Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathogenesis of Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Viruses in Ferrets

ABSTRACT Highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 viruses caused outbreaks of disease in domestic poultry and humans in Hong Kong in 1997. Direct transmission of the H5N1 viruses from birds to humans resulted in 18 documented cases of respiratory illness, including six deaths. Here we evaluated two of the avian H5N1 viruses isolated from humans for their ability to replicate and cause disease in outbred ferrets. A/Hong Kong/483/97 virus was isolated from a fatal case and was highly pathogenic in the BALB/c mouse model, whereas A/Hong Kong/486/97 virus was isolated from a case with mild illness and exhibited a low-pathogenicity phenotype in mice. Ferrets infected intranasally with 107 50% egg infectious doses (EID50) of either H5N1 virus exhibited severe lethargy, fever, weight loss, transient lymphopenia, and replication in the upper and lower respiratory tract, as well as multiple systemic organs, including the brain. Gastrointestinal symptoms were seen in some animals. In contrast, weight loss and severe lethargy were not noted in ferrets infected with 107 EID50 of two recent human H3N2 viruses, although these viruses were also isolated from the brains, but not other extrapulmonary organs, of infected animals. The results demonstrate that both H5N1 viruses were highly virulent in the outbred ferret model, unlike the differential pathogenicity documented in inbred BALB/c mice. We propose the ferret as an alternative model system for the study of these highly pathogenic avian viruses.
Conflict and Continuity in European Diplomatic Cultures: Accountability, Scrutiny and Control in EU External Affairs

Under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs (HRVP) has obtained far-reaching powers to formulate, coordinate and implement ÉU external policies, traditionally a prerogative of the state. In the exercise of this delegated powers, the HRVP is assisted by a dedicated administrative body, the European External Action Service (EEAS). Formal decision-making over the EU‘s common foreign and security policy lies with the Council, while the European Neighborhood and Trade policies, as well as international cooperation remain competences of the EU-Commission. Concomitantly, the EEAS is situated within several, partly overlapping and conflicting accountability relationships. The ensuing question is: To what extent, how and by whom can the HRVP and the EEAS be held politically to account? With data from official documents, 50 semi-structured interviews and a survey among 184 EU foreign policy-makers, the article maps and assesses of the multi-level actor/forum relationships of the EU's foreign policy machinery.
The Educative Practices of Public Alternative Educators Around Student Choice and Student Directed learning in the Ontario Context

This thesis explores educative ideas such as student choice, student autonomy and student directed learning in an educational environment dominated by a top-down, provincially legislated curriculum. Qualitative data was obtained from the professional stories of two experienced educators teaching in public alternative schools in Toronto, Ontario. Using the theoretical lenses of autonomy, relatedness and competency to filter the collected data reveals that offering students authentic choice in their school day has many benefits. Despite this, our globally entrenched educational paradigm dominates our educational world usurping many
Architectural adaptations of muscle to training and injury: a narrative review outlining the contributions by fascicle length, pennation angle and muscle thickness

Background The architectural characteristics of muscle (fascicle length, pennation angle muscle thickness) respond to varying forms of stimuli (eg, training, immobilisation and injury). Architectural changes following injury are thought to occur in response to the restricted range of motion experienced during rehabilitation and the associated neuromuscular inhibition. However, it is unknown if these differences exist prior to injury, and had a role in injury occuring (prospectively), or if they occur in response to the incident itself (retrospectively). Considering that the structure of a muscle will influence how it functions, it is of interest to understand how these architectural variations may alter how a muscle acts with reference to the force-length and force-velocity relationships. Objectives Our narrative review provides an overview of muscle architectural adaptations to training and injury. Specifically, we (1) describe the methods used to measure muscle architecture; (2) detail the impact that architectural alterations following training interventions, immobilisation and injury have on force production and (3) present a hypothesis on how neuromuscular inhibition could cause maladaptations to muscle architecture following injury.
Optimization of the curing process of epoxy resins using methods of structural analysis

Epoxy resins belong among materials frequently used for the production of impregnating composites especially for the construction of motors, generators, and transformers. During production, great emphasis must be focused on the proper curing process of these materials. Otherwise, it is not possible to guarantee the satisfactory properties of the final product. The paper is therefore focused on the analysis of the level of curing of epoxy resin by methods of structural analyses. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and glass transition temperature evaluated from a reversible signal of heat flow measured by modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) were used. Curing process was performed in a laboratory oven. Partly and fully cured samples were analyzed during two independent experiments. These two experiments differ to each other especially by different times of sampling. The trend of the changes of infrared spectra measured on samples during the curing process corresponds well with the results of the glass transitions temperature measurements obtained by MDSC. Insufficient curing state is relatively well detectable by the presence of the spectral bands corresponding to the vibration of epoxy and anhydride groups (901, 1875, 1786 cm-1). Both methods are acceptable to detection of the curing level but with different sensitivity. While infrared spectroscopy is possible to use for prediction especially short times of curing, analysis of the glass transition is sensitive during the whole curing process.
Are preterm black infants larger than preterm white infants, or are they more misclassified?

Summary In birth certificate data for Massachusetts resident births from 1978 to 1982, 12–27% of births purportedly under 31 weeks of gestation were probably misclassified, i.e. had birthweight ≥2500g. Correcting for maldistribution of births removed 34% and 23%, respectively, of black and white births with reported gestational ages <36 weeks but with implausible weights. Percentages of unknown and incomplete reports of last menstrual period were also significantly higher for blacks. After adjustment, preterm black infants weighed less than whites at each gestational age. The proportion of infants <2500g born at term (≥37 weeks gestation) was higher (although not significantly) among blacks. These findings are consistent with hypotheses that low socioeconomic status negatively affects the rate of intrauterine growth.
Criteria for linguistic improvement of precise fuzzy models by ortliogonail transforms. Application to ART based models

The aim of this paper is focused on fuzzy models and simplification-interpretability ideas to generate simpler and more interpretable models in accordance with fuzzy logic. These concepts are not very common in (precise) fuzzy modeling methods, which are the most common approach in technical fields. Here, orthogonal transforms are considered for achieving this aim, defining a criteria set to guide the choice of an adequate rule set for the simplification procedure. Data-driven fuzzy modeling generates models with a good accuracy but other aspects about the fuzzy logic, such as compactness or interpretability, are not considered, so these models can contain an excessive number of rules, introducing redundancy, incoherence or extra fuzzy sets. In this context, the simplification-improvement procedure is carried out to try to keep most of the advantages of the original model (accuracy) while improving other aspects with poor performance: compactness, distiguishability, etc. In this way, a two step methodology is used: first, a (precise or linguistic) fuzzy algorithm for modeling is used, taking advantage of any well-known algorithm, then rule based models generated by them are improved using the criteria based on the orthogonal transforms proposed in this paper. The proposal is applied to fuzzy models generated by FasArt (Fuzzy Adaptive System ART based), this has the common drawbacks of precise fuzzy modeling. Two case-studies are considered: a DC motor and the Box-Jenkins gas furnace. For each case, two models have been generated with different complexities and fuzzy natures, then the simplification process based on orthogonal transformation is carried out by the criteria proposed, evaluating each criterion and obtaining simpler and more interpretable but sufficiently accurate fuzzy models. Here Mamdani fuzzy systems have been taken into account.
HIV gp120 sequence variability associated with HAND in Hispanic Women.

OBJECTIVE HIV-1 variants with different tropisms are associated with various neuropathologies. This study intends to determine if this correlation is determined by unique viral env sequences. We hypothesize that HIV-1 envelope gene sequence changes are associated with cognition status. METHODS Viral RNA was extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) co-cultures derived from HIV-1 infected Hispanic women that had been characterized for HIV associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). RESULTS Analyses of the C2V4 region of HIV gp120 demonstrated that increased sequence diversity correlates with cognition status as sequences derived from subjects with normal cognition exhibited less diversity than sequences derived from subjects with cognitive impairment. In addition, differences in V3 and V4 loop charges were also noted as well as differences in the N-glycosylation of the V4 region. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that the genetic signature within the C2V4 region may contribute to the pathogenesis of HAND. HIV env sequence characteristics for the isolates grouped in milder forms of HAND can provide insightful information of prognostic value to assess neurocognitive status in HIV+ subjects, particularly during the era of highly prevalent milder forms of HAND.
EVALUATION OF TADPOLE MOUTHPART DEPIGMENTATION AS A DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR INFECTION BY BATRACHOCHYTRIUM DENDROBATIDIS FOR FOUR CALIFORNIA ANURANS

The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of gross morphologic examination of larval mouthpart defects as a diagnostic screening test to detect Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in four California, USA, anuran species. We examined mouthparts of 2,034 tadpoles of Bufo boreas, Pseudacris regilla, and Rana catesbeiana collected in 2003 and 2004 and Bufo canorus collected in 2004. Data were recorded for three morphologic features: upper toothrows, lower toothrows, and combined jaw sheaths. Mouthpart defects were observed in all four species (n=757), but only two species were infected with B. dendrobatidis (n=84). Sensitivity and specificity of the mouthparts test were 76% and 58%, respectively. Forty-two percent of B. dendrobatidis–negative animals would have been designated positive based on mouthpart defects. Observed prevalence was 43%, and true prevalence was 3.0%. Tests of the null hypothesis using logistic regression analysis showed that anuran larval mouthpart defects were not associated with B. dendrobatidis infection whether mouthparts scores were tested by individual morphologic feature or in combination (P=0.37). We conclude that B. dendrobatidis infection and anuran larval mouthpart defects are two separate processes that may occur concurrently and that evaluation of tadpole oral morphology is neither an accurate nor a reliable diagnostic test for B. dendrobatidis infection for the four species tested.
Flywheel energy storage retrofit system for hybrid and electric vehicles

A flywheel battery, composed from commercially available low-cost materials, can be designed as an additional energy storage system for further increasing the energy efficiency of vehicles, driven mainly in cities with frequent speed changes. Increasing demands from European Union on additional reduction of CO2 emissions in near future will offer better conditions for commercially successful serial production of hybrid and electric vehicles. Sufficient short-term power for the acceleration of a passenger vehicle in the city as well as efficient accumulation of vehicle kinetic energy during braking for several minutes can be reached even from a flywheel battery of energy capacity of about 200Wh. In combination with traction motor/generator of around 20kW and voltage 48V, the flywheel battery represents an interesting additional retrofit for conventional drives with combustion engines with positive influence on reduction of fuel consumption and therefore, also CO2 emissions. Such solution contributes to energy smart management in frame of smart city systems.
Tests of Preferential Independence in the QALY Model

The author presents evidence for the descriptive adequacy of the quality-adjusted life years (QALY) model as applied to health profiles. One important assumption of the model is preferential independence: if two profiles have the same health state during year X, then preference between them does not switch if the level of health changes during year X. In experiment 1, 30-year health profiles were used to perform 27 em pirical tests of independence with 98 subjects. Independence was reliably satisfied in all 27 tests. In experiment 2, 15 additional tests were conducted. These tests had been specifically designed to be more sensitive to independence violations, but indepen dence was still mostly satisfied. In both experiments, the conclusions about indepen dence hold regardless of what discount rate is used. These results act as a "lower bound" on the validity of the QALY model for health profiles. Key words: quality-ad justed life years; QALY model; health profiles; preferential independence. (Med Decis Making 1998;18:418-428)
A tunable quarter-mode substrate integrated waveguide antenna

A varactor-tuned quarter-mode substrate integrated waveguide (QMSIW) antenna is presented for the first time. Quarter mode cylindrical substrate integrated waveguide cavity resonators are used to design an ultra-compact antenna with an operating frequency of ~2.7 GHz. In order to make reactive loading of the structure possible, a corner via is connected to two surface ring gaps. Frequency tuning is achieved by loading these surface ring gaps with four back-to-back varactor diodes. Using this technique, a frequency tuning ratio of ~1.7:1 (1.55-2.55 GHz) is achieved. The antenna shows similar radiation pattern with high co- to cross-polarization and front-to-back ratio for all operating states.
Marketing Cost, Margin and Price Spread of Bt Cotton in Beed District of Maharashtra

Investigation was made to marketing cost, margin and price spread in Bt cotton. The study was conducted in the Beed district market for surveying of 20 market intermediaries. Two marketing channel were noticed in sale of Bt cotton viz. , Producer-Village merchant-Ginner-Consumer (channel-I), Producer-Ginner-Consumer (channel-II). It was observed that per quintal marketing cost was higher in channel -I for grade II i.e. Rs. 1050.70 followed by grade I Rs. 1048.56 and Rs. 1020.52 in grade III and Rs. 997.28 for grade I followed by grade II Rs. 991.23 and Rs. 956.20 in grade III in channel-II, respectively. Producers share in consumer's rupee was maximum in channel-II i.e. 76.55 per cent in grade III followed by grade II (75.60%) and for grade I (74.81%), respectively. Regarding price spread in Bt cotton marketing was highest in channel-II Rs. 6200, 6000 and 5800 for grade I, II, III, respectively and in channel-I Rs. 6100, 6000 and 5800 for grade I, II and III, respectively.
IDENTIFICATION OF TAENIA ASIATICA IN CHINA: MOLECULAR, MORPHOLOGICAL, AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A LUZHAI ISOLATE

Multiple analysis has characterized a recently described tapeworm of people, Taenia asiatica, in mainland China. Six adult tapeworms collected from people of the Zhuang minority residing in the southern part of China (Luzhai isolate) were comparatively analyzed with other tapeworms from people: T. asiatica (n = 2, South Korea), T. saginata (n = 1, Poland; n = 1, Korea), and T. solium (n = 1, People's Republic of China). Experimental infections with eggs from the Luzhai isolate in pigs and cattle produced cysticerci, each with a hookletless scolex and with wartlike formations on the external surface of the bladder wall. There were rostellar protrusions in the scolices of adult worms. Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis using 3 arbitrary primers produced bands identical to those of the Korean T. asiatica. Conversely, T. saginata and T. solium exhibited different banding patterns. Phylogenetic relationships inferred from the complete nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer 2 placed the Chinese tapeworms consistently within the T. asiatica clade by 96% bootstrapping value in the maximum likelihood analysis, 96% in maximum parsimony, and 100% in neighbor joining. These collective data demonstrate that T. asiatica is sympatrically distributed with the other 2 species of Taenia in the human host in mainland China.
Mammary neuroendocrine carcinoma with mucinous differentiation: a clinicopathological study of 15 cases.

BACKGROUND Mammary neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) displays morphological features including mucinous type. OBJECTIVE To describe clinicopathological of NEC with mucinous differentiation. METHODS A total of 15 cases of mammary NEC with mucinous differentiation were reviewed. RESULTS All patients in this study were women aged from 37 to 78 year olds (median 68.1 years). The tumors ranged in size from 1.2 cm to 16 cm (mean 3.74 cm). The amount of extracellular mucin varied from 10% to 90%. Histological grade was I in 7 cases and II in 8 cases. Immunohistochemically, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesteron receptor (PR) were expressed in 12 and 14 cases, respectively. All tumors were negative for Her-2. Ki-67 proliferative index was lesser than 1% in all cases and no cases had demonstrated p53 overexpression. Three patients died of disease with a follow-up of 3 to 6 months. One patient was alive with metastasis at 96 months. Ten patients were disease free (follow-up range from 15 to 125 months). CONCLUSIONS Mammary NEC with mucinous differentiation affects mostly older women. All tumors were low grade and immunoreactive for ER/PR and negative for Her-2. Mammary NEC with mucinous differentiation seems associated with well survival parameters.
Extrinsic information transfer functions: model and erasure channel properties

Extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) charts are a tool for predicting the convergence behavior of iterative processors for a variety of communication problems. A model is introduced that applies to decoding problems, including the iterative decoding of parallel concatenated (turbo) codes, serially concatenated codes, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, and repeat-accumulate (RA) codes. EXIT functions are defined using the model, and several properties of such functions are proved for erasure channels. One property expresses the area under an EXIT function in terms of a conditional entropy. A useful consequence of this result is that the design of capacity-approaching codes reduces to a curve-fitting problem for all the aforementioned codes. A second property relates the EXIT function of a code to its Helleseth-Klove-Levenshtein information functions, and thereby to the support weights of its subcodes. The relation is via a refinement of information functions called split information functions, and via a refinement of support weights called split support weights. Split information functions are used to prove a third property that relates the EXIT function of a linear code to the EXIT function of its dual.
Pitx homeobox genes in Ciona and amphioxus show left–right asymmetry is a conserved chordate character and define the ascidian adenohypophysis

SUMMARY All vertebrates have directional asymmetries in the organization of their internal organs. In jawed vertebrates, development of asymmetry is controlled by a conserved molecular pathway that includes Pitx2, which is expressed by lateral plate mesoderm cells on the left side of the embryo. Pitx2 is a member of the Pitx homeobox gene family, the expression of which also marks stomodeal ectoderm and the adenohypophysis. Here we report the characterization of Pitx genes from Branchiostoma floridae (an amphioxus) and Ciona intestinalis (a urochordate), representatives of two basal chordate lineages and successively deeper outgroups to the vertebrates. Expression of B. floridae Pitx is similar to that reported from B. belcheri, a different amphioxus species. Expression of the Ciona Pitx ortholog in the embryonic primordial pharynx and adult neural complex leads us to propose the Ciona primordial pharynx and ciliated funnel are homologous to the adenohypophyseal placode and adenohypophysis, respectively. Additionally, in both species we identify asymmetrical left‐sided expression of Pitx genes during embryonic development. This shows that asymmetrical Pitx gene expression, and by inference directional asymmetry, evolved before the radiation of living chordates and should be considered a chordate character.
Customer Churn Prediction in the Online New Media Platform: A Case Study on Juzi Entertainment

Customer churn refers to the registered users who are gradually leaving away because of loss of interests. For online service providers, customer churn analysis can be used to make business decision and optimize their products. Juzi Entertainment is one of the most popular Professional Generated Content (PGC) platform, which is loved by most young adults in China. In this paper, we try to predict the churner of Juzi Entertainment. We collect 100 thousand user samples from Juzi Entertainment and build the churn prediction model. Over 75% churners can be recognized by our model. Results show that column gif and beauty of Juzi Entertainment are relatively more popular than other columns, while articles of life are not welcomed by users. The results will be used in the improvement of products in Juzi Entertainment.