Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative analysis of the virulence control systems of Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica

Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica contain nearly identical BvgAS signal‐transduction systems that mediate a biphasic transition between virulent (Bvg+) and avirulent (Bvg–) phases. In the Bvg+ phase, the two species express a similar set of adhesins and toxins, and in both organisms the transition to the Bvg– phase occurs in response to the same environmental signals (low temperature or the presence of nicotinic acid or sulphate anion). These two species differ, however, with regard to Bvg–‐phase phenotypes, host specificity, the severity and course of the diseases they cause, and also potentially in their routes of transmission. To investigate the contribution of the virulence‐control system to these phenotypic differences, we constructed a chimeric B. bronchiseptica strain containing bvgAS from B. pertussis and compared it with wild‐type B. bronchisepticain vitro and in vivo. The chimeric strain was indistinguishable from the wild type in its ability to express Bvg+‐ and Bvg–‐phase‐specific factors. However, although the chimeric strain responded to the same signals as the wild type, it differed dramatically in sensitivity to these signals; significantly more nicotinic acid or MgSO4 was required to modulate the chimeric strain compared with the wild‐type strain. Despite this difference in signal sensitivity, the chimeric strain was indistinguishable from the wild type in its ability to cause respiratory‐tract infections in rats, indicating that the bvgAS loci of B. pertussis and B. bronchiseptica are functionally interchangeable in vivo. By exchanging discrete fragments of bvgAS, we found that the periplasmic region of BvgS determines signal sensitivity.
Effects of cold ischemia and inflammatory tumor microenvironment on detection of PI3K/AKT and MAPK pathway activation patterns in clinical cancer samples

The accuracy of common markers for PI3K/AKT and MAPK pathway activation in preclinical and clinical cancer biomarker studies depends on phosphoepitope stability and changes of phosphorylation under ischemia. Herein, we define conditions under which phosphoepitope‐specific duplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) on formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded tumor tissues reflects pathway activation in situ as accurately as possible, and identify activation patterns linked to mutational status, pathway dependency and tumor microenvironment in clinical tumor samples, cell culture and xenograft tissues. Systematically assessing robustness of pAKT, pERK1/2, pMEK1/2 and pmTOR detection and related markers in xenograft tissues exposed to ischemia, we show that control of preprocessing and ischemia times allows accurate interpretation of staining results. Phosphorylation patterns were then analyzed in 33 xenograft models and in 58 cases with breast cancer, including 21 paired samples of core‐needle biopsies with corresponding mastectomy specimens, and 37 mastectomy samples obtained under rigorously controlled conditions minimizing ischemia time. Patterns of pAKT and pERK1/2 staining (predominant PI3K/AKT, predominant MAPK and concomitant activation) were associated with sensitivity to pathway inhibition and partially with the mutational status in cell lines and corresponding xenograft tumors. In contrast, no clear correlation between mutational status and staining patterns was observed in clinical breast cancer samples, suggesting that interaction with the human tumor microenvironment may interfere with the use of phosphoepitope‐specific IHC as potential markers for pathway dependency. In contrast to core needle biopsies, surgically resected breast cancer samples showed evidence of severe signal changes comparable to those effects observed in xenograft tumors exposed to controlled ischemia.
The relationship between urbanization and economic growth: An empirical study on ASEAN countries

Purpose This study examines the relationship between urbanization and economic growth in ASEAN countries for the period from 1993 to 2014. Design/methodology/approach The Granger causality test, the regression estimation method with static and dynamic panel data (FE, RE, Driscoll and Kraay, D-GMM, PMG) were used. The sample includes seven ASEAN countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Findings The results show that between urbanization and economic growth at least a causal relationship exists. And the results show that urbanization positively impacts economic growth. However, the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is non-linear. The urbanization reaches a threshold after which it may impede economic growth. The estimated threshold is 69.99% for the static model and 67.94% for the dynamic model. Research limitations/implications The evidence from this study suggests that there is nonlinear relationship between urbanization and economic growth.
Dealing with large numbers: What is important for students and teachers to know?

National French assessment shows difficulties with writing large numbers at the beginning of the 6th grade. But, what do students need to learn and teachers need to teach? What do they actually learn or teach? We investigate these questions at different levels of the didactical transposition: students' knowledge, teaching practices and reference knowledge. We show a lack of mathematical understanding of large numbers and make a proposal for teaching knowledge which provides justifications for the use of large numbers which could foster a 'number sense' understanding of such numbers.
Planum temporale asymmetry and ear advantage in dichotic listening in developmental dyslexia and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The planum temporale is clearly involved in language processing, for it serves as the auditory association cortex. Research has consistently demonstrated that 60 to 70% of the population has leftward asymmetry of the planum temporale. Research has also suggested that dyslexic individuals tend to have either rightward asymmetry or symmetrical plana. Moreover, many studies have found a relationship between the presence of dyslexia and/or language impairment and deficits in the normal right ear advantage found in dichotic listening paradigms. In this context, this study examined the relationship between planum temporale asymmetry and ear preference in dichotic listening performance in children with Developmental Dyslexia and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Subjects included 19 children with dyslexia (10 of whom had a comorbid diagnosis of ADHD), 23 children with ADHD, and 12 diagnosed normal control children. Dichotic listening data were not collected for 8 of the 12 normal control children and for 3 of the 23 ADHD children. Results revealed no significant difference between ADHD and dyslexic subjects in regard to ear advantage on the free recall dichotic listening task. In addition, although the directed dichotic listening tasks were not related to degree of planum asymmetry, as predicted, results indicated that subjects who consistently displayed an atypical left ear advantage tended to have larger right bank lengths than those who consistently displayed a typical right ear advantage. These findings support the notion that some individuals with dyslexia or language deficits tend to have a larger right planum temporale and that performance on dichotic listening tasks may reflect this relatively unusual pattern. (JINS, 2002, 8, 22–36.)
In need of remedy: US policy for compensating injured research participants

There is an emerging ethical consensus that injured research participants should receive medical care and compensation for their research-related injuries. This consensus is premised on notions of beneficence, distributive justice, compensatory justice and reciprocity. In response, countries around the world have implemented no-fault compensation systems to ensure that research participants are adequately protected in the event of injury. The United States, the world's leading sponsor of research, has chosen instead to rely on its legal system to provide injured research participants with medical care and compensation. This article argues that US reliance on its legal system leaves injured research participants unprotected in the event of injury. Nearly every injured research participant will have difficulty receiving compensation in court, and certain classes of research participants will be barred from receiving compensation altogether. The United States’ outlier status also threatens to impede US-sponsored multinational research, potentially delaying important biomedical advances. To rectify this injustice, researchers, Institutional Review Boards, sponsors and research institutions should advocate systematic no-fault compensation in the United States to bring US law into accord with global ethical norms and ensure that injured research participants are adequately protected.
Comparison of Landing Biomechanics Between Male and Female Professional Dancers

Background The incidence of anterior cruciate ligament injuries among dancers is much lower than that among team sport athletes and no clear gender disparity has been reported in the dance population. Although numerous studies have observed differences in lower extremity landing biomechanics between male and female athletes, there is currently little research examining the landing biomechanics of male and female dancers. Comparing landing biomechanics within this population may help explain the lower overall anterior cruciate ligament injury rates and the lack of gender disparity. Hypothesis Due to the fact that dancers receive jump-specific and balance-specific training from a very young age, we hypothesized that there would be no gender differences in drop-landing biomechanics in professional dancers. Study Design Controlled laboratory study. Methods Kinematics and ground-reaction forces were recorded as 33 professional modern and ballet dancers (12 men and 21 women) performed single-legged drop landings from a 30-cm platform. Joint kinematics and kinetics were compared between genders. Results No gender differences in joint kinematics or kinetics were found during landings (multivariate analysis of variance: P = .490 and P = .175, respectively). A significant relationship was found between the age at which the dancers began training and the peak hip adduction angle during landing (r = .358, P = .041). Conclusion In executing a 30-cm drop landing, male and female dancers exhibited similar landing strategies and avoided landing patterns previously associated with increased injury rates. Clinical Relevance Commonly reported biomechanical differences between men and women, as well as the gender disparity among athletes in the incidence of ACL injuries, may be the result of inadequate experience in proper balance and landing technique rather than intrinsic gender factors. Beginning jump-specific and balance-specific training at an early age may counteract the potentially harmful adaptations in landing biomechanics observed in female athletes after maturity.
Walking control of a compass-like biped robot with a constraint mechanism

We call such a model consists of two rigid rods connected by a frictionless hinge at the hip, a compass-like model. In this paper, we consider a compass-like model in order to analyze biped robot motion. We are trying to control gait of the model, by inputing torque to the hinge of the hip, and show that the maximal torque input can be reduced by using a mechanism to constrain the angle of the hip hinge.
The Effects of Multi-Dimensional Competition on Education Market Outcomes

The Effects of Multi-Dimensional Competition on Education Market Outcomes. (August 2012) Mustafa Ugur Karakaplan, B.S., METU; M.A., Bilkent University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Timothy J. Gronberg Dr. Li Gan In this dissertation, I analyze the effects of competition in education markets. In my first essay, I analyze the effects of different concentration measures on school personnel salaries. I find evidence that principals have more bargaining power over their salaries than teachers in Washington that through rent-sharing, principals start getting positive returns from increasing concentration at lower levels of concentration than that of teachers. Moreover, I present that the pattern of teacher salaries versus concentration in Washington is similar to that in Texas, but the inflection point in Washington is at substantially lower levels of concentration—a finding which can be attributed to Washington’s being a union state versus Texas’s being a right-to-work-state. In my second essay, I examine the effects of various measures of competition on school district cost inefficiency in a stochastic frontier framework. My results show that cost frontier is U-shaped in Texas with large positive returns to the scale over a relatively big range and mild diseconomies of scale over an extended range. In addition, I find that school district cost inefficiency increases significantly when market
A MMSE Like Balancing on Zero-Forcing Beamforming for MIMO Broadcast Channels When the Number of Users is Small

A scheme of transmit side MMSE interference minimization technique is proposed for MIMO broadcast channel s of multi-user wireless systems. Drawing the analogy from th e receicer side MMSE technique, transmit side MMSE beamforming improves the capacity of zero-forcing beamforming by taken into account the inherent non-orthogonal variance among the user channels for minimization instead of hard inverse thus can be viewed as an augmenting technique for zero-forcing beamforming. The improvement is most visible when the numbe r of users is small, an application for smaller scale wirelessystems such as Wi-Fi.
Recovery of penetration ability in protease‐treated zona‐free mouse eggs occurs coincident with recovery of a cell surface 94 kD protein

Previous studies have demonstrated that protease treatment of zona‐free mouse eggs impairs sperm‐egg interaction (Boldt et al.: Biol Reprod 39:19–27. 1988) and causes modification of a 94 kD egg plasma membrane protein (Boldt et al., Gamete Res 23:91–101, 1989), In this report, the ability of eggs to recover penetration ability following protease treatment was examined. Zona‐free mouse eggs were isolated and treated with either trypsin or chymotrypsin (1 mg/ml, 20 min), then cultured for 0, 3, or 6 hr before insemination. Eggs cultured for 3 or 6 hr displayed significantly higher penetration levels than eggs inseminated immediately after protease treatment, indicating a recovery of penetration ability during the 3 or 6 hr incubation period. The recovery of penetration ability was not blocked by inclusion of cyclohexamide (50 μg/ml) during the 3 or 6 hr culture period, indicating that protein synthesis was not required for recovery of fusion ability. Cell surface radiolabeling studies with 125I revealed that a 94 kD cell surface protein was lost immediately following trypsin or chymotrypsin treatment but was found on the egg surface after the 3 or 6 hr recovery period. Recovery of the 94 kD egg surface protein occurred in the presence of cyclohexamide, and metabolic radiolabeling studies with 35S‐methionine confirmed that synthesis of a 94 kD protein was blocked by cyclohexamide. These results suggest that the recovery of penetration ability after protease treatment of zona‐free eggs is due to recovery of the 94 kD cell surface protein, providing further evidence for the involvement of the 94 kD protein in sperm‐egg interaction. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Incidence of Fibromyalgia and Its Associated Comorbidities: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study Based on International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision Codes

Background:The epidemiology of fibromyalgia is poorly defined. The incidence of fibromyalgia has not been determined using a large population base. Previous studies based on prevalence data demonstrated that females are 7 times more likely to have fibromyalgia than males and that the peak age for females is during the childbearing years. Objective:We have calculated the incidence rate of fibromyalgia in a large, stable population and determined the strength of association between fibromyalgia and 7 comorbid conditions. Methods:We conducted a retrospective cohort study of a large, stable health insurance claims database (62,000 nationwide enrollees per year). Claims from 1997 to 2002 were examined using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes to identify fibromyalgia cases (ICD code 729.1) and 7 predetermined comorbid conditions. Results:A total of 2595 incident cases of fibromyalgia were identified between 1997 and 2002. Age-adjusted incidence rates were 6.88 cases per 1000 person-years for males and 11.28 cases per 1000 person-years for females. Females were 1.64 times (95% confidence interval = 1.59–1.69) more likely than males to have fibromyalgia. Patients with fibromyalgia were 2.14 to 7.05 times more likely to have one or more of the following comorbid conditions: depression, anxiety, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Conclusion:Females are more likely to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia than males, although to a substantially smaller degree than previously reported, and there are strong associations for comorbid conditions that are commonly thought to be associated with fibromyalgia.
The Discussion of Economic Growth Models and Its Future Development

In 1939, the British economist Harold established the first economic growth model in the history of modern economics [1]. This marks the introduction of mathematics into the economic theory, which means present-day analysis of economic development has provided more accurate theoretical explanation than the previous theories. Later economists not only conducted researches on the basis of Harold economic growth model, but also put forward a number of different models of economic growth. This article will use two parts to introduce and to discuss comparatively classic examples of these models. These examples play a pivotal role in the development of economic growth models. Finally, according to the discussion of these models, this paper presents three possible future models of economic growth.
Income Redistribution Effect of Fiscal Transfer Payment —— Based on Analysis of Data from China's Provinces

This paper studies the income redistribution effect of fiscal transfer payment in detail by analyzing the panel data of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China from 1999 to 2014. The results show that, in China, fiscal transfer expenditure reduces the per capita income of urban and rural areas, increases the income of urban and rural residents with a stronger effect on the increase of rural residents' income. As far as the region is concerned, the fiscal transfer expenditure has little effect on or slightly expand the income gap between urban and rural areas in the eastern region, while it has a light role in widening the income gap between urban and rural residents in the central region and has narrowed the income gap between urban and rural areas in the western region. In view of the above conclusions, this paper puts forward some countermeasures.
Effect of anti‐IL‐4, interferon‐gamma and an antifungal triazole (SCH 42427) in paracoccidioidomycosis: correlation of IgE levels with outcome

Paracoccidioidomycosis is characterized by depressed cellular but enhanced humoral immune responses, which suggests a Th2 type of response to infection. We investigated possible therapeutic roles for anti‐IL‐4, interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ) and/or SCH 42427 (SCH), a new triazole antifungal agent, and their effect on serum IgE levels in a murine model of chronic Paracoccidioides brasiliensis infection. BALB/c mice infected by the pulmonary route were studied with three programmes. The subacute model and one acute model experiment investigated cytokine secretion by lymph node cells (LNC), and in a second acute experiment mice were given anti‐IL‐4, IFN‐γ or nothing 24 h post infection, then killed at 4 weeks. In the chronic model, mice began treatment at 4 weeks post infection, receiving either SCH, IFN‐γ alone, SCH + IFN‐γ. or no treatment for 8 weeks. At 2‐week intervals lung and spleen burdens of infection and serum polyclonal IgE levels were determined. In the subacute model (non‐progressive infection), initially there was dual production of IL‐4 and IFN‐γ by antigen‐stimulated LNC. In the acute progressive infection model IL‐4, but not IFN‐γ. was secreted. Anti‐IL‐4 treatment of the acute phase resulted in enhanced host resistance to infection, which correlated with decreased scrum IgE. The chronic model, in which the in vivo efficacy of SCH against P. brasiliensis was shown, suggests possible synergy between immunomodulation and antimicrobial chemotherapy (IFN‐γ and SCH). Decreased organ burdens of infection in the chronic model after treatment with SCH, SCH plus IFN‐γ, or anti‐IL‐4 correlated with decreased serum IgE. These promising novel approaches lo treatment of systemic fungal infections suggest a Th2 type of response to P. brasiliensis infection, which can be reversed with successful therapy.
Long-Term Pulmonary Sequelae in Children Who Were Treated With Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Neonatal Respiratory Failure

Objective. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a life-saving therapy for neonates with intractable respiratory failure, but the long-term pulmonary outcome is unknown. Our aim was to investigate the long-term pulmonary sequelae of these children. Study Design. We studied 50 children at 11.1 ± 1.1 years (mean ± SD) who had been treated with neonatal ECMO for meconium aspiration syndrome (38%), sepsis (18%), sepsis with pneumonia (12%), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (12%), congenital heart disease (8%), persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (6%), and respiratory distress syndrome (4%) and 27 healthy controls (10.8 ± 1.6 years). All subjects completed a respiratory questionnaire and performed pulmonary function and graded cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Results. Neonatal ECMO survivors had hyperinflation (median residual volume: 131%), airway obstruction (median forced expired volume in 1 second: 79%), lower oxygen saturation with exercise, and lower peak oxygen consumption than controls. The ECMO group achieved similar exercise minute ventilation to controls, with more rapid and shallow breathing. ECMO survivors had an increased frequency of exercise-induced bronchospasm. Those who required higher inspired oxygen tension and ventilator pressures after weaning from ECMO had lower forced expired volume in 1 second and oxygen saturation values. Conclusion. Neonatal ECMO survivors experience lung injury lasting into later childhood. Lung dysfunction correlates with the extent and duration of barotrauma and oxygen exposure as neonates.