Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Muscle phenotype and mutation load in 51 persons with the 3243A>G mitochondrial DNA mutation.

BACKGROUND Mitochondrial disorders are generally not associated with a clear phenotype-genotype relationship, which complicates the understanding of the disease and genetic counseling. OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between the muscle and blood mitochondrial DNA mutation load and phenotype. DESIGN Survey. SETTING The Neuromuscular Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. PARTICIPANTS Fifty-one persons with the 3243A>G point mutation of mitochondrial DNA, and 20 healthy control subjects. METHODS We recorded the maximal oxygen uptake (Vo(2)max), maximal workload, resting and peak-exercise plasma lactate levels, muscle and blood mutation load, muscle morphology, and presence of diabetes mellitus and hearing impairment in all subjects. RESULTS Muscle mutation load (mean +/- SE, 50% +/- 5%; range, 2%-95%) correlated with Vo(2)max and resting plasma lactate level (P<.001; R>/=0.64). All persons except 5 with a muscle mutation load above 50% had abnormal Vo(2)max and morphology on muscle biopsy findings. Persons with hearing impairment and diabetes mellitus had a muscle mutation load above 65%. The mutation load in blood (mean +/- SE, 18% +/- 3%; range, 0%-61%) did not correlate with Vo(2)max, resting plasma lactate levels, or presence of hearing impairment or diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates a close relationship between the muscle mutation load and phenotype in persons carrying the 3243A>G mutation. The lack of correlation between the mutation load in blood and symptoms from other tissues emphasizes the importance of assessing phenotype-genotype correlations in the same tissue in mitochondrial disease. The results indicate that the threshold of muscle mutation load at which oxidative impairment occurs can be as low as 50%, which is as much as 40% lower than that suggested by in vitro studies.
Nippostrongylus brasiliensis Can Induce B7-Independent Antigen-Specific Development of IL-4-Producing T Cells from Naive CD4 T Cells In Vivo1

Th2 immune responses to a number of infectious pathogens are dependent on B7-1/B7-2 costimulatory molecule interactions. We have now examined the Th2 immune response to Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb) in B7-1/B7-2−/− mice and show that Th2 effector cells develop that can mediate worm expulsion and produce substantial Th2 cytokines comparable with wild-type infected mice; however, in marked contrast, B cell Ag-specific Ab production is abrogated after B7 blockade. To examine the mechanism of T cell activation, OVA-specific DO11.10 T cells were transferred to recipient mice, which were then immunized with a combination of Nb plus OVA or either alone. Only the combination of Nb plus OVA triggered T cell differentiation to OVA-specific Th2 cells, suggesting that Nb acts as an adjuvant to stimulate Ag-specific naive T cells to differentiate to effector Th2 cells. Furthermore, using the DO11.10 TCR-transgenic T cell adoptive transfer model, we show that blocking B7-1/B7-2 interactions does not impair nonparasite Ag-specific DO11.10 Th2 cell differentiation; however, DO11.10 T cell cycle progression and migration to the B cell zone are inhibited.
Initial Steps Toward a Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything Standard [Connected Vehicles]

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has developed some functionalities to provide enhancements of cellular standards specifically for vehicular communications. These include both direct communication (between vehicles, vehicle-to-pedestrian, and vehicleto-infrastructure) and cellular communications with networks. The vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) work item builds on earlier work on device-todevice (D2D) communications and introduces a new D2D interface (designated as PC5, which is also known as the sidelink at the physical layer), specifically addressing communications at vehicular speeds. To that end, four additional pilot symbols have been added to the demodulation reference signal to allow for better tracking of the channel despite high Doppler effects associated with relative speeds of up to 500 km/h and at high frequency (with 5.9 GHz ITS band being the main target).
Gradient ascent with a group of minimalist real robots: implementing secondary swarming

This paper addresses and highlights some of ihe problems facing designers and those who engineer small scale robots in the future. It specijically looks at theproblem of small-scale robots ascending a gradient fieM In particular the performance of an individual, minimalist robot can be improved when a group of similarly limited robots is employe4 being a member of a collective confers benefit to the individuaL The paper describes the implementation of simulation work with a group of real ‘blimp’ robots, with a severely restricted pay104 demonstrating that spatial integrity of a group of agents around a urger can be improved when employing the mechanism of secondary swarming
Online Search Strategies Of Educational Administrators For Determining The Credibility Of Information Gleaned From A Website

Based on a survey of 158 educational leaders situated in public schools, the level of educational leadership, whether a school superintendent or a principal in a secondary, middle-school, or elementary school, was not a significant factor in operational online strategies utilized or benchmarks relied upon for determining the credibility of information obtained from a website. he No Child Left Behind legislation, directed from the Federal level, has resulted in the need for educational leaders to access credible data for making crucial decisions in regards to what is working and what is not in terms of student learning. In this regard, the reporting in the literature on effective and successful schools by educational leaders provides a rich source of data for those seeking solutions to instructional deficiencies in local school districts. In order to respond to questions of assessment about current curricula and instructional methodology, educational leaders are continuously searching for credible data sources about alternatives for addressing the issues that surround attempts to improve student performance in their schools. The World Wide Web offers information and data from all over the world. Because so much information is available, and because information can easily be generated from „anonymous sources,‟ it is necessary to develop skills to assess what is found. When using sources from an academic library, the books, journals and other resources have typically been evaluated by scholars, publishers and librarians. Such resources, therefore, have been subjected to some degree of scrutiny, in one way or another, before they are made available to the public. However, when accessing sites on the World Wide Web, none of this applies. There are few, if any, „information filters. ‟ Because anyone can write a Web page, or set up a „blog,‟ documents of the widest range of quality, written by authors of the widest range of authority, are readily available. Excellent resources reside along side the most dubious.
Coordinated message delivery in partially connected local association networks for the 'Internet of Things'

The traditional internet commonly is wired with machine-to-machine persistent connections. Evolving towards mobile and wireless pervasive networks, the internet has to entertain dynamic, transient and changing interconnections. The vision of the Internet of Things (IOT) furthers technology development by creating an interactive environment where smart objects are connected and can sense and react to the environment. The resulting event flooding in such an IOT environment has aroused interest in research in network architecture and topologies where the events can be filtered to meet event-intensive application requirements. In this paper, we will introduce a Local Association Network (LAN) with a coordinated P2P message delivery mechanism. This LAN is tested and validated as suitable building block for the IOT.
The Perceived Value-added of Venture Capital Investors. Evidence from Finnish Biotechnology Industry

This study focuses on the non-financial value-added of venture capital investors (VCs) as perceived by the CEOs of Finnish biotechnology companies. It pays attention to differences in the value-added between informal venture capitalists, private sector venture capitalists and public sector venture capital organizations. In addition, this study pays attention to value-adding mechanisms which venture capitalists use in developing their portfolio companies and factors which influence the perceived value-added. In general, venture capitalists in Finnish biotechnology companies were found to be rather active hands-on investors, especially in terms of frequent contacts. In addition, their non-financial support was in most cases perceived as important for the success of the Finnish biotechnology companies. The VCs provide value-added indirectly through screening and signaling, and directly through monitoring and providing non-financial support in variety of business areas, for example, in strategic planning and in obtaining additional financing. The value-adding of the VCs was found not to be merely vested in the VCs role in the investeeŽs board of directors, as the VCs were found rather often to be in contact with their investee companies outside the board meetings. The value-adding profile of each VC type was found to differ somewhat from one another. Of all VC types, informal VCs were perceived to provide value-added the most and were the most active in other respects. The public sector VCs stood out as most active providers of indirect value-added through signaling, while private sector VCs were characterized by being actively involved in implementing proper corporate governance. As predicted, the perceived value-added was found to be greater when the relationship with between the CEO and the lead VC was close and there were no tensions inside the investee company resulting from the involvement of VC. The results showed also that short experience of the CEO in investee companyŽs industry increased the perceived value-added.
APPLICATION OF MULTIFRACTAL ANALASYS FOR IMAGE CLASSIFICATION AND DENOISING

Fractal approach is successfully implemented in many applications within 2D signal processing. Fractal synthetical concept is applied for image compression with high compression ratios while fractal and multifractal descriptors provide classification of textural images with high occuracy. Various multifractal models are presented in literature. This paper summarizes them and illustrates new multifractal techniques applied for image classification and image denoising.
Value at Risk Ajustado por Liquidez: Una Aplicación a los Bonos Soberanos Chilenos

International capital market integration together with increasing international volatility, requires an accurate evaluation of the potential losses that portfolio managers may face as a result of international turbulence. Assets with high liquidity standards can be evaluated by the traditional Value at Risk approach (VaR), however, this statistic underestimates the true value of the potential losses when the instrument is not liquid. This paper applies the methodology of liquidity adjusted VaR to the Chilean sovereign bond by incorporating bid-ask spread fluctuations when evaluating a portfolio risk.
Minichromosome Maintenance Proteins as Markers for Proliferation Zones During Embryogenesis

Regulation of cell proliferation is of fundamental importance for growth andprevention of cancer. An obligatory step in the regulation of cell proliferation is thecontrol of the initiation of DNA synthesis. The minichromosome maintenance (MCM)proteins are essential DNA replication factors crucial for initiating DNA synthesis onceevery cell cycle. Recent studies show that the level of MCM proteins is stringentlyregulated to correlate with cell proliferation and carcinogenesis. Here we discuss ourrecent data, which highlights the usefulness of minichromosome maintenance (MCM)gene expression for detecting proliferating cells as well as zones containingproliferative/stem cells during embryogenesis in a whole organism.
An Empirically Based Model of Business Excellence

This paper identifies eleven of Australia’s long-term top performing organizations and discusses the common features that make them winning organizations. Nine key elements are identified and presented as a winning framework for achieving sustainable organizational excellence. All framework elements need to be present and linked together, and the model is applicable to all types of organizations. Some unique features of the Australian business environment are discussed and the findings compared with other overseas studies on best management practices. Descriptors: Organizational excellence, sustainability, performance improvement, measurement
Longest Held Job in U.S. Occupational Groups: The National Health Interview Survey

Objective:We sought to assess the validity of using current or most recent occupation as surrogate for longest-held job (and its exposures). Methods:The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual, probability, cross-sectional U.S. population survey. The 1986 and 1988 NHIS occupational supplements provided information for more than 49,000 workers. Using Cohen’s Kappa, concordance was assessed by occupational group and several subgroups. Results:Statistically significant results were observed for all occupational groups. More than 70% of 13 broad occupations had a Kappa of 50.0 or greater, with variable concordance by subpopulation. Among 206 occupational groups, there was more variability: Kappa ranged from 92.7 (dentists) to 9.2 (farm managers). Conclusions:Moderate-to-high levels of agreement was observed in this large, representative sample of US workers. Therefore, current occupation can be used as a surrogate for longest-held job for many occupational subgroups.
Natural History: the sense of wonder, creativity and progress in ecology*

Este ensayo aborda el tema de la combinacion el conocimiento de las ciencias naturales con la sabiduria ecologica para la genuina creatividad que ejemplifica el profesor Ramon Margalef. Muchos han observado que la biologia moderna es un triunfo de la precision sobre la exactitud, y que la ecologia ha buscado su madurez esforzandose por alcanzar este modelo en el que el valor de la precision de las herramientas ha sustituido a las preguntas importantes. En la busqueda de un modelo de una ciencia robusta, la ecologia ha enfrentado los enfoques popperianos disenados para crear una fina pelicula de "ciencia real" en el vasto mar de la incertidumbre que tanto admiraban los naturalistas . Nosotros comenzamos con una discusion de la importancia de la historia natural en la ecologia y la conservacion, y de la situacion actual de la historia natural en el ambito academico de la ecologia. Posteriormente discutimos el respeto de las culturas humanas por la historia natural, y concluimos que un capricho de la autoridad impide pensar con claridad acerca de las verdades importantes que pueden hallarse en la naturaleza. Consideramos algunos procesos generales asociados con la creatividad, y, finalmente, nos preguntamos como la historia natural influye en la creatividad de la ecologia. Llegamos a la conclusion de que la singular creatividad que ejemplifica Ramon Margalef se basa en una gozosa, casi espiritual, comprension de la historia natural y del valor para evitar la autoridad
Term Structure and the Sluggishness of Retail Bank Interest Rates in Euro Area Countries

This paper analyses the pricing of bank loans and deposits in euro area countries. We show that retail bank interest rates adjust not only to changes in short term interest rates but also to long-term interest rates. This result, which is arguably intuitive for long-term retail bank rates, is also confirmed for bank interest rates on short-term instruments. The transmission of changes in short-term market interest rates along the yield curve is found to be a key factor explaining the sluggishness of retail bank interest rates. We also show that in the cases where we cannot reject that the adjustment of retail rates has changed since the introduction of the euro, this adjustment has become faster. JEL Classification: E43, G21
Overexpression of Parkinson's disease-associated alpha-synucleinA53T by recombinant adeno-associated virus in mice does not increase the vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons to MPTP.

Mutations in the alpha-synuclein gene are linked to a rare dominant form of familial Parkinson's disease, and alpha-synuclein is aggregated in Lewy bodies of both sporadic and dominant Parkinson's disease. It has been proposed that mutated alpha-synuclein causes dopaminergic neuron loss by enhancing the vulnerability of these neurons to a variety of insults, including oxidative stress, apoptotic stimuli, and selective dopaminergic neurotoxins, such as 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). To test this hypothesis in vivo, we overexpressed human alpha-synuclein(A53T) in the substantia nigra of normal and MPTP-treated mice by rAAV-mediated gene transfer. Determination of dopaminergic neuron survival, striatal tyrosine hydroxylase fiber density, and striatal content of dopamine and its metabolites in rAAV-injected and uninjected hemispheres demonstrated that alpha-synuclein(A53T) does not increase the susceptibility of dopaminergic neurons to MPTP. Our findings argue against a direct detrimental role for (mutant) alpha-synuclein in oxidative stress and/or apoptotic pathways triggered by MPTP, but do not rule out the possibility that alpha-synuclein aggregation in neurons exposed to oxidative stress for long periods of time may be neurotoxic.
Portfolio Diversification Dynamics of Individual Investors: A New Measure of Investor Sentiment

We build a new measure of investor sentiment only based on changes in diversi? cation levels of individual investors? portfolios. The dynamics of the number of different stocks in portfolios is modelized as a Markov chain. We measure investor sentiment as the area above the cumulative distribution of the steady-state equilibrium of diversi? cation levels. We apply this model to a large sample of more than 80000 individual investors over the period 1999-2006. We ? rst show that our index is signi? cantly correlated to the French consumer sentiment index, to the Baker and Wurgler sentiment indices and to the buy-sell imbalance index, despite the fact we use neither prices or returns on stocks nor transaction volumes or even the identi? cation of stocks bought or sold by the investors. Following the two-step methodology of Baker and Wurgler (2006), we show that our measure outperforms the others in predicting returns of a long-short portfolio based on size.
Persistent Problems with Standardization of Immunoassays for Anti-Cardiolipin Antibodies

1. Bertina RM, Koelemann BP, Koster T, et al. Mutation in blood coagulation factor V associated with resistance to activated protein. C. Nature 1994; 369 (3475): 64-7. 2. Dahlbäck B, Carlsson M, Svensson PJ. Familial thrombophilia due to a previously unrecognized mechanism charactedrized by poor anticoagulant response to activated protein C: prediction of a cofactor to activated protein C. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1993; 90 (3): 1004-8. 3. Dahlbäck B. Blood coagulation. Lancet 2000; 355 (9215): 1627–32. 4. Högberg U, Broström G. The demography of maternal mortality-seven Swedish parishes in the 19th century. Int J Gynaecol Obstet 1985; 23 (6): 489-97. 5. Lindqvist PG, Svensson PJ, Marsal K, Grennert L, Lutherkort M, Dahlbäck B. Activated protein C resistance (FV:Q506) and pregnancy. Thromb Haemost 1999; 81: 532-7.
A Review on Recent Progress of Portable Short-Range Noncontact Microwave Radar Systems

This paper reviews recent progress of portable short-range noncontact microwave radar systems for motion detection, positioning, and imaging applications. With the continuous advancements of modern semiconductor technologies and embedded computing, many functionalities that could only be achieved by bulky radar systems in the past are now integrated into portable devices with integrated circuit chips and printed circuits boards. These portable solutions are able to provide high motion detection sensitivity, excellent signal-to-noise ratio, and satisfactory range detection capability. Assisted by on-board signal processing algorithms, they can play important roles in various areas, such as health and elderly care, veterinary monitoring, human-computer interaction, structural monitoring, indoor tracking, and wind engineering. This paper reviews some system architectures and practical implementations for typical wireless sensing applications. It also discusses potential future developments for the next-generation portable smart radar systems.
Security Analysis of a Nonce-Based User Authentication Scheme Using Smart Cards

A remote user authentication scheme is a two-party protocol whereby an authentication server in a distributed system confirms the identity of a remote individual logging on to the server over an untrusted, open network. Recently, Lee et al. have proposed an efficient nonce-based scheme for remote user authentication using smart cards. This work reviews Lee et al.'s authentication scheme and provides a security analysis on the scheme. Our analysis shows that Lee et al.'s scheme does not achieve its basic aim of authenticating remote users and furthermore has a very hazardous method for changing passwords. In addition, we recommend some changes to the scheme so that it can attain at least its main security goal.
Apolipoprotein E phenotypes in demented and cognitively impaired patients with and without cerebrovascular disease

Controversy exists regarding the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ɛ4 allele association with vascular dementia (VaD), ranging from increased ɛ4 frequency, similar to that found for Alzheimer's disease (AD), to no association between the ɛ4 allele and VaD. To clarify further the relationship between ApoE alleles polymorphism and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in demented and cognitively impaired patients, we examined the ApoE phenotypes in a sample of 280 patients: 155 with AD, 21 with VaD, 32 with mixed dementia (MD), 45 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) but without CVD, and 27 in which vascular disease was the most probable cause of cognitive decline [vascular mild cognitive impairment (VMCI)]. Our results show that the frequency of the ApoE ɛ4 allele in patients over 70 years old with clinically diagnosed VaD and VMCI does not differ significantly from that of controls. In contrast, ApoE ɛ4 allele‐bearing individuals had greater risk of having late‐onset AD (OR=8.8; 95% Cl 3.7–21.0), or non‐vascular cognitive impairment (OR=7.0; 95% Cl 2.5–19.0).
Nordic Capital Markets' Response to Terrorism : Focus on the Swedish Stock Market

This study examines the economic impacts of three large-scale terrorist attacks on the Nordic capital markets. Past research has shown evidence of the increasing resilience of the US capital markets towards terrorist attacks. Hereby the Nordic regions capital markets were studied and compared with the US's capital markets, in an intention to find evidence whether or not the same development can be observed in the Nordic countries. The results implied that the Nordic markets did not absorb the shocks as well as the US markets. The analysis was taken into an industry level on the Swedish stock market to get a deeper insight of the impacts of such events. The results indicated the Energy sectors good ability to absorb terrorist attacks in terms of negative abnormal returns and time of recovery. The Financing sector seemed to be the most sensitive sector, since its performance was the weakest in terms of market recovery.