Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation Into the Relative Importance of Civil Institutions on Subjective Well-Being

Title Chairperson or Co-Chairperson: Jeff Bookwalter Poverty is not a material problem; in fact, it is a much greater problem, the problem of social, natural, and economic disconnect from the institutions of stability, wealth, justice, and well-being. When considering human flourishing, we must look beyond the material at “lives that are not necessarily morally good, but good for us” (Tiberius, 2006, p. 493). In the vein of Sen’s Capabilities Theory, this paper uses subjective well-being as a comprehensive measure of an individual’s life and circumstances examines how civil institutions impact an individual’s non-monetary welfare function. This paper conducts a series of regression models in an attempt to explore and identify the relative impact of the determinants of subjective well-being in the context of individual experience and historical dependency. Analyzing a panel survey in South Africa, this paper compares a fixed effects and autoregressive model to the baseline ordinary least squares (OLS) model in order to determine how civil institutions and path dependency play a role in determining subjective well-being. I find that the autoregressive model does not substantially improve parameter estimates, most likely due to the short structure of the panel. The autoregressive model does confirm the impact of religious involvement and family units, both positively significant in all models. The strength of religious importance directly correlates to increased life satisfaction, and individuals in family units (married or cohabitating) show increased levels of life satisfaction, although the anticipated effect of formal marriage does not show in the data. This analysis lays a foundation for understanding opportunities for governmental intervention with the purpose of maximizing subjective well-being.
Electric and hybrid vehicle power electronics efficiency, testing and reliability

System efficiency together with the reliability are the most critical factors in the design, characterization and operation of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles. This paper summarizes those aspects from the system level down to the component details and shows practical methods for evaluation and improvement. This paper concentrates on a small to medium size personal vehicles in electric vehicle (EV) and parallel hybrid (HEV) configuration. Even though the main focus of the paper is the traction inverter, other critical high power EV and HEV building blocks such as a DC/DC and AC/DC on board charger are also characterized and discussed to certain depth. Some test methods for evaluation of the individual units and their components including extreme conditions such as heavy overload, short circuit and overvoltage are explored along with examples of experimental results on the prototype units.
Up-regulation of Adiponectin by Resveratrol

The natural polyphenol resveratrol (RSV) displays a wide spectrum of health beneficial activities, yet the precise mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. Here we show that RSV promotes the multimerization and cellular levels of adiponectin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The stimulatory effect of RSV was not affected by knocking out Sirt1, but was diminished by suppressing the expression levels of DsbA-L, a recently identified adiponectin-interactive protein that promotes adiponectin multimerization. Suppression of the Akt signaling pathway resulted in an increase in the expression levels of DsbA-L and adiponectin. On the other hand, knocking out FOXO1 or suppressing the activity or expression levels of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) down-regulated DsbA-L and adiponectin. The stimulatory effect of RSV on adiponectin and DsbA-L expression was completely diminished in FOXO1-suppressed and AMPK-inactivated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Taken together, our results demonstrate that RSV promotes adiponectin multimerization in 3T3-L1 adipocytes via a Sirt1-independent mechanism. In addition, we show that the stimulatory effect of RSV is regulated by both the Akt/FOXO1 and the AMPK signaling pathways. Last, we show that DsbA-L plays a critical role in the promoting effect of RSV on adiponectin multimerization and cellular levels.
Fast Video Fire Detection Using Luminous Smoke and Textured Flame Features

In this article, a video based fire detection framework for CCTV surveillancesystems is presented. Two novel features and a novel image type with their corresponding algorithmsareproposed for this purpose. One is for the slow-smoke detection and another one is for fast-smoke/flame detection. The basic idea is slow-smoke has a highly varying chrominance/luminance texture in long periods and fast-smoke/flame has a highly varying texture waiting at the same location for long consecutive periods. Experiments with a large number of smoke/flame and non-smoke/flame video sequences outputs promising results in terms of algorithmic accuracy and speed.
Elevated Levels of Authentic Plasma Hydroperoxides in NIDDM

Using a precise technique for measuring authentic plasma lipid hydroperoxides (ROOHs), we show that individuals with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) have higher levels of ROOH than do control subjects. ROOHs were measured by the ferrous oxidation with xylenol orange assay coupled with the selective ROOH reductant triphenylphosphine. Formation of the ferric xylenol orange complex was determined at 560 nm and calibrated against H2O2. For 22 individuals with NIDDM, a concentration of 9.04 ± 4.3 μmol/l (mean ± SD) ROOH was recorded. This concentration was higher (P < 0.0005 by separate-variance t test) than that of plasma ROOHs from control subjects (3.76 ± 2.48 μmol/l). There was no difference between concentrations of plasma malondialdehyde measured as thiobarbituric acid–reactive material (TBARM) in NIDDM or control subjects (1.00 ± 0.70 vs. 1.21 ± 0.62 μmol/l, respectively; P > 0.1). A trend to lower vitamin E levels in the NIDDM group (9.03 ± 3.31 vs. 10.31 ± 5.02 μg/ml in control subjects) failed to achieve significance at the 95% confidence level. Plasma ROOHs in the diabetic group did not correlate with total plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, fasting glucose, HbA1, vitamin E, or TBARM levels. These data indicate that measurement of authentic ROOHs shows NIDDM to be associated with oxidative stress, which may be unrelated to abnormalities in lipid metabolism and glycemic control.
Role of registered nurses in error prevention, discovery and correction

Background: Registered nurses have a vital role in discovering and correcting medical error. Objective: To describe the type and frequency of errors detected by American critical care nurses, and to ascertain who made the errors discovered by study participants. Methods: Daily logbooks were used to collect information about errors discovered by a random sample of 502 critical care nurses during a 28-day period. Results: Although the majority of errors discovered and corrected by critical care nurses involved medications (163/367), procedural errors were common (n = 115). Charting and transcription errors were less frequently discovered. The errors discovered by participants were attributed to a wide variety of staff members including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, technicians and unit secretaries. Conclusions: Given the importance of nurses in maintaining patient safety, future studies should identify factors that enhance their effectiveness to prevent, intercept and correct healthcare errors.
Candidiasis drug discovery and development : new approaches targeting virulence for discovering and identifying new antifungal drugs

Professor of Biology University of Texas at San Antonio Candidiasis Drug Discovery and Development: New Approaches Targeting Virulence for Discovering and Identifying New Antifungal Drugs Targeting pathogenetic mechanisms rather than essential processes represents a very attractive alternative for the development of new antibiotics. This may be particularly important in the case of antimycotics, due to the urgent need for novel antifungal drugs and the paucity of selective fungal targets. The opportunistic pathogenic fungus Candida albicans is the main etiological agent of candidiasis, the most common human fungal infection and now the third most common nosocomial infection, threatening an expanding population of immuneand medically-compromised patients. Candidiasis carry unacceptably high mortality rates, a clear reflection of the many shortcomings of current antifungal therapy, including the limited armamentarium of antifungal agents, the toxicity displayed by some of the current therapies, and the emergence of resistance to most classes of antifungals. Moreover the antifungal pipeline is mostly dry. The pathogenesis of C. albicans is intimately linked to its ability to undergo morphogenetic conversions between yeast and filamentous morphologies and to its ability to form biofilms. Thus, we posit that filamentation and biofilm formation represent high value targets, yet clinically unexploited, for the development of novel anti-virulence approaches against candidiasis. We have performed high content screenings of over 50,000 small molecules present in commercially-available chemical libraries to identify compounds that inhibit C. albicans biofilm formation and filamentation, and conducted a series of follow-up studies to examine the in vitro and in vivo activity of the identified compounds, as well as their pharmacological properties. Results provide proof of concept for the implementation of anti-virulence approaches against C. albicans and other fungal infections that would be less likely to foster the emergence of resistance. Moreover, the top compounds represent advanced candidates for the development of novel antifungal drugs with new chemical structures, new targets and mechanism(-s) of action.
Genetic transformation of the housefly Musca domestica with the lepidopteran derived transposon piggyBac

The piggyBac transposable element was successfully used for stable genetic transformation of the housefly Musca domestica. The construct contains the EGFP marker under the control of Pax‐6 binding sites, which can drive eye‐specific expression in insect species as distantly related as Drosophila melanogaster and Tribolium castaneum[ Berghammer, A.J., Klingler, M. and Wimmer, E.A. (1999)Nature 402: 370–371]. We obtained seven independent integration events among 41 fertile G0Musca flies. Most of the transformed lines contained two or more chromosomal insertions of the EGFP marker which were stably inherited over more than 15 generations. piggyBac‐mediated transposition was verified by identifying the characteristic TTAA duplication at the insertion sites. This first report of stable transmission of a genetic marker in Musca confirms the use of this vector‐marker system for effective gene transfer in a broad range of insect species.
Purposes of punishment: effects of utilities of criminal sanctions on perceived appropriateness.

Five commonly discussed purposes of punishment (incapacitation, retribution or just deserts, rehabilitation, general deterrence, and special deterrence) were examined in two experiments (using college students and six district judges). The experiments were designed to study how the perceived usefulness or utility of penalties in serving these purposes changes with seriousness and type of crime, and how these perceived utilities affect judgments about the appropriateness of penalties for various crimes. Subjects rated the usefulness of 30 possible penalties (including fines, probation terms, and imprisonment terms) in serving these purposes for four crimes. The implications of the obtained utility functions in understanding conflicting sanctioning norms are discussed. Importance weights derived from the data indicated just deserts to be the most influential for all crimes among the judges and for all crimes except murder among the students. The results suggest that it is important to distinguish between what decision makers say the most important considerations ought to be and how their decisions actually appear to depend on these factors.
Dephosphorylation is the Mechanism of Fibroblast Growth Factor Inhibition of Guanylyl Cyclase-B

Activating mutations in fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) and inactivating mutations of guanylyl cyclase-B (GC-B, also called NPRB or NPR2) cause dwarfism. FGF exposure inhibits GC-B activity in a chondrocyte cell line, but the mechanism of the inactivation is not known. Here, we report that FGF exposure causes dephosphorylation of GC-B in rat chondrosarcoma cells, which correlates with a rapid, potent and reversible inhibition of C-type natriuretic peptide-dependent activation of GC-B. Cells expressing a phosphomimetic mutant of GC-B that cannot be inactivated by dephosphorylation because it contains glutamate substitutions for all known phosphorylation sites showed no decrease in GC-B activity in response to FGF. We conclude that FGF rapidly inactivates GC-B by a reversible dephosphorylation mechanism, which may contribute to the signaling network by which activated FGFR3 causes dwarfism. Highlights Guanylyl Cyclase-B is expressed in rat chondrosarcoma cells FGF2 induces a rapid, potent, and reversible inhibition of GC-B FGF2 treatment causes GC-B dephosphorylation FGF2 does not inhibit a dephosphorylation-resistant form of GC-B Dephosphorylation is the mechanism of FGF2-dependent inhibition of GC-B Abbreviations cGMP cyclic guanosine monophosphate GC guanylyl cyclase NP natriuretic peptide PBS phosphate buffered saline WT wild type
Development of LFT-based models for robust stability analysis of a generic electrical power system over all operating conditions

This paper develops a method to analyse robust stability of a generic electrical power system for safe-critical applications over all operating conditions. Standard methods can guaranty stability under nominal conditions but do not take into account any uncertainties of the model. In this work, stability is assessed by using a Structural Singular Value concept that can provide a measure of stability robustness of a Linear Fractional Transformation (LFT)-based linear system with structured parametric uncertainties. In line with this, the first step was to develop a parameter-dependent linear time-invariant state-space model of the system that is valid for all operating conditions. The model was obtained by symbolic linearisation of the system non-linear model and was further extended to include structured parametric uncertainties of the system. The developed approach was successfully applied to determine the critical destabilising torque of a 4 kW permanent magnet motor drive over the defined range of operating conditions. Matlab robust stability toolbox was used for this analysis. The results were validated against simulation and experimental data.
The fascinating world of molecular diagnosis in the management of food allergy: nondum matura est

In the last decade, the allergy literature has raised clinicians’ expectations with the advent of a growing array of allergenic molecule [1], their purification, characterization and recombinant engineering (allergome: a platform for allergen knowledge, 2008; http://www. allergome.org, accessed 4 January 2011), touted as the harbinger of novel diagnostic applications [2]. By applying advanced microtechnology, qualified amounts of natural or recombinant allergens can now be spotted on activated biochip surfaces and minute quantities of serum are all that are needed to detect IgE antibody to almost any number of specific allergens in a single-step process [3]. This remarkable breakthrough has been hailed by some researchers as the allergy diagnostics of the future, in particular for infants with food allergy [4]. In 2006, Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology (COACI) dedicated an article to the subject of component-resolved diagnostics (CRDs) in food allergy. It was then stated that ‘this development is expected to bring about more informative ways of analyzing specific IgE responses in different food allergies which, successively, along with more sophisticated approaches to interpret such data, will enable higher diagnostic, predictive and prognostic power of the testing methods in clinical routine’ [5].
Is Kalamchi and MacEwen Group I avascular necrosis of the femoral head harmless in developmental dysplasia of the hip?

The aim of this clinical study was to evaluate the influence of Kalamchi and MacEwen group I avascular necrosis of the femoral head (AVN) on the radiographic and clinical outcomes in developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Preoperative and follow-up (at 2–3, 4–6, 7–9 and 10–15 years of age) Sharp's acetabular angles (AA) and the final Wiberg's center-edge angles (CEA) and proximal femoral center-trochanter distances (CTD) of 13 hips with group I AVN (AVN group) were compared with measurements of 22 hips without AVN (control group). All hips were initially treated by the same soft tissue surgical procedure (posteromedial limited surgery) under the age of 18 months and were completely followed up to at least 10 years of age. Radiographic diagnosis of group I AVN was made between 6 and 12 months postoperatively. The period for complete radiographic recovery of group I ischemic changes was between 2 to 4.5 years. Preoperative mean AA values of both groups were similar. However, the mean AA was found to be worse in the AVN group than in the control group during follow-up. Control group hips had a better mean CEA and higher number of hips having normal CTD than the AVN group, at latest follow-up. In conclusion, when compared with uncomplicated hips, group I ischemic changes retard acetabular development and have quantitative unfavorable effects on lateral femoral head coverage and proximal femoral anatomy in DDH. In addition, the healing process in group I AVN patients is extended.
Differences in Parent and Teacher Rating of Everyday Executive Function in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors

We aimed to compare executive function (EF) outcomes in pediatric brain tumor (BT) survivors compared with healthy children (HC) across multiple settings. This retrospective cross-sectional study of BT survivors and age- and gender-matched HC analyzed scale patterns of parent and teacher ratings of EF (Behavior Ratings of Executive Function; BRIEF). We also analyzed relationships between groups and raters (parent/teacher) and clinical elevations across EF domains on the BRIEF. Group differences in aspects of EF emerged from parent ratings in working memory (WM), while significant interactions from teacher ratings emerged on nearly all EF scales. Parents reported impaired cognitive/behavioral flexibility in the BT group four times more than parents of HC. Teachers rated survivors significantly more poorly as a group on the majority of EF domains, and indicated clinical impairment in cognitive/behavioral flexibility, emotional regulation, self-starting/initiation, WM, and planning and organization (P/O) four to ten times more often than the teachers of HC. Overall, teacher ratings of EF impairment in pediatric BT survivors were significantly greater than parent ratings, who reported far fewer EF problems. Possible explanations for inter-rater discrepancies include potential reporting bias/response shift in parents and/or differences in EF demands across settings.
Thermodynamics and kinetics of unfolding of the thermostable trimeric adenylate kinase from the archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius.

The thermal stability of adenylate kinase from the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius was characterized comprehensively using denaturant-induced unfolding, differential scanning calorimetry, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and enzymological inactivation studies. The thermally induced unfolding of the protein is irreversible due to aggregation, whereas the unfolding induced by guanidinium chloride is reversible. The protein is known to be a homotrimer in its native state and we established that it unfolds upon dissociation in the case of denaturant unfolding. We measured the thermodynamic stability of the protein in a temperature range from 5 to 70 degrees C using denaturant unfolding. The protein has a maximum of stability (intrinsic free energy) of 31 kcal/mol-trimer (130 kJ/mol-trimer) at 32 degrees C (based on the linear extrapolation model). The heat capacity change upon unfolding DeltaCp and the m-value were considered to be constant in this temperature range and calculated to be 2.86 kcal/mol-trimer (11.9 kJ/mol-trimer) and 5.67 kcal/mol-trimer M (23.7 kJ/mol-trimer M), respectively. The influence of trimerization on thermodynamic stability was investigated. The several interrelated aspects of thermal stability such as unfolding kinetics, the temperature-dependence of the free energy, and the concentration and temperature-dependencies of the fraction of denatured protein are described quantitatively. The properties of the Gibbs-Helmholtz function of the adenylate kinase from S. acidocaldarius, in particular, and of oligomeric proteins, in general terms, are discussed and compared with the properties of the analogous function for monomeric proteins. Moreover, we discuss methodological aspects: we obtained the analytical expression of the denaturant-unfolding isotherm for homotrimeric proteins; we include a formula Appendix containing the derivations of the expressions used.
Anti-CD47 antibody–mediated phagocytosis of cancer by macrophages primes an effective antitumor T-cell response

Mobilization of the T-cell response against cancer has the potential to achieve long-lasting cures. However, it is not known how to harness antigen-presenting cells optimally to achieve an effective antitumor T-cell response. In this study, we show that anti-CD47 antibody–mediated phagocytosis of cancer by macrophages can initiate an antitumor T-cell immune response. Using the ovalbumin model antigen system, anti-CD47 antibody–mediated phagocytosis of cancer cells by macrophages resulted in increased priming of OT-I T cells [cluster of differentiation 8-positive (CD8+)] but decreased priming of OT-II T cells (CD4+). The CD4+ T-cell response was characterized by a reduction in forkhead box P3-positive (Foxp3+) regulatory T cells. Macrophages following anti-CD47–mediated phagocytosis primed CD8+ T cells to exhibit cytotoxic function in vivo. This response protected animals from tumor challenge. We conclude that anti-CD47 antibody treatment not only enables macrophage phagocytosis of cancer but also can initiate an antitumor cytotoxic T-cell immune response.
Overconfidence in Newsvendor Orders: An Experimental Study

Previous studies have shown that individuals make suboptimal decisions in a variety of supply chain and inventory settings. We hypothesize that one cause is that individuals are overconfident (in particular, overprecise) in their estimation of order variation. Previous work has shown theoretically that underestimating the variance of demand causes orders to deviate from optimal in predictable ways. We provide two experiments supporting this theoretical link. In the first, we elicit the precision of each individual's beliefs and demonstrate that overprecision significantly correlates with order bias. We find that overprecision explains almost one-third of the observed ordering mistakes and that the effect of overprecision is robust to learning and other dynamic considerations. In the second, we introduce a new technique to exogenously reduce overprecision. We find that participants randomly assigned to this treatment demonstrate less overprecision and less biased orders than do those in a control group. This paper was accepted by Peter Wakker, decision analysis.