Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Maintenance of Extreme Amino Acid Diversity at the Disease Resistance Gene, RPP13, in Arabidopsis thaliana

We have used the naturally occurring plant-parasite system of Arabidopsis thaliana and its common parasite Peronospora parasitica (downy mildew) to study the evolution of resistance specificity in the host population. DNA sequence of the resistance gene, RPP13, from 24 accessions, including 20 from the United Kingdom, revealed amino acid sequence diversity higher than that of any protein coding gene reported so far in A. thaliana. A significant excess of amino acid polymorphism segregating within this species is localized within the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain of RPP13. These results indicate that single alleles of the gene have not swept through the population, but instead, a diverse collection of alleles have been maintained. Transgenic complementation experiments demonstrate functional differences among alleles in their resistance to various pathogen isolates, suggesting that the extreme amino acid polymorphism in RPP13 is maintained through continual reciprocal selection between host and pathogen.
High-dose zolpidem dependence - Psychostimulant effects? A case report and literature review

Zolpidem, an imidazoline nonbenzodiazepine sedative drug, is used widely. Initial reports showed minimal abuse potential. However, multiple reports have appeared of dose escalation and abuse. Subjective effects of high-dose zolpidem are not known. In light of accumulating evidence of abuse potential, we hereby report a case of high-dose dependence and a review of relevant literature. A 33-year-old male presented with 5 years of daily use of 600–1700 mg of zolpidem tartrate. He reported subjective effects of euphoria, intense craving, and inability to stop use. Loss of receptor specificity, pharmacokinetic factors, and different receptor distributions can explain paradoxical stimulatory effects of high-dose zolpidem. Further studies are required to characterize subjective effects of high-dose zolpidem.
Electrophysiological Study Characteristics in Patients With and Without Ebstein Anomaly With Accessory Pathway

Background: Ebstein's anomaly (EA) is a life-threatening rhythm disturbance, which is not frequent early in life. Symptomatic patients are well treated with radiofrequency catheter ablation. Objectives: We assessed the prevalence, history and treatment of arrhythmias, in particular pre-excitation and Wol-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome to provide a guide for ablation according to the results of electrophysiology study (EPS) and electrocardiogram (ECG) in patients with and without EA. PatientsandMethods: Forty-five patients with and without EA with accessory pathway had referred to our tertiary research center be- tween 2004 and 2010. The two groups underwent 12 lead ECG at rest and QRS duration, PR interval, P wave amplitude, and all arrhythmia accidents and diagnostic pre-stimulation factors were measured. The EPS were performed and the reports were determined according A-H interval, H-V interval, and maximum delta to peak R, PR/Max delta to peak R before and after ablation. Results: Fifty-four patients were enrolled (29 cases with EA (60% male; mean age: 29.07 12.3; P > 0.05)). Out of 29 cases with EA, 51.7% had pre-excitation (WPW), which were included in our study and the remaining had EA without Wol-Parkinson-Wh ite (WPW). Wol-Parkinson-Wh ite was diagnosed in all patients without anomaly. Mean amplitude of P wave in patients with and without EA were 0.14 0.07 and 0.10 0.03, respectively (P = 0.04). The PR interval before and after ablation in patients with and without Ebstein anomaly was 104.53 23.91 and 182.67 41.5, respectively (P < 0.05). The QRS mean after ablation in EA and non-EA in both groups was 131.53 29.7 and 100 16.8, respectively (P < 0.05). A-H interval mean before and after ablation in EA and non EA were 101.93 vs.79.68 and 111.53 39.58, and 79.68 21.7 vs. 81.36 20 respectively, however after the ablation the results were statistically significant (P = 0.01). Regarding accessory pathway in EA and non-EA; 73.3% and 84% had right posteroseptal AP; 6.66% and 12% had right anteroseptal AP; 13.3% and 4% had right free wall AP. Conclusion: In EA patients with accessory pathway, the most common location was right posterolateral. Comparison of the EPS be- tween cases with and without anomaly showed no significant relationship regarding most of the EPS criteria. Since EA patients have a high potential for developing tachyarrhythmias, which is the most prevalent reason for death; diagnosis and treatment of those pa- tients is critical.
Analog Circuit Feasibility Modeling using Support Vector Machine with Efficient Kernel Functions

Performance Macromodeling facilitates accelerated analog circuit synthesis. It usually consist of two steps: feasibility design space identification and performance macromodels generation. A feasibility design space is defined as a multidimensional space in which every design satisfies all the design constraints. The minimum set of constraints is the one that ensures the correct functionality of the given circuit topology. Performance macromodels are only constructed and thereby valid in the functionally correct design space. Support vector machines (SVMs) are used as classifier to identify the feasible design space of analog circuits. A kernel is an integral part of the SVM and contributes in obtaining an optimized and accurate classifier. The most commonly used kernels are Radial Basis Function (RBF), polynomial, spline, multilayer perceptron. In this paper, some new kernels and some other kernels composed through modifications on the some of the standard kernels, are explored. The classifiers using these kernel functions have been tested on different analog circuits in order to identify the feasible design space. HSPICE has been used for generation of learning data. Least Square SVM toolbox interfaced with MATLAB was used for classification. We found that use of modified kernels improves classification accuracy as well as shortens classifier generation time.
The Importance of Different Forms of Social Capital for Health

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the concept of social capital and to distinguish its different forms, focusing on their potential effects on health. According to many scholars, social capital comprises social networks, norms of reciprocity or social support and social trust. In this article the core element, the social network, has been further distinguished by the direction of ties and levels of formality, strength and diversity. In the past few years there has been increased interest in social capital in the health field and a great deal of research has suggested that social capital is generally positively related to health. However, little research has been conducted into how different forms of social capital or social networks influence health. What is the difference, for instance, between bonding and bridging social capital in terms of health outcomes? It is important to distinguish the different forms because they imply different resources, support and obligations. More research needs to be conducted into the different forms of social capital and their effects on health. A special focus should be placed on the health impacts of cross-cutting — or bridging and linking — forms of social capital.
Business and British Decolonisation: Sir Ronald Prain, the Mining Industry and the Central African Federation

One of the most intractable challenges to emerge during British decolonisation was the need to reconcile the competing political aspirations of settler and African populations in Central Africa. During the 1950s Britain sought to construct a ‘multiracial’ Central African Federation, financed largely by Northern Rhodesia's copper industry. Of the two major mining groups involved, the Rhodesian Selection Trust, under the chairmanship of Sir Ronald Prain, arguably played an important and unusual role in the Federation's politics and eventual demise. Having supported the Federation at its inception, Prain quickly reassessed the Federal project and concluded that its expected benefits had failed to materialise, and that a new political orientation was necessary for Northern Rhodesia, his companies' host country. Whereas expatriate business interests were often ‘weak’ political actors during decolonisation, Prain, through pragmatic readjustment, evolved a forward-thinking strategy of accommodation to the rise of African nationalism, and to the corresponding eclipse of settler power. Adapting with unusual success to political change, he became actively involved in the political developments which led to Zambian independence in 1964.
Hybrid critiquing-based recommender systems

We propose a novel critiquing-based recommender interface, the hybrid critiquing interface that integrates the user self-motivated critiquing facility to compensate for the limitations of system-proposed critiques. The results from our user study show that the integration of such self-motivated critiquing support enables users to achieve a higher level of decision accuracy while consuming less cognitive effort. In addition, users expressed higher subjective opinions of the hybrid critiquing interface than the interface simply providing system-proposed critiques, and they would more likely return to it for future use.
5G on Board: How Many Antennas Do We Need on Connected Cars?

Mobile networks will support increasing numbers of connected vehicles. Successive generations of mobile networks have reduced the cost of data rate, in terms of spectrum usage and power consumption at the base station, by increasingly exploiting the concept of channel state information at the transmitter. Unfortunately, beyond a limiting velocity (which depends on the carrier frequency), networks are no longer cost efficient, since such information is not usable. Recently, channel prediction techniques requiring several antennas on the car roof have been introduced to solve this problem. In this paper, for the first time, we determine the most cost efficient configurations, in terms of numbers of antennas on the car roof and carrier frequency, in various scenarios (highway and dense urban). Our studies show that with a simple prediction technique based on predictor antennas, the network can use twice less spectrum and around 20 dB less power, for cars with 3 antennas on their tops than for cars with the same number of antennas and not using prediction.
Reduction of broad-spectrum antibiotic use with computerized decision support in an intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE To implement and evaluate the effect of a computerized decision support tool on antibiotic use in an intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN Prospective before-and-after cohort study. SETTING Twenty-four bed tertiary hospital adult medical/surgical ICU. PARTICIPANTS All consecutive patients from May 2001 to November 2001 (N = 524) and March 2002 to September 2002 (N = 536). INTERVENTION A real-time microbiology browser and computerized decision support system for isolate directed antibiotic prescription. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Number of courses of antibiotic prescribed, antibiotic utilization (defined daily doses (DDDs)/100 ICU bed-days), antibiotic susceptibility mismatches, and system uptake. RESULTS There was a significant reduction in the proportion of patients prescribed carbapenems [odds ratio (OR) = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.39-0.97, P = 0.04], third-generation cephalosporins (OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.42-0.79, P = 0.001), and vancomycin (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.45-1.00, P = 0.05) after adjustment for risk factors including Apache II score, suspected infection, positive microbiology, intubation, and length of stay. The decision support tool was associated with a 10.5% reduction in both total antibiotic utilization (166-149 DDDs/100 ICU bed days) and the highest volume broad-spectrum antibiotics. There were fewer susceptibility mismatches for initial antibiotic therapy (OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.39-0.98, P = 0.02) and increased de-escalation to narrower spectrum antibiotics. Uptake of the program was high with 6028 access episodes during the 6-month evaluation period. CONCLUSIONS This tool streamlined collation and clinical use of microbiology results and integrated into the daily ICU workflow. Its introduction was accompanied by a reduction in both total and broad-spectrum antibiotic use and an increase in the number of switches to narrower spectrum antibiotics.
Balance Control of a Bikebot for Studying Human Dynamic Postural Balance Motor Control

We present the development of the gyroscopicbalanced control of an autonomous bikebot. The bikebot is an actively controlled bicycle-based robotic platform developed to study human dynamic postural balance motor skills through unstable physical human-robot interactions. We first present a dynamic model and analysis for the bikebot. A nonlinear balancing controller is designed to stabilize the underactuated bikebot on an orbital trajectory around the unstable equilibrium point that is coupled with another orbit of the actuated gyro-balancer. We demonstrate the analysis and control design with experimental validations. Finally, we present a set of human riding experiments to show how the bikebot can be used to perturb and excite human sensorimotor feedback loop for dynamic postural balance motor skills.
Therapeutic monoclonal antibody for sporotrichosis

Sporotrichosis is a chronic subcutaneous mycosis that affects both humans and animals worldwide. This subcutaneous mycosis had been attributed to a single etiological agent, Sporothrix schenckii. S. schenckii exhibits considerable genetic variability, and recently, it was suggested that this taxon consists of a complex of species. Sporotrichosis is caused by traumatic inoculation of the fungus, which is a ubiquitous environmental saprophyte that can be isolated from soil and plant debris. The infection is limited to cutaneous forms, but recently, more severe clinical forms of this mycosis have been described, especially among immunocompromised individuals. The immunological mechanisms involved in the prevention and control of sporotrichosis are not well understood. Some studies suggest that cell-mediated immunity plays an important role in protecting the host against S. schenckii. In contrast, the role of the humoral immune response in protection against this fungus has not been studied in detail. In a previous study, we showed that antigens secreted by S. schenckii induced a specific humoral response in infected animals, primarily against a 70-kDa molecule, indicating a possible role of specific antibodies against this molecule in infection control. In another study by our group, we produced a mAb against a 70-kDa glycoprotein of S. schenckii to better understand the effect of the passive immunization of mice infected with S. schenckii. The results showed a significant reduction in the number of CFUs in various mice organs when the mAb was injected before or during S. schenckii infection. Similar results were observed when T-cell-deficient mice were used. The drugs of choice in the treatment of sporotrichosis require long periods, and relapses are frequently observed, primarily in immunocompromised patients. The strong protection induced by the mAb against a 70-kDa glycoprotein makes it a strong candidate as a therapeutic vaccine against sporotrichosis.
The association of social networks with substance use among homeless men in Los Angeles who have unprotected sex with women

Abstract This study examined the association between social network characteristics and heavy drinking and crack use among homeless men who had unprotected sex with women. This study focused on network members with whom homeless men used substances. Of 305 randomly selected homeless men in Los Angeles, California, 182 participants who had unprotected sex with women during the previous 6 months were included in the final analysis. To obtain social network data, respondents were asked to provide the first names of 20 individuals they had contact with during the previous 6 months. In the final multivariate logistic regression model, social network characteristics were examined as possible influences on heavy drinking and crack use. The likelihood of heavy drinking was significantly increased by the proportion of network members with whom homeless men used alcohol. Likelihood of crack use was also associated with the proportion of network members with whom the respondent used drugs. Results indicated that using alcohol and drugs with network members increased the odds of heavy drinking and crack use among participants. Interventions to reduce substance use among homeless men who have unprotected sex may help them reduce ties with individuals with whom they drink and use drugs.
Characterizing affective instability in borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE This study sought to understand affective instability among patients with borderline personality disorder by examining the degree of instability in six affective domains. The authors also examined the subjective intensity with which moods are experienced and the association between instability and intensity of affect. METHOD In a group of 152 patients with personality disorders, subjective affective intensity and six dimensions of affective instability were measured. The mean scores for lability and intensity for each affective domain for patients with borderline personality disorder were compared with those of patients with other personality disorders through analyses that controlled for other axis I affective disorders, age, and sex. RESULTS Greater lability in terms of anger and anxiety and oscillation between depression and anxiety, but not in terms of oscillation between depression and elation, was associated with borderline personality disorder. Contrary to expectation, the experience of an increase in subjective affective intensity was not more prominent in patients with borderline personality disorder than in those with other personality disorders. CONCLUSIONS By applying a finer-grained perspective on affective instability than those of previous personality disorder studies, this study points to patterns of affective experience characteristic of patients with borderline personality disorder.
Epichloë typhina from toxic tall fescue grasses

Epichloë typhina, a clavicipitaceous systemic phytopathogen, was isolated from two varieties and three hybrids of tall fescue (Festuca arundinaceae). The morphology of the fescue isolates was compared with E. typhina isolated from bent grass (Agrostis perennans). In all isolates, conidia were identical and were typical of E. typhina. In fescue grasses the endophyte failed to produce stromata, but on bent grass the fungus seasonally produced stromata, typical of the genus. Cattle grazing the fescue grasses showed signs of the fescue toxicity syndrome, the E. typhina was found in frequencies of 100%; in grasses from pastures in which cattle showed no signs of the syndrome, frequencies were 0 to 50%. Nutritional factors in vitro were more complex for the isolates from fescue than for the isolate from bent grass. These studies suggested that E. typhina includes biotypes that might be involved in the toxicity syndrome. The fescue biotypes grew poorly on media, and yields were inadequate for toxicity studies. However, the bent grass isolate grew well on three media, and extracts from two of these were toxic to chicken embryos. All isolates produced in vitro the nontoxic fungal steroid tetraenone [ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one], which has been isolated from toxic fescue grasses.
Kapitza dielectric metamaterials

We theoretically investigate the homogenization of the dielectric response of Kapitza dielectric metamaterials, i.e. materials hosting a subwavelength periodic grating whose depth scales as the large wavelength to modulation period ratio. We show that the standard effective medium theory is inadequate to describe the propagation in the considered metamaterials and, most importantly, a novel regime of diffractionless propagation occurs for transverse magnetic waves.
‘Yours in Struggle for Majimbo’. Nationalism and the Party Politics of Decolonization in Kenya, 1955-64

Since the ending of colonial rule, the struggle for independence in Kenya has been seen as a triumph for the nationalist politics of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the party that was victorious in the 1963 elections and held power until 2002. This article returns to the party politics of decolonization to reconsider the alternative vision of Kenya’s future then promoted by KANU’s rival party, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU). KADU supported majimboism (regionalism), a proposal for decentralization in which six or more provinces would each have equal status. In the heated politics of the early 1960s, majimboists were derided by KANU as tribalists. Under the de facto one-party state of Kenyatta’s KANU government, the majimboist cause was obscured by the nationalist project. This article returns to the forgotten history of majimboism to argue that the debates of the early 1960s remain relevant in contemporary Kenya. It outlines the politics of the majimbo debate of the 1960s to argue that regionalism was rooted in a colonial system of political mobilization. Those who supported majimboism were minorities, both African and European, fearing economic domination because of the underdevelopment of their regions, or political exclusion in a nation state dominated by more populous ethnic groups. The electoral politics of region and nation took shape within KADU and KANU respectively. The article goes on to analyse the importance of the Regional Boundaries Commission of 1962 in consolidating public support behind the two parties. The conclusion examines the revival of majimboism in the re-emergence of multi-party politics during the 1990s. Many of the constitutional claims made by KADU in the early 1960s are now again under consideration by the National Rainbow Coalition (NaRC) government, and majimboist ideas can be heard from KANU, now in opposition. Majimboism reflects a fundamental tension between region and nation that was not adequately addressed in the independence settlement. Its current revival highlights the limitations of the colonial model of government that Kenya retained. For that reason, regionalism may yet be a more enduring political project than was nationalism.
Transference patterns in the therapeutic relationship in supportive-expressive psychotherapy for depression

The construct of transference has been central to theories of dynamic psychotherapy. This investigation evaluated the similarity between patients' interpersonal themes, derived from pretreatment interpersonal interviews, and the theme evident in psychotherapy narratives about the therapist for 18 patients treated in supportive-expressive psychotherapy for major depression. This investigation was designed to sort out the potential confound of the therapist's influence on the report of interpersonal themes and to explore how transference might vary over the course of therapy. The results indicated that 33% of patients demonstrated a significant relation between the most pervasive theme evident from the pretreatment narratives and the narratives about the therapist. These results remained consistent when early and late session therapist narratives were evaluated separately. Further, patients rated with higher quality of interpersonal relationships and lower symptoms prior to treatment demonstrated greater similarity between their pretreatment interpersonal themes and the theme described in the therapeutic relationship.