Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunopathology and Cytokine Responses in Broiler Chickens Coinfected with Eimeria maxima and Clostridium perfringens with the Use of an Animal Model of Necrotic Enteritis

Abstract The incidence of necrotic enteritis (NE) due to Clostridium perfringens (CP) infection in commercial poultry has been increasing at an alarming rate. Although pre-exposure of chickens to coccidia infections is believed to be one of the major risk factors leading to NE, the underlying mechanisms of CP virulence remain undefined. The objectives of this study were to utilize an experimental model of NE produced by Eimeria maxima (EM) and CP coinfection to investigate the pathologic and immunologic parameters of the disease. Broilers coinfected with EM plus CP exhibited more severe gut pathology compared with animals given EM or CP alone. Additionally, EM/CP coinfection increased the numbers of intestinal CP bacteria compared with chickens exposed to an identical challenge of CP alone. Coinfection with EM and CP repressed nitric oxide synthase gene expression that was induced by EM alone, leading to lower plasma NO levels. Intestinal expression of a panel of cytokine and chemokine genes following EM/CP coinfection showed a mixed response depending on the transcript analyzed and the time following infection. In general, IFN-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17, and TGF-β4 were repressed, whereas IL-8, IL-10, IL-15, and LITAF were increased during coinfection compared with challenge by EM or CP alone. These results are discussed in the context of EM and CP to act synergistically to create a more severe disease phenotype leading to an altered cytokine/chemokine response than that produced by infection with the individual pathogens.
On forecasting the ONU sleep period in XG-PON systems using exponential smoothing techniques

Power management has been advanced on a crucial factor in the design of modern access networks. Furthermore, the proliferation of optical networking in the last mile led major Telecom unions, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to emerge energy consumption as a critical objective of the next generation passive optical networks (NG-PONs). In particular, the standardization of the 10-gigabit-capable PON (XG-PON) entails well-defined specifications towards power management and energy reduction, especially regarding the power control of optical terminal devices such as the optical network units (ONUs). In this way, the optical line terminator (OLT) along with ONUs are able to cooperate with each other in order to succeed energy reduction, by applying doze or cyclic sleep periods to idle ONUs. However, the sleep period determination remains a quite challenging research area. In this study, we endeavor to provide XG-PON networks with an effective forecasting mechanism that is capable of estimating the time duration of the forthcoming sleep session. To this end, we apply the exponential smoothing technique to best estimate the sleep duration based on the monitoring time series observations. The obtained evaluation results sound quite promising, since the proposed model accomplishes to advance the trade-off between the energy reduction and network efficiency.
NONLINEAR NEIGHBORHOOD INTERACTIONS AND INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN CAPITAL

The paper develops a model of the intergenerational transmission of human capital that reflects both individual choice and neighborhood interactions. It implies a law of motion for human capital that under certain conditions exhibits multiple equilibria that dier in terms of stability. As a result, the distribution of human capital across the population in the long run may not collapse into a single value. This result is entirely due to: first, presence of nonlinear neighborhood interactions, and, second, the elasticity of substitution between own human capital and neighborhood interactions being suciently larger than the the elasticity of substitution between one’s child’s human capital and own consumption. The model supports the Kuznets hypothesis and may be extended to allow for residential choice. Empirical analysis with geocoded data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, validates Kremer’s results on the role of neighborhood eects, but also confirms by means of parametric and nonparametric methods the model’s predictions of nonlinear eects of
Scaling Up an MT Prototype for Industrial Use - Databases and Data Flow

In a cooperative project between Uppsala University, the bus and truck manufacturing company Scania CV AB, and the translation company Explicon AB, issues of scaling up the transfer-based machine translation prototype MULTRA for industrial use is beeing investigated. The project is limited to one domain, automotive service literature, and one translation direction, Swedish to English, but issues concerning the change of domain, translation direction and language pair are also considered. Three focal points of the project work have been the design and implementation of the new MATS system, including the redesign, porting and integration of MULTRA, the redesign and implementation of the dictionaries of the language modules as a lexical database, and the scaling up of the dictionaries and the grammars. The system is currently trained on a corpus of aligned bitexts from the automotive service domain. The coverage of the lexical data is almost complete, and validated by professional translators, but the grammars are still limited. Despite the incomplete state of the grammars, the system already translates more than a third of the segments in the corpus. Preliminary evaluations of system performance and coverage have been made, and further development of evaluation methods and metrics are in progress.
Access to academic curriculum in Australian secondary schools: a case study of a highly marketised education system

This study examines how access to academic curriculum differs between secondary schools in Australia, a country whose education system is marked by high levels of choice, privatisation and competition. Equitable access to academic curriculum is important for both individual students and their families as well as the larger society. Previous research has shown that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to study academic curriculum than their more advantaged peers. Less is known, however, about the extent to which this pattern is related to differential provision of curriculum between schools. We found that low socio-economic schools offer students less access to the core academic curriculum subjects that are important for university entry. We also found that the breadth and depth of courses offered is related to school sector (private or public) and socio-economic context. Previous research has shown that choice and competition are inequitable because they frequently increase school social segregation and ‘cream-skimming’. Our findings show another inequitable consequence, namely that choice and competition limit access to high-status academic curriculum in working-class communities.
Novel Resistance-Associated Mutations of Thymidine Kinase and Dna Polymerase Genes of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and Type 2

Background Studies to verify correlations between phenotypes and genotypes of herpes simplex virus (HSV) are an important tool to establish a database of resistance-associated mutations. Methods In this study, 32 acyclovir (ACV)-resistant clinical HSV-1 and 4 ACV-resistant clinical HSV-2 isolates were examined in parallel by both phenotypic and genotypic resistance testing. Additionally, five non-viable HSV-1 strains and two non-viable HSV-2 strains with clinical resistance were included in genotypic resistance analysis. Results All ACV-resistant HSV isolates showed cross-resistance to brivudin and penciclovir, and were sensitive to foscarnet and cidofovir. Acyclovir resistance was assigned to frameshift and single non-synonymous mutations of the thymidine kinase (TK) gene in 32 out of 37 HSV-1 strains and in 4 out of 6 HSV-2 strains. In three HSV-1 isolates, there were resistance-associated amino acid substitutions of the DNA polymerase (pol). Six substitutions in the TK and two in the DNA pol gene could not be attributed without doubt to either ACV resistance or natural gene polymorphism. Altogether, 10 resistance-related mutations in the TK and 1 in the DNA pol gene have not been reported previously. Conclusions The novel non-synonymous mutations found in this study enrich the knowledge about the genetic alterations of TK and DNA pol genes in ACV-resistant clinical HSV strains. Together with data from the literature, the findings justify the generation of a HSV database that contains resistance mutations associated with ACV resistance phenotype.
The Effect of Periodontal Treatment on Hemoglobin A1c Levels of Diabetic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background There is growing evidence that periodontal treatment may affect glycemic control in diabetic patients. And several systematic reviews have been conducted to assess the effect of periodontal treatment on diabetes outcomes. Researches of this aspect are widely concerned, and several new controlled trials have been published. The aim of this study was to update the account for recent findings. Methods A literature search (until the end of January 2014) was carried out using various databases with language restriction to English. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was selected if it investigated periodontal therapy for diabetic subjects compared with a control group received no periodontal treatment for at least 3 months of the follow-up period. The primary outcome was hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and secondary outcomes were periodontal parameters included probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL). Results Ten trials of 1135 patients were included in the analysis. After the follow-up of 3 months, treatment substantially lowered HbA1c compared with no treatment after periodontal therapy (–0.36%, 95%CI, −0.52% to −0.19%, P<0.0001). Clinically substantial and statistically significant reduction of PPD and CAL were found between subjects with and without treatment after periodontal therapy (PPD −0.42 mm, 95%CI: −0.60 to −0.23, P<0.00001; CAL −0.34 mm, 95%CI: −0.52 to −0.16, P = 0.0002). And there is no significant change of the level of HbA1c at the 6-month comparing with no treatment (–0.30%, 95%CI, −0.69% to 0.09%, P = 0.13). Conclusions Periodontal treatment leads to the modest reduction in HbA1c along with the improvement of periodontal status in diabetic patients for 3 months, and this result is consistent with previous systematic reviews. And the effect of periodontal treatment on HbA1c cannot be observed at 6-month after treatment.
Management stratégique et technologies de réseau : analyse des déterminants de la compatibilité et de la coopération. Recherche empirique sur les déterminants de l'interbancarité monétique en France 1985-1996

En situation d'interdependance des fonctions de production des firmes concurrentes, se pose la question du mode de coordination des activites economiques : quelles institutions sont meme de servir de cadre aux interactions entre les acteurs, Marche ou Cooperation ? Telle est la question theorique majeure, qui est commune a l'economie et au management et qui sous-tend l'ensemble de ce projet de recherche, qui nous conduit a cerner la specificite des processus de cooperation interfirmes comme tenant a l'endogeneite des regles du jeu qu'ils mettent en place. Ainsi, les situations ou il existe des externalites de reseau posent le probleme de l'interdependance entre les firmes. Alors que la litterature sur les processus de standardisation est largement focalisee sur l'emergence spontanee de standards, nous proposons dans cette recherche un modele centre sur les determinants des processus cooperatifs de standardisation dans le cas general, puis dans le cas des cartes bancaires en France en particulier. Contrairement a des idees tres largement repandues selon lesquelles l'interbancarite monetique totale, c'est-a-dire l'universalite des fonctions de retrait et de paiement des cartes bancaires francaises, serait le resultat des decisions unilaterales emanant des pouvoirs publics en France, notre recherche empirique montre que la compatibilite des systemes de cartes bancaires est precisement le resultat de la volonte des banques francaises. En effet, cette cooperation dans le domaine des cartes, qui est le resultat d'un processus qui debute des 1967 pour prendre la forme en 1984 d'un protocole d'accord entre un certain nombre de banques francaises dites " chefs de file ", apparait incontestablement comme une strategie gagnante et reflechie de la part des banques en presence, autant que pour les usagers. C'est le resultat majeur de ce travail. Cette analyse empirique des determinants de l'interbancarite des cartes bancaires s'est appuyee sur une base de donnees construite pour l'occasion, de tests statistiques et de modeles de simulation permettant d'identifier les conditions strategiques et institutionnelles qui ont permis l'emergence et la viabilite de l'interbancarite. Il est montre que celle-ci correspond a une institution, c'est-a-dire un cadre d'interaction entre les acteurs, qui n'implique absolument pas l'arret de l'affrontement concurrentiel entre eux.
Aggression among university employees

Harassment among university employees (n = 338; 162 males, 176 females) was investigated by help of the Work Harassment Scale (WHS), developed for the study. Nineteen cases of severe victimization by harassment were interviewed. Subjectively experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety were estimated with two subscales from SCL-90 [Derogatis LR, Lipman RS, Covi L (1973): Psychopharmacology Bulletin 9:13-28] and aggressiveness was measured with the Buss-Durkee Inventory [Buss A, Durkee A(1957): Journal of Consulting Psychology 21:343-349]. Females experienced themselves as significantly more harassed than men. Position was related to harassment: individuals in superior positions harassed more often than individuals in subordinate positions. Less victimization by harassment was experienced among individuals involved in research and teaching than among individuals involved in administration and service. The experienced reasons for harassment were predominantly envy and competition about jobs and status. In 25% of cases, victims felt that their sex might be a reason. Victims of harassment experienced higher levels of depression, anxiety, and aggression than others. The interviewed cases showed evidence of symptoms reminiscent of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Deliberative democracy and intelligent design: The ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover

The Federal District Court decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover halted a school board's attempts to introduce an `intelligent design' account of human origins into science classrooms as an alternative to evolution. The judge's opinion judged the Board members' actions by implicit standards of deliberative democratic discourse, which this article explicates through reference to Rawls's Political Liberalism and Gutmann and Thompson's Democracy and Disagreement.The judge argued that, by their actions in this circumstance, intelligent design advocates did not adhere to these standards. He further argued that it would be impossible for them to do so, because intelligent design is a relabeling of creationism, which has repeatedly failed to meet considered judgments of the definition of science.
Statins of Different Brain Penetrability Differentially Affect CSF PLTP Activity

Background/Aims: Phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) and apolipoprotein E (apoE) are key proteins involved in lipoprotein metabolism in the peripheral circulation and in the brain. Several epidemiological studies suggested that use of 3-hydroxyl-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) reduces risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the effects of statins of differing blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetrability on brain-derived molecules in cognitively normal individuals are largely unknown. Methods: To assess the effect of statins on these indices as a function of BBB penetration, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma PLTP activity and apoE concentration were measured in cognitively intact, modestly hypercholesterolemic adults randomly allocated to treatment with either pravastatin, which does not penetrate BBB (80 mg/day, n = 13), or simvastatin, which penetrates BBB (40 mg/day, n = 10). Results: Simvastatin significantly increased CSF PLTP activity (p = 0.005). In contrast, pravastatin had no such effect. In the pravastatin-treated group, CSF apoE concentration decreased significantly (p = 0.026), while the simvastatin-treated group showed a tendency towards lower CSF apoE levels, with CSF apoE concentration lowered in 8 of 10 subjects. Conclusion: Our data indicate that statins differentially affect two key lipid transfer proteins in the brain, and that effect on PLTP activity depends on statin BBB penetrability.
Comprehensive Molecular Profiling of Archival Bone Marrow Trephines Using a Commercially Available Leukemia Panel and Semiconductor-Based Targeted Resequencing

Comprehensive mutation profiling becomes more and more important in hematopathology complementing morphological and immunohistochemical evaluation of fixed, decalcified and embedded bone marrow biopsies for diagnostic, prognostic and also predictive purposes. However, the number and the size of relevant genes leave conventional Sanger sequencing impracticable in terms of costs, required input DNA, and turnaround time. Since most published protocols and commercially available reagents for targeted resequencing of gene panels are established and validated for the analysis of fresh bone marrow aspirate or peripheral blood it remains to be proven whether the available technology can be transferred to the analysis of archival trephines. Therefore, the performance of the recently available Ion AmpliSeq AML Research panel (LifeTechnologies) was evaluated for the analysis of fragmented DNA extracted from archival bone marrow trephines. Taking fresh aspirate as gold standard all clinically relevant mutations (n = 17) as well as 25 well-annotated SNPs could be identified reliably with high quality in the corresponding archival trephines of the training set (n = 10). Pre-treatment of the extracted DNA with Uracil-DNA-Glycosylase reduced the number of low level artificial sequence variants by more than 60%, vastly reducing time required for proper evaluation of the sequencing results. Subsequently, randomly picked FFPE samples (n = 41) were analyzed to evaluate sequencing performance under routine conditions. Thereby all known mutations (n = 43) could be verified and 36 additional mutations in genes not yet covered by the routine work-up (e.g., TET2, ASXL1, DNMT3A), demonstrating the feasibility of this approach and the gain of diagnostically relevant information. The dramatically reduced amount of input DNA, the increase in sensitivity as well as calculated cost-effectiveness, low hands on , and turn-around-time, necessary for the analysis of 237 amplicons strongly argue for replacing Sanger sequencing by this semiconductor-based targeted resequencing approach.
Moral Identity as a Moderator of the Effects of Organizational Injustice on Counterproductive Work Behavior Among Chinese Public Servants

Despite the considerable research to investigate the influence of organizational injustice on employees’ counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), relatively little attention has been paid to the role of moral identity. In the present study, we posit that people’s moral identity serves as a buffering factor between organizational injustice and CWB among Chinese public servants. Consistent with the hypotheses, survey results showed that organizational justice and moral identity interacted to influence Chinese public servants’ CWB. Specifically, when the moral identity of Chinese public servants was low, the negative correlation between organizational justice and CWB was more pronounced. Theoretical implications to the moral identity and organizational injustice literature are discussed, as well as the practical implications and suggestions for future research.
Noninterpolatory Hermite subdivision schemes

Bivariate interpolatory Hermite subdivision schemes have recently been applied to build free-form subdivision surfaces. It is well known to geometric modelling practitioners that interpolatory schemes typically lead to unfair surfaces-surfaces with unwanted wiggles or undulations-and noninterpolatory (a.k.a. approximating in the CAGD community) schemes are much preferred in geometric modelling applications. In this article, we introduce, analyze and construct noninterpolatory Hermite subdivision schemes, a class of vector subdivision schemes which can be applied to iteratively refine Hermite data in a not necessarily interpolatory fashion. We also study symmetry properties of such subdivision schemes which are crucial for application in free-form subdivision surfaces. A key step in our mathematical analysis of Hermite type subdivision schemes is that we make use of the strong convergence theory of refinement equations to convert a prescribed geometric condition on the subdivision scheme-namely, the subdivision scheme is of Hermite type-to an algebraic condition on the subdivision mask. The latter algebraic condition can then be used in a computational framework to construct specific schemes.
Governance and Behavior in Nonprofits: Analysis of Uruguayan Health Care Organizations

Literature on nontraditional firms has focused on behavioral differences with for-profit firms. Less attention has been given to the variations in behavior among nontraditional firms. This chapter examines differences across three types of Uruguayan nonprofit health care organizations. This chapter draws on a unique dataset of Uruguayan health care organizations during the period 1982–1990, as well as interviews with doctors working in the three types of nonprofits during spring 2010. We use a simple OLS regression to identify differences in average behavior, and differences in reaction to a regulatory change. The chapter shows that structure of stake holding and governance significantly affect behavior, even where many behaviors are highly regulated. These findings highlight the importance of specifying governance structure when predicting behavior of nontraditional firms. Empirical tests of behavioral differences between traditional and nontraditional firms will be more meaningful if the governance structure of nontraditional firms is common and specified. A limitation of our study is our inability to control for the timing of degeneration of producer cooperatives. This would be one element of governance structure to consider in future data collection. These findings highlight the need to avoid drawing broad policy conclusions from the behavior of a specific subset of nontraditional firms. This chapter highlights the importance of carefully specifying stakeholder and governance structure when predicting behavior of nontraditional firms. It is of interest to anyone using a sample of nontraditional firms to test general hypotheses about their behavior.