Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Impact of Training for a National Microfinance Program: The Case of Indian Self Help Groups

We evaluate the impact of training provided by facilitators of Self Help Groups (SHGs). Indian SHGs are mainly NGO-formed microfinance groups but funded by commercial banks. In our methods, we employ evaluation techniques applicable to current borrowers for a national program. We correct for membership selection bias with pipeline methods. We then account for training endogeneity with propensity score matching. Regression adjusted matching which controls for both participation and training selection bias reveals that training impacts assets but not income. Business training, in particular, has a greater impact than general training. We also confirm the robustness of these results through sensitivity analyses. JEL Classification Numbers: G21, I32, O12.
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor contributes to ethanol‐induced liver injury by mediating cell injury, steatohepatitis, and steatosis

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a multipotent protein that exhibits both cytokine and chemotactic properties, is expressed by many cell types, including hepatocytes and nonparenchymal cells. We hypothesized that MIF is a key contributor to liver injury after ethanol exposure. Female C57BL/6 or MIF−/− mice were fed an ethanol‐containing liquid diet or pair‐fed control diet for 4 (11% total kcal;early response) or 25 (32% kcal; chronic response) days. Expression of MIF messenger RNA (mRNA) was induced at both 4 days and 25 days of ethanol feeding. After chronic ethanol, hepatic triglycerides and plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were increased in wildtype, but not MIF−/−, mice. In order to understand the role of MIF in chronic ethanol‐induced liver injury, we investigated the early response of wildtype and MIF−/− to ethanol. Ethanol feeding for 4 days increased apoptosis of hepatic macrophages and activated complement in both wildtype and MIF−/− mice. However, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) expression was increased only in wildtype mice. This attenuation of TNF‐α expression was associated with fewer F4/80+ macrophages in liver of MIF−/− mice. After 25 days of ethanol feeding, chemokine expression was increased in wildtype mice, but not MIF−/− mice. Again, this protection was associated with decreased F4/80+ cells in MIF−/− mice after ethanol feeding. Chronic ethanol feeding also sensitized wildtype, but not MIF−/−, mice to lipopolysaccharide, increasing chemokine expression and monocyte recruitment into the liver. Conclusion: Taken together, these data indicate that MIF is an important mediator in the regulation of chemokine production and immune cell infiltration in the liver during ethanol feeding and promotes ethanol‐induced steatosis and hepatocyte damage. (HEPATOLOGY 2013)
A review of drug options in age-related macular degeneration therapy and potential new agents

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in people > 50 years of age in the developed world. AMD is both a debilitating and costly disease for the individual and the community. Greater understanding of the mechanisms and pathways involved in causing the visual loss in AMD has resulted in the advent of several newer and more effective treatment options, making it an exciting time in the management of AMD. This paper will examine the principles behind the existing drug therapies available, as well as those being developed in the management or prophylaxis of AMD and its vision-threatening complications.
K-produits, un critère de classification pour le traitement du signal

Cet article passe en revue plusieurs domaines d'applications du critere de classification « K-produits » introduit dans [10]. Ce critere est applique a l'estimation de melange de lois, a l'extraction de lignes droites dans des images binaires et a l'estimation aveugle de canal en radiocommunications. Plusieurs algorithmes d'optimisation du critere sont presentes et des comparaisons avec d'autres approches sont conduites.
Posttransfusion hepatitis B

The screening of blood donations for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) began in 1971 and became a United States (US) federal regulation in July 1972. ’ At that time, the methods used to detect HBsAg in serum were the relatively insensitive immunodiffusion (first-generation) and counterelectrophoresis (second-generation) tests. During the next several years, these techniques were replaced by the more sensitive and reliable radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunoassay. Federal regulations requiring the screening of all donor blood for HBsAg by one of these third-generation tests were introduced in 1975, and the use of these tests was expected to eliminate posttransfusion hepatitis B. Indeed, routine third-generation testing of all blood donations for HBsAg did markedly decrease the incidence of the disease, although it has continued to occur. In three large prospective studies in which all blood was screened for HBsAg by radioimmunoassays, 0.3 to 1.7 percent of recipients of blood transfusions developed hepatitis By which accounted for 7 to 17 percent of posttransfusion hepatitis c a ~ e s . ~ ~ How can the continued occurrence of posttransfusion hepatitis B be explained? And, more important, how can it be prevented? Four possible explanations of continued occurrence of posttransfusion hepatitis B despite routine screening merit discussion: 1) mistakes made in the testing of blood; 2) the transmission of hepatitis B by means other than the blood transfusion; 3) an infectious donor who is in the incubation period of acute hepatitis B; and 4) an infectious donor who is a carrier of low-level hepatitis B virus
The effects of image-based concept mapping on the learning outcomes and cognitive processes of mobile learners

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different teaching strategies (text-based concept mapping vs. image-based concept mapping) on the learning outcomes and cognitive processes of mobile learners. Eighty-six college freshmen enrolled in the 'Local Area Network Planning and Implementation' course taught by the first author participated in the research. This study randomly selected one class as the experimental group and the other as the control group. Students in the experimental group used image-based concept mapping to finish assigned tasks and those in the control group used text-based concept mapping to complete the same tasks. Quantitative analysis combined with qualitative analysis was used to examine the learning outcomes and cognitive levels of the students, as defined by the revised Bloom's taxonomy. The results showed that (1) there was no significant difference in students' learning achievements, (2) the group using image-based concept mapping showed higher level than the text-based group in the dimension of understanding and creating and (3) the image-based concept mapping strategy was more complete and diverse than the text-based concept mapping strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Influence of carriers on the development and localization of anti‐trinitrophenyl antibody‐forming cells in the murine spleen

Mice were i.v. immunized with various 2,4,6‐trinitrophenyl (TNP)‐carrier conjugates, and the development and localization of specific (i.e. anti‐TNP) antibody‐forming cells (AFC) in the spleen was studied. The nature of the carrier used, thymus dependent (TD) or thymus independent type 1 or type 2 (TI‐1, TI‐2), had marked effects on the number and time of appearance of AFC. However, no influence of the different carriers on the localization of specific AFC in the spleen was observed. By using a double immunocytochemical technique we could simultaneously determine specificity (anti‐TNP) and isotype (class and subclass) of the AFC. The TNP‐carrier conjugates evoked (intracellular) immunoglobulins with carrier‐characteristic isotype distribution. No carrier‐dependent localization pattern, in the lymphoid compartments of the spleen, of these AFC was found. These results show for the first time the actual in situ effects of various TI and TD carriers on the development of specific AFC. Based on the present findings, no direct evidence for a special role of the marginal zone in the immune response against TI‐2 antigens could be demonstrated. We suggest that this new method for in vivo investigation, in combination with existing standard enzyme‐ and immunohistochemical techniques, can provide more insight into the precise role of lymphoid and nonlymphoid cells in TD and TI immune responses.
Prone position in mechanically ventilated patients with reduced intracranial compliance

Background: Prone position has been used for several years to treat acute lung insufficiency, but in previous studies patients with unstable intracranial pressure (ICP) are mostly excluded. The aim of this study was to investigate if prone position is a safe and useful treatment in patients with reduced intracranial compliance.
Physico-chemical features of engineered nanoparticles relevant to their toxicity

Abstract Nanotoxicology studies require investigations of several physico-chemical aspects of the particle/body fluid interaction, here described by reviewing recent literature in the light of new experimental data. Current characterization mostly covers morphology and metric-related characteristics (form, chemical composition, specific surface area, primary particle size and size distribution), and is mandatory in any experimental study. To unveil toxicity mechanisms, several other physico-chemical properties relevant to (geno) toxicity need to be assessed, typically the release or quenching of radical/ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species), the presence of active metal ions, evidence of structural defects. Major tasks for physical chemists working on nanoparticles-induced genotoxicity are described with some examples: (i), Tailored preparation of the same material in different sizes; (ii) particle modification changing a single property at a time; and (iii) identification of appropriate reference materials. Phenomena occurring during the contact between nanoparticles and cellular media or biological fluids (dispersion, agglomeration/aggregation, protein adsorption) are discussed in relation to the surface properties of the nanoparticles considered.
Hepatocyte Growth Factor/Scatter Factor Binds with High Affinity to Dermatan Sulfate*

We have demonstrated by affinity chromatography that hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) binds strongly to dermatan sulfate (DS), with a similar ionic strength dependence to that previously seen with heparan sulfate (HS). Analysis of binding kinetics on a biosensor yields an equilibrium dissociation constant,K D , of 19.7 nm. This corresponds to a 10–100-fold weaker interaction than that with HS, primarily due to a faster dissociation rate of the complex. The smallest DS oligosaccharide with significant affinity for HGF/SF by affinity chromatography appears to be an octasaccharide. A sequence comprising unsulfated iduronate residues in combination with 4-O-sulfated N-acetylgalactosamine is sufficient for high affinity binding. The presence of 2-O-sulfation on the iduronate residues does not appear to be inhibitory. These observations concur with our previous suggestions, from analyses of HS binding (Lyon, M., Deakin, J. A., Mizuno, K., Nakamura, T., and Gallagher, J.T. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 11216–11223), that N-sulfation of hexosamines and 2-O-sulfation of iduronates are not absolute requirements for glycosaminoglycan binding to HGF/SF. This is the first described example of a high affinity interaction between a growth factor and DS, and is likely to have significant implications for the biological activity of this paracrine-acting factor.
Spontaneous reversion of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 neutralization-resistant variant HXB2thr582: in vitro selection against cytopathicity highlights gp120-gp41 interactive regions

Spontaneous revertants of the immune-selected variant HXB2thr582, which resists neutralization by certain conformationally dependent antibodies specific for the CD4-binding site on gp120 (such as F105), appeared after long-term culture in the absence of immune-selecting serum. Molecular analysis showed some of the viruses in the revertant stock contained a simple back mutation, whereas others retained the Thr-582 codon but contained a substitution of serine for phenylalanine in gp41 at position 673. Neutralization sensitivity to the selecting serum and to F105 of infectious clones containing either the back mutation or the compensatory mutation, HXB2thr582ser673, was confirmed. HXB2thr582-infected cells have a greater propensity for syncytium formation and single cell killing than do either the parental HXB2 or the revertant HXB2thr582ser673. This suggests that the revertant arose by selection in vitro for a less cytopathic virus. Our results link three envelope regions shown to influence virus-cell fusion as well as neutralization by antibody: the CD4-binding region, the leucine zipper domain, and a region hidden to antipeptide antibodies upon envelope oligomerization. Taken together they illustrate the functional importance of the gp120-gp41 interaction and emphasize the impact of the interplay between envelope regions on overall conformation and function and on recognition by neutralizing antibodies.
Circulating concentrations of soluble granzyme A and B increase during natural and experimental Plasmodium falciparum infections

Release of soluble Granzymes (sGranzymes) is considered to reflect activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and NK cells. sGranzymes and a number of pro‐inflammatory cytokines were measured in plasma of malaria patients with natural or experimentally induced Plasmodium falciparum infections. Concentrations of sGranzyme A and B, IL‐10, IL‐12p70 and CRP were significantly increased in African children presenting with clinical malaria; IL‐10 and CRP concentrations were significantly correlated with disease severity. In nonimmune Dutch volunteers which were experimentally infected by P. falciparum‐infected mosquitoes, sGranzyme A increment started 1–2 days prior to clinical symptoms and microscopically detectable parasitaemia. This coincided with increases in IFNγ, IL‐12p40 and IL‐8, while sGranzyme B and IL‐10 levels increased 24–48 h later. The elevation of sGranzyme A and IFNγ in nonimmune volunteers suggests that NK cells are activated upon release of parasites by infected liver cells and subsequently during blood stage infection; thus, NK cells are likely involved innate immune human host resistance in the early phase of a malaria infection.
Classification of machine-printed and handwritten addresses on Korean mail piece images using geometric features

We propose an effective method for classifying machine-printed and handwritten addresses on Korean mail piece images. It is of vital importance to know if an input image is machine-printed or handwritten in such applications as address reading, form processing, FAX routing, and etc., since approaches for handwritten images are developed quite differently from those for machine-printed images. Our method consists of three blocks: valid connected component grouping, feature extraction and classification. A set of features related to width and position of groups of valid connected components is used for the classification based on a multi-layer perceptrons network. The experiment done with address images extracted from Korean live mail piece images has demonstrated the superiority of the proposed method. The correct classification rate for 3,147 testing images was about 98.9%.
Reduced Complexity Sequence Detection of Continuous Phase Modulation as the Superposition of Time-Varying Amplitude Modulated Pulses

The Laurent Decomposition expresses any binary single-h CPM waveform as the summation of a finite number of pulse amplitude modulated components, and this result has been useful in the development of a class of reduced complexity CPM detection schemes. In a recent generalization, it has been shown that a similar finite-term amplitude modulation expansion exists for all variants of CPM, regardless of signal complexity, with the important distinction that the amplitude modulated pulses are, generally, data-dependent. Furthermore, it has been shown that most of the signal power is typically concentrated in the first 1 - 2 principle components of the expansion, which suggests a possible reduction in receiver complexity viz. the optimal maximum likelihood sequence detector. In this paper, we investigate the bit error rate (BER) performance of a maximum likelihood sequence detector when the incoming signal is matched to the data-dependent pulse modulation components found in this new signal representation. Numerical results suggest that there is a negligible decrease in performance between the optimal conventional matched filter receiver and a reduced complexity, sub-optimal scheme that only uses the first 1 - 2 (principle) signal components in the construction of the matched filter bank.
Increasing incidence of both major histological types of esophageal carcinomas among men in Sweden

Although a rare tumor form, there is evidence that the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinomas is increasing in Western Europe and the US. The aim of this nationwide population‐based study was to describe the secular trends in the incidence rates of adenocarcinoma and squamous‐cell carcinoma of the esophagus over a 28‐year period from I960 to 1987. The Swedish Cancer Registry, complete to more than 95%, was used to identify the cases. The percentage verified by histology rose from 89% to 98%. The age‐standardized incidence rate of adenocarcinoma increased in males from 0.5 per I05 in 1960–63 to 1.1 per 105 in 1984–87, corresponding to an average annual increase of 1.5%. In females the incidence remained stable around 0.2 per I05. The age‐standardized incidence rate of squamous‐cell carcinoma in males increased from 2.9 to 4.0 per 105, corresponding to an average annual increase of 1.0%. In females the rate decreased from 1.4 to 1.2 per I05, corresponding to an annual average decrease of 0.5%. The male/female ratio was 4.6 for adenocarcinoma and 2.7 for squamous‐cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Since the incidence rates of squamous‐cell carcinoma of the esophagus and of adenocarcinoma seem to be rising, there is a great need for well‐planned analytical epidemiological studies of these tumor locations, taking the histological type into consideration.
Aircraft Trajectory Control with Feedback Linearization for General Nonlinear Systems

The feedback linearization method is further developed for the controller design on general nonlinear systems. Through the Lyapunov stability theory, the intractable nonlinear implicit algebraic control equations are effectively solved with the dynamic approach, and the asymptotic tracking performance is guaranteed. Moreover, it is proved that the proposed dynamic feedback controller may be used in an inverse-free version to the set-point control. With this method, a nonlinear aircraft outer-loop trajectory controller is developed. For the concern regarding the controller’s robustness, the integral control technique is combined to counteract the adverse effect from modeling errors. Simulation results verify the well performance of the proposed controller.
Replication‐coupled modulation of early replicating chromatin domains detected by anti‐actin antibody

Evidence is presented for the reversible, cold‐dependent immunofluorescence detection of the epitope (hereafter referred to as epiC), recognized by a monoclonal anti‐actin antibody in diploid human fibroblast cell nuclei and mitotic chromosomes. The nuclear/chromosomal epiC was detected in a cell cycle window beginning in early S phase and extending through S phase, G2 phase, mitosis until early G1 phase of the subsequent daughter cells. A small but significant level of co‐localization was measured between the nuclear epiC and active sites of DNA replication in early S phase. The level of co‐localization was strikingly enhanced beginning approximately 1 h after the initial labeling of early S phase replicating chromatin domains. In contrast, epiC did not co‐localize with late S phase replicated chromatin either during DNA replication or at any other time in the cell cycle. We propose a replication‐coupled modulation of early S phase replicated chromatin domains that is detected by the chromatin epiC positivity, persists on the chromatin domains from early S until early G1 of the next cell generation, and may be involved in the regulation and/or coordination of replicational and transcriptional processes during the cell cycle. Further studies will be required to resolve the possible role of nuclear actin in this modulation process. J. Cell. Biochem. 94: 899–916, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Gas concentration and equation correlation: Of the Figaro sensors, used for dangerous environments

Cheaper, affordable, yet reliable gas sensors are required for different application such as search and rescue scenarios, mining, disasters and even for the first responders. The Figaro sensors were researched and used, yet no correlation between the gas concentration and the readings were available. This paper shows the equations that were used to determine the gas concentrations that the sensors detected.
Heat Shock Protein-Mediated Cross-Presentation of Exogenous HIV Antigen on HLA Class I and Class II1

Strong CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses are considered important immune components for controlling HIV infection, and their priming may be central to an effective HIV vaccine. We describe in this study an approach by which multiple CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes are processed and presented from an exogenously added HIV-1 Gag-p24 peptide of 32 aa complexed to heat shock protein (HSP) gp96. CD8+ T cell recognition of the HSP/peptide complex, but not the peptide alone, was inhibited by brefeldin A, suggesting an endoplasmic reticulum-dependent pathway. This is the first report to describe efficient processing and simultaneous presentation of overlapping class I- and class II-restricted epitopes from the same extracellularly added precursor peptide complexed to HSP. Given previous reports of the strong immunogenicity of HSP/peptide complexes, the present data suggest that HSP-complexed peptides containing multiple MHC class I- and class II-restricted epitopes represent potential vaccine candidates for HIV and other viral infections suitable to induce effective CTL memory by simultaneously providing CD4 T cell help.
Two‐photon Excitation Fluorescence Bioassays

Application of two‐photon excitation of fluorescence in microscopy is one of the major discoveries of the “renaissance” of light microscopy that started in the 1980s. The technique derives its advantages from the biologically “smooth” wavelength of the excitation light and the confinement of the excitation. Difficult, and seemingly nontransparent, samples may be imaged with the technique with good resolution. Although the bioresearch has been concentrating mostly on the positive properties of the technique for imaging, the same properties may be applied successfully to nonimaging bioassays. This article focuses on the development path of two‐photon excitation–based assay system.