Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Response of Mice and Ferrets to a Monovalent Influenza A (H7N9) Split Vaccine

In early spring 2013, the emergence of the influenza A (H7N9) virus in humans in Eastern China raised concerns of a new influenza pandemic. Development of a safe and effective H7N9 influenza vaccine is urgently needed. To this end, we first synthesized the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of the influenza A (H7N9) virus A/AnHui/1/2013. Using reverse genetics, we rescued a reassortant virus (H7N9/PR8) that contained the HA and NA genes from wild-type H7N9 and six genes encoding internal proteins from the A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8) virus. Next, the pathogenicity of the reassortant virus was evaluated both in vivo and in vitro. We found that the virus was non-pathogenic in mice and was stable after serial passaging in eggs. Furthermore, we found that a monovalent influenza A (H7N9) split vaccine prepared from the virus was immunogenic in mice and ferrets. When given intramuscularly, the vaccine (two doses of at least 15-µg) completely protected mice from normally lethal wild-type H7N9 virus challenge. In summary, our H7N9 vaccine, developed over a short time, is a potential candidate for further clinical evaluation and human use.
Plausibility of quantum coherent states in biological systems

In this paper we briefly discuss the necessity of using quantum mechanics as a fundamental theory applicable to some key functional aspects of biological systems. This is especially relevant to three important parts of a neuron in the human brain, namely the cell membrane, microtubules (MT) and ion channels. We argue that the recently published papers criticizing the use of quantum theory in these systems are not convincing.
30) Experiences with Repertory Grid Analysis for Investigating Effectiveness of Virtual Environments

There are many facets to research on presence (Draper et al. 1998), but one key one that has preoccupied the community is measurement of presence response. In this abstract we show how we have used repertory grid analysis (RGA) as a tool to help us understand participants’ presence response to virtual environments. According to the theory of personal constructs (Kelly, 1955), constructs are ways of construing the world, enabling people to respond to what they experience in ways that are ‘explicitly formulated or implicitly acted out’ (op.cit. p.6). RGA analysis starts by identifying a set of elements of experiences. In an interview, the interviewer picks three of the elements and the participant is asked to pick two and state how they are similar and how they are distinguished from the third. This forms one construct with two poles that characterize the distinction. This is repeated with further triads until no more constructs seem to be emerging. A grid is drawn up in which elements form columns and each construct elicited forms a row. The raw grid is subsequently ‘focused’ by encouraging the participant to assign a rating on a fivepoint scale to each element. The focused grid can then be analyzed to find constructs and elements that or similar and explore what characterizes particular elements. We explored RGA in two pilot trials and are now using it in a study of agoraphobia. In the 1st pilot we were primarily interested in whether RGA would yield useful comparisons between virtual environments. The elements varied from a spacecraft (W1) to a tropical island (W6). Table 1 shows a selection of the constructs elicited. Some of these are not so interesting for the virtual environment designer, but others are related to factors that are considered to be determinants of presence.
Phase and structural behaviour in the SmAlO3-TbAlO3 system

Phase and structural behaviour in the SmAlO<sub>3</sub>-TbAlO<sub>3</sub> system has been studied in a whole concentration range by means of laboratory X-ray diffraction, in situ synchrotron powder diffraction and differential thermal analysis techniques. Formation of the continuous solid solution Sm<sub>1-x</sub>Tb<sub>x</sub>AlO<sub>3</sub> with orthorhombic perovskite structure has been established. Peculiarity of the solid solution is existence of three regions with different relations of the lattice parameters. Based on the results obtained, as well as available literature data for the “pure” SmAlO<sub>3</sub> and TbAlO<sub>3</sub> compounds, the phase diagram of the pseudo-binary system SmAlO<sub>3</sub>-TbAlO<sub>3</sub> has been constructed.
The dynamics of EMU stock market cycles before and after the euro

The effects of the introduction of the euro were expected not only on the real convergence of economies but also on stock markets. This paper compares the dynamics and synchronization of stock markets regimes in European markets before and after the launch of the euro. The results show that countries of the euro zone have different dynamics concerning the switching between bull and bear markets. However, after the introduction of the single currency, the differences have become less pronounced. The results delineate a framework of a core-periphery of stock markets, i.e., a large group of stock markets that share the same market regime, and some stock markets on the periphery, characterized by a distinctive behavior. Stock markets in the core group show a high level of synchronization of cycles, while countries on the periphery distinguish themselves by having low synchronization with the markets in the core group. JEL classification: G15, F30
The Microwave Background Bispectrum, Paper I: Basic Formalism

In this paper, we discuss the potential importance of measuring the CMB anisotropy bispectrum. We develop a formalism for computing the bispectrum and for measuring it from microwave background maps. As an example, we compute the bispectrum resulting from the 2nd order Rees-Sciama effect, and find that is undetectable with current and upcoming missions.
The magnitudes of hyperpolarization-activated ( Ih ) and low-voltage-activated 2 potassium ( IKL ) currents co-vary in neurons of the ventral cochlear nucleus 3

Xiao-Jie Cao and Donata Oertel 4 Department of Physiology, School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53706 5 6 Running head: Ventral Cochlear Nucleus of HCN1, HCN1, and ICR Mice 7 8 Corresponding author: 9 Donata Oertel 10 Department of Physiology 11 School of Medicine and Public Health 12 1300 University Ave 13 Madison, WI 53706 14 Email: oertel@physiology.wisc. edu 15 16 17 18 19 20 Articles in PresS. J Neurophysiol (May 11, 2011). doi:10.1152/jn.00015. 2010
Beyond Geeks: Effects of Increased Casual Gamer Demand in the Videogame Industry from 1995 to 2002

In the video game industry there is a general consensus that mainstreaming occurred in the period from the mid 1990’s to the present time of 2005. Using data that covers the period from 1995 to 2002, this paper examines empirically how the increase in casual gamers has affected the demand for games that provide time cost savings in purchasing decisions. Findings show that casual gamer demand increase was approximately 140 percent higher than that of hardcore gamer demand during this time. In response, software firms increased the supply of information shortcut games relative to other types of games.
Preservation properties of stochastic orders by transformation to the transmuted-G model

Abstract The transmuted-G model is a useful technique to construct some new distributions by adding a parameter. This paper considers stochastic comparisons in the transmuted-G family with different parameters and different baseline distributions in the sense of the usual stochastic, shifted stochastic, proportional stochastic and shifted proportional stochastic orders. Also, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for existence of the moments of the transmuted-G model and then we obtain some bounds for the survival and aging intensity functions of the transmuted-G model conditioned on its parameter and its baseline distribution.
The Wealth Effects of Allowing Bank Entry into the Insurance Industry

The term bancassurance labels the delivery of insurance products through banks. With the recent Supreme Court decisions, in 1993, 1995, and 1996, upholding the rights of U.S. banks to sell annuities and insurance, the U.S. banking industry took the first steps toward the effective implementation of bancassurance. I analyze the returns surrounding the OCC and Supreme Court rulings that provide banks with the opportunity to sell annuities and other insurance products. Overall, insurance company stock returns are negative. Consistent with contestable market theory, the overall negative returns for the insurance industry show that the rulings, removing entry barriers to the insurance industry, significantly reduced the value of the insurance industry. Barriers to bank entry provided greater protection to some segments of the insurance industry than others. Stock price returns differ by industry segment. Insurance companies with insurance agencies and life/health insurance companies have the most negative stock returns, but insurance companies that market their products through a brokerage system have a more positive price reaction. The findings imply that banks may benefit brokerage firms that underwrite bank insurance sales; however, the sale of insurance by banks will increase competition for sales made by insurance agencies and life insurance companies. If the insurers have lost value, do banks gain this value? No, the average stock price of banks did not change surrounding the rulings that have allowed banks to enter the insurance sales market. The findings imply that investors anticipate that the value of banks entering the insurance market will not exceed the value of existing bank investment opportunities (zero long-term economic profits).
ON LEGENDRIAN SURGERIES

We use the Ozsváth-Szabó contact invariants to distinguish between tight contact structures obtained by Legendrian surgeries on stabilized Legendrian links in tight contact 3-manifolds. We also discuss the implication of our result on the tight contact structures on the Brieskon homology spheres −Σ(2, 3, 6n − 1).
Super Resolution of Video with Sharpened Edges Using Multiple Frames -- A Novel Approach

In most electronic video applications, video with Higher Resolution(HR) are often required. HR video can offer more details that may be critical in various applications like Video Surveillance. Super resolution technique refers to generation of high resolution image from low resolution image by adding some extra information. Super resolution allows us to reduce the need of extra hardware to obtain HR image. This paper proposes a new method for super resolution video generation with sharpened edges using multiple frames. Unique information present in subpixel shifted frames is extracted and used for frequency domain registration process.
Compressive sensing for polyharmonic subdivision wavelets with applications to image analysis

We apply successfully the Compressive Sensing approach for Image Analysis using the new family of Polyharmonic Subdivision wavelets. We show that this approach provides a very efficient recovery of the images based on fewer samples than the traditional Shannon-Nyquist paradigm. We provide the results of experiments with PHSD wavelets and Daubechies wavelets, for the Lena image and astronomical images.
A data warehousing and data mining framework for web usage management

A new challenge in Web usage analysis is how to manage and discover informative patterns from various types of Web data stored in structured or unstructured databases for system monitoring and decision making. In this paper, a novel integrated data warehousing and data mining framework for Website management and patterns discovery is introduced to analyze Web user behavior. The merit of the framework is that it combines multidimensional Web databases to support online analytical processing for improving Web services. Based on the model, we propose some statistical indexes and practical solutions to intelligently discover interesting user access patterns for Website optimization, Web personalization and recommendation etc. We use the Web data from a sports Website as data sources to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. The results show that this integrated data warehousing and mining model is effective and efficient to apply into practical Web applications.
Grid Services for Adaptive Content Delivery

Content Delivery Networks must adapt their configuration continuously to maintain acceptable performance in the presence of large variations in their request load characteristics. To automate and systematize these necessary continuous adaptations, we propose to structure a CDN along a grid service-oriented architecture. Two techniques can be used to simplify the development and maintenance of such a system: first, present a group of machines offering a given service as a single stable node, even though the concerned servers may be located worldwide and the membership change often; second, modeling the performance of internal elements of a web service allows to make informed decisions on the dimensioning of the platform to host it. We expect that these two techniques will allow us to build services that continuously adapt their capacity to the demand that they are facing.
Good Catch! Using Interdisciplinary Teams and Team Reflexivity to Improve Patient Safety

Interdisciplinary teams play an important role implementing innovations that facilitate the quality and safety of patient care. This article examined the role of reflexivity in team innovation implementation and its association with an objective patient safety outcome, inpatient fall rates (a fall is an unintended downward displacement of a patient’s body to the ground or other object). In this study, we implemented, supported, and evaluated interdisciplinary teams intended to decrease fall risk in 16 small rural hospitals. These hospitals were part of a collaborative that sought to increase knowledge and facilitate reflexivity about fall event reporting and fall risk reduction structures and processes. We assessed team reflexivity at the start and at the end of the 2-year intervention and innovation implementation at the end of the intervention. The 16 hospitals reported objective fall event data and patient days throughout the project, which we used to calculate comparative rates for assisted, unassisted, and injurious falls. The results suggest that teams benefited from the intervention, increasing reflexivity from the start of the project to the end, which was related to innovation implementation and decreases in fall rates. Theoretical and practical applications of the results are discussed.
IMPLEMENTASI MODEL RECIPROCAL TEACHING DALAM PENGAJARAN MATA KULIAH READING

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah dengan mengimplementasikan model pembelajaran Reciprocal teaching pada pengajaran mata kuliah Basic Reading akan meningkatkan keterampilan membaca teks berbahasa Inggris pembelajar. Penelitian dikaji menggunakan desain penelitian Quasi Experiment sebagai penelitian awal atau preliminari untuk mendapatkan hasil mengenai pengaruh yang akan didapatkan dari model pembelajaran tersebut atau bahkan dikembangkan unttuk proses pengajaran mata kuliah Reading selanjutnya. Kemudian alasan yang mendasari pelaksanaan penelitian ini adalah pemahaman akan pentingnya menguasai keterampilan membaca teks berbahasa Inggris bagi mahasiswa program studi pendidikan bahasa Inggris, Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari khususnya bagi mereka yang baru saja memasuki dunia perkuliahan dan mungkin saja masih belum menguasai bahasa Inggris dengan baik. Selain itu, peningkatan kemampuan berpikir kritis atau metakognitif menjadi salah satu syarat yang harus dimiliki oleh mahasiswa. Oleh karena itu, proses pendidikan mereka harus dibenahi sejak dini dengan memilihkan model pembelajaran yang tepat, salah satunya dengan mengimplementasikan Reciprocal teaching dalam pengajaran mata kuliah Basic Reading. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan Uji t digunakan untuk membandingkan (membedakan) apakah kedua data (variabel ) yakni nilai posttest dari kelas eksperimen dan kelas kontrol sama atau berbeda. Dan ditemukan t hitung 3.928 > t tabel 1.671 dengan df=58 pada derajat signifikansi 0.05 sehingga disimpulkan bahwa penggunaan model pembelajaran Reciprocal teaching dapat meningkatkan keterampilan membaca teks berbahasa Inggris secara bertahap. Kata kunci: model Reciprocal teaching, keterampilan membaca, penelitian eksperimen
Preliminary experiments in robot/human cooperative microinjection

This paper reports preliminary experiments with a cooperative robot system to augment single cell manipulation tasks. The JHU "Steady-Hand" robot configuration for cell manipulation is reported. Stable force control laws for the "Steady Hand" are revisited. Preliminary experiments validating stable insertion of a micropipette in a mouse embryo are detailed along with formulation of vision based tracking and augmentation. These preliminary experiments demonstrate promise of cooperative augmentation in single cell manipulation tasks.
Mast Cell Function

Since first described by Paul Ehrlich in 1878, mast cells have been mostly viewed as effectors of allergy. It has been only in the past two decades that mast cells have gained recognition for their involvement in other physiological and pathological processes. Mast cells have a widespread distribution and are found predominantly at the interface between the host and the external environment. Mast cell maturation, phenotype and function are a direct consequence of the local microenvironment and have a marked influence on their ability to specifically recognize and respond to various stimuli through the release of an array of biologically active mediators. These features enable mast cells to act as both first responders in harmful situations as well as to respond to changes in their environment by communicating with a variety of other cells implicated in physiological and immunological responses. Therefore, the critical role of mast cells in both innate and adaptive immunity, including immune tolerance, has gained increased prominence. Conversely, mast cell dysfunction has pointed to these cells as the main offenders in several chronic allergic/inflammatory disorders, cancer and autoimmune diseases. This review summarizes the current knowledge of mast cell function in both normal and pathological conditions with regards to their regulation, phenotype and role.
Illuminating the dynamics of signal integration in Natural Killer cells

Natural Killer (NK) cell responses are shaped by the integration of signals transduced from multiple activating and inhibitory receptors at their surface. Biochemical and genetic approaches have identified most of the key proteins involved in signal integration but a major challenge remains in understanding how the spatial and temporal dynamics of their interactions lead to NK cells responding appropriately when encountering ligands on target cells. Well over a decade of research using fluorescence microscopy has revealed much about the architecture of the NK cell immune synapse – the structured interface between NK cells and target cells – and how it varies when inhibition or activation is the outcome of signal integration. However, key questions – such as the proximity of individual activating and inhibitory receptors – have remained unanswered because the resolution of optical microscopy has been insufficient, being limited by diffraction. Recent developments in fluorescence microscopy have broken this limit, seeding new opportunities for studying the nanometer-scale organization of the NK cell immune synapse. Here, we discuss how these new technologies, super-resolution imaging and other novel light-based methods, can illuminate our understanding of NK cell biology.
AERONET-based microphysical and optical properties of smoke-dominated aerosol near source regions and transported over oceans, and implications for satellite retrievals of aerosol optical depth

Smoke aerosols from biomass burning are an important component of the global aerosol cycle. Analysis of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) retrievals of size distribution and refractive index reveals variety between biomass burning aerosols in different global source regions, in terms of aerosol particle size and single scatter albedo (SSA). Case studies of smoke transported to coastal/island AERONET sites also mostly lie within the range of variability at near-source sites. Two broad families of aerosol properties are found, corresponding to sites dominated by boreal forest burning (larger, broader fine mode, with midvisible SSA 0.95), and those influenced by grass, shrub, or crop burning with additional forest contributions (smaller, narrower particles with SSA 0.88-0.9 in the midvisible). The strongest absorption is seen in southern African savanna at Mongu (Zambia), with average SSA 0.85 in the midvisible. These can serve as candidate sets of aerosol microphysicaloptical properties for use in satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval algorithms. The models presently adopted by these algorithms over ocean are often insufficiently absorbing to represent these biomass burning aerosols. A corollary of this is an underestimate of AOD in smoke outflow regions, which has important consequences for applications of these satellite datasets.
A Likelihood-Based Framework for Variant Calling and De Novo Mutation Detection in Families

Family samples, which can be enriched for rare causal variants by focusing on families with multiple extreme individuals and which facilitate detection of de novo mutation events, provide an attractive resource for next-generation sequencing studies. Here, we describe, implement, and evaluate a likelihood-based framework for analysis of next generation sequence data in family samples. Our framework is able to identify variant sites accurately and to assign individual genotypes, and can handle de novo mutation events, increasing the sensitivity and specificity of variant calling and de novo mutation detection. Through simulations we show explicit modeling of family relationships is especially useful for analyses of low-frequency variants and that genotype accuracy increases with the number of individuals sequenced per family. Compared with the standard approach of ignoring relatedness, our methods identify and accurately genotype more variants, and have high specificity for detecting de novo mutation events. The improvement in accuracy using our methods over the standard approach is particularly pronounced for low-frequency variants. Furthermore the family-aware calling framework dramatically reduces Mendelian inconsistencies and is beneficial for family-based analysis. We hope our framework and software will facilitate continuing efforts to identify genetic factors underlying human diseases.
Composition and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Kernel Oil from Torreya grandis, Carya Cathayensis, and Myrica Rubra

In this study, we measured the composition and free radical scavenging activity of several species of nuts, namely, Torreya grandis, Carya cathayensis, and Myrica rubra. The nut kernels of the aforementioned species are rich in fatty acids, particularly in unsaturated fatty acids, and have 51% oil content. T. grandis and C. cathayensis are mostly produced in ZheJiang province. The trace elements in the kernels of T. grandis and C. cathayensis were generally higher than those in M. rubra, except for Fe with a value of 64.41 mg/Kg. T. grandis is rich in selenium (52.91−68.71 mg/Kg). All three kernel oils have a certain free radical scavenging capacity, with the highest value in M. rubra. In the DPPH assay, the IC50 of M. rubra kernel oil was 60 μg/mL, and OH was 100 μg/mL. The results of this study provide basic data for the future development of the edible nut resources in ZheJiang province.