Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Investigation on arboviruses at Sino-Vietnam border areas in Wenshan of Yunnan province].

OBJECTIVE To investigate arboviruses in Wenshan and Hekou county which are the Sino-Vietnam frontier regions of Wenshan, Yunnan province, China. METHODS In September 2007, 6091 Culicines, 1334 Anophelines, 848 Aedes vexans and 53 Armigeres obturbans were collected from 5 field sites. Mosquitoes were collected and stored in liquid nitrogen after classification. The mosquito pools were homogenized, and centrifuged, then the supematant was inoculated onto C6/36 and BHK-21 cells, and the viral isolates were identified by serological and molecular biological methods.Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis on the viral isolates were carried out using Clustal X 1.85, GENEDOC and MEGA4 software. RESULTS A total of 4 pairs of virus isolated with C6/36 cells cytopathic effect were observed, and other mosquito species have not cytopathic effect.Strain WS0704-2 was Banna virus which identified by antibody response and PCR. Strain WS0704-1, WS0708-1, WS0708-2 were Culex pipens pallens densovirus (CppDNV) which identified by PCR. The phylogenetic analysis the 12th segment showed significant difference between the new Banna virus and other strains isolated in China. CONCLUSION There are many mosquito vectors in frontier regions (China and Vietnam) of Wenshan in Yunnan province of China, and mosquito-borne arbovirus, such as BAV were isolated here.
Information Extraction From Remote Sensing Images for Flood Monitoring and Damage Evaluation

Satellite remote sensing missions devoted to Earth observation (EO) currently offer a unique capability to monitor the evolution of the Earth's surface by providing temporally repetitive views at the desired (global, regional, or local) spatial scale. This wealth of remote sensing data conveys a huge potential for preventing, monitoring, and managing natural or man-made disasters. Specifically focusing on flood risk, a successful exploitation of this potential requires not only accurate and reliable image-analysis methods to extract the desired thematic information, but also the ability to combine this information with physically based models of the observed processes. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach combining remote sensing with geophysical sciences, such as, in this case, hydrometeorology, is fundamental. This combination of expertise allows, in particular, satellite data to be exploited within the different phases of flood risk reduction: risk assessment, prevention, mitigation, monitoring, and management. In this paper, we investigate the key issues involved in the exploitation of satellite data with special focus on the phases of the emergency and post-disaster damage assessment. To this end, the challenges and the methodological approaches involved in the multidisciplinary combination of image analysis and hydrometeorology are discussed with the purpose of guiding and optimizing the process of information extraction from satellite data according to the requirements of civil protection from floods. Experimental examples of a few relevant case studies are also presented.
Laser ablation reveals regulation of ciliary activity by serotonergic neurons in molluscan embryos.

Early in embryonic development, the pond snail Helisoma trivolvis exhibits a rotational behavior that is generated by beating of cilia in the dorsolateral and pedal bands. Although previous anatomical and pharmacological studies provided indirect evidence that a pair of serotonergic neurons, Embryonic Neurons C1 (ENC1s), is involved in regulating embryonic rotation, direct evidence linking ENC1 to ciliary function is still lacking. In the present study, we used laser microbeams to perturb ENC1 in vivo while monitoring ciliary activity in identified ciliary bands. A laser treatment protocol to specifically ablate ENC1 without damaging the surrounding cells was established. Unilateral laser treatment of ENC1 caused transient increases in the activity of the pedal and ipsidorsolateral cilia, lasting 30-50 min. In contrast, activity of cilia that were not anatomically associated with ENC1 was unaffected by laser treatment. Mianserin, an effective serotonin antagonist in Helisoma ciliated cells, decreased the overall CBF of pedal and dorsolateral cilia by reducing the occurrence of spontaneous CBF surges in these cilia. Finally, the cilioexcitatory action of ENC1 laser treatment was mimicked by serotonin and reduced in the presence of mianserin. These results suggest that laser treatment provokes a release of serotonin from ENC1, resulting in a prolonged elevation of activity in the target ciliary cells. We conclude that, in addition to their previously established role in regulating neurodevelopment, ENC1s also function as serotonergic motor neurons to regulate ciliary activity, and therefore the rotational behavior of early embryos.
Anatomy of Black Market for Dollars in Sudan

This paper investigates efficiency performance of the black market for foreign exchange in Sudan. The finding of the paper indicates the inefficiency hypothesis cannot be rejected. This result implies, authorities in the central bank need to be cautious about use of the black market depreciation rate as indicator to official exchange rate devaluation rate. The finding of the paper also shows there is no significant evidence of structural change in the behavior of the black market due to the loss of the country a significant portion of its oil revenue after the country split. This result can be interpreted as evidence of weak association of the black market with fundamentals of the economy.
Vascularity and Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Angiogenesis is a key step in the initiation and progression of an invasive breast cancer. High microvessel density by morphological characterization predicts metastasis and poor survival in women with invasive breast cancers. However, morphologic characterization is subject to variability and only can evaluate a limited portion of an invasive breast cancer. Consequently, breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is currently being evaluated to assess vascularity. Recently, through the new field of radiomics, dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI is being used to evaluate vascular density, vascular morphology, and detection of aggressive breast cancer biology. While DCE-MRI is a highly sensitive tool, there are specific features that limit computational evaluation of blood vessels. These include (1) DCE-MRI evaluates gadolinium contrast and does not directly evaluate biology, (2) the resolution of DCE-MRI is insufficient for imaging small blood vessels, and (3) DCE-MRI images are very difficult to co-register. Here we review computational approaches for detection and analysis of blood vessels in DCE-MRI images and present some of the strategies we have developed for co-registry of DCE-MRI images and early detection of vascularization.
Party Organizations and Legislative Turnover

Legislative turnover is a crucial topic for parliamentary studies. The breadth and frequency of the parliamentary class’ renewal are indicators of both elite circulation and legislatures’ institutionalization in parliamentary democracies. Scholars of political professionalization have shown that the stable composition of parliaments fosters MPs’ familiarity with parliamentary procedures. This, all else equal, helps legislatures play a more central role vis-a-vis external party bodies and executives. In a nutshell: parliamentary democracies face a trade-off between open representative channels and legislative stabilization. The comparative literature accounts for legislative turnover through electoral volatility, electoral systems, opportunity structures for political careers, and party quotas. With regard to the Italian case, the two outstanding turnover rates of 1994 and 2013 seem to be especially explained by the first of these factors. However, this does not equally hold with the 2018 general election. Based on these premises, we want two answer two research questions: (1) to what extent does the variation of turnover between 2013 and 2018 differ from that between 1994 and the subsequent elections? ; (2) what accounts better for the legislative turnover of 2018? The aim of this article is thus twofold. First, we describe the dynamics of legislative turnover of recent years from a diachronic perspective. Secondly, we provide preliminary explanatory insights about the 2018 turnover rate. The empirical analysis refers to two pairs of elections for the Chamber of Deputies (1994-1996 and 2013-2018), each held based on similar electoral logics. Overall, we argue that the internal organization of political parties can be a major factor for the explanation of the 2018 changes, rather than electoral volatility. This suggests speculations about the stability of the Italian parliamentary class
Archetypical barriers to adapting water governance in river basins to climate change

Abstract Can we explain barriers to adaptation of collective action to changes in the natural environment? One reason for adaptation is the impacts of climate change. Ample case study evidence shows that such adaptation is rarely a smooth process. However, generalisable patterns of how and why barriers arise remain scarce. The study adopts a collective action perspective and the archetypes approach in a meta-analysis of 26 selected publications to explain how barriers arise in specific conditions. Focusing on adaptation of water governance in river basins, the study finds 21 reappearing patterns. Less well-established patterns relate to water property rights, hydrological standards, adaptation externalities, non-climatological uncertainty and vertical coordination. Results further show how barriers impede collective action in specific ways. The paper precisely introduces the archetypes approach, and shows that reported problems in adapting collective action under climate change arise from attributes of actors and pre-existing institutions rather than biophysical characteristics.
Structure and expression of the murine L‐myc gene.

We have isolated a 12 kb clone from the murine genome which we show by DNA transfection studies to contain an entire functional L‐myc gene and the transcriptional promoter sequences necessary for its expression. We have also isolated a 3.1 kb cDNA sequence from a murine brain cDNA library which corresponds to most of the L‐myc mRNA. We have identified the L‐myc coding region within the genomic clone by a combination of S1 nuclease analyses. Northern blotting analyses and comparative nucleotide sequence analyses with the cDNA clone. The L‐myc gene appears to be organized similarly to the other well‐characterized myc‐family genes, c‐myc and N‐myc. The predicted amino acid coding sequence of the L‐myc gene indicates that the L‐myc protein is significantly smaller than c‐ and N‐myc, but is highly related. In particular, comparison of the N‐ and c‐myc protein sequences reveals seven relatively conserved regions interspersed among non‐conserved regions; the L‐myc gene retains five of these conserved regions but lacks two others. In addition, a portion of one highly conserved region is encoded within a different region of the L‐myc gene but, due to changes in the size of L‐myc exons relative to those of N‐ and c‐myc, maintains its overall position in the peptide backbone with respect to other conserved regions. We discuss these findings in the context of potential functional domains and the possibility of overlapping and distinct activities of myc‐family proteins.
An Unconditionally Stable WLP-FDTD Model of Wave Propagation in Magnetized Plasma

The weighted Laguerre polynomials-based finite-difference time-domain algorithm is applied for modeling wave propagation in a magnetized plasma medium. Its anisotropic property is treated by solving a set of tightly coupled current densities components implicitly at each iteration step. The equations are formulated in a stretched-coordinate system for the implementation of perfectly matched layer. Numerical examples validate the accuracy and efficiency of the developed algorithm.
Political Instability, Corruption, and Economic Growth: Evidence from a Panel of OECD Countries

The major aim of this paper is to examine the empirical relations between economic growth and a broad group of political instability factors including corruption, government instability, internal and external conflicts, religious and ethnic tensions, democratic accountability and bureaucracy quality. Moreover, one of the main objectives of our paper is to explore the effects of serious problems such as political instability and corruption on economic growth for a panel of OECD countries by using the system-GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) estimator during the period 1984-2012. Our findings confirm most of the literature that political instability is negatively associated with economic growth. We found strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis that corruption negatively affects economic growth. Our paper presents strong evidence in favor of the view that government stability and internal and external conflicts are obstacles for rapid economic growth. However, the results of system-GMM estimation indicate that democratic accountability, ethnic and religious tensions and bureaucracy quality have no statistically significant impact on economic growth of OECD countries.
Massive allografts in the treatment of osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma in children and adolescents.

A retrospective review was performed of the results of all allograft reconstructions that had been done after the resection of an osteosarcoma or an Ewing sarcoma in a skeletally immature patient between 1982 and 1989 at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. There were twenty-six patients. Six reconstructions were intercalary, sixteen were resection arthrodeses, three followed resection of a bone segment including the epiphysis (osteoarticular reconstruction), and one was a replacement of the entire humerus. Resection arthrodesis about the knee was performed with a smooth intramedullary rod and with one growth plate left intact. Six procedures were performed in the upper extremity. Excluding the patients who died, the average duration of follow-up was five years and three months. Twenty-one of the twenty-six patients had reached skeletal maturity at the time of follow-up. Eighteen (69 per cent) of the patients had a good or excellent result, four (15 per cent) had a fair result, and four had a failure. Twenty patients (77 per cent) had at least one complication (other than a limb-length discrepancy), and fourteen (54 per cent) sustained at least one fracture of the allograft. Fifteen patients who had had a reconstruction in the lower extremity had survived with survival of the allograft at the time of the latest follow-up. A limb-length discrepancy of at least two centimeters developed in nine of the fifteen patients. Five were managed with a contralateral epiphyseodesis, and one of them had an unsuccessful attempt at limb-lengthening as well. The patients who had a limb-length discrepancy of more than three centimeters at the time of follow-up had been significantly younger (p < 0.05) at the time of the reconstruction than those who had a smaller discrepancy. Three allografts (12 per cent), two of which were implanted early in the series, became infected. Soft-tissue coverage is of paramount importance for the prevention of infection, and we now routinely perform primary muscle (gastrocnemius or latissimus dorsi) transfers when dealing with an inadequate muscle envelope. Twelve patients were followed for more than four years (average, six years and seven months); they had no complications other than increased limb-length discrepancy and one subluxation of the shoulder after the first four years following the reconstruction. Although the rate of complications is higher than in adults, allograft reconstruction remains a useful option for the management of skeletally immature individuals. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Relationships between Adaptive Behaviours, Personal Factors, and Participation of Young Children

ABSTRACT Aim: To examine the extent to which personal factors (age, socioeconomic grouping, and preterm birth) and adaptive behaviour explain the participation patterns of young children. Methods: 65 Children 2–5 years old with and without a history of preterm birth and no physical or intellectual disability were selected by convenience sampling from Galway University Hospital, Ireland. Interviews with parents were conducted using the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System, Second Edition (ABAS-II) and the Assessment of Preschool Children's Participation (APCP). Linear regression models were used to identify associations between the ABAS-II scores, personal factors, and APCP scores for intensity and diversity of participation. Results: Adaptive behaviour explained 21% of variance in intensity of play, 18% in intensity of Skill Development, 7% in intensity of Active Physical Recreation, and 6% in intensity of Social Activities controlling for age, preterm birth, and socioeconomic grouping. Age explained between 1% and 11% of variance in intensity of participation scores. Adapted behaviour (13%), Age (17%), and socioeconomic grouping (5%) explained a significant percentage of variance in diversity of participation controlling for the other variables. Conclusions: Adaptive behaviour had a unique contribution to children's intensity and diversity of participation, suggesting its importance.
Treating acute stress disorder: an evaluation of cognitive behavior therapy and supportive counseling techniques.

OBJECTIVE Acute stress disorder permits an early identification of trauma survivors who are at risk of developing chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study aimed to prevent PTSD by an early provision of cognitive behavior therapy. Specifically, this study indexed the relative efficacy of prolonged exposure and anxiety management in the treatment of acute stress disorder. METHOD Forty-five civilian trauma survivors with acute stress disorder were given five sessions of 1) prolonged exposure (N = 14), 2) a combination of prolonged exposure and anxiety management (N = 15), or 3) supportive counseling (N = 16) within 2 weeks of their trauma. Forty-one trauma survivors were assessed at the 6-month follow-up. RESULTS Fewer patients with prolonged exposure (14%, N = 2 of 14) and prolonged exposure plus anxiety management (20%, N = 3 of 15) than supportive counseling (56%, N = 9 of 16) met the criteria for PTSD after treatment. There were also fewer cases of PTSD in the prolonged exposure group (15%, N = 2 of 13) and the prolonged exposure plus anxiety management group (23%, N = 3 of 13) than in the supportive counseling group (67%, N = 10 of 15) 6 months after the trauma. Chronic PTSD in the supportive counseling condition was characterized by greater avoidance behaviors than in the prolonged exposure condition or the prolonged exposure plus anxiety management condition. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that PTSD can be effectively prevented with an early provision of cognitive behavior therapy and that prolonged exposure may be the most critical component in the treatment of acute stress disorder.
Histone deacetylase inhibitors: Potential in cancer therapy

The role of histone deacetylases (HDAC) and the potential of these enzymes as therapeutic targets for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and a number of other disorders is an area of rapidly expanding investigation. There are 18 HDACs in humans. These enzymes are not redundant in function. Eleven of the HDACs are zinc dependent, classified on the basis of homology to yeast HDACs: Class I includes HDACs 1, 2, 3, and 8; Class IIA includes HDACs 4, 5, 7, and 9; Class IIB, HDACs 6 and 10; and Class IV, HDAC 11. Class III HDACs, sirtuins 1–7, have an absolute requirement for NAD+, are not zinc dependent and generally not inhibited by compounds that inhibit zinc dependent deacetylases. In addition to histones, HDACs have many nonhistone protein substrates which have a role in regulation of gene expression, cell proliferation, cell migration, cell death, and angiogenesis. HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) have been discovered of different chemical structure. HDACi cause accumulation of acetylated forms of proteins which can alter their structure and function. HDACi can induce different phenotypes in various transformed cells, including growth arrest, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species facilitated cell death and mitotic cell death. Normal cells are relatively resistant to HDACi induced cell death. Several HDACi are in various stages of development, including clinical trials as monotherapy and in combination with other anti‐cancer drugs and radiation. The first HDACi approved by the FDA for cancer therapy is suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA, vorinostat, Zolinza), approved for treatment of cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma. J. Cell. Biochem. 107: 600–608, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Development and Persistence of West Nile Virus-Specific Immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgA, and IgG in Viremic Blood Donors

ABSTRACT West Nile Virus (WNV) antibody development and persistence were investigated in blood donors who made WNV RNA-positive (viremic) donations in 2003. Plasma samples from the index donations and follow-up serum or plasma samples were tested for WNV immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgA, and IgG by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Antibody development was investigated with 154 samples collected from 84 donors 1 to 21 days after their RNA-positive, antibody-negative, index donation. WNV IgM and IgA were first detected on day 3, and all samples collected after day 9 were WNV IgM and IgA positive; WNV IgG was first detected on day 4, and all samples collected after day 16 were positive. Antibody persistence in this donor group (index donations antibody negative) was evaluated by using 128 samples collected from 89 donors on days 22 to 440 of follow-up; 88% of samples were WNV IgM positive, 86% were WNV IgA positive, and 100% were WNV IgG positive. In linear regression analysis, trendlines for WNV IgM and IgA reached the value discriminating positive from negative results at 218 days and 232 days of follow-up, respectively. Similar WNV IgM and IgA persistence trends characterized 27 donors whose index samples were positive for WNV IgM and IgA, as well as 14 donors whose index samples were positive for WNV IgG but negative for WNV IgM. These findings show that WNV IgG emerges after WNV IgM and IgA and that both WNV IgM and IgA typically persist for at least 6 months after infection. Thus, unlike some other flavivirus infections, WNV infection is not characterized by a relatively rapid disappearance of virus-specific IgA.