Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epitopes of herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoprotein gC are clustered in two distinct antigenic sites

Epitopes of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) strain KOS glycoprotein gC were identified by using a panel of gC-specific, virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and a series of antigenic variants selected for resistance to neutralization with individual members of the antibody panel. Variants that were resistant to neutralization and expressed an antigenically altered form of gC were designated monoclonal antibody-resistant (mar) mutants. mar mutants were isolated at frequencies of 10(-3) to 10(-5), depending on the antibody used for selection. The epitopes on gC were operationally grouped into antigenic sites by evaluating the patterns of neutralization observed when a panel of 22 antibodies was tested against 22 mar mutants. A minimum of nine epitopes was identified by this process. Three epitopes were assigned to one antigenic site (I), and six were clustered in a second complex site (II) composed of three distinct subsites, IIa, IIb, and IIc. The two antigenic sites were shown to reside in physically distinct domains of the glycoprotein, by radioimmunoprecipitation of truncated forms of gC. These polypeptides lacked portions of the carboxy terminus and ranged in size from approximately one-half that of the wild-type molecule to nearly full size. Antibodies recognizing epitopes in site II immunoprecipitated the entire series of truncated polypeptides and thereby demonstrated that site II resided in the N-terminal half of gC. Antibodies reactive with site I, however, did not immunoprecipitate fragments smaller than at least two-thirds the size of the wild-type polypeptide, suggesting that site I was located in the C-terminal portion. Sites I and II were also shown to be spatially separate on the gC polypeptide by competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with monoclonal antibodies representative of different site I and site II epitopes.
Vehicle routing problems with split deliveries

This paper is a survey on the vehicle routing problems with split deliveries, a class of routing problems where each customer may be served by more than one vehicle. Starting from the most classical routing problems, we introduce the split delivery vehicle routing problem (SDVRP). We review a formulation, the main properties and exact and heuristic solution approaches for the SDVRP. Then, we present a general overview of several variants of the SDVRP and of the literature available.
ENHANCEMENT WITH GENERATIVE ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS FOR ROBUST SPEECH RECOGNITION

We investigate the effectiveness of generative adversarial networks (GANs) for speech enhancement, in the context of improving noise robustness of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. Prior work [1] demonstrates that GANs can effectively suppress additive noise in raw waveform speech signals, improving perceptual quality metrics; however this technique was not justified in the context of ASR. In this work, we conduct a detailed study to measure the effectiveness of GANs in enhancing speech contaminated by both additive and reverberant noise. Motivated by recent advances in image processing [2], we propose operating GANs on logMel filterbank spectra instead of waveforms, which requires less computation and is more robust to reverberant noise. While GAN enhancement improves the performance of a clean-trained ASR system on noisy speech, it falls short of the performance achieved by conventional multi-style training (MTR). By appending the GAN-enhanced features to the noisy inputs and retraining, we achieve a 7% WER improvement relative to the MTR system.
A Role for Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase Activating Polypeptide (PACAP) in Detrusor Hyperreflexia after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

Abstract: Intrathecal administration of the PAC1 receptor antagonist, PACAP6‐38 (10 nM), significantly (P≤ 0.05) reduced intermicturition, threshold and micturition pressures in chronic (3–6 weeks) spinal cord injured rats but intravesical administration (100–300 nM) was without effect. Intrathecal PACAP6‐38 reduced the number and amplitude of nonvoiding bladder contractions observed after spinal cord injury (SCI). PACAP may contribute to detrusor hyperreflexia induced by SCI and PACAP antagonists may be a novel approach to reduce detrusor hyperreflexia after SCI.
Do men with eating disorders differ from women in clinics, psychopathology and personality?

OBJECTIVE To determine if male and female eating disorders differ in clinics, psychopathology and personality traits when compared with a healthy group. METHODS Sixty male and 60 female eating disorder individuals (16% anorexia nervosa, 42% bulimia nervosa and 42% eating disorder not otherwise specified), matched for age and diagnostic, were compared with 120 healthy-eating participants (60 male and 60 female participants). All were diagnosed according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Assessment measures included Eating Disorder Inventory--2, Symptom Checklist--Revised and Temperament and Character Inventory--Revised, as well as other clinical and psychopathological indices. RESULTS Male eating disorder participants reported significant lower laxative abuse (p = 0.020) and significant higher vomiting episodes (p = 0.019) than female eating disorder participants. Differences on drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and some Symptom Checklist--Revised scales were found across genders in eating disorder participants. Male eating disorder participants scored significantly lower than female participants with eating disorders on harm avoidance, reward dependence and cooperativeness. CONCLUSIONS Although eating disorder clinical features were similar across genders, male eating disorder participants had less body image concern and general psychopathology than female eating disorder participants.
Endogenous ligands for C‐type lectin receptors: the true regulators of immune homeostasis

Summary: C‐type lectin receptors (CLRs) have long been known as pattern‐recognition receptors implicated in the recognition of pathogens by the innate immune system. However, evidence is accumulating that many CLRs are also able to recognize endogenous ‘self’ ligands and that this recognition event often plays an important role in immune homeostasis. In the present review, we focus on the human and mouse CLRs for which endogenous ligands have been described. Special attention is given to the signaling events initiated upon recognition of the self ligand and the regulation of glycosylation as a switch modulating CLR recognition, and therefore, immune homeostasis.
A Short Study to Assess the Potential of Independent Component Analysis for Motion Artifact Separation in Wearable Pulse Oximeter Signals

Motion artifact reduction and separation become critical when medical sensors are used in wearable monitoring scenarios. Previous research has demonstrated that independent component analysis (ICA) can be applied to pulse oximeter signals to separate photoplethysmographic (PPG) data from motion artifacts, ambient light, and other interference in low-motion environments. However, ICA assumes that all source signal component pairs are mutually independent. It is important to assess the statistical independence of the source components in PPG data, especially if ICA is to be applied in ambulatory monitoring environments, where motion artifacts can have a substantial effect on the quality of data received from light-based sensors. This paper addresses the statistical relationship between motion artifacts and PPG data by calculating the correlation coefficients between arterial volume variations and motion over a range of stationary to high-motion conditions. Analyses indicate that motion significantly affects arterial flow, so care must be taken when applying ICA to light-based sensor data acquired from wearable platforms
A comparison of sodium contents on nutrition information labels of foods with and without nutrition claims marketed in Brazil

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the sodium content displayed on the labels of conventional processed food products (C) and of those with nutrition claims suggesting the absence or reduced levels of nutrients (AR). Design/methodology/approach – Cross-sectional study analyzing the ingredients list, nutrition facts and nutrition claims on food labels. Subjects: all processed food products with added salt or additives containing sodium that were for sale in a large supermarket in Brazil from October to December 2011. Findings – All 3,449 products were analyzed and categorized into 66 groups according to Brazilian legislation. The median of sodium content in the AR was 42.7 percent higher than in the C (p=0.007). In 33.3 percent of the groups there was difference in sodium content between AR and C (p < 0.05) and in 68.2 percent of these the sodium content was higher in AR. The variation range of sodium in products from the same group reached 2,905.0 mg in C and 1,712.0 mg in AR. Even when the.
Imaging of photonic crystal cavity mode via refractive index sensing

Silicon (Si) based integrated Photonic Crystal (PhC) cavities show great promise for biosensing applications, owing to their high Quality (Q) factor, low mode volume and compatibility with Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication. We present the development of a new experimental technique to experimentally determine the sensing properties of PhC cavity mode. It makes use of a silica nano-tip fiber that moves in the near field of the PhC cavity and of a high numerical microscope objective that collects the field radiated out-of plane from the cavity. Measuring the intensity fluctuations that are induced by the nano tip via local perturbation of the refractive index allows us to map the intensity profile of the cavity mode.
Speculation of Hand Features from Middle Finger Width: A Novel Approach

The hands play a significant role in non-verbal communication. Hands may be affected by many disorders, most commonly traumatic injury. In treating hand problems, the mastery of anatomy is fundamental in order to provide the best quality of care. An attempt is made to predict all the geometric features of the hand only with the help of middle finger width. Geometric features of both the hands from 100 people of different age group were extracted from the silhouettes. The proposed method can be used to predict finger length, position of knuckles and also finger width at the first and second knuckle of all fingers using taalamana system and golden ratio. The estimation accuracy of more than 90% is achieved for all the estimated features of the hand except for thumb width which is 85%.
Growth at high pH increases Enterococcus faecalis adhesion to collagen.

AIM To evaluate the effect of growth at pH levels from 7.1 to 9.5 on the adherence of Enterococcus faecalis to bovine serum albumin (BSA) and collagen type I. METHODOLOGY Enterococcus faecalis strain A197A was grown in broth of adjusted pHs varying between 7.1 and 9.5. Aliquots of bacterial suspensions were added to wells coated either with BSA or with collagen type I. Bacteria adhering to the surfaces were stained with crystal violet. Spectrophotometric measurements of the dissolved stain were used to assess the number of bacteria adhering to the surfaces. The data obtained were analysed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Levene's test and Student's t-test, with alpha = 0.05 as the level for statistical significance. RESULTS The adhesion of E. faecalis to BSA-coated surfaces decreased inversely with alkalinity of the growth medium. The pH 7.1-grown bacteria bound to BSA significantly more than the other BSA groups. On the contrary, the adhesion to collagen type I-coated surfaces of bacteria grown at pH 8.0 and 8.5 was significantly greater than for those grown at pH 7.1. CONCLUSIONS A minor increase in pH up to 8.5, which may be a consequence of insufficient treatment with alkaline medicaments such as calcium hydroxide, increases the collagen-binding ability of E. faecalis, in vitro. This can be a critical mechanism by which E. faecalis predominates in persistent endodontic infections.
THE ADJUSTMENTS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MECHANISMS IN CANADIAN BANKS FOLLOWING REGULATORY CHANGES

The recent scandals on corporate governance have forced the regulatory bodies to issue new corporate governance mechanisms. These new governance mechanisms include banks. The purpose of this study was to observe changes to the boards of directors, to the committees reporting to the board, to the board of directors‟ independence and adoption to certain charters and checklists in Canadian banks for the periods covering the years 2002-2004. Our sample covers the eight largest domestic banks in Canada. Results indicate a reduction in board members and in the number of committees reporting to the board. However, it increased supervision by increasing the number of board committee meetings. Most of the banks in our sample have separated the role of Chairman and CEO, thereby increasing the independence of the board. There was also an improvement in the adoption of a new charter for the
Feature Selection Based on Minimizing the Area Under the Detection Error Tradeoff Curve

Feature selection is crucial to select an "optimized" subset of features from the original feature set based on a certain objective function. In general, feature selection removes redundant or irrelevant data while retaining classification accuracy. This paper proposes a feature selection algorithm that aims to minimize the area under the curve of detection error trade-off DET curve. Particle swarm optimization PSO is employed to search for the optimal feature subset. The proposed method is implemented in face recognition and iris recognition systems. The result shows that the proposed method is able to find an optimal subset of features that sufficiently describes iris and face images by removing unwanted and redundant features and at the same time improving the classification accuracy in terms of total error rate TER.
Determinants of enhanced risk disclosure of JSE Top 40 Companies: the board risk committee composition, frequency of meetings and the chief risk officer

Risk disclosure practices have received increasing attention in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. This study investigated possible determinants relating to the composition of the board committee responsible for risk management, the frequency of board risk committee meetings and whether the company employs a chief risk officer, which could manifest in an enhanced level of risk-related disclosure. Based on the possible determinants identified in the literature, nine hypotheses were developed in order to investigate which of these determinants relate to an enhanced level of risk disclosure by the selected companies. The first required integrated reports of non-financial companies in the Top 40 index of the JSE Securities Exchange were investigated in this study. Regarding one area of investigation, namely the level of risk management disclosure, it was found that the disclosure of companies whose risk committee met more frequently and the disclosure of companies that employed a chief risk officer, were of a relatively higher standard. With regard to the other area of investigation, namely the level of risk identification and mitigation disclosure, no clearly significant determinant of enhanced disclosure was identified.
The Metabolic Syndrome

The metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of metabolic abnormalities with insulin resistance as a major characteristic, has gone by several names over the past two decades. The diagnostic criteria proposed by the Adult Treatment Program III (ATP III) of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) have led to greater awareness of the components and treatment strategies.1 Five diagnostic traits are listed in the ATP III version of the MetS (Table; referred to as the “metabolic syndrome”), and the presence of any 3 of these factors is considered sufficient for diagnosis. This practical review will consider each in turn, providing advice for cardiologists, internists, and other health care providers who are diagnosing and treating persons with the syndrome in an effort to prevent a variety of clinical outcomes. View this table: Diagnostic Criteria for the Metabolic Syndrome The major adverse consequence of the MetS is cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several of the metabolic abnormalities associated with the syndrome, in fact, are CVD risk factors. One of these abnormalities, insulin resistance, also predisposes to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In age-adjusted estimates from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III in 1998 to 1994, approximately 24% of adult Americans had ≥3 of the 5 MetS criteria. Key determinants of greater prevalence were age and ethnicity. Prevalence rates were highest in Mexican Americans and were successively lower in white, African American and other racial groups.2 These published estimates included persons with diabetes mellitus who had met the 1998 fasting glucose criteria (≥126 mg/dL [8.0 mmol/L]) of the American Diabetes Association.3 This article will focus on the features of the MetS in persons without diabetes mellitus, although most persons with T2DM also have the MetS. Moreover, the therapeutic approaches to metabolic risk factors described here also can be applied to …
Wireless Technologies for Ambient Assisted Living and Healthcare: Systems and Applications

ABSTRACT This chapter presents the concept of Smart Home, describes the Smart Home networking technologies and discusses the main issues for ensuring security in a Smart Home environment. Nowadays, the integration of current communication and information technologies within the dwelling has led to the emergence of Smart Homes. These technologies facilitate the building of Smart Home environments in which devices and systems can communicate with each other and can be controlled automatically in order to interact with the household members and improve the quality of their life. However, the nature of Smart Home environment, the fact that it is always connected to the outside world via Internet and the open security back doors derived from the household members raise many security concerns. Finally, by reviewing the existing literature regarding Smart Homes and security issues that exist in Smart Home environments, the authors envisage to provide a base to broaden the research in Smart Home security.
Software Editions: An Application of Segmentation Theory to the Packaged Software Market

Introducing multiple editions of the same software is a relatively recent innovation in the software market. The editions serve to differentiate among different user segments. Introduction of similar low- and high-end products in other markets has been analyzed using segmentation theory. However, the software market is fundamentally different from other product markets in two respects: (1) Software is characterized by negligible marginal production cost, and (2) the option of offering upgrades also exists. Weanalyze the problem of software introduction using segmentation theory. Our analysis shows that if cannibalization is low, the vendor should introduce the full software as one edition. This result differs from that obtained in prior research, which showed that the seller should introduce two distinct products in such cases. When cannibalization is high, introducing multiple editions simultaneously is optimal under a variety of conditions. The strategy of introducing a highend edition in the first period followed by the low-end edition in the second period is optimal only when the consumers are extremely impatient and the software is large. A significant result of our analysis is that offering upgrades is clearly superior to other strategies only in a very restricted range of parameters. Our analysis also suggests that the vendor's profit is higher when it announces the future strategy. Our theoretical results are supported by evidence from the software market.
Discovering Gangs of Criminals Using Data Fusion With Social Networks

Data mining technologies have been effectively applied to public security organizations and could help with the investigations. Among which, discovering and fighting against the gangs of criminals helps to the construction of peaceful and united environment. In this paper, we focus on the problem of discovering the gangs of criminals by integrating multiple data sources including the residential profiles from the public security bureau, the transfer data of banking accounts, the communication data from telecommunication operators, and the social interaction data from social networks. After employing a label propagation based method to discover communities in the criminal network, members within each group are ranked by their significance. Experiments exhibit the performance of proposed method.
Serum Aldolase Isoenzymes in Athletes at Rest and After Long-Lasting Exercise

Athletes in training have significantly higher levels of serum aldolase activity at rest when compared to nonathletes. This is due to the higher level (and higher proportion) of aldolase isoenzyme A, predominant in muscle. At rest, athletes with a history of infectious hepatitis show significantly higher proportional and absolute levels of aldolase B, predominant in liver. Long-lasting exercise leads to a rise in serum aldolase activity, which must be ascribed to the increase in isoenzyme A. Significant post-exercise changes in isoenzyme B were not observed. There was no correlation between changes in serum hemoglobin, as reflecting intravascular hemolysis, and changes in serum aldolase activity. The data are discussed in regard to the existing hypotheses regarding increases in serum enzyme activity after physical exercise.
The effects of moderate‐intensity gradient static magnetic fields on nerve conduction

Whether exposure to static magnetic fields (SMF) for medical applications poses a therapeutic benefit or a health hazard is at the focus of current debate. As a peripheral nerve model for studies of the SMF effects, we have investigated whether exposure of in vitro frog sciatic nerve fibers to moderate‐intensity gradient SMF up to 0.7 T modulates membrane excitation and refractory processes. We measured the changes in the amplitudes of the electrically evoked compound action potentials for three groups: a control group without SMF exposure and two exposed groups with continuous inhomogeneous exposure to maximum flux densities (Bmax) of 0.21 and 0.7 T SMF for 6 h. The values of the nerve conduction velocity of C fibers were significantly reduced by Bmax of 0.7 T SMF during the 4‐ to 6‐h exposure period but not by Bmax of 0.21 T SMF during the entire exposure period of 6 h, relative to the unexposed control. From these findings, we speculate that exposure to moderate‐intensity gradient SMF may attenuate pain perception because the C fibers are responsible for pain transmission. Although the mechanistic reasons for this decrease have yet to be clarified, SMF could affect the behavior of some types of ion channels associated with C fibers. Bioelectromagnetics 33:518–526, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Role of MYCN in the Failure of MYCN Amplified Neuroblastoma Cell Lines to G1 Arrest After DNA Damage

We previously reported that 3 p53 wild type (wt) MYCN amplified (MNA) neuroblastoma cell lines failed to G1 arrest after DNA damage despite induction of p53, p21WAF1 and MDM2. We hypothesised that this was due to high MYCN expression. p53 responses to DNA damage were examined in an additional 13 p53 wt neuroblastoma cell lines. MNA was significantly associated with a failure to G1 arrest after DNA damage (p