Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low prevalence of high risk human papillomavirus in normal oral mucosa by hybrid capture 2

High risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) are recognized as a necessary factor to development cervical cancer. During the last decade many studies have found HR-HPV in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and normal oral mucosa, however the association between HR-HPV and OSCC is still uncertain. The aim of the study was to determine DNA HR-HPV in normal oral cavity of healthy adults. A cross-sectional study was performed; samples from 77 patients with normal oral cavity were collected at the Dentistry school, Autonomous University of Yucatan, Merida, Yucatan, México. HR-HPV was detected by hybrid capture 2. One sample out of 77(1.2%) was positive for HR-PVH. It was from a man of 50 years old. HRHPV is present in low rate among healthy oral mucosa. Hybrid capture 2 could be a good methodology for large epidemiology studies.
Storage of Nili-Ravi Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Semen in Skim Milk Extender Supplemented with Ascorbic Acid and α-Tocopherol

We investigated the effect of ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol supplementation in skim milk extender on the preservability of buffalo bull spermatozoa stored at 5°C. For this purpose, semen samples were collected from Nili-Ravi buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bulls (n = 3) and diluted at 37 o C with skim milk extender containing ascorbic acid (0.5mM) or α-tocopherol (1.0mM) or without any supplement (Control). The sperm concentration in the extender was adjusted at 10 x 10 6 motile spermatozoa per ml. Diluted semen was cooled from 37 o C to 5 o C in 2 hours and stored at 5°C for five days. Semen quality assays for sperm motility, plasma membrane integrity, normal apical ridge and abnormalities were performed at 1 st , 3 rd and 5 th day of storage. Percentage of sperm motility was lower (P 0.05) in percentage of plasma membrane integrity and normal apical ridge of buffalo bull spermatozoa for five days of storage. Moreover, sperm abnormalities (head, mid piece and tail) remained similar (P > 0.05) in all experimental extenders for five days to storage. It is concluded that ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol addition in skim milk did not improve the semen quality of Nili-Ravi buffalo bull spermatozoa stored at 5°C for five days.
The efficacy of dietary therapy for phenylketonuria.

Ninety-four patients with classical phenylketonuria are reviewed. Early treatment with a low phenylalanine diet usually results in normal or near-normal I.Q. Twenty-seven of the 38 patients diagnosed before 2 months of age have an I.Q. in the normal range. Of the other 11, six are dull normal, four are borderline and one is frankly retarded. Adequate reasons are given for the less than optimal results in these 11 early-treated patients. Twenty-one of the 28 patients presenting with abnormal electroencephalograms showed normal tracings soon after initiation of diet and four of the other seven improved. Nine of 12 on continuous anticonvulsant medication at the time of presentation were able to discontinue this soon after institution of dietary measures. Eighteen of the 19 sibling pair comparisons revealed a better ultimate I.Q. in the early-treated sib. A plea for early diagnosis by continuation of newborn screening programs and for centralization of diagnostic confirmation and treatment is made.
Are electromagnetic fields in incubators a risk factor for autism?

Hugo Lagercrantz recently argued (1) that a possible cause of infantile autism was the unnatural isolation that babies experienced in neonatal incubators. Atypical brain connectivity has been detected in children with autism and it is possible that this may be also due to environmental factors, including the lack of physiological stimuli that is typically found in the incubator environment. We suggest that also another factor may expose babies in incubators to the risk of developing autistic traits and that is the high electromagnetic fields (EMF) produced by the incubator's electric engine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The effect of VLSI on computer architecture

The author considers the question of the effect of VLSI on computer architecture. This question can be interpreted in two ways. The first is the effect of VLSI on the science (ART.) of computer architecture. The second is the effect of VLSI on the architecture of computers and digital devices. In this paper, the author considers the second interpretation. 14 references.
Age-Dependent Association between Low Frequency of CD27/CD28 Expression on pp65 CD8+ T Cells and Cytomegalovirus Replication after Transplantation

ABSTRACT In this cross-sectional study of 42 solid organ transplant recipients, the association of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replication and age with the phenotype of the HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells was analyzed by using the CMV pp65 HLA-A*0201 pentamer. A correlation between the proportion of CD28− HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells and age was observed in patients without HCMV replication (r = 0.50; P = 0.02) but not in patients with HCMV replication (r = −0.05; P = 0.83), a finding which differs from that observed for total CD8+ T cells. Within the group of patients younger than 50 years of age, patients with HCVM replication after transplantation had higher percentages of CD28− HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells (85.6 compared with 58.7% for patients without HCMV replication; P = 0.004) and CD27− HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells (90.7 compared with 68.8% for patients without HCMV replication; P = 0.03). However, in patients older than age 50 years, a high frequency of these two subpopulations was observed in patients both with and without previous HCMV replication (for CD28− HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells, 84.4 and 80.9%, respectively [P = 0.39]; for CD27− HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells 86.6 and 81.5%, respectively [P = 0.16]). In conclusion, the present study shows that in the group of recipients younger than age 50 years, HCMV replication after transplantation is associated with a high percentage of CD27− and CD28− HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that the increased percentage of CD27− or CD28− HCMV-specific subsets can be considered a biomarker of HCMV replication in solid organ transplant recipients younger than age 50 years but not in older patients. Further studies are necessary to define the significance of these changes in HCMV-associated clinical complications posttransplantation.
Acute ankle sprain: conservative or surgical approach?

Ankle sprains fall into two main categories: acute ankle sprains and chronic ankle instability, which are among the most common recurrent injuries during occupational activities, athletic events, training and army service. Acute ankle sprain is usually managed conservatively and functional rehabilitation failure by conservative treatment leads to development of chronic ankle instability, which most often requires surgical intervention. Enhancing the in-depth knowledge of the ankle anatomy, biomechanics and pathology helps greatly in deciding the management options. Cite this article: Al-Mohrej OA, Al-Kenani NS. Acute ankle sprain: conservative or surgical approach? EFORT Open Rev 2016;1:34-44. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.1. 000010.
Change in Failure Stress on the Southern San Andreas Fault System Caused by the 1992 Magnitude = 7.4 Landers Earthquake

The 28 June Landers earthquake brought the San Andreas fault significantly closer to failure near San Bernardino, a site that has not sustained a large shock since 1812. Stress also increased on the San Jacinto fault near San Bernardino and on the San Andreas fault southeast of Palm Springs. Unless creep or moderate earthquakes relieve these stress changes, the next great earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault is likely to be advanced by one to two decades. In contrast, stress on the San Andreas north of Los Angeles dropped, potentially delaying the next great earthquake there by 2 to 10 years.
Systemic vascular lesions in feline infectious peritonitis.

Twenty-nine cases of feline infectious peritonitis were studied histopatho-logically. It was notable that, in most cases examined, there existed degenerative andproliferative changes in the blood vessels of different parts, especially in endothelial andmedial layers of fine and smaller veins or arteries with perivascular infiltration of neutro-phils and mononuclear cells. Every case had varied amounts of ascites and/or hydrothoraxwith fibrinous precipitates covering the entire surface of peritoneal and thoracic cavitiesas well as visceral organs. Metaplasia and hyperplasia with syncytium formation wereremarkable in mesothelial and mesenchymal cells of the peritoneum and pleura. In mostcases multiple necrotic foci with infiltration of neutrophils and mononuclear cells andhemorrhage were seen in the serosa, omentum and mesenteries, and the same lesionsappeared also in the parenchyma of the liver, spleen and mesenteric Nymph nodes of somecases.
Firm transparency and idiosyncratic risk

This study focuses mainly on whether information transparency can reduce a firmâ€™s management risk. The unique variable of information transparency is drawn from the â€˜Annual Report on Chinaâ€™s Companiesâ€™ Public Transparencyâ€™, which is published by the China Social Science Academic Press. The empirical results indicate that the firmâ€™s management risk reduces when a firm discloses more related financial and non-financial information. That is to say, the greater the firmâ€™s information transparency, the lower the firmâ€™s management risk. Therefore, it is critical to establish an effective system to evaluate information transparency, in particular for emerging economies.
ATM-Dependent Phosphorylation of All Three Members of the MRN Complex: From Sensor to Adaptor

The recognition, signalling and repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSB) involves the participation of a multitude of proteins and post-translational events that ensure maintenance of genome integrity. Amongst the proteins involved are several which when mutated give rise to genetic disorders characterised by chromosomal abnormalities, cancer predisposition, neurodegeneration and other pathologies. ATM (mutated in ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) and members of the Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (MRN complex) play key roles in this process. The MRN complex rapidly recognises and locates to DNA DSB where it acts to recruit and assist in ATM activation. ATM, in the company of several other DNA damage response proteins, in turn phosphorylates all three members of the MRN complex to initiate downstream signalling. While ATM has hundreds of substrates, members of the MRN complex play a pivotal role in mediating the downstream signalling events that give rise to cell cycle control, DNA repair and ultimately cell survival or apoptosis. Here we focus on the interplay between ATM and the MRN complex in initiating signaling of breaks and more specifically on the adaptor role of the MRN complex in mediating ATM signalling to downstream substrates to control different cellular processes.
“Start to stop”: results of a randomised controlled trial of a smoking cessation programme for teens

Objective:To examine the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a school based smoking cessation programme among students caught smoking at school. Design:A randomised controlled trial comparing cessation rates among students in a behavioural cessation programme and those receiving self help materials only. Setting:Eighteen schools in the Memphis, Tennessee area. Subjects:Two hundred and sixty one adolescent cigarette smokers (166 male, 95 female) averaging 15.8 years of age. Intervention:Students assigned to the intervention received a four session behavioural treatment programme administered individually by a health educator. In addition, these students received stage matched intervention in brief phone calls monthly until the one year follow up. Main outcome measure:Self reported and biochemically verified smoking cessation at post-test and 12 month follow up. Results:Recruiting students who were caught smoking at school proved to be highly successful. Participants rated the programme favourably, and retention rates were high. Although treated participants improved more in tobacco related knowledge relative to controls (p = 0.002), there were no group differences in changes in attitudes toward smoking. In addition, treated and control participants demonstrated no significant differences in cessation rates both at post-test and follow up. Comparisons between self reported cessation rates and those obtained under bogus pipeline conditions or with biochemical verification suggested significant falsification of cessation among participants. Conclusions:Our results failed to demonstrate any significant effect of the cessation programme on smoking rates for treated adolescents compared with controls. Our findings also highlight the importance of utilising strong methodology in research on adolescent smoking cessation, including control groups and biochemical verification of smoking status.
Tariffs, Vertical Oligopoly, and Market Structure

We study the impact of market thickness on the optimal tariff in vertical specialization. We show that, in the exogenous market structure where the extensive margin is fixed and only the intensive margin responds to trade policy, when the Home optimal tariff is higher, the thicker is the Home final-good market (relative to the Foreign intermediate-good market). In the endogenous market structure where both extensive and intensive margins respond to trade policy, this relationship is overturned and as the Home optimal tariff is higher, the thinner is the Home final-good market. We also show that our analysis has an advantage of separately deriving the impact of tariffs on the extensive and intensive margins of homogeneous goods.
A decade of “chromosome painting” in Lolium and Festuca

GISH has been a particularly useful technique for studying the Lolium-Festuca species complex of forage grasses. The reason for this utility is two-fold: (i) the complex is unique amongst crop plants in which fertile hybrids, and backcross progenies, can be produced which recombine genomes and promiscuously exchange their genes through homoeologous recombination; (ii) dispersed repetitive DNAs differ between species, and this allows tracking of the identity of chromosomes and chromosome segments. This tracking property has enabled several fruitful lines of research to produce a harvest of new information for both fundamental and practical purposes. We review this first decade of GISH (genomic in situ hybridization) in Lolium-Festuca, and discuss and summarize the achievements which have accrued.
Validating Visual Simulation of Small Unit Behavior

Abstract : A large number of contemporary military simulations and game-based systems employ models of human behavior where individual members of simulated military formations are represented as virtual human agents. However, we do not yet see a comparable research effort directed towards ensuring that this type of representation is realistic. While a simulation of an entire military formation has its own challenges, the realistic representations of individual humans in the same formation raises a multit11de of additional issues the modelers need to be aware of. This paper presents the results of our study focused on validation of visual representations of humans and human behavior models; a specific situation examined in this work was a simulation of small unit operations in a typical urban warfare environment. Each subject in our study observed eight videos showing different actions in an urban environment, and was asked to evaluate and comment on selected performance traits in each video, Our findings suggest that two major categories of comments were raised: one dealing with the realism of human behavior (non-military component), and another dealing with the correctness of simulating military tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs); both appear to be important when evaluating the overall realism of simulated unit behavior. Given the availability of fully immersive training systems, the increased number of trainees who get exposed to such systems, and the importance of avoiding negative training transfer, this type of system validation is becoming ever more significant. Guided by the results of this study we introduce a term 'break in behavioral presence' (BIBP) and discuss its importance in training simulations. Finally, the paper provides a basic framework for validation of human behavior models, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that the investments made in developing this type of simulation get maximized.
Asynchronous male and female gonadal cycles and plasma steroid concentrations in a viviparous lizard, Niveoscincus ocellatus (Scincidae), from Tasmania.

The reproductive cycle in males of the skink, Niveoscincus ocellatus, is characterised by testicular development during summer, followed by mating in autumn. Plasma testosterone concentrations show a bimodal seasonal cycle, with the major peak (18.6 +/- 1.2 ng/ml) in late summer/autumn and a minor peak (7.4 +/- 1.0 ng/ml) at spring emergence. In contrast to the males, the females have a gonadal cycle in which mating is temporally dissociated from peak development of the gonads: ovulation occurs in spring and the young are born in summer. Fresh mating marks on females in spring indicate that at least part of the population mates for a second time after spring emergence. In females, plasma estradiol concentrations are significantly elevated (956 +/- 214 pg/ml) through vitellogenesis and are highest (1241 +/- 175 pg/ml) during the preovulatory phase. Plasma progesterone concentrations rise during gestation to 6.5 +/- 1.5 ng/ml, but fall in the final stage of gestation to 1.6 +/- 0.2 ng/ml. There is minimal atresia of vitellogenic follicles, suggesting that clutch size is determined when the follicles are recruited for vitellogenesis.
Bank Rating Gaps as Proxies for Systemic Risk

Banks receive two types of ratings from major rating agencies: an “all-in” and a “stand-alone” rating. This paper investigates whether rating gaps between all-in ratings and stand-alone ratings could serve as a useful measure for the systemic risk of banks. Using US data from 1994 to 2007, the link between the rating gaps and a quantitative systemic risk measure, Co-independent Value at Risk (CoVar), is examined. The conclusion is that rating gaps are good proxies for systemic risk of large banks.
External Grant Award Number 08 HQGR 0046 Basin Model Improvements and Verification for Reno Area 3-D Scenario Modeling

Recovery of Green's Functions from ambient noise has typically used broad-band seismometer recordings such as obtained by the EarthScope Transportable Array. Our network at the Nevada Seismological Laboratory, like many networks, has an archive of recordings from instruments previously considered less suitable for recovery of Green's Functions. These sub-optimum instruments generally fall in one of three classes: 1) digital narrow-band seismometer recordings (for instance, S-13 seismometer), 2) analog narrow-band seismometer recordings, digitized after transmission, and 3) digital accelerometer recordings. Each of these classes presents its own problems for recovery of Green's Functions and requires appropriate processing. Narrow-band analog recordings typically have a very narrow usable pass-band, with little accurate measurement of true ground motion at low frequencies (f < 0.2 Hz) and have records often plagued by spikes and dropouts. On narrow-band digital recordings the combination of the inherent seismometer roll-off at < 1 Hz and of too few counts per volt of seismometer output may lead to inadequate measurement of true ground motion at less than 1 Hz. We show that Green's Functions can be recovered on narrow band records at least in the microseismic frequency band and we discuss the digital signal processing methodology developed for this purpose. Accelerometers have a very different response from typical velocity-response seismometers. For instance, accelerometer recordings have a very large diurnal drift due to ambient temperature changes. Also, the instrument response discriminates against accurate recording of low-frequency ground motion. Yet, again, we show that Green's Functions can be recovered from station pairs including accelerometer sensors. To process GF's extracted for inter-station pairs at less than 15 km and to resolve structure beneath arrays of close stations we make use of energy beams obtained by delay-and-sum methods. These techniques are applied on GF's extracted between a station and ad-hoc arrays within the Reno Basin. The inter-station distance is 15-100 km. First-order shear velocity models are estimated in the Reno Basin and the Reno-Carson area through inversion of phase velocity results.
The Impact of National Cultural Orientations on Individual Absorptive Capacity in Maryland SMEs

There is a growing need to understand the use of knowledge as a resource for small and medium sized firms (SMEs). SMEs are characteristically limited in their access to and possession of resources, forcing them to rely heavily on the ability to adjust to changes in market demands to stay competitive. The use of knowledge as a competitive resource is vital to SMEs and could prove a viable solution to the problem of discrepancies in competitive ability among SMEs and between SMEs and MNCs particularly when operating in global markets. The following quantitative survey methodology dissertation lends empirical support identifying the influence national culture has on an SMEs ability to identify, extract, absorb, translate and exploit knowledge for competitive means by using the leader or top management team of the firm as the conduit for national cultural values. Using an online based survey and multiple regression analysis, data was collected from a sample of Maryland SME leaders to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between the individual cultural orientations defined by Hofstede and the individual absorptive capacity of SME leaders. An extensive literary analysis illustrating the theoretical integration of national cultural values and the adoption of absorptive capacity in SMEs is followed by an overview of the research design, and a presentation of the findings.
Landscaping Government Chief Information Officer Education

This paper reviews the nature and responsibilities of Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) positions, defines competencies required to fulfill such responsibilities, and presents the results of a survey of 78 education programs from 21 countries to determine to what extent they build GCIO-relevant competencies and how much attention different programs pay to policy, design, implementation and operation aspects of the public sector Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The survey covers CIO, Electronic Government, Technology Management, Leadership, Public Administration, Development, Sustainable Development and ICT for Development programs, all analyzed using a single conceptual framework. The survey revealed, among others: that the programs are strongly oriented toward one discipline, that no program fulfills all competency needs expected from GCIO positions, that such needs can be fulfilled by combinations of existing programs, and that a truly international GCIO curriculum is yet to emerge.