Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trigger factors in brick and click shopping

Purpose: The goal of this research is to describe the customer’s purchase path in different shopping channels and to identify which are the trigger factors that motivate the choice of every shopping channel. The description of the factors that motivate this seamless experience across all channels will provide brands with knowledge about how to improve their strategic approach to engagement, belonging and retention of customers.Design/methodology/approach: This paper builds propositions about the trigger factors for shopping channel choice based on thirty reports from the main consultancy companies made during the last five years and coded regarding the main topics highlighted in the literature. Findings: The findings of this study indicate that there are common trigger factors for every shopping channel and for every stage of the purchase path.Research limitations / implications: The data are from different countries, segments and products although they show common patterns.Originality/value: To date, little research in a complete vision of the shopping paths has been done. The definition of the different paths and the trigger factors associated to each one is unique and will help further research in this area.
Differential gene expression in Xylella fastidiosa 9a5c during co‐cultivation with the endophytic bacterium Methylobacterium mesophilicum SR1.6/6

Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC), colonizes plant xylem, reducing sap flow, and inducing internerval chlorosis, leaf size reduction, necrosis, and harder and smaller fruits. This bacterium may be transmitted from plant to plant by sharpshooter insects, including Bucephalogonia xanthopis. The citrus endophytic bacterium Methylobacterium mesophilicum SR1.6/6 colonizes citrus xylem and previous studies showed that this strain is also transferred from plant to plant by B. xanthopis (Insecta), suggesting that this endophytic bacterium may interact with X. fastidiosa in planta and inside the insect vector during co‐transmission by the same insect vector. To better understand the X. fastidiosa behavior in the presence of M. mesophilicum, we evaluated the X. fastidiosa transcriptional profile during in vitro interaction with M. mesophilicum SR1.6/6. The results showed that during co‐cultivation, X. fastidiosa down‐regulated genes related to growth and up‐regulated genes related to energy production, stress, transport, and motility, suggesting the existence of a specific adaptive response to the presence of M. mesophilicum in the culture medium.
Serum immunoglobulin G concentration in goat kids fed colostrum or a colostrum substitute.

To determine the suitability of a new colostrum substitute derived from goat serum and to determine the amount of colostral IgG needed to achieve serum IgG concentration > 800 mg/dl, twin kids from 14 does were fed colostrum or a colostrum substitute. The volume of colostrum or colostrum substitute fed was calculated so that half the kids in each group received IgG at a low dosage (1.5 g/kg of body weight) and the other half received IgG at a high dosage (3 g/kg). Kids were bottle fed the colostrum or colostrum substitute and then fed pooled goat's milk until 18 hours old, at which time they were allowed to nurse their dams. Does were milked manually every 2 hours after parturition until specific gravity of mammary secretions was < 1.02, the specific gravity of goat's milk. Serum IgG concentration of each kid was determined by means of single radial immunodiffusion at birth and 12, 18, and 24 hours and 7, 21, and 42 days after birth. Kids were weighed at each blood collection and monitored for illness daily. None of the kids had measurable serum IgG concentrations at birth. Mean serum IgG concentration was significantly higher in kids fed colostrum than in kids fed colostrum substitute at all times, except days 7 and 42 (P < 0.05). By 24 hours after birth, serum IgG concentration was > 800 mg/dl in all kids fed colostrum, in 4 of 7 kids fed the substitute at the higher dosage, and in 2 of 7 kids fed the substitute at the lower dosage. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
HCV recovery from peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture supernatants derived from HCV–HIV co‐infected haemophilic patients with undetectable HCV viraemia

Summary. Hepatitis C viraemia, in 38 human immunodeficiency virus positive (HIV+)/hepatitis C virus positive (HCV+) patients, was determined in haemophilic patients during the 4 years since initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Six of 38 patients had persistently HCV‐negative viraemia for more than 2 years. No correlation between HCV‐negative viraemia and CD4+ T‐cell counts, HIV viral load, age, type or severity of haemophilia could be established. Reduced levels of HIV viral load and the immune reconstitution that follows the initiation of HAART were not enough to explain the disappearance of HCV from plasma. Individuals who cleared plasma HCV had significantly higher CD8+ T‐cell counts (P = 0.0013) (mean ± SE: 1153 ± 117.8cells μL−1) than those with HCV‐positive viraemia (819.1 ± 40.72 cells μL−1). Because HCV could maintain a low replication level in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), we cultured PBMC of five of six patients with undetectable HCV viraemia. We found four of five HCV RNA‐positive cultures. The presence of HCV RNA in our cultures proved that these cells may be an important viral reservoir that could contribute to HCV recurrence in plasma even after long periods of negative viraemia. In summary, our results indicate that in spite of prolonged HCV‐negative plasma viraemia, HCV patients that are co‐infected with HIV may harbour replication‐competent HCV in their PBMC. Therefore, true clearance of HCV infection is difficult to achieve in these patients.
Single-Chain Fv-Based Anti-HIV Proteins: Potential and Limitations

ABSTRACT The existence of very potent, broadly neutralizing antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) offers the potential for prophylaxis against HIV-1 infection by passive immunization or gene therapy. Both routes permit the delivery of modified forms of IgGs. Smaller reagents are favored when considering ease of tissue penetration and the limited capacities of gene therapy vectors. Immunoadhesin (single-chain fragment variable [scFv]-Fc) forms of IgGs are one class of relatively small reagent that has been explored for delivery by adeno-associated virus. Here we investigated the neutralization potencies of immunoadhesins compared to those of their parent IgGs. For the antibodies VRC01, PG9, and PG16, the immunoadhesins showed modestly reduced potencies, likely reflecting reduced affinities compared to those of the parent IgG, and the VRC01 immunoadhesin formed dimers and multimers with reduced neutralization potencies. Although scFv forms of neutralizing antibodies may exhibit affinity reductions, they provide a means of building reagents with multiple activities. Attachment of the VRC01 scFv to PG16 IgG yielded a bispecific reagent whose neutralization activity combined activities from both parent antibodies. Although the neutralization activity due to each component was partially reduced, the combined reagent is attractive since fewer strains escaped neutralization.
RNA N6-methyladenosine methylation in post-transcriptional gene expression regulation

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal modification that occurs in the messenger RNA (mRNA) of most eukaryotes. In this review, Yue et al. summarize recent progress in the study of the m6A mRNA methylation machineries across eukaryotes and discuss their newly uncovered roles in post-transcriptional gene expression regulation.
English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education: Lessons from China

The last few decades have seen escalating national and institutional efforts to internationalize higher education around the globe. One current, popular strategy is to provide English-medium instruction (EMI) in educational contexts where English is a foreign language. As a curricular strategy intended to internationalize tertiary institutions and improve the quality of higher education, EMI has enjoyed strong policy support in Asia. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research in Asian contexts to justify such policy support. This article draws on the current literature and discusses the rationale and spread of EMI in European and Asian countries. It then presents the findings of four empirical studies recently conducted on EMI in several Chinese universities to provide a Chinese perspective. By way of conclusion, the article discusses the implications of the aforementioned studies for endeavors to implement EMI in Chinese and other EFL contexts.
Nucleic acid‐mediated inflammatory diseases

Enzymes that degrade nucleic acids are emerging as important players in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease. This is exemplified by the recent identification of four genes that cause the childhood inflammatory disorder, Aicardi‐Goutières syndrome (AGS). This is an autosomal recessive neurological condition whose clinical and immunological features parallel those of congenital viral infection. The four AGS genes encode two nucleases: TREX1 and the hetero‐trimeric Ribonuclease H2 (RNase H2) complex. The biochemical activity of these enzymes was initially characterised 30 years ago but a role in neurological inflammation was entirely unanticipated until they were found to be mutated in AGS. This has led to a hypothesis that accumulation of intracellular nucleic acids occurs as a consequence of mutation in these enzymes and triggers an inflammatory response through activation of innate immune pattern recognition receptors. ©2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc BioEssays 30:833–842, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Genetic and Molecular Bases of Rice Yield Yongzhong Xing and

Grain yield in rice is a complex trait multiplicatively determined by its three component traits: number of panicles, number of grains per panicle, and grain weight, all of which are typical quantitative traits. The developments in genome mapping, sequencing, and functional genomic research have provided powerful tools for investigating the genetic and molecular bases of these quantitative traits. Dissection of the genetic bases of the yield traits based on molecular marker linkage maps resolved hundreds of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for these traits. Mutant analyses and map-based cloning of QTLs have identified a large number of genes required for the basic processes underlying the initiation and development of tillers and panicles, as well as genes controlling numbers and sizes of grains and panicles. Molecular characterization of these genes has greatly advanced the mechanistic understanding of the regulation of these rice yield traits. These findings have significant implications in crop genetic improvement. 11.1 Review in Advance first posted online on February 1, 2010. (Changes may still occur before final publication online and in print.) Changes may still occur before final publication online and in print. A nn u. R ev . P la nt B io l. 20 10 . 6 1. D ow nl oa de d fr om a rj ou rn al s. an nu al re vi ew s. or g by N or th D ak ot a St at e U ni ve rs ity o n 04 /2 4/ 10 . F or p er so na l u se o nl y. ANRV410-PP61-11 ARI 22 January 2010 10:37
Comparison of ochratoxin A and deoxynivalenol in organically and conventionally produced beers sold on the Belgian market

Abstract Beer was chosen as a cereal-derived and homogeneous product for a comparison of organic and conventional production methods in terms of mycotoxin contamination levels. Ochratoxin A (OTA, a storage mycotoxin) and deoxynivalenol (DON, a field mycotoxin) were assessed by HPLC in organically and conventionally produced beers sold in Belgium. Immunoaffinity column (OchraTest® and DONPrep®) purification was used prior to HPLC analysis. For in-house validation, recovery experiments, carried out with the spiked beers in the ranges of 50–200 ng OTA l−1 and 20–100 µg DON l−1, led to the overall averages of 91% (RSD = 10%, n = 9) and 93% (RSD = 5%, n = 27), respectively. Organic beers collected during 2003–2004 were more frequently OTA-contaminated (95%, n = 40) than their conventional counterparts (50%, n = 40). Conventional beers were OTA-contaminated at a mean concentration of 25 ng l−1 (range: 19–198 ng l−1), while organic beers contained a mean level of 182 ng l−1 (range: 18–1134 ng l−1). High OTA contamination above the limit of 200 ng l−1 (up to 1134 ng l−1) occasionally occurred in organically produced beers. A complementary survey performed with the same brands in 2005 did not confirm this accidental presence of excessive OTA loads (range: 3–67 ng l−1 for 10 conventional beers and 19–158 ng l−1 for 10 organic beers). Establishing a maximum of 3 µg OTA kg−1 in malt, the application of the regulation EC No. 466/2001 (entered in force before the last sampling) may be related to the observed improvement. The overall incidence of DON was 67 and 80% in conventional and organic beers, respectively. DON concentrations ranged from 2 to 22 µg DON l−1 (mean = 6 µg DON l−1) in conventional beers, while organic beers ranged from 2 to 14 µg DON l−1 (mean=4 µg DON l−1). Thus, DON in beers does not appear to be a major matter of concern. From the statistical tests, it was concluded that the variation between different batches was significant (P < 0.0001), in contrast to that observed between different brands, showing a lack of homogeneity in the raw materials. This occurs either in organically or in conventionally produced materials. Considering these results, an optimized frequency of controls according to European Regulations EC No 466/2001 and EC No 856/2005 should be recommended to reject the irregular batches.
Allelotyping of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: Frequent allelic losses on 1q, 9p, 11, 17, 19p, and 22q

Little is known about the genetic mechanisms behind the genesis of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. This is among the most virulent of all human malignancies, and it is believed to result most often from transformation of differentiated thyroid carcinomas of the papillary type. So far, TP53 and beta‐catenin mutations are the only genetic alterations that have been implicated in its pathogenesis. To identify loci of other potential tumor suppressor genes, we carried out a genome‐wide allelotyping study using 39 microsatellite markers representing all nonacrocentric autosomal arms, in a panel of 21 anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. Frequent allelic losses were identified in 1q (40%), 9p (58%), 11p (33%), 11q (33%), 17p (44%), 17q (43%), 19p (36%), and 22q (38%). Deletion mapping of chromosome arms with the most frequent allelic losses (frequencies above 40%) localized the commonly deleted region to 1q31–42, 9p21–22, 17p12–ter, and 17q21.1–22. The mean frequency of loss of heterozygosity on all arms tested was 20%, and the mean fractional allelic loss among the cancers examined was 0.20. These findings defined a sharp distinction between anaplastic thyroid carcinomas and papillary thyroid carcinomas, because the latter do not tend to show losses at the same loci. Frequent allelic losses at multiple loci may implicate chromosomal instability as an important factor in the development of anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 27:244–251, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Efficient Bayesian Detection of Disease Onset in Truncated Medical Data

This paper describes a principled statistical methodof preprocessing incidentally collected electronic medical recordsto facilitate short-term predictions of disease onset withoutexplicit interaction with patients (e.g., medical tests, questionnaires). The model is also applicable to detection of remission. In incidentally collected data, records are possibly left and righttruncated - the first time an event of interest is seen in a patient'sdata may not be the first time in the patient's history that ithappened. It is therefore difficult to know if a disease onsethappens in a given history. If we are unable to determine ifand when the onset occurs, supervised learning and regressionapproaches cannot be applied.Our method determines if an onset occurs in a set of sparseand incomplete patient records, calculates the time of this onsetand provides a principled measure of confidence. It combinesindividual patient history with expectations computed from areference population. We compare the proposed method againststandard change detection algorithms on generated data withrealistic event sparsity and show that it can reliably detect onsetswhere traditional methods fail. We then go on to apply thealgorithm to a large corpus of U.S. Medicare data and show thatthe algorithm scales to large datasets efficiently. The algorithmis currently in trials at a large medical informatics company.
Sperm and Blastomere Aneuploidy Detection in Reproductive Genetics and Medicine

The use of multiple probes in fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) permits the simultaneous analysis of several chromosomes in both blastomeres and spermatozoa. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for aneuploidy provides information on embryonic chromosomal status, enabling the selection of embryos carrying aneuploid condition. This strategy directly affects implantation, as documented for patients with a poor prognosis for pregnancy, who have the tendency to generate high proportions of chromosomally abnormal embryos. PGD for aneuploidy also has contributed information on early phases in human embryology by clarifying the molecular basis in some cases of irregular development. Multicolor FISH has also been used to study chromosomes on spermatozoa. Experimental strategies and modifications enabled the analysis of samples with a very low number of sperm cells, including samples retrieved from the genital tract or directly from the testicular tissue. The results confirmed that the incidence of aneuploidy increases proportionally with the severity of the male-factor condition. This observation suggests that, in selected cases, the paternal contribution to aneuploidy in the developing conceptus could be more relevant than expected from general data from aborted fetuses and live births.
File-System-Level Storage Tiering for Faster Application Launches on Logical Hybrid Disks

Application launch times can be reduced by using low-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs) in combination with the conventional magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). We propose a storage tiering scheme for a logically integrated hybrid disk that eliminates the requirement to store a block-mapping table on the SSDs, as well as the need to access this table for every I/O: these characteristics distinguish our scheme from most other SSD caching and driver-level tiering schemes. A heuristic identifies the disk blocks accessed during application launches, which are then moved from HDDs to SSDs by updating file-system pointers. In experiments with eight widely used applications, launch times were reduced by an average of 56 %, and our scheme outperformed the Linux DM-Cache by 6.5% on average. Because it runs as a background process, the block migration overhead is negligible. We also propose edge-block first and shortest sequence and long seek first (SSLSF) strategies for using limited SSD space effectively. Small collections of blocks, which have to be dispatched to the device driver together, are preferentially moved to the SSD especially when those blocks incur long seek times on the HDD. This produces a large reduction in HDD seek time for a small outlay of space on the SSD. In a scenario in which only 10% of launch blocks can be migrated to the SSD, the SSLSF strategy achieves average launch times for Eclipse and LibreOffice, which are 5.8% less than those exhibited by the widely used strategy of migrating short sequences of blocks first.
Waveform design and processing for multichannel MIMO radar

In MIMO radar several transmitters broadcast independent waveforms which must be separated at the receivers. Typically waveforms having low auto- and cross-correlation values are used. This study proposes the transmission of several waveforms across multiple independent channels by each transmitter. Waveform sets formed from mutually-orthogonal complementary codes are shown to provide perfect resolution of returns with no cross-transmitter interference when separated in time. Square-complementary waveforms separated in frequency and subject to nonlinear processing can also resolve targets but introduce cross terms instead of correlation sidelobes. Cross terms are mitigated with frequency agility and pulse-Doppler processing.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Engineered for Xylose Metabolism Exhibits a Respiratory Response

ABSTRACT Native strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae do not assimilate xylose. S. cerevisiae engineered for d-xylose utilization through the heterologous expression of genes for aldose reductase (XYL1), xylitol dehydrogenase (XYL2), and d-xylulokinase (XYL3 or XKS1) produce only limited amounts of ethanol in xylose medium. In recombinant S. cerevisiae expressing XYL1, XYL2, and XYL3, mRNA transcript levels for glycolytic, fermentative, and pentose phosphate enzymes did not change significantly on glucose or xylose under aeration or oxygen limitation. However, expression of genes encoding the tricarboxylic acid cycle, respiration enzymes (HXK1, ADH2, COX13, NDI1, and NDE1), and regulatory proteins (HAP4 and MTH1) increased significantly when cells were cultivated on xylose, and the genes for respiration were even more elevated under oxygen limitation. These results suggest that recombinant S. cerevisiae does not recognize xylose as a fermentable carbon source and that respiratory proteins are induced in response to cytosolic redox imbalance; however, lower sugar uptake and growth rates on xylose might also induce transcripts for respiration. A petite respiration-deficient mutant (ρ°) of the engineered strain produced more ethanol and accumulated less xylitol from xylose. It formed characteristic colonies on glucose, but it did not grow on xylose. These results are consistent with the higher respiratory activity of recombinant S. cerevisiae when growing on xylose and with its inability to grow on xylose under anaerobic conditions.
The European dynamics: islamophobia, radical parties and European values : a critical analysis of current developments in Western Europe

Europe has in the past few decades seen a rise in political parties whose agenda differs quite significantly from other established European political parties. The aim of these relatively new parties is to change aspects in society which they see as problematic, and which threaten the traditional European traditions and values. One such threat often pointed out by the parties is the growth of the Muslim minority in Europe. Anti-Muslim sentiments are frequently used in the political rhetoric of the parties, whose ideas are legitimised through increased hostility towards Muslims among Europeans in general. This paper will analyse the dynamics between the increased intolerance towards Muslims in Europe, the popularity of the parties who use anti-Islamic speech to gain popularity, and the possible effects on the European value system as stated by the European Union and the Council of Europe. The conclusion drawn is that core European values are threatened by increased European intolerance towards the Muslim minority, and if the situation is not taken seriously, the values by which Europe defines itself might be weakened in the future.