Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chasing Jenner's Vaccine: Revisiting Cowpox Virus Classification

Cowpox virus (CPXV) is described as the source of the first vaccine used to prevent the onset and spread of an infectious disease. It is one of the earliest described members of the genus Orthopoxvirus, which includes the viruses that cause smallpox and monkeypox in humans. Both the historic and current literature describe “cowpox” as a disease with a single etiologic agent. Genotypic data presented herein indicate that CPXV is not a single species, but a composite of several (up to 5) species that can infect cows, humans, and other animals. The practice of naming agents after the host in which the resultant disease manifests obfuscates the true taxonomic relationships of “cowpox” isolates. These data support the elevation of as many as four new species within the traditional “cowpox” group and suggest that both wild and modern vaccine strains of Vaccinia virus are most closely related to CPXV of continental Europe rather than the United Kingdom, the homeland of the vaccine.
Interactive headlight simulation

La simulation d'eclairage est utilisee depuis peu par les compagnies automobiles et equipementiers pour etudier et concevoir de nouveaux phares. Elle permet d'etudier des propositions de phares sans la fabrication de prototypes physiques. Malheureusement, la plupart des simulations, utilisent des techniques de lance de rayon [1,2] ou de radiosite [3] difficiles a implementer en temps reel. D'autre part, les simulations etant souvent visualisees sur de simples moniteurs, l'operateur ne se trouve pas immerge dans le poste de conduite rendant plus delicate l'evaluation du projecteur. La contrainte temps reel impose l'utilisation de materiel dedie a l'affichage graphique et l'utilisation de modeles d'eclairage appropries. Cependant, le choix du modele d'eclairage est critique en raison du degre de precision necessaire pour rendre la distribution photometrique d'un phare. Renault, Direction de la Recherche, a recemment developpe un logiciel de simulation de phare interactif. Plusieurs parametres peuvent etre modifies tels que la position et l'orientation des projecteurs. Il est egalement possible de prendre des mesures photometriques sur la route durant la simulation. La distribution lumineuse du projecteur est prise en compte a partir de sa description photometrique. Plus precisement, un phare est assimile a une source de lumiere ponctuelle delivrant l'attenuation sur la route. La description photometrique du projecteur est ensuite codee dans une texture [6] modulant l'effet de la source ponctuelle sur les surfaces. Ainsi, la precision de la simulation depend directement du niveau de precision de la description photometrique du phare et du niveau de detail de la scene en terme de polygones. Le logiciel de simulation de phares a ete integre dans les simulateurs de conduite de Renault en 1998 et valide par les experts en eclairage chez Renault.
A Note on Damped Algebraic Riccati Equations ∗

In a recent paper, an algorithm that produces dampening controllers based on a periodic Hamiltonian was proposed. Central to this algorithm is the formulation of symmetric and skew-symmetric damped algebraic Riccati equations. It was shown that solutions to these two Riccati equations lead to a dampening feedback, i.e., a stable closed–loop system for which the real parts of the eigenvalues are larger in modulus than the imaginary parts. In this paper, we extend these results to include a broader class of Hermitian and skew-Hermitian solutions and show that every convex combination of these solutions produces a dampening feedback. This property can be used to vary the feedback with two parameters and thus obtain more flexibility in the controller design process.
Dial One for Scam: Analyzing and Detecting Technical Support Scams

In technical support scams, cybercriminals attempt to convince users that their machines are infected with malware and are in need of their technical support. In this process, the victims are asked to provide scammers with remote access to their machines, who will then “diagnose the problem”, before offering their support services which typically cost hundreds of dollars. Despite their conceptual simplicity, technical support scams are responsible for yearly losses of tens of millions of dollars from everyday users of the web. In this paper, we report on the first systematic study of technical support scams and the call centers hidden behind them. We identify malvertising as a major culprit for exposing users to technical support scams and use it to build an automated system capable of discovering, on a weekly basis, hundreds of phone numbers and domains operated by scammers. By allowing our system to run for more than 8 months we collect a large corpus of technical support scams and use it to provide insights on their prevalence, the abused infrastructure, and the current evasion attempts of scammers. Finally, by setting up a controlled, IRB-approved, experiment where we interact with 60 different scammers, we experience first-hand their social engineering tactics, while collecting detailed statistics of the entire process. We explain how our findings can be of use to law-enforcing agencies and propose technical and educational countermeasures for helping users avoid being victimized by technical support scams.
The Effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansions on Financial Wellbeing

We examine the effect of the Medicaid expansions under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on consumer, financial outcomes using data from a major credit reporting agency for a large, national sample of adults. We employ the synthetic control method to compare individuals living in states that expanded Medicaid to those that did not. We find that the Medicaid expansions significantly reduced the number of unpaid bills and the amount of debt sent to third-party collection agencies among those residing in zip codes with the highest share of low-income, uninsured individuals. Our estimates imply a reduction in collection balances of between $600 to $1,000 among those who gain Medicaid coverage due to the ACA. Our findings suggest that the ACA Medicaid expansions had important financial impacts beyond health care use.
Use of flexible sigmoidoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer in HIV-infected patients 50 years of age and older.

BACKGROUND Although many patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are now living well beyond 50 years of age, there are no data available on colorectal cancer screening in this population. The aim of this study was to determine the utility of screening flexible sigmoidoscopy in patients with HIV. METHODS Consecutive patients at average risk for colorectal cancer who were referred for screening flexible sigmoidoscopy were prospectively identified. A detailed medical history was obtained from all patients before flexible sigmoidoscopy, and colonoscopy was recommended for all subjects with positive sigmoidoscopic findings. RESULTS A total of 2382 patients were enrolled in the study; 165 were HIV positive. The prevalence of neoplastic lesions (adenomas or adenocarcinomas) in the distal colon was significantly higher in HIV-infected patients than in control subjects (25.5% vs 13.1%, P<.001), and the odds of HIV-infected patients having a neoplastic lesion was significantly higher even after adjustment for potential confounding variables (odds ratio, 2.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.60-3.44). The prevalence of adenomas of any size (25.5% vs 12.9%, P<.001) and advanced neoplasia (7.3% vs 3.8%, P = .03) in the distal colon was significantly higher in HIV-infected patients. Among individuals with positive results on flexible sigmoidoscopy, proximal colonic neoplastic lesions on follow-up colonoscopy were more common in HIV-infected patients after adjustment for age, sex, and race/ethnicity (odds ratio, 1.88; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-3.46). CONCLUSIONS Patients infected with HIV are more likely to have colonic neoplasms on screening flexible sigmoidoscopy than those without HIV, and these individuals should be offered colorectal cancer screening.
A novel technique for I/Q imbalance and CFO compensation in OFDM systems

In this paper, a novel baseband IQ estimation and compensation technique is proposed to overcome the joint effects of CFO (carrier frequency offset) and IQ imbalance. The proposed method uses a one-shot algorithm which is able to estimate and compensate the non-ideal effect up to a gain error of 1 dB, phase error of 10/spl deg/, and CFO of 50 ppm at a carrier frequency of 2.5 GHz in 64QAM OFDM systems. Under this condition, the system performance has less than 0.8 dB design loss in terms of PER and is shown to have more than 10 dB improvement compared with the reference design.
Comparative Analysis of Phenolics, Flavonoids, and Antioxidant and Antibacterial Potential of Methanolic, Hexanic and Aqueous Extracts from Adiantum caudatum Leaves

In the quest for new medicines, the methanolic, hexanic, and aqueous extracts of Adiantum caudatum leaves, obtained by Soxhlet extraction, were analyzed for phenolic and flavonoid contents, and antioxidant and antimicrobial potential. TPCs (total phenolic content) of the methanolic, aqueous and hexanic extracts were 27.7, 21.1, and 16.7 μg of gallic acid equivalents per mL, respectively, while TFCs (total flavonoid content) were 13.2, 11.6, and 10.0 μg of rutin equivalents per mL, respectively. Antioxidant activities of the extracts in reducing power, FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power), phosphomolybdate and ABTS assays follow the same order of methanolic ˃ aqueous ˃ hexanic. In the DPPH assay, however, the aqueous extract exhibited a slightly higher antioxidant activity than the methanolic one. Methanol is therefore a better solvent to extract most of the antioxidant components from A. caudatum leaves. In lipid peroxidation inhibitory assay, the extracts showed almost similar behavior and their activity decreased gradually with time. The aqueous extract was the strongest inhibitor after two days, but the hexanic became the most potent after about three days. The antibacterial potential of the extracts was determined against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Towards all the microbes, the aqueous extract was the most potent and the hexanic the least. P. aeruginosa was the most susceptible strain, while the aqueous and methanolic extracts exhibited a slightly higher efficacy against this pathogen than the drug amoxicillin. In conclusion, A. caudatum can potentially provide a remedy against disorders caused by oxidative stress and infections.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome with Associated Chest Wall Dystonia: a Case Report. Study Design: Case Report

Patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) often suffer from an array of associated movement disorders, including dystonia of an affected limb. We present a case of a patient with long standing CRPS after a brachial plexus injury, who after displaying several features of the movement disorder previously, developed painful dystonia of chest wall musculature. Detailed neurologic examination found palpable sustained contractions of the pectoral and intercostal muscles in addition to surface allodynia. Needle electromyography of the intercostal and paraspinal muscles supported the diagnosis of dystonia. In addition, pulmonary function testing showed both restrictive and obstructive features in the absence of a clear cardiopulmonary etiology. Treatment was initiated with intrathecal baclofen and the patient had symptomatic relief and improvement of dystonia. This case illustrates a novel form of the movement disorder associated with CRPS with response to intrathecal baclofen treatment.
Why Does BitTorrent Work So Well ?

BitTorrent (BT) is currently the most popular file-sharing peer-to-peer (P2P) clients [1]. Several reports have shown that it accounts for the majority of peer-to-peer traffic, up to one third of the global Internet traffic. However, leaving the media attention aside for one moment, we ask the question: Why does BT work so well? BT attempts to build robustness to freeloading (i.e. downloading without uploading) by implementing a tit-for-tat-like strategy (TFT) within its protocol. It is often believed that this strategy alone is responsible for the high levels of cooperation found. The TFT strategy was championed in Axelrod's book " the evolution of cooperation " [2]. BT works by groups of peers (called swarms) with an interest in downloading a specific file coordinating and cooperating to speed-up the process [3]. Each peer in the swarm stores pieces of the file. Cooperating peers download and upload required pieces. If a peer stops uploading it will tend to be " choked " by other peers, meaning they stop uploading to it. This implements the TFT-like process. So-called " seeder " peers store the whole file: if a swarm contains no seeders, it may lead to a situation in which pieces of the file are missing from the swarm as a whole. Since seeders have nothing left to gain, the system requires some altruistic behavior from peers. We argue that the TFT strategy is not an adequate explanation of the high levels of cooperation found within BT because: (i) the TFT strategy can be bettered by other less cooperative strategies; (ii) identity can be faked by modifying the client thus circumventing TFT; (iii) unconditional altruism is required for BT to operate in any case. Given that such loopholes exist: why is the system not dominated by freeloaders? Hypothesis: Group Selection We hypothesize that BT may resist freeloaders and support altruism, at least in part, in a way that has not been previously fully comprehended. Ironically, this process relies on what is commonly believed to be a weakness of BT — the lack of integrated meta-data search. One consequence of this is to partition the BT network into numerous isolated swarms — often with several independent swarms for an identical file — which is one of the necessary conditions for a kind of novel group selective process that has been recently identified in similar simulated systems both in the context of computational sociology and simulated …
Time-resolved functional analysis of acute impairment of frataxin expression in an inducible cell model of Friedreich ataxia

ABSTRACT Friedreich ataxia is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a GAA triplet repeat expansion in the first intron of the frataxin gene, which results in reduced expression levels of the corresponding protein. Despite numerous animal and cellular models, therapeutic options that mechanistically address impaired frataxin expression are lacking. Here, we have developed a new mammalian cell model employing the Cre/loxP recombination system to induce a homozygous or heterozygous frataxin knockout in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Induction of Cre-mediated disruption by tamoxifen was successfully tested on RNA and protein levels. After loss of frataxin protein, cell division, aconitase activity and oxygen consumption rates were found to be decreased, while ROS production was increased in the homozygous state. By contrast, in the heterozygous state no such changes were observed. A time-resolved analysis revealed the loss of aconitase activity as an initial event after induction of complete frataxin deficiency, followed by secondarily elevated ROS production and a late increase in iron content. Initial impairments of oxygen consumption and ATP production were found to be compensated in the late state and seemed to play a minor role in Friedreich ataxia pathophysiology. In conclusion and as predicted from its proposed role in iron sulfur cluster (ISC) biosynthesis, disruption of frataxin primarily causes impaired function of ISC-containing enzymes, whereas other consequences, including elevated ROS production and iron accumulation, appear secondary. These parameters and the robustness of the newly established system may additionally be used for a time-resolved study of pharmacological candidates in a HTS manner. Summary: The use of a new mammalian cell model with inducible homozygous and heterozygous frataxin knockout allows new insights into the chronology and causes of the disease Friedreich ataxia.
Vocational upper-secondary education and participation in non-formal education: a comparison of European countries

ABSTRACT The question of whether the potential short-term advantages of vocational qualifications are offset by disadvantages in later life is an important issue for policy debates. This paper analyses how the choice of vocational or general upper-secondary education affects future prospects of participation in non-formal education (NFE). It presents a comparative analysis of European countries in different six types according to the skill specificity of the vocational education and training system, using the 2014 Labour Force Survey data. Our results confirm the trade-off between short- and long-term benefits of vocational education. In countries with higher specificity of vocational education, the difference in NFE participation between vocational and general upper-secondary education at the beginning of the work career is higher compared to countries where specificity is lower. However, the same difference also appears in countries where general upper-secondary education dominates. Unexpectedly, the differences between the two educational groups in training participation did not diminish over the life-course but increased for the 30–34 year olds. The results highlight that in countries where general upper-secondary education dominates (type 6) those with vocational education are more likely to participate in NFE than in countries where school-based systems exist (type 5). Abbreviations: NFE - non-formal education and training; VET - vocational education and training; ISCED - International Standard Classification of Education; EU LFS - the European Union Labour Force Survey
The MA-10 Cell Line as a Model of insl3 Regulation and Leydig Cell Function

iv ABSTRACT The MA-10 Cell Line as a Model of insl3 Regulation and Leydig Cell Function Leydig cells produce testosterone in response to luteinizing hormone (LH) via the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)/protein kinase A pathway. Additionally, these cells are responsible for producing insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3), a peptide hormone that is essential for testicular descent. The insl3 promoter in Leydig cells can be activated by cAMP through the transcription factor Nur77, which has also been shown to regulate the promoters of the steroidogenic enzymes, cyp17 and 3β-hsd. While the mechanism of LH action on testosterone production is well characterized, the effect of LH on insl3 abundance has yet to be shown directly. The MA-10 Leydig cells treated with hCG exhibited a transient and robust increase in nur77 mRNA, while insl3 mRNA abundance remained unchanged. Further, cAMP failed to affect insl3 mRNA, though nur77 mRNA abundance was significantly increased. Inhibition of LH-receptor-linked signal transduction pathways in the presence of hCG implicated multiple signaling networks in the regulation of both insl3 and nur77. Treatment with hCG or cAMP did not affect the abundance of 3β-hsd mRNA. Interestingly, though the MA-10 cell line has been reported to lack CYP17 activity and mRNA and so produce progesterone instead of testosterone, cyp17 mRNA was present and inducible by hCG and cAMP. The addition of hCG, testosterone, nor the combination of hCG and testosterone affected insl3 mRNA abundance. Though hCG consistently increased nur77 mRNA abundance, the addition of testosterone did not enhance the effects of hCG. Collectively, these results indicate that insl3 is regulated by factors other than LH/CG and cAMP in the MA-10 cell line. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A pilot randomised controlled trial to assess the utility of an e‐learning package that trains users in adverse drug reaction causality

Causality assessment of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by healthcare professionals is often informal which can lead to inconsistencies in practice. The Liverpool Causality Assessment Tool (LCAT) offers a systematic approach. An interactive, web‐based, e‐learning package, the Liverpool ADR Causality Assessment e‐learning Package (LACAeP), was designed to improve causality assessment using the LCAT. This study aimed to (1) get feedback on usability and usefulness on the LACAeP, identify areas for improvement and development, and generate data on effect size to inform a larger scale study; and (2) test the usability and usefulness of the LCAT.
E-government maturity at Spanish local levels

E-government practices are no longer strange to most local councils. As a consequence, some of them have reached more mature stages in the interaction between technological abilities and organisational processes. The objective of this paper is to address e-government maturity by stating the differences between academic theory and the results of a quantitative survey addressed to the Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) of Spanish municipalities with more than 5000 inhabitants and with an official web page. CTOs were to answer a set of dichotomous variables regarding whether the selected services could be reached or not through their web pages. These questions were included in a web-based questionnaire that had a response rate of 17.2% (165 out of 960). Results show that Spanish councils still remain at the most basic levels of e-government maturity.
Pairwise error probability evaluation of cooperative mobile femtocells

Cellular subscribers while travelling in public transportation vehicles, such as streetcars and buses, often experience poor signal reception and low bandwidth when using their cellular devises onboard. Small cell deployment of, for example, femtocells is considered as one of the most promising solutions for cellular operators to enhance coverage and meet the increasing need for capacity and QoS support expected by cellular subscribers. We consider a mobile Femto Base Station (mobFBS) installed in the public transportation vehicle, with an external antenna installed on the roof, to offer enhanced coverage and improved capacity onboard. We investigate the performance gains of a communication scheme in downlink LTE-A networks with mobFBSs. Users are assumed to be travelling using a public transportation vehicle, and the transmission between macroBS and users occurs through a mobFBS. The associated wireless links for this type of fast mobility are characterized by a doubly-selective fading channel. This causes performance degradation in terms of increased error probability. By taking advantage of the more powerful central processing mobFBS, we make use of a precoded technique to overcome the performance degradation that results from the wireless fading channel. We investigate the performance gain in terms of pairwise error probability (PEP) via a derived closed-form expression. Our analytical and simulation results indicate that significant diversity gains are achievable and error rates are tremendously reduced.