Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dimethyl Sulfoxide Perturbs Cell Cycle Progression and Spindle Organization in Porcine Meiotic Oocytes

Meiotic maturation of mammalian oocytes is a precisely orchestrated and complex process. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a widely used solvent, drug, and cryoprotectant, is capable of disturbing asymmetric cytokinesis of oocyte meiosis in mice. However, in pigs, DMSO’s effect on oocyte meiosis still remains unknown. We aimed to evaluate if DMSO treatment will affect porcine oocyte meiosis and the underlying molecular changes as well. Interestingly, we did not observe the formation of the large first polar body and symmetric division for porcine oocytes treated with DMSO, contrary to findings reported in mice. 3% DMSO treatment could inhibit cumulus expansion, increase nuclear abnormality, disturb spindle organization, decrease reactive oxygen species level, and elevate mitochondrial membrane potential of porcine oocytes. There was no effect on germinal vesicle breakdown rate regardless of DMSO concentration. 3% DMSO treatment did not affect expression of genes involved in spindle organization (Bub1 and Mad2) and apoptosis (NF-κB, Pten, Bcl2, Caspase3 and Caspase9), however, it significantly decreased expression levels of pluripotency genes (Oct4, Sox2 and Lin28) in mature oocytes. Therefore, we demonstrated that disturbed cumulus expansion, chromosome alignment, spindle organization and pluripotency gene expression could be responsible for DMSO-induced porcine oocyte meiotic arrest and the lower capacity of subsequent embryo development. Our results provide new insights on DMSO’s effect on porcine oocyte meiosis and raise safety concerns over DMSO’s usage on female reproduction in both farm animals and humans.
The GPI Anchor Signal Sequence Dictates the Folding and Functionality of the Als5 Adhesin from Candida albicans

Background Proteins destined to be Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored are translocated into the ER lumen completely before the C-terminal GPI anchor attachment signal sequence (SS) is removed by the GPI-transamidase and replaced by a pre-formed GPI anchor precursor. Does the SS have a role in dictating the conformation and function of the protein as well? Methodology/Principal Findings We generated two variants of the Als5 protein without and with the SS in order to address the above question. Using a combination of biochemical and biophysical techniques, we show that in the case of Als5, an adhesin of C. albicans, the C-terminal deletion of 20 amino acids (SS) results in a significant alteration in conformation and function of the mature protein. Conclusions/Significance We propose that the locking of the conformation of the precursor protein in an alternate conformation from that of the mature protein is one probable strategy employed by the cell to control the behaviour and function of proteins intended to be GPI anchored during their transit through the ER.
Simplified point-of-care ultrasound protocol to confirm central venous catheter placement: A prospective study.

BACKGROUND The current standard for confirmation of correct supra-diaphragmatic central venous catheter (CVC) placement is with plain film chest radiography (CXR). We hypothesized that a simple point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) protocol could effectively confirm placement and reduce time to confirmation. METHODS We prospectively enrolled a convenience sample of patients in the emergency department and intensive care unit who required CVC placement. Correct positioning was considered if turbulent flow was visualized in the right atrium on sub-xiphoid, parasternal or apical cardiac ultrasound after injecting 5 cc of sterile, non-agitated, normal saline through the CVC. RESULTS Seventy-eight patients were enrolled. POCUS had a sensitivity of 86.8% (95%CI 77.1%-93.5%) and specificity of 100% (95%CI 15.8%-100.0%) for identifying correct central venous catheter placement. Median POCUS and CXR completion were 16 minutes (IQR 10-29) and 32 minutes (IQR 19-45), respectively. CONCLUSION Ultrasound may be an effective tool to confirm central venous catheter placement in instances where there is a delay in obtaining a confirmatory CXR.
An 80 Gb/s Silicon Photonic Modulator Based on the Principle of Overlapped Resonances

We report a silicon photonic modulator based on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) loaded with a microring modulator (MRM) on one arm and a microring resonator (MRR) on the other arm. The device is operated with the resonances of the MRM and the MRR overlapped to improve the extinction ratios and the optical modulation amplitudes. The operating principle is studied in detail using an analytical model. The measured 3-dB electro-optic bandwidth of the device is 27.4 GHz under 0-V reverse bias voltage. In the back-to-back configuration, the modulator has error-free performance up to 38 Gb/s using on-off keying (OOK) modulation without digital signal processing (DSP). At 56 Gb/s, using four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) with DSP, the measured bit error rate (BER) is below 1 × 10−6. We further present successful 56 Gb/s OOK transmission and 80 Gb/s PAM-4 transmission over 2 km of standard single mode fiber, with measured BERs below the hard-decision forward error correction threshold of 3.8 × 10−3.
Timescales of spontaneous activity fluctuations relate to structural connectivity in the brain

Funding information AFwas supported by the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Foundation. BDFwas supported by anNHMRC Fellowship (1089718). Intrinsic timescales of activity fluctuations vary hierarchically across the brain. This variation reflects a broad gradient of functional specialization in information storage and processing, with integrative association areas displaying slower timescales that are thought to reflect longer temporal processing windows. The organization of timescales across the brain is associated with cognitive function, disrupted in disease, and distinctive between individuals, but we do not yet understand how the temporal properties of activity dynamics are shapedby thebrain’s underlying structuralconnectivity network. Using resting-state fMRI and diffusionMRI data from 100 healthy individuals from the Human Connectome Project, here we show that the timescale of spontaneous resting-state fMRI dynamics increases with the structural connectivity strength of a cortical area,matching recent results in the mouse brain. Our results hold at the level of individuals and are robust to a range of cortical parcellations. Beyond measurements of timescale, we establish a diverse BOLD dynamical signature through a comprehensive comparison to over 6000 time-series features, highlighting a wide range of interesting new temporal properties of BOLDdynamics that includemeasures of timeseries stationarity and occurrence frequencies of symbolic
Utilization of myoblasts from transgenic mice to evaluate the efficacy of myoblast transplantation

A possible treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the injection of normal myoblasts into dystrophic muscles to induce the formation of new, healthy, and dystrophin‐positive muscle fibers. To develop this therapy, it is important to identify the muscle fibers formed by the injected myoblasts in the host muscles. In this study, we used myoblasts from transgenic mice which have a gene expressing β‐galactosidase under the control of the promoter of quail fast skeletal muscle troponin I. This transgene is expressed in myotubes and muscle fibers, but not in myoblasts. Twenty‐eight days after myoblast transplantation in nude and in mdx mice, muscle fibers containing of β‐galactosidase were identified by x‐gal staining. In mdx mice, most of the β‐galactosidase‐positive muscle fibers resulting from the myoblast transplantation were also dystrophin positive. This technique could make it possible to follow the success of myoblast transplantation even in mice that are not depleted of dystrophin. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Social Identity Threat Motivates Science-Discrediting Online Comments

Experiencing social identity threat from scientific findings can lead people to cognitively devalue the respective findings. Three studies examined whether potentially threatening scientific findings motivate group members to take action against the respective findings by publicly discrediting them on the Web. Results show that strongly (vs. weakly) identified group members (i.e., people who identified as “gamers”) were particularly likely to discredit social identity threatening findings publicly (i.e., studies that found an effect of playing violent video games on aggression). A content analytical evaluation of online comments revealed that social identification specifically predicted critiques of the methodology employed in potentially threatening, but not in non-threatening research (Study 2). Furthermore, when participants were collectively (vs. self-) affirmed, identification did no longer predict discrediting posting behavior (Study 3). These findings contribute to the understanding of the formation of online collective action and add to the burgeoning literature on the question why certain scientific findings sometimes face a broad public opposition.
Distinguishing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from athlete’s heart physiological remodelling: clinical significance, diagnostic strategies and implications for preparticipation screening

Sudden cardiac death in young competitive athletes is an important public health problem, although a relatively low-event-rate phenomenon. The single most common cardiovascular cause of these unexpected catastrophes is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), accounting for about one-third of cases. Since the phenotypic expression of HCM is variable, and not uncommonly includes patients with mild and localised left ventricular hypertrophy, the differential diagnosis with physiological remodelling of athlete’s heart not uncommonly arises. This review discusses those non-invasive strategies that are useful in distinguishing the benign consequences of systematic athletic training from pathological left ventricular hypertrophy with the potential for sudden cardiac death. Preparticipation screening in healthy general athlete populations may raise the suspicion of HCM, and ultimately lead to definitive diagnosis. However, recently controversy has arisen regarding the most effective and practical strategy for the screening of athletes. European investigators have promoted routine 12-lead ECGs as part of a national mandatory programme distinct from the customary practice in the US which is limited to history and physical examinations. Consensus criteria and recommendations for eligibility and disqualification of athletes with HCM (and other cardiovascular abnormalities) have proved useful to the practising community.
Donor immunization with Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB)-conjugate vaccine in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Bone marrow transplant patients are at increased risk for infections with polysaccharide encapsulated organisms and respond poorly to polysaccharide vaccines. We evaluated the effect of donor immunization with Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB) polysaccharide-conjugate vaccine on recipient antibody responses following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Thirty-two allogeneic transplant patients and their donors were immunized before transplantation with HIB-conjugate, tetanus toxoid and 23-valent pneumococcal vaccines. Following transplantation, patients received HIB-conjugate and tetanus toxoid vaccines at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months and 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine at 12 and 24 months. Thirty-three patients with unimmunized donors were immunized following transplantation in an identical manner. Patients whose donors were immunized had significantly higher total anti-HIB antibody concentrations at 3 months (P = .0001), 6 months (P = .0001), 12 months (P = .0001), and 24 months (P = .002) after transplant compared with patients whose donors were unimmunized. Higher antitetanus toxoid antibody concentrations were also noted in patients with immunized donors, whereas donor immunization with pneumococcal vaccine had no effect on antibody concentrations following transplantation. Donor immunization with HIB-conjugate vaccine resulted in higher antibody concentrations in patients as early as 3 months after allogeneic transplantation and may be an effective strategy to prevent HIB infections.
Intrinsic Dissolution Performance Testing of the USP Dissolution Apparatus 2 (Rotating Paddle) Using Modified Salicylic Acid Calibrator Tablets: Proof of Principle

Introduction Knowledge of operating variables for a dissolution apparatus is important to the pharmaceutical scientist interested in product development,quality assurance, and research applications. The dissolution performance of USP Apparatus 1 and 2 is dependent on both convection and diffusion as coupled dissolution mechanisms. The sensitivity and variability of the data may be compromised when either the convection or diffusion mechanism dominates. When convection dominates,there may be a loss of sensitivity. For example,Hamlin et al., (1) demonstrated a loss of sensitivity in distinguishing real differences in dissolution rates due to increasing agitation intensity. When diffusion is the predominant mechanism,the dissolution results are affected by density gradients and may vary considerably (2, 3). USP Apparatus 1 and 2 depend on a balance between these two mechanisms in order to produce sensitive and reproducible data. Experimental dissolution methods that employ configurations linked with convective-diffusion models,such as the rotating disk or the stationary disk,are useful to understand the relationship between the diffusion and convective mechanisms. The dissolution rates determined from either of these two experimental methods are often termed “intrinsic dissolution rates”. Intrinsic dissolution rates have been defined as “the rate of dissolution of a pure pharmaceutical active ingredient when conditions such as surface area, temperature,agitation or stirring speed,pH, and ionic strength of the dissolution medium are kept constant”(4). This research was motivated by previous studies (2,3) that suggested the possibility of using modified salicylic acid calibrator tablets supplemented by visualization studies (5) as a method to evaluate the intrinsic dissolution performance of USP Apparatus 2. Intrinsic dissolution performance in this context is the intrinsic dissolution rate due to the inherent convection and diffusion mechanisms that govern dissolution for a given apparatus. The premise for the current study is that these dissolution rates provide a framework for evaluating the dissolution performance of USP Apparatus 2. Therefore, the goals of this study were to:
An image-to-map loop closing method for monocular SLAM

In this paper we present a loop closure method for a handheld single-camera SLAM system based on our previous work on relocalization. By finding correspondences between the current image and the map, our system is able to reliably detect loop closures. We compare our algorithm to existing techniques for loop closure in single-camera SLAM based on both image-to-image and map-to-map correspondences and discuss both the reliability and suitability of each algorithm in the context of monocular SLAM.
A Behavioral and Electrophysiological Investigation of the Effect of Bilingualism on Lexical Ambiguity Resolution in Young Adults

Previous research suggests that bilinguals demonstrate superior cognitive control processes than monolinguals. The goal of the current investigation was to examine whether this “bilingual advantage” is observed in a language processing task that requires inhibition, i.e., lexical ambiguity processing. Monolingual and bilingual participants read sentences that biased the reading of a terminal homonym toward the subordinate or dominant reading (e.g., The doctor asked her to step onto the scale.). A relatedness judgment was made on target words that were related to the contextually appropriate (e.g., balance) or inappropriate meaning (e.g., skin), or unrelated to either meaning (e.g., shoe) while electrophysiological recording took place. The results revealed subtle processing differences between monolinguals and bilinguals that were evident in electrophysiological measures, but not in behavioral measures. These findings suggest that monolinguals rely on context to access the contextually appropriate meaning of a homonym to a greater extent than bilinguals, while bilinguals demonstrate simultaneous activation of both meanings.
The strength of earthquake-generating faults

This paper summarizes the observations and methods that have been used to study the strength of active earthquake-generating (seismogenic) faults. Indirect inferences based upon a range of geophysical and geological observations suggest that faults fail in earthquakes at shear stresses of less than c. 50 MPa, equivalent to effective coefficients of friction of less than 0.3, and possibly as low as 0.05. These low levels of effective friction are likely to be the result of a combination of high pore fluid pressures, which could be local or transient, and the frictional properties of phyllosilicate-rich fault rocks. The dip angles of new faults forming in oceanic outer rises imply that intrinsically low-friction fault rocks must control the fault strength in at least that setting. When combined with the much higher fault strengths inferred from borehole studies and some laboratory measurements, the observations are most consistent with weak faults embedded in strong surroundings, providing a clear reason for the prevalence of fault reactivation. However, the conditions required for the formation of new faults, and the reasons for an apparent wide variability in the degree of fault healing through time, remain unknown.
Direct interaction of actin filaments with F‐BAR protein pacsin2

Two mechanisms have emerged as major regulators of membrane shape: BAR domain‐containing proteins, which induce invaginations and protrusions, and nuclear promoting factors, which cause generation of branched actin filaments that exert mechanical forces on membranes. While a large body of information exists on interactions of BAR proteins with membranes and regulatory proteins of the cytoskeleton, little is known about connections between these two processes. Here, we show that the F‐BAR domain protein pacsin2 is able to associate with actin filaments using the same concave surface employed to bind to membranes, while some other tested N‐BAR and F‐BAR proteins (endophilin, CIP4 and FCHO2) do not associate with actin. This finding reveals a new level of complexity in membrane remodeling processes.
Power and sample size requirements for two‐part models

Two‐part models assume the data has a probability mass at zero and a continuous response for values greater than 0. We construct tests based on the proportion of zeros and the difference among the positive values of a response giving rise to a two degree of freedom χ2 test. This note gives the non‐centrality parameter and finds the power for the test. The power is compared to the simulation results in a recent paper. We derive sample size calculations. We note that some modifications of this procedure may provide better tests if the non‐zero responses are discrete. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Attention Wins over Sensory Attenuation in a Sound Detection Task

‘Sensory attenuation’, i.e., reduced neural responses to self-induced compared to externally generated stimuli, is a well-established phenomenon. However, very few studies directly compared sensory attenuation with attention effect, which leads to increased neural responses. In this study, we brought sensory attenuation and attention together in a behavioural auditory detection task, where both effects were quantitatively measured and compared. The classic auditory attention effect of facilitating detection performance was replicated. When attention and sensory attenuation were both present, attentional facilitation decreased but remained significant. The results are discussed in the light of current theories of sensory attenuation.
Skeletal muscle basal AMP-activated protein kinase activity is chronically elevated in alloxan-diabetic dogs: impact of exercise.

The effect of diabetes and exercise on skeletal muscle (SkM) AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)alpha1 and -alpha2 activities and site-specific phosphorylation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase was examined in the same six dogs before alloxan (35 mg/kg)-induced diabetes (C) and after 4-5 wk of suboptimally controlled hyperglycemic and hypoinsulinemic diabetes (DHG) in the presence and absence of 300-min phlorizin (50 microg.kg-1.min-1)-induced "normoglycemia" (DNG). In each study, the dog underwent a 150-min [3-3H]glucose infusion period, followed by a 30-min treadmill exercise test (60-70% maximal oxygen capacity) to measure the rate of glucose disposal into peripheral tissues (Rdtissue). SkM biopsies were taken from the thigh (vastus lateralis) before and immediately after exercise. In the C and DHG states, the rise in plasma free fatty acids (FFA) with exercise ( approximately 40%) was similar. In the DNG group, preexercise FFA were significantly higher, but the absolute rise in FFA with exercise was similar. However, the exercise-induced increment in Rdtissue was significantly blunted (by approximately 40-50%) in the DNG group compared with the other states. In SkM, preexercise AMPKalpha1 and -alpha2 activities were significantly elevated (by approximately 60-125%) in both diabetic states, but unlike the C group these activities did not rise further with exercise. Additionally, preexercise acetyl-CoA carboxylase phosphorylation in both diabetic states was elevated by approximately 70-80%, but the increases with exercise were similar to the C group. Preexercise AMPKalpha1 and -alpha2 activities were negatively correlated with Rdtissue during exercise for the combined groups (both P < 0.02). In conclusion, the elevated preexercise SkM AMPKalpha1 and -alpha2 activities contribute to the ongoing basal supply of glucose and fatty acid metabolism in suboptimally controlled hypoinsulinemic diabetic dogs; but whether they also play a permissive role in the metabolic stress response to exercise remains uncertain.
The appraisal of public health interventions: the use of theory.

BACKGROUND Public health decision-making is hampered by inappropriate adherence to underpowered randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which give inconclusive results and lead to decision-makers being loath to recommend interventions with strong theoretical and observational support. METHODS We outline situations in which robust decisions about health interventions can be made without trial evidence. We present a new approach in which theory, causal models and past observations are given proper regard in the decision-making process. RESULTS Using our approach, we provide examples where the use of causal theories and observations in areas, such as salt reduction, smoking cessation and gardening to improve mental health, is sufficient for deciding that such interventions are effective for improving health without needing the support of underpowered RCTs. Particularly where RCT evidence is inconclusive, our approach may provide similar aggregate health outcomes for society for vastly lower cost. CONCLUSIONS When knowledge and theoretical understanding are unable sufficiently to reduce doubt about the direction of effect from an intervention, decisions should be made using evidence-based medicine approaches. There are, however, many cases where the combination of robust theory, causal understanding and observation are able to provide sufficient evidence of the direction of effect from an intervention that current practice should be altered.