Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Naturally Occurring Aquatic Organic Fractions on 241Am Uptake by Scenedesmus obliquus (Chlorophyceae) and Aeromonas hydrophila (Pseudomonadaceae)

Naturally occurring organics were extracted from water collected from Skinface Pond near Aiken, S.C. Organics were separated into four nominal diameter size fractions (I, >0.0183; II, 0.0183 to 0.0032; III, 0.0032 to 0.0009; IV, <0.0009 μm) by membrane ultrafiltration and introduced into Scenedesmus obliquus and Aeromonas hydrophila cultures to determine their effects on 241Am availability for uptake. Effects on 241Am uptake were determined in actively growing S. obliquus cultures after 96 h of growth and in dense cultures of nongrowing cells after 4 h. Uptake by A. hydrophila was determined after 4 and 24 h in actively growing cultures. All organic fractions stimulated S. obliquus growth, with the most pronounced effects due to larger organic fractions, whereas no apparent growth stimulation of A. hydrophila was observed for any organic fraction. For both long-term and short-term studies, cellular 241Am concentration (picocuries/cell) increased with increasing 241Am concentration for S. obliquus and A. hydrophila. Fraction IV increased 241Am uptake by both S. obliquus and A. hydrophila during 4-h incubations. During 96-h incubations fraction I was flocculated and cosedimented, with S. obliquus and A. hydrophila cells causing an apparent increase in 241Am uptake. Fractions II and III reduced apparent 241Am uptake by S. obliquus as a result of biological dilution caused by increased algal growth due to the organics. Fraction IV caused a reduction in 241Am uptake by S. obliquus not attributable to biological dilution. Organics increased 241Am uptake by A. hydrophila during 4- and 24-h incubations. A. hydrophila also caused flocculation of fraction I during 96-h incubations.
The Mucosal Adjuvant Macrophage-Activating Lipopeptide-2 Directly Stimulates B Lymphocytes via the TLR2 without the Need of Accessory Cells 1

The macrophage-activating lipopeptide-2 (MALP-2) is an agonist of the TLR heterodimer 2/6, which exhibits potent activity as mucosal adjuvant, promoting strong humoral and cellular responses. Although B cells expressing TLR2/6 are potential targets, very little is known about the effect of MALP-2 on B cells. Studies were performed using total spleen cells or purified B cells from WT mice or animals deficient in TLR2, T cells, B cells, or specific subpopulations of B cells. They demonstrated that MALP-2 promotes a T cell-independent activation and maturation of B cells (mainly follicular but also B-1a and marginal zone B cells) via TLR2. MALP-2 also increased the frequency of IgM- and IgG-secreting cells, but bystander cells were required for IgA secretion. Activated B cells exhibited increased expression of activation markers and ligands that are critical for cross-talk with T cells (CD19, CD25, CD80, CD86, MHC I, MHC II, and CD40). Immunization of mice lacking T cells showed that MALP-2-mediated stimulation of TLR2/6 was unable to circumvent the need of T cell help for efficient Ag-specific B cell activation. Immunization of mice lacking B cells demonstrated that B cells are critical for MALP-2-dependent improvement of T cell responses. The knowledge emerging from this work suggests that MALP-2-mediated activation of B cells through TLR2/6 is critical for adjuvanticity. B cell stimulation by pattern recognition receptors seems to be a basic mechanism that can be exploited to improve the immunogenicity of vaccine formulations.
A comparative study of ordinary and fastidious customers’ priorities in service quality dimensions

The current study aims to prioritise service quality dimensions (SQDs) for hotels through a two-step procedure: firstly, by forming congruent groups of customers based on their level of expectations as well as perceptions of service; and secondly, by prioritising SQDs for each group and analysing the results. To reach that aim, the customers of three four-star hotels were targeted and asked to report on the quality of the service they expected to receive prior to its delivery as well as their feelings towards the service after they received it. Then, using data envelopment analysis we discriminated the majority of customers, those who were satisfied more easily (ordinary customers), from the ones who were harder to please (fastidious customers). Finally, we exploited Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution and Shannon Entropy to prioritise SQDs for each group. The approach taken in this paper, which first distinguishes two groups of fastidious from ordinary customers based on their expectations and perceptions, is rather noble. Findings revealed that the two groups do not value different dimensions of service quality in a similar way. The results of this study can provide insightful guidance for the hoteliers to customise their service and exploit their resources more efficiently.
Transmission characteristic of electromagnetic wave between the ground and the air

When an electromagnetic wave comes into the ground from the air, it drops vertically from an incident point. Vice versa, an electromagnetic wave directs 45° from an incident point when it transmits into the air from the ground. The direction of transmission from the ground to the air has an useful meaning in that a sort of cavity phenomenon occurs in the area of just right over the source in the ground due to its obliqueness. This means that the effect of electromagnetic field decreases in that area. When an interference to another source in the air is analyzed, this phenomenon is worthwhile to be considered.
WR-3 Band Integrated Circuits in InP HBT Technology

This paper presents a review of WR-3 band monolithic integrated circuits developed in an InP HBT technology. Envisioning potential applications of terahertz such as short-distance communication, imaging or spectroscopy, various circuit blocks are presented, including power amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, phase shifter, and switch. The design guideline and measurement result of each circuit are provided. Finally, WR-3 band heterodyne transmitter and receiver chips are introduced.
Deletion analysis of the fis promoter region in Escherichia coli: antagonistic effects of integration host factor and Fis

Fis is a small DNA-binding and -bending protein in Escherichia coli that is involved in several different biological processes, including stimulation of specialized DNA recombination events and regulation of gene expression. fis protein and mRNA levels rapidly increase during early logarithmic growth phase in response to a nutritional upshift but become virtually undetectable during late logarithmic and stationary phases. We present evidence that the growth phase-dependent fis expression pattern is not determined by changes in mRNA stability, arguing in favor of regulation at the level of transcription. DNA deletion analysis of the fis promoter (fis P) region indicated that DNA sequences from -166 to -81, -36 to -26, and +107 to +366 relative to the transcription start site are required for maximum expression. A DNA sequence resembling the integration host factor (IHF) binding site centered approximately at -114 showed DNase I cleavage protection by IHF. In ihf cells, maximum cellular levels of fis mRNA were decreased more than 3-fold and transcription from fis P on a plasmid was decreased about 3.8-fold compared to those in cells expressing wild-type IHF. In addition, a mutation in the ihf binding site resulted in a 76 and 61% reduction in transcription from fis P on a plasmid in the presence or absence of Fis, respectively. Insertions of 5 or 10 bp between this ihf site and fis P suggest that IHF functions in a position-dependent manner. We conclude that IHF plays a role in stimulating transcription from fis P by interacting with a site centered approximately at -114 relative to the start of transcription. We also showed that although the fis P region contains six Fis binding sites, Fis site II (centered at -42) played a predominant role in autoregulation, Fis sites I and III (centered at +26 and -83, respectively) seemingly played smaller roles, and no role in negative autoregulation could be attributed to Fis sites IV, V, and VI (located upstream of site III). The fis P region from -36 to +7, which is not directly regulated by either IHF or Fis, retained the characteristic fis regulation pattern in response to a nutritional upshift.
Intermediate versus low or high prostate-specific antigen density level: Comparison of cancer detection rate between 12- and 18-core prostate biopsy

Abstract Objective. To compare the diagnostic values of 12- and 18-core biopsies with respect to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, prostate volumes (PV) and prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD). Material and methods. Transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies were performed on 233 patients at a single tertiary academic center. Patients were prospectively randomized to the two protocols (12 or 18 core). The cancer detection rates achieved using these two methods were analyzed at different PSA levels, PVs and PSADs. Results. Considering PSA level and PV simultaneously, patients were stratified into four groups (group A: PSA < 7 ng/ml and PV ≥ 45 cm3; group B: PSA < 7 ng/ml and PV < 45 cm3; group C: PSA ≥ 7 ng/ml and PV ≥ 45 cm3; group D: PSA ≥ 7 ng/ml and PV < 45 cm3). 18-core biopsy had a higher cancer detection rate than 12-core biopsy only in group C (55.2% vs 24.1%, p = 0.015). The 233 patients were also stratified into three groups according to PSAD level: the low PSAD group (PSAD < 0.15 ng/ml/cm3), the intermediate PSAD group (0.15 ng/ml/cm3 ≤ PSAD < 0.25 ng/ml/cm3) and the high PSAD group (PSAD ≥ 0.25 ng/ml/cm3). In the intermediate PSAD group, 18-core biopsy had a higher cancer detection rate than 12-core biopsy (54.2% vs 28.9%, p = 0.048). Conclusion. An 18-core biopsy is more useful than a 12-core biopsy for detecting prostate cancer in patients with high PSA and large PV, that is, with intermediate PSAD level.
Synthetic Peptides of CD66a Stimulate Neutrophil Adhesion to Endothelial Cells1

Four members of the carcinoembryonic Ag family, CD66a, CD66b, CD66c, and CD66d, are expressed on human neutrophils. CD66a, CD66b, CD66c, and CD66d Ab binding to the neutrophil surface triggers an activation signal that regulates the adhesive activity of CD11/CD18, resulting in an increase in neutrophil adhesion to HUVEC. To identify active sites on the CD66a Ag, molecular modeling was performed using IgG and CD4 as models, and 28 peptides of 14 aa in length were synthesized that were predicted to be present at loops and turns between β-sheets. The peptides were tested for their ability to alter neutrophil adhesion to HUVEC. Three peptides, each from the N-terminal domain, increased neutrophil adhesion to HUVEC monolayers. This increase in neutrophil adhesion caused by CD66a peptides was associated with up-regulation of CD11/CD18 and down-regulation of CD62L on the neutrophil surface. Scrambled versions of these three peptides had no effect on neutrophil adhesion to the endothelial cells. The data suggest that peptide motifs from at least three regions of the N-terminal domain of CD66a are involved in the interaction of CD66a with other ligands and can initiate signal transduction in neutrophils.
Nanoscale TiN wet etching and its application for FinFET fabrication

It is well known that the PVD TiN is a promising gate material to set symmetrical threshold voltage (Vth) for nondoped channel FinFET CMOS thanks to its midgap work function [1–4]. One of the most important issues in the TiN gate FinFET fabrication is the TiN gate formation especially the TiN etching on the sidewalls of the tall fin channels by using conventional RIE. Hence, an isotropic TiN etching technique is strongly required in the tall FinFET fabrication. In this paper, we experimentally investigate nanoscale TiN side-etching by wet process and demonstrate the FinFET CMOS fabricated by using the developed TiN wet etching technique.
Mitigating Delays and Unfairness in Appointment Systems

We consider an appointment system where heterogeneous participants are sequenced and scheduled for service. Because service times are uncertain, the aims are to mitigate the unpleasantness experienced by the participants in the system when their waiting times or delays exceed acceptable thresholds and to address fairness in the balancing of service levels among participants. To evaluate uncertain delays, we propose the Delay Unpleasantness Measure, which takes into account the frequency and intensity of delays above a threshold, and introduce the concept of lexicographic min-max fairness to design appointment systems from the perspective of the worst-off participants. We focus our study in the healthcare industry in balancing physicians’ overtime and patients’ waiting times in which patients are distinguished by their service time characterizations. The model can be adapted in the robust setting when the underlying probability distribution is not fully available. To capture the correlation between uncertain service times, we suggest using the mean absolute deviations as the descriptive statistics in the distributional uncertainty set to preserve the linearity of the model. The optimal sequencing and scheduling decisions can be derived by solving a sequence of mixed-integer programming problems, and we report the insights from our computational studies. This paper was accepted by Yinyu Ye, optimization .
Cerebrovascular disease assessed by color-flow and power Doppler ultrasonography. Comparison with digital subtraction angiography in internal carotid artery stenosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE An understanding of carotid atherosclerosis is important to further our knowledge regarding the etiology of cerebral ischemia, and therefore it is necessary to accurately visualize carotid stenosis. The purpose of the present study was to compare different imaging techniques to determine their advantages and disadvantages in the diagnosis and quantification of middle- and high-grade internal carotid artery stenosis. In particular, we were interested in evaluating the effectiveness of the new ultrasound technique power Doppler. METHODS Fifty-four patients with greater than 50% extracranial internal carotid artery stenosis, as determined by continuous-wave Doppler, were recruited prospectively to serve as subjects. All subjects were examined with color-flow Doppler, power Doppler, and digital subtraction angiography to enable visualization of carotid stenosis and plaque surface morphology. RESULTS Thirty-four middle-grade stenoses (50% to 69%), 32 high-grade stenoses (70% to 99%), and 7 complete occlusions of the internal carotid artery were diagnosed with the use of digital subtraction angiography. Power Doppler visualized stenosis significantly more frequently and accurately than color-flow Doppler. Color-flow Doppler tended to overestimate and underestimate in patients with both middle- and high-grade stenosis. Power Doppler was superior to both color-flow Doppler and angiography with regard to differentiation of plaque surface morphology. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that power Doppler is an important, noninvasive imaging technique that has several advantages over color-flow Doppler in diagnosing carotid artery stenosis and visualizing plaque surface. Power Doppler, used in concert with other ultrasound techniques, should enable a more accurate detection and treatment of cerebrovascular disease.
Two beta‐alanyl‐CoA:ammonia lyases in Clostridium propionicum

The fermentation of β‐alanine by Clostridium propionicum proceeds via activation to the CoA‐thiol ester, followed by deamination to acryloyl‐CoA, which is also an intermediate in the fermentation of l‐alanine. By shifting the organism from the carbon and energy source α‐alanine to β‐alanine, the enzyme β‐alanyl‐CoA:ammonia lyase is induced 300‐fold (≈ 30% of the soluble protein). The low basal lyase activity is encoded by the acl1 gene, whereas the almost identical acl2 gene (six amino acid substitutions) is responsible for the high activity after growth on β‐alanine. The deduced β‐alanyl‐CoA:ammonia lyase proteins are related to putative β‐aminobutyryl‐CoA ammonia lyases involved in lysine fermentation and found in the genomes of several anaerobic bacteria. β‐Alanyl‐CoA:ammonia lyase 2 was purified to homogeneity and characterized as a heteropentamer composed of 16 kDa subunits. The apparent Km value for acryloyl‐CoA was measured as 23 ± 4 µm, independent of the concentration of the second substrate ammonia; kcat/Km was calculated as 107 m−1·s−1. The apparent Km for ammonia was much higher, 70 ± 5 mm at 150 µm acryloyl‐CoA with a much lower kcat/Km of 4 × 103 m−1·s−1. In the reverse reaction, a Km of 210 ± 30 µM was obtained for β‐alanyl‐CoA. The elimination of ammonia was inhibited by 70% at 100 mm ammonium chloride. The content of β‐alanyl‐CoA:ammonia lyase in β‐alanine grown cells is about 100 times higher than that required to sustain the growth rate of the organism. It is therefore suggested that the enzyme is needed to bind acryloyl‐CoA, in order to keep the toxic free form at a very low level. A formula was derived for the calculation of isomerization equilibra between l‐alanine/β‐alanine or d‐lactate/3‐hydroxypropionate.
A Study on the Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behavior towards Online Shopping in Pakistan

The present study is concerned in the field of consumer buying behavior, especially e-shopping in Pakistan. E-commerce has created easiness and innovativeness in humans’ life. Online consumer buying behavior is not like a physical market having ability to touch, analyze, and thereafter shop the products. This study explores the effect of few variables, derived from existing literature. Those variables are perceived benefits, domain specific innovativeness, and shopping orientations, i.e., impulse-purchase orientation, brand orientation and quality orientation. The data was collected by mean of the questionnaires. The findings indicated that domain specific innovativeness and shopping orientations have positive impact on consumers’ buying behavior towards online shopping. Therefore, consumers are showing an interest to online shopping because of recent development of electronic stores in Pakistan.
Analysis of the role of autophagy inhibition by two complementary human cytomegalovirus BECN1/Beclin 1-binding proteins

ABSTRACT Autophagy is activated early after human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection but, later on, the virus blocks autophagy. Here we characterized 2 HCMV proteins, TRS1 and IRS1, which inhibit autophagy during infection. Expression of either TRS1 or IRS1 was able to block autophagy in different cell lines, independently of the EIF2S1 kinase, EIF2AK2/PKR. Instead, TRS1 and IRS1 interacted with the autophagy protein BECN1/Beclin 1. We mapped the BECN1-binding domain (BBD) of IRS1 and TRS1 and found it to be essential for autophagy inhibition. Mutant viruses that express only IRS1 or TRS1 partially controlled autophagy, whereas a double mutant virus expressing neither protein stimulated autophagy. A mutant virus that did not express IRS1 and expressed a truncated form of TRS1 in which the BBD was deleted, failed to control autophagy. However, this mutant virus had similar replication kinetics as wild-type virus, suggesting that autophagy inhibition is not critical for viral replication. In fact, using pharmacological modulators of autophagy and inhibition of autophagy by shRNA knockdown, we discovered that stimulating autophagy enhanced viral replication. Conversely, inhibiting autophagy decreased HCMV infection. Thus, our results demonstrate a new proviral role of autophagy for a DNA virus.
An Integrated Approach toward the Spatial Modeling of Perceived Customer Value

The authors present a new measurement methodology of perceived value, based on latent structure multidimensional scaling, that derives simultaneously the underlying dimensions of the perceived value of various brands and market segment heterogeneity in terms of how such value evaluations are made. This latent structure, ordered probit, multidimensional scaling (MDS) based methodology improves on existing industry techniques of illustrating perceived customer value because it enables researchers to infer the underlying dimensions of perceived value from the data without specifying these a priori, as is common in existing methods. The authors compare the proposed model against more traditional MDS approaches in an empirical illustration involving the perceived value of compact cars. Finally, the authors discuss managerial implications of this technique and provide directions for further research.
DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A DUAL MATERIAL DOUBLE GATE TUNNEL FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR USING TCAD

High leakage currents and short channel effects become significant enough to be the major concerns for circuit designers as semiconductor devices are miniaturized. Tunnel field effect transistor(TFET) show good scalability and have very low leakage current . These transistors have very low leakage current, good sub-threshold swing, improved short channel characteristics and lesser temperature sensitivity. In this paper a dual material gate (DMG) in a tunnel field effect transistor is proposed in order to optimize ON current and nature of output characteristics. Significant improvement is shown by a TFET if appropriate work functions are chosen for gate material on the source side and drain side. A dual material gate in double gate TFET is applied to show an overall improvement in performance. In comparison with conventional TFET, the proposed model provides a higher ON state current.
Canine idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Part I: Aetiology, clinical characteristics, epidemiology and pathology.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), characterized by chamber dilatation and myocardial systolic and diastolic dysfunction, is one of the most common heart diseases in dogs. The aetiology of the myocardial hypokineis is seldom known in the individual case of DCM, although several theories concerning genetic, nutritional, metabolic, inflammatory, infectious, or drug- or toxin-induced myocardial disease have been discussed. DCM is often referred to as being breed-specific for Boxers, Doberman Pinschers, English Cocker Spaniels and other breeds. Review of reports on histopathologic findings in canine DCM reveals two histologically distinct forms of DCM; (1) cardiomyopathy of boxers and of Doberman pinschers, corresponding to the "fatty infiltration-degenerative" type, and (2) the form seen in many giant, large- and medium-sized breeds, including some boxers and Doberman pinschers, which can be classified as the "attenuated wavy fiber" type of DCM. The classification of canine idiopathic DCM according to histologic findigns seems superior to classification suggesting breed-specific syndromes, as some breeds (i.e. boxers and Doberman pinschers) may be affected by both diseases. However, ante mortem aetiological diagnosis of DCM is difficult. DCM carries a poor prognosis in dogs, and few prognostic indicators have been identified.
Argumentation for multi-party privacy management

Social network services enable users to share large quantities of private information. Often, the shared information concerns individuals who are members of the social network but did not upload the information to the service. In such situations, inappropriate sharing preferences can cause conflict and threaten users’ privacy. Since related studies suggest that users prefer to solve multi-party privacy conflicts through negotiation, we introduce a novel approach based on negotiation through arguments. In our approach, users propose privacy settings and support their proposals with logical arguments. The final decision is based on a setting supported by sound arguments.