Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of hepatitis B virus genotypes on the intra‐ and extracellular expression of viral DNA and antigens

Various genotypes of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) induce liver disease of distinct severity, but the underlying virological differences are not well defined. Huh7 cells were transfected with plasmids carrying 1.24‐fold the HBV genome of different genotypes/subgenotypes (2 strains each for Aa/A1, Ae/A2, Ba/B2 and D; 3 each for Bj/B1 and C). HBV DNA levels in cell lysates, determined by Southern hybridization, were the highest for C followed by Bj/Ba and D/Ae (P < .01), and the lowest for Aa (P < .01), whereas in culture media, they were the highest for Bj, distantly followed by Ba/C/D and further by Ae/Aa (P < .01). The intracellular expression of core protein was more than 3‐fold lower for Ae/Aa than the others. Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) was excreted in a trend similar to that of HBV DNA with smaller differences. Secretion of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was most abundant for Ae followed by Aa, Ba, Bj/C and remotely by D, which was consistent with mRNA levels. Cellular stress determined by the reporter assay for Grp78 promoter was higher for C and Ba than the other genotypes/subgenotypes (P < .01). Severe combined immunodeficiency mice transgenic for urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (uPA/SCID), with the liver replaced for human hepatocytes, were inoculated with virions passed in mouse and recovered from culture supernatants. HBV DNA levels in their sera were higher for C than Ae by 2 logs during 4–7 weeks after inoculation. In conclusion, virological differences among HBV genotypes were demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. These differences may influence HBV infections with distinct genotypes in clinical and epidemiological settings. (HEPATOLOGY 2006;44:915–924.)
Isolation, Characterization and Expression Analysis of Stearoyl-ACP Desaturase Gene from Kosteletzkya virginica

Kosteletzkya virginica is a halophyte species which could be used for production of industrial raw material such as biodiesel and for developing ecologically sound saline agriculture as well as for tideland soil improving. Using Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RACE) method, a 1610 bp cDNA of stearoyl-ACP desaturase (SAD) gene containing a 1188 bp complete open reading fragment (ORF) was firstly isolated from seeds of K. virginica. Sequence analysis revealed that the nucleotide sequence of K. virginica SAD had a high level of homology to SAD from Gossypium hirsutum, but had relative low identity to SAD from other pants. However, K. virginica SAD had a high level of amino acid sequence homology to SAD from other plants. Characteristics of the deduced protein were predicted and analyzed using bioinformatic methods. Expression analysis via real-time PCR indicated that expression levels of the SAD gene were markedly distinct in different K. virginica tissues and different development stage seeds. The results of the expression analysis in this study, combined with existing research, suggest that SAD may be involved in the regulation of plant seed growth and development. These results serve as a foundation for further studies of the mechanisms regulating SAD gene expression and could eventually lead to the development of higher quality K. virginica varieties.
Analysis of genetic diversity of rapeseed genetic resources in Japan and core collection construction

Diversity analysis of rapeseed accessions preserved in the Japanese Genebank can provide valuable information for breeding programs. In this study, 582 accessions were genotyped with 30 SSR markers covering all 19 rapeseed chromosomes. These markers amplified 311 alleles (10.37 alleles per marker; range, 3–39). The genetic diversity of Japanese accessions was lower than that of overseas accessions. Analysis of molecular variance indicated significant genetic differentiation between Japanese and overseas accessions. Small but significant differences were found among geographical groups in Japan, and genetic differentiation tended to increase with geographical distance. STRUCTURE analysis indicated the presence of two main genetic clusters in the NARO rapeseed collection. With the membership probabilities threshold, 227 accessions mostly originating from overseas were assigned to one subgroup, and 276 accessions mostly originating from Japan were assigned to the other subgroup. The remaining 79 accessions are assigned to admixed group. The core collection constructed comprises 96 accessions of diverse origin. It represents the whole collection well and thus it may be useful for rapeseed genetic research and breeding programs. The core collection improves the efficiency of management, evaluation, and utilization of genetic resources.
Development and psychometric testing of the Health Literacy Index for Female Marriage Immigrants (HLI-FMI) in Korea

ABSTRACT This study aimed to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Health Literacy Index for Female Marriage Immigrants (HLI-FMI). Study participants were 282 women who migrated to Korea from Asian countries to marry and had a mean age of 33.24 years and had immigrated a mean of 5.58 years ago. Data were collected between March 2013 and May 2013. An initial 31 preliminary items were developed based on literature reviews and focus group interviews, including three constructs of health literacy: skills (print, numeracy), tasks (access, understand, appraise, apply), and health contexts (health promotion and disease prevention, health care maintenance and treatment, health system navigation). Exploratory factor analyses of the HLI-FMI yielded 12 items in two factors: Access-Understand Health Literacy (seven items) and Appraise-Apply Health Literacy (five items; Cronbach’s alpha = 0.74). Criterion validity was supported through a significant correlation with the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form. Guided by a classical test theory and item response theory, item difficulty and discrimination were within acceptable ranges. HLI-FMI scores were positively associated with participant education and Korean proficiency. The HLI-FMI appears to be the first valid and reliable comprehensive health literacy measure for evaluating health literacy in Korean female marriage immigrants.
Option Valuation with Systematic Stochastic Volatility

The authors use an extension of the equilibrium framework of M. Rubinstein (1976) and M. Brennan (1979) to derive an option valuation formula when the stock return volatility is both stochastic and systematic. Their formula incorporates a stochastic volatility process as well as a stochastic interest rate process in the valuation of options. If the 'mean,'volatility, and 'covariance' processes for the stock return and the consumption growth are predictable, the authors' option valuation formula can be written in 'preference-free'form. Further, many popular option valuation formulae in the literature can be written as special cases of their general formula. Copyright 1993 by American Finance Association.
Optimal Cooperative Charging Strategy for a Smart Charging Station of Electric Vehicles

This paper proposes a novel cooperative charging strategy for a smart charging station in the dynamic electricity pricing environment, which helps electric vehicles (EVs) to economically accomplish the charging task by the given deadlines. This strategy allows EVs to share their battery-stored energy with each other under the coordination of an aggregator, so that more flexibility is given to the aggregator for better scheduling. Mathematically, the scheduling problem is formulated as a constrained mixed-integer linear program (MILP) to capture the discrete nature of the battery states, i.e., charging, idle and discharging. Then, an efficient algorithm is proposed to solve the MILP by means of dual decomposition and Benders decomposition. At last, the algorithm can be implemented in a distributed fashion, which makes it scalable and thus suitable for large-scale scheduling problems. Numerical results validate our theoretical analysis.
Optimization in design of electric machines: Methodology and workflow

This paper presents an overview of methodology for usage of mathematical optimization procedures e.g. optimization algorithms to achieve optimal design of an electrical machine. A special care must be taken in order to handle parameter definition, boundary constraints, constraint functions, model feasibility and computationally expensive calculation such as finite element analysis. Variants of workflows using different approaches to optimization are presented.
The Economic Analysis of Advertising

This chapter offers a comprehensive survey of the economic analysis of advertising. A first objective is to organize the literature in a manner that clarifies what is known. A second objective is to clarify how this knowledge has been obtained. The chapter begins with a discussion of the key initial writings that are associated with the persuasive, informative and complementary views of advertising. Next, work that characterizes empirical regularities between advertising and other variables is considered. Much of this work is conducted at the inter-industry level but important industry studies are also discussed. The chapter then offers several sections that summarize formal economic theories of advertising. In particular, respective sections are devoted to positive and normative theories of monopoly advertising, theories of price and non-price advertising, theories of advertising and product quality, and theories that explore the potential role for advertising in deterring entry. At this point, the chapter considers the empirical support for the formal economic theories of advertising. A summary is provided of empirical work that evaluates the predictions of recent theories of advertising, including work that specifies and estimates explicitly structural models of firm and consumer conduct. This work is characterized by the use of industry (or brand) and even household-level data. The chapter then considers work on endogenous and exogenous sunk cost industries. At a methodological level, this work is integrative in nature: it develops new theory that delivers a few robust predictions, and it then explores the empirical relevance of these predictions at both inter-industry and industry levels. Finally, the chapter considers new directions and other topics. Here, recent work on advertising and media markets is discussed, and research on behavioral economics and neuroeconomics is also featured. A final section offers some concluding thoughts.
A Model for Pricing Stocks and Bonds

This paper develops a tractable, dynamic, arbitrage-free model capable of jointly pricing a cross section of bonds and stocks. The bond pricing portion of the model produces the standard affine term-structure equations. It is then shown that a particular choice of dividend process, characterized by affine dividend yields, leads to stock prices that are exponential affine in the model's state variables. Importantly, the model allows for quite general interdependence between bond and stock prices. The paper also shows that an alternative modeling strate
Effect of Electro-Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Brain Connectivity in Patients with Crohn’s Disease: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Acupuncture and moxibustion have been shown to be effective in treating Crohn’s disease (CD), but their therapeutic mechanisms remain unclear. Here we compared brain responses to either electro-acupuncture or moxibustion treatment in CD patients experiencing remission. A total of 65 patients were randomly divided into an electro-acupuncture group (n = 32) or a moxibustion group (n = 33), and treated for 12 weeks. Eighteen patients in the electro-acupuncture group and 20 patients in the moxibustion group underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging at baseline and after treatment. Seed-based analysis was used to compare the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between bilateral hippocampus and other brain regions before and after the treatments, as well as between the two groups. The CD activity index (CDAI) and inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire (IBDQ) were used to evaluate disease severity and patient quality of life. Electro-acupuncture and moxibustion both significantly reduced CDAI values and increased IBDQ scores. In the electro-acupuncture group, the rsFC values between bilateral hippocampus and anterior middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and insula were significantly increased, and the changes were negatively correlated with the CDAI scores. In the moxibustion group, the rsFC values between bilateral hippocampus and precuneus as well as inferior parietal lobe (IPC) were significantly elevated, and the changes were negatively correlated with the CDAI scores. We conclude that the therapeutic effects of electro-acupuncture and moxibustion on CD may involve the differently modulating brain homeostatic afferent processing network and default mode network (DMN), respectively.
Detection of type, duration, and intensity of physical activity using an accelerometer.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to develop models for the detection of type, duration, and intensity of human physical activity using one triaxial accelerometer. METHODS Twenty subjects (age = 29 +/- 6 yr, BMI = 23.6 +/- 3.2 kg.m) performed 20 selected activities, including walking, running, and cycling, wearing one triaxial accelerometer mounted on the lower back. Identification of activity type was based on a decision tree. The decision tree evaluated attributes (features) of the acceleration signal. The features were measured in intervals of defined duration (segments). Segment size determined the time resolution of the decision tree to assess activity duration. Decision trees with a time resolution of 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, 3.2, 6.4, and 12.8 s were developed, and the respective classification performances were evaluated. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate speed of walking, running, and cycling based on acceleration features. RESULTS Maximal accuracy for the classification of activity type (93%) was reached when the segment size of analysis was 6.4 or 12.8 s. The smaller the segment size, the lower the classification accuracy achieved. Segments of 6.4 s gave the highest time resolution for measuring activity duration without decreasing the classification accuracy. The developed models estimated walking, running, and cycling speeds with a standard error of 0.20, 1.26, and 1.36 km.h, respectively. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated the ability of a triaxial accelerometer in detecting type, duration, and intensity of physical activity using models based on acceleration features. Future studies are needed to validate the presented models in free-living conditions.
Investigating Inflation Persistence Across Monetary Regimes I: Empirical Evidence

Is inflation persistence a structural feature of the economy? Has the extent of inflation persistence been basically constant, or has it changed over time? What role does the monetary regime play in determining the extent of inflation persistence? This paper uses random-coefficients autoregressive representations with generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity to investigate shifts in inflation persistence over time and across monetary regimes in the US (since 1793) and in the UK (since 1662). Empirical evidence questions the notion that inflation is intrinsically persistent: on the contrary, inflation persistence appears to be a typical feature of the post-commodity standard (i.e., post-1914) world, and especially of the period after 1947, and is instead absent from the data generated by economic systems operating under metallic standards. Both in the US and in the UK, inflation persistence is estimated to have decreased after the beginning of Bretton Woods, and to have increased after mid-1960s. In the US, persistence has markedly decreased after the beginning of the Volcker disinflation, while in the UK it has decreased starting from the beginning of the 1990s, corresponding to the introduction of an inflation targeting regime. Several implications are discussed. It is argued that trying to replicate inflation persistence as an entirely structural feature of a macroeconomic model is potentially flawed, and that both the evaluation of alternative monetary policy frameworks, and the computation of optimal monetary policies based on models with built-in inflation persistence may deliver misleading indications. The finding that the serial correlation of inflation has significantly decreased in recent years is cited as evidence in favor of Taylor’s (1998) and Sargent’s (1999) warning against ‘natural rate recidivism’— that under low inflation persistence policymakers may be attracted to exploit an illusory outputinflation tradeoff.
Inhibition of MuSK Expression by CREB Interacting with a CRE-Like Element and MyoD

ABSTRACT The type I receptor-like protein tyrosine kinase MuSK is essential for the neuromuscular junction formation. MuSK expression is tightly regulated during development, but the underlying mechanisms were unclear. Here we identified a novel mechanism by which MuSK expression may be regulated. A cyclic AMP response element (CRE)-like element in the 5′-flanking region of the MuSK gene binds to CREB1 (CRE-binding protein 1). Mutation of this element increases the MuSK promoter activity, suggesting a role for CREB1 in attenuation of MuSK expression. Interestingly, CREB mutants unable to bind to DNA also inhibit MuSK promoter activity, suggesting a CRE-independent inhibitory mechanism. In agreement, CREB1 could inhibit a mutant MuSK transgene reporter whose CRE site was mutated. We provide evidence that CREB interacts directly with MyoD, a myogenic factor essential for MuSK expression in muscle cells. Suppression of CREB expression by small interfering RNA increases MuSK promoter activity. These results demonstrate an important role for CREB1 in the regulation of MuSK expression.
Do Economies of Scale Exist in Australian Local Government? A Review of the Research Evidence1

The 1990s witnessed a major era of structural reform in Australian local government. Amalgamation programmes in all six states resulted in a substantial decrease in the number of local authorities in Australia. The chief rationale underlying local government mergers lay apparently in the belief that larger municipalities would exhibit greater economic efficiencies. Despite its widespread acceptance amongst policy elites, this argument did not derive from a solid empirical base. This article seeks to evaluate available research evidence on the controversial question of economies of scale in Australian local government.
Circuit implementation of synchronized chaos with applications to communications.

An analog circuit implementation of the chaotic Lorenz system is described and used to demonstrate two possible approaches to private communications based on synchronized chaotic systems. Furthermore, the potential approach to communications applications is based on signal masking and recovery. In signal masking, a noise like masking signal is added at the transmitter to the information-bearing signal m(t) and at the receiver the masking is removed. In our system, the basic idea is to use the received signal to regenerate the masking signal at the receiver and subtract it from the received signal to recover m(t).
Efficacy and cost effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in women with node-negative breast cancer. A decision-analysis model.

BACKGROUND In 1988 the National Cancer Institute issued a Clinical Alert that has been widely interpreted as recommending that all women with node-negative breast cancer receive adjuvant chemotherapy. Acceptance of this recommendation is controversial, since many women who would not have a recurrence would be treated. METHODS Using a decision-analysis model, we studied the cost effectiveness of chemotherapy in cohorts of 45-year-old and 60-year-old women with node-negative breast cancer by calculating life expectancy as adjusted for quality of life. The analysis evaluated different scenarios of the benefit of therapy: improved disease-free survival for five years, with a lesser effect on overall survival (base line); a lifelong benefit from chemotherapy; and a benefit in disease-free survival with no change in overall survival by year 10. The base-line analysis assumed a 30 percent reduction in the relative risk of recurrence for five years after treatment. RESULTS For the 45-year-old woman, the base-line analysis found an average lifetime benefit from chemotherapy of 5.1 quality-months at a cost of $15,400 per quality-year. The 60-year-old women gained 4.0 quality-months at a cost of $18,800 per quality-year. Under the more and less optimistic scenarios, the benefit of chemotherapy varied from 1.4 to 14.0 quality-months for both groups. CONCLUSIONS Chemotherapy substantially increases the quality-adjusted life expectancy of an average woman at a cost comparable to that of other widely accepted therapies. This benefit decreases markedly if the changes in long-term survival are less than in disease-free survival. Given its uncertain duration, the benefit may be too small for many women to choose chemotherapy. Selective use of chemotherapy to maximize the benefit to individual patients may be possible with refinements in risk stratification and explicit assessment of the patients' risk preferences.
The inequality of opportunity to participate in Thailand higher education

The understanding of changes in educational opportunity among different households in Thailand is an undiscovered knowledge. Most of the previous studies usually focus to an enrolment rate, equality of education attendance, educational resources distribution and equality of income distribution. For the first time in Thailand, this study aims to understand and analyse the inequality of participation opportunity in university education. The findings show that the inequality of opportunity to participate in university education is improved over time but do not facilitate for the poorest in the beginning of the student loans policy. During 1998 to 2000, there is no distinct improvement of university attendance among various family income deciles, even though the loans highly expand in terms of borrowers and amounts. But later, during 2001 to 2003, the 40% poorest got higher opportunity to participate in university education and the rest declined. The gains from improving the inequality circumstance become lesser over time, rising from 83.27% of university attendance for all range of income deciles in 1997 to 73.94% in 2003.
Potent inhibition of hepatitis B virus production in vitro by modified pyrimidine nucleosides

2',3'-Dideoxy-3'-fluorothymidine (FddThd), 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'- dideoxythymidine (ddeThd), and 3'-fluoro-5-methyl-deoxycytidine (FddMeCyt) are, in their triphosphate forms, selective inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase. We report that 0.3 microM FddThd, FddMeCyt, or ddeThd as well as 3'-chloro-5-methyl-deoxycytidine (ClddMeCyt) or 3'-amino-5-methyl-deoxycytidine (AddMeCyt) almost completely blocked production of hepatitis B virus (HBV) particles by HBV DNA-transfected cell line 2.2. 15 in vitro. Only at an at least 10-fold-higher concentration was a cytotoxic effect observed. These results indicate that FddThd, FddMeCyt, ClddMeCyt, AddMeCyt, and ddeThd are potent anti-HBV agents in vitro.