Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spore ornamentation of Haplosporidium hinei n. sp. (Haplosporidia) in pearl oysters Pinctada maxima (Jameson, 1901)

SUMMARY An infection of pearl oysters, Pinctada maxima, attributed to a Haplosporidium sp. by Hine and Thorne (1998) has been detected on 3 occasions and is considered to represent a serious concern to the pearling industry in Australia. The spore ornamentation of the parasite was determined by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Spores of the parasite were pleomorphic, or elongated 3·5–4 μm×2·5–3·0 μm in size. Two filaments were wound around the spore and originated from 2 ‘knob-like’ posterior thickenings. Both filaments passed up one side of the spore together until just below the operculum whereupon each split and passed obliquely under the lip of the opercula lid. Each filament wrapped around the spore 4 times. The posterior thickenings seem to appear late in the development of the spore and were composed of spore wall material. A second set of branching tubular filaments composed of a different material was observed on the spore body although not on mature spores possessing a ‘knob-like’ posterior thickening. The ornamentation on the spores of the pearl oyster parasite was unique amongst described haplosporidian species where spore ornamentation is known. The parasite is named in this manuscript as Haplosporidium hinei n. sp.
Towards capturing representative AS-level Internet topologies

For the past two years,there has been a significant increase in research activities related to studying and modeling the Internet's topology, especially at the level of autonomous systems (ASs). A closer look at the measurements that form the basis for all these studies reveals that the data sets used consist of the BGP routing tables collected by the Oregon route server (henceforth, the Oregon route-views) [1]. So far, there has been anecdotal evidence and an intuitive understanding among researchers in the field that BGP-derived AS connectivity is not complete. However, as far as we know, there has been no systematic study on quantifying the completeness of currently known AS-level Internet topologies. Our main objective in this paper is to quantify the completeness of Internet AS maps constructed from the Oregon route-views and to attempt to capture more representative AS-level Internet topology. One of the main contributions of this paper is in developing a methodology that enables quantitative investigations into issues related to the (in)completeness of BGP-derived AS maps.
New uses for brentuximab vedotin and novel antibody drug conjugates in lymphoma

ABSTRACT Introduction: Brentuximab vedotin (BV) is a potent anti-CD30 antibody drug conjugate (ADC) that has been approved in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL). Beyond these consolidated indications, BV has been tested in a number of different settings with promising results, leading for example to the recent approval as a consolidation after ASCT in high-risk HL patients. Areas covered: Main emerging areas of clinical investigation of BV include the use as a single-agent or in combination with bendamustine in first-salvage therapy of HL (bridge to ASCT), in the frontline setting in combination with AVD chemotherapy in HL and with CHP in ALCL, in relapsed or refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphomas and finally in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) expressing CD30. Moreover, many new ADCs are currently under clinical evaluation, as for example the anti-CD79A polatuzumab vedotin in DLBCL. Expert commentary: In few years BV changed the therapeutic scenario of relapsed or refractory HL and ALCL and is rapidly moving toward first-line approval in combination with standard chemotherapy if ongoing randomized trials will demonstrate improved results. Combination strategies with bendamustine in first-salvage HL and with R-CHP in first-line DLBCL appear very promising.
A basic unit of computation in distributed systems

The authors define basic units of computation in distributed systems, whether communicating synchronously or asynchronously, as comprising indivisible logical units of computation that take the system from one ground state to another. It is explained how a computation can be viewed as a partial order over the basic units of the computation. The problem of detecting the basic units is considered. One algorithm for creating ground states during a computation in an asynchronously communicating system with FIFO channels is given, and an existing algorithm that implicitly creates ground states in a synchronously communicating system is referenced. The significance of the basic unit is explained, and its applications are given. <<ETX>>
Thoracic injuries in US combat casualties: A 10-year review of Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom

BACKGROUND Mortality from thoracic injuries has declined significantly from 63% in the Civil War to 3% in Vietnam. We reviewed the injury patterns, procedures, blood products, and mortality of US soldiers sustaining a thoracic injury during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). METHODS Data on US soldiers with a thoracic injury during OEF/OIF from January 2003 to May 2011 was collected from the Joint Theater Trauma Registry. Coalition forces, civilians, and soldiers killed in action were excluded. Injuries and procedures were identified using DRG International Classification of Diseases—9th Rev. and Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) codes. Data are presented as mean (SD). Statistical analysis used &khgr;2 analysis and t test where appropriate. RESULTS Thoracic injuries occurred in 2,049 of 23,797 wounded US military personnel for a prevalence of 8.6%. Mean (SD) age was 26 (6.6) years, and mean (SD) chest AIS score was 2.9 (0.9). Penetrating trauma was the most common mechanism of injury (61.5%), and explosive devices were the most common cause of injury (61.9%). Of 6,030 thoracic injuries identified, pneumothorax and pulmonary contusions were most common (51.8% and 50.2%, respectively). Of 1,541 surgical procedures performed in theater, the most common was tube thoracostomy (47.1%). Most patients with penetrating fragmentation injuries (84%) were managed with tube thoracostomy as sole therapeutic intervention. The fresh frozen plasma–to–packed red blood cells ratio was 0.86. Overall mortality was 8.3%. Acute respiratory distress syndrome and inhalation injury were associated with mortality (p < 0.006). CONCLUSION Most penetrating fragmentation injuries can be managed with tube thoracostomy. Mortality of patients with chest injury in OEF/OIF is higher than in Korea and Vietnam. This most likely represents advances in prehospital care, personal protective equipment, and rapid transport that have resulted in more severely injured patients arriving alive to a medical facility. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiologic study, level IV.
Follow-Up of Monotherapy Remitters in the PReDICT Study: Maintenance Treatment Outcomes and Clinical Predictors of Recurrence

Objective: This study followed remitted patients from a randomized controlled trial of adults with major depressive disorder (MDD). The aims were to describe rates of recurrence and to evaluate 3 clinical predictor domains. Method: Ninety-four treatment-naïve patients (50% female; Mage = 38.1 years; 48.9% White; 30.9% Hispanic) with MDD who had remitted to 12-week monotherapy (escitalopram, duloxetine, or cognitive behavior therapy [CBT]) participated in a 21-month maintenance phase (i.e., continued medication or 3 possible CBT booster sessions per year). Recurrence was assessed quarterly, and the clinical predictors were the following: 2 measures of residual depressive symptoms, 1 measure of lifetime depressive episodes, and 2 measures of baseline anxiety. Survival analysis models evaluated recurrence rates, and regression models evaluated the predictors. Results: Among all patients, 15.5% experienced a recurrence, and the survival distributions did not statistically differ among treatments. Residual depressive symptoms on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale at the end of monotherapy were associated with increased risk for recurrence (hazard ratio = 1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI: 1.02, 1.67], Wald &khgr;2 = 4.41, p = .036), and not having a comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis at study baseline reduced the risk of recurrence (hazard ratio = .31, 95% CI [.10, .94], Wald &khgr;2 = 4.28, p = .039). Conclusions: The study supported the benefits of maintenance treatment for treatment-naïve patients who remitted to initial monotherapy; nevertheless, remitted patients with a comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis at the beginning of treatment or residual depressive symptoms after initial treatment were at risk for poorer long-term outcomes.
Serial Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injections Slow the Progression of Radiation Maculopathy Following Iodine-125 Plaque Radiotherapy

Background and Objective: To assess the outcomes of intravitreal bevacizumab injection in the management of radiation maculopathy secondary to plaque radiotherapy, and to identify optimal treatment strategies. Study Design: A retrospective review of all choroidal melanoma patients at one referral center who were treated with plaque radiotherapy, subsequently developed radiation maculopathy, and received intravitreal bevacizumab. Results: A total of 31 patients were identified. The mean visual acuity decreased three Snellen lines in the year leading up to the first bevacizumab injection. After initiating injection therapy, the mean visual acuity remained stable for 9 months. The change in visual acuity of patients who received injections within 90 days of previous injections was significantly better than the visual acuity of those who received injections more than 90 days apart (p=0.0003). Patients who demonstrated late-phase macular leakage on fluorescein angiography at the time of the first bevacizumab injection had better long-term visual acuity outcomes than patients who had no evidence of macular leakage (average of one line improvement of vision vs. ten line loss of vision, p=0.03). Conclusions: Intravitreal bevacizumab injection was effective in stabilizing visual acuity in patients with radiation maculopathy. Patients benefited most from injections administered every 90 days or sooner. Fluorescein angiography can help identify patients who will respond favorably to treatment.
Maturational costs of reproduction due to clutch size and ontogenetic conflict as revealed in the invisible fraction

Reproduction is thought to entail costs, but assessing survival costs associated with maturation as organisms express reproductive genes for the first time is problematic because many will die prior to expressing a phenotype. We quantified selection acting on this invisible fraction by measuring selection on predicted breeding values for clutch size estimated from a multigenerational pedigree of side-blotched lizards in which clutch size was heritable (h2=0.25±0.04). The survival effects of predicted breeding values for clutch size during maturation, however, differed between males and females indicating ontogenetic conflict. Increased mortality during maturation was associated with lower predicted breeding values for clutch size for females, but higher predicted breeding values for males who do not produce a clutch. Genetic correlations between clutch size and male and female survival were consistent with calculated selection differentials. Experimental yolk removal did not affect progeny survival during maturation, indicating that selection on maturing progeny was not due to confounding yolk-volume maternal effects, and hormone manipulations confirmed clutch size as the target of viability selection during maturation. Such episodes of selection prior to phenotypic expression of the trait will have important consequences for the evolution of reproductive investment.
Controllability and fraction of leaders in infinite networks

In this paper, we study controllability of a network of linear single-integrator agents when the network size goes to infinity. We first investigate the effect of increasing size by injecting an input at every node and requiring that network controllability Gramian remain well-conditioned with the increasing dimension. We provide theoretical justification to the intuition that high degree nodes pose a challenge to network controllability. In particular, the controllability Gramian for the networks with bounded maximum degrees is shown to remain well-conditioned even as the network size goes to infinity. In the canonical cases of star, chain and ring networks, we also provide closed-form expressions which bound the condition number of the controllability Gramian in terms of the network size. We next consider the effect of the choice and number of leader nodes by actuating only a subset of nodes and considering the least eigenvalue of the Gramian as the network size increases. Accordingly, while a directed star topology can never be made controllable for all sizes by injecting an input just at a fraction f <; 1 of nodes; for path or cycle networks, the designer can actuate a non-zero fraction of nodes and spread them throughout the network in such way that the least eigenvalue of the Gramians remain bounded away from zero with the increasing size. The results offer interesting insights on the challenges of control in large networks and with high-degree nodes.
Insulin as a Bridge between Type 2 Diabetes and Alzheimer Disease – How Anti-Diabetics Could be a Solution for Dementia

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Alzheimer disease (AD) are two major health issues nowadays. T2D is an ever increasing epidemic, affecting millions of elderly people worldwide, with major repercussions in the patients’ daily life. This is mostly due to its chronic complications that may affect brain and constitutes a risk factor for AD. T2D principal hallmark is insulin resistance which also occurs in AD, rendering both pathologies more than mere unrelated diseases. This hypothesis has been reinforced in the recent years, with a high number of studies highlighting the existence of several common molecular links. As such, it is not surprising that AD has been considered as the “type 3 diabetes” or a “brain-specific T2D,” supporting the idea that a beneficial therapeutic strategy against T2D might be also beneficial against AD. Herewith, we aim to review some of the recent developments on the common features between T2D and AD, namely on insulin signaling and its participation in the regulation of amyloid β (Aβ) plaque and neurofibrillary tangle formation (the two major neuropathological hallmarks of AD). We also critically analyze the promising field that some anti-T2D drugs may protect against dementia and AD, with a special emphasis on the novel incretin/glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.
Performance assessment of four cluster interconnects on identical hardware: hints for cluster builders

The growing popularity of cluster computing makes it important to understand the performance potential of various interconnects. In this paper, we present the results of a performance analysis of multiple cluster interconnects for various applications running on identical nodes. Timing runs for the NAS and Pallas benchmarks as well as some real world parallel applications running on first and second generation Myrinet, SCI, and fast and gigabit Ethernet were made and the results are reported. These results are particularly valuable for computational scientists who are now building their own clusters but who sometimes have limited technical expertise concerning available cluster interconnects.
Dephosphorylation Targets Bcl-2 for Ubiquitin-dependent Degradation: A Link between the Apoptosome and the Proteasome Pathway

Injury of the endothelial cells by the induction of apoptotic cell death may play an important role in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and the progression of inflammatory diseases. Here, we demonstrate an essential role for the ubiquitin-dependent proteasome complex in stimulus-induced degradation of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2. Bcl-2 is specifically degraded after stimulation of human endothelial cells with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in a process that is inhibited by specific proteasome inhibitors. In addition, the mutation of the potential ubiquitin-acceptor amino acids of Bcl-2 provides protection against TNF-α– and staurosporine-induced degradation in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, mimicking phosphorylation of the putative mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase sites of the Bcl-2 protein (Thr 56, Thr 74, and Ser 87) abolishes its degradation, suggesting a link between the MAP kinase pathway to the proteasome pathway. Finally, inhibition of Bcl-2 degradation either by suppressing ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation or by mimicking continuous phosphorylation of the putative MAP kinase sites in the Bcl-2 protein confers resistance against induction of apoptosis. Thus, the degradation of Bcl-2 may unleash the inhibitory function of Bcl-2 over the apoptosome and may thereby amplify the activation of the caspase cascade.
An Abstraction Technique for the Verification of Multi-Agent Systems Against ATL Specifications

We introduce an abstraction methodology for the verification of multi-agent systems against specifications expressed in alternating-time temporal logic (ATL). Inspired by methodologies such as predicate abstraction, we define a three-valued semantics for the interpretation of ATL formulas on concurrent game structures and compare it to the standard two-valued semantics. We define abstract models and establish preservation results on the three-valued semantics between abstract models and their concrete counterparts. We illustrate the methodology on the large state spaces resulting from a card game.
Roles and expression profiles of long non‐coding RNAs in triple‐negative breast cancers

Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) refers to the breast cancers that express little human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), progesterone receptor (PR) and oestrogen receptor (ER). When compared to other types of breast cancers, TNBC behaves more aggressively with relatively poorer prognosis. Moreover, except chemotherapy, no targeted treatments have been approved yet until now. Although the molecular‐biological mechanisms of the initiation and development of TNBC have been explored a lot, the exact details underlying its progressions are still not clear. Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs), with the length greater than 200 nucleotides, are non‐protein coding transcripts. Previous researches have shown that lncRNAs are significantly involved in a variety of pathophysiological processes such as cell migration, invasion, proliferation, differentiation and development. lncRNAs’ dysregulated expressions have been observed in many types of tumours including TNBCs. This article will review the functional roles and dysregulations of lncRNAs in TNBCs. These lncRNAs are worthy of exploitation regarding their potential application values of TNBC's diagnosis and treatment.
The impact of priors and observables on parameter inferences in the constrained MSSM

We use a newly released version of the SuperBayeS code to analyze the impact of the choice of priors and the influence of various constraints on the statistical conclusions for the preferred values of the parameters of the Constrained MSSM. We assess the effect in a Bayesian framework and compare it with an alternative likelihood-based measure of a profile likelihood. We employ a new scanning algorithm (MultiNest) which increases the computational efficiency by a factor ~ 200 with respect to previously used techniques. We demonstrate that the currently available data are not yet sufficiently constraining to allow one to determine the preferred values of CMSSM parameters in a way that is completely independent of the choice of priors and statistical measures. While B R ( ? Xs? ) generally favors large m0, this is in some contrast with the preference for low values of m0 and m1/2 that is almost entirely a consequence of a combination of prior effects and a single constraint coming from the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, which remains somewhat controversial. Using an information-theoretical measure, we find that the cosmological dark matter abundance determination provides at least 80% of the total constraining power of all available observables. Despite the remaining uncertainties, prospects for direct detection in the CMSSM remain excellent, with the spin-independent neutralino-proton cross section almost guaranteed above ? SIp 10-10pb, independently of the choice of priors or statistics. Likewise, gluino and lightest Higgs discovery at the LHC remain highly encouraging. While in this work we have used the CMSSM as particle physics model, our formalism and scanning technique can be readily applied to a wider class of models with several free parameters.
An Image Mapping Approach to U‐Pb LA‐ICP‐MS Carbonate Dating and Applications to Direct Dating of Carbonate Sedimentation

We present a new approach to laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) U‐Pb dating of carbonates based on selection and pooling of pixels from 2‐D elemental and isotopic ratio maps. This image mapping technique is particularly useful for targeting subdomains in samples with complex geological histories. Key major and trace elements that are sensitive to detrital components, postformational fluid ingress, mineralogical changes, or diagenetic overprinting are measured along with the Pb and U isotopic data. Laser sampling is undertaken along successive linear rasters that are compiled into maps using the Monocle add‐on for Iolite, with one pixel in the map corresponding to one time slice of the time‐resolved signal. These element, element ratio, and isotope ratio maps can be overlain over photomicrographs or scanning electron microscopy images to spatially link compositional data to textural and structural features. The pixels corresponding to likely homogeneous age domains can be isolated by applying appropriate selection criteria (e.g., Th < 0.3 ppm, Mg/Ca < 0.004) and pooled into pseudo‐analyses using a proxy for the parent/daughter ratio (e.g., 207Pb/235U, 238U/208Pb) to retrieve the largest possible spread of the data points on isochron diagrams. The approach is best suited for analytical setups capable of rapidly or simultaneously scanning over a large mass range and can yield a precision of ±1% or better on quadrupole instruments depending on U concentration, 238U/204Pb, and age of the sample. The sample‐specific filtering criteria for selection and rejection of data and their rationale can be reported, resulting in more transparency with regard to data processing.
A realistic model for spatial and mass distributions of dark halo substructures: An analytic approach

We construct a realistic model for dark halo substructures, and derive analytically their spatial, mass and velocity distributions. Basically, our model is a modification of the Press-Schechter theory to account for the dominant dynamical processes that mark the evolution of dark halo substructures such as tidal stripping and dynamical friction. Our analytic model successfully reproduces all the well-known behaviour of the substructure distributions that have been found in recent numerical simulations: the weak dependence of the mass distributions on the host halo mass; the antibias of the spatial distribution relative to the dark matter particle components; and the nearly power-law shapes of the mass and velocity distributions. We compare our analytic results with recent high-resolution N-body simulation data and find that they are in excellent agreement with each other.