Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synaesthesia: The Prevalence of Atypical Cross-Modal Experiences

Sensory and cognitive mechanisms allow stimuli to be perceived with properties relating to sight, sound, touch, etc, and ensure, for example, that visual properties are perceived as visual experiences, rather than sounds, tastes, smells, etc. Theories of normal development can be informed by cases where this modularity breaks down, in a condition known as synaesthesia. Conventional wisdom has held that this occurs extremely rarely (0.05% of births) and affects women more than men. Here we present the first test of synaesthesia prevalence with sampling that does not rely on self-referral, and which uses objective tests to establish genuineness. We show that (a) the prevalence of synaesthesia is 88 times higher than previously assumed, (b) the most common variant is coloured days, (c) the most studied variant (grapheme - colour synaesthesia)—previously believed most common—is prevalent at 1%, and (d) there is no strong asymmetry in the distribution of synaesthesia across the sexes. Hence, we suggest that female biases reported earlier likely arose from (or were exaggerated by) sex differences in self-disclosure.
Artificial light at night advances avian reproductive physiology

Artificial light at night is a rapidly increasing phenomenon and it is presumed to have global implications. Light at night has been associated with health problems in humans as a consequence of altered biological rhythms. Effects on wild animals have been less investigated, but light at night has often been assumed to affect seasonal cycles of urban dwellers. Using light loggers attached to free-living European blackbirds (Turdus merula), we first measured light intensity at night which forest and city birds are subjected to in the wild. Then we used these measurements to test for the effect of light at night on timing of reproductive physiology. Captive city and forest blackbirds were exposed to either dark nights or very low light intensities at night (0.3 lux). Birds exposed to light at night developed their reproductive system up to one month earlier, and also moulted earlier, than birds kept under dark nights. Furthermore, city birds responded differently than forest individuals to the light at night treatment, suggesting that urbanization can alter the physiological phenotype of songbirds. Our results emphasize the impact of human-induced lighting on the ecology of millions of animals living in cities and call for an understanding of the fitness consequences of light pollution.
Survivability of Laminated Polymer Lubricant Films in Ironing

Polymer-coated steels are of interest in the production of food and beverage containers because of their potential utility as solid lubricants and because of the potential elimination of a post-forming polymer spray operation which is time consuming and produces environmentally hazardous emissions. Unfortunately, little work has been done regarding formability of polymer-laminated steels in metal-forming operations, and this is especially true of the ironing process. This paper presents an experimental and theoretical investigation into the ironing formability of polymer coated steels. A strip ironing simulator is used to perform ironing tests at a large number of tooling geometries and thickness reductions. From the experiments, it is found that polymer coated steels will either iron successfully or will be shaved off of the substrate, and that the active mechanism depends most strongly on the die angle. An upper bound model is developed which predicts the circumstances under which successful ironing and.
Hand3D: Hand Pose Estimation using 3D Neural Network

We propose a novel 3D neural network architecture for 3D hand pose estimation from a single depth image. Different from previous works that mostly run on 2D depth image domain and require intermediate or post process to bring in the supervision from 3D space, we convert the depth map to a 3D volumetric representation, and feed it into a 3D convolutional neural network(CNN) to directly produce the pose in 3D requiring no further process. Our system does not require the ground truth reference point for initialization, and our network architecture naturally integrates both local feature and global context in 3D space. To increase the coverage of the hand pose space of the training data, we render synthetic depth image by transferring hand pose from existing real image datasets. We evaluation our algorithm on two public benchmarks and achieve the state-of-the-art performance. The synthetic hand pose dataset will be available.
A cytogenetic study of in-vitro matured murine oocytes after ICSI by human sperm.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the chromosomal complement and developmental potential of in-vitro matured murine oocytes following ICSI by human sperm. METHODS Heterologous ICSI fertilization between mouse oocytes and human sperm was employed in order to overcome the reduced fertilization rates observed after conventional IVF due to zona hardening during in-vitro maturation, and to assess separately maternal and paternal chromosome complements. Cytogenetic analyses were performed in four types of oocytes: (i) in-vitro matured metaphase II (MII) oocytes; (ii) in-vivo matured MII oocytes; (iii) in-vitro matured oocytes after ICSI; (iv) in-vivo matured oocytes after ICSI. RESULTS Activation rates after ICSI of in-vitro matured oocytes was lower than that of in-vivo matured oocytes (69.9 versus 97.2%, P < 0.01), and premature chromosomal condensation was only observed in in-vitro matured oocytes. However, there were no significant differences in developmental rates after successful activation between in-vivo and in-vitro matured ICSI oocytes (69.7 versus 76.6%). The incidences of aneuploidy and structural aberrations were similar between the ICSI embryos and non-ICSI (MII) oocytes. Furthermore, the frequency of chromosomal aberrations was not associated with in-vitro or in-vivo maturation. Similar analyses of paternal chromosomes indicated that there were no significant differences in the incidence of chromosomal aberrations between the embryos derived from in-vitro and in-vivo matured oocytes. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that in-vitro matured oocytes following ICSI do not lead to an increase in the frequency of aneuploidy and structural aberrations when human sperm are injected into mouse oocytes.
Japanese Quail Selected for High Plasma Corticosterone Response Deposit High Levels of Corticosterone in Their Eggs

Poor habitat quality or body condition often correlates with high responsiveness of the hypothalamo‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis rather than with elevated baseline levels of glucocorticoids. We hypothesized that, for egg‐laying vertebrates, high responsiveness of the HPA axis would correspond to high concentrations of corticosterone in yolk. We tested the prediction that Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) selected for high plasma corticosterone response to brief immobilization (HS quail) would lay eggs with higher yolk corticosterone concentrations than birds selected for low response (LS quail). Quail from both lines were left undisturbed, outside of the stressors associated with daily management, before a first round of egg collection. In a second experiment, quail of both lines were experimentally stressed during the week before egg collection. In both cases we found quail from the HS line to lay eggs with significantly higher yolk corticosterone concentrations than quail of the LS line. After exposure to added experimental stressors, the line difference was more pronounced (increasing from 62% to 96%). There was no line difference in concentrations of yolk testosterone. Our results suggest that (1) genetic differences underly differences in the transfer of maternal corticosterone to yolk and (2) females may be able to control deposition of corticosterone into yolk through a mechanism independent of baseline corticosterone titers.
Revealing the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium with O VI Absorption

Hydrodynamic simulations of growth of cosmic structure suggest that 30%-50% of the total baryons at z = 0 may be in a warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) with temperatures of ~105-107 K. The O VI λλ1032, 1038 absorption line doublet in the far-UV portion of quasar spectra provides an important probe of this gas. Utilizing recent hydrodynamic simulations, it is found that there should be about five O VI absorption lines per unit redshift with equivalent widths of ≥35 mÅ, decreasing rapidly to ~0.5 per unit redshift at ≥350 mÅ. About 10% of the total baryonic matter or 20%-30% of the WHIM is expected to be in the O VI absorption line systems with equivalent width ≥20 mÅ; the remaining WHIM gas may be too hot or have too low a metallicity to be detected in O VI. We find that the simulation results agree well with observations with regard to the line abundance and total mass contained in these systems. Some of the O VI systems are collisionally ionized and some are photoionized, but most of the mass is in the collisionally ionized systems. We show that the gas that produces the O VI absorption lines does not reside in virialized regions such as galaxies, groups, or clusters of galaxies but rather has an overdensity of 10-40 times the average density. These regions form a somewhat connected network of filaments. The typical metallicity of these regions is 0.1-0.3 Z☉.
Experiences Threat Modeling at Microsoft

Describes a decade of experience threat modeling products and services at Microsoft. Describes the current threat modeling methodology used in the Security Development Lifecycle. The methodology is a practical approach, usable by non-experts, centered on data flow diagrams and a threat enumeration technique of ‘STRIDE per element. ’ The paper covers some lessons learned which are likely applicable to other security analysis techniques. The paper closes with some possible questions for academic research.
Hydrophobic and thermal behaviour of nylon 6 nanofibre web deposited on cotton fabric through electrospinning

A nylon 6 nanofibre web was deposited on the surface of cotton fabrics using the electrospinning process. The prepared nylon 6 nanofibre-modified cotton fabric showed remarkable hydrophobic and flame-retardant properties. The morphology of nylon 6 nanofibres was examined by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the surface topography of electrospun nanofibre was characterised using atomic force microscopy. The cross-sectional view of the layered fabric morphology was observed through high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. The hydrophobicity of the coated fabric was determined through static water contact angle measurement (132.2° for a 10 µl droplet). The flame-retardant properties of the nylon 6 nanofibre-modified cotton fabric and the uncoated cotton fabric were resolved with an inclined (45°) flame-retardant testing machine. Results showed that nylon 6 nanofibre is of a superhydrophobic nature with enhanced flame-retardant properties to cotton fabrics. This work opens up a new possibility for the development of polymer coating on cotton fabrics using the highly reliable electrospinning process.
A High-Affinity Native Human Antibody Neutralizes Human Cytomegalovirus Infection of Diverse Cell Types

ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the most common infection causing poor outcomes among transplant recipients. Maternal infection and transplacental transmission are major causes of permanent birth defects. Although no active vaccines to prevent HCMV infection have been approved, passive immunization with HCMV-specific immunoglobulin has shown promise in the treatment of both transplant and congenital indications. Antibodies targeting the viral glycoprotein B (gB) surface protein are known to neutralize HCMV infectivity, with high-affinity binding being a desirable trait, both to compete with low-affinity antibodies that promote the transmission of virus across the placenta and to displace nonneutralizing antibodies binding nearby epitopes. Using a miniaturized screening technology to characterize secreted IgG from single human B lymphocytes, 30 antibodies directed against gB were previously cloned. The most potent clone, TRL345, is described here. Its measured affinity was 1 pM for the highly conserved site I of the AD-2 epitope of gB. Strain-independent neutralization was confirmed for 15 primary HCMV clinical isolates. TRL345 prevented HCMV infection of placental fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, and epithelial cells, and it inhibited postinfection HCMV spread in epithelial cells. The potential utility for preventing congenital transmission is supported by the blockage of HCMV infection of placental cell types central to virus transmission to the fetus, including differentiating cytotrophoblasts, trophoblast progenitor cells, and placental fibroblasts. Further, TRL345 was effective at controlling an ex vivo infection of human placental anchoring villi. TRL345 has been utilized on a commercial scale and is a candidate for clinical evaluation.
Association of unstable angina guideline care with improved survival.

BACKGROUND An unstable angina guideline was published in 1994 by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Bethesda, Md. However, the relationship between guideline-concordant care and patient outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine whether guideline-concordant care is associated with improved outcomes. METHODS The study sample consisted of 275 consecutive nonreferral patients hospitalized with primary unstable angina. One-year survival and survival free of myocardial infarction were compared between patients who received care concordant with 8 selected guideline recommendations and patients who received discordant care. RESULTS Care concordant with the 8 key guideline recommendations was associated with improved 1-year survival (95% vs 81%; log-rank P<.001) and survival free of myocardial infarction (91% vs 74%; P<.001), compared with guideline-discordant care. Patients in high-risk subgroups had the largest survival benefit associated with guideline-concordant care (aged -65 years, 91% vs 74% [P=.005]; heart failure at presentation, 91% vs 68% [P=.10]). Aspirin therapy was the single recommendation most strongly associated with improved 1-year survival (94% vs 78%; P=.002). CONCLUSIONS Care as outlined in the unstable angina clinical practice guideline is associated with improved 1-year outcomes. Subgroups of patients at highest risk and recommendations firmly based on randomized clinical trial data were most strongly associated with better outcomes. These findings support the use of an evidence-based approach to guideline development and assessment of quality of care in patients with primary unstable angina.
Observer independent analysis of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

Objectives: To evaluate cerebral glucose metabolism, assessed by 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), using an observer independent analytical approach; and to characterise any observed alterations by correlating them with neuropsychological deficits. Methods: 26 patients (13 female, 13 male) were examined. They all fulfilled the CDC diagnostic criteria for CFS. Their ages ranged from 26 to 61 years (mean (SD) age, 43 (9.3) years). They underwent extensive psychometric testing including the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and the short form 36 item health questionnaire (SF-36). Brain FDG-PET was done in all the subjects. After stereotactic normalisation, single subject comparisons with an age and sex matched normal database (n = 18) and a group comparison between the patients and normal controls were undertaken, along with additional correlation analyses between brain metabolism and psychometric test scores. Results: 12 of the 26 patients showed no significant decrease in FDG uptake compared with the controls. Of the remaining 14, 12 showed hypometabolism bilaterally in the cingulate gyrus and the adjacent mesial cortical areas. Five of these 12 patients also had decreased metabolism in the orbitofrontal cortex. The two remaining patients had hypometabolism in the cuneus/praecuneus. Correlation analyses showed significant correlations between some test scores (anxiety, depression, health related quality of life) but not fatigue and regional reductions in glucose metabolism. Conclusions: Although abnormalities in FDG-PET were only detectable in approximately half the CFS patients examined, and no specific pattern for CFS could be identified, PET may provide valuable information in helping to separate CFS patients into subpopulations with and without apparent alterations in the central nervous system.
Characterization of the kinetic and thermodynamic landscape of RNA folding using a novel application of isothermal titration calorimetry

A novel isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) method was applied to investigate RNA helical packing driven by the GAAA tetraloop–receptor interaction in magnesium and potassium solutions. Both the kinetics and thermodynamics were obtained in individual ITC experiments, and analysis of the kinetic data over a range of temperatures provided Arrhenius activation energies (ΔH‡) and Eyring transition state entropies (ΔS‡). The resulting rich dataset reveals strongly contrasting kinetic and thermodynamic profiles for this RNA folding system when stabilized by potassium versus magnesium. In potassium, association is highly exothermic (ΔH25°C = −41.6 ± 1.2 kcal/mol in 150 mM KCl) and the transition state is enthalpically barrierless (ΔH‡ = −0.6 ± 0.5). These parameters are sigificantly positively shifted in magnesium (ΔH25°C = −20.5 ± 2.1 kcal/mol, ΔH‡ = 7.3 ± 2.2 kcal/mol in 0.5 mM MgCl2). Mixed salt solutions approximating physiological conditions exhibit an intermediate thermodynamic character. The cation-dependent thermodynamic landscape may reflect either a salt-dependent unbound receptor conformation, or alternatively and more generally, it may reflect a small per-cation enthalpic penalty associated with folding-coupled magnesium uptake.
Structure, organization, and function of glycosphingolipids in membrane

A large variety of glycosylation patterns in combination with different ceramide structures in glycosphingolipids provide a basis for cell type-specific glycosphingolipid pattern in membrane, which essentially reflects the composition of glycosphingolipid-enriched microdomains. Functions of glycosphingolipids as antigens, mediators of cell adhesion, and modulators of signal transduction are all based on such organization. Of particular importance is the assembly of glycosphingolipids with signal transducers and other membrane proteins to form a functional unit termed a glycosynapse, through which glycosylation-dependent cell adhesion coupled with signal transduction takes place. The microenvironment formed by interfacing glycosynapses of interacting cells plays a central role in defining phenotypic changes after cell adhesion, as occur in ontogenic development and cancer progression. These basic functional features of glycosphingolipids in membrane can also be considered roles of glycosphingolipids and gangliosides characteristic of neutrophils, myelocytes, and other blood cells. A series of sialyl fucosyl poly-N-acetylgalactosamine gangliosides without the sialyl-Lex epitope, collectively termed myeloglycan, have been shown to mediate E-selectin—dependent rolling and tethering under dynamic flow with physiologic shear stress conditions. Functional roles of myeloglycan in neutrophils during inflammatory processes are discussed
Molecular Typing of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Isolates from Swedish Cattle and Human Cases: Population Dynamics and Virulence

ABSTRACT While all verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacteria are considered potential pathogens, their genetic subtypes appear to differ in their levels of virulence. The aim of this study was to compare the distribution of subtypes of E. coli O157:H7 in the cattle reservoir and in human cases with and without severe complications in order to gain clues about the relationship between subtype and relative virulence. A lineage-specific polymorphism assay (LSPA-6), multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA), and a novel real-time PCR assay to identify clade 8 were applied to a large and representative set of isolates from cattle from 1996 to 2009 (n = 381) and human cases from 2008 to 2011 (n = 197) in Sweden. Draft genome sequences were produced for four selected isolates. The E. coli O157:H7 isolates in Swedish cattle generally belonged to four groups with the LSPA-6 profiles 211111 (clade 8/non-clade 8), 213111, and 223323. The subtype composition of the cattle isolates changed dramatically during the study period with the introduction and rapid spread of the low-virulence 223323 subtype. The human cases presumed to have been infected within the country predominantly carried isolates with the profiles 211111 (clade 8) and 213111. Cases progressing to hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) were mostly caused by clade 8, with MLVA profiles consistent with Swedish cattle as the source. In contrast, infections contracted abroad were caused by diverse subtypes, some of which were associated with a particular region. The work presented here confirms the high risk posed by the clade 8 variant of E. coli O157:H7. It also highlights the dynamic nature of the E. coli O157:H7 subtype composition in animal reservoirs and the importance of this composition for the human burden of disease.
The limits of expert performance using hierarchic marking menus

A marking menu allows a user to perform a menu selection by either popping-up a radial (or pie) menu, or by making a straight mark in the direction of the desired menu item without popping-up the menu. A hierarchic marking menu uses hierarchic radial menus and “zig-zag” marks to select from the hierarchy. This paper experimentally investigates the bounds on how many items can be in each level, and how deep the hierarchy can be, before using a marking to select an item becomes too slow or prone to errors.
Downsloping High-Frequency Hearing Loss Due to Inner Ear Tricellular Tight Junction Disruption by a Novel ILDR1 Mutation in the Ig-Like Domain

The immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain containing receptor 1 (ILDR1) gene encodes angulin-2/ILDR1, a recently discovered tight junction protein, which forms tricellular tight junction (tTJ) structures with tricellulin and lipolysis-stimulated lipoprotein receptor (LSR) at tricellular contacts (TCs) in the inner ear. Previously reported recessive mutations within ILDR1 have been shown to cause severe to profound nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), DFNB42. Whole-exome sequencing of a Korean multiplex family segregating partial deafness identified a novel homozygous ILDR1 variant (p.P69H) within the Ig-like domain. To address the pathogenicity of p.P69H, the angulin-2/ILDR1 p.P69H variant protein, along with the previously reported pathogenic ILDR1 mutations, was expressed in angulin-1/LSR knockdown epithelial cells. Interestingly, partial mislocalization of the p.P69H variant protein and tricellulin at TCs was observed, in contrast to a severe mislocalization and complete failure of tricellulin recruitment of the other reported ILDR1 mutations. Additionally, three-dimensional protein modeling revealed that angulin-2/ILDR1 contributed to tTJ by forming a homo-trimer structure through its Ig-like domain, and the p.P69H variant was predicted to disturb homo-trimer formation. In this study, we propose a possible role of angulin-2/ILDR1 in tTJ formation in the inner ear and a wider audiologic phenotypic spectrum of DFNB42 caused by mutations within ILDR1.