Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meeting the Demand for Innate and Adaptive Immunities During Evolution

An ideal immune system should provide each individual with rapid and efficient responses, a diverse repertoire of recognition and effector molecules and a certain flexibility to match the changing internal and external environment. It should be economic in cells and genes. Specific memory would be useful. It should not be autoreactive. These requirements, a mixture of innate and adaptive immunity features, are modulated in function of the dominant mode of selection for each species of metazoa during evolution (K or r). From sponges to man, a great diversity of receptors and effector mechanisms, some of them shared with plants, are articulated around conserved signalling cascades. Multiple attempts at combining innate and adaptive immunity somatic features can be observed as new somatic mechanisms provide individualized repertoires of receptors throughout metazoa, in agnathans, prochordates, echinoderms and mollusks. The adaptive immunity of vertebrates with lymphocytes and their specific receptors of the immunoglobulin superfamily, the major histocompatibility complex, developed from innate immunity evolutionary lines that can be traced back in earlier deuterostomes.
A novel input-side current sensing method to achieve AVP for future VRs

This paper proposes a new input-side current sensing method for the voltage regulator (VR) to achieve adaptive voltage position (AVP). By applying the proposed method, both good current sensing accuracy and low power dissipation can be achieved. The transient and tolerance analysis of this method are provided and a design guideline is illustrated and experimentally verified
Partisanship, Militarized International Conflict, and Electoral Support for the Incumbent

Comparative politics scholarship often neglects to consider how militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) shape political behavior. In this project, we advance an argument that considers voter responses to international conflict at the individual level. In particular, we consider how the well-known conditioning effects of partisanship manifest in relation to militarized international conflict. Examining individual- and macro-level data across ninety-seven elections in forty-two countries over the 1996–2011 period, we find consistent evidence of militarized conflict impacting vote choice. This relationship is, however, moderated by partisanship, conflict side (initiator or target), and conflict hostility level. Among non-copartisan voters, the incumbent benefits the most electorally from initiating low-hostility MIDs or when the country is a target of a high-hostility MID; the opposite scenarios (initiator of a high-hostility MID or target of a low-hostility MID) lead to punishment among this voter group. Copartisans, meanwhile, tend to either maintain or intensify their support in most scenarios we examine; when a country is targeted in a low-hostility MID, copartisan support erodes mildly.
Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni as a source of bioactive compounds: the effect of harvest time, experimental site and crop age on steviol glycoside content and antioxidant properties.

BACKGROUND This study was aimed at identifying the effect of harvest time, experimental site and crop age on the no-calorie sweetener steviol glycosides (SG) and on the antioxidant properties of stevia leaf extracts. The experiment was conducted over two growing seasons at two sites in the northeastern plain of Italy. RESULTS The results showed that all analysed factors played an important role in defining the SG profile and the antioxidant properties of stevia extracts. A high level of phenols (78.24 mg GAE g⁻¹ DW by Folin-Ciocalteu method) and high antioxidant activity (812.6 µmol Fe²⁺ g⁻¹ DW by FRAP assay) were observed. The inhibition of DPPH free radicals was evaluated and an IC₅₀ mean value of 250 µg mL⁻¹ was obtained. Significant relationships among the total antioxidant capacity and the analysed compounds were found. CONCLUSION The results showed the possibility of obtaining, in the tested environments, very high SG yields thanks to the long-day conditions during the spring/summer season. The harvest time played a key role in determining the stevia quality, influencing the rebaudioside A/stevioside ratio. The strong antioxidant properties make very interesting the possibility of using stevia extracts to improve functional food properties.
Design of microstrip crossed monopole antenna for ultra wideband communication Microstrip crossed monopole for ultra wideband communication

This paper presents a novel and compact ultra wideband microstrip-fed crossed monopole antenna. The impedance bandwidth of a rectangular patch antenna is increased by including a cross plate of suitable dimension. The crossed monopole shows the return loss of 10 dB over the ultra wideband frequency range (3.1 - 10.6 GHz) while maintaining the stability in radiation pattern. The effects of the parameters on the performance of the antenna are investigated. The measured result for the return loss of a prototype antenna is presented for verification of the simulated result.
Medication-prescribing errors in a teaching hospital. A 9-year experience.

BACKGROUND Improved understanding of medication prescribing errors should be useful in the design of error prevention strategies. OBJECTIVE To report analysis of a 9-year experience with a systematic program of detecting, recording, and evaluating medication-prescribing errors in a teaching hospital. METHODS All medication-prescribing errors with potential for adverse patient outcome detected and averted by staff pharmacists from January 1, 1987, through December 31, 1995, were systematically recorded and analyzed. Errors were evaluated by type of error, medication class involved, prescribing service, potential severity, time of day, and month. Data were analyzed to determine changes in medication-prescribing error frequency and characteristics occurring during the 9-year study period. RESULTS A total of 11,186 confirmed medication-prescribing errors with potential for adverse patient consequences were detected and averted during the study period. The annual number of errors detected increased from 522 in the index year 1987 to 2115 in 1995. The rate of errors occurring per order written, per admission, and per patient-day, all increased significantly during the study duration (P < .001). Increased error rates were correlated with the number of admissions (P < .001). Antimicrobials, cardiovascular agents, gastrointestinal agents, and narcotics were the most common medication classes involved in errors. The most common type of errors were dosing errors, prescribing medications to which the patient was allergic, and prescribing inappropriate dosage forms. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest there may exist a progressively increasing risk of adverse drug events for hospitalized patients. The increased rate of errors is possibly associated with increases in the intensity of medical care and use of drug therapy. Limited changes in the characteristics of prescribing errors occurred, as similar type errors were found to be repeated with increasing frequency. New errors were encountered as new drug therapies were introduced. Health care practitioners and health care systems must incorporate adequate error reduction, prevention, and detection mechanisms into the routine provision of care.
The VanS sensor negatively controls VanR-mediated transcriptional activation of glycopeptide resistance genes of Tn1546 and related elements in the absence of induction

Transposon Tn1546 from Enterococcus faecium BM4147 encodes a histidine protein kinase (VanS) and a response regulator (VanR) that regulate transcription of the vanHAX operon encoding a dehydrogenase (VanH), a ligase (VanA), and a D,D-dipeptidase (VanX). These last three enzymes confer resistance to glycopeptide antibiotics by production of peptidoglycan precursors ending in the depsipeptide D-alanyl-D-lactate. Transcription of vanS and the role of VanS in the regulation of the vanHAX operon were analyzed by inserting a cat reporter gene into vanS. Transcription of cat and vanX was inducible by glycopeptides in partial diploids harboring vanS and vanS(omega)cat but was constitutive in strains containing only vanS(omega)cat. Promoters P(R) and P(H), located upstream from vanR and vanH, respectively, were cloned into a promoter probing vector to study transactivation by chromosomally encoded VanR and VanS. The promoters were inactive in the absence of vanR and vanS, inducible by glycopeptides in the presence of both genes, and constitutively activated by VanR in the absence of VanS. Thus, induction of the vanHAX operon involves an amplification loop resulting from binding of phospho-VanR to the P(R) promoter and increased transcription of the vanR and vanS genes. Full activation of P(R) and P(H) by VanR was observed in the absence of VanS, indicating that the sensor negatively controls VanR in the absence of glycopeptides, presumably by dephosphorylation. Activation of the VanR response regulator in the absence of VanS may involve autophosphorylation of VanR with acetyl phosphate or phosphorylation by a heterologous histidine protein kinase.
Oral administration of sildenafil restores learning ability in rats with hyperammonemia and with portacaval shunts

Patients with liver disease with overt or minimal hepatic encephalopathy show impaired intellectual capacity. The underlying molecular mechanism remains unknown. Rats with portacaval anastomosis or with hyperammonemia without liver failure also show impaired learning ability and impaired function of the glutamate‐nitric oxide‐cyclic guanine monophosphate (glutamate‐NO‐cGMP) pathway in brain. We hypothesized that pharmacological manipulation of the pathway in order to increase cGMP content could restore learning ability. We show by in vivo brain microdialysis that chronic oral administration of sildenafil, an inhibitor of the phosphodiesterase that degrades cGMP, normalizes the function of the glutamate‐NO‐cGMP pathway and extracellular cGMP in brain in vivo in rats with portacaval anastomosis or with hyperammonemia. Moreover, sildenafil restored the ability of rats with hyperammonemia or with portacaval shunts to learn a conditional discrimination task. In conclusion, impairment of learning ability in rats with chronic liver failure or with hyperammonemia is the result of impairment of the glutamate‐NO‐cGMP pathway. Moreover, chronic treatment with sildenafil normalizes the function of the pathway and restores learning ability in rats with portacaval shunts or with hyperammonemia. Pharmacological manipulation of the pathway may be useful for the clinical treatment of patients with overt or minimal hepatic encephalopathy. (HEPATOLOGY 2005;41:299–306.)
Fear‐Potentiated Startle and Light‐Enhanced Startle Models in Drug Discovery

Described in this unit are the fear‐potentiated startle (FPS) and light‐enhanced startle (LES) tests. These protocols have proven reliable in detecting the anxiolytic properties of test compounds. The principle of these tests is that the magnitude of the acoustic startle reflex is an index of anxiety. The FPS test includes two training sessions in which an intrinsically aversive foot shock is paired with a neutral cue light. In the test session presentation of this cue light is subsequently used to elicit startle potentiation. In the LES test startle reactivity is increased by presentation of bright light. Because LES is based on the innate aversion of rodents for bright light it does not require training sessions. Although LES has been used less frequently than FPS for screening compounds, it has an advantage in that drug effects on startle potentiation are independent of memory retrieval. Further, the contextual anxiety measured in the LES test could be more relevant for pathological anxiety than the conditioned fear associated with the FPS test. Curr. Protoc. Pharmacol. 41:5.48. 1‐5.48. 15. © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Unraveling traveler mobility patterns and predicting user behavior in the Shenzhen metro system

ABSTRACT Over the last few years, cities have made available large volumes of smart card data that shed light on the urban dynamics of transit users. This research uses metro card data from Shenzhen, China, to recognize individual mobility patterns and predict travelers' future movements. Joint entropy is proposed to measure the regularity of spatio-temporal patterns and travelers are divided into three groups, i.e. regular users, variable users and irregular users, based on the entropy value. Revised Markov chain model and hidden Markov model (HMM) are then introduced to predict individuals' future movement. We observe that the models predict with a high level of accuracy of 84.46%, 78.79% and 73.07% for three groups in the HMM. This study shows the potential to predict travel patterns and enriches traditional pattern recognition and prediction methods for modeling urban mobility. It also helps reveal structural properties of human behavior in urban metro systems.
Variation in Ecosystem Service Values in an Agroforestry Dominated Landscape in Ethiopia: Implications for Land Use and Conservation Policy

Human pressure on a rugged and fragile landscape can cause land use/cover changes that significantly alter the provision of ecosystem services. Estimating the multiple services, particularly those obtained from agroforestry systems, is seldom attempted. A combined approach of geospatial technology, cross-sectional field investigations, and economic valuation of natural capital was used to develop an ecosystem service valuation (ESV) model to estimate changes in ESV between 1986 and 2015 in southern Ethiopia. Over 120 values were sourced, mainly from an ecosystem service valuation database and allied sources, to establish value coefficients via benefit transfer method. Our 1848 km2 study landscape, with eight land use categories, yielded an annual total ESV of $129 × 106 in 1986 and $147 × 106 in 2015, a 14.2% ($18.3 million) increase in three decades, showing its relative resilience. Yet we observed losses of natural vegetation classes whose area and/or value coefficients were too small to offset their increased value from expanding agroforestry and wetland/marshes, which have the largest cover share and highest economic value, respectively. Appreciating the unique features of agroforests, we strongly recommend that their economic value is studied as a separate ecosystem for further valuation accuracy improvement.
Iron Corrosion: Scientific Heritage in Jeopardy

Research on the use of metallic iron (Fe0) for environmental remediation and water treatment has taken off during the past three decades. The results achieved have established filtration on Fe0 packed beds as an efficient technology for water remediation at several scales. However, the further development of Fe0-based filtration systems is impaired by the non-professional behavior of scientists who ignore available advances in knowledge. The confusion is overcome when due consideration is given to the fact that revealing state-of-the-art knowledge is a prerequisite to presenting individual achievements.
Chronic Sinonasal Disease in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background The objective of this study was to explore the possible relationship between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and chronic sinonasal disease. Methods A cross-sectional study was undertaken of 241 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis from a tertiary medical center IBD clinic. Patient demographic data and information regarding IBD diagnosis and management, sinonasal disease diagnosis and management, and complications related to these diagnoses were gathered by retrospective chart review and a standardized patient survey. Results One hundred sixty surveys (67%) were returned and analyzed. Overall, 48% of patients with IBD reported chronic sinonasal disease symptoms. Patients with CD had a higher prevalence of sinonasal disease than patients with ulcerative colitis (53% versus 32%; p < 0.02). The subgroup of CD patients with obstructive bowel complications had the highest prevalence of sinonasal disease (68% versus 27%; p = < 0.001), with 23% reporting chronic rhinosinusitis, 13% reporting chronic rhinitis, and an additional 32% reporting chronic nasal or sinus symptoms. Conclusion The prevalence of chronic sinonasal disease is elevated in patients with IBD, occurring in approximately one-half of patients followed at a tertiary IBD center. Patients with CD experiencing obstructive complications had significantly increased rates of sinonasal disease. The relationship between chronic sinonasal disease and obstructive CD is not defined, but several hypotheses are generated.
CONDICIONANTES DAS EMISSÕES DE DIÓXIDO DE CARBONO (CO2) NO BRASIL: EVIDÊNCIAS EMPÍRICAS DE UMA CURVA NO FORMATO DE “N” [CONDITIONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) IN BRAZIL: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF A CURVE IN THE “N” FORMAT]

RESUMO: Este artigo tem como objetivo investigar empiricamente quais os principais condicionantes das emissoes de CO 2 no Brasil no periodo 1971-2011. Alem disso, este trabalho procura evidencias da hipotese da Curva de Kuznets Ambiental (CKA) para o Brasil. As variaveis utilizadas para explicar as emissoes de CO 2 foram a renda per capita , consumo per capita de energia, densidade populacional e o grau de abertura da economia. Tambem foi adicionada uma dummy exogena ao modelo para captar os efeitos do protocolo de Kyoto sobre as emissoes brasileiras. O trabalho utilizou-se da metodologia de vetores autorregressivos com correcao de erros (modelos VEC) para atingir seu principal objetivo. Os resultados do modelo VEC, para o longo prazo, apontaram para significância estatistica de todas as variaveis explicativas do modelo. Alem disso, nao foram encontradas evidencias de uma CKA para o Brasil. Ao contrario, encontraram-se evidencias de uma curva no formato de “N”, mostrando que as emissoes de CO 2 diminuem apriori , mas voltam a subir a partir de determinado patamar de renda per capita . O ponto de maximo da curva ocorre quando a renda per capita atinge US$ 2.729,27 e o ponto de minimo se da quando a renda per capita chega a US$ 9.122,54. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Curva de Kuznets Ambiental; emissoes brasileiras de CO2; econometria de series temporais ======================== ABSTRACT: This article aims to empirically determine the main determinants of CO2 emissions in Brazil throughout the period 1971-2011. Moreover, we seek empirical evidences to support the hypothesis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for Brazil. The variables used to explain CO2 emissions were per capita income, per capita energy consumption, population density, and the degree of openness of the economy. We also added an exogenous dummy to the model to capture the effects of the Kyoto Protocol on Brazilian emissions. The methodology used to achieve our main goal was the autoregressive vectors model with error correction (VEC models). The results produced by the VEC model for the long term pointed to the statistical significance of all explanatory variables in the model. In addition, no evidence was found of a EKC to Brazil. Instead, we found evidence of a curve in the “N” format, showing that CO2 emissions first decrease, but then rise again from a certain level of per capita income. The maximum point of the curve occurs when per capita income reaches US$ 2,729.27, and the minimum point when per capita income is US$ 9,122.54. KEYWORDS: Environmental Kuznets Curve; Brazilian emissions of CO2; time series econometrics
Do selenium hyperaccumulators affect selenium speciation in neighboring plants and soil? An X-Ray Microprobe Analysis

Neighbors of Se hyperaccumulators Stanleya pinnata and Astragalus bisulcatus were found earlier to have elevated Se levels. Here we investigate whether Se hyperaccumulators affect Se localization and speciation in surrounding soil and neighboring plants. X-ray fluorescence mapping and X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy were used to analyze Se localization and speciation in leaves of Artemisia ludoviciana, Symphyotrichum ericoides and Chenopodium album growing next to Se hyperaccumulators or non-accumulators at a seleniferous site. Regardless of neighbors, A. ludoviciana, S. ericoides and C. album accumulated predominantly (73–92%) reduced selenocompounds with XANES spectra similar to the C-Se-C compounds selenomethionine and methyl-selenocysteine. Preliminary data indicate that the largest Se fraction (65–75%), both in soil next to hyperaccumulator S. pinnata and next to nonaccumulator species was reduced Se with spectra similar to C-Se-C standards. These same C-Se-C forms are found in hyperaccumulators. Thus, hyperaccumulator litter may be a source of organic soil Se, but soil microorganisms may also contribute. These findings are relevant for phytoremediation and biofortification since organic Se is more readily accumulated by plants, and more effective for dietary Se supplementation.
Hopanoid lipids compose the Frankia vesicle envelope, presumptive barrier of oxygen diffusion to nitrogenase.

Biological nitrogen fixation in aerobic organisms requires a mechanism for excluding oxygen from the site of nitrogenase activity. Oxygen exclusion in Frankia spp. , members of an actinomycetal genus that forms nitrogen-fixing root-nodule symbioses in a wide range of woody Angiosperms, is accomplished within specialized structures termed vesicles, where nitrogen fixation is localized. The lipidic vesicle envelope is apparently a functional analogue of the cyanobacterial heterocyst envelope, forming an external gas-diffusion barrier around the nitrogen-fixing cells. We report here that purified vesicle envelopes consist primarily of two hopanoid lipids, rather than of glycolipids, as is the case in cyanobacteria. One envelope hopanoid, bacteriohopanetetrol phenylacetate monoester, is vesicle-specific. The Frankia vesicle envelope thus represents a layer specific to the locus of nitrogen fixation that is biosynthetically uniquely derived.
The Impact of Leadership Influence Tactics and Employee Openness Toward Others on Innovation Performance

Despite the vital importance of leadership, employees, and their social interactions in the open-innovation process, there is scarce evidence on the influence and connectedness of different sub-firm levels related to open innovation. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of leadership influence tactics and employee openness toward others on innovation performance at the individual and team levels. We applied a multilevel analysis on a sample of 85 employees and their 15 direct supervisors/team leaders. We find that leaders’ building open-innovation coalitions exhibits a positive cross-level relationship with employee openness toward others and individual-level innovative behavior, and also moderates the link between the latter two constructs. Additionally, the leaders’ building open-innovation coalitions variable is positively related to the team-level scope of innovations and the team-level innovation implementation phase.