Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PepA, a secreted protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is necessary for cytotoxicity and virulence

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen and a leading cause of hospital‐acquired pneumonia. We identified a 73 kDa protein, designated Pseudomonas exoprotein A (PepA), that was secreted by P. aeruginosa strain PA103. PepA was necessary for in vitro killing of epithelial cells as well as virulence in a mouse model of acute pneumonia. Several properties of PepA suggested that it was secreted by a type III system. Secretion occurred without cleavage of a signal peptide and in low‐calcium environments in the presence of a divalent cation chelator, as is the case for characterized P. aeruginosa type III secreted proteins. Secretion of PepA was absent from isogenic mutants with defective type III pathways. Finally, amino‐terminal peptide sequence analysis indicated that the amino‐terminal five residues of PepA were identical to those of ExoS and ExoT, two type III secreted proteins of P. aeruginosa. After secretion, PepA underwent cleavage at two sites, each with the sequence A–X–K–S, suggesting that the cleavage may be caused by a protease. The gene encoding PepA, designated pepA, was cloned and sequenced, and comparisons with the genetic database using BLAST alignments indicated that the nucleotide sequence of pepA and the inferred protein sequence of PepA had no homology to known sequences. A nucleotide sequence identical to the consensus element for binding of ExsA, a transcriptional activator of P. aeruginosa type III secretion genes, was located 84 bp 5′ of the translational start codon. Analysis of transposon insertion mutants indicated that the carboxy terminus was required for cytotoxicity. Examination of respiratory clinical isolates demonstrated that pepA was a variable trait and probably acquired by horizontal transmission. Consistent with this hypothesis was the identification of a putative insertion element 94 bp 5′ of the PepA translational start site. Analysis of G + C content of the PepA coding sequence and the adjacent insertion element suggested that they were acquired together from a different species. In summary, PepA is a secreted protein of P. aeruginosa that is necessary for epithelial cell cytotoxicity in vitro and virulence in a mouse model of pneumonia.
Concordance Between Objective Psychometric Neuropsychological Test Findings and Subjective Self-report and its Relationship to Functional Impairment in Depression

ii Acknowledgements . iv Introduction . 1 The burden of depression . 1 Social and economic burden . 1 Work impairment . 2 Personal impairment and quality of life . 2 Cognitive deficits in depression . 3 Factors affecting cognitive performance in depression . 6 Severity of depression . 6 Age . 7 Research on cognitive deficits in depression . 7 Findings from subjective self-report of cognitive functioning . 9 Findings from objective psychometric neuropsychological test measures . 10 Attention . 11 Memory . 13 Visuospatial functioning . 15 Executive functioning . 17 Comparison of Findings from Subjective Self-report of Cognitive Functioning and Objective Psychometric Neuropsychological Test Measures . 18 The Relationship Between Functioning and Functional Impairment . 21 General Summary . 23 ASSESSING COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN DEPRESSION vi Purpose of the present study . 23 Method . 25 Participants . 25 Sample characteristics . 26 Group classification . 27 START depressed group . 27 UTSC depressed group . 28 Control group . 29 Measures . 29 Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) . 29 Neuropsychological Assessment Battery Screening Module (S-NAB) . 30 Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) . 31 Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) . 32 Perceived Deficits Questionnaire (PDQ) . 33 Perceived Cognitive Impairment Questionnaire (PCIQ) . 34 Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) . 35 Procedure . 36 Part 1 . 36 Part 2 . 37 Part 3 . 37 Part 4 . 37 Results . 38 Pre-analysis Issues . 38 ASSESSING COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN DEPRESSION vii Missing data . 38 Univariate and multivariate outliers . 38 Multicollinearity . 39 Comparison of groups . 39 Anxiety . 41 Main analyses . 42 Group differences on objective psychometric neuropsychological test measures . 42 Group differences on subjective self-report of cognitive functioning . 42 Group differences on functional impairment . 43 Depressed group: Relationship between severity of depression and cognitive measures . 43 Depressed group: Relationship between severity of depression and functional impairment . 43 Depressed group: Relationship between cognitive measures . 43 Depressed group: Relationship between objective psychometric neuropsychological tests measures and functional impairment . 44 Depressed group: Relationship between subjective self-report of cognitive functioning and functional impairment . 44 Discussion . 45 Findings Regarding Group Differences . 45 Severity of Depression . 50 Concordance Between Cognitive Measures in Depression . 51 ASSESSING COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN DEPRESSION viii Cognitive Functioning and Functional Impairment in Depression . 53 Summary . 54 Strengths and Limitations . 55 Conclusions and Future Directions . 57 References . 59 ASSESSING COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN DEPRESSION
The relationship between manuscript title structure and success: editorial decisions and citation performance for an ecological journal

A poorly chosen article title may make a paper difficult to discover or discourage readership when discovered, reducing an article's impact. Yet, it is unclear how the structure of a manuscript's title influences readership and impact. We used manuscript tracking data for all manuscripts submitted to the journal Functional Ecology from 2004 to 2013 and citation data for papers published in this journal from 1987 to 2011 to examine how title features changed and whether a manuscript's title structure was predictive of success during the manuscript review process and/or impact (citation) after publication. Titles of manuscripts submitted to Functional Ecology became marginally longer (after controlling for other variables), broader in focus (less frequent inclusion of genus and species names), and included more humor and subtitles over the period of the study. Papers with subtitles were less likely to be rejected by editors both pre- and post-peer review, although both effects were small and the presence of subtitles in published papers was not predictive of citations. Papers with specific names of study organisms in their titles fared poorly during editorial (but not peer) review and, if published, were less well cited than papers whose titles did not include specific names. Papers with intermediate length titles were more successful during editorial review, although the effect was small and title word count was not predictive of citations. No features of titles were predictive of reviewer willingness to review papers or the length of time a paper was in peer review. We conclude that titles have changed in structure over time, but features of title structure have only small or no relationship with success during editorial review and post-publication impact. The title feature that was most predictive of manuscript success: papers whose titles emphasize broader conceptual or comparative issues fare better both pre- and post-publication than do papers with organism-specific titles.
Book review: Craig Newnes (ed.) Children in Society: Politics, policies and interventions

Concepts, such as resilience and sustainability, are unpacked and identified as contentious, although key authors on resilience – for example, Manyena (2006) – are omitted. Although the term ‘risk society’ is mentioned (p. 81), there is no conceptualisation of risk, vulnerability, exposure to hazards and the relationship between hazards and disasters. Even what constitutes a disaster is not defined, analysed and explored. Other absences undermine the book’s claim to interdisciplinarity and especially those attempting to tackle the divisions between the social and physical sciences. Most contributions are written by social work or human services academics and practitioners, but many other disciplines are involved in developing sustainable communities, e.g. engineers, geologists, geographers. Ecological Social Work’s concluding chapter argues emphatically for the significance of including environmental considerations in social work practice. However, it does not suggest how such considerations might actually be incorporated into the social work curriculum or, indeed, practice. Nonetheless, this collection will still be a welcome addition to the reading lists of social work students given its message is important and may enable the profession to rise to the critical challenges posed by environmental crises and environmental injustice in the twenty-first century (Dominelli, 2012).
A virtual reality serious game platform to support treatment of phobia patients.

Phobias are an Anxiety Disorder with a significant percentage of the general population suffering from them. In recent years, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy has emerged, that aids in the treatment of phobias using audiovisual virtual reality content. The aim of this dissertation was to improve upon the predecessing VRET implementations by utilizing the latest VR devices. The result of this is a prototype software, developed in the Unity Engine for Oculus Rift and supervised by a consulting psychologist, that offers an approachable VRET option to doctors and patients.
On Splitting Types, Discriminant Bounds, and Conclusive Tests for the Galois Group

Using the action of the Galois group of a normal extension of number fields, we generalize and symmetrize various fundamental statements in algebra and algebraic number theory concerning splitting types of prime ideals, factorization types of polynomials modulo primes, and cycle types of the Galois groups of polynomials. One remarkable example is the removal of all artificial constraints from the Kummer-Dedekind Theorem that relates splitting and factorization patterns. Finally, we present an elementary proof that the discriminant of the splitting field of a monic irreducible polynomial with integer coefficients has a computable upper bound in terms of the coefficients. This result, combined with one of Lagarias et al., shows that tests of polynomials for the cycle types of the Galois group are conclusive. In particular, the Galois groups of monic irreducible cubics, quartics, and quintics with integer coefficients can be completely determined in finitely many steps (though not necessarily in one's lifetime).
Ellagitannins and Flavan-3-ols from Raspberry Pomace Modulate Caecal Fermentation Processes and Plasma Lipid Parameters in Rats

Raspberry pomace is a source of polyphenols, which nutritional and health promoting properties are not sufficiently known. The aim of this 8-weeks study was to scrutinize if raspberry extracts (REs) with different ellagitannins to flavan-3-ols ratios might favorably affect the caecal fermentation processes and blood lipid profile in rats. Forty male Wistar rats were fed with a standard diet or its modification with two types of REs (E1 and E2) characterized by different ratios of ellagitannins to flavan-3-ols (7.7 and 3.1 for E1 and E2, respectively) and added to a diet at two dosages of polyphenolic compounds (0.15 and 0.30% of a diet; L and H treatments, respectively). Irrespective of polyphenols dietary level, both REs reduced the activity of bacterial β-glucuronidase, increased production of butyric acid in the caecum and reduced triacylglycerols in blood plasma. The E1 treatment at both dosages caused more effective reduction in the concentration of ammonia and elevated acetate level in the caecal digesta than E2. On the other hand, only the E2 treatment lowered value of the atherogenic index when compared with control group. When comparing dosages of REs, a higher one was more potent to reduce the activity of bacterial β-glucosidase, β-, α-galactosidase and lowered value of the HDL profile in plasma. To conclude, REs may favorably modulate the activity of the caecal microbiota and blood lipid profile in rats; however, the intensity of these effects may be related to the dosages of dietary polyphenols and to their profile, e.g., ellagitannins to flavan-3-ols ratio.
Throughput Optimal Policies for Energy Harvesting Wireless Transmitters with Non-Ideal Circuit Power

Characterizing the fundamental tradeoffs for maximizing energy efficiency (EE) versus spectrum efficiency (SE) is a key problem in wireless communication. In this paper, we address this problem for a point-to-point additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with the transmitter powered solely via energy harvesting from the environment. In addition, we assume a practical on-off transmitter model with non-ideal circuit power, i.e., when the transmitter is on, its consumed power is the sum of the transmit power and a constant circuit power. Under this setup, we study the optimal transmit power allocation to maximize the average throughput over a finite horizon, subject to the time-varying energy constraint and the non-ideal circuit power consumption. First, we consider the off-line optimization under the assumption that the energy arrival time and amount are a priori known at the transmitter. Although this problem is non-convex due to the non-ideal circuit power, we show an efficient optimal solution that in general corresponds to a two-phase transmission: the first phase with an EE-maximizing on-off power allocation, and the second phase with a SE-maximizing power allocation that is non-decreasing over time, thus revealing an interesting result that both the EE and SE optimizations are unified in an energy harvesting communication system. We then extend the optimal off-line algorithm to the case with multiple parallel AWGN channels, based on the principle of nested optimization. Finally, inspired by the off-line optimal solution, we propose a new online algorithm under the practical setup with only the past and present energy state information (ESI) known at the transmitter.
Optimal Monochromatic Energy Levels in Spectral CT Pulmonary Angiography for the Evaluation of Pulmonary Embolism

Background The aim of this study was to determine the optimal monochromatic spectral CT pulmonary angiography (sCTPA) levels to obtain the highest image quality and diagnostic confidence for pulmonary embolism detection. Methods The Institutional Review Board of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine approved this study, and written informed consent was obtained from all participating patients. Seventy-two patients with pulmonary embolism were scanned with spectral CT mode in the arterial phase. One hundred and one sets of virtual monochromatic spectral (VMS) images were generated ranging from 40 keV to 140 keV. Image noise, clot diameter and clot to artery contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) from seven sets of VMS images at selected monochromatic levels in sCTPA were measured and compared. Subjective image quality and diagnostic confidence for these images were also assessed and compared. Data were analyzed by paired t test and Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results The lowest noise and the highest image quality score for the VMS images were obtained at 65 keV. The VMS images at 65 keV also had the second highest CNR value behind that of 50 keV VMS images. There was no difference in the mean noise and CNR between the 65 keV and 70 keV VMS images. The apparent clot diameter correlated with the keV levels. Conclusions The optimal energy level for detecting pulmonary embolism using dual-energy spectral CT pulmonary angiography was 65–70 keV. Virtual monochromatic spectral images at approximately 65–70 keV yielded the lowest image noise, high CNR and highest diagnostic confidence for the detection of pulmonary embolism.
Pathogenesis of Dengue: Dawn of a New Era

Dengue virus (DENV) infections of humans were long thought to be self-limited and of low mortality. Beginning in the 1950s, at the time when four different DENVs were discovered, a lethal variant of dengue emerged. Dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) initially observed in Southeast Asia now has spread throughout the world. Two risk factors for DHF/DSS are well-established: severe disease occurs during a second heterotypic DENV infection or during a first DENV infection in infants born to dengue-immune mothers. A large number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain severe dengue disease. As discussed, few of them attempt to explain why severe disease occurs under the two different immunological settings. New experimental evidence has demonstrated that DENV non-structural protein 1 (NS1) is toll-receptor 4 agonist that stimulates primary human myeloid cells to produce the same cytokines observed during the course of severe dengue disease. In addition, NS1 directly damages endothelial cells. These observations have been repeated and extended to an in vivo mouse model. The well-established phenomenon, antibody-dependent enhancement of DENV infection in Fc-receptor-bearing cells, should similarly enhance the production of DENV NS1 in humans, providing a unitary mechanism for severe disease in both immunological settings
Rethinking how the nervous system registers and identifies shapes.

As an aid to those who will be submitting manuscripts and journal staff who must decide on disposition of submissions, it may be useful to describe the range of my scientific interests. I have published in diverse fields that include behavioral neuroscience (animal work), neuropsychology, and perception of visual illusions, psychophysics, and neuronal mechanisms for mediating visual perception. For the initial stages of evolution of this journal, I am prepared to field most any topic at the junction of psychology and neuroscience. Over time I would hope that the duties would narrow to visual mechanisms, especially how neurons and brain areas provide for visual perception.
PENGARUH TEKNIK TOKEN ECONOMY TERHADAP PERILAKU PROSOSIAL ANAK USIA 4-5 TAHUN

ABSTRAK . Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh teknik token economy terhadap perilaku prososial anak usia 4-5 tahun. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif quasi eksperimen dengan desain nonequivalent control group design. Sampel penelitian adalah 5 anak usia 4-5 tahun di TK An Nahl Cemani. Metode pengumpulan data menggunakan observasi dalam bentuk checklist untuk mengukur perilaku prososial pada anak. Analisis data menggunakan independent sample t-test dengan bantuan SPSS 15 for windows. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat pengaruh penggunaan teknik token economy terhadap perilaku prososial anak usia 4-5 tahun. Kata Kunci: token economy , perilaku prososial, anak usia dini ABSTRACT. This study aims to determine the effect of the technique token economy toward prosocial behavior of children aged 4-5 years. This research is a quantitative quasi experimental design with nonequivalent control group design. Samples were five children aged 4-5 years in kindergarten An Nahl Cemani. Methods of data collection using observation in the form of a checklist to measure prosocial behavior in children. Data analysis using independent sample t-test with SPSS 15 for windows. The results showed that there are significant technical uses token economy toward prosocial behavior of children aged 4-5 years. Keywords: token economy, prosocial behavior, early childhood
Power-Performance Analysis of Networks-on-Chip With Arbitrary Buffer Allocation Schemes

End-to-end delay, throughput, energy consumption, and silicon area are the most important design metrics of networks-on-chip (NoCs). Although several analytical models have been previously proposed for predicting such metrics in NoCs, very few of them consider the effect of message waiting time in the buffers of network routers for predicting overall power consumptions and none of them consider structural heterogeneity of network routers. This paper introduces two inter-related analytical models to compute message latency and power consumption of NoCs with arbitrary topology, buffering structure, and routing algorithm. Buffer allocation scheme defines the buffering space for each individual channel of the NoC that can be homogenous (all channels having similar buffer structures) or heterogeneous (each channel having its own buffer structure). Here, the buffer allocation scheme can be either homogenous or heterogeneous. We assume no bandwidth sharing of virtual channels for a physical channel, and IP cores generate messages following a Poisson distribution. The results obtained from simulation experiments confirm that the proposed models exhibit acceptable accuracy for different network configurations operating under various working conditions. We have shown that basing our analysis on a Poisson traffic model is still useful for scenarios with real application workloads.
Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals

ABSTRACT Heavy metal toxicity has proven to be a major threat and there are several health risks associated with it. The toxic effects of these metals, even though they do not have any biological role, remain present in some or the other form harmful for the human body and its proper functioning. They sometimes act as a pseudo element of the body while at certain times they may even interfere with metabolic processes. Few metals, such as aluminium, can be removed through elimination activities, while some metals get accumulated in the body and food chain, exhibiting a chronic nature. Various public health measures have been undertaken to control, prevent and treat metal toxicity occurring at various levels, such as occupational exposure, accidents and environmental factors. Metal toxicity depends upon the absorbed dose, the route of exposure and duration of exposure, i.e. acute or chronic. This can lead to various disorders and can also result in excessive damage due to oxidative stress induced by free radical formation. This review gives details about some heavy metals and their toxicity mechanisms, along with their health effects
Applications of synchrophasor data to power system state estimation and control

The installation of phasor measurement units (PMUs) around the world enables wide-area monitoring and control applications. To incorporate PMU data in grid operations, system operators must understand, validate, and correct phasor measurements before using them in higher-level applications. In this paper, we first discuss the phasor measurement process that takes place inside a PMU, then we present a phasor state estimator to correlate and validate PMU data across a network, and finally we discuss a two-level interarea mode damping controller using remote phasor measurements.
Optimal Model for Multi-Echelon Inventory System Based on GAAA Algorithms

The dominant models for inventory control of repairable items, both in the literature and in practical applications, are based on the assumption of infinite or ample repair capacity. However this assumption is not accurate in practice. In this paper, a two-echelon inventory system of repairable items is studied, which has finite repair capacity. Regarding the number of repair bench at depot as one of performance measures, an optimal model for this system is put forward. Discrete event simulation is used to describe the process of multi-echelon inventory system with emergency lateral transshipment, and then Performance measures of multi-echelon inventory system are obtained. Genetic algorithm-Ant algorithm (GAAA algorithms) is utilized to get the optimal performance measures. Last, an example is given and the result shows the feasibility of the model.