Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary stasis of an RNA virus indicates arbovirus re-emergence triggered by accidental release

The mechanisms underlying virus emergence are rarely well understood, making the appearance of outbreaks largely unpredictable. Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8), an insect-borne virus of ruminants, emerged in livestock in Northern Europe in 2006, spreading to most European countries by 2009 and causing losses of billions of Euros. Though the outbreak was successfully controlled through vaccination by early 2010, puzzlingly a closely-related BTV-8 strain re-emerged in France in 2015, triggering a second outbreak that is still ongoing. The origin of this virus and the mechanisms underlying its re-emergence are unknown. Here, we performed phylogenetic analyses of 164 whole BTV-8 genomes sampled throughout the two outbreaks. We demonstrate consistent clock-like virus evolution during both epizootics but found negligible evolutionary change between them. We estimate that the ancestor of the second outbreak dates from the height of the first outbreak in 2008. This implies that the virus had not been replicating for multiple years prior to its re-emergence in 2015. Given the absence of any known natural mechanism that could explain BTV-8 persistence over this period without replication, we conclude that the second outbreak was most likely initiated by accidental exposure of livestock to frozen material contaminated with virus from approximately 2008. Our work highlights new targets for pathogen surveillance programmes in livestock and illustrates the power of genomic epidemiology to identify pathways of infectious disease emergence.
ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIAL AGENT CAUSING KERATITIS, ANTIBIOTIC SENSITIVITY TESTING

ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIAL AGENT CAUSING KERATITIS, ANTIBIOTIC SENSITIVITY TESTING Venkatalaxmi Rajamanickam *1, Aruna Sunder 2, C Prathiba 3. *1 Assistant Professor in Microbiology, Dr. Patnam Mahender Reddy Institute of Medical sciences and hospital, Chevella, Rangareddy, Telangana, India. 2 Retd. Professor in Microbiology, Osmania medical college, Koti, Hyderabad, Telangana. 3 Associate professor in Microbiology, Gandhi Medical College, Secundrabad, Telangana.
'Some like it alien': predation on invasive ring–necked parakeets by the long–eared owl in an urban area

Predation pressure by native species may limit the spread of alien invasive species, thus playing a pivotal role in the impact and implementation of management strategies. The ring–necked parakeet Psittacula krameri is one of the most widespread alien bird species in Europe, with nearly 70 established populations. Predators of this species include diurnal raptors, synanthropic corvids, and rodents. Here we report for the first time that long–eared owls Asio otus might have preyed upon parakeets in their night roosts. Analysis of 167 owl pellets showed that ring–necked parakeets made up over 10 % of the total volume of the diet of these owls in winter (32.93 % of absolute frequency), representing the most important prey species after murid rodents and passerine birds. Further studies are needed to investigate whether parakeet consumption by long–eared owls is only a local occurrence or whether it is widespread in European cities. If so, predation by long–eared owl may eventually lead to a form of parakeet control and may limit the impact of this introduced parakeet on native biodiversity.
Young Adults in the Workplace: A Multisite Initiative of Substance Use Prevention Programs. RTI Press Book.

document when you quote from it. You must not sell the document or make a profit from reproducing it. assisted in the writing of the book. The views, policies, and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAMHSA or HHS. Introduction Cross-site evaluations have become a common methodology to provide the best evidence possible from studies examining complex social phenomena. Cross-site evaluations are designed to compare program characteristics across multiple venues, to use common data across sites, and to identify the relative effectiveness of programs and program characteristics (Sambrano et al. Unlike clinical trials, which test programs under ideal settings, cross-site (or multisite) evaluations often test the impact of different programmatic and design elements as they are implemented in real-world settings. Government agencies are increasingly turning to cross-site evaluations of the programs they sponsor to ensure accountability of the individuals and organizations they fund, to inform policy decisions, and to gain an understanding of how government-funded programs affect targeted populations. This chapter provides an overview of the design and methods of the Young Adults in the Workplace (YIW) cross-site evaluation. By assessing program content and implementation processes, identifying diversity in the YIW interventions and populations, and using this diversity to examine the workplace and programmatic characteristics that mediate and moderate the effectiveness of various intervention components and strategies, the cross-site evaluation will provide the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with knowledge to meet the objectives of the YIW initiative. The YIW initiative includes several interrelated components that enable SAMHSA to integrate data across funded programs, allowing the agency to examine program effectiveness at the program and cross-site levels and to use expert knowledge to strengthen each component to best inform public policy at the national level. Chapter 1 provides a detailed description of the YIW initiative; here we provide a brief overview that establishes the framework for the cross-site evaluation. As depicted in Figure 8.1, the YIW cross-site components include technical assistance to the grantees to strengthen program implementation and grantee-level evaluations, cross-site data collection to support a cross-site evaluation, consultation and knowledge exchange workshops to provide expert input at all levels of the evaluation, and knowledge dissemination to ensure the transfer of information from service to science. The cross-site data collection initiative is informed by SAMHSA's national outcome measures (NOMs), a set of outcome measures that SAMHSA discretionary grant …
Predictive Operational Strategies for Smart Microgrid Networks

There have been significant advances in communication technologies over the last decade, such as cellular networks, Wi-Fi, and optical communication. Not only does the technology impact peoples’ everyday lives, but it also helps cities prepare for power outages by collecting and exchanging data that facilitates real-time status monitoring of transmission and distribution lines. Smart grids, contrary to the traditional utility grids, allow bi-directional flow of electricity and information, such as grid status and customer requirements, among different parties in the grid. Thus, smart grids reduce the power losses and increase the efficiency of electricity generation and distribution, as they allow for the exchange of information between subsystems. However, smart grids is not resilient under extreme conditions, particularly when the utility grid is unavailable. With the increasing penetration of the renewable energy sources (RES) in smart grids, the uncertainty of the generated power from the distributed generators (DGs) has brought new challenges to smart grids in general and smart microgrids in particular. The rapid change of the weather conditions can directly affect the amount of the generated power from RES such as wind turbine and solar panels, and thus degrading the reliability and resiliency of the smart microgrids. Therefore, new strategies and technologies to improve power reliability, sustainability, and resiliency have emerged. To this end, in this thesis, we propose a novel framework to improve the smart microgrids reliability and resiliency under severe conditions. We study the transition to the grid-connected operational mode in smart microgrids, in the absence of the utility grid, as an example of emergency case that requires fast and accurate response. We perform a comparative study to accurately predict upcoming gridconnected events using machine learning techniques. We show that decision tree models achieve the best average prediction performance. The packets that carry the occurrence time of the next grid-connected transition are considered urgent packets. Hence, we perform an extensive study of a smart data aggregation approach that considers the priority of the data. The received smart microgrids data is clustered based on the delay-sensitivity into three groups using k-means algorithm. Our delay-aware technique successfully reduces the queuing delay by 93% for the packets of delay-sensitive (urgent) messages and the Packet Loss Rate (PLR) by 7% when compared to the benchmark where no aggregation mechanism exists prior to the small-cell base stations. As a mitigation action of the utility grid unavailability, we use the electrical vehicles (EVs) batteries as mobile storage units to cover smart microgrids power needs until the utility grid recovery. We formulate a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model to find the best set of electrical vehicles with the objective of minimum cost. The EVs participating in the emergency power supply process are selected based on the distance and throughput performance between the base station and the EVs.
An Empirical Study of Revenue Generation and Competitive Balance Relationship in European Football

Distribution of income has been an important area of research in both economics and sports economics literature. However, the sports economics literature regarding European football lacks empirical studies associated with the relationship between revenue generation and competitive balance. This study analyzes the revenue sharing structure in Europe’s top 5 football leagues along with its effects on competitive balance. Trends in the distribution of revenue are illustrated with the help of Lorenz curves and the coefficient of variations of revenue shares. There is significant evidence that there have been severe distortions in the distribution of revenue in European football, and it has been influential in the competition. The revenue shares of the top 5 leagues’ have changed substantially over the last two decades which led to the utter dominance of European football by few clubs. The increasing inequality, in revenue generation and sharing, has affected the competitive balance adversely. The rising financial domination of the giants in European football is widening the gap between them and the lower profile teams hence decreasing the uncertainty of games, which might have adverse effects on the demand for football.
Optimal Portfolios under Time-Varying Investment Opportunities, Parameter Uncertainty and Ambiguity Aversion

We study the implications of predictability on the optimal asset allocation of ambiguity averse long-term investors. We analyze the term structure of the multivariate risk-return trade-off in a VAR model under full consideration of parameter uncertainty, and we decompose the predictive covariance along different sources of risk/uncertainty. We calibrate the model to real returns of US stocks, US long-term government bonds, cash, real-estate and gold using term spread and dividend yields as additional predictive variables. While over short periods the model-implied conditional covariance structure of asset-class returns determines the optimal allocation, we find that over longer horizons the optimal asset allocation is significantly influenced by the covariance structure induced by estimation errors. As a consequence, the ambiguity averse long-term investor tilts her portfolio not simply toward the global minimum-variance portfolio but shrinks portfolio weights toward a seemingly inefficient portfolio which shows maximum robustness against estimation errors. Most interestingly, we find that even though time diversification of stock returns vanishes after consideration of estimation errors, real long-term bond returns are even more affected, making stocks an important asset class for the ambiguity averse long-term investor.
The Assessment Scale for Creative Collaboration (ASCC) Validation and Reliability Study

ABSTRACT Creativity, a primary academic objective, is crucial in higher education, as economic, informational, societal and environmental advancements rely on people’s ability to innovate. Creativity is widely investigated in its individualistic form, yet there is a notable dearth in work that studies its collective dimension, from a learning perspective. This study focuses on validating the psychometric properties of an existing instrument (ASCC), by measuring creative collaboration in blended learning settings. Two hundred and thirty-six under and post-graduate students self-evaluated their creative collaboration experiences, using the ASCC instrument. The findings of exploratory factor analysis denote a three-factor (21-item) structure, measuring ‘Synergistic Social Collaboration’, ‘Distributed Creativity’, and ‘Time Regulation and Achievement’, with good internal consistency. An instrument with valid psychometric properties for the assessment of creative collaboration is much-needed in the growing research and practitioners’ community. This is critical in the fields of Design, HCI, and Engineering, which rely extensively on the creative collaboration (online and offline) of teams to develop innovative products that are suitable for real-world purposes.
Offset Channels May Not Accurately Record Strike‐Slip Fault Displacement: Evidence From Landscape Evolution Models

Slip distribution, slip rate, and slip per event for strike‐slip faults are commonly determined by correlating offset stream channels—under the assumption that they record seismic slip—but offset channels are formed by the interplay of tectonic and geomorphic processes. To constrain offset channel development under known tectonic and geomorphic conditions, we use numerical landscape evolution simulations along a theoretical strike‐slip fault with uniform and steady uplift, erosion, and diffusion. We investigate the influence of four tectonic parameters (fault zone width, earthquake recurrence interval, variance of the recurrence interval, and total slip relative to channel spacing) on offset channel development through multiple earthquake cycles. Analysis of >3,000 automatically measured offsets from >135 simulations suggests ~30% variability in individual measurements, but modeled displacement is recovered by averaging multiple measurements. However, the average of multiple offset measurements systematically underestimates modeled slip except when the fault zone is less than ~5 m wide, total slip is less than channel spacing, and offsets are measured shortly after an earthquake. In these simulations, postearthquake landscape evolution widens the geomorphic expression of the fault zone and modifies apparent channel offsets. We distinguish this “geomorphic fault zone” from the tectonic fault zone (zone of coseismic distributed deformation). This study highlights the capability of landscape evolution models to explore a range of conditions not easily defined in natural examples and the importance of averaging multiple measurements. Our results verify that paleoseismic studies must consider how geomorphic change has modified offset markers and use caution interpreting slip histories with multiple earthquakes.
Adolescents: orphaned and vulnerable in the time of HIV and AIDS.

Adolescents who are orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS are a large and growing population with unmet needs. More than half of all orphans are adolescents ages 12 to 17. Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys show that the prevalence of orphanhood increases with the age of youth. Orphaned children in general have less access to education and health care have more indicators of psychosocial distress and face greater degrees of child neglect abandonment and abuse when compared to non-orphans. Adding to these disadvantages orphaned adolescents often lose one of the key protective factors associated with positive outcomes related to sexual behaviors alcohol and tobacco use and violence: being connected to parents or other family members. Without this protective factor adolescent orphans become more vulnerable to many risks including HIV infection other sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy. Adolescent orphans have different needs than children and require different kinds of assistance. Of particular importance are secondary education livelihood training sexual and reproductive health education and services psychosocial and social support for the difficult transition to independence and adulthood and adult mentors as role models. Young people themselves working with adults can provide a useful resource in addressing many of these needs. (excerpt)
Application of TRMM Precipitation Data to Evaluate Drought and Its Effects on Water Resources Instability

The present research was carried out to study drought and its effects upon water resources using remote sensing data. To this end, the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) satellite precipitation, the synoptic stations, and fountain discharge data were employed. For monitoring of drought in the study area, in Kermanshah province, Iran, the monthly precipitation data of the synoptic stations along with TRMM satellite precipitation datasets were collected and processed in the geographic information system (GIS) environment. Statistical indicators were applied to evaluate the accuracy of TRMM precipitation against the meteorological stations’ data. Standardized precipitation index, SPI, and normalized fountain discharge were used in the monitoring of drought conditions, and fountains discharge, respectively. The fountains were selected so that in addition to enjoying the most discharge rates, they spread along the study area. The evaluation of precipitation data showed that the TRMM precipitation data were of high accuracy. Studies in temporal scale are indicative of the strike of drought in this region to the effect that for most months of the year, frequency and duration in dry periods are much more than in wet periods. As for seasonal scales, apart from winter, the frequency and duration of drought in spring and autumn have been longer than in wet years. Moreover, the duration of these periods was different. A comparison between the results of changes in fountain discharges and drought index in the region has verified that the drought has caused a remarkable decline in the fountain discharges.
Artificial Selection Finds New Hypotheses for the Mechanism of Wolbachia-Mediated Dengue Blocking in Mosquitoes

Wolbachia is an intracellular bacterium that blocks virus replication in insects and has been introduced into the mosquito, Aedes aegypti for the biocontrol of arboviruses including dengue, Zika and chikungunya. Despite ongoing research, the mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated virus blocking remains unclear. We recently used experimental evolution to reveal that Wolbachia-mediated dengue blocking could be selected upon in the A. aegypti host and showed evidence that strong levels of blocking could be maintained by natural selection. In this study, we investigate the genetic variation associated with blocking and use these analyses to generate testable hypotheses surrounding the mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated dengue blocking. From our results, we hypothesise that Wolbachia may block virus replication by increasing the regeneration rate of mosquito cells via the Notch signalling pathway. We also propose that Wolbachia modulates the host’s transcriptional pausing pathway either to prime the host’s anti-viral response or to directly inhibit viral replication.
Alginate/PVA-based hydrogel matrices with Echinacea purpurea extract as a new approach to dermal wound healing

Abstract Sodium alginate/poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels containing Echinacea purpurea extract (0–20%) with antioxidant activity (73.2 ± 2.4% inhibition, 2.54 ± 0.096 TEAC) were developed using UV radiation. The swelling ability increases with increased extract contents and it reaches about 300%, which is related to the porosity. The presence of 20% of extract directly impacted the morphology, which became more porous. The degradation tests indicate no significant differences in pH and conductivity. However, the gradual increase of conductivity exhibits the expected rate of material degradation over time. In the case of hydrogels containing 5% and 15% of extract, the analyzed echinacoside was being released during 6 days. Graphical Abstract
Evaluative potentials of impact of urticaria and angio-oedema on patients’ quality of life

Chronic urticaria (CU) and chronic angio-oedema are common skin disorders and have a profound impact on the quality of life (QoL). The aim of the treatment of CU is, above all, the improvement of QoL. During recent years we can observe strong growth of interest in research associated with QoL in chronic diseases, but only a few articles are available about the impact of chronic urticaria on the quality of life of patients. The available studies show that patients with chronic urticaria have significantly greater quality of life impairment than patients with respiratory allergy, comparable to patients with coronary artery diseases. In this review definitions and measurement methods of QoL are introduced. Disease-specific, dermatology-specific, general health and utility measure questionnaires are described. The paper summarizes the available medical articles in which CU impact of QoL are described.
Paramertic Optimization of in µ-Edm Using Anova Technique for Semi Circular Feature Generation

Development of semi circular Feature and optimization of its process parameters is carried out in this paper. In the research work, Energy, RPM and Feed were taken as input parameters. The response parameters were selected as Material removal rate and Taper. From the main effect plot and S/N ratio graphs, it can be seen that energy and tool rotation are most significant parameter that affect taper. Energy is the only significant parameter that affects machining time. These results have been validated by ANOVA. The optimal combination of input parameters comes out be as energy as 2645μ joules, Tool rotation as 600 rpm and feed rate as 1mm/m. This combination gave the value of material removal rate and taper as 0.0690088 mm3/m and 1.63024° respectively.