Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retroviral Vectors Produced in the Cytoplasmic Vaccinia Virus System Transduce Intron-Containing Genes

ABSTRACT Introns and polyadenylation (pA) sites are known to improve transcript stability and nuclear-cytoplasmic transport and are normally present in efficient gene expression vectors. Standard retroviral vectors, however, do not allow the inclusion of such sequence elements, as mRNA processing at internal splice and pA sites interferes with the production of functional full-length vector genomes. In this report we examined the capability of hybrid vaccinia/retroviral vectors to transduce complex gene cassettes with nuclear RNA processing signals within the retroviral genome. A retroviral vector was constructed that contains a gene of interest (the human coagulation factor IX [FIX] cDNA), including an intron and an internal pA site. The modified proviral vector genome was cloned downstream of a vaccinia virus promoter and was inserted into the vaccinia virus genome. Infection of a packaging cell line with the recombinant vaccinia virus vector resulted in secretion of retroviral particles at average titers of 105 CFU per ml of cell culture supernatant. Due to the cytoplasmic transcription and the nonrecognition of nuclear transcription signals in the vaccinia virus system, full-length transcripts were obtained that still contained the intron. In the retrovirally transduced cell lines the FIX transcripts were terminated at the internal pA site. The transcripts were quantitatively spliced, and FIX was secreted. Recombinant cell lines with stable single-copy inserts containing sequence elements necessary for efficient gene function could be generated. Thus, a relatively simple cytoplasmic system for the generation of complex retroviral vectors is described. Retroviral vectors transducing intron-containing gene cassettes may play a further role in gene therapy applications.
Graphene segregated on Ni surfaces and transferred to insulators

We report an approach to synthesize high quality graphene by surface segregation and substrate transfer. Graphene was segregated from Ni surface under the ambient pressure by dissolving carbon in Ni at high temperatures followed by cooling down with various rates. Different cooling rates led to different segregation behaviors, strongly affecting the thickness and quality of the graphene films. Electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy indicated that the graphene films synthesized with medium cooling rates have high quality crystalline structure and well-controlled thicknesses. The graphene films were transferred to insulating substrates by wet etching and found to maintain their high quality.
Roles of Leukocyte and Immune Cell Junctional Proteins

The restricted expression of E‐cadherin on dendritic cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes has been described as a structural/adhesive system that helps to retain and integrate these cells within mucosal and dermal tissues. The activation of these cells downregulates expression of cadherins, and contributes to cell redistribution and tissue homing. It has recently been reported that lymphocytes and other leukocytes express cadherins, as well as occludin, a tight junctional component, in response to several types of stimuli. This suggests that mobilization of adherens and tight junction proteins in leukocytes may facilitate interactions of leukocytes with epithelial, endothelial, and interstitial cells that express these proteins and support homophilic adhesion. The conditions and patterns of synthesis of these adhesion molecules, in antigen‐presenting cells and leukocytes, indicate that the expression of junction proteins may play roles in normal and pathological leukocyte traffic.
Automatic Selection of Control Points for Remote Sensing Image Registration Based on MultiScale SIFT

In this paper, we present an automated image registration algorithm, which combines the multi-scale wavelet transform (WT) with Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). The control points are selected using three levels WT. First, the image is decomposed into multi-scale levels using WT, then low frequency (approximation) images are input to SIFT algorithm for automatically obtaining control points. Experimental results show the efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed technique for selecting enough and correct control points.
Socioeconomic inequality in birth outcomes: What do the indicators tell us, and where do we find the data?

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. — Universal Declaration of Human Rights[1][1] We all know the first words in Article 1 in the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights. We also know, however, that this is more a declaration of intent than of reality, even in the
Nitrobenzoates and Aminobenzoates Are Chemoattractants for Pseudomonas Strains

ABSTRACT Three Pseudomonas strains were tested for the ability to sense and respond to nitrobenzoate and aminobenzoate isomers in chemotaxis assays. Pseudomonas putida PRS2000, a strain that grows on benzoate and 4-hydroxybenzoate by using the β-ketoadipate pathway, has a well-characterized β-ketoadipate-inducible chemotactic response to aromatic acids. PRS2000 was chemotactic to 3- and 4-nitrobenzoate and all three isomers of aminobenzoate when grown under conditions that induce the benzoate chemotactic response. P. putida TW3 and Pseudomonas sp. strain 4NT grow on 4-nitrotoluene and 4-nitrobenzoate by using the ortho (β-ketoadipate) and meta pathways, respectively, to complete the degradation of protocatechuate derived from 4-nitrotoluene and 4-nitrobenzoate. However, based on results of catechol 1,2-dioxygenase and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase assays, both strains were found to use the β-ketoadipate pathway for the degradation of benzoate. Both strains were chemotactic to benzoate, 3- and 4-nitrobenzoate, and all three aminobenzoate isomers after growth with benzoate but not succinate. Strain TW3 was chemotactic to the same set of aromatic compounds after growth with 4-nitrotoluene or 4-nitrobenzoate. In contrast, strain 4NT did not respond to any aromatic acids when grown with 4-nitrotoluene or 4-nitrobenzoate, apparently because these substrates are not metabolized to the inducer (β-ketoadipate) of the chemotaxis system. The results suggest that strains TW3 and 4NT have a β-ketoadipate-inducible chemotaxis system that responds to a wide range of aromatic acids and is quite similar to that present in PRS2000. The broad specificity of this chemotaxis system works as an advantage in strains TW3 and 4NT because it functions to detect diverse carbon sources, including 4-nitrobenzoate.
Coherent radio-over-fiber (CRoF) approach for heterogeneous wireless-optical networks

A new coherent optical heterodyne radio-over-fiber (CRoF) scheme is proposed for seamless integration of next generation millimeter-wave wireless systems into a (ultra-dense) next generation passive optical network (NG-PON2). For seamless integration with the (ultra-dense) WDM infrastructure of high-capacity and longer-reach NG-PON2 networks, we propose novel radio access units (RAU) using coherent optical heterodyne detection for the generation of the millimeter-wave radio signals. The proposed CRoF concept supports the provision of multiple services over a single optical distribution network including next generation optical and wireless access services and high-capacity fixed wireless links for mobile backhaul. A proof-of-concept experiment is demonstrated in the context of backhauling. An E-band RAU utilizing CRoF is used for converting 2.5 Gb/s optical baseband data after 20 km fiber transmission to a 76 GHz wireless signal. After subsequent wireless transmission over 40 m (limited by the lab environment), the wireless E-band signal is directly reconverted to 2.5 Gb/s baseband data using a low-cost 76 GHz wireless receiver with RF envelope detection. The receiver's sensitivity is only -47 dBm for a bit error rate (BER) of 2.10-3. Within international regulations, the transmit RF power can be further increased by about 68 dB, i.e. wireless distances way beyond 2 km can be expected even in the case of rain.
Determination of Nuclear Matrix Protein 22 Levels in Cystitis, Urothelial Dysplasia and Urothelial Carcinoma

Urothelial carcinomas (UC) are the most common cancer type of the urinary system. The early diagnosis and treatment of UC are very important.The aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of the nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22) in early diagnosis of UC and to present its variation in cystitis and urothelial dysplasia (UD). Twenty patients with UC, 20 patients with UD and 20 patients with cystitis diagnosed by urinary cytological examination were enrolled in this study. In addition, 20 healthy people constituted the control group. Urine samples were collected from all patients and control subjects for NMP22 measurement and cytology. Those who were diagnosed with cytological malignancy were also histologically evaluated for accuracy. Additionally, the NMP22 levels of all participants were measured by ELISA. When compared according to the cytologic results, the NMP22 levels in the UC group were found significantly higher compared to those having UD, cystitis and control group (P < 0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between other groups. It has been concluded that NMP22 can be used in the early diagnosis and determination of recurrences in UC. However, as the NMP22 level may be increased by other factors such as UD, cystitis, bladder stones and non-urothelial carcinomas of bladder, it is suggested urinary cytology that showed be jointly used with NMP22 measuring.
Los documentos históricos de los primeros momentos de la conquista del Río de la Plata (siglos XVI-XVII): una síntesis etnohistórica comparativa

espanolEn este trabajo se presenta una sintesis etnohistorica de la documentacion producida durante la conquista y colonizacion del sector sur de la cuenca del Plata durante el siglo XVI y principios del XVII. Se relevan aquellos pasajes que permiten caracterizar las sociedades indigenas que habitaron la region, especialmente en relacion con distintos aspectos de la cultura material que tienen interes desde el punto de vista arqueologico. Esta informacion es tabulada y analizada comparativamente con el fin de discutir el contraste entre los modos de vida que tradicionalmente se han asociado a las poblaciones que habitaron los dos sectores geograficos del area de estudio: la zona de islas anegables y las llanuras altas. La caracterizacion de los charruas que se desprende de estos documentos contrasta con la imagen tradicional construida por la historiografia y la arqueologia, en tanto permite destacar la importancia del medio fluvial para la movilidad y la subsistencia. EnglishThis paper presents an ethnohistorical synthesis of the documents produced during the conquest and colonization of southern La Plata basin along the Sixteenth and early Seventeenth centuries. We take into account those passages which allow us to characterize the native societies who inhabited the region, focusing on material culture features that are especially meaningful from an archaeological point of view. This information is tabulated and analyzed in a comparative way in order to discuss the traditional characterization of the groups that inhabited the two major geographic sectors of the study area: lowland islands and high plains. Particularly, we acknowledge the relevance of fluvial environments to charrua mobility and subsistence, which contrasts with the commonly accepted picture created by archaeology and history
Cognitive content among bulimic women: the role of core beliefs.

OBJECTIVE Most cognitive analyses of bulimic disorders have stressed the role of negative automatic thoughts or dysfunctional assumptions regarding weight, shape, and food. This study considered the role of more general core beliefs in the cognitive content of bulimic disorders. METHODS Fifty bulimic and 50 comparison women completed the Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) and a diary measure of bulimic behaviors. RESULTS The groups could be differentiated using just three of the beliefs: perceived Defectiveness/Shame, Insufficient Self-Control, and Failure to Achieve. This discrimination included differences between bulimic subgroups. At the symptomatic level, the bulimic women's Emotional Inhibition beliefs predicted their severity of binging, whereas their Defectiveness/Shame beliefs predicted severity of vomiting. CONCLUSIONS The findings support a model of bulimic psychopathology where the central cognitions encompass more than beliefs about food, shape, and weight. Clinical implications are considered.
Financial Fragility and Mortgage Delinquency ∗

This paper studies the effect of household financial fragility on mortgage delinquency. Using administrative data from banking and credit card transactions, I find that financially fragile households (proxied by either low savings or overdrafts) are more likely to become delinquent on their mortgages. These effects of fragility on mortgage delinquency are amplified during unemployment. When comparing financial fragility and income, I find that financial fragility is a more significant predictor of mortgage delinquency than income. High income and financially fragile households are more likely to become delinquent than low income and non-fragile households. Finally, I find that financially fragile households sharply reduce consumption surrounding mortgage delinquency, but reverse some of the decline after becoming delinquent. Nonfragile households, in contrast, show a much more gradual decline. These findings have implications for mortgage default theory, consumption theory, and the pecking order of household coping methods. I am grateful to my dissertation committee, Itzhak Ben-David (Chair), Berk Sensoy, and Michael Weisbach for their helpful discussion and suggestions. I thank Iván Alfaro, Brian Baugh, Spencer Couts, Shan Ge, Kewei Hou, Youngsoo Jang, Sehoon Kim, Yoonkang Lee, and René Stulz for their helpful comments. I thank the financial institution for providing the data set. I am grateful for the financial support of the NBER Household Finance Grant. Finance Ph.D. Candidate. E-mail: park.1458@osu.edu Phone: (614) 377-1170.
Treadmill Training Effects on Neurological Outcome After Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Rats

Background: Treadmill training is used for promoting rhythmical vigorous walking and for task-related training in patients with stroke. The neurological impact of treadmill training has not been established. The present investigation is aimed at (1) examining neurological changes over a four-week period after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats and (2) assessing the impact of one-week, two-week and four-week treadmill training in MCAO rats. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 60-minute right MCAO. All rats were randomly assigned to one of seven groups. Infarct volume and neurological score were measured. Results: Rats sacrificed 24 hours post MCAO had the largest infarct volumes (171.4 ± 14.4 mm3) and the highest neurological score (median: 2, range: 1-3). We noted that without treadmill training, infarct sizes and neurological score diminished with time. Treadmill training for at least one week further reduced infarct volume and significantly improved neurologic function in MCAO rats. Conclusion: Treadmill training after focal cerebral ischemia significantly improves neurological outcome in MCAO rats. Treadmill training may be beneficial for ischemic brain recovery.
Positive and negtive thresholding of scale multiplication

In hard thresholding to scale multiplication, it is believed that the signal multiscale product must be positive and the negative correlation between adjacent scales is produced by noise. However, there is still some negative signal correlation between adjacent scales. Here, this phenomenon is deeply analyzed in typical circumstances of two dimensions. On the ground of studying negative signal correlation, we apply two different thresholds to the positive and negative scale multiplication respectively to form a perfect bilateral thresholding scheme. These two thresholds are determined statistically to reduce most of the noise component. Experiments show that the proposed scheme outperforms the traditional thresholding scheme based on scale multiplication.
Comparative evaluation of deblurring techniques for Fresnel lens computational imaging

With suggested computational post-processing workflow for correcting optical distortions, the Fresnel lens can finally be used in lightweight and inexpensive computer vision sensors. Common methods for image enhancement do not comprehensively address the blurring artifacts caused by strong chromatic aberrations in images produced by a simple Fresnel optical system. To deliver image quality acceptable for general-purpose color imaging, we propose a computational post-capture processing to enhance the quality of images acquired with a 256-level Fresnel lens. The PSNR quality measure is then applied to estimate resulting quality for different deblurring techniques. A novel technique that removes chromatic blur without computationally expensive deconvolution can be considered a breakthrough as it finally enables in-camera embedded post-processing.
Weighted combination of classifiers for word sense disambiguation based on dempster-shafer theory

This paper proposes a framework for weighted combination of classifiers for word sense disambiguation based on Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence. First, by taking the confidence of individual classifiers into account, weighted com- bination of individual classifiers corresponding to distinct repre- sentations of context of a polysemous word is formulated based on Dempster's rule of combination. Second, the developed model is improved by an adaptive strategy of weight determination and a ranking-and-combination scheme. The experiment conducted for four polysemous words, namely interest, line, serve ,a ndhard, shows significantly better results in comparison with previous studies on the same datasets.
Designing an Acoustic Feedback System for On-Water Rowing Training

Analysis of measured kinematic parameters is commonly used in competitive sports to optimize athletes’ performance. The progress in technology offers new ways for displaying feedback information to athletes. In rowing, synchronous visual feedback is regularly used, but the presentation of acoustic information is a new and promising application for technique training and monitoring. This paper describes the prototype Sofirow as an online acoustic feedback system for onwater rowing training, developed in cooperation between the University of Hamburg and BeSB GmbH Berlin. Sofirow measures propulsive boat acceleration (MEMS sensor, up to 125Hz) and velocity (4Hz-GPS). Technical requirements concerned with the acoustic transformation (sonification) and its presentation. The associated software Regatta provides an analysis of the measured data. An intracyclic analysis of the boat’s acceleration-time-trace investigated potential benefits for the time structure of the acceleration trace. Effects on boat motion were explored in an empirical investigation with the German junior national rowing team in 2009. The first significant results were encouraging and support the implementation of acoustic information regularly into training processes for elite athletes. Sofirow represents the rhythmic acceleration trace distinctly and audibly and thus, offers systematic monitoring and control of the boat motion in on-water technique training.
Functional FGFR4 Gly388Arg polymorphism predicts prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients.

PURPOSE Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) is a member of a family of transmembrane receptors with ligand-induced tyrosine kinase activity. The Gly388Arg polymorphism in the FGFR4 gene was reported to modulate cancer cell migration in vitro and to be associated with breast, colon, and prostate cancer prognostic parameters. The purpose of this study was to investigate the involvement of the FGFR4 polymorphism in lung tumorigenesis. PATIENTS AND METHODS A case-control study was performed including 274 patients with histologically confirmed lung adenocarcinoma and 401 healthy control subjects from general population. mRNA expression analysis was carried out in healthy lung of cancer patients. RESULTS Patients with the Arg/Arg or Gly/Arg genotype compared to those with a Gly/Gly genotype had an earlier age at cancer onset (median age, 60.2 v 63.4 years), higher proportion of poor clinical stage disease (hazard ratio [HR], 2.3; 95% CI, 1.4 to 3.9; P = .002), of nodal involvement (HR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.2; P = .027), or of short-term survivors (HR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.3; P = .008). In healthy lungs, FGFR4 did not show allele-specific expression and mRNA levels were not associated with genotype. CONCLUSION This study suggests that FGFR4 Gly388Arg polymorphism may predict prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma.
Indirect Emissions from Biofuels: How Important?

Biofuel Backfire For compelling economical, geopolitical, and environmental reasons, biofuels are considered an attractive alternative to fossil fuels for meeting future global energy demands. Melillo et al. (p. 1397, published online 22 October), however, suggest that a few serious drawbacks related to land use need to be considered. Based on a combined biogeochemistry and economic model, indirect land use (for example, clearing forested land for food crops to compensate for increased biofuel crop production on current farmlands) is predicted to generate more soil carbon loss than directly harvesting biofuel crops. Furthermore, increased fertilizer use for biofuels will add large amounts of nitrous oxide—a more effective heat-trapping molecule than carbon dioxide—to the atmosphere. Policy decisions regarding land and crop management thus need to consider the long-term implications of increased biofuel production. Land-use changes associated with biofuel production are predicted to increase greenhouse gas emissions. A global biofuels program will lead to intense pressures on land supply and can increase greenhouse gas emissions from land-use changes. Using linked economic and terrestrial biogeochemistry models, we examined direct and indirect effects of possible land-use changes from an expanded global cellulosic bioenergy program on greenhouse gas emissions over the 21st century. Our model predicts that indirect land use will be responsible for substantially more carbon loss (up to twice as much) than direct land use; however, because of predicted increases in fertilizer use, nitrous oxide emissions will be more important than carbon losses themselves in terms of warming potential. A global greenhouse gas emissions policy that protects forests and encourages best practices for nitrogen fertilizer use can dramatically reduce emissions associated with biofuels production.
Improved Reliability by Reduction of Hot-Electron Damage in the Vertical Impact-Ionization MOSFET (I-MOS)

This letter presents experimental results and explanations on the reduced degradation caused by hot carriers of the vertical impact-ionization MOSFET (I-MOS) compared to the lateral device. The control and reduction of hot-carrier damage in an impact-ionization device is an important issue to make it a serious alternative for the conventional MOSFET to overcome the kT/q limit for the subthreshold slope of 60 mV/dec at room temperature. The vertical I-MOS shows an excellent subthreshold slope of about 13 mV/dec combined with a suppression of hot-carrier damage for the most part for many tens of thousands of switching cycles. We will explain the effects, which lead to this stability and validate it by measurements and simulations