Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental Detection of Rift Valley Fever Virus by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay in Large Samples of Mosquitoes

Abstract A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was assessed in laboratory tests to detect the presence of singleAedes aegypti (L.) orEretmapodites quinquevittatus Theobald mosquitoes infected with Rift Valley fever virus in pools of mosquitoes, 50–600 in size, from laboratory colonies or mixed field collections. The viral RNA was detected in all pools containing infected mosquitoes and was shown to be as sensitive as infant mice but more sensitive than Vero cell cultures for virus detection. Pools diluted down to the equivalent of 1:16 000 mosquitoes were also positive by RT-PCR. RNAs from 4 other phleboviruses were negative, there were no false positives and the procedure followed, with the 2 particular primers chosen, gave consistently clear bands of the PCR products on agarose gels without nested PCR being necessary.
Combination antibody‐based cancer immunotherapy

It is now commonly recognized that tumor‐targeting monoclonal antibodies (mAb) demonstrate significant therapeutic effects in cancer patients. Multiple effector mechanisms are involved in the primary response; however, the induction of tumor‐specific immunity has sometimes been a desired outcome and in some cases has contributed to the success of mAb‐based therapy. Initiating the antitumor immune response by creating a tumor antigen supply from dying (apoptotic) tumor cells is a goal of tumor‐targeting mAb therapy, and ideally a sufficiently immunogenic tumor cell death might provide a platform on which combination immunotherapies can be based. In this review, the authors discuss the possible utility and pitfalls of using such a therapy, which combines tumor cell death with immune activation therapy. The ideas are largely based on the observation that three‐mAb (anti‐DR5 mAb, anti‐CD40 mAb, and anti‐CD137 mAb [trimAb]) therapy has been shown to be very effective in a number of mouse experimental tumor models. The authors believe that this rational activation and inhibition of key points in the immune response can be an effective strategy to apply in human cancer patients. (Cancer Sci 2007; 98: 1297–1302)
THERMOREGULATORY SET POINT DECREASES AFTER HEMORRHAGE IN RATS

Hemorrhage in rats causes a drop in body core temperature that is proportional to the hemorrhage volume. We tested the hypothesis that the hemorrhagic hypothermia is due to a downward shift in the thermoregulatory set point. If so, rats subjected to hemorrhage would prefer a cooler ambient temperature to enhance heat loss during the posthemorrhage period. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fitted with carotid arterial catheters and biotelemetry temperature probes. Two days later, rats were placed in a temperature gradient chamber that allowed the rat to move between ambient temperatures of 15°C to 40°C. Rat location within the gradient was recorded as the selected ambient temperature. After 48 h, a 24 mL/kg hemorrhage was induced via the carotid cannula followed by a 24-h recovery period in the gradient. Body core and selected ambient temperatures significantly decreased after hemorrhage. Within 50 min, selected ambient temperature decreased by 11°C, and returned to normal 100 min after hemorrhage. Within 80 min after hemorrhage, core temperature decreased by 2.3°C, and returned to normal by 8 h after hemorrhage. Expanded analysis of the first hour after hemorrhage showed that reduction in selected ambient temperature preceded the drop in body core temperature. Importantly, the decrease in selected ambient temperature persisted even during the peak decrease in body core temperature. These results indicate that a decrease in thermoregulatory set point contributes to the drop in body core temperature after hemorrhage.
Micromachined Thermopiles for Energy Scavenging on Human Body

This paper presents a polycrystalline silicon germanium thermopile specially designed as a power scavenger on human body. The design of both a single thermocouple and the thermopile has been described. The modeling has been performed analytically and numerically. An output power of 1-2 muW with an output voltage of about 1 V can be obtained from the designed thermopiles when installed in a watch-size thermoelectric generator. The relevant material properties of the polycrystalline silicon germanium have been characterized. The thermopile has been fabricated and its functionality has been demonstrated in thermal measurements performed on non-released devices. Under forced convection, the output voltage of a non-released thermopile can reach 53 mV/K/cm2 .
New autoregressive model order selection criterion using same-realization predictions

The final prediction error (FPE) criterion is an asymptotic estimate of the prediction error that is used for autoregressive (AR) model order selection. In this paper, we derive a new theoretical estimate of the prediction error for the same-realization predictions. This estimate is derived for the case that the Least-Squares-Forward (LSF) method (the covariance method) is used as the AR parameter estimation method. This result is used for obtaining a new version of the AR order selection criterion FPE in the finite sample case. The performance of this criterion is compared with that of the conventional FPE criterion using simulated data. The results of this comparison show that the performance of the proposed criterion is better than FPE.
Treatment of traumatic aneurysms and arteriovenous fistulas of the skull base by using endovascular stents.

OBJECT The authors describe their preliminary clinical experience with the use of endovascular stents in the treatment of traumatic vascular lesions of the skull base region. Because adequate distal exposure and direct surgical repair of these lesions are not often possible, conventional treatment has been deliberate arterial occlusion. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate the safety and efficacy as well as limitations of endovascular stent placement in the management of craniocervical arterial injuries. METHODS Six patients with vascular injuries were treated using endovascular stents. There were two arteriovenous fistulas and two pseudoaneurysms of the distal extracranial internal carotid or vertebral arteries resulting from penetrating trauma, and two petrous carotid pseudoaneurysms associated with basal skull fractures. In one patient a porous stent placement procedure was undertaken as well as coil occlusion of an aneurysm, whereas in the remaining five patients covered stent grafts were used as definitive treatment. There were no procedural complications. One patient in whom there was extensive traumatic arterial dissection was found to have asymptomatic stent thrombosis when angiography was repeated 1 week postoperatively. This was the only patient whose associated injuries precluded routine antithrombotic or antiplatelet therapy. Follow-up examinations in the remaining five patients included standard angiography (four patients) or computerized tomography angiography (one patient), which were performed 3 to 6 months postoperatively, and clinical assessments ranging from 3 months to 1 year in duration (mean 9 months). In all five cases the vascular injury was successfully treated and the parent artery remained widely patent. No patient experienced aneurysm recurrence or hemorrhage, and there were no thromboembolic complications. CONCLUSIONS The authors' experience demonstrates that endovascular treatment of traumatic vascular lesions of the skull base region is both feasible and safe. The advantages of minimally invasive stent placement and parent artery preservation make this procedure for repair of neurovascular injuries a potentially important addition to existing methods.
A Scheduling Algorithm for Network on Chip

Network on Chip can be viewed as processors from various families residing on a chip. Programs issued to a particular processor type can be divided into sequential and parallel code. The processors are assumed to be connected to each other as a directed graph. The parallel code is called as a task. Each task is characterized by an estimated time for completion. This paper proposes a method to determine the allocation of the parallel tasks during program execution to the processors of the same type to achieve optimal execution time. The proposed model assumes shared memory model. A linear programming model is developed to determine the number of tasks allotted to each processor belonging to a family for any parallel code, given the average waiting time for each of the processors in the family. The proposed algorithm is simulated with an example which gives 18% improvement in performance over round robin allocation of tasks.
Identificando a relação entre alavancagem financeira e investimento nas empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto

O objetivo deste trabalho foi examinar se a alavancagem financeira afeta as decisoes de investimentodas empresas brasileiras nao financeiras de capital aberto. O estudo foi desenvolvido com testes para operiodo de 2001 a 2011, utilizando-se do metodo de regressao linear multipla com dados em painelusando efeitos fixos e efeitos aleatorios. Pelos resultados encontrados, pode-se afirmar que existe umaforte relacao negativa entre alavancagem financeira e investimento nas empresas brasileiras naofinanceiras de capital aberto. Esse relacionamento negativo e ainda mais intenso nas empresas combaixas oportunidades de crescimento.
Climate resilience strategies of Beijing and Copenhagen and their links to sustainability

Like numerous other cities, Beijing and Copenhagen are experiencing more frequent urban flooding due to increased impervious cover and climate change. Consequently, huge investments are foreseen to maintain resilience. Analyses of planning documents and interviews with key stakeholders reveal that in their climate resilience strategies both cities do employ alternative approaches based on on-site retention-detention of stormwater runoff. However, when there is an emergency situation with heavy downpours, both cities rely heavily on conventional concepts involving deep tunnels for rapid discharge. The applied alternative solutions tend to be more engineering-based, like underground tanks in Beijing and detention-discharge plazas in Copenhagen. More nature-based solutions lag behind. Both cities are simultaneously targeting specific additional sustainability goals. Nevertheless, other potential goals seem to be neglected, like livability improvements in Beijing and biodiversity support and water footprint reduction in Copenhagen. The main barriers for implementing more nature-based solutions with greater sustainability potentials were a combination of time constraints caused by external political pressures for rapid problem solving, lack of routines for the innovation and documentation of solutions for dense urban areas, and insufficient multi-sectorial collaboration. These factors limit the propagation of alternative solutions and tip the balance of current investments towards a conventional approach.
WASp verprolin homology, cofilin homology, and acidic region domain-mediated actin polymerization is required for T cell development

All members of the Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein (WASp) family contain a carboxyl-terminal verprolin homology, cofilin homology, and acidic region (VCA) domain that binds and activates the Arp2/3 complex, thereby linking these proteins to the induction of actin polymerization. Although the VCA domain imbues WASp and other WASp family members with the capacity to modulate cytoskeletal organization, little is known about the impact of this domain activity on lymphoid cell function. Here we demonstrate that T cell-restricted expression of VCA domain-deleted WASp (WASpΔVCA) in WAS−/− mice engenders a severe early block in T lymphopoiesis associated with impaired T cell antigen receptor αβ expression and a consequent failure to generate single-positive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. These latter defects, which are not observed in WAS−/− mice, are associated with impaired induction of cellular actin polymerization and a failure in the terminal differentiation of double-negative thymocytes. These findings indicate that WASp family proteins play an essential role in modulating the signaling events required for early thymocyte development and reveal their capacity to subserve this role to depend on VCA domain-mediated actin polymerization.
An Examination of Response of Consumers with Different Levels of Uniqueness to Limited Quantity Offers

Executive Summary Marketers try to influence consumers through promotional offers by restricting availability of products to a limited number of customers, a limited time period, or a specific segment, thereby creating a perception of scarcity. Such promotional appeal of making a product or offer scarce is called as scarcity appeal. Literature suggests that people with high need for uniqueness (NFU) prefer scarce products, or at least products which are depleting fast. However, the relationship between scarcity of offers and the NFU has not been much explored. The objective of this research is to understand how consumers with different levels of uniqueness respond to the scarcity appeal offer, especially with discount. Hypotheses relate to variability of purchase intent and attitude towards the product due to scarcity versus no-scarcity sales promotion appeals and by consumers with high and low needs for uniqueness. Proposed hypotheses were tested using 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design. Quantity scarcity and no-scarcity appeals were manipulated using pre-tested and validated scenarios. Product used in the scenarios (laptop) was identified through an iterative process of seeking inputs from respondents with demographic profile similar to those in the final sample. Consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU) purchase intention, and attitude towards product were measured using scales that were pre-tested and validated using accepted protocols. On testing the formulated hypotheses using experimental design, it was found that: Consumers respond more favourably to quantity scarcity appeal offer when compared with no-scarcity appeal offer. Consumers with higher NFU indicate higher purchase intention in a no-scarcity appeal situation when compared with those with low NFU. There is no statistically significant difference in purchase intention of consumers with high and low needs for uniqueness in a situation of scarcity appeal messaging.
Stock Returns, Efficiency of Beta and the Probability to Grow at an Above-Average Rate Relative to the Market: Evidence from a Logit Model

Does the beta help to distinguish between companies that would gain an above or below-market return? Using logistic regression models, this paper aims to verify what characteristics help to determine the probability that stock prices will grow above market on a day of considerable market growth. The selected day was October 13 th 2008, when S&P 500 achieved the largest growth (11.6%) since 1950. The analysis considered 461 companies listed on NYSE. The logistic analysis identified that the lagged return of 3 months and illiquidity are significant variables to determine the desired probability. This model would have classified correctly, a posteriori, 73.3%. On the other hand, the beta correctly classified not even 50% of observations.
Managing trust in distributed environments

Summary form only given. In pervasive computing the involved agents and services must organize themselves dynamically both in cooperative and non-cooperative environments in order to enable sharing of distributed resources and knowledge discovery. Provisioning of trusted services appears to be an important factor to enable the success of this new computing paradigm. Reputation-based trust management models are becoming a focus of the research community as a viable solution. On the one hand, the trust models must satisfy constraints imposed by the environment, such as scalability, on the other hand, they must comply with the unique properties of trust as a social and economic phenomenon. In this paper we classify and compare approaches that have been proposed to fulfil this task. The identified classes are: social networks, probabilistic estimation techniques and game-theoretic reputation systems. Social networks and probabilistic estimation techniques operate on so called probabilistic behavior, while game-theoretic models are suitable for rational behavior. Probabilistic techniques normally imply smaller implementation overheads than social networks and enable a more intuitive transition of reputation to trust, while social networks are believed to be able to better detect misbehavior in a broader range of settings. Game-theoretic models, as appropriate for rational economic agents maximizing their utilities, can under specific circumstances enforce trustworthy behavior.
Cell‐penetrating peptides: A tool for effective delivery in gene‐targeted therapies

The current landscapes of novel therapeutic approaches rely mostly on gene‐targeted technologies, enabling to fight rare genomic diseases, from infections to cancer and hereditary diseases. Although, reaching the action‐site for this novel treatments requires to deliver nucleic acids, or other macromolecules into cells, which may pose difficult tasks to pharmaceutical companies. To overcome this technological limitation, a wide variety of vectors have been developed in the past decades and have proven to be successful in delivering various therapeutics. Cell‐penetrating peptides (CPP) have been one of the technologies widely studied and have been increasingly used to transport small RNA/DNA, plasmids, antibodies, and nanoparticles into cells. Despite the already proved huge potential that these peptide‐based approaches may suggest, few advances have been put to pharmacological or clinical use. This review will describe the origin, development, and usage of CPP to deliver therapeutic agents into cells, with special emphasis on their current application to gene‐therapies. Specifically, we will describe the current trials being conducted to treat cancer, gene disorders, and autoimmune diseases using CPP‐based therapies. © 2014 IUBMB Life, 66(3):182–194, 2014
Inequalities in participation in an organized national colorectal cancer screening programme: results from the first 2.6 million invitations in England.

BACKGROUND An organized, population-based, colorectal cancer screening programme was initiated in England in 2006 offering biennial faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) to adults aged 60-69 years. Organized screening programmes with no associated financial costs to the individual should minimize barriers to access for lower socio-economic status (SES) groups. However, SES differences in uptake were observed in the pilot centres of the UK programme, so the aim of this analysis was to identify the extent of inequalities in uptake by SES, ethnic diversity, gender and age in the first 28 months of the programme. Design Cross-sectional analysis of colorectal cancer screening uptake data. METHODS Between October 2006 and January 2009, over 2.6 million adults aged 60-69 years were mailed a first FOBT kit by the five regional screening hubs. Uptake was defined as return of a test kit within 13 weeks. We used multivariate generalized linear regression to examine variation by area-based socioeconomic deprivation, area-based ethnicity, gender and age. RESULTS Uptake was 54%, but showed a gradient across quintiles of deprivation, ranging from 35% in the most deprived quintile to 61% in the least deprived. Multivariate analyses confirmed an independent effect of deprivation, with stronger effects in women and older people. The most ethnically diverse areas also had lower uptake (38%) than other areas (52-58%) independent of SES, age, gender and regional screening hub. Ethnic disparities were more pronounced in men but equivalent across age groups. More women than men returned a kit (56 vs 51%), but there was also an interaction with age, with uptake increasing with age in men (49% at 60-64 years; 53% at 65-69 years) but not women (57 vs 56%). CONCLUSIONS Overall uptake rates in this organized screening programme were encouraging, but nonetheless there was low uptake in the most ethnically diverse areas and a striking gradient by SES. Action to promote equality of uptake is needed to avoid widening inequalities in cancer mortality.
TCTN: A 3D-Temporal Convolutional Transformer Network for Spatiotemporal Predictive Learning

Spatiotemporal predictive learning is to generate future frames given a sequence of historical frames. Conventional algorithms are mostly based on recurrent neural networks (RNNs). However, RNN suffers from heavy computational burden such as time and long back-propagation process due to the seriality of recurrent structure. Recently, Transformer-based methods have also been investigated in the form of encoder-decoder or plain encoder, but the encoder-decoder form requires too deep networks and the plain encoder is lack of short-term dependencies. To tackle these problems, we propose an algorithm named 3D-temporal convolutional transformer (TCTN), where a transformer-based encoder with temporal convolutional layers is employed to capture short-term and long-term dependencies. Our proposed algo-rithm can be easy to implement and trained much faster compared with RNN-based methods thanks to the parallel mechanism of Transformer. To validate our algorithm, we conduct experiments on the MovingMNIST and KTH dataset, and show that TCTN outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) meth-ods in both performance and training speed.
Cloning and mutagenesis of genes encoding the cytochrome bd terminal oxidase complex in Azotobacter vinelandii: mutants deficient in the cytochrome d complex are unable to fix nitrogen in air

The genome of Azotobacter vinelandii contains DNA sequences homologous to the structural genes for the Escherichia coli cytochrome bd terminal oxidase complex. Two recombinant clones bearing cydA- and cydB-like sequence were isolated from an A. vinelandii gene library and subcloned into the plasmid vector pACYC184. Physical mapping demonstrated that the cydA- and cydB-like regions in A. vinelandii are contiguous. The cydAB and flanking DNA was mutagenized by the insertion of Tn5-B20. Mutations in the cydB-hybridizing region resulted in the loss of spectral features associated with cytochromes b595 and d. A new locus, cydB, encoding cytochromes b595 and d in A. vinelandii is proposed. A second region adjacent to cydB was also involved in expression of the cytochrome bd complex in A. vinelandii, since mutations in this region resulted in an increase in the levels of both cytochrome b595 and cytochrome d. The regions involved in expression of the cytochrome bd complex and cydB are transcribed in the same direction. Mutants deficient in cytochromes b595 and d were unable to grow on N-deficient medium when incubated in air but could fix nitrogen when the environmental O2 concentration was reduced to 1.5% (vol/vol). It is proposed that the branch of the respiratory chain terminated by the cytochrome bd complex supports the high respiration rates required for the respiratory protection of nitrogenase.
Vulnerabilities of Sub-Saharan Africa Countries in the 2000s: A Competing Risk Approach

This study assesses the vulnerabilities of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries in the 2000s (1999-2009) regarding whether the quality of their economic policies, institutions and governance improved or deteriorated. I find that overall the vulnerabilities of the countries were more likely to deteriorate than improve. More important, when there was more uncertainty with the vulnerabilities of the countries from 1999 to 2002 the per capita real gross domestic product of the countries declined. But from 2003 to 2009, when the vulnerabilities of the countries were stable, although the likelihood of deterioration still dominated, the per capita domestic real gross domestic product of the countries increased. Thus while it is important to assess the vulnerabilities of countries the stability of the conditions or the lack thereof is crucial.