Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin Receptor Binding Mutants with Limited Receptor Recognition Properties and Conditional Replication Characteristics

ABSTRACT To examine the range of selective processes that potentially operate when poorly binding influenza viruses adapt to replicate more efficiently in alternative environments, we passaged a virus containing an attenuating mutation in the hemagglutinin (HA) receptor binding site in mice and characterized the resulting mutants with respect to the structural locations of mutations selected, the replication phenotypes of the viruses, and their binding properties on glycan microarrays. The initial attenuated virus had a tyrosine-to-phenylalanine mutation at HA1 position 98 (Y98F), located in the receptor binding pocket, but viruses that were selected contained second-site pseudoreversion mutations in various structural locations that revealed a range of molecular mechanisms for modulating receptor binding that go beyond the scope that is generally mapped using receptor specificity mutants. A comparison of virus titers in the mouse respiratory tract versus MDCK cells in culture showed that the mutants displayed distinctive replication properties depending on the system, but all were less attenuated in mice than the Y98F virus. An analysis of receptor binding properties confirmed that the initial Y98F virus bound poorly to several different species of erythrocytes, while all mutants reacquired various degrees of hemagglutination activity. Interestingly, both the Y98F virus and pseudoreversion mutants were shown to bind very inefficiently to standard glycan microarrays containing an abundance of binding substrates for most influenza viruses that have been characterized to date, provided by the Consortium for Functional Glycomics. The viruses were also examined on a recently developed microarray containing glycans terminating in sialic acid derivatives, and limited binding to a potentially interesting subset of glycans was revealed. The results are discussed with respect to mechanisms for HA-mediated receptor binding, as well as regarding the species of molecules that may act as receptors for influenza virus on host cell surfaces.
Optimized double-digest genotyping by sequencing (ddGBS) method with high-density SNP markers and high genotyping accuracy for chickens

High-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers are crucial to improve the resolution and accuracy of genome-wide association study (GWAS) and genomic selection (GS). Numerous approaches, including whole genome sequencing, genome sampling sequencing, and SNP chips are able to discover or genotype markers at different densities and costs. Achieving an optimal balance between sequencing resolution and budgets, especially in large-scale population genetics research, constitutes a major challenge. Here, we performed improved double-enzyme digestion genotyping by sequencing (ddGBS) on chicken. We evaluated eight double-enzyme digestion combinations, and EcoR I- Mse I was chosen as the optimal combination for the chicken genome. We firstly proposed that two parameters, optimal read-count point (ORP) and saturated read-count point (SRP), could be utilized to determine the optimal sequencing volume. A total of 291,772 high-density SNPs from 824 animals were identified. By validation using the SNP chip, we found that the consistency between ddGBS data and the SNP chip is over 99%. The approach that we developed in chickens, which is high-quality, high-density, cost-effective (300 K, $30/sample), and time-saving (within 48 h), will have broad applications in animal breeding programs.
Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, Pakistan

Frequency of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in Pakistan increased from 1.5% in 2006 to 4.5% in 2009 (p<0.01). To understand the epidemiology, we genotyped selected strains by using spoligotyping, mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units–variable number of tandem repeats, and IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
Clinical Use of the Turbidimetric Analysis of Sperm Motility: An Update

Summary: The turbidimetric method of sperm motility analysis provides a quantitative measure of sperm motility. We have previously reported the methodology by which this method is utilized in routine sperm motility determinations in our Male Fertility Clinic. We have recently observed that the motility of sperm in dialyzed seminal plasma is over double the motility in Lopata's medium. This report provides quantitative evidence that the use of dialyzed seminal plasma in the turbidimetric analysis is significantly superior than the use of Lopata's medium.
iCEnergy: augmented reality display for intuitive energy monitoring

Energy saving is the main goal in most building energy monitoring applications. These systems, however, are operated by people. For this reason, an intuitive user interface is an essential element that will affect users' data understandability, thereby determining the system's usability. Traditional energy monitoring generally focuses on getting energy information by utilizing graphs or static text interfaces. However, these approaches are not related to the physical space. With the increase of information in energy monitoring systems, intuitive and efficient ways of displaying information are needed. In this demo, we present iCEnergy, a vision-based mobile information interface that provides power monitoring using augmented reality. Using existing system data, the system overlays an interactive "energy cloud" over corresponding devices in order to illustrate information about the physical environment. This approach aims to provide users with a comfortable interaction experience through its intuitive information display.
The AMPA Antagonist LY293558 Improves Functional Neurological Outcome following Reversible Spinal Cord Ischemia in Rabbits

Glutamate (Glu) neurotoxicity is an important element of a number of neurological disorders including central nervous system (CNS) ischemia. We evaluated the effects of the novel AMPA Glu antagonist LY293558 on functional neurological outcome in two rabbit stroke models. In the reversible spinal cord ischemia model, ischemia of the caudal lumbar spinal cord was produced by temporary occlusion of the abdominal aorta. LY293558 was administered 5 min after recirculation as a 16 mg/kg i.v. bolus followed by 2.2 mg/kg infused over 1 h. Control animals received saline. LY293558 significantly increased the duration of ischemia required to produce paraplegia, from 30.5 ± 15.8 min (mean ± SD) controls to 50.1 ± 11.5 in treated animals (p < 0.01). In an irreversible model of cerebral ischemia, 50 μm plastic microspheres were injected into the carotid artery and lodged in the cerebral microvasculature. LY293558 did not significantly reduce neurological damage in this model. These data suggest that LY293558 may have therapeutic benefit following some types of ischemic injury.
The Categories, Rules, and Demonstrations of Guanxi in Chinese Society

ABSTRACT Purpose: Guanxi is one of the most important success factors in China. Because of differences in Eastern and Western relationships, it is essential to investigate the system of guanxi in China. Based on the differential mode of association (chaxugeju), the present study aims to construct a framework for the mechanism of guanxi in Chinese society. Methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey of middle and senior managers was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. A sample consisting of 212 middle or senior managers who worked in China and had direct interactions with business partners was used. The participants were mainly from firms in the pharmaceutical technology, telecommunication, and retailing industries. Findings: Guanxi categories, guanxi rules, and guanxi demonstrations were found to be correspondingly related. Business partners who had family guanxi applied the rule of need and presented intimacy interactions, whereas partners who had acquaintance guanxi often followed the rule of favor and demonstrated higher levels of reciprocity. These two corresponding paths positively influenced the strength of guanxi: The partners were more willing to sacrifice self-interest for and provide high priority in resource allocation to each other. Business partners who had stranger guanxi used the rule of equity and built trust relationships, which had negative impacts on the strength of guanxi. Practical implications: Because guanxi affects the performance of companies in China, maintaining guanxi networks with business partners is an important but challenging task for managers, especially for those from non-eastern cultures. The current study suggests that it is essential for managers to identify different types of guanxi (family, acquaintance, or stranger) by differential intimacy and distance, and to apply different rules when interacting with partners with different guanxi. To be specific, managers should follow the rule of need with business partners who have family guanxi, and their guanxi should be demonstrated as intimacy interaction. When doing business with acquaintances and friends, managers should mainly follow the rule of favor, and their guanxi should be demonstrated as reciprocity interaction. When doing business with strangers, managers should follow the rule of equity and emphasize trust. This correspondence also has an influence on how managers make decisions according to the strength of guanxi with different partners based on the guanxi type. In short, guanxi affects the degree of willingness to sacrifice self-interest for, and to prioritize resource allocations to, business partners.
Trust for resource control: self-enforcing automatic rational contracts between computers

Computer systems need to control access to their resources, in order to give precedence to urgent or important tasks. This is increasingly important in networked applications, which need to interact with other machines but may be subject to abuse unless protected from attack. To do this effectively, they need an explicit resource model, and a way to assess others’ actions in terms of it. This dissertation shows how the actions can be represented using resourcebased computational contracts, together with a rich trust model which monitors and enforces contract compliance. Related research in the area has focused on individual aspects of this problem, such as resource pricing and auctions, trust modelling and reputation systems, or resource-constrained computing and resource-aware middleware. These need to be integrated into a single model, in order to provide a general framework for computing by contract. This work explores automatic computerized contracts for negotiating and controlling resource usage in a distributed system. Contracts express the terms under which client and server promise to exchange resources, such as processor time in exchange for money, using a constrained language which can be automatically interpreted. A novel, distributed trust model is used to enforce these promises, and this also supports trust delegation through cryptographic certificates. The model is formally proved to have appropriate properties of safety and liveness, which ensure that cheats cannot systematically gain resources by deceit, and that mutually profitable contracts continue to be supported. The contract framework has many applications, in automating distributed services and in limiting the disruptiveness of users’ programs. Applications such as resource-constrained sandboxes, operating system multimedia support and automatic distribution of personal address book entries can all treat the user’s time as a scarce resource, to trade off computational costs against user distraction. Similarly, commercial Grid services can prioritise computations with contracts, while a cooperative service such as distributed composite event detection can use contracts for detector placement and load balancing. Thus the contract framework provides a general purpose tool for managing distributed computation, allowing participants to take calculated risks and rationally choose which contracts to perform.
Utility of FDG PET/CT for Differential Diagnosis of Patients Clinically Suspected of IgG4-Related Disease

Purpose We investigated the capacity of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) to differentially diagnose immunoglobulin G4–related disease (IgG4-RD) in clinically suspected patients. Materials and Methods Subjects were 94 clinically suspected patients who had tissue IgG4 staining (n = 85) or serum IgG4 greater than 135 mg/dL (n = 9) and underwent FDG PET/CT within 40 days. Clinical, serologic, pathological, and PET/CT findings were analyzed. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic performance of PET/CT. Results Final diagnosis was IgG4-RD in 28, malignancy in 29, IgG4-unrelated inflammation in 35, and undetermined cause in 2 subjects. Patients with IgG4-RD had lower maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of FDG uptake in lesions (4.6 ± 1.7 vs 7.1 ± 5.0) and higher submandibular gland SUVmax (2.8 ± 1.0 vs 2.3 ± 0.6) and were more likely to have diffuse/heterogeneous uptake pattern (78.6% vs 54.8%). The relation between SUVmax of lesions and histopathological findings was weak. On binary logistic regression analysis, lesion SUVmax, submandibular gland SUVmax, and multiorgan involvement were significant predictors of IgG4-RD and provided an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.824. With optimum criteria, FDG PET/CT had a sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 66.1% for diagnosing IgG4-RD. Conclusions FDG PET/CT findings may have the capacity to potentially differentiate IgG4 RD from other diseases in clinically suspected patients.
Enterocin X, a Novel Two-Peptide Bacteriocin from Enterococcus faecium KU-B5, Has an Antibacterial Spectrum Entirely Different from Those of Its Component Peptides

ABSTRACT Enterocin X, composed of two antibacterial peptides (Xα and Xβ), is a novel class IIb bacteriocin from Enterococcus faecium KU-B5. When combined, Xα and Xβ display variably enhanced or reduced antibacterial activity toward a panel of indicators compared to each peptide individually. In E. faecium strains that produce enterocins A and B, such as KU-B5, only one additional bacteriocin had previously been known.
Information Systems Integration and Firm Profitability: Mediating Effect of Cost Management Strategy

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess (a) the relationship between internal and external IS integration and their respective impacts on internal and external cost management strategies, (b) the relationship between internal and external cost management strategies, and (c) the effects of internal and external cost management strategies on profitability, controlling for firm size. Furthermore, this study investigates whether internal and external IS integrations produce direct significant effects on firm profitability or whether these relationships are established through cost management strategies. Methodology/approach The study uses survey data from a cross-section of 241 U.S. manufacturing firms. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings and implications The results indicate that neither internal IS integration nor external IS integration has a direct significant impact on firm profitability. Rather, internal cost management strategy fully mediates the relationship between internal IS integration and profitability; similarly, the relationship between external IS integration and profitability is fully mediated through external cost management strategy. The results provide evidence that firms seeking profitability solely by investing in IS integration may not necessarily realize enhanced profitability; the firms must focus their attention on intervening processes, such as business strategy, in order to determine the profitability derived from IS integration. Originality As far as it can be ascertained, this study is the first to explore the impact of internal and external IS integration on firm profitability within the context of internal and external cost management strategies.
Daytime convective development over land: A model intercomparison based on LBA observations

This paper investigates daytime convective development over land and its representation in single‐column models (SCMs) and cloud‐resolving models (CRMs). A model intercomparison case is developed based on observations of the diurnal cycle and convection during the rainy season in Amazonia. The focus is on the 6 h period between sunrise and early afternoon which was identified in previous studies as critical for the diurnal cycle over summertime continents in numerical weather prediction and climate models. This period is characterized by the formation and growth of a well‐mixed convective boundary layer from the early morning temperature and moisture profiles as the surface sensible‐ and latent‐heat fluxes increase after sunrise. It proceeds with the formation of shallow convective clouds as the convective boundary layer deepens, and leads to the eventual transition from shallow to deep precipitating convection around local noon. To provide a benchmark for other models, a custom‐designed set of simulations, applying increasing in time computational domain and decreasing spatial resolution, was executed. The SCMs reproduced the previously identified problem with premature development of deep convection, less than two hours after sunrise. The benchmark simulations suggest a possible route to improve SCMs by considering a time‐evolving cumulus entrainment rate as convection evolves from shallow to deep and the cloud width increases up to an order of magnitude. The CRMs featuring horizontal grid length around 500 m are capable of capturing the qualitative aspects of the benchmark simulations, but there are significant differences among the models. Two‐dimensional CRMs tend to simulate too rapid a transition from shallow to deep convection and too high a cloud cover. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society
Customer Commitment as a Mediating Variable between Corporate Brand Image and Customer Loyalty

Research has shown that corporate image is an important determinant of customer loyalty. Having a positive corporate brand image helps companies achieve performance goals, such as higher sales, whereas having a poor brand image can be disastrous because it can cause companies to lose customers. A strong brand with high equity will have a large number of committed customers, many of whom will have frequent and ongoing interaction and communication with the company owning the brand. Customer commitment to a brand stems from trust in the brand, shared values with the company owning the brand, and a belief that it would be difficult to find other brands that could provide same value. Customer loyalty also encourages companies to cooperate with their business partners to preserve their investment in the business relationship. Committed customers have a more positive impression of their relationship with the company and indicate strong intentions to remain in the relationship. The researchers conducted a survey among respondents from the automobile sector in Taiwan, and obtained 170 usable responses. The researchers designed the questionnaires to analyze normality, convergent, and discriminant validities by using the structural equation model of PASW 18 and AMOS 18.0. The research found that commitment is a partial mediator between corporate brand image and customer loyalty. Future studies might measure other dimensions to test their mediating effect on customer loyalty, and these studies might use different designs to examine the mediator effect posited by various theories, such as trust added, to explore other determinants of loyalty. Such research can inform decisions made to increase and maintain long-term customer satisfaction.
Effect of breastfeeding compared with formula feeding on infant body composition: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Early-life nutrition may influence later body composition. The effect of breastfeeding and formula feeding on infant body composition is uncertain. OBJECTIVE We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that examined body composition in healthy, term infants in relation to breastfeeding or formula feeding. DESIGN PubMed was searched for human studies that reported the outcomes fat-free mass, fat mass, or the percentage of fat mass in breastfed and formula-fed infants. Bibliographies were hand searched, and authors were contacted for additional data. The quality of studies was assessed. Differences in outcomes between feeding groups were compared at prespecified ages by using fixed-effects analyses except when heterogeneity indicated the use of random-effects analyses. RESULTS We identified 15 studies for inclusion in the systematic review and 11 studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis. In formula-fed infants, fat-free mass was higher at 3-4 mo [mean difference (95% CI): 0.13 kg (0.03, 0.23 kg)], 8-9 mo [0.29 kg (0.09, 0.49 kg)], and 12 mo [0.30 kg (0.13, 0.48 kg)], and fat mass was lower at 3-4 mo [-0.09 kg (-0.18, -0.01 kg)] and 6 mo [-0.18 kg (-0.34, -0.01 kg)] than in breastfed infants. Conversely, at 12 mo, fat mass was higher in formula-fed infants [0.29 kg (-0.03, 0.61 kg)] than in breastfed infants. CONCLUSION Compared with breastfeeding, formula feeding is associated with altered body composition in infancy.
Molecular analysis of a partial deletion of 22q in a central nervous system rhabdoid tumor

We previously reported the non‐random occurrence of monosomy 22 in rhabdoid or atypical teratoid tumors of the brain in three young children. We now present cytogenetic and molecular studies of an additional rhabdoid tumor with the karyotype 46.XX, ‐ 9,‐22, + i( 1q), + der(22)t(9;22)(p 13;q11)/45,XX, ‐ 9,‐10,‐22, + i(1q), + der(22)t(9;22)(p 13;q11). These studies further demonstrate the involvement of chromosome 22, and they begin to define the critical region containing a gene or genes involved in the development or progression of rhabdoid tumors of the brain.