Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reference values of lymphocyte sub-populations in healthy human immunodeficiency virus-negative Iranian adults.

BACKGROUND Lymphocyte subsets enumeration is considered prominent in the management of primary and acquired immunodeficiency disorders. Because of local variations due to race, age, gender, and environmental conditions on lymphocyte subsets, and to improve the accuracy of interpretation of laboratory findings, reference intervals must be determined in every population. OBJECTIVE To establish a normal reference range for CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD19+ and CD56+ lymphocytes in a healthy Iranian adult population using flowcytometry. METHOD Blood samples were collected from 221 HIV seronegative individuals, including 112 females and 109 males, with ages ranging from 20 to 40 years old. The percentage of lymphocytes expressing either of CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19 and CD56 surface markers were determined by flowcytometry assay. RESULT Total mean percentage and absolute count of lymphocyte subsets were as follows: CD3+: 70.90 ± 7.54%, 1800.87 ± 471.09 cells/µl; CD4+: 41.04 ± 7.86%, 1039.99 ± 338.02 cells/µl; CD8+: 31.11 ± 6.60%, 783.95 ± 234.87 cells/µl; CD19+: 12.77 ± 4.56%, 328.37 ± 153.17 cells/µl; CD56+: 15.53 ± 6.34%, 388.62 ± 176.17 cells/µl, respectively. The ratio of CD4+/CD8+ lymphocytes for the studied population was 1.39 ± 0.48. Significant differences were observed between male and female subjects indicating that the average percentage of CD3+ cells (p=0.017) and CD4+ T cells (p=0.003) were higher in the female population, whereas the average percentage of CD19+ cells (p=0.02) tended to be higher among males. However, investigations on the CD56+ NK cell and CD8+ T cell sub-populations did not show any statistical differences between the two genders. In comparison with reports of other populations, we were confronted with different results. CONCLUSION Establishing reference values of lymphocyte subsets for each population is helpful in achieving standard criteria for the prognosis of HIV infection. Therefore, normal ranges established by this survey can be used as a reference for decisions made in clinical practice.
Transportless equilibration in isolated many-body quantum systems

A general analytical theory of temporal relaxation processes in isolated quantum systems with many degrees of freedom is elaborated, which unifies and substantially amends several previous approximations. Specifically, the Fourier transform of the initial energy distribution is found to play a key role, which is furthermore equivalent to the so-called survival probability in case of a pure initial state. The main prerequisite is the absence of any notable transport currents, caused for instance by some initially unbalanced local densities of particles, energy, and so on. In particular, such a transportless relaxation scenario naturally arises when both the system Hamiltonian and the initial non-equilibrium state do not exhibit any spatial inhomogeneities on macroscopic scales. A further requirement is that the relaxation must not be notably influenced by any approximate (but not exact) constant of motion or metastable state. The theoretical predictions are compared with various experimental and numerical results from the literature.
Learning Graphical Models over partial k-trees

We show that the class of strongly connected graphical models with tree-width at most k can be properly efﬁciently PAC-learnt with respect to the Kullback-Leibler Divergence. Previous approaches to this problem, such as those of Chow ([1]), and Hoffgen ([7]) have shown that this class is PAC-learnable (though not necessarily efﬁciently unless k = 1 ) by reducing to a NP-complete combinatorial optimization problem. Unless P=NP, these approaches will take exponential amounts of time. Our approach differs signiﬁcantly from these, in that it ﬁrst attempts to ﬁnd approximate conditional independencies by solving (polynomially many) submodular optimization problems, and then using a dynamic programming formulation to combine the approximate conditional independence information to derive a graphical model with underlying graph of the tree-width speciﬁed. This gives us an efﬁcient (polynomial time) PAC-learning algorithm which requires only polynomial number of samples of the true distribution, and only polynomial running time.
The effects of head and tail stimulation on the withdrawal startle response of the rope fish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus)

SUMMARY While most actinopterygian fishes perform C-start or S-start behaviors as their primary startle responses, many elongate species instead use a withdrawal movement. Studies of withdrawal have focused on the response to head-directed or nonspecific stimuli. During withdrawal, the animal moves its head back from the stimulus, often resulting in several tight bends in the body. In contrast to C-start or S-start behaviors, withdrawal to a head stimulus generally does not involve a subsequent propulsive stage of movement. We examined intraspecific diversity in withdrawal behavior and muscle activity patterns of the rope fish, Erpetoichthys calabaricus, in response to stimulation of the head and the tail. In addition, we describe the anatomy of the Mauthner cells and their axon caps, structures that are generally absent in species with a withdrawal startle. We recorded high-speed video (250 Hz) and electromyograms (EMGs) from 12 electrodes in the axial muscle during the behavioral response. We used Bodian silver staining techniques to visualize Mauthner cell and axon cap morphology. We found that E. calabaricus responds with a withdrawal to both head and tail stimulation. Tail stimulation elicits a stronger kinematic and muscle activity response than head stimulation. While withdrawal movement generally constitutes the entire response to head stimuli, withdrawal was followed by propulsive movements when the tail was stimulated, suggesting that withdrawal can both act alone and serve as the first stage of a propulsive startle. Unexpectedly, bilaterality of muscle activity was variable for responses to both head and tail stimuli. In addition, we were surprised to find that E. calabaricus has a distinct axon cap associated with its Mauthner cell. These data suggest that the withdrawal response is a more diverse functional system than has previously been believed.
A finite family weak square principle

Definition 1.1. Suppose that λ ≤ κ are cardinals and Γ is a subset of (κ, κ+). By , we mean the principle asserting that there is a sequence 〈F ν | ν ∈ lim(Γ)〉 such that for every ν ∈ lim(Γ), the following hold. (1) 1 ≤ card(F ν) < λ. (2) The following hold for every C ∈ F ν. (a) C ⊆ ν ∩ Γ, (b) C is club in ν, (c) o.t. (C) ≤ κ, By we mean . If Γ = (κ, κ+), then we write for and for . These weak square principles were introduced in [Sch2, 5.1]. They generalize Jensen's principles □κ and , which are equivalent to and respectively. Jensen's global □ principle implies □κ for all κ. Theorem 1.2. Suppose that is a core model. Assume that every countable premouse M which elementarily embeds into a level of is (ω1 + 1)-iterable. Then, for every κ, holds in . The minimal non-1-small mouse is essentially a sharp for an inner model with a Woodin cardinal. We originally proved Theorem 1.2 under the assumption that is 1-small, building on [MiSt] and [Sch2]. Some generalizations followed by combining our methods with those of [St2] and [SchSt2]. (For example, the tame countably certified core model Kc satisfies .) In order to eliminate the smallness assumption all together, one replaces our use of the Dodd-Jensen lemma in proofs of condensation properties for with the weak Dodd-Jensen lemma of [NSt].
Characterization of cells expressing RNA polymerase II tagged with green fluorescent protein: Effect of ionizing irradiation on RNA synthesis

Purpose: To isolate and to characterize cells expressing RNA polymerase II tagged with green fluorescent protein for analyses of the effects of ionizing radiation on transcription in living cells. Materials and methods: We introduced an α-amanitin-resistant mutation into a vector encoding the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP-pol). Cell lines stably expressing functional GFP-pol were isolated under selection with α-amanitin from a Chinese hamster cell line, CHO-K1, and a radiation-sensitive mutant CHO cell line, XR-1. Results: We tested the functionality of the fusion protein in vivo by determining RNA synthesis activity by incorporation of nucleoside analogues. Both CHO-K1 and XR-1 cells expressing GFP-pol had properties similar to those of their respective parental cell lines, indicating that GFP-pol is functional. Conclusions: These stable lines might prove useful for analyses of the roles of transcription after ionizing radiation.
High-Speed Spiral-Scan Echo Planar NMR Imaging-I

An improved echo planar high-speed imaging technique using spiral scan is presented and experimental advantages are discussed. This proposed spiral-scan echo planar imaging (SEPI) technique employs two linearly increasing sinusoidal gradient fields, which results in a spiral trajectory in the spatial frequency domain (k-domain) that covers the entire frequency domain uniformly. The advantages of the method are: 1) circularly symmetric T2 weighting, resulting in a circularly symmetric point spread function in the image domain; 2) elimination of discontinuities in gradient waveforms which in turn will reduce initial transient as well as steady-state distortions; and 3) effective rapid spiral-scan from dc to high frequency in a continuous fashion, which ensures multiple pulsing with interlacing for further resolution improvement without T2 decay image degradation. Some preliminary experimental results will be presented and further possible improvements suggested.
Race and mortality risk after radiation therapy in men treated with or without androgen‐suppression therapy for favorable‐risk prostate cancer

African American (AA) men are more likely than non‐AA men to have a comorbid illness that could interact with androgen‐deprivation therapy (ADT) and shorten survival. This study assessed the impact that race had on the risk of all‐cause mortality (ACM) and other‐cause mortality (OCM) among men definitively treated for favorable‐risk prostate cancer (PC).
Effect of Electronic Secondary Markets on the Supply Chain

We present a model to investigate the competitive implications of electronic secondary markets that promote concurrent selling of new and used goods on a supply chain. In secondary markets where suppliers cannot directly utilize used goods for practicing intertemporal price discrimination and where transaction costs of resales are negligible, the threat of cannibalization of new goods by used goods becomes significant. We examine conditions under which it is optimal for suppliers to operate in such markets, explaining why these markets may not always be detrimental for them. Intuitively, secondary markets provide an active outlet for some high-valuation consumers to sell their used goods. The potential for such resales leads to an increase in consumers' valuation for a new good, leading them to buy an additional new good. Given sufficient heterogeneity in consumers' affinity across multiple suppliers' products, the "market expansion effect" accruing from consumers' cross-product purchase affinity can mitigate the losses incurred by suppliers from the direct "cannibalization effect. " We also highlight the strategic role that the used goods commission set by the retailer plays in determining profits for suppliers. We conclude the paper by empirically testing some implications of our model using a unique data set from the online book industry, which has a flourishing secondary market.
A Survey on Malware Detection Using Data Mining Techniques

In the Internet age, malware (such as viruses, trojans, ransomware, and bots) has posed serious and evolving security threats to Internet users. To protect legitimate users from these threats, anti-malware software products from different companies, including Comodo, Kaspersky, Kingsoft, and Symantec, provide the major defense against malware. Unfortunately, driven by the economic benefits, the number of new malware samples has explosively increased: anti-malware vendors are now confronted with millions of potential malware samples per year. In order to keep on combating the increase in malware samples, there is an urgent need to develop intelligent methods for effective and efficient malware detection from the real and large daily sample collection. In this article, we first provide a brief overview on malware as well as the anti-malware industry, and present the industrial needs on malware detection. We then survey intelligent malware detection methods. In these methods, the process of detection is usually divided into two stages: feature extraction and classification/clustering. The performance of such intelligent malware detection approaches critically depend on the extracted features and the methods for classification/clustering. We provide a comprehensive investigation on both the feature extraction and the classification/clustering techniques. We also discuss the additional issues and the challenges of malware detection using data mining techniques and finally forecast the trends of malware development.
Darwinian Selection on a Selfing Locus

The shift to self-pollination is one of the most prevalent evolutionary transitions in flowering plants. In the selfing plant Arabidopsis thaliana, pseudogenes at the SCR and SRK self-incompatibility loci are believed to underlie the evolution of self-fertilization. Positive directional selection has driven the evolutionary fixation of pseudogene alleles of SCR, leading to substantially reduced nucleotide variation. Coalescent simulations indicate that this adaptive event may have occurred very recently and is possibly associated with the post-Pleistocene expansion of A. thaliana from glacial refugia. This suggests that ancillary morphological innovations associated with self-pollination can evolve rapidly after the inactivation of the self-incompatibility response.
Black Holes as a Gateway to the Quantum: Classical and Semi-Classical Explorations

Depuis 1916, l'etude des Trous Noirs a souleve des questions intrigantes. Seulement certaines ont ete resolues. En effet, nous faisons face a des regimes ou s’entremelent la theorie quantique et l'espace-temps. Les TN comme porte d'entree pour comprendre la nature quantique de la gravite. Ma these a ete entierement dediee a ce domaine central de la physique theorique, avec pour but la comprehension la plus large possible des debats autour de ces questions. C'est ainsi qu'ont ete produits des resultats originaux qui constituent le cœur de ce manuscrit. 1-Les surfaces de volume maximal des TN sont etudiees. Un TN astrophysique terminera sa vie avec une aire planckienne de 10⁻⁷⁰ m² dissimulant 10⁵ fois le volume de l'univers observable. Ceci peut avoir des consequences sur la viabilite du "remnant scenario" comme solution au paradoxe de l'information. 2-Le scenario "trou-noir-trou-blanc" est fortement instable. Une modification minimale est proposee pour resoudre ce probleme. 3-Une generalisation des quatre lois de la thermodynamique des TN est demontree pour des cones de lumiere s'intersectant dans un espace de Minkowski. 4-On etudie des espaces conformellement plats ou de telles lois acquierent une interpretation thermodynamique standard. Le plus simple est l'espace-temps de Bertotti-Robinson, connu pour encoder la geometrie proche de l'horizon d'un TN charge. 5-Pour peu que le bon tenseur energie-impulsion soit identifie, les equations du champ Einstein-Cartan peuvent etre retrouvees comme l'equation d'etat d'un equilibre thermodynamique, comme dans le cas original de la RG. Ces resultats contribuent au debat intense sur les questions cruciales posees ci-dessus.
The efficacy of gaseous ozone against different forms of Candida albicans

Background and Purpose: Ozone is an inorganic molecule with effective antimicrobial properties. Clinical treatment of ozonated water was used for the elimination of Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, endotoxins, and biofilms from root canals. In addition, its therapeutic effects for tinea pedis, ulcers, and leishmaniasis were investigated. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the fungicidal effects of ozone on different forms of C. albicans. In addition, antifungal susceptibility profile of strains was assessed before and after exposure to ozone. Materials and Methods: Fifty strains of C. albicans were exposed to gaseous ozone at different times. Furthermore, biofilm formation and germ tube production were evaluated when yeast suspensions were exposed to ozone. In addition, antifungal susceptibility of ozone resistant colonies was investiagted as compared to controls. Results: Ozone was highly effective in killing C. albicans in yeast form and inhibition of germ tube formation during 210 and 180 s, respectively. Although with increasing exposure time biofilm production was considerably decreased, resistance to ozone was much higher among vaginal and nail isolates even after 60 min. All the strains were sensitive to fluconazole, caspofungin, and terbinafine pre- and post-ozone exposure. Resistance to amphotericin B was significantly enhanced after exposure to ozone. Conclusion: Although ozone was highly effective on the yeast form of C. albicans and it can inhibit the formation of germ tubes in C. albicans, the complete removal of biofilms did not happen even after 60 min. It seems that ozone therapy induces resistance to amphotericin B.
Molecular Mechanism of Hepatitis C Virus-Induced Glucose Metabolic Disorders

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes not only intrahepatic diseases but also extrahepatic manifestations, including metabolic disorders. Chronic HCV infection is often associated with type 2 diabetes. However, the precise mechanism underlying this association is still unclear. Glucose is transported into hepatocytes via glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2). Hepatocytes play a crucial role in maintaining plasma glucose homeostasis via the gluconeogenic and glycolytic pathways. We have been investigating the molecular mechanism of HCV-related type 2 diabetes using HCV RNA replicon cells and HCV J6/JFH1 system. We found that HCV replication down-regulates cell surface expression of GLUT2 at the transcriptional level. We also found that HCV infection promotes hepatic gluconeogenesis in HCV J6/JFH1-infected Huh-7.5 cells. HCV infection transcriptionally up-regulated the genes for phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose 6-phosphatase (G6Pase), the rate-limiting enzymes for hepatic gluconeogenesis. Gene expression of PEPCK and G6Pase was regulated by the transcription factor forkhead box O1 (FoxO1) in HCV-infected cells. Phosphorylation of FoxO1 at Ser319 was markedly diminished in HCV-infected cells, resulting in increased nuclear accumulation of FoxO1. HCV NS5A protein was directly linked with the FoxO1-dependent increased gluconeogenesis. This paper will discuss the current model of HCV-induced glucose metabolic disorders.
Genetic transformation in freshwater: Escherichia coli is able to develop natural competence

Until now, Escherichia coli was thought to be unable to develop natural competence, i.e., genetic transformation could be achieved only artificially with the aid of nonphysiological concentrations of calcium ions or by other treatments. We have tested the competence development of E. coli through transformation under natural conditions in river water, springwater, and mineral water which contained between 0 and 11 mM Ca2+, using pUC18 DNA. The presence of calcium ions at concentrations as low as 1 to 2 mM was sufficient to obtain transformants. Variations in the temperature of incubation were not required for competence development but had an influence on the transformation frequency. Using water from mineral springs originating from calcareous regions, we have obtained transformation frequencies with laboratory strains of E. coli similar to those reported for other gram-negative bacteria known to develop natural competence. The competence development of E. coli is most probably internally regulated (as for the other gram-negative bacteria), and inadequate conditions chosen for the transformation tests in the laboratory might impair the detection of higher natural transformation frequencies. The results will enhance our knowledge about the fate of laboratory or production strains of E. coli cells reaching natural aquatic ecosystems.
A comparison of the hydrology of moorland under natural conditions, agricultural use and forestry

Abstract Long term research has been conducted into the hydrological effects of different land usage of a wetland mire in southern Germany. Drainage for agriculture lowered the water table and reduced evaporation from about 110% of open water losses to just under the Penman short grass potential rate. The runoff regime was altered and peak flows increased. Afforestation of agricultural land increased evaporation losses to much higher levels than open water evaporation, and annual runoff was nearly halved. Forest growth reduced soil water and baseflows. Peak flows became smaller; the rate of reduction was particularly rapid in the early years of tree growth.
An organellar maturase associates with multiple group II introns

Bacterial group II introns encode maturase proteins required for splicing. In organelles of photosynthetic land plants, most of the group II introns have lost the reading frames for maturases. Here, we show that the plastidial maturase MatK not only interacts with its encoding intron within trnK-UUU, but also with six additional group II introns, all belonging to intron subclass IIA. Mapping analyses of RNA binding sites revealed MatK to recognize multiple regions within the trnK intron. Organellar group II introns are considered to be the ancestors of nuclear spliceosomal introns. That MatK associates with multiple intron ligands makes it an attractive model for an early trans-acting nuclear splicing activity.
Guanacastane-type diterpenoids from the insect-associated fungus Verticillium dahliae

Four new guanacastane-type diterpenoids, namely dahlianes A (1), B (2), C (3), and D (4), were isolated from cultures of Verticillium dahliae. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data analysis. Their absolute configurations were determined by a combination of Mo2(OAc)4-induced electronic circular dichroism experiment and Mosher ester method. In cytotoxicity evaluation against human tumor cell lines, compounds 2 and 3 exhibited significant cytotoxicities against MCF-7 cell lines with IC50 values of 3.35 and 4.72 μM, respectively.