Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Defined Cell Groups in the Rat Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Have Different Day/Night Rhythms of Single-Unit Activity In Vivo

The electrical activity of the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) was examined in anesthetized rats in vivo using single-unit electrophysiological techniques. The present data confirm the daily variation in the electrical activity of the SCN previously reported in vitro and in vivo using multiple-unit recording techniques. They further suggest that subpopulations of suprachiasmatic neurons with different neural connections have a different daily rhythm of activity. Neurons in the SCN region showed a significant rhythm of activity (p = 0.034; Kruskall-Wallis analysis of variance [KW-ANOVA]). The greatest activity occurred during the second part of the light period (ZT 10-12), and the lowest activity occurred in the early part of the light period (ZT 0-2). The subgroup of cells in the suprachiasmatic region with output projections to the arcuate nucleus (ARC) and/or supraoptic nucleus (SON) regions also showed a significant rhythm (p = 0.001; K-W ANOVA). Their activity appeared to show two peaks near the light-dark (ZT 10-12) and dark-light (ZT 22-24) transition periods with the lowest activity at ZT 16-18. This rhythm was significantly different (p = 0.016) from that of neurons without an output projection to the ARC and/or SON. Retinorecipient suprachiasmatic neurons appeared to have a less robust daily rhythm in their activity. The change in the firing behavior of the cells was not reflected simply by changes in mean firing rate. Examination of the coefficient of variation of the interspike interval distribution of cells at different times of day revealed changes in the firing pattern of cells in the SCN region that did not have output projections (p = 0.032; K-W ANOVA). The present results thus suggest that the SCN is composed of a heterogeneous population of neurons and that different rhythms of activity are expressed by neurons with different neural connections. There were changes in both firing pattern and firing rate.
Are we able to comply with the NICE head injury guidelines?

Background: An estimated 120 000 patients are admitted to hospital in England and Wales each year for neurological observations following a head injury. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidelines on the quality and frequency of neurological observations that should be made. Objective: Review of frequency and quality of observations in one trauma unit. Study design: Prospective audit of current practice. Method: Data on 100 consecutive patients admitted to a trauma unit for neurological observations were audited to monitor the consistency and frequency of neurological observations requested by the admitting doctor. Medical staff had previously been briefed on the recommendations of the NICE head injury guidelines. Results: A detailed evaluation revealed inconsistency and inexplicable gaps in observations. No single set of observations was complete. Sequential regular monitoring was difficult for many reasons, bringing into question the safety and reliability of current practice. Conclusions: The introduction of the new guidelines which recommend more frequent neurological observations has major staffing implications, where underperformance raises significant clinical governance issues. All hospitals admitting patients with head injuries should have an established protocol based on the NICE guidelines with observations recorded on an appropriately designed data collection form. Trained nursing staff have enormous work and time pressures including direct patient care, ward rounds, drug rounds, administration, management, and responding to emergencies. The development of a competency based training programme for auxiliary nursing staff to undertake neurological observations, including when to report concerns, is one solution to reduce the pressure on trained nursing staff.
Individual consistency and flexibility in human social information use

Copying others appears to be a cost-effective way of obtaining adaptive information, particularly when flexibly employed. However, adult humans differ considerably in their propensity to use information from others, even when this ‘social information’ is beneficial, raising the possibility that stable individual differences constrain flexibility in social information use. We used two dissimilar decision-making computer games to investigate whether individuals flexibly adjusted their use of social information to current conditions or whether they valued social information similarly in both games. Participants also completed established personality questionnaires. We found that participants demonstrated considerable flexibility, adjusting social information use to current conditions. In particular, individuals employed a ‘copy-when-uncertain’ social learning strategy, supporting a core, but untested, assumption of influential theoretical models of cultural transmission. Moreover, participants adjusted the amount invested in their decision based on the perceived reliability of personally gathered information combined with the available social information. However, despite this strategic flexibility, participants also exhibited consistent individual differences in their propensities to use and value social information. Moreover, individuals who favoured social information self-reported as more collectivist than others. We discuss the implications of our results for social information use and cultural transmission.
Continuous Assimilation of Lightning Data Using Time‐Lagged Ensembles for a Convection‐Allowing Numerical Weather Prediction Model

In this study, a lightning data assimilation method based on the time‐lagged ensembles for predicting severe convection is presented. With the lightning data assimilation scheme, the background error covariances are computed using time‐lagged ensembles, which consist of deterministic forecasts from eight forecast cycles initialized every 3 hr. Pseudo‐observations of graupel mixing ratio (qg) are retrieved from total lightning rates by utilizing empirical vertical profiles obtained from the simulation results of the previous forecast cycles, and the corresponding observation errors are estimated according to the uncertainties in the lightning observations and the empirical vertical profiles of qg. The increments of the model state variables are computed with the Kalman gain matrices and are continuously ingested into the Weather Research and Forecasting model via nudging terms acting on the prognostic equations over each time step during model integration. The effect of the lightning data assimilation scheme on convection analysis and forecast was assessed through a case study of a severe convective event, which took place in the Guangdong of China. Assimilating lightning data recovered many of the observed convective cells, suppressed the spurious convection, and corrected the displacement errors of the convective systems. Quantitative verifications indicate that forecast skills were improved mainly in the convective regions with the impact of assimilating lightning data on stratiform regions being overall less effective.
Epidermal growth factor–stimulated Akt phosphorylation requires clathrin or ErbB2 but not receptor endocytosis

Upon ligand binding, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activates signaling and undergoes endocytosis. EGFR signaling leading to Akt activation is impaired by perturbation of clathrin but not by inhibition of internalization through perturbation of dynamin. Clathrin may thus directly regulate receptor signaling at the cell surface.
Heart Failure Incidence and Mortality in the Southern Community Cohort Study

Background— There is a paucity of data on heart failure (HF) incidence among low-income and minority populations. Our objective was to investigate HF incidence and post-HF survival by race and sex among low-income adults in the southeastern United States. Methods and Results— Participants were 27 078 white and black men and women enrolled during 2002 to 2009 in the SCCS (Southern Community Cohort Study) who had no history of HF and were receiving Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Incident HF diagnoses through December 31, 2010 were ascertained using International Classification of Diseases 9th Revision codes 428.x via linkage with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services research files. Most participants were black (68.8%), women (62.6%), and earned <$15 000/y (69.7%); mean age was 55.5 (10.4) years. Risk factors for HF were common: hypertension (62.5%), diabetes mellitus (26.5%), myocardial infarction (8.6%), and obesity (44.8%). Over a median follow-up of 5.2 years, 4341 participants were diagnosed with HF. The age-standardized incidence rates were 34.8, 37.3, 34.9, and 35.6 /1000 person-years in white women, white men, black men, and black women, respectively, remarkably higher than previously reported. Among HF cases, 952 deaths occurred over a median follow-up of 2.3 years. Men had lower survival; hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were 1.63 (1.27–2.08), 1.38 (1.11–1.72), and 0.90 (0.73–1.12) for white men, black men, and black women compared with white women. Conclusions— In this low-income population, HF incidence was higher for all race–sex groups than previously reported in other cohorts. The SCCS is a unique resource to investigate determinants of HF risk in a segment of the population underrepresented in other existing cohorts.
Fixed point characterization of left amenable Lau algebras

The present paper deals with the concept of left amenability for a wide range of Banach algebras known as Lau algebras. It gives a fixed point property characterizing left amenable Lau algebras 𝒜 in terms of left Banach 𝒜-modules. It also offers an application of this result to some Lau algebras related to a locally compact group G, such as the Eymard-Fourier algebra A(G), the Fourier-Stieltjes algebra B(G), the group algebra L1(G), and the measure algebra M(G). In particular, it presents some equivalent statements which characterize amenability of locally compact groups.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEUKOCYTE COUNTS AND DISEASE RISK IN PRIMATES

Abstract Little is known about how the risk of disease varies across species and its consequences for host defenses, including the immune system. I obtained mean values of basal white blood cells (WBC) from 100 species of primates to quantify disease risk, based on the assumption that higher baseline WBC counts will be found in species that experience greater risk of acquiring infectious disease. These data were used to investigate four hypotheses: disease risk is expected to increase with (1) group size and population density; (2) greater contact with soil-borne pathogens during terrestrial locomotion; (3) a slow life history; and (4) increased mating promiscuity. After controlling for phylogeny, WBC counts increased with female mating promiscuity, as reflected in discrete categories of partner number, relative testes mass, and estrous duration. By comparison, the social, ecological, and life-history hypotheses were unsupported in comparative tests. In terms of confounding variables, some WBC types were associated with body mass or activity period, but these variables could not account for the association with mating promiscuity. Several factors may explain why hypotheses involving social, ecological, and life-history factors went unsupported in these tests, including the role of behavioral counterstrategies to disease, restrictions on female choice of mating partners, and the effect of transmission mode on parasite strategies and host defenses. Corresponding Editor: S. Edwards
Clinical scoring system : definition of individual components of the clinical signs Nasal Flaring Abdominal Effort Auscultation Auscultation Following Rebreathing Bag Coughing

Aharonson-Raz K, Lohmann KL, Townsend HG, Marques F, Singh B. Pulmonary intravascular macrophages as proinflammatory cells in heaves, an asthma-like equine disease. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 303: L189–L198, 2012. First published June 1, 2012; doi:10.1152/ajplung.00271. 2011. —Heaves, an obstructive neutrophilic airway inflammation of horses, is triggered by dust components such as endotoxin and has similarities to human asthma. Pulmonary intravascular macrophages (PIMs) increase horses’ sensitivity to endotoxin-induced lung inflammation; however, their role in an airborne pathology remains unknown. Therefore, we investigated the role of PIMs in the development of heaves in horses. Clinical and inflammatory responses were evaluated following induction of heaves by moldy hay exposure and PIM depletion with gadolinium chloride (GC). Mares (N 9) were exposed to four treatments: alfalfa cubes (Cb), alfalfa cubes GC (Cb-GC), moldy hay (MH), and moldy hay GC (MH-GC). Clinical scores and neutrophil concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were higher when mares received MH compared with MH-GC. BAL cells from MH-GC-treated mares had significantly lower IL-8 and TLR4 mRNA expression compared with MH-treated mares. In vitro LPS challenge significantly increased IL-8 but not TLR4 mRNA expression in BAL cells recovered from horses fed with MH, but not from the MH-GC treatment. In summary, PIM depletion attenuated clinical scores, reduced the alveolar migration of neutrophils, and decreased the expression of proinflammatory molecules in BAL cells of heaves horses, suggesting a proinflammatory role of PIMs in the development of airborne pathology.
Meta-analysis of laparoscopic vs open liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma: The European experience.

PURPOSE The aim of this meta-analysis of studies conducted in Europe was to evaluate the effect of laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) on short- and long-term outcomes compared to open liver resection (OLR) in patients operated for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS An electronic literature search was conducted in order to identify studies comparing LLR and OLR. Short-term outcomes evaluated included operative time, blood loss, need for transfusion, R0 resection, resection margin width, length of hospital stay, morbidity and 30-day postoperative mortality. Long-term outcomes included 1-year, 3-year, 5-year overall (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) as well as tumor recurrence rate. RevMan 5.1 software was utilized for statistical meta-analysis. RESULTS A total of 851 patients from 10 European studies were included in the present meta-analysis reporting for short- and long-term results for LLR and ORL for HCC. Among them 321 (37.7%) underwent laparoscopic hepatectomy and the remaining 530 (62.3%) were operated through open approach. LLR were found to be strongly associated with lower blood loss as well as need for blood transfusion, shorter hospital stay, lower 30-day mortality and morbidity and finally improved 1-year OS and 5-year DFS. Operative time, R0 resection, resection margin width, tumor size, 3- and 5-year OS as well as 1- and 3-year DFS were not found significantly different among the two groups. CONCLUSION The present meta-analysis demonstrates the superiority of laparoscopic over open approach for same sized tumors. Cirrhotic patients benefit from laparoscopy in terms of shorter hospital stay, complication rate and long-term oncologic outcomes.
Color Doppler indexes in early phase after kidney transplantation and their association with kidney function on six month follow up

Background: Doppler ultrasonography (DU) and measurement of its indexes, resistive index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI), is used to investigate transplanted kidney hemodynamic status and function. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between Doppler indexes in the early phase after transplantation with long-term transplanted kidney function. Materials and Methods : In this cross-sectional study on 38 newly kidney transplant patients, we performed DU with assessment of its indexes within 48 hours, 1 week, and 6 months after kidney transplantation. Serum creatinine after stability and 6 months after kidney transplantation were assessed. Cyclosporine level was measured 1 week after kidney transplantation and compared with DU indexes. Results: About 71% of kidney transplanted patients reached their normal initial creatinine level(cr<1.5 mg/ dl) and 28% of all patients were involved in kidney dysfunction after 6 months (increase in basic creatinine level more than 25%). There was no significant difference between mean RI and PI in patients with normal and disturbed kidney function based on creatinine level in early posttransplantation period but there was linear correlation between mean RI and PI within 48 hours and 1 week with kidney function after 6 months. Also no association between cyclosporine level and RI and PI was shown. There was a direct association between age and the levels of RI and PI 6 months after transplantation. Conclusion: This study suggests assessment of RI and PI in early period after transplantation and can be used as predictive parameters for long-term function of transplanted kidney and RI more than 0.80 in early phase after transplantation has an acceptable sensitivity and specificity to predict long-term kidney dysfunction.
The role of emotion in learning trustworthiness from eye-gaze: Evidence from facial electromyography

Gaze direction can be used to rapidly and reflexively lead or mislead others’ attention as to the location of important stimuli. When perception of gaze direction is congruent with the location of a target, responses are faster compared to when incongruent. Faces that consistently gaze congruently are also judged more trustworthy than faces that consistently gaze incongruently. However, it’s unclear how gaze-cues elicit changes in trust. We measured facial electromyography (EMG) during an identity-contingent gaze-cueing task to examine whether embodied emotional reactions to gaze-cues mediate trust learning. Gaze-cueing effects were found to be equivalent regardless of whether participants showed learning of trust in the expected direction or did not. In contrast, we found distinctly different patterns of EMG activity in these two populations. In a further experiment we showed the learning effects were specific to viewing faces, as no changes in liking were detected when viewing arrows that evoked similar attentional orienting responses. These findings implicate embodied emotion in learning trust from identity-contingent gaze-cueing, possibly due to the social value of shared attention or deception rather than domain-general attentional orienting.
Adversarial Symmetric Variational Autoencoder

A new form of variational autoencoder (VAE) is developed, in which the joint distribution of data and codes is considered in two (symmetric) forms: ($i$) from observed data fed through the encoder to yield codes, and ($ii$) from latent codes drawn from a simple prior and propagated through the decoder to manifest data. Lower bounds are learned for marginal log-likelihood fits observed data and latent codes. When learning with the variational bound, one seeks to minimize the symmetric Kullback-Leibler divergence of joint density functions from ($i$) and ($ii$), while simultaneously seeking to maximize the two marginal log-likelihoods. To facilitate learning, a new form of adversarial training is developed. An extensive set of experiments is performed, in which we demonstrate state-of-the-art data reconstruction and generation on several image benchmark datasets.
Alanine Scanning of Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV) 2B Protein Identifies Different Positions for Cell-To-Cell Movement and Gene Silencing Suppressor Activity

The multifunctional 2b protein of CMV has a role in the long distance and local movement of the virus, in symptom formation, in evasion of defense mediated by salicylic acid as well as in suppression of RNA silencing. The role of conserved amino acid sequence domains were analyzed previously in the protein function, but comprehensive analysis of this protein was not carried out until recently. We have analyzed all over the 2b protein by alanine scanning mutagenesis changing three consecutive amino acids (aa) to alanine. We have identified eight aa triplets as key determinants of the 2b protein function in virus infection. Four of them (KKQ/22-24/AAA, QNR/31-33/AAA, RER/34-36/AAA, SPS/40-42/AAA) overlap with previously determined regions indispensable in gene silencing suppressor function. We have identified two additional triplets necessary for the suppressor function of the 2b protein (LPF/55-57/AAA, NVE/10-12/AAA), and two other positions were required for cell-to-cell movement of the virus (MEL/1-3/AAA, RHV/70-72/AAA), which are not essential for suppressor activity.
Migration of Gyrotactic Micro-Organisms in Water

Understanding the swimming characteristics of micro-organisms is significant for modelling the migration of motile cells and corresponding ecological risk assessments associated with harmful algae in oceans and estuaries. Presented in this paper is an experimental and numerical investigation of swimming characteristics of a typical gyrotactic micro-organism, Heterosigma akashiwo (H. akashiwo) in water, based on the technology of planar laser-induced fluorescence and the finite volume method. Two-dimensional swimming velocity of algal cells are obtained by analyzing cells’ trajectories in the vertical plane, and three-dimensional swimming velocity is reconstructed based on the assumption that cells’ swimming is isotropic in the horizontal plane. Four important parameters are given to reflect the swimming characteristics of gyrotactic cells in still water, including the mean swimming speed (Vs = 146 μm/s), the relative strength of reorientation by gravitational torque to rotational diffusion (λ = 1.96), the time scale of reorientation (B = 5.6 s), and rotational diffusivity (Dr = 0.046 rad2/s). A database of the ambient vorticity, mean swimming velocity and diffusivity tensor is established, by solving Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density function of cells’ swimming under the combined action of gravity, rotational diffusion, and the ambient vorticity. The mean swimming velocity and translational diffusion tensor of H. akashiwo are found to change with the horizontal and vertical vorticity. It is also shown that gyrotactic cells swim in a given direction for a weak horizontal vorticity, in contrast to cells’ tumbling and being trapped for a strong horizontal vorticity.
Blad-Containing Oligomer Fungicidal Activity on Human Pathogenic Yeasts. From the Outside to the Inside of the Target Cell

Blad polypeptide comprises residues 109–281 of Lupinus albus β-conglutin precursor. It occurs naturally as a major subunit of an edible, 210 kDa oligomer which accumulates to high levels, exclusively in the cotyledons of Lupinus seedlings between the 4th and 14th day after the onset of germination. Blad-containing oligomer (BCO) exhibits a potent and broad spectrum fungicide activity toward plant pathogens and is now on sale in the US under the tradename FractureTM. In this work we demonstrate its antifungal activity toward human pathogens and provide some insights on its mode of action. BCO bioactivity was evaluated in eight yeast species and compared to that of amphotericin B (AMB). BCO behaved similarly to AMB in what concerns both cellular inhibition and cellular death. As a lectin, BCO binds strongly to chitin. In addition, BCO is known to possess ‘exochitinase’ and ‘endochitosanase’ activities. However, no clear disruption was visualized at the cell wall after exposure to a lethal BCO concentration, except in cell buds. Immunofluorescent and immunogold labeling clearly indicate that BCO enters the cell, and membrane destabilization was also demonstrated. The absence of haemolytic activity, its biological origin, and its extraordinary antifungal activity are the major outcomes of this work, and provide a solid background for a future application as a new antifungal therapeutic drug. Furthermore, its predictable multisite mode of action suggests a low risk of inducing resistance mechanisms, which are now a major problem with other currently available antifungal drugs.