Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active Infection of Human Blood Monocytes by Chikungunya Virus Triggers an Innate Immune Response

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus that causes chronic and incapacitating arthralgia in humans. To date, interactions between the immune system and the different stages of the virus life cycle remain poorly defined. We demonstrated for the first time that CHIKV Ags could be detected in vivo in the monocytes of acutely infected patients. Using in vitro experimental systems, whole blood and purified monocytes, we confirmed that monocytes could be infected and virus growth could be sustained. CHIKV interactions with monocytes, and with other blood leukocytes, induced a robust and rapid innate immune response with the production of specific chemokines and cytokines. In particular, high levels of IFN-α were produced rapidly after CHIKV incubation with monocytes. The identification of monocytes during the early phase of CHIKV infection in vivo is significant as infected monocyte/macrophage cells have been detected in the synovial tissues of chronically CHIKV-infected patients, and these cells may behave as the vehicles for virus dissemination. This may explain the persistence of joint symptoms despite the short duration of viremia. Our results provide a better understanding on the basic mechanisms of infection and early antiviral immune responses and will help in the development of future effective control strategies.
Rethinking the Exchange Rate Impact on Trade in a World with Global Value Chains

ABSTRACT Global value chains (GVCs) are a prominent feature of global production and trading systems. Using the OECD-WTO database on trade in value added, this paper examines the exchange rate elasticities of GVC-related exports and imports and compares them with elasticities for trade in traditonal goods. We find that a real depreciation raises both the foreign and domestic value-added content of GVC-related exports. The size of these elasticities is found to be smaller when the import content of GVC exports is larger. Among the key policy implications of these results is that exchange rate changes by small contributors of value added have little effect on their own production or the production of their supply chain partners. On the other hand, large contributors to the value-added of the final product create spillovers to their smaller supply chain partners, obviating traditional beggar-thy-neighbor concerns.
Experimental Observation of van Hove Singularities in Quasi‐1D MoO2 Nanotubes

Currently, a major challenge of investigating nanostructured materials lies in demonstrating exotic properties and outstanding performance through control of the structure and morphology. In particular, the density of states of each sub‐band diverges when solid semiconductors transit into 1D materials, which results in a special distribution know as a van Hove singularity (VH). However, there are no reports on the existence of VHs in 1D materials other than carbon nanotubes. Quasi‐1D MoO2 nanotubes with large aspect ratio are synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method. The VHs in the density of states are demonstrated by characterizing the multiple peaks in absorbance and fluorescence spectra, which is the first time that the existence of VHs in oxide nanotubes has been experimentally demonstrated. Detailed analysis indicates that the bandgap energies in the VH structure are strongly correlated with the nanotube diameter. It is believed that this work will be significant for further understanding of electronic structures in 1D materials, which will also promote their potential applications in related fields, particularly optoelectronics.
Characterization of patient-specific biventricular mechanics in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: Hyperelastic warping

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) is considered as a major public health problem. Traditionally, HFPEF is diagnosed based on a “normal” EF, but the studies have explored the potential role of left ventricular mechanics. Furthermore, right ventricular mechanics and bi-ventricular interaction in HFPEF is currently not well understood. In this study, we aim to develop a framework using a hyperelastic warping approach to quantify bi-ventricular and septum strains from cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images. Whole heart models were reconstructed in HFPEF, HF with reduced EF (HFREF) and normal control patients, and a Laplace-Dirichlet Rule-Based (LDRB) algorithm was employed to assign circumferential orientation. The LV circumferential strain was 10.56% in normal control, and decreased to 5.90% in HFPEF and 1.66% in HFREF. Interestingly, the RV circumferential strain was 7.29% in normal control, but increased to 8.93% in HFPEF, and decreased to 2.16% in HFREF. The septum circumferential strain was comparable between HFPEF and normal control. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction demonstrated augmented right ventricular strain and comparable septum strain to maintain its “normal” ejection fraction. This might unveil a new mechanism of bi-ventricular interaction and compensation in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Aqueous Extracts from Unripe Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) Products Inhibit Key Enzymes Linked with Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension in vitro

Mature green plantains bought at Oja-Oba in Akure were roasted into a local meal called ‘boli’ while another portion was boiled in water. Each of the samples was sun dried and milled into flour. The aqueous extracts of roasted and boiled were prepared (10g/100mL). The study was based on inhibition of α-amylase, α-glucosidase and angiotensin 1 converting enzyme (ACE). The antioxidant activities of the plantain extracts to reduce Fe 3+ to Fe 2+ and to bind to iron (II) ions were evaluated. The phenolic contents (total phenol and total flavonoid), vitamin C and ABTS (2,2’-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline–6sulfonic acid) were also determined. The results revealed that the boiled flour had higher (P < 0.05) phenolic contents and reducing power while the roasted flour had higher Vitamin C content but there was no significant difference between the
An Integrated Approach for Resilience in Industrial Control Systems

New generations of industrial control systems offer higher performance, they are distributed, and it is very likely that they are internet connected in one way or another. These trends raise new challenges in the contexts of reliability and security. We propose a novel approach that tackles the complexity of industrial control systems at design time and run time. At design time our target is to ease the configuration and verification of controller configurations through model-driven engineering techniques together with the contract-based design paradigm. At run time the information from design time is reused in order to support a modular and distributed self-adaptive software system that aims to increase reliability and security. The industrial setting of the presented approach are control devices for hydropower plant units.
Does the Popular Vote Destroy Civil Rights

In her paper "Putting Civil Rights to a Popular Vote" (American Journal of Political Science 41:245-69), Barbara S. Gamble addresses the central and classical issue of whether the majority tyrannizes the minority in a (direct) democracy. She tests the hypothesis that " . civil rights opponents who have access to the initiative process will use direct democracy to thwart civil rights" (246). On the basis of seventy-four civil rights initiatives in state and local ballots covering five issue areas (housing and public accommodation of racial minorities, school segregation, gay rights, English language laws, and AIDS policies) between 1959 and 1993, she comes to a firm conclusion: ". the answer is quite clear . anti-civil rights initiatives have an extraordinary record of success: voters have approved over three-quarters of these. This pattern holds across all three decades and across all but one of the issue areas . " (261). We challenge this central conclusion. While Gamble may be right for the period and issues investigated by her for the United States, we find the opposite result for Switzerland where three-quarters of the referenda held worldwide were undertaken (see Butler and Ranney (1994) for an analysis of Swiss democratic institutions, see e.g., Linder 1994; Steiner 1974). In this comment, we do not question her methodological approach. We show that considering the same type of civil rights issues put to the vote at the Swiss federal level as well as the cantonal and city level (for the case of Zurich), direct democracy protects civil rights. Moreover, we identify conditions under which minority interests have a particularly high probability of success. These may partly explain the striking difference between Gamble's results and ours.
Theory-Driven Reverse Engineering of Organisations

Driven by the strong demand for reusable yet situational business solutions on the one side and thenecessity to provide a stable, reliant foundation that allows to adapt the supporting informationsystems in a systematic way on the other side, the need for a closer link between relevant theoriesand successful practices for the design of enterprise information systems becomes evident. Theaim of the reported research is to provide such a link by means of prescriptive guidelines for theclass of problems concerning the reverse engineering of organisations. The reverse engineering oforganisations aims at deriving at the ontological models of organisations, which build the basis forthe design and engineering of information systems supporting the business needs. An ontologicalmodel as used in the presented research is defined as the highest-level constructional model of anorganisation, which is fully independent of its implementation. The prescriptive guidelines forreverse engineering presented in this paper are derived from the ? -theory (the Greek letter ? ispronounced PSI, which stands for Performance in Social Interaction), the theory that underliesthe notion of Enterprise Ontology. This theory regards organisations as social systems and sees ITsystems as support for social actors in performing coordination-related activities and productionrelatedactivities. In this paper we focus specifically on recommendations based on the ? -theoryconcerning the coupling of two types of enterprise models in order to derive at ontological modelsof organisations. The first type of models are derived by applying the Design and EngineeringMethodology for Organisations (DEMO) and the second type of models are derived by applying theArchitecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS).
Comparison of dynamic flow models for the Central Aleutian and Tonga‐Kermadec subduction zones

Using three‐dimensional (3‐D) instantaneous dynamic models of the Central Aleutian subduction zone, we show that a low viscosity, low density (δρ = 10 kg/m3) region in the wedge is needed to match observations of topography, the geoid and the stress‐state in the slab and overriding plate. Previous models of the Tonga‐Kermadec subduction zone also require a low viscosity, low density (δρ = 20 kg/m3) region in the wedge. A low viscosity region in the wedge decouples the overriding plate from the downward flow in the wedge caused by the sinking slab, reducing the magnitude of negative dynamic topography on the overriding plate and changing the state of stress in the slab from down‐dip tension to down‐dip compression. If the low viscosity region is large, as in the Tonga‐Kermadec models, then the decoupling may also cause the overriding plate to go into extension. These are the first dynamic models to simultaneously match the state of stress in the slab and overriding plate and suggest that the combination of stress state within the slab and overriding plate may provide an additional constraint on the viscosity structure within subduction zones.
Crestal approach for maxillary sinus augmentation in patients with ≤ 4 mm of residual alveolar bone.

PURPOSE Less morbidity is the major advantage to a one-stage crestal approach to maxillary sinus elevation. However, the ability to ensure high primary implant stability in a severely atrophied ridge is of chief concern. The purpose of this study is to measure and compare the success rate of implants placed at the time of crestal approach sinus lift in patients with ≤ 4 mm of residual alveolar bone (RAB) and >4 mm of RAB. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this three-site multicenter study, one hundred two patients, 53 males and 49 females, (23-89 years old; mean = 56.2) were evaluated. Three experienced surgeons (>15 years) performed the crestal approach sinus lift microsurgeries with simultaneous implant placement. At baseline and at the follow-up appointments, calibrated examiners measured radiographic interproximal bone level using ImageJ for Windows after calibration of the radiographs. References for the bone level measurements were the platform, first and second threads of the implants. Statistical analyses, using STATA version 12, stratified patients according to RAB height (group 1: RAB of ≤ 4 mm; n = 35 and group 2: RAB > 4 mm; n = 67), age, gender, and treatment center. RESULTS The success rate was 100% for group 1 and 98.51% for group 2 at 6 to 100 months postprosthetic loading (mean = 29.7 months). The peri-implant bone loss averaged 0.55 mm (interquartile range [IQR] = 0.5 [0-1]) in group 1 and 0.07 mm (IQR = 0 [0-0]) in group 2. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Clinical outcomes were independent of age, gender, and treatment center. CONCLUSIONS The RAB height did not increase crestal bone loss or reduce the success rate of the implants and associated prostheses. The crestal approach should be considered a viable technique for use in patients with residual bone height of ≤ 4 mm and merits further evaluation.
An Updated Process Model for Carbon Oxidation, Nitrification, and Denitrification

The currently available comprehensive activated sludge models, ASM#1 ( Grady et al., 1986 ) and its successor ASM#3 ( Gujer et al., 1999 ), do not adequately describe nitrification and denitrification, with respect to ammonia oxidation inhibition, nitrite accumulation, or emissions of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide. A new comprehensive activated sludge process model, the Activated Sludge Model for Nitrogen (ASMN), is presented. The ASMN incorporates two nitrifying populations—ammonia‐oxidizing bacteria and nitrite‐oxidizing bacteria—using free ammonia and free nitrous acid, respectively, as their true substrates. The ASMN incorporates four‐step denitrification (sequential reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas via nitrite, nitric oxide, and nitrous oxide) using individual, reaction‐specific parameters. Simulation results for ammonia, nitrate, soluble substrate, and biomass concentrations determined by using ASMN for three activated sludge process configurations under steady‐state and dynamic municipal‐type influent conditions are shown to be comparable with ASM#1 results.
Research of avalanche effect of the 3GPP integrity algorithm f9

The avalanche effect is an important security property that any Integrity algorithm must have. With implementing integrity algorithm f9 in C++ program, we test and analyze the avalanche effect of algorithm f9 by means of giving the respectively changed MAC-I bit numbers when changing one bit of the key or message in turn. The result shows that the f9 algorithm has very good avalanche effect property.
In a long-term experimental demography study, excluding ungulates reversed invader's explosive population growth rate and restored natives

Significance In ecosystems worldwide, the presence of overabundant ungulates (e.g. deer, cows) and the invasion of exotic plants are disrupting native communities. A recent hypothesis causally links these problems implicating overabundant ungulates in enhancing invaders’ demographic success. We tested this hypothesis in a forest where white-tailed deer are overabundant and garlic mustard is aggressively invading. Using long-term, replicated deer exclusion/deer access plot pairs, we quantified population density, growth, and decline of this invader and native plants. We conclusively demonstrate that deer are required for garlic mustard success; its local extinction is projected where deer are absent. Our findings provide the first definitive support connecting overabundant ungulates to enhanced invader success, with broad implications for biodiversity and ecosystem function. A major goal in ecology is to understand mechanisms that increase invasion success of exotic species. A recent hypothesis implicates altered species interactions resulting from ungulate herbivore overabundance as a key cause of exotic plant domination. To test this hypothesis, we maintained an experimental demography deer exclusion study for 6 y in a forest where the native ungulate Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) is overabundant and Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) is aggressively invading. Because population growth is multiplicative across time, we introduce metrics that correctly integrate experimental effects across treatment years, the cumulative population growth rate, λc, and its geometric mean, λper-year, the time-averaged annual population growth rate. We determined λc and λper-year of the invader and of a common native, Trillium erectum. Our results conclusively demonstrate that deer are required for the success of Alliaria; its projected population trajectory shifted from explosive growth in the presence of deer (λper-year = 1.33) to decline toward extinction where deer are excluded (λper-year = 0.88). In contrast, Trillium’s λper-year was suppressed in the presence of deer relative to deer exclusion (λper-year = 1.04 vs. 1.20, respectively). Retrospective sensitivity analyses revealed that the largest negative effect of deer exclusion on Alliaria came from rosette transitions, whereas the largest positive effect on Trillium came from reproductive transitions. Deer exclusion lowered Alliaria density while increasing Trillium density. Our results provide definitive experimental support that interactions with overabundant ungulates enhance demographic success of invaders and depress natives’ success, with broad implications for biodiversity and ecosystem function worldwide.
Moralizing Mobility?: Persuasive Technologies and the Ethics of Mobility

There is a tension in any ethical evaluation of mobility. On the one side mobility is linked to elements of progress, cosmopolitism, autonomy, and freedom. On the other side increasing mobility causes worries with regard to safety and sustainability. This essay analyzes a suggested technical solution to the worries about safety and sustainability: the increasing usage of persuasive technologies to change individual behavior. Can and should we moralize mobility technologies by way of persuasion?
Hypersensitivity Reactions to Contrast Media: Prevalence, Risk Factors and the Role of Skin Tests in Diagnosis – A Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Hypersensitivity to contrast media (CMs) may be common and serious. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of CM hypersensitivity, risk factors associated with it and the role of skin testing in its diagnosis. Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to patients who underwent computed tomography during a 1-year period. Skin tests with CMs, including skin prick tests (SPTs), intradermal tests (IDTs) and patch tests (PTs), were conducted on CM reactors (n = 24). Volunteers who tolerated CM exposure or had never been exposed to any CMs served as controls (n = 37). Results: A total of 1,131 patients (630 females and 501 males; mean age 55 ± 14.2 years) were enrolled in the study. The prevalence of historical and current CM reactors was 33/1,131 (2.92%) and 8/1,105 (0.72%), respectively. The skin was the most affected site, with mild to moderate reactions. Female gender, a history of doctor-diagnosed asthma, drug allergy, food allergy and psychiatric diseases were significant risk factors. The sensitivities of SPTs and early readings of IDTs in the diagnosis of immediate reactions were 0 and 20%, respectively, and the specificities were 94.6 and 91.4%, respectively. For early readings of IDTs, the positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were 40 and 80%, respectively. For nonimmediate reactions, the sensitivities of delayed readings of IDTs and PTs were 14.3 and 25%, respectively; specificity was 100% for both tests. The PPV was 100% for both of these tests, and the NPVs were 85.4 and 82.4%, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings are comparable with the incidence, profile and risk factors associated with CM hypersensitivity reported previously. Skin testing with CMs has a high specificity, but its role in diagnosis is limited due to low sensitivity.
Risk Factors in Children Older Than 5 Years With Pneumococcal Meningitis: Data From a National Network.

BACKGROUND The occurrence of meningitis in children >5 years old may be associated with specific predisposing factors that can be anatomic, such as cerebrospinal fluid fistula or breach, or related to genetic susceptibility or N inborn or acquired immunologic defect. This study aimed to assess the anatomical and immunologic risk factors in children >5 years old with pneumococcal meningitis and prospectively enrolled in the French national meningitis network. METHODS We analyzed all data for children who were 5-15 years old with a diagnosis of pneumococcal meningitis between 2001 and 2013. We describe the frequency and typology of the anatomic or immunologic risk factors, the clinical features and the pneumococcal serotypes. RESULTS Among the 316 patients with pneumococcal meningitis, the mortality rate was 9.5% and 23.1% of cases presented complications (abscess, coma, hemodynamic failure, thrombophlebitis cerebral or deafness). In total, 108 children (34%) showed risk factors, the most frequent being anatomic: 70 cases (22.8%) were related to a cerebrospinal fluid breach or fistula and 55 (17.9%) to immunodeficiency, primary or acquired. Serotype data were available for 207 pneumococcal isolates (65.5%). The most frequent serotypes were as follows: 3, 18C, 19A and 19F between 2001 and 2009 and 19F, 3, 19A, 12F, 22F, 17F and 24F after 2009. CONCLUSIONS We describe the largest cohort of children >5 years old with pneumococcal meningitis. One third of the children had risk factors justifying a complete immunologic and radiologic work-up.
Early growth response‐1 mediates downregulation of telomerase in cervical cancer

Early growth response (Egr)‐1 is a transcription factor that triggers transcription of downstream genes within 15–30 min of various stimulations. These genes are expressed rapidly through specific promoter activation and mediate cell growth and angiogenesis. Following the previous computational identification of a site that was thought to be an Egr‐1 consensus binding site at –273 to –281 in the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter region, the present study was conducted to evaluate the role of Egr‐1 in the regulation of hTERT and telomerase in uterine cervical cancer. First, the expression of Egr‐1 and hTERT at the mRNA level was examined in cervical cancer tissues. Egr‐1 and hTERT were expressed much higher in cervical cancer tissues than in the normal cervix. However, a negative correlation was noted in the expression between Egr‐1 and hTERT. By luciferase assay using hTERT promoter constructs, hTERT transcriptional activation was shown to be inhibited when Egr‐1 was overexpressed. Furthermore, Egr‐1 overexpression decreased hTERT protein production as well as hTERT mRNA as observed by western blotting analysis and real‐time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, respectively. The present study suggests that Egr‐1 plays an important regulatory role in the transcriptional activation of hTERT. (Cancer Sci 2008; 99: 1401–1406)