Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Anhydrobiology: Identifying Molecules Implicated in Invertebrate Anhydrobiosis1

Abstract Studies in anhydrobiotic plants have defined many genes which are upregulated during desiccation, but comparable studies in invertebrates are at an early stage. To develop a better understanding of invertebrate anhydrobiosis, we have begun to characterise dehydration-inducible genes and their proteins in anhydrobiotic nematodes and bdelloid rotifers; this review emphasises recent findings with a hydrophilic nematode protein. Initial work with the fungivorous nematode Aphelenchus avenae led to the identification of two genes, both of which were markedly induced on slow drying (90–98% relative humidity, 24 hr) and also by osmotic stress, but not by heat or cold or oxidative stresses. The first of these genes encodes a novel protein we have named anhydrin; it is a small, basic polypeptide, with no counterparts in sequence databases, which is predicted to be natively unstructured and highly hydrophilic. The second is a member of the Group 3 LEA protein family; this and other families of LEA proteins are widely described in plants, where they are most commonly associated with the acquisition of desiccation tolerance in maturing seeds. Like anhydrin, the nematode LEA protein, Aav-LEA-1, is highly hydrophilic and a recombinant form has been shown to be unstructured in solution. In vitro functional studies suggest that Aav-LEA-1 is able to stabilise other proteins against desiccation-induced aggregation, which is in keeping with a role of LEA proteins in anhydrobiosis. In vivo, however, Aav-LEA-1 is apparently processed into smaller forms during desiccation. A processing activity was found in protein extracts of dehydrated, but not hydrated, nematodes; these shorter polypeptides are also active anti-aggregants and we hypothesise that processing LEA protein serves to increase the number of active molecules available to the dehydrating animal. Other LEA-like proteins are being identified in nematodes and it seems likely therefore that they will play a major role in the molecular anhydrobiology of invertebrates, as they are thought to do in plants.
Women Treated for Breast Cancer Experiences of Chemotherapy-Induced Pain

Background: Breast cancer survivors make up a growing population facing treatment that poses long-standing adverse effects including chemotherapy-related body function changes and/or pain. There is limited knowledge of patients’ lived experiences of chemotherapy-induced pain (CHIP). Objective: The aim of this study was to explore CHIP and any long-standing pain experiences in the lifeworld of breast cancer survivors. Methods: Fifteen women participated in a follow-up interview a year after having experienced CHIP. They were interviewed from a lifeworld perspective; the interviews were analyzed through guided phenomenology reflection. Results: A past perspective: CHIP is often described in metaphors, leads to changes in a patient’s lifeworld, and impacts lived time. The women become entirely dependent on others but at the same time feel isolated and alone. Existential pain was experienced as increased vulnerability. Present perspective: Pain engages same parts of the body, but at a lower intensity than during CHIP. The pain creates time awareness. Expected normality in relationships/daily life has not yet been achieved, and a painful existence emerges in-between health and illness. Future perspective: There are expectations of pain continuing, and there is insecurity regarding whom to turn to in such cases. A painful awareness emerges about one’s own and others’ fragile existence. Conclusions: Experiencing CHIP can impact the lifeworld of women with a history of breast cancer. After CHIP, there are continued experiences of pain that trigger insecurity about whether one is healthy. Implications for Practice: Cancer survivors would likely benefit from communication and information about and evaluation of CHIP.
Direct Effects of Infectious Agents on Cellular Components of the Vessel Wall That Could Predispose to Atherosclerosis

Although definitive proof of a causal role of infection contributing to atherogenesis is lacking, multiple investigations have demonstrated that infectious agents evoke cellular and molecular changes supportive of such a role. Moreover, bothChlamydia pneumoniaeand cytomegalovirus exacerbate lesion development in animal models of atherosclerosis and restenosis. The fact that multiple pathogens have been associated with atherosclerosis implies that many “atherogenic” pathogens exist, and recent data suggest that the risk of atherosclerosis conveyed by infection relates to the number of atherogenic pathogens with which an individual is infected. It also is evident that variability in host susceptibility to the atherogenic effects of pathogens exists; this variability appears to be related at least in part to whether the host can generate an immune response that successfully controls pathogen inflammatory activity and in part to the specific pattern of immune response—humoral or cellular. The latter may relate to host capacity to control pathogen activity and to a pathogen-induced autoimmune component of the atherogenic process. Additional animal and human studies are necessary to further test the validity of the infection/atherosclerosis link and to provide more insight into the mechanisms by which infection may contribute to atherosclerosis, information critical for devising strategies to reduce or eliminate any contribution to atherosclerosis caused by infection. (Circulation. 1999;100:e20–e28.)
Minimum entropy control of closed-loop tracking errors for dynamic stochastic systems

The entropy has been used to characterize the uncertainty of the tracking error for general nonlinear and non-Gaussian stochastic systems. A recursive optimization solution has been developed and the local stability condition of the closed-loop system has been established. The generality of this algorithm has been proved by the special case study of the minimum variance control for linear Gaussian systems.
Organic Light Detectors: Photodiodes and Phototransistors

While organic electronics is mostly dominated by light‐emitting diodes, photovoltaic cells and transistors, optoelectronics properties peculiar to organic semiconductors make them interesting candidates for the development of innovative and disruptive applications also in the field of light signal detection. In fact, organic‐based photoactive media combine effective light absorption in the region of the spectrum from ultraviolet to near‐infrared with good photogeneration yield and low‐temperature processability over large areas and on virtually every substrate, which might enable innovative optoelectronic systems to be targeted for instance in the field of imaging, optical communications or biomedical sensing.
Orderly hematopoietic development of induced pluripotent stem cells via Flk‐1+ hemoangiogenic progenitors

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, reprogrammed somatic cells with embryonic stem (ES) cell‐like characteristics, are generated by the introduction of combinations of specific transcription factors. Little is known about the differentiation of iPS cells in vitro. Here we demonstrate that murine iPS cells produce various hematopoietic cell lineages when incubated on a layer of OP9 stromal cells. During this differentiation, iPS cells went through an intermediate stage consisting of progenitor cells that were positive for the early mesodermal marker Flk‐1 and for the sequential expression of other genes that are associated with hematopoietic and endothelial development. Flk‐1+ cells differentiated into primitive and definitive hematopoietic cells, as well as into endothelial cells. Furthermore, Flk‐1+ populations contained common bilineage progenitors that could generate both hematopoietic and endothelial lineages from single cells. Our results demonstrate that iPS cell‐derived cells, like ES cells, can follow a similar hematopoietic route to that seen in normal embryogenesis. This finding highlights the potential use of iPS cells in clinical areas such as regenerative medicine, disease investigation, and drug screening. J. Cell. Physiol. 221: 367–377, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Security and Privacy Survey for WSN in e-Health Applications

Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) are getting a special place in the development of e-Health application, due to its characteristics such as: not intrusive design, low energy consumption, low price and its flexibility to integrate into health care environments.However, the use of WSN in these kind of environments must consider those security and privacy mechanisms required by applicable Personal Data Protection Legislations to provide end-to-end guarantees to the patient's information. Applications and research projects are taking place to offer e-Health solutions with these features, however still there is not framework or standard to support interoperability among these or to provide a design criteria for future developments.Towards this goal, in this paper we survey a set of e-Health proposals for WSN, focusing on the mechanisms used to provide security and privacy to support real-time and multimedia data transmission in WSN.
Hyperspectral Intrinsic Dimensionality Estimation With Nearest-Neighbor Distance Ratios

The first task to be performed in most hyperspectral unmixing chains is the estimation of the number of endmembers. Several techniques for this problem have already been proposed, but the class of fractal techniques for intrinsic dimensionality estimation is often overlooked. In this paper, we study an intrinsic dimensionality estimation technique based on the known scaling behavior of nearest-neighbor distance ratios, and its performance on the spectral unmixing problem. We present the relation between intrinsic manifold dimensionality and the number of endmembers in a mixing model, and investigate the effects of denoising and the statistics on the algorithm. The algorithm is compared with several alternative methods, such as Hysime, virtual dimensionality, and several fractal-dimension based techniques, on both artificial and real data sets. Robust behavior in the presence of noise, and independence of the spectral dimensionality, is demonstrated. Furthermore, due to its construction, the algorithm can be used for non-linear mixing models as well.
Sounds from airguns and fin whales recorded in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, 1999-2009.

Between 1999 and 2009, autonomous hydrophones were deployed to monitor seismic activity from 16° N to 50° N along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These data were examined for airgun sounds produced during offshore surveys for oil and gas deposits, as well as the 20 Hz pulse sounds from fin whales, which may be masked by airgun noise. An automatic detection algorithm was used to identify airgun sound patterns, and fin whale calling levels were summarized via long-term spectral analysis. Both airgun and fin whale sounds were recorded at all sites. Fin whale calling rates were higher at sites north of 32° N, increased during the late summer and fall months at all sites, and peaked during the winter months, a time when airgun noise was often prevalent. Seismic survey vessels were acoustically located off the coasts of three major areas: Newfoundland, northeast Brazil, and Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa. In some cases, airgun sounds were recorded almost 4000 km from the survey vessel in areas that are likely occupied by fin whales, and at some locations airgun sounds were recorded more than 80% days/month for more than 12 consecutive months.
A meta-analysis of the effects of conjugated linoleic acid on fat-free mass in humans.

Treatment of laboratory animals with a 50:50 mixture of c9,t11 and t10,c12 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) results in fat loss and, to a smaller degree, fat-free mass (FFM) gain. In a previous meta-analysis, we found that CLA produced a fat loss, but that humans were not as responsive as mice. We performed a similar meta-analysis in the same 18 studies to test whether CLA increased FFM. Only placebo-controlled trials that measured body composition were included. We found that FFM increased during CLA treatment (0.3 +/- 0.7 kg; p = 0.05), but that the change did not display an effect of length of treatment (0.001 +/- 0.005 kg.week(-1); p = 0.8), or an effect of dosage (0.1 +/- 0.1 kg.g CLA(-1). day(-1); p = 0.3). We conclude that FFM does increase in humans during CLA treatment, but the onset of the increase is rapid and the total increase is small (<1%).
On the steady-state of cache networks

Over the past few years Content-Centric Networking, a networking model in which host-to-content communication protocols are introduced, has been gaining much attention. A central component of such an architecture is a large-scale interconnected caching system. To date, the way these Cache Networks operate and perform is still poorly understood. In this work, we demonstrate that certain cache networks are non-ergodic in that their steady-state characterization depends on the initial state of the system. We then establish several important properties of cache networks, in the form of three independently-sufficient conditions for a cache network to comprise a single ergodic component. Each property targets a different aspect of the system - topology, admission control and cache replacement policies. Perhaps most importantly we demonstrate that cache replacement can be grouped into equivalence classes, such that the ergodicity (or lack-thereof) of one policy implies the same property holds for all policies in the class.
Injectable Hyaluronic Acid Gel for Soft Tissue Augmentation: A Clinical and Histological Study

background. Several biomaterials are available for the purpose of soft tissue augmentation, but none of them has all the properties of the ideal filler material. The recent development of hyaluronic acid gels for dermal implantation give the physician new possibilities of effective treatment in this field. objective. This study provides a clinical and histological evaluation of safety and efficacy of a cross‐linked stabilized non‐animal hyaluronic acid gel (Restylane, Q‐Med, Uppsala, Sweden) to determine its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and side‐effects. methods. 158 patients were treated with facial intradermal implant of hyaluronic acid gel for augmentation therapy of wrinkles and folds, and for lip augmentation and/or recontouring. The results were evaluated in all patients by subjective judgement by the physician and the patient, and by photographic method at time 0 and after 1, 2, 4 and 8 months from the procedure. In addition, a smaller histological study was carried out in five volunteer patients for a term of 52 weeks to determine the interaction and duration of the material in human healthy skin. results. Clinically, both the physicians' and patients' evaluations revealed very satisfactory results, with a global 78.5% and 73.4% respectively of moderate or marked improvement after eight months, independent of the treated area. The photographic evaluation revealed even better results with a 80.4% of moderate or marked improvement after 8 months. The safety evaluation showed a 12.5% of postoperative immediate adverse events, that were localized and transient. There was no evidence of major systemic side effects. Histologically, the product was shown to be long‐lasting and well tolerated as judged by histological techniques. conclusions. Stabilized, non‐animal, hyaluronic acid gel is well tolerated and effective in augmentation therapy of soft tissues of the face. This material presents several advantages in comparison to previously used injectable biomaterials and expands the arsenal of therapeutic tools in the field of soft tissue augmentation.
Anomalous low-temperature thermal properties of glasses and spin glasses

Abstract We show that a linear specific heat at low temperatures for glass follows naturally from general considerations on the glassy state. From the same considerations we obtain the experimentally observed anomalous low-temperature thermal conductivity, and we predict an ultrasonic attenuation which increases at low temperatures. Possible relationships with the linear specific heat in magnetic impurity systems are pointed out. We suggest experimental study of the relaxation of thermal and other properties.
Comparative neurotoxicities of amphotericin B and its mono-methyl ester derivative in rats

The intracisternal administration of amphotericin B (AmB) and its mono-methyl ester derivative (AME), via direct intraventricular injection (0.01 to 5 mg/ml, 6 microliters) in adult female Wistar rats, revealed that AmB was significantly more toxic than AME, as measured by weight loss, lethargy, death, and central nervous system histopathology. Light and electron microscopy confirmed a greater neurotoxicity for AmB, manifested as edema and modest gliosis extending along and beyond the injection tract. Neuronal degeneration and myelin damage were present in AmB-treated (1 mg/ml) animals but were present only modestly in animals treated with AME at a fivefold greater concentration. Intravenous administration of AmB to adult female Wistar rats as five daily doses of 5 mg/kg of body weight resulted in significant weight loss and some deaths. Histopathologic examination of the brains, spinal cords, and sural nerves of surviving animals revealed neurotoxicity manifested by neuronal degeneration, gliosis, and myelin edema. In sharp contrast, similar treatment with AME at a 10-fold greater dose resulted in neither death nor significant neurotoxicity. The administration of five daily doses of a mixture of AME-AmB (9:1; wt/wt) at 50 mg/kg of body weight resulted in neurotoxicity. These results indicate that AmB exhibits significantly greater in vivo neurotoxicity than AME.
Multi-channel high resolution blind image restoration

We address the reconstruction problem of a high resolution image from its undersampled measurements across multiple FIR channels with unknown response. Our method consists of two stages: blind multi-input multi-output (MIMO) deconvolution using FIR filters and blind separation of mixed polyphase components. The proposed deconvolution method is based on the mutually referenced equalizers (MRE) algorithm previously developed for blind equalization in digital communications. For sources separation, a method is proposed for separating mixed polyphase components of a bandlimited signal. The existing blind source separation algorithms assume that the source signals are either independent or uncorrelated, which is not the case when the sources are polyphase components of a bandlimited signal. Simulation results on artificial and photographic images are given.
RNA-Puzzles Round II: assessment of RNA structure prediction programs applied to three large RNA structures

This paper is a report of a second round of RNA-Puzzles, a collective and blind experiment in three-dimensional (3D) RNA structure prediction. Three puzzles, Puzzles 5, 6, and 10, represented sequences of three large RNA structures with limited or no homology with previously solved RNA molecules. A lariat-capping ribozyme, as well as riboswitches complexed to adenosylcobalamin and tRNA, were predicted by seven groups using RNAComposer, ModeRNA/SimRNA, Vfold, Rosetta, DMD, MC-Fold, 3dRNA, and AMBER refinement. Some groups derived models using data from state-of-the-art chemical-mapping methods (SHAPE, DMS, CMCT, and mutate-and-map). The comparisons between the predictions and the three subsequently released crystallographic structures, solved at diffraction resolutions of 2.5–3.2 Å, were carried out automatically using various sets of quality indicators. The comparisons clearly demonstrate the state of present-day de novo prediction abilities as well as the limitations of these state-of-the-art methods. All of the best prediction models have similar topologies to the native structures, which suggests that computational methods for RNA structure prediction can already provide useful structural information for biological problems. However, the prediction accuracy for non-Watson–Crick interactions, key to proper folding of RNAs, is low and some predicted models had high Clash Scores. These two difficulties point to some of the continuing bottlenecks in RNA structure prediction. All submitted models are available for download at http://ahsoka.u-strasbg.fr/rnapuzzles/.
Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Dissemination of Non-Pandemic HIV-1 Subtype B Clades in the Caribbean Region

The Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) epidemic in the Caribbean region is mostly driven by subtype B; but information about the pattern of viral spread in this geographic region is scarce and different studies point to quite divergent models of viral dissemination. In this study, we reconstructed the spatiotemporal and population dynamics of the HIV-1 subtype B epidemic in the Caribbean. A total of 1,806 HIV-1 subtype B pol sequences collected from 17 different Caribbean islands between 1996 and 2011 were analyzed together with sequences from the United States (n = 525) and France (n = 340) included as control. Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses revealed that HIV-1 subtype B infections in the Caribbean are driven by dissemination of the pandemic clade (BPANDEMIC) responsible for most subtype B infections across the world, and older non-pandemic lineages (BCAR) characteristics of the Caribbean region. The non-pandemic BCAR strains account for >40% of HIV-1 infections in most Caribbean islands; with exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Bayesian phylogeographic analyses indicate that BCAR strains probably arose in the island of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) around the middle 1960s and were later disseminated to Trinidad and Tobago and to Jamaica between the late 1960s and the early 1970s. In the following years, the BCAR strains were also disseminated from Hispaniola and Trinidad and Tobago to other Lesser Antilles islands at multiple times. The BCAR clades circulating in Hispaniola, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago appear to have experienced an initial phase of exponential growth, with mean estimated growth rates of 0.35–0.45 year−1, followed by a more recent stabilization since the middle 1990s. These results demonstrate that non-pandemic subtype B lineages have been widely disseminated through the Caribbean since the late 1960s and account for an important fraction of current HIV-1 infections in the region.
The Economic Impact of Information Security Breaches: Firm Value and Intra-industry Effects

IT managers often struggle to justify investments in information security. In addition to standard quantitative analyses such as Return on Security Investment (ROSI), executive management may also want to know what the effect of potential security breaches would be on the market value of a publicly-traded firm. This study attempts to shed light on the issue by examining the impact of information security breach announcements on shareholder value. This study also examines the effects of such announcements on a portfolio of the firm’ s competitors in an effort to examine the contagion and competitive intra-industry effects. We find that the market value of an affected firm’ s competitors increases following the announcement of a security breach, consistent with the competitive model of intra-industry effects. The magnitude of the competitive effect appears to depend on the nature of the security breach. The increase in competitor value is higher when the security breach involves non-confidential firm and customer information. When the security breach involves confidential data, the announcement return is negative and significant (both economically and statistically), providing IT management with additional support for seeking funds to avoid such security events.