Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variability in Skeletal Mass, Structure, and Biomechanical Properties Among Inbred Strains of Rats

The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of the inbred rat model for studies of genetic influences on skeletal fragility. We characterized bone mass, geometry, and skeletal biomechanics in 11 inbred strains of rats. This study showed that considerable variation exists in bone structure, areal bone mineral density (aBMD), and fragility phenotypes among inbred strains of rats. Interestingly, the variability in skeletal phenotypes in rats was site specific, suggesting that no single gene regulates skeletal fragility at all sites. For instance, the Copenhagen 2331 (COP) strain had the greatest biomechanical properties in the femoral neck but only modest bone strength at the femoral midshaft, compared with other strains. Consequently, COP rats appear to have alleles that specifically enhance femoral neck biomechanical properties and may serve as a model for studying genetic influences on hip strength. The Brown Norway (BN) and Fischer 344 (F344) strains may provide models for vertebral fragility because each has relatively fragile lumbar vertebrae. The F344 rats also had the most fragile femora and, thus, appear to carry alleles that cause overall skeletal fragility. We identified two inbred rat crosses that will facilitate the study of genetic influences on skeletal fragility at clinically relevant skeletal sites: Lewis (LEW) with F344 (primarily for vertebral fragility) and COP with DA (primarily for femoral neck fragility). The results strongly suggest that selected crosses of inbred strains of rats will provide useful models for studying genetic influences on bone strength and structure.
A Spamicity Approach to Web Spam Detection

Web spam, which refers to any deliberate actions bringing to selected web pages an unjustifiable favorable relevance or importance, is one of the major obstacles for high quality information retrieval on the web. Most of the existing web spam detection methods are supervised that require a large and representative training set of web pages. Moreover, they often assume some global information such as a large web graph and snapshots of a large collection of web pages. However, in many situations such assumptions may not hold. In this paper, we study the problem of unsupervised web spam detection. We introduce the notion of spamicity to measure how likely a page is spam. Spamicity is a more flexible and user-controllable measure than the traditional supervised classification methods. We propose efficient online link spam and term spam detection methods using spamicity. Our methods do not need training and are cost effective. A real data set is used to evaluate the effectiveness and the efficiency of our methods.
Safety and Efficacy of Endovascular Treatment of Carotid Artery Stenosis Compared With Carotid Endarterectomy: A Cochrane Systematic Review of the Randomized Evidence

Background and Purpose— Endovascular treatment of atherosclerotic carotid artery stenosis may be an alternative to surgical endarterectomy. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of endovascular techniques, we conducted a systematic review of randomized studies that compared endovascular treatment with surgery for carotid stenosis. Methods— We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group trials register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index for randomized trials of carotid angioplasty and/or stenting compared with surgery. We also contacted researchers in the field and balloon catheter and stent manufacturers. Results— Five trials involving 1269 patients were included. Analysis of 30-day safety data found no significant difference in the odds of treatment-related death or any stroke (odds ratio [OR], endovascular surgery, 1.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.86 to 2.04), death or disabling stroke (OR, 1.22; CI, 0.61 to 2.41), or death, any stroke, or myocardial infarction (OR, 1.04; CI, 0.69 to 1.57). At 1 year after randomization, there was no significant difference between the 2 treatments in the rate of any stroke or death (OR, 1.01; CI, 0.71 to 1.44). Endovascular treatment significantly reduced the risk of cranial nerve injury (OR, 0.13; CI, 0.06 to 0.25). There was substantial heterogeneity between the trials for 4 of the 5 outcomes. Conclusions— No significant difference in the major risks of treatment was found but the wide confidence intervals indicate that it is not possible to exclude a difference in favor of one treatment. Minor complication rates favor endovascular treatment. There is currently insufficient evidence to support a widespread change in clinical practice away from recommending carotid endarterectomy as the treatment of choice for suitable carotid artery stenosis. Patients suitable for carotid endarterectomy should only be offered stenting within the ongoing randomized trials of stenting versus surgery.
Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Transfer Promotes Cardiac Vagal Gain of Function

Nitric oxide (NO) generated from neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS-1) in intrinsic cardiac ganglia has been implicated in parasympathetic-induced bradycardia. We provide direct evidence that NOS-1 acts in a site-specific manner to promote cardiac vagal neurotransmission and bradycardia. NOS-1 gene transfer to the guinea pig right atrium increased protein expression and NOS-1 immunolocalization in cholinergic ganglia. It also increased the release of acetylcholine and enhanced the heart rate (HR) response to vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) in vitro and in vivo. NOS inhibition normalized the HR response to VNS in the NOS-1–treated group compared with the control groups (enhanced green fluorescent protein and sham) in vitro. In contrast, an acetylcholine analogue reduced HR to the same extent in all groups before and during NOS inhibition. These results demonstrate that NOS-1–derived NO acts presynaptically to facilitate vagally induced bradycardia and that upregulation of NOS-1 via gene transfer may provide a novel method for increasing cardiac vagal function.
Hearing What the Eyes See

When the senses deliver conflicting information, vision dominates spatial processing, and audition dominates temporal processing. We asked whether this sensory specialization results in cross-modal encoding of unisensory input into the task-appropriate modality. Specifically, we investigated whether visually portrayed temporal structure receives automatic, obligatory encoding in the auditory domain. In three experiments, observers judged whether the changes in two successive visual sequences followed the same or different rhythms. We assessed temporal representations by measuring the extent to which both task-irrelevant auditory information and task-irrelevant visual information interfered with rhythm discrimination. Incongruent auditory information significantly disrupted task performance, particularly when presented during encoding; by contrast, varying the nature of the rhythm-depicting visual changes had minimal impact on performance. Evidently, the perceptual system automatically and obligatorily abstracts temporal structure from its visual form and represents this structure using an auditory code, resulting in the experience of “hearing visual rhythms. ”
Some Competitive Learning Methods Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Common Properties & Notational Conventions 4 3 Goals of Competitive Learning 7

(Some additions and reenements are planned for this document so it will stay in the draft status still for a while.) Comments are welcome. Abstract This report has the purpose of describing several algorithms from the literature all related to competitive learning. A uniform terminology is used for all methods. Moreover, identical examples are provided to allow a qualitative comparisons of the methods. The on-line version 1 of this document contains hyperlinks to Java implementations of several of the discussed methods.
Active layer monitoring in Antarctica: an overview of results from 2006 to 2015

ABSTRACT Monitoring of active layer thawing depth and active layer thickness (ALT), using mechanical pronging and continuous temperature data logging, has been undertaken under the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring – South (CALM-S) program at a range of sites across Antarctica. The objective of this study was to summarize key data from sites in different Antarctic regions from 2006 to 2015 to review the state of the active layer in Antarctica and the effectiveness of the CALM-S program. The data from 16 sites involving 8 CALM-S and another 8 boreholes across the Antarctic have been used in the study. Probing for thaw depth, while giving information on local spatial variability, often underestimates the maximum ALT of Antarctic soils compared to that determined using continuous temperature monitoring. The differences are likely to be caused by stones limiting probe penetration and the timing of probing not coinciding with the timing of maximum thaw, which varies between seasons. The information on the active layer depth is still sparse in many regions and the monitoring needs to be extended and continued to provide a better understanding of both spatial and temporal variability in Antarctic soil thermal properties.
Molecular Cloning and Expression of EG95 Gene of Iranian Isolates of Echinococcus granulosus

Background Echinococcosis or hydatidosis is a chronic, zoonotic worldwide infection that occurs by the larval stages of taeniid cestodes of the genus Echinococcus. Iran is known as endemic region for this infection in the world. Vaccination has been considered as a good prevention method for this disease. Recombinant vaccines containing EG95 protein, against E. granulosus, has shown a high degree of protection against E. granulosus infection. In this study EG95 gene was extracted from Iranian isolates of E. granulosus and then cloned and expressed in expression vector. Methods Protoscoleces were collected from sheep hydatid cysts. Then DNA and RNA were extracted from protoscoleces, and amplified by PCR and RT-PCR with specific primer. Afterward the purified RT-PCR products were successfully ligated into pTZ57R/T plasmid vector. The pcDNA3 plasmid was used as expression vector and Eg95 fragment sub cloned into this plasmid. The pcEG95 plasmid was digested by restriction enzymes to confirm cloning of this gene in pcDNA3 plasmid. In last step, the subcloned gene was expressed in CHO as eukaryotic cell. Results EG95 fragment successfully was subcloned in pcDNA3 and EG95 protein was expressed by eukaryotic cell. The recombinant EG95 protein was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. Conclusion Recombinant plasmid of pcEG95 was constructed successfully and express of recombinant EG95 protein was confirmed.
Prior Stressor Exposure Sensitizes LPS-Induced Cytokine Production

Exposure to stressors often alters the subsequent responsiveness of many systems. The present study tested whether prior exposure to inescapable tailshock (IS) alters the interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, or IL-6 response to an injection of bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide; LPS). Rats were exposed to IS or remained as home cage controls (HCC); 24 h later animals were injected i.p. with either 10 microg/kg LPS or equilvolume sterile saline. IS significantly increased plasma TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and pituitary, hypothalamus, hippocampus, cerebellum IL-1beta 1 h, but not 2 h, after LPS, compared to controls. Additional animals were injected with LPS or saline 4, 10, or 21 days after exposure to IS and tail vein blood was collected and assayed for IL-1beta. An enhanced plasma IL-1beta response occurred 4 days after IS, but was gone by 10 days. These results suggest that exposure to IS sensitizes the innate immune response to LPS by resulting in either a larger or a more rapid induction of proinflammatory cytokines.
Specialization of Periplaneta Americana (American Cockroach) and Blattella Germanica (German cockroach) Towards Intestinal Parasites: A Public Health Concern

Disturbed with the increasing number of Cockroaches within Jos metropolis and blessed from the benefit of hindsight that they could serve as mechanical host to various parasites, thus lead leading to undocumented sources of infection; a study was carried out to ascertain the various types of Cockroaches available in two most polluted areas of Jos. Other objectives considered were to identify the various pathogens fauna on both external and internal parts; to determine whether parasites composition were mainly influenced by phylogenetic, evolutionary or by ecological relationships; to determine which species of Cockroaches is more susceptible to parasitic infection; to determine the specific part of the alimentary canal that harbours the highest concentration of parasites load and to recommend where possible the best method for the control of Cockroaches. To achieve these objectives; insects traps were placed at five different locations (kitchens, toilets, living rooms, refuse dumps and shops). Two species of Cockroaches were encountered at point of collections. Of the total of four hundred and twenty three Cockroaches caught, 308(72.81%) were Periplaneta Americana while 115(27.9%) were Blattella germanica. External and internal parts were prone to parasites load and three hundred and sixteen of the Cockroaches (94-B. Germanica: 222-P. Americana) were found to be infected with either a single, dual or multiple types of parasites which were mainly internal parasites of either Nematodes, Cestodes or Protozoans. A grand total showed that the hindgut of the two species of Cockroaches harboured more parasites than the other chosen parts of study. Statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant difference (P<0.05) between the two species of Cockroaches in the harbour of parasites; internal organs and types of intestinal parasites. Interplay of ecology, evolution and phylogeny relationships was found to be of utmost important in the accumulation of pathogens fauna by the two species of Cockroaches. Overall, the harbouring of the intestinal parasites by the two species of Cockroaches and their availability within vincinity of utmost human importance calls for serious concern to public health. Drastic measures would therefore be needed to curb the rapid increase of Cockroaches especially, around homes and places of human activities to forestall undocumented sources of human infection.
VS30 at three strong-motion recording stations in Napa and Napa County, California—Main Street in downtown Napa, Napa fire station number 3, and Kreuzer Lane—Calculations determined from s-wave refraction tomography and multichannel analysis of surface waves (Rayleigh and Love)

The August 24, 2014, moment magnitude (Mw) 6.0 South Napa earthquake caused an estimated $400 million in structural damage to the City of Napa, California. In 2015, we acquired high-resolution Pand S-wave seismic data near three strong-motion recording stations in Napa County where high peak ground accelerations (PGAs) were recorded during the South Napa earthquake. In this report, we present results from three sites—Main Street in Downtown Napa (Northern California Seismic Network station, NCSN N016), Napa Fire Station Number 3 (National Strong Motion Project station, NSMP 1765), and Kreuzer Lane (station KRE, temporary deployment). To characterize the recording sites in terms of shallow-depth shear-wave velocities (VS), we used both surface waves (Rayleigh and Love) and body waves (S-wave) to evaluate the time-averaged VS in the upper 30 meters of the subsurface (VS30). We used two-dimensional multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) to evaluate VS from the surface waves, and a refraction tomography inversion algorithm, developed by Hole in 1992, to evaluate VS from the body waves. As determined by the various methods, we found VS30 near the strongmotion recording stations on Main Street in Downtown Napa, Napa Fire Station Number 3, and on Kreuzer Lane to be from 281 meters per second (m/s) to 286 m/s, 297 to 371 m/s, and 885 to 916 m/s, respectively. The VS30 calculated from Love waves were slightly lower (10 m/s) than those calculated from Rayleigh waves at the Downtown Napa location and at Napa Fire Station Number 3 (4 m/s); however, VS30 calculated from Love waves was higher (190 m/s) than those calculated from Rayleigh waves at Kreuzer Lane. We also found that VS30 determined from MASW for both Love and Rayleigh waves varied depending on the number of shots along the profiles, and VS30 was not systematic based on the number of shots used in the analysis. Furthermore, VS30 calculated from S-wave refraction tomography are closer to those determined from MASW calculated from Love waves than from using Rayleigh waves.
Antipsychotic Drug Exposure in a Health Maintenance Organization

In this study, exposure to antipsychotic drugs among ambulatory health maintenance organization (HMO) members is described. The diagnoses and mental health utilization associated with their use are explored, and concomitant drug use is investigated. The antipsychotic prescriptions were retrieved from an automated outpatient pharmacy data base for 2 years. Diagnoses for a two-percent sample of users were retrieved from an automated outpatient utilization data base. During the 2 years, 1,959 HMO members received 10,361 prescriptions for antipsychotics. Fifty-eight percent were female, and the mean age of users was 62 years of age. Haloperidol and thioridazine were the most frequently received drugs. Mean annual exposure to antipsychotics was 0.43% or the HMO population; estimated duration of exposure was 170 days; and estimated mean daily dose was 176 mg of chlorpromazine equivalents. Duration of exposure and mean daily dose were directly related. Both were also related to sex and age of users. Antipsychotic users were more likely to be exposed to various therapeutic classes of drugs indicative of chronic diseases. Antipsychotic exposure among ambulatory HMO members appeared to be conservative in terms of prevalence and similar to national experience in terms of daily dose. Estimated days of exposure appeared to place some users at increased risk of developing tardive dyskinesia, and the frequent and varied concomitant drug exposures can complicate treatment.
A conserved fertility signal despite population variation in the cuticular chemical profile of the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus brunneus

SUMMARY Contact pheromones in the form of cuticular hydrocarbons are widespread among insects. Eusocial insects present a special challenge for understanding the evolution of the cuticular hydrocarbon profile because this blend is responsible for multiple distinct roles such as nestmate recognition and signalling fertility status. This study investigates these two signalling roles of the hydrocarbon profile in the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus brunneus. We demonstrate that the cuticular hydrocarbon profile is highly variable across populations and provide evidence that these differences are used for nestmate discrimination. Through manipulative experiments we also show that (Z)-9-nonacosene (Z9:C29) is used as a fertility signal and its role is conserved across populations. Our data demonstrate that both fertility and nestmate signalling influence the cuticular hydrocarbon profile and specifically the relative abundance of Z9:C29 on the cuticle of O. brunneus. Our study suggests that natural selection works on the cuticular chemical profile through multiple regulatory pathways, diversifying nestmate signals while conserving fertility signals.
Intravenous busulfan dose individualization – impact of modeling approach on dose recommendation

TDM is intended to limit unintended consequences of drugs with narrow therapeutic indices. However, the application of different sampling strategies and pharmacokinetic approaches results in different dosing recommendations and ostensibly different outcomes. TDM approaches for intravenous busulfan dose individualization employ compartmental or non‐compartmental modeling with anywhere from three to seven drug levels. This investigation was designed to examine the differences in dosing recommendations that arise in children (n = 30) when five different TDM approaches were employed. Significant differences in recommended doses between modeling strategies were observed. More importantly, the recommendations were discordant in 13 cases with at least one model recommending a dose adjustment in the opposite direction relative to the remaining models. The mathematical differences introduced by the application of different TDM approaches are not purely academic. Unification of busulfan TDM approaches should be considered to mitigate inconsistently applied dose adjustment, and facilitate comparisons of outcome, between clinical centers.
Experimental characterization of service latency over Broadband Power Line in Medium Voltage grid

New needs of distribution system monitoring and automation have been raised in these years as the level of renewable energy sources penetration increases. Monitoring, protection, and synchronization applications needed by new Smart Grid systems mandate a capillary communication with primary and secondary substation, which cannot be implemented in time just with traditional media, such as Fiber Optics. Broadband Power Line over Medium Voltage (MV-BPL) grid could be a viable solution but a comprehensive characterization is still missing. The paper describes an experimental evaluation of service latency in a real MV-BPL design for the distribution grid management in Italy. The preliminary analysis states that 95% of the service requests are transferred on the network with a round-trip time lower than 120 ms even in the case of four hops.
Crowd-sourcing for difficult transcription of speech

Crowd-sourcing is a promising method for fast and cheap transcription of large volumes of speech data. However, this method cannot achieve the accuracy of expert transcribers on speech that is difficult to transcribe. Faced with such speech data, we developed three new methods of crowd-sourcing, which allow explicit trade-offs among precision, recall, and cost. The methods are: incremental redundancy, treating ASR as a transcriber, and using a regression model to predict transcription reliability. Even though the accuracy of individual crowd-workers is only 55% on our data, our best method achieves 90% accuracy on 93% of the utterances, using only 1.3 crowd-worker transcriptions per utterance on average. When forced to transcribe all utterances, our best method matches the accuracy of previous crowd-sourcing methods using only one third as many transcriptions. We also study the effects of various task design factors on transcription latency and accuracy, some of which have not been reported before.
DNA Damage and Cellular Stress Responses Increased PARP-1 Association with DNA in Alkylation Damaged , PARP-Inhibited Mouse Fibroblasts

Treatment of base excision repair–proficient mouse fibroblasts with the DNA alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) and a small molecule inhibitor of PARP-1 results in a striking cell killing phenotype, as previously reported. Earlier studies showed that the mechanism of cell death is apoptosis and requires DNA replication, expression of PARP-1, and an intact S-phase checkpoint cell signaling system. It is proposed that activity-inhibited PARP-1 becomes immobilized at DNA repair intermediates, and that this blocks DNA repair and interferes with DNA replication, eventually promoting an S-phase checkpoint and G2-M block. Here we report studies designed to evaluate the prediction that inhibited PARP-1 remains DNA associated in cells undergoing repair of alkylation-induced damage. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation with anti–PARP-1 antibody and qPCR for DNA quantification, a higher level of DNA was found associated with PARP-1 in cells treated with MMS plus PARP inhibitor than in cells without inhibitor treatment. These results have implications for explaining the extreme hypersensitivity phenotype after combination treatment with MMS and a PARP inhibitor. Mol Cancer Res; 1–9. 2012 AACR.