Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Keeping Identity Private

Privacy has become a major issue for policy makers. This has been impelled by the rapid development of technologies that facilitate collection, distribution, storage, and manipulation of personal information. This study is an attempt to understand the relationship between individuals' intentions to disclose personal information, their actual personal information disclosure behaviors, and how these can be leveraged to develop privacy-enhancing identity management systems (IDMS) that the users can trust. Legal, regulatory and technological aspects of privacy and technology adoption are also discussed.
Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Production Technology : An Application to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing firms in Ghana

The aim of this study was to find out the level of technical efficiency of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Ghana and analyse the factors that determine their efficiency level. A survey based on questionnaire administration was applied to collect data from the entire population of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms numbering 39 across the country. A stochastic frontier analysis based on the Cobb-Douglas production functional form was applied to estimate the technical efficiency of production among firms. Subsequently, the ordinary least square (OLS) was used to determine the factors that influenced technical efficiency levels of firms. The findings show that technical efficiency level among firms range between about 34% and 62% with the mean technical efficiency level of 50%. In addition, the results show that percentage of professionals employed by firms, the ages of firms’ plants and the number of maintenance exercises by firms significantly determined their technical efficiency level. Furthermore, capital and skilled labour had greater positive impacts on output levels of capsules and tablets produced. It is World Journal of Current Economics Research Vol. 2, No. 1, May 2016, pp. 1-20 Available online at www.wjcer. com 2 recommended that firms invest more in their capital stocks through replacement of old machines with new ones and ensuring regular maintenance of equipment. Firms should also employ more professionals and improve upon the technical know-how of existing workforce through in-service training. These will make them operate closer to their potential frontiers (more technically efficient) so as to be more cost effective and competitive.
Role of nitric oxide in the visible light-induced rapid increase of human skin microcirculation at the local and systemic levels: II. healthy volunteers.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to evaluate the skin microcirculation increase seen in healthy volunteers after a single exposure to polychromatic visible (pVIS) light, and to prove the role of nitric oxide (NO) in the development of this effect. BACKGROUND DATA Improvement of microcirculation is one of the most important effects of laser and pVIS light therapy; however, its mechanism of action remains unknown. A main role in the regulation of vascular tone is known to be played by NO. It is produced by NO-synthase (NOS) located in membranes of many cells, including endothelial and blood cells. NOS, a biopteroflavohemoprotein, absorbs pVIS light, resulting in its activation. MATERIALS AND METHODS The central area of the dorsal side of the right hand (24 cm2) of 42 volunteers was irradiated for 5 min with pVIS light from a Q-light (385-750 nm, 95% polarization, 40 mW/cm2, 12 J/cm2). Then for 90 min, the blood flow rate (Qas) was measured eight times, both in the area of the irradiation (local effect) and in the non-irradiated left hand (systemic effect) by using a high-frequency ultrasound Doppler device, recording Qas in human skin to a depth up to 5 mm. In the central area of the right hand of 14 volunteers an NOS inhibitor, N-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA, 0.1% solution), was iontophoretically administered prior to exposure, whereas in 10 other subjects it was administered to the left hand with subsequent exposure of the right hand. RESULTS As soon as 2 min after exposure, Qas in the irradiated area rose on average by 32%, and in 20 min by 45%; it then decreased and in 90 min returned to the initial level. A statistically significant Qas increase in the non-irradiated hand was recorded in 5 min (+9%), and in 20 min it reached a maximum level (+39%), and 90 min later it decreased to the initial values. The presence of L-NMMA in the light-exposed area completely blocked the photoinduced rise of microcirculation, both in the irradiated and in non-irradiated hand; however, its administration to the non-irradiated hand did not prevent these effects. CONCLUSION The increase in skin microcirculation produced by pVIS light at the local and systemic levels is due to activation of NO synthesis in the irradiated area.
Impact of petroleum refining activities on nitrate and nitrite content of edible vegetables and on their in vivo kinetics in albino rats

The influence of pollution from petroleum refining activities on the levels of nitrates and nitrites in five edible vegetable species was investigated. Besides, the kinetics of nitrite and nitrate was studied in vivo using albino rats with focus on the possible influence of concentration difference on kinetics and implications to toxicity. Leaf samples of the five vegetable species were collected randomly from various locations within Eleme, a host community of Port Harcourt Refinery Company and the Indorama Petrochemical Company. Also, samples were collected from Umuahia, which served as pollution-free control. The leaf samples were analyzed for their nitrite and nitrate contents. Nitrite was determined spectrophotometrically while nitrate was determined after cadmium column reduction. Results showed that samples from Eleme had higher mean nitrate (349.20 mg/100g dry leaf mass; P 0.05) as compared to the same samples from Umuahia. Solutions of nitrate and nitrite, equivalent in concentration to mean nitrate and nitrite content of the vegetable samples from the two locations were administered enterally to four groups of albino rats. Analysis of their blood levels were monitored five times at 30 minutes intervals following administration. Rates of change of blood nitrites and nitrates were found to be fairly constant in absorption as well as in the elimination phase. Their peak blood concentrations varied proportionately with their concentrations in administered solutions. However, peak blood nitrate was attained later in group of animals receiving higher amount of nitrate solution. Refining activities may pre-dispose people living within Eleme community to health hazards through contamination of edible vegetables.
Microheterogeneity of human serum transferrin: A biological phenomenon studied by isoelectric focusing in immobilized pH gradients

The heterogeneity of human transferrin results from (i) differences in iron content, (ii) genetic polymorphism and (iii) differences in the carbohydrate moiety. This article primarily deals with the last phenomenon, the microheterogeneity of human transferrin. Owing to the comparatively simple carbohydrate structure of human transferrin and the high resolving power of isoelectric focusing in immobilized pH gradients, microheterogeneous forms of transferrin can be separated. Differences between samples can be quantitated by crossed immunoelectrophoresis. Examples of the differences between the microheterogeneity patterns of transferrin in several biological fluids and the changes that can be observed in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, idiopathic hemochromatosis and Kahler's disease are presented. Special attention has been focused on changes occurring during pregnancy.
Technology development for a low-cost, roll-to-roll chip embedding solution based on PET foils

The aim of the research described in this paper is to develop a low-cost, roll-to-roll compatible process for the realization of electronic systems in foil using chip embedding. The small cost makes these systems suitable for disposable applications as food labels, medicine packages or smart bandages. Surface mount attaching of components on foils is a well-known process for building systems-in-foil. When using low-cost films like PEN and PET, there are serious restrictions on the maximum temperatures that can be used for the surface mounting process (soldering, adhesive bonding). Surface mounting has the additional disadvantage that the components are on the surface of the foil and are therefore not well protected mechanically and physically. The proposed process flow for embedding thin chips in PET foils overcomes these limitations. A key aspect of this technology is the application of a suitable adhesive to encapsulate the chips. The resulting product is based on full-metal copper which has a good thermal and electrical conductivity and allows for fine pitches. The process is compatible with several metal foils (Cu, Al …), offering further possibilities in cost reduction, and does not rely on bumping of the chips or plating of the interconnections to the chips.
Antenna coupling in multi active multi passive port topologies

The electromagnetic (EM) coupling between pairs of antennas in a system comprised of μ active RF ports and M passive ones is expressed under arbitrary complex terminations by obtaining the effective transfer function between the active ports using Mason's rule. Unlike a previous approach where the mutual impedance matrix of N+M dimensions is collapsed to N dimensions, the proposed approach directly estimates the effective coupling from the reference scattering parameters and the complex terminations.
Sensitive detection and quantification of particle‐associated reverse transcriptase in plasma of HIV‐1‐infected individuals by the product‐enhanced reverse transcriptase (PERT) assay

Tests for the enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT) should permit the detection of all infectious retroviruses, provided that these are present as extracellular particles. The capability of a new procedure, named product‐enhanced reverse transcriptase (PERT) assay, to detect HIV‐1 in fresh human plasma was compared with that of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for viral RNA. Both procedures had identical dilution endpoints corresponding to 102 particles/ml. All 30 samples from HIV‐1 positive patients at different stages contained RT activity whose level was significantly correlated with viral RNA and corresponded to 553‐417,000 particles/ml. In HIV‐1 low titer performance and seroconversion panels, the PERT assay detected more positives than PCR for viral RNA. Three of 160 blood donors exhibited elevated RT activity, indicating a prevalence of 1.9% (95% CI 0.4–5.3%). One positive donor, with laboratory parameters suggesting a mild chronic liver impairment, exhibited RT activity comparable to that of HIV positives, but was consistently negative by various tests for hepatitis viruses, cytomegalovirus, the HIVs and HTLVs. The results suggest that the PERT assay is more sensitive for detection of HIV‐1 contamination of plasma than RNA PCR. However, it is not affected adversely by viral sequence variability, and may therefore, also detect HIV‐1 subtype O, and additional retroviruses as yet undetectable by PCR. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Role of CTLs in Persistent Viral Infection: Cytolytic Gene Expression in CD8+ Lymphocytes Distinguishes between Individuals with a High or Low Proviral Load of Human T Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1

The proviral load in human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection is typically constant in each infected host, but varies by >1000-fold between hosts and is strongly correlated with the risk of HTLV-1-associated inflammatory disease. However, the factors that determine an individual’s HTLV-1 proviral load remain uncertain. Experimental evidence from studies of host genetics, viral genetics, and lymphocyte function and theoretical considerations suggest that a major determinant of the equilibrium proviral load is the CD8+ T cell response to HTLV-1. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the gene expression profile in circulating CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocytes distinguishes between individuals with a low proviral load of HTLV-1 and those with a high proviral load. We show that circulating CD8+ lymphocytes from individuals with a low HTLV-1 proviral load overexpressed a core group of nine genes with strong functional coherence: eight of the nine genes encode granzymes or other proteins involved in cell-mediated lysis or Ag recognition. We conclude that successful suppression of the HTLV-1 proviral load is associated with strong cytotoxic CD8+ lymphocyte activity in the peripheral blood.
Increase of ryanodine receptors by dopamine D1 receptors is negatively regulated by γ‐aminobutyric acid type B receptors in primary cultures of mouse cerebral cortical neurons

Although upregulation of ryanodine receptor (RyR)‐1 and ‐2 is mediated through the activation of dopamine D1 receptors (D1DRs) in the development of psychostimulant‐induced place preference, little is known about how such increased expressions of RyRs are negatively regulated. This study investigated negative regulatory mechanisms of increase of RyR‐1 and ‐2 expression by D1DR stimulation with its full agonist, SKF82958 or A 68930, using cultures of mouse cerebral cortical neurons. Sustained exposure to SKF82958 or A 68930 of the neurons increased RyR‐1 and ‐2 proteins in a dose‐ and time‐dependentmanner. The SKF82958‐induced increases of RyR‐1 and ‐2 proteins were significantly suppressed by SCH23390 (a selective D1DR antagonist). In addition, the SKF82958‐ or A 68930‐induced increases of RyR‐1 and ‐2 proteins were completely abolished by baclofen (a selective γ‐aminobutyric acid type B [GABAB] receptor agonist), whereas muscimol (an agonist specific to GABAA receptors) had no effect. SKF82958 or A 68930 significantly increased intracellular cAMP level, which was completely suppressed by baclofen. Furthermore, sustained exposure to phorbol 12,13‐dibutyrate, a protein kinase C activator, did not change the expression of RyR‐1 or ‐2 proteins. Immunohistochemical study showed colocalizaton of immunoreactivities for three types of proteins, D1DRs and GABAB receptor R1 and R2 subunits in the same neuronal bodies, suggesting that the neurochemical changes induced by the activation of D1DRs and GABAB receptors occur in the same neurons. These results indicate that RyR‐1 and ‐2 expression facilitated by D1DR stimulation are negatively regulated by GABAB receptor via suppression of cAMP production. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Familiarity breeds understanding Recommending explanatory analogies to learners

Explanatory analogies help learners in learning complex target concepts by mapping them onto more familiar source concept(s). Typically, multiple analogies are available for target concepts, though a limited number of them need to be recommended to the learner to reduce cognitive load during learning. While recommending explanatory analogies, it is essential that the learner be familiar with the source concept to facilitate learning, but the interest of the learner in a particular source concept may also play a role in making learning effective. In this paper, we present a survey with 94 participants to observe the role of familiarity and interest in choosing source concepts from multiple explanatory analogies. Furthermore, we present an approach to automatically identify source concept(s) from an analogy webpage. We then present an approach to recommend an explanatory analogy from a set of available analogies based on a familiarity measure derived for the source concept. We demonstrate this approach using a dataset of analogy webpages manually compiled from the internet.
Chromosomal organization of the herpes simplex virus genome during acute infection of the mouse central nervous system

After corneal inoculation, herpes simplex virus type 1 replicates in the mouse eye, trigeminal ganglia, and brainstem, producing first an acute and then a latent infection. Previous work from this laboratory focused on the structure of the viral DNA in this system. We have now examined the structure of the viral genome at the chromosome level by using micrococcal nuclease digestion. Studies with disaggregated cell preparations made from the brainstems of acutely infected mice show that the majority of the viral DNA is in a nonnucleosomal form; however, a nucleosomelike fraction was also consistently detected. A similar result was obtained for viral DNA in herpes simplex virus type 1-infected C1300 (clone NA) neuroblastoma cells (a neuronal cell line).
Toward theragnostics

Theragnostics is a treatment strategy that combines therapeutics with diagnostics. It associates both a diagnostic test that identifies patients most likely to be helped or harmed by a new medication, and targeted drug therapy based on the test results. Bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, and functional genomics are molecular biology tools essential for the progress of molecular theragnostics. These tools generate the genetic and protein information required for the development of diagnostic assays. Theragnostics includes a wide range of subjects, including personalized medicine, pharmacogenomics, and molecular imaging to develop efficient new targeted therapies with adequate benefit/risk to patients and a better molecular understanding of how to optimize drug selection. Furthermore, theragnostics aims to monitor the response to the treatment, to increase drug efficacy and safety. In addition, theragnostics could eliminate the unnecessary treatment of patients for whom therapy is not appropriate, resulting in significant drug cost savings for the healthcare system. However, the introduction of theragnostic tests into routine health care requires both a demonstration of cost-effectiveness and the availability of appropriate accessible testing systems. This review reports validation studies in oncology and infectious diseases that have demonstrated the benefits of such approach in well-defined subpopulations of patients, moving the field from the drug development process toward clinical practice and routine application. Theragnostics may change the usual business model of pharmaceutical companies from the classic blockbuster model toward targeted therapies.
Biodiversity in South African fynbos and Mediterranean heathland

The theory of convergence predicts that, given similar selective regimes, both present and past, unrelated ecological communities will show similar attributes. Mild Pleistocene climate, highly infertile soils, and similar fire regimes explain the remarkable convergence between medi- terranean-type vegetation from South Africa (fynbos) and Australia (kwongan). Heathlands in the Aljibe Mountains, at the western end of the Mediterranean basin, constitute a single vegetation type within the Mediterranean region. We studied the association between endemism and plant life form in a flora from environmentally similar areas of the South African Cape region (fynbos) and the Aljibe Mountains by contingency table analysis. We included two non-acid, neighbouring areas to the latter region in the analysis as contrasts. We also compared the patterns of variation in three components of biodiversity (species richness, endemism level and taxonomic singularity) of fynbos and Aljibe heathland woody plant communities along similar soil fertility gradients by means of two-way ANOVAs. At the regional (flora) level, our results show two common features in the biological aspects of endemism between the two regions: (1) edaphic endemism and (2) association of endemism with the shrub growth form. At the community level, we detected strong similarities in the patterns of varia- tion of endemism and taxonomic singularity of woody com- munities from both regions along an ecological gradient re- lated to soil fertility. We interpret these similarities, both at the regional and community levels, as suggestive of convergence between fynbos and Aljibe heathland.
Electroconvection and pattern formation in a suspended smectic film.

We have observed convective flow in a thin freely suspended film of smectic-A liquid crystal when a sufficiently large electric field is applied in the plane of the film. The convective flow neither reorients the director nor deforms the free surfaces of the film. Thus the film behaves as a two-dimensional isotropic fluid. We have studied the onset of this flow in two film holders, one which allows injection of charges from the electrodes into the film and one which does not
Association of genetic variants with chronic kidney disease in Japanese individuals.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Although genetic linkage analyses and association studies have implicated several loci and candidate genes in predisposition to chronic kidney disease (CKD), the genes that underlie genetic susceptibility to this condition have remained uncharacterized. The purpose of the present study was to identify genetic variants that confer susceptibility to CKD in Japanese individuals. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS The study population comprised 5217 Japanese individuals (2955 men, 2262 women), including 778 subjects (480 men, 298 women) with CKD [estimated GFR (eGFR), <50 ml min(-1) 1.73 m(-2)] and 4439 controls (2475 men, 1964 women; eGFR, > or =60 ml min(-1) 1.73 m(-2)). The genotypes for 40 polymorphisms of 32 candidate genes were determined. RESULTS The chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression analysis with adjustment for covariates revealed that the -219G-->T polymorphism of APOE, the -519A-->G of MMP1, the -866G-->A of UCP2, the -1607/1G-->2G of MMP1, the A-->G (Lys45Glu) of MMP3, the G-->A (Ala163Thr) of AGTR1, the G-->A (Gly670Arg) of PECAM1, and the -55C-->T of UCP3 were significantly (false discovery rate <0.05) associated with CKD. Comparison of allele frequencies of these polymorphisms by the chi-square test between subgroups of CKD and control subjects individually matched for covariates revealed that the -519A-->G of MMP1 and the -866G-->A of UCP2 were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with CKD. CONCLUSIONS MMP1 and UCP2 may be susceptibility loci for CKD in Japanese individuals. Determination of genotypes for these polymorphisms may prove informative for prediction of genetic risk for CKD.
Genetic Location of Two Mutations Affecting the Lysyl-Transfer Ribonucleic Acid Synthetase of Bacillus subtilis

Two mutations (lysS1 and lysS2), each independently resulting in a thermosensitive, lysyl-transfer RNA synthetase (l-lysine: tRNA ligase [adenosine 5′-monophosphate] EC 6.1.1.6), have been mapped on the Bacillus subtilis chromosome between purA16 (adenine requirement) and sul (sulfanilamide resistance). They are linked by transformation with sul (70 to 74% cotransfer) in the order purA16-lysS1-lysS2-sul. The mutant loci are either in the same gene or in two closely linked genes. They are not linked to the tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase structural gene or to the lys-1 locus.
Criteria towards metrics for benchmarking template protection algorithms

Traditional criteria used in biometric performance evaluation do not cover all the performance aspects of biometric template protection (BTP) and the lack of well-defined metrics inhibits the proper evaluation of such methods. Previous work in the literature focuses, in general, on a limited set of criteria and methods. This paper provides the first holistic approach to the evaluation of biometric template protection that is able to cover a whole range of methods. We present a selection of well-defined criteria and some metrics that are compliant with the reference architecture for template protection as defined in the recently adopted standard ISO/IEC 24745 (2011), which is applicable to nearly all known BTP methods. The criteria have been grouped in three categories of performance: technical, protection, and operational.