Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Including UPFC dynamic phasor model into transient stability program

In this paper a novel time simulation approach is introduced to implement transient stability analysis with FACTS devices, in which FACTS devices uses dynamic phasor models and interface properly with conventional electromechanical transient-model-based stability program. The unified power flow controller (UPFC) is used as an example to demo the realization of the approach. In the paper, the UPFC dynamic phasor model and control scheme are presented first and followed by the interface formulation. Sequential solution method is proposed to implement step by step simulation. Computer test results from a SMIB power system show clearly the accuracy of dynamic phasor model as compared with EMT model for UPFC; while computer test results from a two-area power system illustrate solidly the effectiveness of the suggested interface and simulation approach to include dynamic-phasor-based FACTS device models into conventional transient stability program.
Identification of an ospC operator critical for immune evasion of Borrelia burgdorferi

Timely expression of the outer surface protein C (OspC) is crucial for the pathogenic strategy of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. The pathogen abundantly expresses OspC during initial infection when the antigen is required, but downregulates when its presence poses a threat to the spirochetes once the anti‐OspC humoral response has developed. Here, we show that a large palindromic sequence immediately upstream of the ospC promoter is essential for the repression of ospC expression during murine infection and for the ability of B. burgdorferi to evade specific OspC humoral immunity. Deletion of the sequence completely diminished the ability of B. burgdorferi to avoid clearance by transferred OspC antibody in SCID mice. B. burgdorferi lacking the regulatory element was able to initiate infection but unable to persist in immunocompetent mice. Taken together, the regulatory element immediately upstream of the ospC promoter serves as an operator that may interact with an unidentified repressor(s) to negatively regulate ospC expression and is essential for the immune evasion of B. burgdorferi.
Patchy progress? Two decades of research on precariousness and precarious work in Australia

ABSTRACT Precariousness, together with its cognate terms (e.g. precarity, precarious work, precarious workers, the precariat and precarious life), has become a significant theme in employment relations research in recent years. This paper reviews important aspects of the discussion, taking its starting point from an article in Labour and Industry which introduced the concept and sketched out a proposed research agenda for examining poor job quality in Australia. The current paper identifies patchy progress in knowledge concerning the core issues. Casual employment has been one area of successful inquiry, but challenges remain in connection with analysis of precariousness in permanent employment. At the same time, understanding of precariousness has moved into new channels of inquiry that were uncharted in the 1998 article and offer great promise for further research.
High-resolution computed tomography in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: diagnosis and prognosis.

RATIONALE High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is an integral aspect of the evaluation of patients with suspected idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, few studies have evaluated its use in a large cohort. OBJECTIVES To describe HRCT features in patients with mild to moderate IPF, compare diagnostic evaluations by a radiology core (three thoracic radiologists) with those by study-site radiologists, correlate baseline clinical and physiologic variables with HRCT findings, and evaluate their association with mortality. METHODS We assessed HRCT scans from patients with IPF (n = 315) enrolled in a randomized controlled study evaluating IFN-gamma1b. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS There was concordance between study-site and core radiologists regarding the diagnosis of IPF in 86% of cases. Diffusing capacity of carbon monoxide (DLCO) was the physiologic characteristic most highly correlated with HRCT findings. Multivariate analysis identified three independent predictors of mortality: a higher extent of fibrosis score increased the risk of death (p < 0.0001), whereas a higher percent-predicted DLCO (p = 0.004) and treatment assignment to IFN-gamma1b rather than placebo (p = 0.04) reduced the risk of death. CONCLUSIONS A study-site diagnosis of IPF on HRCT was regularly confirmed by core radiologists. Extent of reticulation and honeycombing on HRCT is an important independent predictor of mortality in patients with IPF.
An approach of CO2 capture technology for mitigating global warming and climate change-an overview

Energy and the environment are two of the most important issues this century. More than 80 % of our energy comes from the combustion of fossil fuels, which will still remain the dominant energy source for years to come. It is agreed that carbon dioxide produced from the combustion process to be the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas leading to global warming. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have indeed increased by almost 100 ppm since their pre-industrial level, reaching 384 ppm in 2007 and still increasing with a total annual emission of over 35 Gt. Prompt global actions to resolve the CO2 crisis is therefore needed. To pursue such an action, we are urged to save energy without the unnecessary production of carbon emissions and to use energy in more efficient ways, but alternative methods to mitigate the greenhouse gas have to be considered. There is a large energy penalty in the proven technology of chemical absorption/stripping of CO2 using amine solvents. The aim in this study is to develop fast catalytic absorption/ desorption of CO2 at low temperatures using water as solvent. The naturally occurring zinc metallo-enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA) can concentrate CO2 using a reversible Hydration /dehydration cycle at neutral pH and at ambient temperatures. Some tripodal complexes of zinc (II), and other metals mimic the CA catalytic process, which proceeds by hydration of CO2 to bicarbonate followed by the reverse dehydration of the bicarbonate to regenerate CO2. This Minireview highlights some recent promising research activities and their prospects in the areas of carbon capture and storage and chemical fixation of CO2 in constructing a future low-carbon global economy with reference to energy
Advances in antiplatelet therapy

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. These disorders share a common pathophysiology – atherosclerosis, which affects various arterial beds, leading to protean manifestations (coronary artery disease [CAD], stroke, peripheral arterial disease [PAD]). The platelet plays a pivotal role in the perpetuation and clinical expression of these disorders. The platelet, once believed to have a role confined to modulation of thrombosis and haemostasis, also plays an active role in vascular inflammation. Antiplatelet agents have become first-line therapy for CVD, and their unequivocal benefits are demonstrated in various basic and experimental models and supported by overwhelming evidence from clinical trials. Search is underway for more effective and safer antiplatelet therapy. Novel therapies are emerging to target the redundant pathways of platelet adhesion, activation and aggregation. Efforts are also ongoing to enhance implementation of existent therapy, target therapy selectively to high-risk patients and to those likely to respond (pharmacogenomics), and study the incremental benefits and safety of various antiplatelet combinations and their interaction with other medications in patients with CVD treated with polypharmacy.
Taking action in a changing world

In the last hours of CHI 2017, a group of researchers from universities and businesses across the northern hemisphere sat down together to consider “Taking Action in a Changing World”. The title of the special interest group (SIG) is significant; it speaks of having an impact, of the politics on which we wish to have an impact, and also the dynamism of the structures and systems around us. There is no special mention of technology. In other words, it is a departure from business-as-usual HCI.
Antibiotic susceptibility of 65 isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei to 35 antimicrobial agents.

OBJECTIVES Fifty isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei and 15 isolates of Burkholderia mallei were tested for their susceptibilities to 35 antimicrobial agents, including agents not previously tested against these bacteria. METHODS MICs were determined by agar dilution in Mueller-Hinton medium. RESULTS Among the antibiotics tested, lower MICs were obtained with imipenem, ceftazidime, piperacillin, piperacillin/tazobactam, doxycycline and minocycline. Fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides had poor activities. A single clinical isolate of B. pseudomallei was resistant to ceftazidime, co-amoxiclav and doxycycline but remained susceptible to imipenem. CONCLUSIONS Although B. mallei MICs are often lower, the overall results underline the importance of resistance in both species. The susceptibilities measured are consistent with the current recommendations for the treatment of B. pseudomallei and B. mallei infections.
Dietary carbohydrates and breast cancer risk: A prospective study of the roles of overall glycemic index and glycemic load

We examined breast cancer risk in association with overall glycemic index (GI), glycemic load (GL), and dietary carbohydrate and sugar intake in a prospective cohort of 49,613 Canadian women enrolled in the National Breast Screening Study who completed a self‐administered food frequency questionnaire between 1980 and 1985. Linkages to national mortality and cancer databases yielded data on deaths and cancer incidence, with follow‐up ending between 1998 and 2000. During a mean follow‐up of 16.6 years, we observed 1,461 incident breast cancer cases. GI, GL, total carbohydrate and total sugar intake were not associated with breast cancer risk in the total cohort. However, there was evidence of effect modification of the association between GI and breast cancer risk by menopausal status (p = 0.01), the hazard ratio for the highest versus the lowest quintile level of GI being 0.78 (95% CI = 0.52–1.16; ptrend = 0.12) in premenopausal women and 1.87 (95% CI = 1.18–2.97; ptrend = 0.01) in postmenopausal women. The associations between GI and GL were not modified by body mass index (BMI) or by vigorous physical activity among pre‐ or postmenopausal women. Similarly, the associations between GI/GL and risk in postmenopausal women were not modified by BMI, vigorous physical activity, or ever use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), although the associations were slightly stronger among those who reported no vigorous physical activity (ptrend = 0.02), among those who reported ever using HRT (ptrend = 0.02) and among normal‐weight women (BMI < 25 kg/m2; ptrend = 0.03). Our data suggest that consumption of diets with high GI values may be associated with increased risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women, possibly more so among subgroups defined by participation in vigorous physical activity, ever use of HRT and those who are not overweight. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Identification of Dermatophytes by an Oligonucleotide Array

ABSTRACT Species of dermatophytes are classified into three anamorphic (asexual) genera, Epidermophyton, Microsporum, and Trichophyton. Conventional methods used to identify dermatophytes are often lengthy and may be inconclusive because of atypical microscopic or colony morphology. Based on the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1) and ITS-2 sequences of the rRNA genes, an oligonucleotide array was developed to identify 17 dermatophyte species. The method consisted of PCR amplification of the ITS regions using universal primers, followed by hybridization of the digoxigenin-labeled PCR products to an array of oligonucleotides (17- to 30-mers) immobilized on a nylon membrane. Of 198 dermatophyte strains and 90 nontarget strains tested, the sensitivity and specificity of the array were 99.5% and 97.8%, respectively. The only strain not identified (Microsporum audouinii LMA 597) was found to have a nucleotide insertion at the ITS-2 region where the probe was designed. Two nontarget strains, Microsporum equinum LMA 40396666 and Trichophyton gourvilii var. intermedium CBS 170.65, were misidentified as Microsporum canis and Trichophyton soudanense, respectively. Sequence analysis of the ITS regions revealed that the two misidentified strains displayed high sequence homology with the probes designed for M. canis and T. soudanense, respectively. The present method can be used as a reliable alternative to conventional identification methods and can be completed with isolated colonies within 24 h.
Extending the Economic Foundations of Entrepreneurship Research

As the entrepreneurship discipline grows, it increasingly faces unique research challenges. Recently, &#8216;interactive, activity based, cognitively hot, compassionate, and prosocial&#8217; approaches to the study of entrepreneurship have arisen to meet these challenges. This paper builds on recent discussions by emphasizing, in addition, the persistent value of economic foundations for a progressive research agenda in entrepreneurship. A realist economic perspective is both fundamental for entrepreneurship and complements newer research trends. It has also stood the test of time: economic questions relating to methodological individualism, uncertainty, judgment, opportunities, social motivations, and incentives have not only set the tone for past research, but continue to offer starting points and insights for contemporary work. This paper thus makes two contributions: first, it explains the relevance of each of these concepts for contemporary work in entrepreneurship studies, and second, it uses them to pose novel research questions. These questions complement the abovementioned emerging trends in entrepreneurship.
A Novel Wavefront-Based High Parallel Solution for HEVC Encoding

With a lot of enhanced coding tools introduced, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) achieves significant improvement in coding efficiency at the cost of increased computational complexity. To efficiently reduce the encoding time of HEVC, a wavefront-based high parallel (WHP) solution integrating novel data-level and task-level methods is proposed in this paper. On data level, optimal single-instruction-multiple-data algorithms are designed for the enhanced coding tools, i.e., replacing the multiplication in motion compensation by add and shift operations with reduced instruction cycles, removing the transpose in transform via realignment of coefficients, and minimizing the memory access in sum of absolute difference/sum of squared differences calculation by fully reusing the registers. On task level, a novel inter-frame wavefront (IFW) method is developed by effectively decreasing the dependence of wavefront parallel processing (WPP). In addition, a coding tree block level parallelism analysis method is presented to prove the superior of IFW method compared with other HEVC representative parallel methods. Besides, a three-level thread management scheme is proposed to best exploit the parallelism of IFW method and achieve corresponding encoding speedup. Extensive experimental results show that, the overall WHP solution can bring up to $57.65\times $ , $65.55\times $ , and $88.17\times $ speedup for HEVC encoding of Wide Video Graphics Array, 720p and 1080p standard test sequences, while maintaining the same coding performance as with WPP. The proposed solution is also applied in several leading video companies in China, providing HEVC video service for more than 1.3 million users everyday.
Predictors of independence in instrumental activities of daily living: Amnestic versus nonamnestic MCI

ABSTRACT Introduction: Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) demonstrate deficits in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) that place them at high risk for progression to dementia. The cognitive profiles, IADL deficits, and risk of progression differ between MCI subgroups of amnestic (aMCI) and nonamnestic MCI (naMCI), though many studies of functional impairment have not examined these subgroups separately. This study aims to determine whether common neuropsychological measures, as well as the related concept of patient anosognosia, are associated with IADL functioning differently in aMCI compared to naMCI. Method: Seventy-one individuals were identified as naMCI, and 99 individuals were identified as aMCI based on neuropsychological evaluation. Controlling for age, gender, and education, we examined whether performance on neuropsychological tests predicted informant-rated IADL dysfunction. We also investigated the ability of patient awareness, as rated by clinicians and informants, to predict informant-rated IADL dysfunction within MCI subgroups. Results: Better performance in cognitive domains of attention/processing speed and executive functioning predicted IADL independence in aMCI, but not in naMCI. Exploratory analysis with a subset of these individuals revealed that after accounting for an estimate of cerebrovascular burden, better performance in Delayed Memory predicted IADL independence in the naMCI group, but not in the aMCI group. Lastly, informant, but not clinician, ratings of patient awareness predicted IADL independence within the aMCI group only. Conclusion: Neuropsychological performance on tests of attention/processing speed and executive functioning may be better able to predict cognitive contributions to IADL dysfunction specifically in aMCI. After controlling for vascular burden, memory deficits may be the earliest cognitive indication of IADL dysfunction in naMCI. These results suggest that executive functions and memory, in addition to patient’s awareness of deficits, differentially predict early IADL dysfunction in subgroups of MCI and can be used to formulate patient prognosis and recommendations on a more individualized basis.
Forced Expression of Murine IL-17E Induces Growth Retardation, Jaundice, a Th2-Biased Response, and Multiorgan Inflammation in Mice

IL-17 is a proinflammatory cytokine, and its in vivo expression induces neutrophilia in mice. IL-17E is a recently described member of an emerging family of IL-17-related cytokines. IL-17E has been shown to bind IL-17Rh1, a protein distantly related to the IL-17R, suggesting that IL-17E probably possesses unique biological functions. In this study, we have identified the murine ortholog of IL-17E and developed transgenic mice to characterize its actions in vivo. Biological consequences of overexpression of murine (m)IL-17E, both unique to IL-17E and similar to IL-17, were revealed. Exposure to mIL-17E resulted in a Th2-biased response, characterized by eosinophilia, increased serum IgE and IgG1, and a Th2 cytokine profile including elevated serum levels of IL-13 and IL-5 and elevated gene expression of IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13 was observed in many tissues. Increased gene expression of IFN-γ in several tissues and elevated serum TNF-α were also noted. In addition, IL-17E induces G-CSF production in vitro and mIL-17E-transgenic mice had increased serum G-CSF and exhibit neutrophilia, a property shared by IL-17. Moreover, exposure to mIL-17E elicited pathological changes in multiple tissues, particularly liver, heart, and lungs, characterized by mixed inflammatory cell infiltration, epithelial hyperplasia, and hypertrophy. Taken together, these findings suggest that IL-17E is a unique pleiotropic cytokine and may be an important mediator of inflammatory and immune responses.
Axillary Lymph Node Dissection Is a Risk Factor for Major Complications After Immediate Breast Reconstruction

BackgroundComplications after immediate breast reconstruction pose a significant challenge to the reconstructive surgeon. Known risk factors include smoking, obesity, age, and adjuvant oncologic therapies. Less is known about the association between axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) and the development of postoperative complications. MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of all patients who underwent immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy at our institution over a 10-year period. Our outcome was an occurrence of a major complication within 90 days postoperatively. For each patient, we recorded data on demographics, smoking status, pertinent medical history, reconstruction type, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation, tumor pathology, and whether an ALND was performed. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated to estimate the risk of a complication if an ALND was performed. ResultsOne hundred eighty-four women, with 270 surgically treated breasts, were identified as having mastectomy with immediate reconstruction between 2002 and 2012. Mean age was 49.4 years (range, 25–84 years). There were 71 mastectomies with ALND performed, with 22 complications, and 199 mastectomies without ALND, with 20 complications (31% complication rate vs 10%, respectively; OR, 3.84; P < 0.001). When adjusted for reconstruction type, smoking history, obesity, age, presence of invasive disease, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, the OR for complications was 3.49 (P < 0.01). The most common complication was infection in both groups. ConclusionsMastectomy with ALND is associated with a 3-fold increase in risk of major complications in women undergoing immediate breast reconstruction, even after adjustment for known risk factors and confounders. Further studies are warranted to elucidate how ALND leads to these complications and what measures can reduce their occurrence.
Four Proteins Processed from the Replicase Gene Polyprotein of Mouse Hepatitis Virus Colocalize in the Cell Periphery and Adjacent to Sites of Virion Assembly

ABSTRACT The replicase gene (gene 1) of the coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) encodes two co-amino-terminal polyproteins presumed to incorporate all the virus-encoded proteins necessary for viral RNA synthesis. The polyproteins are cotranslationally processed by viral proteinases into at least 15 mature proteins, including four predicted cleavage products of less than 25 kDa that together would comprise the final 59 kDa of protein translated from open reading frame 1a. Monospecific antibodies directed against the four distinct domains detected proteins of 10, 12, and 15 kDa (p1a-10, p1a-12, and p1a-15) in MHV-A59-infected DBT cells, in addition to a previously identified 22-kDa protein (p1a-22). When infected cells were probed by immunofluorescence laser confocal microscopy, p1a-10, -22, -12, and -15 were detected in discrete foci that were prominent in the perinuclear region but were widely distributed throughout the cytoplasm as well. Dual-labeling experiments demonstrated colocalization of the majority of p1a-22 in replication complexes with the helicase, nucleocapsid, and 3C-like proteinase, as well as with p1a-10, -12, and -15. p1a-22 was also detected in separate foci adjacent to the replication complexes. The majority of complexes containing the gene 1 proteins were distinct from sites of accumulation of the M assembly protein. However, in perinuclear regions the gene 1 proteins and nucleocapsid were intercalated with sites of M protein localization. These results demonstrate that the complexes known to be involved in RNA synthesis contain multiple gene 1 proteins and are closely associated with structural proteins at presumed sites of virion assembly.