Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An MDCK Cell Culture-Derived Formalin-Inactivated Influenza Virus Whole-Virion Vaccine from an Influenza Virus Library Confers Cross-Protective Immunity by Intranasal Administration in Mice

ABSTRACT It is currently impossible to predict the next pandemic influenza virus strain. We have thus established a library of influenza viruses of all hemagglutinin and neuraminidase subtypes and their genes. In this article, we examine the applicability of a rapid production model for the preparation of vaccines against emerging pandemic influenza viruses. This procedure utilizes the influenza virus library, cell culture-based vaccine production, and intranasal administration to induce a cross-protective immune response. First, an influenza virus reassortant from the library, A/duck/Hokkaido/Vac-3/2007 (H5N1), was passaged 22 times (P22) in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. The P22 virus had a titer of >2 ×108 PFU/ml, which was 40 times that of the original strain, with 4 point mutations, which altered amino acids in the deduced protein sequences encoded by the PB2 and PA genes. We then produced a formalin-inactivated whole-virion vaccine from the MDCK cell-cultured A/duck/Hokkaido/Vac-3/2007 (H5N1) P22 virus. Intranasal immunization of mice with this vaccine protected them against challenges with lethal influenza viruses of homologous and heterologous subtypes. We further demonstrated that intranasal immunization with the vaccine induced cross-reactive neutralizing antibody responses against the homotypic H5N1 influenza virus and its antigenic variants and cross-reactive cell-mediated immune responses to the homologous virus, its variants within a subtype, and even an influenza virus of a different subtype. These results indicate that a rapid model for emergency vaccine production may be effective for producing the next generation of pandemic influenza virus vaccines.
Mechanisms of Physical Activity Limitation in Chronic Lung Diseases

In chronic lung diseases physical activity limitation is multifactorial involving respiratory, hemodynamic, and peripheral muscle abnormalities. The mechanisms of limitation discussed in this paper relate to (i) the imbalance between ventilatory capacity and demand, (ii) the imbalance between energy demand and supply to working respiratory and peripheral muscles, and (iii) the factors that induce peripheral muscle dysfunction. In practice, intolerable exertional symptoms (i.e., dyspnea) and/or leg discomfort are the main symptoms that limit physical performance in patients with chronic lung diseases. Furthermore, the reduced capacity for physical work and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle, in an attempt to avoid breathlessness upon physical exertion, cause profound muscle deconditioning which in turn leads to disability and loss of functional independence. Accordingly, physical inactivity is an important component of worsening the patients' quality of life and contributes importantly to poor prognosis. Identifying the factors which prevent a patient with lung disease to easily carry out activities of daily living provides a unique as well as important perspective for the choice of the appropriate therapeutic strategy.
Optimal Placement of a Heat Pump in an Integrated Power and Heat Energy System

With the present trend towards Smart Grids and Smart Energy Systems it is important to look for the opportunities for integrated development between different energy sectors, such as electricity, heating, gas and transportation. This paper investigates the problem of optimal placement of a heat pump – a component that links electric and heating utilities together. The system used to demonstrate the integrated planning approach has two neighboring 10kV feeders and several distribution substations with loads that require central heating from the heat pump. The optimal location is found with the help of mathematical optimization that minimizes investments of both electric and heating utilities, achieving the reduction of the total investment. The optimization is performed in Matlab using built-in Genetic Algorithm function and Matpower software package for calculating power flow equations.
Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study

Communities of color or low socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected by metal exposure given spatial variability of the ambient levels of these contaminants. Despite this, there is little research characterizing metal concentrations in blood among disadvantaged populations in the U.S., especially among pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable and difficult to access. Thus, we conducted a pilot study among disadvantaged pregnant women in Houston, Texas to assess willingness to participate in key activities of an epidemiologic study and characterize exposures to 16 metals. Thirty-one women attending a Medicaid-serving prenatal clinic were included in this pilot study and completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire. We obtained and measured metal compounds in whole blood samples for 22 of these women during third-trimester prenatal visits. Median whole blood concentrations of Ni, As, Cd, and Pb were 27, 1.4, 0.6, and 6.3 µg/L, respectively. Most women were willing to participate in critical aspects of a research study, including wearing a personal air-sampling badge for 2–3 days (87.1%), receiving ultrasounds (83.9%), and providing blood draws (64.5%). Despite the small sample, our results provide evidence of women’s metal exposure and their willingness to participate in future research studies to elucidate exposure pathways and explore related health effects experienced among this population of disadvantaged pregnant women.
Urbanization Is Associated with Divergence in Pace-of-Life in Great Tits

As an extension of the classic life history theory, the recently highlighted pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis predicts the coevolution of behavioural, physiological and life-history traits. For instance, bolder and shyer individuals do not only differ in personality profiles, but also in neuro-endocrinology and breeding patterns. While theory predicts that bolder (i.e. proactive), more aggressive individuals should colonize more rapidly urbanized habitats than shyer (i.e. reactive), less aggressive individuals, it is also predicted that across generations, adaptive selection processes could favour shyer individuals that are more sensitive to novel environmental cues. Here we compared two personality traits (handling aggression, exploration score in a novel environment), one physiological trait related to stress response (breath rate) and four breeding traits (lay date, clutch size, hatching success and fledging success) in a rural and an urban study population of Mediterranean great tits Parus major. Mixed models revealed strong phenotypic divergence between forest and city in most traits explored, in particular in personality, whereby urban great tits were more reactive to stress and faster explorers compared to rural birds (yet not more aggressive). Urban birds also laid smaller broods earlier in spring compared to their rural conspecifics, and city broods resulted in lower hatching success yet interestingly fledging success was similar. Nest-box centered measures of anthropogenic (artificial light, pedestrians and cars) perturbation and resource abundance allowed us to go beyond the classical forest/city comparison by exploring the phenotypic variation across an urbanization gradient. This revealed that high urbanisation in nest-box surroundings was associated overall with earlier breeding and smaller clutches, but also with faster breath rate, although these trends showed strong annual variation. Ongoing rapid urbanization and non-random gene flow between rural and urban great tits could both contribute to the high prevalence of bold breeders in the city. Our study suggests the existence of urban and rural great tit ecotypes with different pace-of-life, but also a finer-scale divergence along the degree of urbanisation within the city. Future studies are required to determine whether this phenotypic variation at different spatiotemporal scales is adaptive and whether it has a genetic basis or results from phenotypic plasticity.
Review article: Lack of effect of opiates in the treatment of acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema

Opiates have traditionally been used as one of the main treatments of acute heart failure and are still recognized as such. Most current textbooks and official guidelines advise the use of morphine as one of the first‐line treatments for patients in acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and a majority of physicians accept it to be the case. The author performed an extensive literature search in order to validate the evidence for the use of opiates in this condition. A total of seven papers, six in English and one in Polish, were found that directly investigated or reported the clinically important outcomes of treatment of acute pulmonary oedema. Only five of these dealt specifically with the effects of administration of opiates in acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema. None of the above publications suggested a clinically significant improvement in outcomes of patients treated with morphine, although early research did suggest reduced anxiety, blood pressure and pulse rate as well as a reduction in arterial oxygen contents. The more recent studies suggest a strong association between increased mortality and morbidity (e.g. intensive care unit admissions or intubation rates), although causality is difficult to establish because of research methodologies. The current evidence does not support the routine use of opiates in the treatment of acute pulmonary oedema.
A Model of Statistics Performance Based on Achievement Goal Theory.

Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a model of statistics performance based on achievement goal theory. Data were collected after the midterm and final examinations in an introductory statistics course, and models were fit at each time point. Learning goals were positively related to the use of deep-processing strategies and to self-efficacy and were negatively related to test anxiety. Performance goals were positively related to disorganization in study strategies and to test anxiety. Both learning and performance goals affected achievement indirectly through study strategies, self-efficacy, and test anxiety. Use of deep-processing strategies was positively related to effort but displayed an unexpected negative relationship to achievement. Disorganization was a positive predictor of test anxiety. Implications of these findings for teaching and learning statistics are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Augmentation of antitumor immunity with bacterial superantigen, staphylococcal enterotoxin B-bound tumor cells.

We have examined the effectiveness of a bacterial superantigen, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB)-coupled tumor cells, to induce antitumor activity. SEB was chemically conjugated to tumor cells using a heterobifunctional cross-linking agent acting through NH2 and SH groups. V beta 8+ T cells were activated and increased in number after the culture with SEB-bound Meth A cells. The cultured T cells exhibited an antitumor activity in the Winn assay. Interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptor alpha + (IL-2R+) V beta 8+ T cells but not IL-2R+ V beta 6+ T cells increased in number in mice injected with SEB-bound Meth A cells. However, the percentages of V beta 8+ and V beta 6+ T cells did not change by this immunization. The antitumor effector cells were V beta 7- 8- CD4+ T cells. In vivo immunization with SEB-bound cells induced a strong antitumor activity, i.e., tumor-free mice/total mice = 14 of 15 (93%) for Meth A and 7 of 15 (47%) for hepatoma MH134. The induced antitumor activity was both dose dependent and tumor specific. Treatment with SEB-bound cells prolonged the survival days of Meth A-bearing mice by 62%. These results suggest that SEB-bound tumor cells may be a powerful method for induction of in vivo antitumor activity.
Extrinsic Incubation Periods for Horizontal and Vertical Transmission of West Nile Virus by Culex pipiens pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract Culex pipiens pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae), infected per os from a membrane feeder, transmitted West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) at 26°C horizontally during feeding to hamsters and suckling mice and vertically to F1 progeny during egg deposition. Horizontal transmission rates increased with extrinsic incubation, with 75–100% of the females transmitting on days 16 through 25 postinfection (pi). No females deposited eggs infected with WNV after the first bloodmeal on 3–8 d pi. Females vertically transmitted WNV during egg laying after their second, third, and fourth bloodmeals on days 13–33 pi. The vertical transmission rate was 4.7%. The vertical minimal infection rate was 0.52 infected F1 specimens/1,000 specimens tested from females feeding during their second and later bloodmeals on hamsters or suckling mice. The sequence of horizontal and vertical transmission is reported. A female may transmit WNV 1) horizontally to a host during feeding and subsequently vertically to her offspring during egg laying, 2) vertically to her offspring during oviposition without prior horizontal transmission to a host, and 3) horizontally to a host without vertically transmitting the virus. These two means of transmission by Cx. p. pipiens contribute to the relatively high minimum infection rates that are reached in late summer and to the survival of virus during winter and initiation of amplification in the spring in the northeastern United States.
Molybdenum-Containing Arsenite Oxidase of the Chemolithoautotrophic Arsenite Oxidizer NT-26

ABSTRACT The chemolithoautotroph NT-26 oxidizes arsenite to arsenate by using a periplasmic arsenite oxidase. Purification and preliminary characterization of the enzyme revealed that it (i) contains two heterologous subunits, AroA (98 kDa) and AroB (14 kDa); (ii) has a native molecular mass of 219 kDa, suggesting an α2β2 configuration; and (iii) contains two molybdenum and 9 or 10 iron atoms per α2β2 unit. The genes that encode the enzyme have been cloned and sequenced. Sequence analyses revealed similarities to the arsenite oxidase of Alcaligenes faecalis, the putative arsenite oxidase of the beta-proteobacterium ULPAs1, and putative proteins of Aeropyrum pernix, Sulfolobus tokodaii, and Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Interestingly, the AroA subunit was found to be similar to the molybdenum-containing subunits of enzymes in the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family, whereas the AroB subunit was found to be similar to the Rieske iron-sulfur proteins of cytochrome bc1 and b6f complexes. The NT-26 arsenite oxidase is probably exported to the periplasm via the Tat secretory pathway, with the AroB leader sequence used for export. Confirmation that NT-26 obtains energy from the oxidation of arsenite was obtained, as an aroA mutant was unable to grow chemolithoautotrophically with arsenite. This mutant could grow heterotrophically in the presence of arsenite; however, the arsenite was not oxidized to arsenate.
Postseismic relocking of the subduction megathrust following the 2007 Pisco, Peru, earthquake

Characterizing the time evolution of slip over different phases of the seismic cycle is crucial to a better understanding of the factors controlling the occurrence of large earthquakes. In this study, we take advantage of interferometric synthetic aperture radar data and 3.5 years of continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements to determine interseismic, coseismic, and postseismic slip distributions in the region of the 2007, Mw 8.0 Pisco, earthquake, Peru, using the same fault geometry and inversion method. Our interseismic model, based on pre‐2007 campaign GPS data, suggests that the 2007 Pisco seismic slip occurred in a region strongly coupled before the earthquake while afterslip occurred in low coupled regions. Large afterslip occurred in the peripheral area of coseismic rupture in agreement with the notion that afterslip is mainly induced by coseismic stress changes. The temporal evolution of the region of maximum afterslip, characterized by a relaxation time of about 2.3 years, is located in the region where the Nazca ridge is subducting, consistent with rate‐strengthening friction promoting aseismic slip. We estimate a return period for the Pisco earthquake of about 230 years with an estimated aseismic slip that might account for about 50% of the slip budget in this region over the 0–50 km seismogenic depth range. A major result of this study is that the main asperity that ruptured during the 2007 Pisco earthquake relocked soon after this event.
Information Sharing in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks: Metadata Management in the MIDAS Dataspace

An approach to information sharing in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) used e.g. in rescue operations, is to store on every node a small amount of metadata describing what information resources exist in the network and where they reside, allowing applications to first search locally for information about suitable resources, and next request relevant information from a node that contains the resource. The characteristics of MANETs in general and sparse, delay-tolerant networks in particular, make the task of maintaining and disseminating metadata across all nodes difficult, particularly in the presence of scarce resources. We have designed and implemented three protocols which use different approaches to metadata dissemination: epidemic one-to-one routing, one-to-many broadcasting that utilises the characteristics of the shared radio medium of wireless networks, and the semantic protocol where a group consisting of e.g. rescue team leaders is given priority in the dissemination process and afterwards serves as multiple starting points for further dissemination. In the MIDAS project we produce middleware that speeds up MANET application development. By prototyping the metadata management component of MIDAS and testing the prototype with each of the three protocols in the network emulator environment NEMAN, we have measured bandwidth usage and performance. The implemented broadcast protocol is measured to use substantially less bandwidth than epidemic routing. The semantic protocol shows that the group indeed gets priority; it is comparable to the broadcast protocol in terms of bandwidth usage. The broadcast protocol has been used successfully in field tests of the middleware.
Equivalence Reliability Among the FITNESSGRAM® Upper-Body Tests of Muscular Strength and Endurance

This study was designed to investigate the equivalence reliability between the suggested FITNESSGRAM® muscular strength and endurance test, the 90° push-up (PSU), and alternate FITNESSGRAM® tests of upper-body strength and endurance (i.e., modified pull-up [MPU], flexed-arm hang [FAH], and pull-up [PU]). Children (N = 383) in Grades 3 to 6 were tested over a period of a week. Equivalence reliability for the PSU–MPU comparison was acceptable for boys across ages 8 to 10 (Percentage Agreement [Pa] = .74 to .78, Modified Kappa [Kq] = .48 to .56), with good agreement among boys age 11 (Pa = .86, Kq = .72). Equivalence reliability for girls was unacceptable across all ages (Pa = .54 to .59, Kq = –.04 to .18). Reliability estimates were also acceptable for boys on the PSU–FAH comparison across all ages (Pa = .72 to .80, Kq = .44 to .60). Similar results were not found for girls. Consistency of classification was not demonstrated between PSU–PU for boys ages 10 and 11 years; however, acceptable to good estimates were found for the girls' PSU–PU comparison (Pa = .72 to .82, Kq = .44 to .64) with the exception of girls age 11 (Pa = .67, Kq = .34). Practitioners must recognize that using alternative FITNESSGRAM® strength and endurance items may result in a different healthy fitness zone classification for children than the recommended test, the PSU.
Demonstration of the transportation of microwave environment over an optical 10 Gbps Ethernet based IP network

A transparent transport of a microwave environment over an optical 10 Gbps Ethernet based IP network is challenged. Microwaves in a target area are digitized, converted into IP/Ethernet packets at a source station, and then transported to the destination station. The source/destination station could be a remote re-broadcasting or wireless access station to extend the coverage, or just an analyzing station to remotely monitor microwave conditions. A Microwave/IP conversion Network Interface (MINI) with an optical 10 Gbps Ethernet interface is newly designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the transparent transport of a microwave environment where the microwave for digital TV broadcasting or unlicensed wireless LAN devices could be received. A remote microwave monitoring system is also designed and demonstrated, where detected digital broadcasting signals or WLAN signals are intermittently transported to an analyzing station together with detected GPS (Global Positioning System) signals. The transported signals are remotely analyzed by a software-based technique, and then the characteristics of the detected signals such; as spectrum, RSSI, SSID, channel number, and so on, are analyzed along with the information of where and when the signals are detected precisely.
DNA Sensing Using Nanocrystalline Surface‐Enhanced Al2O3 Nanopore Sensors

A new solid‐state, Al2O3 nanopore sensor with enhanced surface properties for the real‐time detection and analysis of individual DNA molecules is reported. Nanopore formation using electron‐beam‐based decomposition transforms the local nanostructure and morphology of the pore from an amorphous, stoichiometric structure (O to Al ratio of 1.5) to a heterophase crystalline network, deficient in O (O to Al ratio of ≈0.6). Direct metallization of the pore region is observed during irradiation, thereby permitting the potential fabrication of nanoscale metallic contacts in the pore region with application to nanopore‐based DNA sequencing. Dose‐dependent phase transformations to purely γ and/or α‐phase nanocrystallites are also observed during pore formation, allowing for surface‐charge engineering at the nanopore/fluid interface. DNA transport studies reveal an order‐of‐magnitude reduction in translocation velocities relative to alternate solid‐state architectures, accredited to high surface‐charge density and the nucleation of charged nanocrystalline domains. The unique surface properties of Al2O3 nanopore sensors make them ideal for the detection and analysis of single‐stranded DNA, double‐stranded DNA, RNA secondary structures, and small proteins. These nanoscale sensors may also serve as useful tools in studying the mechanisms driving biological processes including DNA–protein interactions and enzyme activity at the single‐molecule level.
Parental Death and the Adjustment of School-Age Children

Findings on the emotional impact of parental death for dependent children have not been consistent due to serious methodological limitations. The Child Bereavement Study investigated a community-based sample of parentally bereaved children and compared their responses to those from matched non-bereaved controls. Children and their surviving parent were assessed four months, one year, and two years after the death using standardized instrumentation. Most of the difference between the two groups was not obvious until two years after the death. The bereaved showed higher levels of social withdrawal, anxiety, and social problems as well as lower self-esteem and self-efficacy. Although most bereaved children do not show signs of serious emotional/behavioral disturbance, there is a significantly large group of bereaved children who show serious problems at one year (19%) and at two years (21%).