Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insulin Resistance Is an Intrinsic Defect Independent of Fat Mass in Women with Turner’s Syndrome

Background/Aims: Turner’s syndrome (TS) is associated with increased insulin resistance and adiposity, which might be associated with type 2 diabetes in later life. We aimed to determine whether the defect in insulin sensitivity is a primary intrinsic defect in TS or dependent on variation in body composition. Methods: Sixteen women with TS not on growth hormone replacement but receiving oestrogen replacement therapy [age (mean ± SD): 30.2 ± 8.5 years; height-corrected fat-free mass: 26.1 ± 3.1 kg/height] and a control group of 16 normal healthy women (age: 30.1 ± 8.2 years; height-corrected fat-free mass: 25.9 ± 2.4 kg/height) were studied. Fasting blood samples were obtained for measurement of glucose, insulin, IGF-I, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-3 and lipid levels. The hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp was performed to assess peripheral insulin sensitivity (M value), and the Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA-S) was used to estimate fasting insulin sensitivity. Body composition was assessed using a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan. Results: Fasting insulin sensitivity (HOMA-S 103.2 ± 78.6 vs. 193.9 ± 93.5, p = 0.006) was lower in TS subjects compared to controls as was whole-body insulin sensitivity (M value 2.9 ± 1.9 vs. 5.5 ± 2.6 mg/kg/min, p = 0.003). In a multiple regression analysis the Turner karyotype was significantly related to insulin sensitivity (p = 0.008) independent of any differences in fat-free mass and percent whole-body fat mass. Conclusion: The increased insulin resistance in women with TS is independent of measures of body composition and may represent an intrinsic defect related to their chromosomal abnormality.
The influence of plain bar on bond strength of geopolymer concrete

This paper presents some results of experimental study of bond strength of plain bar embedded in geopolymer concrete. Fly ash class F was used as a raw material activated with alkali solutions. The combination of 8 Molar of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) as alkali activators was examined in the mixture with ratio of 2.5 by weight. Nine cubical specimens with a size of 150 × 150 × 150 mm were prepared to measure bond strength and slip between reinforcement and concrete. The influential factors studied for the experimental investigation were the diameter of reinforcement bar, bond area, and concrete cover to diameter (c/d) of reinforcement. The result showed that the average bond strength decreased as the diameter of plain bar and bonded length were increased from 16 mm to 19 mm. However, the 12 mm showed the different result allegedly caused by the effect of bond area and the passive confined provided by the concrete. Based on several equations used to compare the bond strength, it i.
PKU-MMD: A Large Scale Benchmark for Continuous Multi-Modal Human Action Understanding

Despite the fact that many 3D human activity benchmarks being proposed, most existing action datasets focus on the action recognition tasks for the segmented videos. There is a lack of standard large-scale benchmarks, especially for current popular data-hungry deep learning based methods. In this paper, we introduce a new large scale benchmark (PKU-MMD) for continuous multi-modality 3D human action understanding and cover a wide range of complex human activities with well annotated information. PKU-MMD contains 1076 long video sequences in 51 action categories, performed by 66 subjects in three camera views. It contains almost 20,000 action instances and 5.4 million frames in total. Our dataset also provides multi-modality data sources, including RGB, depth, Infrared Radiation and Skeleton. With different modalities, we conduct extensive experiments on our dataset in terms of two scenarios and evaluate different methods by various metrics, including a new proposed evaluation protocol 2D-AP. We believe this large-scale dataset will benefit future researches on action detection for the community.
Model predictive satisficing fuzzy logic control

Model-predictive control, which is an alternative to conventional optimal control, provides controller solutions to many constrained and nonlinear control problems. However, even when a good model is available, it may be necessary for an expert to specify the relationship between local model predictions and global system performance. We present a satisficing fuzzy logic controller that is based on a receding control horizon, but which employs a fuzzy description of system consequences via model predictions. This controller considers the gains and losses associated with each control action, is compatible with robust design objectives, and permits flexible defuzzifier design. We demonstrate the controller's application to representative problems from the control of uncertain nonlinear systems.
GENETIC BASIS OF THE TRADE‐OFF BETWEEN OFFSPRING NUMBER AND QUALITY IN THE BANK VOLE

Abstract One of the main tenets of modern life‐history theory is the negative relationship (trade‐off) between the number and quality of offspring produced. Theory predicts a negative genetic correlation between these traits since both are closely related to fitness of individuals. However, the genetic basis of the trade‐off has only been tested to a limited extent in natural populations. We examined whether size and quality of offspring are negatively related to litter size in the bank vole Clethrionomys glareolus. First, we found a significant negative phenotypic correlation between the number and size of offspring at birth in both laboratory and field populations of the bank vole. Second, a larger size at birth decreased the maturation age of female offspring in the laboratory, and increased the probability of breeding and the size of the first litter in the field. Furthermore, manipulation of offspring size at weaning indicated that structural effects of birth size in mammals have a more profound effect on the expression of life‐history traits than weaning size. Finally, in addition to the phenotypic negative correlation between the number and size of offspring, we found evidence for a negative genetic correlation between these two traits, which confirms the genetic basis of the trade‐off. This negative genetic covariation may have considerable effects on the rate and direction of evolution of the two related life‐historical traits.
Pulsed Doppler: Diameter, Blood Flow Velocity and Volumic Flow of the Brachial Artery in Sustained Essential Hypertension

Diameter, blood flow velocity and volumic flow of the brachial artery were measured in 36 patients with sustained essential hypertension and compared with 25 normal subjects. Both hypertensives and control subjects were classified according to age into those younger than and those older than 40 years. For the determinations, a pulsed Doppler velocimeter with an adjustable range-gated time system and a double transducer probe was used. With the apparatus, the error in the determination of the angle between the ultrasound beam and the flowing stream of blood was less than 2%. In addition, the overestimation of the arterial diameter due to the sample volume size did not exceed 0.035 ± 0.015 cm. In hypertensives, the diameter of the brachial artery was significantly increased. The value was 0.482 ± 0.013 cm in subjects younger than 40 years and 0.517 ± 0,013 cm in those older than 40 years; in the corresponding controls, the values were 0.422 ± 0.011 cm and 0.436 ± 0.013 cm (p < 0.01; p < 0.001). Blood flow velocity was reduced (p < 0.05; p < 0.01) and volumic flow remained within normal ranges. Both in the younger and the older groups, a significant positive correlation was observed between mean arterial pressure and the arterial diameter (r = 0.75; r = 0.60). In hypertensives, i.v. dihydralazine decreased mean arterial pressure from 120 ± 7 to 102 ± 7 mm Hg (p < 0.001). Arterial diameter also significantly decreased (p < 0.01) and returned toward normal. The study demonstrated that the diameter of the brachial artery was significantly increased in sustained essential hypertension and suggested that, with the chronic elevation of blood pressure, the large arteries dilate excessively, contributing to the maintainence of arterial blood flow within normal ranges.
Bayesian analysis for semiparametric mixed-effects double regression models

In recent years, based on jointly modeling the mean and variance, double regression models are widely used in practice. In order to assess the effects of continuous covariates or of time scales in a flexible way, a class of semiparametric mixed-effects double regression models(SMMEDRMs) is considered, in which we model the variance of the mixed effects directly as a function of the explanatory variables. In this paper, we propose a fully Bayesian inference for SMMEDRMs on the basis of B-spline estimates of nonparametric components. A computational efficient MCMC method which combines the Gibbs sampler and Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is implemented to simultaneously obtain the Bayesian estimates of unknown parameters and the smoothing function, as well as their standard deviation estimates. Finally, some simulation studies and a real example are used to illustrate the proposed methodology.
Intraepithelial lymphocytes in the villous tip: do they indicate potential coeliac disease?

Background: The counting of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) in the villous tips of architecturally normal small bowel biopsy specimens was proposed as a method to measure mucosal infiltration in gluten sensitive patients. Aims: To apply this straightforward method in duodenal biopsy specimens from patients affected by potential coeliac disease (PCD) to verify whether it can discriminate these patients from controls. Methods: Paraffin wax embedded duodenal sections from 11 patients affected by PCD were stained with an antihuman CD3 antibody. Sections from 19 patients affected by treated coeliac disease (TCD) and 17 patients in whom coeliac disease was excluded were stained with the same antibody to serve as controls. The slides were examined blindly. IELs/20 enterocytes in five randomly chosen villous tips were counted. Patients affected by PCD were all on a gluten containing diet. They had an architecturally normal duodenal mucosa and were positive for endomysial antibody. Both TCD and non-coeliac controls were negative for endomysial antibody. Results: The mean villous tip IEL scores were 4.6 (SD, 1.5; range, 1.4–7.8) in non-coeliac controls, 7.9 (SD, 4.0; range, 2.0–18.6) in TCD, and 9.2 (SD, 4.7; range, 5.8–21.8) in patients with PCD. The difference between PCD and non-coeliac controls was significant. Conclusions: This is a very simple and sufficiently reliable method to count IELs. In patients with an architecturally normal duodenal mucosa, the IEL count in villous tips helps to distinguish between patients with PCD and non-coeliac controls.
A Generative Model of Words and Relationships from Multiple Sources

Neural language models are a powerful tool to embed words into semantic vector spaces. However, learning such models generally relies on the availability of abundant and diverse training examples. In highly specialised domains this requirement may not be met due to difficulties in obtaining a large corpus, or the limited range of expression in average use. Such domains may encode prior knowledge about entities in a knowledge base or ontology. We propose a generative model which integrates evidence from diverse data sources, enabling the sharing of semantic information. We achieve this by generalising the concept of co-occurrence from distributional semantics to include other relationships between entities or words, which we model as affine transformations on the embedding space. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach by outperforming recent models on a link prediction task and demonstrating its ability to profit from partially or fully unobserved data training labels. We further demonstrate the usefulness of learning from different data sources with overlapping vocabularies.
Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Its Relationship to Initiation of Localized Aggressive Periodontitis: Longitudinal Cohort Study of Initially Healthy Adolescents

ABSTRACT Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is frequently associated with localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP); however, longitudinal cohort studies relating A. actinomycetemcomitans to initiation of LAP have not been reported. A periodontal assessment was performed on 1,075 primarily African-American and Hispanic schoolchildren, ages 11 to 17 years. Samples were taken from each child for A. actinomycetemcomitans. A cohort of 96 students was established that included a test group of 38 A. actinomycetemcomitans-positive students (36 periodontally healthy and 2 with periodontal pockets) and 58 healthy A. actinomycetemcomitans-negative controls. All clinical and microbiological procedures were repeated at 6-month intervals. Bitewing radiographs were taken annually for definitive diagnosis of LAP. At the initial examination, clinical probing attachment measurements indicated that 1.2% of students had LAP, while 13.7% carried A. actinomycetemcomitans, including 16.7% of African-American and 11% of Hispanic students (P = 0.001, chi-square test). A. actinomycetemcomitans serotypes a, b, and c were equally distributed among African-Americans; Hispanic students harbored predominantly serotype c (P = 0.05, chi-square test). In the longitudinal phase, survival analysis was performed to determine whether A. actinomycetemcomitans-positive as compared to A. actinomycetemcomitans-negative students remained healthy (“survived”) or progressed to disease with attachment loss of >2 mm or bone loss (failed to “survive”). Students without A. actinomycetemcomitans at baseline had a significantly greater chance to remain healthy (survive) compared to the A. actinomycetemcomitans-positive test group (P = 0.0001). Eight of 38 A. actinomycetemcomitans-positive and none of 58 A. actinomycetemcomitans-negative students showed bone loss (P = 0.01). A. actinomycetemcomitans serotype did not appear to influence survival. These findings suggest that detection of A. actinomycetemcomitans in periodontally healthy children can serve as a risk marker for initiation of LAP.
Sex separation of tsetse fly pupae using near-infrared spectroscopy

Abstract Implementation of the sterile insect technique for tsetse (Glossina spp.) requires that only sterile male insects be released; thus, at some stage of the fly production process the females have to be removed. A further constraint in the use of the sterile insect technique for tsetse is that the females are needed for colony production and hence, a non-destructive method of sex separation is required. In most tsetse sterile insect technique programmes thus far, females have been eliminated from the released material by hand-separation of chilled adults. Using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, significant differences have been found between the spectra for the pupae of male and female G. pallidipes Austen. Significantly, the differences appear to be maximized 4–5 days before emergence of the adults. Tsetse fly pupae up to five days before emergence can be sexed with accuracies that generally range from 80 to 100%. This system, when refined, will enable effective separation of male and female pupae to be carried out, with emerged females being returned to the colony and males being irradiated and released. If separation can be achieved five days before emergence, this will also enable irradiated male pupae to be shipped to other destinations as required. Other Diptera were evaluated using this system but had lower classification accuracies of 50–74%. This may be due to the difference in reproductive physiology between these different fly groups.
Preclinical Development and Production of Virus-Like Particles As Vaccine Candidates for Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infects 2% of the world’s population and is the leading cause of liver disease and liver transplantation. It poses a serious and growing worldwide public health problem that will only be partially addressed with the introduction of new antiviral therapies. However, these treatments will not prevent re-infection particularly in high risk populations. The introduction of a HCV vaccine has been predicted, using simulation models in a high risk population, to have a significant effect on reducing the incidence of HCV. A vaccine with 50 to 80% efficacy targeted to high-risk intravenous drug users could dramatically reduce HCV incidence in this population. Virus like particles (VLPs) are composed of viral structural proteins which self-assemble into non-infectious particles that lack genetic material and resemble native viruses. Thus, VLPs represent a safe and highly immunogenic vaccine delivery platform able to induce potent adaptive immune responses. Currently, many VLP-based vaccines have entered clinical trials, while licensed VLP vaccines for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human papilloma virus (HPV) have been in use for many years. The HCV core, E1 and E2 proteins can self-assemble into immunogenic VLPs while inclusion of HCV antigens into heterogenous (chimeric) VLPs is also a promising approach. These VLPs are produced using different expression systems such as bacterial, yeast, mammalian, plant, or insect cells. Here, this paper will review HCV VLP-based vaccines and their immunogenicity in animal models as well as the different expression systems used in their production.
Evaluation and comparison of atmospheric CO2 concentrations from models and satellite retrievals

In recent years, global warming caused by increased atmospheric CO2 has greatly drawn widespread attention from the public. Although satellite observations and model-simulation offer us two effective approaches to monitor and assess the global atmospheric CO2, quantification of the differences between these two different CO2 data is not fully investigated yet. In this paper, these CO2 products including satellite observations and model-simulation are inter-compared in terms of magnitude and their spatiotemporal distributions. The results reveal that these CO2 data from different data source show a good agreement all over the world, whereas many discrepancies still exist between satellite observations and model-simulation, especially in the Northern Sphere.
Temperature Range Shifts for Three European Tree Species over the Last 10,000 Years

We quantified the degree to which the relationship between the geographic distribution of three major European tree species, Abies alba, Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies and January temperature (Tjan) has remained stable over the past 10,000 years. We used an extended data-set of fossil pollen records over Europe to reconstruct spatial variation in Tjan values for each 1000-year time slice between 10,000 and 3000 years BP (before present). We evaluated the relationships between the occurrences of the three species at each time slice and the spatially interpolated Tjan values, and compared these to their modern temperature ranges. Our results reveal that F. sylvatica and P. abies experienced Tjan ranges during the Holocene that differ from those of the present, while A. alba occurred over a Tjan range that is comparable to its modern one. Our data suggest the need for re-evaluation of the assumption of stable climate tolerances at a scale of several thousand years. The temperature range instability in our observed data independently validates similar results based exclusively on modeled Holocene temperatures. Our study complements previous studies that used modeled data by identifying variation in frequencies of occurrence of populations within the limits of suitable climate. However, substantial changes that were observed in the realized thermal niches over the Holocene tend to suggest that predicting future species distributions should not solely be based on modern realized niches, and needs to account for the past variation in the climate variables that drive species ranges.
Muscarinic receptor activation enables persistent firing in pyramidal neurons from superficial layers of dorsal perirhinal cortex

Persistent‐firing neurons in the entorhinal cortex (EC) and the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) continue to discharge long after the termination of the original, spike‐initiating current. An emerging theory proposes that endogenous persistent firing helps support a transient memory system. This study demonstrated that persistent‐firing neurons are also prevalent in rat perirhinal cortex (PR), which lies immediately adjacent to and is reciprocally connected with EC and LA. Several characteristics of persistent‐firing neurons in PR were similar to those previously reported in LA and EC. Persistent firing in PR was enabled by the application of carbachol, a nonselective cholinergic agonist, and it was induced by injecting a suprathreshold current or by stimulating suprathreshold excitatory synaptic inputs to the neuron. Once induced, persistent firing lasted for seconds to minutes. Persistent firing could always be terminated by a sufficiently large and prolonged hyperpolarizing current; it was prevented by antagonists of muscarinic cholinergic receptors (mAChRs); and it was blocked by flufenamic acid. The latter has been suggested to inhibit a Ca2+‐activated nonspecific cation conductance (GCAN) that normally furnishes the sustained depolarization during persistent firing. In many PR neurons, the discharge rate during persistent firing was a graded function of depolarizing and/or hyperpolarizing inputs. Persistent firing was not prevented by blocking fast excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission, demonstrating that it can be generated endogenously. We suggest that persistent‐firing neurons in PR, EC, LA, and certain other brain regions may cooperate in support of a transient‐memory system. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Quantification of retinal transneuronal degeneration in human glaucoma: a novel multiphoton-DAPI approach.

PURPOSE Glaucoma is presumed to result in the selective loss of retinal ganglion cells. In many neural systems, this loss would initiate a cascade of transneuronal degeneration. The quantification of changes in neuronal populations in the middle layers of the retina can be difficult with conventional histologic techniques. A method was developed based on multiphoton imaging of 4',6'-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI)-stained tissue to quantify neuron loss in postmortem human glaucomatous retinas. METHODS Retinas from normal and glaucomatous eyes fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde were incubated at 4 degrees C overnight in DAPI solution. DAPI-labeled neurons at different levels of the retina were imaged by multiphoton confocal microscopy. Algorithms were developed for the automated identification of neurons in the retinal ganglion cell layer (RGCL), inner nucleus layer (INL), and outer nuclear layer (ONL). RESULTS In glaucomatous retinas, the mean density of RGCs within 4 mm eccentricity was reduced by approximately 45%, with the greatest RGC loss occurring in a region that corresponds to the central 6 degrees to 14 degrees of vision. Significant neuron loss in the INL and ONL was also seen at 2 to 4 mm and 2 to 3 mm eccentricities, respectively. The ratios of neuron densities in the INL and ONL relative to the RGCL (INL/RGC and ONL/RGC, respectively) were found to increase significantly at 3 to 4 mm eccentricity. CONCLUSIONS The data confirm that the greatest neuronal loss occurs in the RGCL in human glaucoma. Neuronal loss was also observed in the outer retinal layers (INL and ONL) that correlated spatially with changes in the RGCL. Further work is necessary to confirm whether these changes arise from transneuronal degeneration.