Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Phagosomes Exhibit Altered Calmodulin-Dependent Signal Transduction: Contribution to Inhibition of Phagosome-Lysosome Fusion and Intracellular Survival in Human Macrophages1

Mycobacterium tuberculosis successfully parasitizes macrophages by disrupting the maturation of its phagosome, creating an intracellular compartment with endosomal rather than lysosomal characteristics. We have recently demonstrated that live M. tuberculosis infect human macrophages in the absence of an increase in cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]c), which correlates with inhibition of phagosome-lysosome fusion and intracellular viability. In contrast, killed M. tuberculosis induces an elevation in [Ca2+]c that is coupled to phagosome-lysosome fusion. We tested the hypothesis that defective activation of the Ca2+-dependent effector proteins calmodulin (CaM) and CaM-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) contributes to the intracellular pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Phagosomes containing live M. tuberculosis exhibited decreased levels of CaM and the activated form of CaMKII compared with phagosomes encompassing killed tubercle bacilli. Furthermore, ionophore-induced elevations in [Ca2+]c resulted in recruitment of CaM and activation of CaMKII on phagosomes containing live M. tuberculosis. Specific inhibitors of CaM or CaMKII blocked Ca2+ ionophore-induced phagosomal maturation and enhanced the bacilli’s intracellular viability. These results demonstrate a novel role for CaM and CaMKII in the regulation of phagosome-lysosome fusion and suggest that defective activation of these Ca2+-activated signaling components contributes to the successful parasitism of human macrophages by M. tuberculosis.
Comparison of acuity, contrast sensitivity, and disability glare before and after cataract surgery.

We assessed vision before and after uncomplicated extracapsular cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation in 72 symptomatic patients with acuity equal to or better than 20/80 and no other ocular abnormality. Contrast sensitivity was measured with the Pelli-Robson Letter Chart (Metropia Ltd, Cambridge, England) and disability glare was measured under daytime conditions with the Brightness Acuity Tester (Mentor O&O Inc, Norwell, Mass) and under nighttime conditions with a computer-controlled video display. Prior to surgery there was significant disability glare that was not correlated with acuity. There was also a loss in contrast sensitivity that was moderately correlated with acuity (r = -.43; P < .001). Following surgery, most patients' scores returned to normal on all tests. Improvement in disability glare and contrast sensitivity was independent of improvement in acuity. Furthermore, patients with the poorest preoperative vision were as likely to regain normal function after surgery as those with the best preoperative vision.
Stability Studies on Continuous-Wave Broadband Generated in an Erbium-Doped Fiber Ring Laser Using Highly Nonlinear Fiber

Continuous-wave (CW) broadband in the C- and L-band wavelength regions is demonstrated by introducing a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser (EDFRL). A broadband spectrum of ~ 39 nm in the L-band and ~ 21 nm in the C-band were obtained at pump powers as low as ~ 200 mW with appropriate optimizations. Demultiplexed output from the broadband generated in the C-band region is tested for wavelength and power stability for consideration as a suitable source for various applications. The wavelength and power fluctuations have been observed to be at most ~ 0.02 nm and ~ 0.3 dBm, respectively.
A risk-based approach for pricing American options under a generalized Markov regime-switching model

This paper considers a risk-based approach for pricing an American contingent claim in an incomplete market described by a continuous-time, Markov, regime-switching jump-diffusion model. We formulate the valuation problem as a stochastic differential game and use dynamic programming. Verification theorems for the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman–Issacs (HJBI) variational inequalities of the games are used to determine the seller's and buyer's prices and optimal exercise strategies.
Women Tend to Have the Ascending Aorta Involvement and the Rupture in Acute Aortic Dissection

Objective: Acute Aortic Dissection (AAD) is a highly lethal cardiovascular emergency. The ratio of female hasincreased in the ageing generation and gender-related differences in AAD might provide clinical implications on the management of AAD. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate current status of female patients with AAD. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 235 consecutive AAD patients and divided all patients with AAD into two groups (109 male patients and 126 female patients) and compared their clinical features. Mean age of all patients was 72.3 ± 12.0 years. Results: Women were older at initial diagnosis than men (mean ± SD age, 74.8 ± 10.6 years vs 69.4 ± 12.8 years; P=0.0005). The prevalence of type A was higher in female (65.9%) than in male (47.7%, P=0.005). Pericardial effusion (P=0.002), cardiac tamponade (P=0.001) and aortic rupture (P=0.04) were more common in women than in men. The involvement of the ascending aorta and the aortic rupture occurred more frequently in female patients with AAD than in male patients with AAD, and the number of female patients with AAD was not less than male. Conclusion: We could suggest that ascending aorta was pathologically more fragile in aged women than in men.
Risk-Averse Taxpayers and the Allocation of Tax Enforcement Effort: Law Enforcement or Leviathan? Some Empirical Evidence

Agencies charged with collecting taxes and enforcing the tax code generally use information provided by taxpayers to decide whether to subject individual returns to a variety of review procedures. One consequence of such conditional screening is the creation of incentives for strategic income reporting by individuals who wish to avoid the inconvenience and penalties associated with audits. Because taxpayers differ with respect to risk aversion, individuals in identical fiscal circumstances tend to report different income levels and pay different taxes. In turn, a tax agency may allocate its enforcement effort in a manner that systematically takes account of differences in taxpayer risk aversion. Three models are developed and tested in this article. Empirical evidence suggests that risk aversion affects both taxpayer behavior and the allocation of audit efforts by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States, although not in the manner predicted by the Leviathan model.
The Delaware Courts, Poison Pills, and Shareholder Wealth

The State of Delaware has sought and achieved national prominence in the competition for corporate charters. The remarkable success of Delaware's legal system in this competition is evident in the fact that over 50 percent of the firms listed on the New York and American stock exchanges are incorporated in the state despite it not being the center of their economic activity. Romano (1985; 1987a) argues that the key factors explaining Delaware's major share of reincorporations are its highly responsive state code and comprehensive body of case law deriving from its first-mover advantage. Further, Romano and, separately, Macey and Miller posit that the specificity of Delaware's legal system and its agents, together with the large amount of revenue it stands to lose, ensure that Delaware can offer a credible promise, not easily imitated by competitors, that its legal characteristics will be maintained. These factors predict that Delaware law and courts will exhibit judicial consistency and predictability, thus lowering the legal costs of complex business transactions and thereby attracting corporate charters (see also Herzel and Richman). The consistency of rulings and adherence to precedent in Delaware reduce
Doppler Assessment of Uterine Blood Flow in Pre-eclampsia: A Review

Doppler ultrasonography plays an ever-increasing role in obstetric imaging. Although commonly purported to assess blood flow, most studies in this area report purely on velocimetric parameters, rather than true volumetric flow. This review article highlights the physiological importance of this distinction, and reports on a literature review of uterine artery Doppler interrogation in the context of pre-eclampsia, which identified only four original research papers that attempted to assess blood flow. Attention is needed for true volumetric flow assessment in pre-eclampsia research, which may permit a more complete conceptualisation of the pathogenesis and haemodynamic consequences of this condition.
Randomized Trial of Low-Volume PEG Solution Versus Standard PEG + Electrolytes for Bowel Cleansing Before Colonoscopy

OBJECTIVES:Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based gut lavage solutions are safe and effective, but require consumption of large volumes of fluid. We compared a new 2 L solution of PEG plus ascorbic acid (PEG + Asc) with standard 4 L PEG with electrolytes (PEG + E) for bowel cleansing before colonoscopy to determine efficacy, safety, and patient acceptability.METHODS:Consenting adult inpatients scheduled to undergo colonoscopy were randomized to receive either 2 L PEG + Asc or 4 L PEG + E. Preparations were taken as split doses the evening before colonoscopy and the following morning. The PEG + Asc group took 1 L at each administration (i.e., total dose of 2 L). The PEG + E group took 2 L at each administration (i.e., total dose of 4 L). Bowel cleansing success was assessed via videotapes by independent, blinded raters. Statistical noninferiority was predefined as a difference of <15% in the lower limit of the 97.5% confidence interval for treatment difference. Patient views on the preparations were elicited. Adverse events were noted.RESULTS:Successful gut cleansing was achieved in 136 of 153 (88.9%) cases of the PEG + Asc group and 147 of 155 (94.8%) cases of the 4 L PEG + E group (mean difference –5.9 [–12.0–∞]). The difference fell within the predefined limit for noninferiority. Clinical and laboratory parameters showed no difference in safety profile. Patient ratings of acceptability and taste were better for the PEG + Asc group than for the PEG + E group (P < 0.025). CONCLUSIONS:The combination of ascorbic acid and PEG-based bowel preparation reduces the volume patients have to drink without compromising efficacy or safety. The low-volume PEG + Asc preparation was more acceptable to patients, and should, therefore, improve effectiveness in routine practice.
Critical Survey of Hierarchical Methods for State Estimation of Electric Power Systems

This paper intends to give a unified survey of methods appropriate for solving the state estimation problem in large-scale electric power systems. After a first overview of the various approaches proposed up to now, the most suitable among them are described, examined and compared. The comparisons are carried out on the basis of selected criteria evolving estimation properties of the resulting algorithms, along with their organization possibilities and their capabilities of handling some important satellite functions.
The Life History of Pyrroloquinoline Quinone (PQQ): A Versatile Molecule with Novel Impacts on Living Systems

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) acting as redox cofactor of Glucose dehydrogenase is orthocyclic antioxidant acting under multifarious environmental stress and rich conditions in prokaryotes as well as eukaryotes. Microbes are the exclusive source of PQQ biosynthesis and for biocatalysis of glucose into gluconic acid and 2-ketogluconic acid by gram positive and negative bacteria. This study focus to describe PQQ biography (1979-2016) highlighted its applications acts as biocatalyst by enhanced production of NADH from pqqC, involved in several important mechanisms like bacterial energy transduction by m-ATPase, production of biocontrol substances, growth stimulating activities and DNA repair. PQQ acting as anti-neurological, anti-degenerative, anti-melanogenic and anti-cancer agent due to its antioxidant nature by scavenging free radicals. PQQ is modulator of immunity by CD4 cells count and IL-2, sleep maintenance by PGC-1 alpha pathway and inflammation due to ROS. The mineral phosphate solubilization results in plant growth promotional, biocontrol, antifungal and ISR activities. PQQ nanoparticles used for production of Biofuels cells and sulfonated polymers. It acts as a modulator of diverse signaling pathways like STAT, MAPK, JAK, JNK, P13K/Akt, mTOR, EGFR and Raps for cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, Box translocation and metabolic pathways by phosphorylation of ADP and suppression of reactive oxygen species. It protects from oxidative stress by acting as Alpha AA modulator of lysine metabolism, TrxR1 in selenium metabolism, low density lipoprotein in lipid metabolism, ATP production in Energy, Glucose and carbohydrate metabolism. It has been structurally characterized with bioinformatics tools and future perspectives being molecular modeling and docking for analytical drug design.
Financial market complexity

Financial markets are a fascinating example of 'complexity in action': a real-world complex system whose evolution is dictated by the decisions of crowds of traders who are continually trying to win in a vast global 'game'. This book draws on recent ideas from the highly-topical science of complexity and complex systems, to address the following questions: how do financial markets behave? Why do financial markets behave in the way that they do? What can we do to minimize risk, given this behavior? Standard finance theory is built around several seemingly innocuous assumptions about market dynamics. This book shows how these assumptions can give misleading answers to crucially important practical problems such as minimizing financial risk, coping with extreme events such as crashes or drawdowns, and pricing derivatives. After discussing the background to the concept of complexity and the structure of financial markets in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 examines the assumptions upon which standard finance theory is built. Reality sets in whith Chapter 3, where data from two seemingly different markets are analyzed and certain universal features uncovered which cannot be explained within standard finance theory. Chapters 4 and 5 mark a significant departure from the philosophy of standard finance theory, being concerned with exploring microscopic models of markets which are faithful to real market microstructure yet, which also reproduce real-world features. Chapter 6 moves to the practical problem of how to quantify and hedge risk in real world markets. Chapter 7 discusses deterministic descriptions of market dynamics, incorporating the topics of chaos and the all-important phenomenon of market crashes.
The Newer Economics and the Control of Economic Activity

A REVIEW of a textbook in economics widely praised, adopted, and proclaimed a success must be something of a comment on the state and the problems of this branch of education. A review of a book dealing with economics especially from the standpoint of control' will carry some implications regarding that topic. It is significant, too, that the subjects of education and social control are very closely related. Education is itself one of the most important fields in which control is attempted, and results in that field must indicate a good deal as to the conditions of success in others; and, at the same time, education is one of the most important methods by which control is likely to be exercised in any connection. The fundamental interest underlying the following paper is in the problem of treating economics from the standpoint of control, with education in economics secondary, and with the book which occasions the paper as a starting point for the discussion of the more general issues. One of the most important phases of these general issues is illustrated by the first detail of the specific task of reviewing a book, namely, that it is practically impossible to discuss either
The labour dispute arbitration system in China

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse the characteristics, development and implementation of the Chinese labour arbitration system and its role in settling labour disputes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses official statistics and the arbitral cases published on the web sites of government labour and social security departments.Findings – The paper finds that labour arbitration has become the most important mechanism for settling labour disputes in China since the middle 1990s. This trend indicates the fading of traditional political and administrative means due to the decreasing influence of governmental labour administration and the subordinate status of trade unions, and the emergence of the rule of law in setting labour terms. The effectiveness and fairness of labour arbitration is to a certain extent constrained by its limitations and workers' weak position in employment relations that prohibit it from fully upholding the Labour Law.Research limitations – The paper shows that.
Mechanisms underlying the hemolytic and ichthyotoxic activities of maitotoxin.

Maitotoxin (MTX), a putative Ca(2+) channel activator produced by the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus showed extremely potent hemolytic and ichthyotoxic activities. Hemolysis of 1% mouse blood cell suspension in saline occurred at 15 nM of MTX. The activity was enhanced six-fold in the presence of 10 microM of Ca(2+) and completely blocked by EDTA2Na, indicating its dependency on external Ca(2+). The MTX-induced hemolysis was little affected by L-type Ca(2+) channel blockers (diltiazem, nifedipine, verapamil) but was strongly inhibited by calmodulin blockers (prenylamine and chlorpromazine) or a phospholipase A2 inhibitor (quinacrine). MTX was mimicked by a calcium ionophore, calcimycin. Based on these results, a series of cellular events triggered by MTX were presumed to occur in the following sequence: increased Ca(2+) entry in cells, activation of calmodulin, promotion of phospholipase A2 activity, and finally destruction of cell membrane resulting from hydrolysis of membrane lipids. The sensitivity of blood cells to MTX varied significantly, dependent on the animal sources. Nucleated blood cells of carps and chickens were 100 times more resistant than those of mammals. LC(50) of MTX to freshwater fish Tanichthys albonubes in Ca(2+) free media (pH 8) was 5 nM but was markedly lowered to 3 pM by raising pH to 8 and increasing Ca(2+) concentration to 2 mM. In a marine environment MTX was 2000 times more toxic to fish than 42-di-hydrobrevetoxin-B (PbTx-3), one of the best known ichthyotoxins of red-tide origins.
SoK: The Problem Landscape of SIDH

The Supersingular Isogeny Diffie-Hellman protocol (SIDH) has recently been the subject of increased attention in the cryptography community. Conjecturally quantum-resistant, SIDH has the feature that it shares the same data flow as ordinary Diffie-Hellman: two parties exchange a pair of public keys, each generated from a private key, and combine them to form a shared secret. To create a potentially quantum-resistant scheme, SIDH depends on a new family of computational assumptions involving isogenies between supersingular elliptic curves which replace both the discrete logarithm problem and the computational and decisional Diffie-Hellman problems. As in the case of ordinary Diffie-Hellman, one is interested in knowing if these problems are related. In fact, more is true: there is a rich network of reductions between the isogeny problems securing the private keys of the participants in the SIDH protocol, the computational and decisional SIDH problems, and the problem of validating SIDH public keys. In this article we explain these relationships, which do not appear elsewhere in the literature, in hopes of providing a clearer picture of the SIDH problem landscape to the cryptography community at large.
Super-Exponential Endogenous Bubbles in an Equilibrium Model of Fundamentalist and Chartist Traders

We introduce a model of super-exponential financial bubbles with two assets (risky and risk-free), in which fundamentalist and chartist traders co-exist. Fundamentalists form expectations on the return and risk of a risky asset and maximize their constant relative risk aversion expected utility with respect to their allocation on the risky asset versus the risk-free asset. Chartists are subjected to social imitation and follow momentum trading. Allowing for random time-varying herding propensity, we are able to reproduce several well-known stylized facts of financial markets such as a fat-tail distribution of returns and volatility clustering. In particular, we observe transient faster-than-exponential bubble growth with approximate log-periodic behavior and give analytical arguments why this follows from our framework. The model accounts well for the behavior of traders and for the price dynamics that developed during the dotcom bubble in 1995-2000. Momentum strategies are shown to be transiently profitable, supporting these strategies as enhancing herding behavior.
DETERMINANTS OF CREDIT UNION SAVINGS IN GHANA

The study explores the determinants of credit union (CU) savings in Ghana and finds that credit risk, assets (size) and female membership are significant determinants of CU savings. Whereas a rise in CU credit risk increases CU savings, a rise in female membership as well as CU assets is characterised by a fall in CU savings. The study, therefore, argues that CUs in Ghana could maximise their savings if they target their savings- mobilisation campaigns at income-earning men with higher marginal propensity to save coupled with the adoption of an effective and efficient asset management policy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Combined Immunotherapy Against Cancer: Limited Efficacy of Transcutaneous Immunization and Low-dose Cyclophosphamide

Transcutaneous immunization (TCI) is a novel vaccination strategy with a promising potential for combating tumors or persistent infectious diseases. However, imiquimod-based TCI, we have previously developed, shows only limited effectiveness in terms of tumor protection, partly due to suppression by regulatory T (Treg) cells. To improve the vaccination potency we combined TCI with the cytotoxic drug cyclophosphamide (Cy) that is used for the treatment of tumors and described to mediate inactivation of Treg cells at low doses. Cy only slightly reduced Treg cell numbers in a concentration dependent manner under the chosen conditions, but also enhanced DC activation. Therefore, we used Cy-TCI in a therapeutic tumor assay where E.G7 lymphomas were subcutaneously transplanted and allowed to grow until palpable before the treatments started. Interestingly, the rates of tumor protection in TCI or Cy-TCI treated groups were identical. Towards the underlying mechanisms of the failure of Cy-TCI to provide enhanced tumor protection, we observed increased numbers of monocytic and granulocytic immature myeloid cells after Cy-TCI, partly suppressing TCI-induced immune responses. Taken together, we suggest that Cy-TCI induces inhibitory mechanisms counterregulating TCI enhancing effects, therefore suppressing vaccination-induced immune responses.