Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crater Lake Controls on Volcano Stability: Insights From White Island, New Zealand

Many volcanoes around the world host summit crater lakes but their influence on the overall stability of the edifice remains poorly understood. Here I use satellite radar data acquired by TerraSAR‐X from early 2015 to July 2017 over White Island, New Zealand, to investigate the interaction of the crater lake and deformation of the surrounding edifice. An eruption in April 2016 was preceded by a period of uplift within the crater floor and drop in the lake level. Modeling of the uplift indicates a shallow source located at ∼100 m depth in the vicinity of the crater lake, likely coinciding with the shallow hydrothermal system. In addition to the drop in the lake level, stress changes induced by the inflation suggest that the pressurization of the shallow hydrothermal system helped promote failure along the edge of the crater lake which collapsed during the eruption. After the eruption, and almost complete removal of the crater lake, large areas of the crater wall and lake edge began moving downslope at rates approaching 400 mm/yr. The coincidence between the rapid increase in the displacement rates and removal of the crater lake suggests that the lake provides a physical control on the stability of the surrounding edifice.
Vision in the nocturnal wandering spider Leucorchestris arenicola (Araneae: Sparassidae)

SUMMARY At night the Namib Desert spider Leucorchestris arenicola performs long-distance homing across its sand dune habitat. By disabling all or pairs of the spiders' eight eyes we found that homing ability was severely reduced when vision was fully abolished. Vision, therefore, seems to play a key role in the nocturnal navigational performances of L. arenicola. After excluding two or three pairs of eyes, the spiders were found to be able to navigate successfully using only their lateral eyes or only their anterior median eyes. Measurement of the eyes' visual fields showed that the secondary eyes combined have a near full (panoramic) view of the surroundings. The visual fields of the principal eyes overlap almost completely with those of the anterior lateral eyes. Electroretinogram recordings indicate that each eye type contains a single photopigment with sensitivity peaking at ∼525 nm in the posterior and anteriomedian eyes, and at ∼540 nm in the anteriolateral eyes. Theoretical calculations of photon catches showed that the eyes are likely to employ a combination of spatial and temporal pooling in order to function at night. Under starlit conditions, the raw spatial and temporal resolution of the eyes is insufficient for detecting any visual information on structures in the landscape, and bright stars would be the only objects visible to the spiders. However, by summation in space and time, the spiders can rescue enough vision to detect coarse landscape structures. We show that L. arenicola spiders are likely to be using temporal summation to navigate at night.
Toll-like receptor 4 and CD14 mRNA expression are lower in resistive exercise-trained elderly women.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of resistive exercise training and hormone status on mRNA expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), CD14, IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. Resistive exercise-trained women on "traditional" hormone replacements [hormone replacement therapy (HRT), n = 9], not taking hormones (NHR, n = 6), or taking medications known to influence bone (MIB, n = 7) were compared with untrained subjects not taking supplemental hormones (Con, n = 6). Blood was taken from trained subjects before, immediately after, and 2 h after resistive exercise (same time points for resting Con). TLR4 mRNA expression (RT-PCR) was not different among groups or across time but was significantly (P = 0.044) lower (1.9-fold) when trained groups were collapsed and compared with Con. There was also a significant group effect (P < 0.0001) for TLR4 mRNA when expressed per monocyte. CD14 expression was significantly (P = 0.006) lower (2.3-fold) for training groups collapsed and compared with Con. CD14 mRNA, expressed per monocyte, was significantly lower immediately after resistive exercise for NHR, HRT, and MIB compared with Con. There were few significant effects detected for IL-6, IL-1beta, and TNF-alpha mRNA, but there was a significant group effect (P < 0.0001) for TNF-alpha mRNA expressed per monocyte (Con > HRT, NHR, MIB). These findings suggest that there may be a resistive exercise training-induced reduction in TLR4/CD14 expression in older women. Further research is needed to determine whether lower TLR4/CD14 could explain the lower LPS-stimulated inflammatory cytokines observed in these women.
Serological response of patients with leprosy to a 28- to 30-kilodalton protein doublet from early cultures of Mycobacterium bovis BCG

Analysis by Western immunoblotting of Mycobacterium bovis BCG short-term culture filtrates with a pool of serum samples from lepromatous leprosy patients revealed an immunodominant protein doublet with apparent molecular masses of 28 and 30 kilodaltons (kDa). The humoral response to these antigens was also investigated by using individual serum samples from patients representative of the whole spectrum of leprosy and from tuberculosis patients, as well as from contacts of leprosy patients and control groups. The protein doublet was recognized by 92% of the sera from patients with lepromatous leprosy (51 of 56), whereas essentially negative results were obtained with sera from the other groups. Similar immunodominant bands were also detected by Western blotting analysis of sonic extracts of seven other slow- and fast-growing mycobacterial species, suggesting a broad distribution of these antigens within the genus. Analysis of the purified doublet by Western blotting after two-dimensional gel electrophoresis fractionation showed that the 28- and 30-kDa doublet consisted of at least five different components with pls from 5.2 to 5.7 and molecular masses from 28 to 31 kDa. These results indicate that the protein doublet could be used as a potential marker in the diagnosis of lepromatous leprosy.
THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS AND LOGISTICS ALLIANCES-OUTSOURCING OF ACTIVITIES OR “ INSOURCING ” OF RESOURCES ?

For the last couple of decades the interest in logistics alliances and third party logistics (TPL) has been growing in academia and industry. The common perspective is to consider TPL as outsourcing of logistics activities. The aim of this paper is to take a complementary perspective by looking at TPL rather as insourcing of resources; i.e. the shipper gets access to the providers’ resources. We start by presenting some basic characteristics of the established view of TPL and some of the problems with TPL identified in prior studies. We further discuss how these problems could be tackled if viewed as resource insourcing rather than activity outsourcing. The analysis indicates that such a perspective provides a useful complement for the understanding of TPL in the four phases of pre-alliance considerations, implementation, alliance operations, and performance assessment. For example, as resources are shared among a number of actors, adaptations in the resource collection of each party are required. This can reduce costs for all participants, but demands a long-term perspective with regards to investments. Further, the fear of losing control when using TPL can be helped through developing close relationships thus gaining indirect control of the provider’s resources. Another example concerns the implementation phase where a resource insourcing perspective would recommend the shipper to avoid detailed direction of suppliers who have been chosen for their competence to provide good services.
Age-Related Changes in Attentional Tracking of Multiple Moving Objects

In a multiple-object tracking (MOT) task, young and older adults attentively tracked a subset of 10 identical, randomly moving disks for several seconds, and then tried to identify those disks that had comprised the subset. Young adults who habitually played video games performed significantly better than those who did not. Compared to young subjects (mean age = 20.6 years) with whom they were matched for video game experience, older subjects (mean age = 75.3 years) showed much reduced ability to track multiple moving objects, particularly with faster movement or longer tracking times. Control measurements with stationary disks show that the age-related decline in MOT was not caused by a general change in memory per se. To generate an item-wise performance measure, we examined older subjects' proportion correct according to the serial order in which individual disks were identified. Correct identification of target disks declined with the order in which targets were reported, suggesting that attentional tracking produced graded, rather than all-or-none, outcomes.
Free Distribution or Cost-Sharing? Evidence from a Randomized Malaria Prevention Experiment

It is widely believed that cost-sharing - charging a subsidized, positive price - for a health product is necessary to avoid wasting resources on those who will not use or do not need the product. We explore this argument in the context of a field experiment in Kenya, in which we randomized the price at which pregnant women could buy long lasting anti-malarial insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) at prenatal clinics. We find no evidence that cost-sharing reduces wastage on those that will not use the product: women who received free ITNs are not less likely to use them than those who paid subsidized positive prices. We also find no evidence that cost-sharing induces selection of women who need the net more: those who pay higher prices appear no sicker than the prenatal clients in the control group in terms of measured anemia (an important indicator of malaria). Cost-sharing does, however, considerably dampen demand. We find that uptake drops by 75 percent when the price of ITNs increases from 0 to $0.75, the price at which ITNs are currently sold to pregnant women in Kenya. We combine our estimates in a cost-effectiveness analysis of ITN prices on infant mortality that incorporates both private and social returns to ITN usage. Overall, given the large positive externality associated with widespread usage of insecticide-treated nets, our results suggest that free distribution to pregnant women is both more effective and more cost-effective than cost-sharing.
Smoking, Alcohol Drinking and Esophageal Cancer: Findings from the JACC Study

BACKGROUND: Using a large-scale cohort of about 110,000 people established in 45 areas throughout Japan from 1988 through 1990, the study attempted to uncover the joint effects of combined smoking and alcohol intake on esophageal cancer mortality. METHODS: A cohort established from 1988 through 1990 included 46,465 men and 64,327 women aged 40 years and older and younger than 80. The number of female smokers and drinkers was low, and women were excluded from the analysis for that reason. In addition, 308 people with histories of malignant neoplasm, and 3,579 with unclear smoking and drinking data were also excluded, resulting in 42,578 people available for analysis. A follow-up of these individuals was conducted until 1999. Cox proportional hazards model was used for the analysis. RESULTS: The joint effects of number of cigarettes and amount of alcohol consumed per day were compared with non-smokers and non-drinkers or those consuming less than one unit of alcohol per day. An increased synergistic esophageal cancer mortality risk (3.88) for both smoking and drinking was observed for those smoking 20 cigarettes or less per day and drinking one unit of alcohol or more but less than three units per day, with the risk rising (6.30) for those smoking at least 21 cigarettes and drinking at least three units of alcohol per day. Even in non-smokers with increased alcohol consumption, and in non-drinkers or those drinking at most one drink per day with increased smoking, no increased risk was observed. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort study of a Japanese population, increased esophageal cancer mortality risk was observed only when both factors of alcohol and tobacco intake were present simultaneously.
Facilitated transport and enhanced desorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by natural organic matter in aquifer sediments.

Natural organic matter (NOM) at environmentally feasible concentrations significantly facilitates transport and enhances desorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in low organic carbon (f{sub oc}) aquifer sediments. Soil-derived humic materials do so with greater effect than do aquatic-derived humic materials. As well, the effects are greater for more hydrophobic PAH than for PAH of lower hydrophobicity. PAH NOM association is dynamic and reversible. Movement of PAH to and from NOM and to and from low f{sub oc} sediment occurs rapidly, making possible the use of NOM in enhancing PAH desorption. Corollary to this observation is the ability of PAH to move from NOM to sediments, which must be considered in any prospective remediation scheme. Facilitation and enhanced desorption of PAH by NOM was successful because of the absence of kinetic limitations in the system herein examined. 29 refs., 9 figs., 7 tabs.
Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor in Clinical Kidney Disease

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a proinflammatory cytokine implicated in acute and chronic inflammatory conditions, including sepsis, autoimmune disease, atherogenesis, plaque instability, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. MIF in plasma and urine is significantly elevated in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) and elevated MIF in serum is associated with markers of oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffness, and markers of myocardial damage in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Furthermore, MIF seems to be involved in vascular processes and cardiovascular disease associated with CKD, glomerulonephritis, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, and possibly also in progression to renal failure. Moreover, in active anti-neutrophil cytoplasmatic antibody-associated vasculitis, plasma MIF levels have been shown to be significantly elevated as compared with samples from patients in remission. A significant difference in the genotype frequency of high production MIF -173 G/C genotype has been found in end-stage renal disease, compared to controls. Inhibition of MIF in a diabetic nephropathy model ameliorated blood glucose and albuminuria and in a model of adult polycystic kidney disease cyst growth was delayed. Preclinical studies support a potential therapeutic role for MIF in AKI and in a number of CKDs, whereas these data in human disease are still observational. Future interventional studies are needed to delineate the role of MIF as a treatment target in clinical kidney disease.
Characterization of Symbolic Rules Embedded in Deep DIMLP Networks: A Challenge to Transparency of Deep Learning

Abstract Rule extraction from neural networks is a fervent research topic. In the last 20 years many authors presented a number of techniques showing how to extract symbolic rules from Multi Layer Perceptrons (MLPs). Nevertheless, very few were related to ensembles of neural networks and even less for networks trained by deep learning. On several datasets we performed rule extraction from ensembles of Discretized Interpretable Multi Layer Perceptrons (DIMLP), and DIMLPs trained by deep learning. The results obtained on the Thyroid dataset and the Wisconsin Breast Cancer dataset show that the predictive accuracy of the extracted rules compare very favorably with respect to state of the art results. Finally, in the last classification problem on digit recognition, generated rules from the MNIST dataset can be viewed as discriminatory features in particular digit areas. Qualitatively, with respect to rule complexity in terms of number of generated rules and number of antecedents per rule, deep DIMLPs and DIMLPs trained by arcing give similar results on a binary classification problem involving digits 5 and 8. On the whole MNIST problem we showed that it is possible to determine the feature detectors created by neural networks and also that the complexity of the extracted rulesets can be well balanced between accuracy and interpretability.
Modulation of malignant B cell activation and apoptosis by bcl‐2 antisense ODN and immunostimulatory CpG ODN

Inhibition of bcl‐2 expression by antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) might render bcl‐2 overexpressing malignant B cells more susceptible to chemotherapy. ODN containing unmethylated CG dinucleotides (CpG) are known to activate B cells. We studied the effects of two bcl‐2 antisense ODN, with (G3139) or without CG dinucleotides (NOV 2009) within the sequence, and the effects of a nonantisense, CpG‐containing ODN (ODN 2006) on activation and apoptosis of malignant B cell lines and primary B‐CLL cells. Without cationic lipids, no antisense‐mediated inhibition of bcl‐2 synthesis was achieved with G3139 and NOV 2009. Instead, G3139, but not NOV 2009, induced similar changes as ODN 2006 in proliferation, expression of costimulatory and antigen‐presenting molecules, as well as in bcl‐2 and bcl‐xL levels of primary B‐CLL cells. G3139 and ODN 2006 inhibited in vitro, spontaneous apoptosis in B‐CLL cells of patients with high serum thymidine kinase activity (s‐TK, marker for proliferative activity of malignant B cells), whereas in patients with low s‐TK activity, apoptosis was induced. In conclusion, our results suggest that modulation of malignant B cell apoptosis by G3139 depends on its immunostimulatory properties rather than on antisense‐mediated reduction of bcl‐2 expression. Immunostimulatory CpG ODN may have a therapeutic potential in patients with B‐CLL, especially those with low s‐TK activity.
Effect of silver nanoparticles on human mesenchymal stem cell differentiation

Summary Background: Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NP) are one of the fastest growing products in nano-medicine due to their enhanced antibacterial activity at the nanoscale level. In biomedicine, hundreds of products have been coated with Ag-NP. For example, various medical devices include silver, such as surgical instruments, bone implants and wound dressings. After the degradation of these materials, or depending on the coating technique, silver in nanoparticle or ion form can be released and may come into close contact with tissues and cells. Despite incorporation of Ag-NP as an antibacterial agent in different products, the toxicological and biological effects of silver in the human body after long-term and low-concentration exposure are not well understood. In the current study, we investigated the effects of both ionic and nanoparticulate silver on the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic lineages and on the secretion of the respective differentiation markers adiponectin, osteocalcin and aggrecan. Results: As shown through laser scanning microscopy, Ag-NP with a size of 80 nm (hydrodynamic diameter) were taken up into hMSCs as nanoparticulate material. After 24 h of incubation, these Ag-NP were mainly found in the endo-lysosomal cell compartment as agglomerated material. Cytotoxicity was observed for differentiated or undifferentiated hMSCs treated with high silver concentrations (≥20 µg·mL−1 Ag-NP; ≥1.5 µg·mL−1 Ag+ ions) but not with low-concentration treatments (≤10 µg·mL−1 Ag-NP; ≤1.0 µg·mL−1 Ag+ ions). Subtoxic concentrations of Ag-NP and Ag+ ions impaired the adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs in a concentration-dependent manner, whereas chondrogenic differentiation was unaffected after 21 d of incubation. In contrast to aggrecan, the inhibitory effect of adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation was confirmed by a decrease in the secretion of specific biomarkers, including adiponectin (adipocytes) and osteocalcin (osteoblasts). Conclusion: Aside from the well-studied antibacterial effect of silver, little is known about the influence of nano-silver on cell differentiation processes. Our results demonstrate that ionic or nanoparticulate silver attenuates the adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs even at non-toxic concentrations. Therefore, more studies are needed to investigate the effects of silver species on cells at low concentrations during long-term treatment.
Development of Predictive QSAR Models of 4‐Thiazolidinones Antitrypanosomal Activity Using Modern Machine Learning Algorithms

This paper presents novel QSAR models for the prediction of antitrypanosomal activity among thiazolidines and related heterocycles. The performance of four machine learning algorithms: Random Forest regression, Stochastic gradient boosting, Multivariate adaptive regression splines and Gaussian processes regression have been studied in order to reach better levels of predictivity. The results for Random Forest and Gaussian processes regression are comparable and outperform other studied methods. The preliminary descriptor selection with Boruta method improved the outcome of machine learning methods. The two novel QSAR‐models developed with Random Forest and Gaussian processes regression algorithms have good predictive ability, which was proved by the external evaluation of the test set with corresponding Q2ext=0.812 and Q2ext=0.830. The obtained models can be used further for in silico screening of virtual libraries in the same chemical domain in order to find new antitrypanosomal agents. Thorough analysis of descriptors influence in the QSAR models and interpretation of their chemical meaning allows to highlight a number of structure‐activity relationships. The presence of phenyl rings with electron‐withdrawing atoms or groups in para‐position, increased number of aromatic rings, high branching but short chains, high HOMO energy, and the introduction of 1‐substituted 2‐indolyl fragment into the molecular structure have been recognized as trypanocidal activity prerequisites.