N1 viruses isolated in 2001 in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, prior infection with Dk/Anyang virus protected mice from death after secondary infection with HP human H5N1 viruses. These results indicate that compared with HP human H5N1 viruses, Dk/Anyang virus is substantially less pathogenic for mammalian species. Nevertheless, the novel source of isolation of this avian H5N1 virus must be considered when evaluating the potential risk to public health. J. Med. Virol. 69:553–559, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Variation in the Cd3ζ (Cd247) Gene Correlates with Altered T Cell Activation and Is Associated with Autoimmune Diabetes

Tuning of TCR-mediated activation was demonstrated to be critical for lineage fate in T cell development, as well as in the control of autoimmunity. In this study, we identify a novel diabetes susceptibility gene, Idd28, in the NOD mouse and provide evidence that Cd3ζ (Cd247) constitutes a prime candidate gene for this locus. Moreover, we show that the allele of the Cd3ζ gene expressed in NOD and DBA/2 mouse strains confers lower levels of T cell activation compared with the allele expressed by C57BL/6 (B6), BALB/c, and C3H/HeJ mice. These results support a model in which the development of autoimmune diabetes is dependent on a TCR signal mediated by a less-efficient NOD allele of the Cd3ζ gene.
Gemcitabine in Patients With Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm With an Associated Invasive Carcinoma of the Pancreas

Objectives The standard chemotherapy for invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas (IDC) is gemcitabine; however, the efficacy of gemcitabine in invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm with an associated invasive carcinoma of the pancreas (IPMN-IC) is still unknown. Methods Because it is difficult to distinguish between IPMN-IC and IDC based only on radiological findings in advanced unresectable cases, recurrent cases after surgical resection were analyzed to identify the efficacy of gemcitabine monotherapy for IPMN-IC. Results Between 1992 and 2010, 128 patients with IPMN-IC and 548 patients with IDC underwent pancreatic resection at the National Cancer Center Hospital. Twelve patients with IPMN-IC and 73 patients with IDC had recurred after surgery and subsequently underwent gemcitabine at the standard dosage. The disease-control rates were comparable between the IPMN-IC and IDC patients (58.3% vs 59.4%). The median progression-free survival was 2.8 and 4.1 months in the IPMN-IC and IDC patients, respectively (P = 0.46). Also, no statistically significant difference in the median survival times was observed between the 2 groups (9.3 vs 8.8 months, respectively; P = 0.09). Conclusions Among patients who had IPMN-IC and IDC with recurrent disease after resection, there was no significant difference in treatment outcomes after gemcitabine.
Topical cyclosporine inhibits conjunctival epithelial apoptosis in experimental murine keratoconjunctivitis sicca.

PURPOSE Increased apoptosis in the conjunctival epithelium has been observed in experimental murine keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS). Topical cyclosporine (CsA) has been noted to reduce conjunctival epithelial apoptosis in chronic canine and human KCS. The purpose of this study is to determine if topical CsA treatment inhibits conjunctival epithelial apoptosis in a murine model of KCS. METHODS Dry eye was induced in 3 groups of C57BL6 mice by subcutaneous injection of scopolamine TID and exposure to an air draft and low-humidity environment for 16 hours per day for 12 days. The dry eye control group received no topical treatment; a second group received 1 microL of 0.05% CsA topically TID (dry eye + CsA); and the third group received 1 microL of the castor oil vehicle of CsA topically TID (dry eye + vehicle). Normal mice were used as untreated controls. After 12 days, the mice were killed, and the right eyes and eyelids were excised, frozen, and cryosectioned. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed on conjunctival and corneal samples taken from the left eyes. Apoptosis was detected in frozen sections with the ApopTag (ISOL) In Situ Oligo Ligation Kit, which specifically detects DNA fragmentation. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect activated caspase-3. Conjunctival goblet cell number was counted in tissue sections stained with period acid Schiff (PAS) reagent. These assays were performed on 2 separate sets of mice. RESULTS Compared with untreated controls and dry eye mice receiving CsA, the number of ISOL-positive epithelial cells in the bulbar and tarsal conjunctiva was significantly greater in the dry eye control and dry eye mice + vehicle groups (P < 0.01 for both groups). There was no significant difference in the number of ISOL-positive conjunctival epithelial cells between the dry eye control and dry eye + vehicle mice. There was no significant difference in ISOL-positive cells in the corneal epithelium between the untreated controls and the 3 treatment groups. Dry eye + CsA mice showed less activated caspase-3 staining than the dry eye control and the dry eye + vehicle groups. TEM showed loss of superficial differentiated cells and extensive nuclear fragmentation characteristic of apoptosis in the dry eye control and dry eye + vehicle groups but not in the dry eye + CsA group. There was significant loss of goblet cells in the bulbar and tarsal conjunctivae of the dry eye control and the dry eye + vehicle groups compared with untreated controls and the dry eye + CsA group. CONCLUSIONS Topical CsA significantly reduced conjunctival epithelial apoptosis and protected against goblet cell loss in experimental murine KCS. Inhibition of apoptosis appears to be a key mechanism for the therapeutic effect of CsA for KCS.
A new approach to quantifying physical demand in rugby union

Abstract The objective of the study was to describe an original approach to assessing individual workload during international rugby union competitions. The difference between positional groups and between the two halves was explored. Sixty-seven files from 30 French international rugby union players were assessed on a computerised player-tracking system (Amisco Pro®, Sport Universal Process, Nice, France) during five international games. Each player’s action was split up into exercise and recovery periods according to his individual velocity threshold. Exercise-to-recovery (E:R) period ratios and acceleration were calculated. Results indicated that about 65% of exercise periods lasted less than 4 s; half of the E:Rs were less than 1:4, and about one-third ranged between 1 and 1:4 and about 40% of exercise periods were classified as medium intensity. Most acceleration values were less than 3 m·s−2 and started from standing or walking activity. Back row players showed the highest mean acceleration values over the game (P < 0.05). No significant decrease in physical performance was seen between the first and second halves of the games except for back rows, who showed a significant decrease in mean acceleration (P < 0.05). The analysis of results emphasised the specific activity of back rows and tended to suggest that the players’ combinations of action and recovery times were optimal for preventing large decrease in the physical performance.
Identification of Abiotic Stress Protein Biomarkers by Proteomic Screening of Crop Cultivar Diversity

Modern day agriculture practice is narrowing the genetic diversity in our food supply. This may compromise the ability to obtain high yield under extreme climactic conditions, threatening food security for a rapidly growing world population. To identify genetic diversity, tolerance mechanisms of cultivars, landraces and wild relatives of major crops can be identified and ultimately exploited for yield improvement. Quantitative proteomics allows for the identification of proteins that may contribute to tolerance mechanisms by directly comparing protein abundance under stress conditions between genotypes differing in their stress responses. In this review, a summary is provided of the data accumulated from quantitative proteomic comparisons of crop genotypes/cultivars which present different stress tolerance responses when exposed to various abiotic stress conditions, including drought, salinity, high/low temperature, nutrient deficiency and UV-B irradiation. This field of research aims to identify molecular features that can be developed as biomarkers for crop improvement, however without accurate phenotyping, careful experimental design, statistical robustness and appropriate biomarker validation and verification it will be challenging to deliver what is promised.
From Poster Child to Basket Case

Several years ago, during the heyday of Argentina's market restructuring, a prominent local economist was interviewed about the country's long-term prospects. Despite a backdrop of rapidly expanding output and low inflation, he was surprisingly pessimistic. "Argentina has always been a country with mediocre growth, believing that spectac ular growth and riches are right around the corner," he warned. "And when a good year comes, Argentines say, Ah, here comes the life we've been waiting for and so deserve. ' " The good life seems to have eluded Argentina once again. Unable to shake a deep recession triggered by Brazil's currency devaluation in January 1999, a country that once enjoyed emerging-market status is looking more like the same old underachiever. Three years of recession have led to an unemployment rate of nearly 17 percent, adding misery to a labor force already hard hit by deep economic adjustment in the early 1990s and rising joblessness after Mexico's 1994-95 currency crisis. Despite bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (imf)? comprising a $40 billion package in December 2000 and an $8 billion package last August? acute financial stress is the order of the day.
The role of high-doped source and drain on device performance in nano-scale Si-MOSFETs

Monte Carlo simulations coupled self-consistently with the 3D Poisson equation under the Double-Gate MOSFET structures are carried out to investigate quantitatively the dynamical potential fluctuations of the Coulomb interaction. It is shown that the potential fluctuations lead to the band-tail in the space-averaged density of states and it becomes position-dependent even inside the source where quasi-equilibrium is usually presumed. This implies that electrons in the source near the channel could be under highly off-equilibrium.
Fabrication of discrete track perpendicular media for high recording density

The feasibility of discrete track media with perpendicular anisotropy for high track density has been studied. The discrete tracks are separated physically and magnetically by grooves. The discrete track media were fabricated by using an e-beam lithography and dry etching process. In particular, the recording layer was etched using reactive ion etching with CO-NH3 mixed gas. With this process, we obtained a discrete track medium with a track pitch of 90 nm without causing damage to the magnetic recording film or degradation of its magnetic properties. To solve the flying instability issue due to the grooved surface roughness, a smooth surface like continuous layer media was obtained by using only dry processes. The surface roughness (Ra) was below 1 nm. Flying stability of a head-slider on the smooth surface of the discrete track media similar to the continuous layer media has been achieved.
Rewards and challenges of family practice: Web-based survey using the Delphi method.

OBJECTIVE To identify and describe the important rewards and challenges that affect family physicians in Alberta. DESIGN Web-based qualitative study using the Delphi method. SETTING Province of Alberta. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-eight family physicians practising in Alberta. METHODS The study website presented a description of the project, ethical information, a calendar of events, and contact information. Delphi surveys and demographic questionnaires were password protected. Five rounds of surveys were conducted between May 2004 and January 2005. Participants were notified of each round of surveys and prompted by e-mail if they did not respond. FINDINGS Participants identified 8 key rewards and 9 key challenges. The research team identified 2 additional challenges that were validated by participants. In order of perceived importance, key rewards were providing diverse and comprehensive care; providing preventive care; having relationships with patients and their families; being an immersed witness to the human condition; providing continuity of care and receiving ongoing feedback; having flexibility and control of practice and job security; maintaining and acquiring skills and knowledge; teaching and sharing knowledge and gaining experience and mentoring. The challenges, in order of perceived need to be addressed, were workload and time pressures and meeting demands; the need to promote the rewards of family practice to those considering joining the profession; overhead and income inequities; getting respect from specialists; the need to ensure that the rewards identified are not adversely affected by primary care reform; lack of availability of specialists, procedures, tests, and other resources; running a practice as a small business; paperwork, telephone calls, and forms; maintaining and acquiring skills and knowledge; patients' expectations; and medicolegal issues, insurance paperwork, and dealing with medical claims related to motor vehicle accidents. CONCLUSION The rewards and challenges reported by participants outline the positive and negative factors in family practice. The challenges provide a focus for further work.
Cell Cycle Progression and Proliferation Despite 4BP-1 Dephosphorylation

ABSTRACT Proliferation and cell cycle progression in response to growth factors require de novo protein synthesis. It has been proposed that binding of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF-4E) to the inhibitory protein 4BP-1 blocks translation by preventing access of eIF-4G to the 5′ cap of the mRNA. The signal for translation initiation is thought to involve phosphorylation of 4BP-1, which causes it to dissociate from eIF-4E and allows eIF-4G to localize to the 5′ cap. It has been suggested that the ability of the macrolide antibiotic rapamycin to inhibit 4BP-1 phosphorylation is responsible for the potent antiproliferative property of this drug. We now show that rapamycin-resistant cells exhibited normal proliferation despite dephosphorylation of 4BP-1 that allows it to bind to eIF-4E. Moreover, despite rapamycin-induced dephosphorylation of 4BP-1, eIF-4E–eIF-4G complexes (eIF-4F) were still detected. In contrast, amino acid withdrawal, which caused a similar degree of 4BP-1 dephosphorylation, resulted in dissociation of the eIF-4E–eIF-4G complex. Thus, 4BP-1 dephosphorylation is not equivalent to eIF-4E inactivation and does not explain the antiproliferative property of rapamycin.
Scenario-based MPC for energy-efficient building climate control under weather and occupancy uncertainty

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems regulate comfort levels in buildings, but also consume a large amount of energy, which makes them an attractive target for efficiency improvements. In this paper, a novel technique called Randomized Model Predictive Control (RMPC) is investigated to improve the control of existing HVAC systems. RMPC uses weather and occupancy predictions to minimize the building's energy consumption. It accounts for the prediction uncertainties by basing its control actions on a given number of sampled uncertainty scenarios. The main advantage of RMPC over existing methods is the absence of a probabilistic disturbance model. This makes the handling of uncertainties straightforward, even if they are non-Gaussian or non-additive. Moreover, the method of removing adverse samples after solving the initial control problem (RMPC-SR) can lead to a further improvement in the control performance, up to a saturation limit. Although theoretical bounds for choosing the sample sizes are available, our simulations show that only a fraction of these numbers is required for a good performance of RMPC and RMPC-SR. The performance of RMPC and RMPC-SR is investigated through extensive simulations on different models, based on empirically collected data. The results demonstrate that both techniques are attractive alternatives to other Model Predictive Control methods, because they show a higher energy saving potential, and are computationally tractable.
SEMO: a semantic model for emotion recognition in web objects

In this work, we present SEMO, a Semantic Model for Emotion Recognition, which enables users to detect and quantify the emotional load related to basic emotions hidden in short, emotionally rich sentences (e.g. news titles, tweets, captions). The idea of assessing the semantic similarity of concepts by looking at the occurrences and co-occurrences of terms describing them in pages indexed by a search engine can be directly extended to emotions, and to the words expressing them in different languages. The emotional content associated to a particular emotion for a term can thus be estimated using web-based similarity measures, e.g. Confidence, PMI, NGD and PMING, aggregating the distance computed by a model of emotions, e.g. Ekman, Plutchik and Lovheim. Emotions are ranked based on their similarity to the analyzed text, describing each sentence through a vector of values of emotion load, which form the Vector Space Model for the chosen emotion model and similarity measures. The model is tested comparing experimental results to a ground truth in literature. SEMO takes care of both the phases of data collection and data analysis, to produce knowledge to be used in application domains such as social robots, recommender systems, and human-machine interactive systems.
The role of Ca2+ influx in spontaneous Ca2+ wave propagation in interstitial cells of Cajal from the rabbit urethra

Tonic contractions of rabbit urethra are associated with spontaneous electrical slow waves that are thought to originate in pacemaker cells termed interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC). ICC pacemaker activity results from their ability to generate propagating Ca2+ waves, although the exact mechanisms of propagation are not understood. In this study, we have identified spontaneous localised Ca2+ events for the first time in urethral ICC; these were due to Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) via ryanodine receptors (RyRs) and, while they often remained localised, they sometimes initiated propagating Ca2+ waves. We show that propagation of Ca2+ waves in urethral ICC is critically dependent upon Ca2+ influx via reverse mode NCX. Our data provide a clearer understanding of the intracellular mechanisms involved in the generation of ICC pacemaker activity.
RESEARCH OF HONEY CONSUMERS’ BEHAVIOR IN PROVINCE OF VOJVODINA

The region of Vojvodina is considered to be very favorable for honey production, whereby the area of Fruska Gora is primarily considered as the most bountiful. However, one of the key problems that honey producers encounter is the lack of understanding of consumer behavior and therefore inability to create appropriate marketing strategies and programs. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide assistance to honey producers in Vojvodina, to lime honey producers from Fruska Gora with protected geographical origin in particular, to identify the motives, attitudes and buying habits of consumers of honey in Vojvodina. The conclusion is carried to summarize the obtained results about what type of honey consumers in Vojvodina buy, why, where, when, how often and what are their attitudes toward the introduction of a new brand of honey. Moreover, it presents the basic guidelines to honey producers for the improvement of marketing strategies and marketing programs.
Integrating DNN-based and spatial clustering-based mask estimation for robust MVDR beamforming

Recently, time-frequency mask-based beamforming has been extensively studied as the frontend of deep neural network (DNN) based automatic speech recognition (ASR) in noisy environments. Two mask estimation approaches have been separately developed for this beamforming method, namely the the DNN-based approach, which exploits the time-frequency features of the signal, and the spatial clustering-based approach, which exploits the spatial features of the signal. This paper proposes a new method that integrates the two approaches in a probabilistic way to further improve mask estimation by exploiting the advantages of both approaches. Experiments using the real data of the CHiME-3 multichannel noisy speech corpus show that the proposed method almost always outperforms the conventional approaches in terms of word error rate (WER) improvement.
A Multi-Mode Multi-Band Reconfigurable Power Amplifier for 2G/3G/4G Handset Applications

Fully-integrated multi-mode multi-band (MMMB) reconfigurable power amplifier (PA) is implemented using single PA-cores for high- and low-frequency bands, respectively. This PA has five output paths and covers quad-band Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying/Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution and penta-band Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/Long Term Evolution mode operation with band combination in a small form-factor. To optimize the PA, the proposed structure reconfigures the PA-core cells as well as the interstage/output matching network. When compared with the single-mode single-band dedicated PAs, the fabricated PA showed comparable RF performance for all modes and bands, except for PAE degradations of 3.1% and 1.9% for high- and low-band, respectively, thus validating the usefulness of the proposed structure for MMMB PA applications.