Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conversion of NO2 to NO by reduced coenzyme F420 protects mycobacteria from nitrosative damage

In mycobacteria, F420, a deazaflavin derivative, acts as a hydride transfer coenzyme for an F420-specific glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (Fgd). Physiologically relevant reactions in the mycobacteria that use Fgd-generated reduced F420 (F420H2) are unknown. In this work, F420H2 was found to be oxidized by NO only in the presence of oxygen. Further analysis demonstrated that NO2, produced from NO and O2, was the oxidant. UV-visible spectroscopic and NO-sensor-based analyses proved that F420H2 reduced NO2 to NO. This reaction could serve as a defense system for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is more sensitive to NO2 than NO under aerobic conditions. Activated macrophages produce NO, which in acidified phagosomes is converted to NO2. Hence, by converting NO2 back to NO with F420H2, M. tuberculosis could decrease the effectiveness of antibacterial action of macrophages; such defense would correspond to active tuberculosis conditions where the bacterium grows aerobically. This hypothesis was consistent with the observation that a mutant strain of Mycobacterium smegmatis, a nonpathogenic relative of M. tuberculosis, which either did not produce or could not reduce F420, was ≈4-fold more sensitive to NO2 than the wild-type strain. The phenomenon is reminiscent of the anticancer activity of γ-tocopherol, which reduces NO2 to NO and protects human cells from NO2-induced carcinogenesis.
Three essays in the microeconomics of development

This thesis addresses two main issues through three essays that are independent from each other. The first issue, which is covered by the first two essays, refers to such practice that may impact one way or another the welfare of children. The second issue which is covered by the third essay relates to the persistence of quasisubsistence activities in developing countries. Two reasons motivated our interest in these two issues: first, the success of any development project must rely on the actors both present and future which are emotionally and psychologically stable. As such, children who are the actors of the future of any community, are at the heart of any development process. Better yet, the success of any development plan in the future is inevitably dependent on the environment and supervision they receive today. Thus, there would be no exaggeration to argue that a poorly negotiated childhood is likely to lead to a society vulnerable in the future . Secondly, the predispositions of people to project themselves into the path of development may not be possible if the satisfaction of basic needs is no longer a concern for the community. In other words, the struggle for survival does not guarantee the necessary conditions for the emergence of genius and creativity, all necessary factors for the development process. The first essay discusses the informal institution of child Fostering which is defined as the voluntary and temporary delegation of parental roles to others than biological parents, within the extended family network. Such arrangements are common in developing countries where the proportion of children involved is estimated arround 25%. This essay therefore analyzes the impact of these informal arrangements on the welfare of foster children, in an environment where parental altruism is restricted to biological children.
Understanding the non-institutionalization of a socio-technical innovation: the case of multiple-use water services (MUS) in Nepal

ABSTRACT Multiple-use water services (MUS) have been promoted and piloted globally for two decades as a socio-technical innovation. Yet the MUS approach has hardly extended beyond donor-funded projects to public policies. We use a collective action framework to analyze the non-institutionalization of MUS in Nepal. We find that MUS has much cognitive legitimacy, but discourse fragmentation has reduced its socio-political legitimacy. Yet the latter is essential to overcome the institutional challenges of a fragmented public water sector and to mainstream MUS into policy debate.
Power system reliability considering combined cycle plants

In the nineties in Argentina, the growth of thermal power generation was mainly based on the construction of combined cycle plants. Currently, one problem associated with the use of combined cycle plants is the fact that they need to share the use of natural gas with commercial, industrial, importations, and domestic uses. Hence, the natural gas availability is becoming a critical issue. Therefore, power system reliability studies must consider fuel availability into the models. Reliability models should take into account joint operation of electrical generation and natural gas systems. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of combined cycle plants on reliability studies applied to system generation capacity and their dependency on natural gas availability. Monte Carlo simulation method is used to determine reliability indices such as Loss of Load Expectation, Loss of Energy Expectation, Loss of Load Frequency, and Loss of Load Duration. The IEEERTS96 modified is utilized for combined cycle plants representation.
Juvenile incarceration and adult recidivism

Although there is debate about whether juvenile incarceration deters future crime, it is a common practice worldwide. We contribute to this debate by using Chilean data to assess the causal impact of different types of juvenile incarceration on recidivism in young adulthood (18-21 years old). To address the endogeneity issues, we use the quasi random assignment of detention judges as instrumental variable to estimate the effect of pretrial detention, and the quasi random assignment of public attorneys to estimate the effect of any type of incarceration. Considering a standard IV linear model, we find that pretrial detention increases the probability of recidivism by 61 percentage points (pp), and when we define the treatment as any type of incarceration, this impact is equal to 65 pp. When we estimate bivariate probit models – using a novel approach for estimating this model in the context of fixed effects – the impact of pretrial detention and incarceration on recidivism are equal to 12 pp and 15 pp, respectively. We also estimate the marginal treatment effect (MTE), finding that the magnitudes of the marginal effects are larger for those individuals with low treatment probabilities. If we use MTE estimates to calculate the average treatment effect (ATE), the impact of pretrial detention on recidivism is equal to 28 pp. If we define the treatment as any type of incarceration, this impact is equal to 36 pp. Finally, we find that an important mechanism behind these impacts is the effect of these different types of incarceration on high school graduation.
Biological effects of tritium on fish cells in the concentration range of international drinking water standards

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate whether the current Canadian tritium drinking water limit is protective of aquatic biota, an in vitro study was designed to assess the biological effects of low concentrations of tritium, similar to what would typically be found near a Canadian nuclear power station, and higher concentrations spanning the range of international tritium drinking water standards. Materials and methods: Channel catfish peripheral blood B-lymphoblast and fathead minnow testis cells were exposed to 10–100,000 Bq l−1 of tritium, after which eight molecular and cellular endpoints were assessed. Results: Increased numbers of DNA strand breaks were observed and ATP levels were increased. There were no increases in γH2AX-mediated DNA repair. No differences in cell growth were noted. Exposure to the lowest concentrations of tritium were associated with a modest increase in the viability of fathead minnow testicular cells. Using the micronucleus assay, an adaptive response was observed in catfish B-lymphoblasts. Conclusions: Using molecular endpoints, biological responses to tritium in the range of Canadian and international drinking water standards were observed. At the cellular level, no detrimental effects were noted on growth or cycling, and protective effects were observed as an increase in cell viability and an induced resistance to a large challenge dose.
Using Correlations for Application Monitoring in Cloud Computing

Monitoring is a common requirement in everyday modern life, from anti-virus scanners on personal computers to securing large multinational systems' health and status. Such monitoring is a fundamental process which must be undertaken where resources are offered as a service as in the cloud, to make sure that the service has been delivered to meet all contractual obligations. However, with a dynamic and comprehensive architectural design, which allows resources to be allocated at multiple layers depending on client requirements, it is not merely a case of monitoring a single resource or over-provisioning to ensure the application can operate as expected. The understanding and knowledge of how an application behaves under different circumstances is important for understanding the cause of the problem as well as directing the administrator to the possible solution. In this paper, we look at the methodology any monitoring system must be aware of to efficiently and proactively monitor and understand how an application is performing. We propose the use of correlations as performance metrics for application monitoring to detect abnormal behaviour as a result of provisioning and resource constraints. Such monitoring allows performance to be viewed for single resources as well as extracting relationships between resources. These relationships form the basis of temporal patterns, called motifs, which we use to characterise anamolous behaviour with a view to advising the human-in-the-loop on possible corrective behaviour.
Innovative Hyperspectral Imaging-Based Techniques for Quality Evaluation of Fruits and Vegetables: A Review

New, non-destructive sensing techniques for fast and more effective quality assessment of fruits and vegetables are needed to meet the ever-increasing consumer demand for better, more consistent and safer food products. Over the past 15 years, hyperspectral imaging has emerged as a new generation of sensing technology for non-destructive food quality and safety evaluation, because it integrates the major features of imaging and spectroscopy, thus enabling the acquisition of both spectral and spatial information from an object simultaneously. This paper first provides a brief overview of hyperspectral imaging configurations and common sensing modes used for food quality and safety evaluation. The paper is, however, focused on the three innovative hyperspectral imaging-based techniques or sensing platforms, i.e., spectral scattering, integrated reflectance and transmittance, and spatially-resolved spectroscopy, which have been developed in our laboratory for property and quality evaluation of fruits, vegetables and other food products. The basic principle and instrumentation of each technique are described, followed by the mathematical methods for processing and extracting critical information from the acquired data. Applications of these techniques for property and quality evaluation of fruits and vegetables are then presented. Finally, concluding remarks are given on future research needs to move forward these hyperspectral imaging techniques.
Oxidative LDL modification is increased in vascular dementia and is inversely associated with cognitive performance

Abstract It is not known whether the association between increased plasma homocysteine (Hcy) associated with LDL modification and propensity for LDL uptake by macrophages in cardiovascular disease patients holds true in vascular dementia (VaD). Plasma from 83 subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), VaD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and from controls was analysed to examine (1) whether LDL isolated from the plasma of VaD is biochemically and functionally distinct from that isolated from AD, MCI or controls; and (2) whether such biomarkers of LDL phenotype are related to plasma folate levels, Hcy levels and/or to disease severity. Folate and vitamin B6 levels were significantly lower in VaD subjects than in controls. VaD-LDL showed increased protein carbonyl content (p < 0.05) and was more susceptible to scavenging by macrophages (p < 0.05) than AD- or control-LDL. Patients from the VaD cohort were more prevalent in the lowest tertile for HDL:LDL and the upper tertile for LDL oxidation; the combined parameters of HDL cholesterol, LDL oxidation and scavenging by macrophages show 87% sensitivity towards VaD detection. The association between folate deficiency, LDL modification and dysfunction in VaD but not in AD may provide a novel biomarker assessment to discriminate between the diseases.
Quantifying Spatiotemporal Variability of Controls on Microwave Emission From Snow-Covered Mountainous Regions

Using passive microwave (PM) remote sensing to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE) in mountainous areas is challenging, because the interactions between the mountain environmental variables and microwave emission are very complex; a better understanding of these interactions will be helpful to ultimately improve the estimation of mountain SWE with PM. In this study, we performed an analysis of the 36.5-GHz vertical polarization (V-Pol) microwave radiance over the Upper Kern basin in the southern Sierra Nevada that was simulated for a previous study, to interpret the spatiotemporal radiance variability and its connection with the mountain environment. The modeled radiance is close to the advanced microwave scanning radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) observed radiance; the RMSE of the modeled dry season basin-scale brightness temperature (Tb) is 3.1 K. The modeling was conducted at a high spatial resolution (90 m) to better characterize the significant radiance variability as a result of the complex mountainous terrain. A set of environmental variables has been explicitly parameterized into each modeling pixel; these environmental variables include elevation, fractional vegetation coverage, SWE, snow grain size, aspect, and slope. We correlated these environmental variables with the modeled microwave radiance to explore the effects of each environmental control, and to quantify each variable's explanatory power in terms of the radiance variability. In this study, all the correlation calculations are statistically significant with confidence level higher than 95%. We found that the controlling power of each environmental factor varies over a snow season, and the dominating environmental factors change with respect to increase in snow accumulation. Vegetation and elevation, and SWE and grain size are two sets of dominating factors for the radiance: when SWE is less than 0.01 m, vegetation and elevation explain 55% of the radiance variability, while SWE and grain size explain 29% of the spatial variability. When SWE exceeds 0.01 m, SWE and grain size take over the dominance and explain 56% of the radiance variability, while vegetation and elevation explain 25%. The distribution of snow grain size over the Upper Kern exhibits large spatial variability. Snowpack temperature gradient, snow age, and wet metamorphism are significant factors related to snow grain growth. Snow age and temperature gradient are equally dominant for spatial patterns of grain size and Tb in the areas with deep and dry snow cover, while snow age and wet metamorphism dominate the grain size and Tb in the low elevation areas with shallow snow.
Experience of negative symptoms: comparison of schizophrenic patients to patients with a depressive disorder and to normal subjects.

OBJECTIVE Three hypotheses were tested: 1) schizophrenic patients would report more impairments on a self-rating scale for negative symptoms than normal subjects and attribute higher levels of distress to these impairments, 2) schizophrenic patients would report fewer impairments than patients with a depressive disorder and attribute lower levels of distress to these impairments, and 3) schizophrenic patients would attribute their impairments less often to mental illness than would patients with a depressive disorder. METHOD A self-rating scale for negative symptoms was administered to 86 patients with schizophrenia, 20 patients with a depressive disorder, and 33 normal subjects. The scale items were derived from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). Two psychiatrists also rated all of the patients on the SANS. RESULTS The hypotheses were supported. The differences between the two groups of patients in the rates of reported impairments and the levels of reported distress remained statistically significant after control for differences in age, sex, length of current admission, length of illness, dose of neuroleptic medication, use of clozapine, and severity of negative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that a large number of schizophrenic patients are somewhat aware of negative symptoms but that they are less aware of these impairments and less concerned about them than are patients with a depressive disorder.
The development of models for the evaluation of pulmonary drug disposition

Introduction: The process of drug disposition in the lung after pulmonary delivery is complex involving absorptive and non-absorptive mechanisms. The lung has also been suggested to be a trapping and metabolizing organ, especially after intravenous administration of drug. A key challenge is to define the most suitable models for the evaluation of pulmonary drug disposition. Areas covered: This review provides an overview of the anatomy and physiology of the lung and sites of action. The authors follow this with a description of the processes associated with pulmonary disposition (deposition, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and non-absorptive clearance). The article also summarizes and compares models and techniques for the assessment of drug disposition in the lung, in terms of characteristic features, advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the authors review pharmaceutical science implications of these findings. Expert opinion: In vivo models are preferred for studying drug deposition, absorption, disposition, and response in the lung. In vitro models may be useful in the initial screening for new compounds and in drug lead optimization. The labor-intensive isolated perfused lung models are most suitable for in-depth studies on drug pulmonary disposition for lead compounds. In the future, engineered lungs may become a more convenient means of evaluating drug disposition in the lung.
Marketing Systems – Looking Backward, Sizing up and Thinking Ahead

This commentary is a personal account of the evolution of the concept of a marketing system, from being central to the vision of macromarketing inspiring a group of scholars nearly 60 years ago, to playing a central role today in bringing together the rich set of ideas, concepts, frameworks and concerns that are part of contemporary macromarketing thought. It provides a basis for, and indeed, argues for, the integration of both marketing and macromarketing thinking in practice and in teaching in response to the micro and macro challenges facing managers and policy makers in most human communities as they seek to find a way through increasingly complex environments shaped by physical, social, economic, and technological forces interacting though space and time at all levels of society. It was written to serve as the introduction to a SAGE Publications virtual book concerned with the past, present and future of thinking and practice related to marketing systems.
Predictability of Treasury Bond Returns: Risk Premia or Overreaction?

We examine whether the predictability and business-cycle dependence of excess returns in US Treasuries can be more naturally explained in terms of state-dependent risk premia or a specific cognitive bias (representativeness). We show that the extremely parsimonious cognitive-bias model in Shleifer and Gennaioli (2018) accounts very well for a large number of stylized facts about the predictability of excess returns, and their business-cycle dependence. We also test the risk-premium explanation by looking at the correlation between the payoff of the carry strategy and (several proxies for) consumption. When we do so we find that this correlation either has no explanatory power for returns, or has the wrong sign. We conclude that undue extrapolation in the future of recent information provides a parsimonious, simple and arguably more compelling account of excess returns than a risk-premium explanation.
Detection of vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus species

Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium isolates that are resistant to vancomycin have recently been identified in North America and Europe. Of 155 clinical isolates of enterococci (113 E. faecium and 42 E. faecalis), we found that 98 were resistant, 52 were moderately susceptible, and 5 had intermediate susceptibilities to vancomycin by using broth microdilution susceptibility testing according to the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) (Approved Standard M7-A2). Using NCCLS disk diffusion methodology (Approved Standard M2-A4), we evaluated the NCCLS supplemental M100-S3 revisions for zone diameter interpretive standards and incubation conditions and found 5.8% minor errors. A total of 234 isolates, which included an additional 79 E. faecium isolates that were moderately susceptible to vancomycin, were used to evaluate the Vitek GPS-TA card (bioMerieux, Inc., Hazelwood, Mo.) and the Pos MIC type 6 panel (MicroScan; Baxter Health Care Corp., West Sacramento, Calif.) for the detection of vancomycin resistance. The Vitek card was 100% specific and 72% sensitive, whereas the MicroScan panel with the Walk/Away system was 98% specific, with a sensitivity of 93% which increased to 99% when readings were performed manually. An agar screen plate method was evaluated with vancomycin concentrations of 6, 8, 10, or 12 micrograms/ml; plates were inoculated so as to obtain a final concentration of 10(5) CFU per spot. This method was found to be 100% sensitive and specific at all concentrations.