Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial distribution patterns of Echinococcus multilocularis (Leuckart 1863) (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea: Taeniidae) among red foxes in an endemic focus in Brandenburg, Germany

Over a period of 40 months, 4374 foxes were randomly sampled from an area located in northwestern Brandenburg, Germany, and examined parasitologically for infections with Echinococcus multilocularis. Spatial analysis of the origin of infected animals identified two (one central and one southeastern) high-endemic foci with an estimated prevalence of 23·8%. By contrast, a prevalence of 4·9% was found in the remaining (low-endemic) area. The prevalences among juvenile and adult foxes were compared in the high-endemic and the low-endemic areas. To analyse the central high-endemic focus further, the random sample was stratified by zones representing concentric circles with a radius of 13 km (zone 1) or xn−1+7 km for the remaining three zones from the apparent centre of this focus (anchor point). Prevalences calculated for each zone showed a decrease from zone 1 (18·8%) to zone 4 (2·4%) with significant differences for all zones but zones 3 and 4. The relative risk of an infection decreased rapidly in a distance range of 26 km around the high-endemic focus, whereas the relative risk remained unchanged within a distance of 5 km around the anchor point. The importance of heterogeneous spatial distribution patterns for the diagnosis and epidemiology of the infection is discussed.
Clinical implications of pathogenic calcium crystals

Purpose of reviewThe role of intraarticular calcifications has been challenged over the past years, with respect to cartilage destruction, especially in osteoarthritis. Recent findingsMain themes reviewed in this article will discuss prevalence of articular cartilage calcifications, mechanisms of cartilage calcifications, and mostly the pathogenic role of both calcium pyrophosphate and basic calcium phosphate crystals. SummaryA direct pathogenic role of both calcium crystals has been depicted, in cartilage as a crystal-induced stress, or via acute or chronic crystal-induced synovitis.
Multigene phylogeny of Endogonales, an early diverging lineage of fungi associated with plants

Endogonales is a lineage of early diverging fungi within Mucoromycota. Many species in this order produce small sporophores (“sporocarps”) containing a large number of zygospores, and many species form symbioses with plants. However, due to limited collections, subtle morphological differentiation, difficulties in growing these organisms in vitro, and idiosyncrasies in their rDNA that make PCR amplification difficult, the systematics and character evolution of these fungi have been challenging to resolve. To overcome these challenges we generated a multigene phylogeny of Endogonales using sporophores collected over the past three decades from four continents. Our results show that Endogonales harbour significant undescribed diversity and form two deeply divergent and well-supported phylogenetic clades, which we delimit as the families Endogonaceae and Densosporaceae fam. nov. The family Densosporaceae consists of the genus Densospora, Sphaerocreas pubescens, and many diverse lineages known only from environmental DNA sequences of plant-endosymbiotic fungi. Within Endogonaceae there are two clades. One corresponds to Endogone and includes the type species, E. pisiformis. Species of Endogone are characterized by above- and below-ground sporophores, a hollow and infolded sporophore form, a loose zygosporangial hyphal mantle, homogeneous gametangia, and an enigmatic trophic mode with no evidence of ectomycorrhizal association for most species. For the other clade we introduce a new generic name, Jimgerdemannia gen. nov. Members of that genus (J. flammicorona and J. lactiflua species complexes, and an undescribed species) are characterized by hypogeous sporophores with a solid gleba, a well-developed zygosporangial hyphal mantle, heterogeneous gametangia, and an ectomycorrhizal trophic mode. Future studies on Densosporaceae and Endogonaceae will be important for understanding fungal innovations including evolution of macroscopic sporophores and symbioses with plants.
Geographic Information System and Spatial Data Infrastructure: A Developing Societies' Perception

The perception of geographic information system and spatial data infrastructure in the developing societies is vague. Developing societies in the context of this paper are societies that are disadvantaged in the provision of geographic information system and spatial data infrastructure. The notion is that there is no clear cut understanding of geographic information system and spatial data infrastructure as perceived by societies who are still lagging in these technological ideas. Previous studies and web based sources on this subject matter form the basis for analysis, case study of three geospatial regions were viewed and analyzed. In this paper, different reasons for these information gaps were looked into, from the terms used in describing the two, to the models used for their implementation and the provision of facilities for implementation. The result obtained showed a lack of basic geographic information science background, failure in achieving a spatial data infrastructure standard and component system failure resulted in the perception. A model that is specific to developing societies in the opinion of this paper is what is needed. A suggested model to assist in refocusing the quest for national geographic information system and spatial data infrastructure towards people oriented spatial information services is made.
Immune responses during human schistosomiasis mansoni. IV. Induction of suppressor cell activity by schistosome antigen preparations and concanavalin A.

Human peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with chronic Schistosoma mansoni infection were exposed to concanavalin A (Con A), soluble schistosome egg antigenic preparation (SEA), or soluble adult worm antigenic preparation (SWAP). They were then evaluated for their ability to suppress the phytohemagglutinin response of autologous cells. Significant suppression was reliably obtained by Con A pretreatment of the cells of 15 of 17 patients (88%). Pre-exposure of patient's cells to SEA and SWAP in medium supplemented with normal human serum (NHS) resulted in significant suppression being expressed by 36% and 39% of the patients, respectively. The ability to express suppressor activity in these circumstances did not appear to correlate with the intensity of the patient's S. mansoni infection, or the clinical state of the patient's disease. The capacity to generate schistosomal antigen-induced suppressor activity increased sharply during the second decade of life, in general, correlating with increased duration of infection. Preliminary studies have indicated that the ability to generate schistosome antigen-induced suppressor activity was greatly increased when the cells were exposed to the antigens in the presence of “suppressive” sera from a patient with chronic S. mansoni infection rather than NHS. This information suggests a synergistic relationship, involving antigenic exposure of both the cells and sera of certain chronic patients, which assists in the induction of suppressor activity. The immunoregulatory responses observed could be important in the establishment of a stable chronic infection state by modulating the extent of egg-induced granuloma formation and preventing rejection of the adult worm.
Transfer entropy-based feedback improves performance in artificial neural networks

The structure of the majority of modern deep neural networks is characterized by uni- directional feed-forward connectivity across a very large number of layers. By contrast, the architecture of the cortex of vertebrates contains fewer hierarchical levels but many recurrent and feedback connections. Here we show that a small, few-layer artificial neural network that employs feedback will reach top level performance on a standard benchmark task, otherwise only obtained by large feed-forward structures. To achieve this we use feed-forward transfer entropy between neurons to structure feedback connectivity. Transfer entropy can here intuitively be understood as a measure for the relevance of certain pathways in the network, which are then amplified by feedback. Feedback may therefore be key for high network performance in small brain-like architectures.
E.164 Number Mapping for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)

This document describes an Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) extension mapping for the provisioning and management of E.164 numbers that represent domain names stored in a shared central repository. Specified in XML, this mapping extends the EPP domain name mapping to provide additional features required for the provisioning of E.164 numbers. [STANDARDS-TRACK]
Deriving Competitive Intelligence from Social Media: Microblog Challenges and Opportunities

Marketing managers in many industries are seeking to provide their companies with new tools to detect market changes early and quickly enough to defend their competitive position. Social media has been recognized to be particularly relevant for both marketing strategies and competitive intelligence purposes since the information required to deal with competitive challenges has been recently relocated from published and proprietary sources to open social platforms. Among social media, microblog is one of the most convenient platforms since it is short, instantaneous, spontaneous and mobile and has become a great source of consumer opinions. Although there has been an increase in the number of companies developing a microblog presence, so far, very few academic research focused on microblog as a marketing intelligence tool. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold: to provide a theoretical framework for microblog competitive intelligence, and to discuss its opportunities and limitations.
Comida, consumo e identidade: notas etnográficas por entre os processos migratórios da mandioca; do contexto brasileiro e paraense ao contexto europeu

Este artigo descreve os ciclos da mandioca no Brasil, com centralidade no Estado do Para, onde ela se estabelece como alimento primordial nao apenas para a dieta local, mas como objeto na constituicao de redes de interacoes entre os sujeitos, transformando-se em bem material e simbolico. Foi desenvolvido trabalho empirico a respeito dos fluxos migratorios de brasileiros para territorios catalao e frances, situando as implicacoes do consumo da mandioca e seus derivados nesse processo. A partir da observacao de campo, e da analise de dados secundarios foi possivel construir uma narrativa evidenciando-se o papel da mandioca tanto para a preservacao de costumes alimentares nativos como para a manutencao da identidade cultural num contexto de globalizacao e padronizacao do consumo.
An introduction to the methods of cost-effectiveness analysis

The comparative cost-effectiveness of interventions is a fundamental consideration of health technology assessment (HTA) in the UK.1 The use of modelling to extrapolate benefits to patients and costs over a specified time period is a common technique in cost-effectiveness analyses. All modelling techniques, by their nature, are subject to different levels of uncertainty. Assessment and understanding of the level and impact of this uncertainty is a fundamental part of the decision-making process. In this article, we build on our previous article A guide to health economic evaluations and discuss different modelling approaches to cost-effectiveness analysis and the importance of uncertainty.2
Identification des fonctions biologiques, spécifiques d’un tissu ou partagées entre tissus, associées aux différences d’efficacité alimentaire chez le porc en croissance

Cette etude vise a decrire les reponses moleculaires communes entre tissus ou specifiques d’un tissu chez des porcs en croissance selectionnes de maniere divergente sur la consommation moyenne journaliere residuelle (CMJR), une mesure de l'efficacite alimentaire. Des donnees transcriptomiques ont ete acquises dans le muscle long dorsal, le foie et deux tissus adipeux, et analyses pour l'effet de la lignee (n = 24 porcs par lignee). La divergence de CMJR affecte principalement le profil moleculaire du muscle, alors que le tissu adipeux sous-cutane est peu affecte. Des analyses de bio-informatique et de statistiques multidimensionnelles ont ete mises en oeuvre afin de determiner les processus biologiques communs aux quatre tissus et les principaux genes participant a la difference interindividuelle de CMJR. Les fonctions immunitaires, la reponse au stress oxydant et le metabolisme proteique sont les voies communes aux quatre tissus qui distinguent les porcs en fonction de la CMJR. De nombreux genes immunitaires sont actives chez les porcs a CMJR elevee (les moins efficaces). Les genes associes aux metabolismes du glucose et des lipides sont egalement affectes par la selection mais d'une maniere specifique a chaque tissu. Ainsi, les genes impliques dans le metabolisme du glycogene sont actives dans le muscle des porcs a faible CMJR (les plus efficaces). Les genes en lien avec l’oxydation des acides gras sont reprimes dans le muscle mais actives dans les deux tissus adipeux de ces memes porcs. Le metabolisme du cholesterol dans le foie et la panne semble egalement affecte par la selection sur la CMJR. En conclusion, les fonctions non productives comme l’immunite et la defense contre le stress oxydant participeraient donc aux variations d'efficacite alimentaire.
An Apical GAGA Loop within 5’ UTR of the Coxsackievirus B3 RNA Maintains Structural Organization of the IRES Element Required for Efficient Ribosome Entry

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) a close relative of Poliovirus has been implicated as the primary cause of dilated cardiomyopathy in humans. The single-stranded, plus sense, viral genomic RNA is naturally uncapped and the translation of viral encoded protein is initiated from an ‘Internal Ribosome entry site’ (IRES) element at the 5' untranslated region (UTR). The 741 nucleotide 5'UTR is highly structured, with defined stem loops. Previously, we have reported results of probing the secondary structure of the 5'UTR RNA, and showed the existence of 11 putative stem loop (SL) structures, SL A-K. Further, using mutants, we showed the importance of an apical GAGA loop in SL-H, in IRES activity. In addition to significantly reducing CVB3 IRES activity the mutations in the 5'UTR drastically reduced interaction with La autoantigen, a critical trans acting factor. Here, we demonstrate that mutation of the GAGA loop to CAGU alters the structure around SL-H, and reduces the interaction of La protein with critical cis acting elements of the IRES RNA. Interestingly, mutation of the loop to GAAA also has similar effect, suggesting the GAGA sequence of the loop, is necessary for the function. Furthermore, using gene specific siRNA against La protein we have demonstrated La protein to be a bona fide trans acting factor for CVB3 IRES. However, upon partial knockdown of La protein, translation mediated by the mutant 5'UTRs are affected to a similar extent as the wild type, implicating the structural alteration as the reason for the effect of the mutations on IRES activity.
Numerical Methods for an Optimal Order Execution Problem

This paper deals with numerical solutions to an impulse control problem arising from optimal portfolio liquidation with bid-ask spread and market price impact penalizing speedy execution trades. The corresponding dynamic programming (DP) equation is a quasi-variational inequality (QVI) with solvency constraint satisfied by the value function in the sense of constrained viscosity solutions. By taking advantage of the lag variable tracking the time interval between trades, we can provide an explicit backward numerical scheme for the time discretization of the DPQVI. The convergence of this discrete-time scheme is shown by viscosity solutions arguments. An optimal quantization method is used for computing the (conditional) expectations arising in this scheme. Numerical results are presented by examining the behaviour of optimal liquidation strategies, and comparative performance analysis with respect to some benchmark execution strategies. We also illustrate our optimal liquidation algorithm on real data, and observe various interesting patterns of order execution strategies. Finally, we provide some numerical tests of sensitivity with respect to the bid/ask spread and market impact parameters.
Diagnosis of Acute Hepatitis C: anti-HCV or HCV-RNA?

Background: In theory, the optimal method for diagnosing acute hepatitis C is nucleotide amplification. This is because of the significant delay in the emergence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies. We studied whether the use of HCV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening for acute HCV infection in a clinical setting would identify otherwise undetected cases. Methods: Patients clinically suspected of having acute viral hepatitis were tested over a 32-month period (n = 2023). Results: Sixty-four patients were found HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) positive. Of these, 13 were suffering from an acute infection and 12 of these 13 patients were concomitantly anti-HCV (and HCV-RNA) positive at the time of diagnosis. One patient was HCV-RNA positive and anti-HCV negative. This symptom-free patient was tested because of known exposure to HCV 2 weeks previously. Conclusion: Anti-HCV is reliable in screening for acute hepatitis C. In cases of known/possible HCV exposure, we find that HCV PCR is the diagnostic of choice.
"Smile - A Diagnostic Tool: Photographic analysis in Adult Gujarati Population"

Smile analysis forms an important component of the frontal facial assessment.Analysing the smile and obtaining averages for various smile components give an idea about a standard of normalcy to serve as a guideline for the creation of esthetic smile. Material &Methods :This cross-sectional study was undertaken to analyse smile in Gujarati population.Frontal view photographs of 100 subjects distributed equally in to 50 males and 50 females were taken from government dental college & hospital , Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Results :More percentage of females showed consonant smile arc and high anterior smile line than their counterparts in this study. No statistically significant correlation was found between anterior smile height , posterior smile height , smile curve &buccal corridor width in males and females. 13 Objective (admirable) beauty is based on consideration of the object itself, implying that the object possesses properties that make it undoubtedly praiseworthy. Subjective (enjoyable) beauty is a quality that is value-laden, relative to the tastes of the person contemplating it. 13, 14
A 2-stage cascode CMOS low-noise amplifier for 40 GHz RoF system

This paper presents the design of a Q-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) in a 0.13 μm CMOS process. As the process is optimized only for radio frequency (RF) and not for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) application, the design of the LNA requires customize design and modeling of its transistor and transmission line. The proposed transistor and transmission line had been validated with the design and implementation of a 2-stage cascode LNA that works from 37.5 to 39.5 GHz. The LNA achieves a peak gain of 14.1 dB, 4.6 GHz of bandwidth, noise figure of 7.39 dB, and an output 1-dB compression point of 1.0 dBm, while consuming 38 mW of DC power.
Fast temporal interactions in human auditory cortex

The temporal resolution of the human primary auditory cortex (AC) was studied using middle-latency evoked fields. Paired sounds with either the same or different spectral characteristics were presented with gaps between the sounds of 1, 4, 8 and 14 ms. Spatio-temporal modelling showed (1) that the response to the second sound was recognizable with gaps of 1 ms and rapidly increased in amplitude with increasing gap durations, (2) an enhanced N40m amplitude at gaps > 4 ms, (3) delayed N19m-P30m latencies when the stimuli were different. The median psychoacoustical thresholds were 1.6 ms for the same stimuli and 2.5 ms for different stimuli, confirming the electrophysiological evidence for rapid pattern-specific temporal processing in human primary auditory cortex.
Digitally controlled 3GHz 360° phase modulator in an 1.2V 65nm CMOS technology

This paper presents a phase modulator topology suitable for frequencies up to 3 GHz. The proposed phase modulator offers digital phase modulation for digital centric polar transmitter frontends as used e.g. in software defined radios. The achievable phase resolution is 11.2° which equals 10.4 ps at 3 GHz. The phase modulation is based on an delay lock loop (DLL), from which signals with different delays are forwarded by a multiplexer.
Is RecF a DNA replication protein?

Maintenance of genetic integrity is of foremost importance to the cell. Thus, cells are well equipped with a number of repair mechanisms for different types of DNA damage. All DNA polymerases are very sensitive to pyrimidine dimers, a major DNA lesion of UV irradiation. Inhibition of DNA replication by dimers, if not recovered, causes cell death. Escherichia coli cells have at least five different ways to deal with dimers (1). Dimers can be directly reversed by a reaction (photoreactivation) catalyzed by photolyase or can be removed by UvrABC-catalyzed excision repair. The remaining dimers can be tolerated by the replication machinery in different mechanisms. A modified DNA polymerase is able to replicate past noninstructive dimers by a mechanism termed translesion replication (1). Major mechanisms of dimer tolerance, however, involve two recombinational repair activities. The first of the two is RecF-dependent postreplication gap repair. It was demonstrated that DNA replication stalls at a dimer but can restart downstream of the dimer (2, 3). Thus, newly synthesized DNA after UV irradiation contains single-strand (ss) gaps opposite dimers (2). These gaps are subsequently filled by a mechanism involving homologous recombination (4). The second recombinational repair activity is RecBCD-dependent double-strand break (DSB) repair. It is known that a significant fraction of UV-induced lesions is converted to DSBs (5), which can be repaired by a mechanism that requires homologous recombination functions (6). A crucial aspect of recombinational repair is the extent to which the repair process involves DNA replication. Recently, RecBCD-dependent DSB repair was shown to require extensive semiconservative DNA replication that initiates at a D-loop, a recombination intermediate (6). Now, the paper by Courcelle et al. (7) in this issue of the Proceedings suggests that RecF protein, previously identified as a recombination protein, may assist replisome reassembly after UV irradiation. The proposal opens the door to the possibility that RecF-dependent postreplication gap repair also might involve extensive DNA replication.