Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurovirulence in Feline Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Neonatal Cats Is Viral Strain Specific and Dependent on Systemic Immune Suppression

ABSTRACT Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus that causes immune suppression and neurological disease in cats. Among animal viruses, individual viral strains have been shown to be neurovirulent, but the role of viral strain specificity among lentiviruses and its relationship to systemic immune suppression in the development of neurological disease remains uncertain. To determine the extent to which different FIV strains caused neurological disease, FIV V1CSF and Petaluma were compared in ex vivo assays and in vivo. Both viruses infected and replicated in macrophage and mixed glial cell cultures at similar levels, but V1CSF induced significantly greater neuronal death than Petaluma in a neurotoxicity assay. V1CSF-infected animals showed significant neurodevelopmental delay compared to the Petaluma-infected and uninfected animals. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies of frontal cortex revealed significantly reducedN-acetyl aspartate/creatine ratios in the V1CSF group compared to the other groups. Cyclosporin A treatment of Petaluma-infected animals caused neurodevelopmental delay and reducedN-acetyl aspartate/creatine ratios in the brain. Reduced CD4+ and CD8+ cell counts were observed in the V1CSF-infected group compared to the uninfected and Petaluma-infected groups. These findings suggest that neurodevelopmental delay and neuronal injury is FIV strain specific but that systemic immune suppression is also an important determinant of FIV-induced neurovirulence.
Baseline Responses of Alphitobius diaperinus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) to Spinosad, and Susceptibility of Broiler Populations in Eastern and Southern Australia

Abstract Spinosad was proposed as a potential chemical for control of lesser mealworm, Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), in Australian broiler houses after the detection of strong cyfluthrin resistance in many beetle populations. In 2004–2006, spinosad susceptibility of 13 beetle populations from eastern and southern Australian broiler houses and a cyfluthrin/fenitrothion-resistant reference population was determined using topical application, and was compared with the susceptibility of an insecticide-susceptible reference population. Comparisons of dose–response curves and baseline data showed that all populations, including the insecticide-susceptible population, were roughly equivalent in their response to spinosad, indicating no preexisting spinosad resistance. Two field populations, including the resistant reference population, which had confirmed cyfluthrin/fenitrothion-resistance, showed no cross-resistance to spinosad. There was no significant correlation between beetle weight and LC99.9. A discriminating concentration of 3% spinosad was set to separate resistant and susceptible individuals. Considering the levels of spinosad resistance that have been recorded in other insect pests, the sustained future usefulness of spinosad as a broiler house treatment will rely on effective integrated beetle management programs combined with carefully planned chemical use strategies.
The Alzheimer's Disease Activities of Daily Living International Scale (ADL-IS)

Background: Activities of daily living (ADL) deficits are integral components of dementia disorders, and ADL measures are among the most robust markers of the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite this acknowledged importance, no clearly useful ADL instrument for cross-cultural application in pharmacologic trials in the early stages of AD had been available. Method: An international effort was launched to develop an ADL scale for pharmacologic trials in early AD. Steps taken from 1990 to the present included: (1) international scientific working group meetings and reviews, (2) reviews of existing measures, (3) collating of existent, nonredundant items, (4) querying experts for new items, (5) interviews with informants and subjects in the USA, France, and Germany, toward the identification of potential new items, (6) identification of an item pool based upon these procedures, (7) creation of a trial instrument, (8) piloting of this instrument, and (9) refinement of the scale based upon statistical analysis of the pilot data. Final item selection was based upon: (1) relevance for ≥ 80% of subjects in severity-stratified USA and German samples; (2) absence of gender and national biases; (3) significant (p < .05) discrimination between (a) normal versus mildly impaired and (b) mildly impaired versus moderately to moderately severely impaired subjects; and (4) Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) scores accounting for ≥ 12% of variance in the item after controlling for age and gender. Results: An ADL scale consisting of 40 items that correlate with the global and cognitive progress of AD is developed for international usage in pharmacologic trials in incipient, mild, moderate, and moderately severe AD. The scale contains 40 items falling within 13 ADL categories. The 40-item scale is shown to have . 81 correlation with GDS staging,. 81 with mental status assessment (Mini-Mental State Examination), and . 81 with a psychometric test (the SKT) (p values < .001). Conclusion: This scale can be used to measure therapeutic response in AD.
Early mortality among adults accessing antiretroviral treatment programmes in sub-Saharan Africa

Two-thirds of the world's HIV-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 1.5 million of them die annually. As access to antiretroviral treatment has expanded within the region; early pessimism concerning the delivery of antiretroviral treatment using a large-scale public health approach has, at least in the short term, proved to be broadly unfounded. Immunological and virological responses to ART are similar to responses in patients treated in high-income countries. Despite this, however, early mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa are very high; between 8 and 26% of patients die in the first year of antiretroviral treatment, with most deaths occurring in the first few months. Patients typically access antiretroviral treatment with advanced symptomatic disease, and mortality is strongly associated with baseline CD4 cell count less than 50 cells/μl and WHO stage 4 disease (AIDS). Although data are limited, leading causes of death appear to be tuberculosis, acute sepsis, cryptococcal meningitis, malignancy and wasting syndrome. Mortality rates are likely to depend not only on the care delivered by antiretroviral treatment programmes, but more fundamentally on how advanced disease is at programme enrolment and the quality of preceding healthcare. In addition to improving delivery of antiretroviral treatment and providing it free of charge to the patient, strategies to reduce mortality must include earlier diagnosis of HIV infection, strengthening of longitudinal HIV care and timely initiation of antiretroviral treatment. Health systems delays in antiretroviral treatment initiation must be minimized, especially in patients who present with advanced immunodeficiency.
A VECM Model of Stockmarket Returns

Observations of security prices and other financial time series usually include not only the close (C), but also an open, a high and a low (O,H,L) price for a specified interval. The multivariate vector of values (H,L,O,C) is obviously more informative than just the open or close (O, C) for modelling volatilities and volatility predictions. In this paper we capture the return generation process of security prices by using all the quoted prices (H, L, O, C) via a vector error correction (VECM) model. The results of the empirical models using daily DJI index data for a 11 year period (1990-2000) indicate some interesting stylised facts regarding the market returns. We show, via the return generation process (RGP) proposed, that the "cointegrating returns" exhibit significant explanatory power. Some insights are also provided as to why logarithmic returns tend to be non-normally distrbuted
Porous silicon: an effective nucleation-inducing material for protein crystallization.

Protein crystals play a pivotal part in structural genomics, hence there is an urgent requirement for new and improved methodology to aid crystal growth. Considerable effort has been invested in the search of substances (nucleants) that will induce efficient nucleation of protein crystals in a controlled manner. To date, nucleation has been facilitated mainly by seeding, epitaxy, charged surfaces or mechanical means. A different approach is introduced here, involving the use of a mesoporous material that is likely to constrain protein molecules and thereby encourage them to aggregate in crystalline order. Large single crystals were obtained using porous silicon at conditions that are not sufficient for spontaneous nucleation, for five out of six proteins that were investigated. We propose that this success is due to the size distribution of pores in the specially designed porous silicon.
An Alternative Solution to the Autoregressivity Paradox in Time Series Analysis

This note concerns with the marginal models associated with a given vector autoregressive model. In particular, it is shown that a reduction in the orders of the univariate ARMA marginal models can be determined by the presence of variables integrated with different orders. The concepts and methods of the paper are illustrated via an empirical investigation of the low-frequency properties of hours worked in the US.
Priority Selection for Multi-robots

Abstract: The priority selecting problem for multi-robots deals with the determination of the relative importance of multi-robots with the limited capability in speed and acceleration in order that the robots should arrive in the minimum time without any collision. Unlike the case of a single robot, the arrival time of multi-robots depends on the delayed action for collision-avoidance. The delayed action time to avoid collision varies according to the priority order of the robots. This means that faster motion completion can be achieved by altering the distribution of the priority. However, the priority decision which provides the collision-free optimum operation of multi-robots cannot be solved mathematically. It is because the collision avoidance process among robots is closely linked mutually. Therefore in this paper, based on (M,D) network model, in considering the priority decision, how to reduce the complexity of priority decision is suggested by selecting the robots which have influence on operating performance of total robots. Conclusively, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is confirmed through simulation.
Local Denervation Atrophy of Paraspinal Muscles in Postoperative Failed Back Syndrome

Impairment and disability after back surgery is a common diagnostic and therapeutic problem. For the most part the reasons are unclear. Of 178 patients who had undergone laminectomies 2-5 years earlier, 14 patients with good recovery and 21 patients with poor recovery but no evidence of restenosis on computed tomography were selected by the Oswestry index. According to radiologic, neurophysiologic, and muscle biopsy evidence most patients (13 of 15 studied) suffering from the severe postoperative failed back syndrome had dorsal ramus lesions in one or more segments covered by the scar and local paraspinal muscle atrophy at the corresponding segments. Disturbed back muscle innervation and loss of muscular support leads to the disability and increased biomechanical strain and might be one important cause to the failed back syndrome. It may be possible to develop operating techniques that save back muscle innervation better than the usual ones.
Single-sensor multi-spectral image demosaicing algorithm using learned interpolation weights

Multi-spectral images capture more information about a scene as compared to RGB images and have various scientific applications. But the high resolution multi-spectral cameras are very expensive which limits their wide applicability as compared to normal digital RGB cameras. In this paper a multi-spectral filter array design is proposed to capture multiple bands using the single-sensor architecture. The use of single-sensor can help in reducing the cost and size of multi-spectral cameras while simultaneously eliminating the image registration problem. Fast linear demosaicing technique is also proposed to interpolate missing values from under-sampled raw image. Experimental results show the superiority of proposed technique over state of art multi-spectral demosaicing technique.
Human Brain Activity Predicts Individual Differences in Prior Knowledge Use during Decisions

Studies by cognitive psychologists, psychophysicists, neuroscientists, and economists provide ample evidence that humans use prior knowledge to bias decisions adaptively. In this study, we sought to locate and investigate the brain areas mediating this behavior. Participants viewed ambiguous abstract shapes and decided whether a shape was of Category A (smoother) or B (bumpier). The decision was made in the context of one of two prior knowledge cues, 80/20 and 50/50. The 80/20 cue indicated that upcoming shapes had an 80% probability of being of one category, for example, B, and a 20% probability of being of the other. The 50/50 cue indicated that upcoming shapes had an equal probability of being of either category. The shift in bias produced by the 80/20 cue relative to the 50/50 cue was of the predicted sign for every subject but varied in magnitude. We searched for brain regions in which activity changes correlated with the extent of the bias shift; these were dorsolateral pFC (middle frontal gyrus), inferior frontal junction, anterior insula, inferior parietal lobule, intraparietal sulcus, head of the caudate, posterior cingulate cortex, and fusiform gyrus. The findings indicate that an individual's brain activity in these regions reflects the extent to which that individual makes use of prior knowledge to bias decisions. We also created within-ROI tuning curves by binning the shape curvature levels and plotting brain activity levels at each of the nine bins. In the fronto-parietal and anterior insula ROIs, the tuning curves peaked at targets contraindicated by the prior knowledge cue (e.g., Category B targets if the 80/20 cue meant 20% probability B). The increased activity in these regions likely indicates a no-go response when sufficient perceptual evidence favored the alternative contraindicated by the 80/20 cue.
IN VIVO DETECTION OF ACUTE ISCHEMIC DAMAGES IN RETINAL ARTERIAL OCCLUSION WITH OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY: A “Prominent Middle Limiting Membrane Sign”

Purpose: To describe characteristic findings of acute retinal ischemic damage in optical coherence tomography. Methods: Eighteen cases of acute retinal arterial occlusion with available fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, and/or fluorescein angiography in the early phase (<1 month) with more than 2 months follow-up were reviewed. A site-to-site analysis between optical coherence tomography morphology and correlating fundus images were done on each visit. Results: Retinal opacities at first presentation were vague to mild opacity in four eyes, moderate (affecting visibility of underlying choroidal vessels) in seven, severe (yellow to whitish) in five, and very severe (chalky white) in two. These changes eventually disappear within 1 month (8 of 9 eyes). Inner retinal hyperreflectivity and a “prominent middle limiting membrane” in optical coherence tomography were consistently noticed up to 1 month showing regional correlation with the retinal opaque areas and was readily identified even in areas with vague or disappeared retinal opacities. Later, inner retinal atrophic changes replace these ischemic optical coherence tomography signs. Conclusion: A prominent middle limiting membrane sign is a useful indicator of acute ischemic retinal damage, especially in cases showing subtle or resolved retinal opacities before the onset of atrophic changes.
N-[1-(Biphenyl-4-yl)ethylidene]-N′-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)hydrazine

The title compound, C20H16N4O4, contains two crystallographically independent molecules (A and B) in the asymmetric unit. Intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds generate S(6) ring motifs in both molecules. The dihedral angles between the nitro-substituted benzene rings and the two benzene rings in molecules A and B are 14.32 (9), 17.89 (9)° and 13.04 (9) and 25.71 (9)°. The ortho and para nitro groups form dihedral angles of 6.2 (2) and 8.5 (2)° in molecule A, and 5.3 (3) and 13.8 (2)° in molecule B, with the benzene rings to which they are attached. The crystal structure is stabilized by intermolecular C—H⋯O interactions.
A Descriptive Analysis of Quality Online Practices as Perceived by West Virginia Higher Education Faculty

A Descriptive Analysis of Quality Online Practices as Perceived by West Virginia Higher Education Faculty Michael H. Murphy The purpose of this study was to examine the extent West Virginia higher education faculty agree their online courses reflect high quality practices, as identified by the literature, for teaching in an online educational environment. The identified high quality practices are: (a) support, (b) collaboration and teamwork, (c) flexibility, (d) feedback, (e) assessment, and (f) adult learning techniques. This was a non-parametric study that incorporated measures of central tendency and the Kruskal Wallace test for significance to analyze the data. The instrument used in this research was a cross-sectional, self-reporting survey, titled the Survey of Online Educational Practices. The participants of this study were West Virginia higher education faculty who taught in online environments during the spring, summer and fall semesters of 2006. Results of the survey yielded that overall West Virginia Higher Education faculty agreed with the statements on the Survey of Online Educational Practices that their courses reflected quality online practices as supported by the comprehensive literature review. However, further analysis of the survey results revealed faculty do not agree with all of the quality online practices targeted within the survey. For example, there is evidence from the survey results that indicate the areas of institutional support, collaboration and teamwork, and areas of assessment are not well utilized by faculty. These areas of disagreement with quality online practices provide valuable information that there is an ongoing need for sustainable professional development and mentoring opportunities for online faculty. There is also a need for institutions to provide policies and procedures that are reviewed and revised by faculty and other higher education stakeholders on a regular basis due to the ever-changing nature of technology and online education.
A Theory of the Early Growth of the Firm

Economic enterprise consists in the matching of resources and opportunities to create value. Growth processes of the new enterprise are here explored in a systems model inspired by Penrose. A sequence of phases in the early life of the firm reflects growth processes and problems, solutions giving rise to new problems. Firms must access, mobilize and deploy resources before they can generate resources for growth. Subsequent phases--in which growth reinforcement and growth reversal forces content--are not universal, but are set in motion in an important minority of firms, the major job creators. Beyond the early phases, critical problems facing the firm are more diverse. The growth of the firm is related to the building of the competence needed to respond to changing industrial opportunities. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.
House Prices and a Flood Event: An Empirical Investigation of Market Efficiency

In this study, house-price reactions to a first-time disastrous flood are investigated. Conventional wisdom predicted prices would decline and later regain lost value as the market forgot the flood. In fact, sample home prices do not fall immediately after the flood and do not later rise. On the other hand, when flood insurance premiums rise dramatically approximately one year after the flood, these higher rates are capitalized into home values and prices do decline. The findings are consistent with rational and efficient markets.
Tim18p, a New Subunit of the TIM22 Complex That Mediates Insertion of Imported Proteins into the Yeast Mitochondrial Inner Membrane

ABSTRACT Import of carrier proteins from the cytoplasm into the mitochondrial inner membrane of yeast is mediated by a distinct system consisting of two soluble 70-kDa protein complexes in the intermembrane space and a 300-kDa complex in the inner membrane, the TIM22 complex. The TIM22 complex contains the peripheral subunits Tim9p, Tim10p, and Tim12p and the integral membrane subunits Tim22p and Tim54p. We identify here an additional subunit, an 18-kDa integral membrane protein termed Tim18p. This protein is made as a 21.9-kDa precursor which is imported into mitochondria and processed to its mature form. When mitochondria are gently solubilized, Tim18p comigrates with the other subunits of the TIM22 complex on nondenaturing gels and is coimmunoprecipitated with Tim54p and Tim12p. Tim18p does not cofractionate with the TIM23 complex upon immunoprecipitation or nondenaturing gel electrophoresis. Deletion of Tim18p decreases the growth rate of yeast cells by a factor of two and is synthetically lethal with temperature-sensitive mutations in Tim9p or Tim10p. It also impairs the import of several precursor proteins into isolated mitochondria, and lowers the apparent mass of the TIM22 complex. We suggest that Tim18p functions in the assembly and stabilization of the TIM22 complex but does not directly participate in protein insertion into the inner membrane.
Causal relationship between stock returns and real economic growth in the pre- and post-crisis period: evidence from China

This article empirically examines the causality in mean and variance between stock returns and real economic growth in China before and after the outbreak of US subprime crisis. Using a nonuniform weighting cross-correlation approach and the multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model, we found no causality in mean or variance between China’s stock returns and real economic growth for the period before the subprime crisis. Interestingly, however, in the period after the crisis, we detected unidirectional causality in mean from real economic growth to stock returns and unidirectional causality in variance from stock returns to real economic growth. These new findings imply that the linkage between China’s stock market and its real economy has become stronger in the post-crisis period. The implication of our results is that Chinese policymakers should continue the deregulation and improve the efficiency of the stock market to sustain high economic growth rate in the future.