Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Roles of immunoglobulin valency and the heavy-chain constant domain in antibody-mediated downregulation of Sindbis virus replication in persistently infected neurons

Clearance of infectious Sindbis virus from neurons is mediated by antibody to the E2 glycoprotein. Properties of the antibody important for downregulation of Sindbis virus replication are unknown. Immunoglobulin isotypes and valency determine many biological properties of antibodies. An immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) isotype switch mutant and F(ab')2 and Fab fragments of IgG3 monoclonal antibody 209 were prepared and tested for clearance of infectious virus from persistently infected rat dorsal root ganglion neurons in vitro. IgG1, IgG3, and IgG3-derived F(ab')2 fragments were similarly efficacious, while IgG3-derived Fab fragments had no effect on virus replication. Cross-linking of Fab with secondary antibodies restored antiviral activity. Therefore, we found no evidence that IgG subclass plays a role in control of intracellular Sindbis virus replication. However, bivalency appears to be crucial for the ability of E2-specific IgG molecules to mediate clearance of infectious virus from neuron cells, suggesting that cross-linking of E2 molecules is essential.
Sodium Channel β2 Subunits Prevent Action Potential Propagation Failures at Axonal Branch Points

Neurotransmitter release depends on voltage-gated Na+ channels (Navs) to propagate an action potential (AP) successfully from the axon hillock to a synaptic terminal. Unmyelinated sections of axon are very diverse structures encompassing branch points and numerous presynaptic terminals with undefined molecular partners of Na+ channels. Using optical recordings of Ca2+ and membrane voltage, we demonstrate here that Na+ channel β2 subunits (Navβ2s) are required to prevent AP propagation failures across the axonal arborization of cultured rat hippocampal neurons (mixed male and female). When Navβ2 expression was reduced, we identified two specific phenotypes: (1) membrane excitability and AP-evoked Ca2+ entry were impaired at synapses and (2) AP propagation was severely compromised with >40% of axonal branches no longer responding to AP-stimulation. We went on to show that a great deal of electrical signaling heterogeneity exists in AP waveforms across the axonal arborization independent of axon morphology. Therefore, Navβ2 is a critical regulator of axonal excitability and synaptic function in unmyelinated axons. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels are fulcrums of neurotransmission that convert electrical inputs into chemical outputs in the form of vesicle fusion at synaptic terminals. However, the role of the electrical signal, the presynaptic action potential (AP), in modulating synaptic transmission is less clear. What is the fidelity of a propagating AP waveform in the axon and what molecules shape it throughout the axonal arborization? Our work identifies several new features of AP propagation in unmyelinated axons: (1) branches of a single axonal arborization have variable AP waveforms independent of morphology, (2) Na+ channel β2 subunits modulate AP-evoked Ca2+-influx, and (3) β2 subunits maintain successful AP propagation across the axonal arbor. These findings are relevant to understanding the flow of excitation in the brain.
Global Transcriptome Analysis of the Responses of a Fluoroquinolone-Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae Mutant and Its Parent to Ciprofloxacin

ABSTRACT Streptococcus pneumoniae M22 is a multidrug-resistant mutant selected after exposure of capsulated wild-type S. pneumoniae NCTC 7465 (strain M4) to ciprofloxacin. DNA microarray analysis comparing the gene expression profiles of strain M22 with those of strain M4 showed that strain M22 constitutively expressed 22 genes at levels higher than those observed in strain M4 under all conditions studied. These included the genes encoding the enzymes involved in branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis and two genes (patA and patB) with sequences suggestive of ABC transporter proteins. Expression of the patA and patB genes was induced by ciprofloxacin in both strains, but in strain M4 it only reached the levels observed in strain M22 after long incubation with high concentrations of ciprofloxacin. The altered expression profile observed with strain M22 suggested that the mutation or mutations acquired during resistance selection bring the cell into a state in which the expression of critical genes is preemptively altered to correct for the potential effects of ciprofloxacin on gene expression in the parent strain.
On the complexity of optimal electric vehicles recharge scheduling

The massive introduction of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is expected to significantly increase the power load experienced by the electrical grid, but also to foster the exploitation of renewable energy sources: if the charge process of a fleet of EVs is scheduled by an intelligent entity such as a load aggregator, the EVs' batteries can contribute in flattening energy production peaks due to the intermittent production patterns of renewables by being recharged when energy production surpluses occur. To this aim, time varying energy prices are used, which can be diminished in case of excessive energy production to incentivize energy consumption (or increased in case of shortage to discourage energy utilization). In this paper we evaluate the complexity of the optimal scheduling problem for a fleet of EVs aimed at minimizing the overall cost of the battery recharge in presence of timevariable energy tariffs. The scenario under consideration is a fleet owner having full knowledge of the customers' traveling needs at the beginning of the scheduling horizon. We prove that the problem has polynomial complexity, provide complexity lower and upper bounds, and compare its performance to a benchmark approach which does not rely on prior knowledge of the customers' requests, in order to evaluate whether the additional complexity required by the optimal scheduling strategy w.r. t. the benchmark is worthy the achieved economic advantages. Numerical results show considerable cost savings obtained by the optimal scheduling strategy.
Consumer Credit Card Use Intention and Influence Factors Analysis

Credit card as a kind of advanced means of payment and the new way of consumer credit in the world widely, but in our country is faced with some problems, such as their per capita spending is low, open the card number is small, motionless bank card is a lot. In this paper, using the Logit model to analyze the Anshan city in Liaoning province consumer credit card usage. And combined with empirical analysis to provide banking management Suggestions and marketing countermeasures, including targeted to provide different kinds of credit card.
Phonemic transcription by analogy in text-to-speech synthesis: Novel word pronunciation and lexicon compression

Abstract The synthesis of speech from unrestricted text needs a phonemic transcription including syllabification and lexical stress for each word and symbol. Speech synthesizers currently use large lexicons to provide such transcriptions, but noteveryword has a lexical entry and a backup is required to produce transcriptions for novel words. In addition, synthesizers do not have an infinite amount of memory at their disposal, so it is not always possible continually to append supplementary lexemes for specialized applications in the hope of reducing the probability of encountering a novel word. Transcriptions for novel words are produced by implicit analogy with an existing lexicon. A data-driven technique of extracting context-dependent grapheme-to-phoneme rules with dynamically minimized context lengths from a training lexicon is proposed. Syllable boundary and lexical stress information is included in the transcriptions. The proposed system satisfies certain pragmatic constraints: it can produce transcriptions with sufficient rapidity to maintain real-time processing in a text-to-speech system; the rules take up a small amount of storage size (370 KBytes); and a pronunciation can be generated for any novel word. The quality of the transcription process enables 77·06% of lexemes formerly present in the training lexicon to be excluded, thus reducing the lexicon's memory requirements by 74·18% (of 3·57 MBytes).
Different GABAB‐Mediated Effects on Protein Kinase C Activity and Immunoreactivity in Neonatal and Adult Rat Hippocampal Slices

Abstract: The effects of GABA on protein kinase C (PKC) were investigated in rat hippocampal slices at various postnatal ages [postnatal day (P) 1‐P60]. At P4, GABA (300 µM) induced a rapid (in 1–2 min) 40–50% increase of PKC activity in the membrane fraction and a decrease in the cytosol. These effects were mediated by GABAB receptors because (a) they were neither blocked by 10 µM bicuculline nor reproduced by 10 µM isoguvacine and (b) they were mimicked by the GABAB agonist baclofen (3–30 µM), an effect fully antagonized by the GABAB antagonist 2‐hydroxysaclofen (10 µM). A baclofen‐induced increased PKC activity in the membrane fraction was only present during the early postnatal period (P1–P14); it was associated with a translocation from the cytosol to the membrane of the immunoreactivity of some PKC isoforms (α‐, β‐, and ε‐PKCs). In contrast, after P21, PKC activity and α‐, β‐, ε‐, and γ‐PKC immunoreactivities were decreased by baclofen in the membrane fraction and increased in the cytosol. These results suggest that the stimulation of GABAB receptors differentially modulates PKC activity via distinct second messenger pathways in developing and mature hippocampi.
Client-side Automated Sanitizer for Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities

Web applications are useful for various online services. These web applications are becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives. They are used for multiple purposes such as e-commerce, financial services, emails, healthcare services and many other captious services. But the presence of vulnerabilities in the web application may become a serious cause for the security of the web application. A web application may contain different types of vulnerabilities. According to OWASP TOP 10 vulnerability report, Cross-site Scripting (XSS) is among top 5 vulnerabilities. So this research work aims to implement effective solution for the prevention of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. In this paper, we implemented a novel client-side XSS sanitizer that prevents web applications from XSS attacks. Our sanitizer is able to detect cross-site scripting vulnerabilities at the client-side. It strengthens web browser, because modern web browser do not provide any specific notification, alert or indication of security holes or vulnerabilities and their presence in the web application.
Research on Management of Food Enterprise Technological Innovation Based on Overall Unbalanced Multiplicative Linguistic Evaluation Scale

Abstract This paper develops a overall unbalanced multiplicative linguistic evaluation scale. Based on the developed linguistic evaluation scale and linguistic weighted averaging (LWA) operator, the technological innovation management ability of five food enterprises is evaluated. Numerical results verified the validity and utility of the scale. Meanwhile, it indicates that to improve the level of technological innovation, an enterprise should make more efforts to stimulate innovations by using the enterprises distribution system, to cultivate the leader and the staff’s positive attitude to an innovation failure, to thoroughly analyze the reason of the termination of an innovation project and to strengthen the leader and the staff’s innovation awareness. The overall unbalanced multiplicative linguistic evaluation scale can also be extensively applied to other fields such as project evaluation, engineering management, medical diagnosis and personnel appraisal.
Test–retest reliability of second lactate turnpoint using two different criteria in competitive cyclists

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the relative and absolute reliability of second lactate turnpoint using fixed and individual blood lactate method in competitive cyclists. Twenty-eight male, well-trained cyclists (30.2 ± 10.1 years, 72.0 ± 7.4 kg, 177.3 ± 4.7 cm) were recruited to participate in this study. Cyclists completed two incremental cycling tests to exhaustion over a period of 7 days to determine their peak power output, maximal oxygen uptake, maximal heart rate, maximal blood lactate concentration and two lactate turnpoint criteria. The fixed blood concentration criterion (3.5 mM) and an individual criterion were assessed by a lactate-power curve, considering power output, heart rate and oxygen uptake. The main finding of this study was that both lactate turnpoint criteria showed identical low within-subject variation for power output (2.8% coefficient of variation). High values for test–retest correlations ranging from r = 0.70 to r = 0.94 were found for all variables in both threshold criteria. In conclusion, the individual and fixed method to determine the second lactate turnpoint showed similar high absolute and relative reliability in competitive cyclists.
Employer size and supervisor earnings: Evidence from Britain

Using British linked employer-employee data, we show that the establishment size effect for supervisors is approximately twice that for non-supervisors. This difference is routinely statistically significant, not explained by other controls and is an important determinant of the difference in earnings between supervisors and non-supervisors. Moreover, we use separate British longitudinal data to confirm both the statistically different effect and that it is not explained by worker fixed effects. Event study evidence and information on skill match suggest that the larger return to supervisors reflects, in large part, match specific returns supporting the view that talented supervisors receive a return on that talent only with larger employers.
Colliding Conflicting Perspectives: The rhetoric and reality of employee turnover- Evidence from the Indian BPO industry

This study provides a deeper exploration of the qualitative thematic structures of conflicting accounts between employee reasons to quit and managerial strategies to prevent employee turnover in six business process outsourcing firms. Such differences in cognition and action between the two constituencies suggest that the decision to quit is not a linear and rational process as highlighted in most extant employee turnover models. We present a novel conceptualisation of why employees quit. Our findings suggest that employees are more attached to a place or people rather than the organisation per se. Intergenerational differences between the employees and their managers and the ineffectiveness of actual human resource practices suggest the prevalence of ‘push systems’ in the case organisations. Implications for theory and practice are addressed
Distributed Channel Selection in Time-Varying Radio Environment: Interference Mitigation Game With Uncoupled Stochastic Learning

This paper investigates the problem of distributed channel selection for interference mitigation in a time-varying radio environment without information exchange. Most existing algorithms, which were originally designed for static channels, are costly and inefficient in the presence of time-varying channels. First, we formulate this problem as a noncooperative game, in which the utility of each player is defined as a function of its experienced expected weighted interference. This game is proven to be an exact potential game with the considered network utility (the expected weighted aggregate interference) serving as the potential function. However, most game-theoretic algorithms are not suitable for the considered network, since they are coupled, i.e., the updating procedure is relying on the actions or payoffs of other players. Then, we propose a simple, completely distributed, and uncoupled stochastic learning algorithm, with which the users learn the desirable channel selections from their individual trial-payoff history. It is analytically shown that the proposed algorithm converges to pure strategy Nash equilibrium in time-varying radio environment; moreover, it achieves optimal channel selection profiles and makes the network interference-free for underloaded or equally loaded scenarios, while achieving, on average, near-optimal performance for overloaded scenarios.
Does a positive family history influence the presentation of breast cancer?

INTRODUCTION An important risk factor for developing breast cancer is a positive family history of breast cancer. In Malaysia, there is no population-based breast screening programme, but the clinical practice guidelines suggest increased surveillance for those with a positive family history ie mammography for those 40 years old and above, breast self-examination and clinical breast examination yearly. OBJECTIVE To determine if women with a family history of breast cancer present with earlier stages of disease. METHODOLOGY From Jan 2001 to Dec 2006, 1553 women with breast cancer presenting to the University Malaya, where family history was recorded, were eligible for this study. Women with a first or second degree relative with breast cancer were compared with those who have no family history with regard to their race, age, stage, size and duration of symptoms. The Chi Square test of significance was used for analysis. RESULTS Out of 1553 patients, 252 (16.2%) were found to have a relative with breast cancer out of which 174 (11.2%) had at least one affected first degree relative. There were no significant difference in the incidence of positive family history between the Malays, Chinese and Indians. 20% below the age of 40 years old had a positive family history compared with 12.6% in women with no family history. (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in stage at diagnosis between those with and without family history, ie 24.2% late stages (Stage 3 and 4) in the group with no family history compared with 21.8% in the group with family history. (p>0.05). The mean size in the group with no family history was 4.4 cm compared to 4.1 cm in the group with family history. There was a significant difference in screen-detected cancers in the women with family history, 10.7% compared with 5.1% of screen-detected cancers in the group without a family history. However there was no difference in the duration of symptoms between the 2 groups--25.8% in the women without a family history presented after 1 year of symptoms compared with 22.4% in the group with a family history (p>0.05). CONCLUSION Having a family history of breast cancer does not appear to have much impact on the health-seeking behavior of women. Even though there were more screen detected cancers, these comprised only 10% of the group with family history. Public education should target women at risk ie with family history to encourage these women to present earlier and to undergo screening for breast cancer.
Role of Natural Killer and Gamma-Delta T cells in West Nile Virus Infection

Natural Killer (NK) cells and Gamma-delta T cells are both innate lymphocytes that respond rapidly and non-specifically to viral infection and other pathogens. They are also known to form a unique link between innate and adaptive immunity. Although they have similar immune features and effector functions, accumulating evidence in mice and humans suggest these two cell types have distinct roles in the control of infection by West Nile virus (WNV), a re-emerging pathogen that has caused fatal encephalitis in North America over the past decade. This review will discuss recent studies on these two cell types in protective immunity and viral pathogenesis during WNV infection.
Low-latency dynamic adaptive video streaming

Accurate, dynamic rate selection is considered a hard problem in stream switching video applications over Internet Protocol. Not only the feedback delay but also the unawareness about the dynamics of the underlying HTTP/TCP transport layer require streaming applications to implement huge receiver buffers in the order of tens of seconds so as to maintain continuous video rendering with acceptable quality and bandwidth utilization. In order to achieve low-latency adaptive video streaming with a buffering delay as low as the chunk size, we present a streaming architecture under the implementation of media transport with predictably reliable transport and delay-based congestion control. A key component of our solution is a server-side simulation of the streaming client's buffer, which provides low-delay feedback for the video rate selection. The receiver buffer is being controlled via an open-loop synchronization mechanism relying on a reference clock that is transmitted within the media packets. We demonstrate the performance of our approach by evaluating the stability of the receiver buffer under low-latency and highdefinition adaptive video streaming with variable bit rate encoding over an emulated wide area network link.
An alternatively spliced CXCL16 isoform expressed by dendritic cells is a secreted chemoattractant for CXCR6+ cells

DC are professional APCs that initiate and regulate adaptive immune responses by interacting with naïve and memory T cells. Chemokines released by DC play an essential role in T cell recruitment and in the maintenance of antigen‐specific T cell‐DC conjugates. Here, we characterized the expression of the T cell‐attracting chemokine CXCL16 by murine DC. We demonstrate that through alternative RNA splicing, DC not only express the previously characterized transmembrane CXCL16 isoform, which can be cleaved from the cell surface, but also a novel isoform lacking the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. Transfection of HEK293 cells shows that this novel isoform, termed CXCL16v, is not expressed on the cell membrane but is secreted as a protein of ∼10 kDa. Quantitative PCR demonstrates that CXCL16v is broadly expressed in lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues resembling the tissue distribution of DC. Indeed, CXCL16v mRNA is expressed significantly by spleen DC and BM‐DC. Moreover, we show that mature DC have increased CXCL16v mRNA levels and express transmembrane and soluble CXCL16 proteins. Finally, we show that CXCL16v specifically attracts cells expressing the chemokine receptor CXCR6. Our data demonstrate that mature DC express secreted, transmembrane, and cleaved CXCL16 isoforms to recruit and communicate efficiently with CXCR6+ lymphoid cells.
The Effects of Paternity Leave on Parents and Children ∗

Paternity leave is often discussed as a family policy measure to encourage more gender equality both at home and in the labor market, but empirical evidence on its effects is scarce. In this paper we use the precise timing of the introduction of the paternal quota in Norway to evaluate the effects of paternity leave on parents and children. We find that paternity leave reduces fathers’ earnings, but not that it benefits the labor market outcomes of mothers. On the contrary we document an adverse impact of paternity leave on maternal earnings and employment. For children, we find no effects of paternity leave on cognitive skills, measured as school performance at age 16.