Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Idiopathic and secondary acquired megacolon in dogs is associated with diminished vasoactive intestinal polypeptide innervation of the affected colon.

It is well established that megacolon in carnivores, including both cats and dogs, is a common finding. Megacolon occurs more often in the cat that the dog. Based on current data idiopathic megacolon is a common cause of constipation in cats (62% of constipated cats are affected by diopathic megacolon). There is no evidence of idiopathic megacolon in dogs and publications about this disease in this species is very scarce. We investigated the enteric nervous system in the dilated portion (DP) of the colon in dogs with idiopathic aquired (n=7) or secondary aquired megacolon (n=21) and compared the results with a normal colon in control dogs (n=3). Colonic sections of surgical specimens were investigated by conventional and immunohistochemical methods, including pan-neuronal markers (NSE, synaptophisin, and neurofilament) and VIP, as well as S-100 protein for detection of ganglionic glial cells. Compared to controls, the two megacolon groups showed no changes of density of enteric neurons in both submucosal and myenteric nervous plexuses in DP of the colon and of enteric glial cells. However, compared to controls and dogs with secondary megacolon, there was a significant decrease in the density of NFP-ir nerve fibers in the longitudinal muscle layer in dogs with idiopathic acquired megacolon. In addition, dogs with idiopathic megacolon display decreased VIP-ir in the myenteric plexus and lamina propria mucosae, and absence of VIP-ir neurons in the submucosal plexus of DP of the colon. Similar alterations, although of lesser severity, may be found in dogs with secondary aquired megacolon. We consider that both idiopathic and secondary aquired megacolon might occur on the basis of a dysplastic changes of VIP-ir enteric neurons.
Mechanosensation and mechanical load modulate the locomotory gait of swimming C. elegans

SUMMARY Animals move through their environments by selecting gaits that are adapted to the physical nature of their surroundings. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans swims through fluids or crawls on surfaces by propagating flexural waves along its slender body and offers a unique opportunity for detailed analysis of locomotory gait at multiple levels including kinematics, biomechanics and the molecular and physiological operation of sensory and motor systems. Here, we study the swimming gait of C. elegans in viscous fluids in the range 0.05-50 Pa s. We find that the spatial form of the swimming gait does not vary across this range of viscosities and that the temporal frequency of the swimming gait only decreases by about 20% with every 10-fold increase in viscosity. Thus, C. elegans swims in low gear, such that its musculature can deliver mechanical force and power nearly 1000-fold higher than it delivers when swimming in water. We find that mutations that disrupt mechanosensation, or the laser killing of specific touch receptor neurons, increase the temporal frequency of the undulating gait, revealing a novel effect of mechanosensory input in regulating the putative central pattern generator that produces locomotion. The adaptability of locomotory gait in C. elegans may be encoded in sensory and motor systems that allow the worm to respond to its own movement in different physical surroundings.
The Effect of Education Level and Gender on Students’ Metacognitive Skills in Malang, Indonesia

The students’ thinking ability will develop with age. Educators are expected to know the development of the students’ thinking ability, so that the empowerment of their thinking abilities, including metacognitive skills, can be done optimally. Gender is believed to be associated with the development of a person's thinking ability. This quasi experimental research aimed at investigating the effect of level of education and gender on students’ metacognitive skills. The population of this research was the students of junior high schools and senior high schools in malang in 2015/2016 academic year. The school samples used in this research were junior high school muhammadiyah 1 and senior high school muhammadiyah 1 malang. The metacognitive skills were measured by essay test, and assessed by using the rubric of metacognitive skills. The results of the data analysis showed that the education level had an effect on students’ metacognitive skill, but gender as well as the interaction between education level and gender did not have an effect on students’ metacognitive skill. It is recommended to conduct further research related to the effect of education level on metacognitive skill using a bigger number of samples and even involving the samples studying at elementary school level.
Melanocortin peptides inhibit production of proinflammatory cytokines and nitric oxide by activated microglia

Inflammatory processes contribute to neurodegenerative disease, stroke, encephalitis, and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Activated microglia are a source of cytokines and other inflammatory agents within the CNS and it is therefore important to control glial function in order to preserve neural cells. Melanocortin peptides are pro‐opiomelanocortin‐derived amino acid sequences that include α‐melanocyte‐stimulating hormone (α‐MSH) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). These peptides have potent and broad anti‐inflammatory effects. We tested effects of α‐MSH (1‐13), α‐MSH (11‐13), and ACTH (1‐24) on production of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), and nitric oxide (NO) in a cultured murine microglial cell line (N9) stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plus interferon γ (IFN‐γ). Melanocortin peptides inhibited production of these cytokines and NO in a concentration‐related fashion, probably by increasing intracellular cAMP. When stimulated with LPS + IFN‐γ, microglia increased release of α‐MSH. Production of TNF‐α, IL‐6, and NO was greater in activated microglia after immunoneutralization of endogenous α‐MSH. The results suggest that α‐MSH is an autocrine factor in microglia. Because melanocortin peptides inhibit production of proinflammatory mediators by activated microglia they might be useful in treatment of inflammatory/degenerative brain disorders. J. Leukoc. Biol. 63: 740–745; 1998.
Targeted Disruption of the Myocilin Gene (Myoc) Suggests that Human Glaucoma-Causing Mutations Are Gain of Function

ABSTRACT Glaucoma is a heterogeneous eye disease and a major cause of blindness worldwide. Recently, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG)-associated mutations have been found in the trabecular meshwork inducible glucocorticoid response gene (TIGR), also known as the myocilin gene (MYOC), at the GLC1Alocus on chromosome 1q21-q31. These mutations occurred in a subset of patients with juvenile- and adult-onset POAG and exhibited autosomal dominant inheritance. Ocular expression and its involvement in POAG suggest that TIGR/MYOC may have a role(s) in regulating intraocular pressure (IOP). Here, we report the generation and analysis of mice heterozygous and homozygous for a targeted null mutation inMyoc. Our study shows that Myoc mutant mice are both viable and fertile. Our in vivo findings further demonstrate thatMyoc is not required for normal IOP or normal ocular morphology. The lack of a discernable phenotype in bothMyoc-heterozygous and Myoc-null mice suggests that haploinsufficiency is not a critical mechanism for POAG in individuals with mutations in MYOC. Instead, disease-causing mutations in humans likely act by gain of function.
Ethnic German Immigration from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union to Germany: The Effects of Migrant Network

This paper employed a widely accepted theoretical concept, the ‘theory of migrant networks’ to look at the recent immigration and absorption experience of ethnic Germans (Aussiedler) from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in Germany. Consistent with network theory, the social background of the Aussiedler group became more representative of the sending communities as migrant networks expanded. The paper additionally showed that Aussiedler tended to participate in migrant networks after they have moved to Germany. Whereas all studies on the economic effects of migrant networks found a positive impact on the labor market performance of ethnic Germans, the outcome of network participation with respect to social absorption is less encouraging. In recent years migrant networks seem to support ethnic German minority enclaves and an increasing segregation of the Aussiedler group.
Meditation or medication? Preventing relapse in recurrent depression

In this study, 249 patients with recurrent depression participated in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), a group training that improves skills to cope with difficult thoughts and emotions. Afterwards, half of the group was asked to stop taking their antidepressants, whereas the other half continued them. Stopping antidepressants seemed to be more difficult than expected, as almost half of the patients in the ‚stopping-group‘ could not discontinue. In addition, especially those who stopped had a larger risk of depressive relapse than the patients who kept taking their medication. In a second study, 68 recurrently depressed patients were randomly given MBCT plus antidepressants or antidepressants alone. Surprisingly, patients who participated in MBCT did not have a lower risk of depressive relapse. These unexpected findings have, however, stimulated the scientific debate and generated new research questions about mindfulness training. Consequently, our findings may contribute to a more balanced perspective of MBCT.
Nmnat1 protects neuronal function without altering phospho‐tau pathology in a mouse model of tauopathy

The nicotinamide‐nucleotide adenylyltransferase protein Nmnat1 is a potent inhibitor of axonal degeneration in models of acute axonal injury. Hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of the microtubule‐associated protein Tau are associated with neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's Disease and other disorders. Previous studies have demonstrated that other Nmnat isoforms can act both as axonoprotective agents and have protein chaperone function, exerting protective effects in drosophila and mouse models of tauopathy. Nmnat1 targeted to the cytoplasm (cytNmnat1) is neuroprotective in a mouse model of neonatal hypoxia‐ischemia, but the effect of cytNmnat1 on tauopathy remains unknown.
Scalable Optical Packet Switches for Multiple Data Formats and Data Rates Packets

We demonstrate an optical packet switch (OPS) subsystem employing in-band labeling to allow for transparent routing of packets with multiple data formats and data bit rates. Packets employing in-band labels can be processed without the need to reconfigure the label processor and the switch when changing data format and bit-rate. The label processor is based on asynchronous optical signal processing in combination with a simple electronic combinatory network. This makes the label processor capable to process a large number of labels with low latency time (<3 ns) without complicated and power-hungry high-speed packet clock recovery and serializer/deserializer circuits. Experimental results show error-free operation of 1 × 64 OPS subsystem for 160-Gb/s return-to-zero on-off keying and 120-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero differential phase-shift keying multiwavelength packets.
Understanding the Role of Objects in Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

In this paper we make a case for the use of multiple theoretical perspectives—theory on boundary objects, epistemic objects, cultural historical activity theory, and objects as infrastructure—to understand the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration. A pluralist approach highlights that objects perform at least three types of work in this context: they motivate collaboration, they allow participants to work across different types of boundaries, and they constitute the fundamental infrastructure of the activity. Building on the results of an empirical study, we illustrate the insights that each theoretical lens affords into practices of collaboration and develop a novel analytical framework that organizes objects according to the active work they perform. Our framework can help shed new light on the phenomenon, especially with regard to the shifting status of objects and sources of conflict (and change) in collaboration. After discussing these novel insights, we outline directions for future research stemming from a pluralist approach. We conclude by noting the managerial implications of our findings.
High Entropy Ensembles for Holistic Figure-ground Segmentation

In this paper we approach the task of figure-ground segmentation of natural images using a novel framework to generate highly collaborative tree-based structures, called High Entropy Ensembles (HEE). While many model combination frameworks adopt rejection rules to improve the classification time of the ensembles at the cost of restricting the interactions between the different elements in the structures, throughout our work we prove that, similarly to the Cascade Classification Model [3], when execution time is not critical, better results can be obtained when encouraging that kind of interaction by combining heterogeneous suboptimal classifiers into highly connected tree-based ensembles in which the different algorithms communicate with each other to let the strengths of one overcome the weaknesses of the others and vice versa. Inspired by randombased model combination approaches [2], we do not focus on looking for the optimal classifiers to be added to the HEE, instead we pick them from a pool of randomly configured segmentation algorithms. This randomness injection increases the effectiveness of HEE while also decreasing both the computational complexity of the model creation procedure and the risk of overfitting the training data, which is a common issue for most model combination frameworks.
Low-Cost Mobile Phone Microscopy with a Reversed Mobile Phone Camera Lens

The increasing capabilities and ubiquity of mobile phones and their associated digital cameras offer the possibility of extending low-cost, portable diagnostic microscopy to underserved and low-resource areas. However, mobile phone microscopes created by adding magnifying optics to the phone's camera module have been unable to make use of the full image sensor due to the specialized design of the embedded camera lens, exacerbating the tradeoff between resolution and field of view inherent to optical systems. This tradeoff is acutely felt for diagnostic applications, where the speed and cost of image-based diagnosis is related to the area of the sample that can be viewed at sufficient resolution. Here we present a simple and low-cost approach to mobile phone microscopy that uses a reversed mobile phone camera lens added to an intact mobile phone to enable high quality imaging over a significantly larger field of view than standard microscopy. We demonstrate use of the reversed lens mobile phone microscope to identify red and white blood cells in blood smears and soil-transmitted helminth eggs in stool samples.
Progression of Amyloid Pathology to Alzheimer's Disease Pathology in an Amyloid Precursor Protein Transgenic Mouse Model by Removal of Nitric Oxide Synthase 2

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by three primary pathologies in the brain: amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuron loss. Mouse models have been useful for studying components of AD but are limited in their ability to fully recapitulate all pathologies. We crossed the APPSwDI transgenic mouse, which develops amyloid β (Aβ)-protein deposits only, with a nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) knock-out mouse, which develops no AD-like pathology. APPSwDI/NOS2−/− mice displayed impaired spatial memory compared with the APPSwDI mice, yet they have unaltered levels of Aβ. APPSwDI mice do not show tau pathology, whereas APPSwDI/NOS2−/− mice displayed extensive tau pathology associated with regions of dense microvascular amyloid deposition. Also, APPSwDI mice do not have any neuron loss, whereas the APPSwDI/NOS2−/− mice have significant neuron loss in the hippocampus and subiculum. Neuropeptide Y neurons have been shown to be particularly vulnerable in AD. These neurons appear to be particularly vulnerable in the APPSwDI/NOS2−/− mice as we observe a dramatic reduction in the number of NPY neurons in the hippocampus and subiculum. These data show that removal of NOS2 from an APP transgenic mouse results in development of a much greater spectrum of AD-like pathology and behavioral impairments.
Glucocorticoid binding and [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA in embryonic chick cell cultures.

Glucocorticoid binding was examined in normal and Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)-transformed embryonic chick cell cultures to determine its role in the control of cell growth. Cell cultures were prepared from the body carcasses of 10-day-old embryonic White Leghorn chicks. Mixtures of charcoal-dextran were used to separate bound from free forms of the glucocorticoids. [3H]Thymidine incorporation into DNA was used as a monitor of growth. In the normal embryonic cell cultures, only the glucocorticoids at physiological doses inhibited [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA. β-Estradiol, progesterone, norethynodrel, testosterone, digitoxin, indomethacin, and oxybutazolidine were inactive. None of the steroids or other compounds inhibited [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA in RSV-transformed cultures. Several related steroid hormones were unable to compete for [3H]-dexamethasone binding sites in embryonic chick cells, revealing that only glucocorticoids are bound tightly in both normal and RSV-transformed cultures. The dissociation constant for [3H]dexamethasone binding in normal cultures was 0.18 nm, and it was 1.2 nm in RSV-transformed cultures. The maximum amounts of glucocorticoid bound were 31.7 and 34.8 fmol/mg protein in normal and RSV-transformed cultures, respectively. The binding of glucocorticoids in normal embryonic chick cell cultures varied only slightly with changes in cell density. In normal embryonic cultures maintained at one density and stimulated to grow with charcoal-treated serum, the maximum binding of [3H]dexamethasone was increased slightly, although [3H]thymidine incorporation rates were 12-fold higher than in unstimulated cultures. Untreated serum stimulated other cultures to incorporate considerable amounts of [3H]thymidine, but [3H]dexamethasone binding in those cultures decreased to one-third of that in the unstimulated control cultures. Progesterone competed successfully with [3H]dexamethasone for binding sites in normal and RSV-transformed cultures, but this required a 300-fold greater concentration. Similar amounts of progesterone also prevented the inhibition of [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA that usually occurs when normal cultures are treated with 1 nm hydrocortisone.
Exploring EFL students’ visual literacy skills and global understanding through their analysis of Louis Vuitton’s advertisement featuring Mikhail Gorbachev

Abstract Visual literacy is an important skill for students to have in order to interpret embedded messages on signs and in advertisements successfully. As advertisements today tend to feature iconic people or events that shaped the modern world, it is crucial to develop students’ visual literacy skills so they can comprehend the intended messages. This research explores the visual literacy skills of 23 university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Taiwan majoring in English by examining how they decode messages in Louis Vuitton’s advertisement featuring Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union. The participants were asked to write an essay analysing the advertisement; one group was asked to write the essay in class and the other group was asked to write the essay as a homework assignment. The findings show that none of the students in this study were able to recognize the man on the advertisement as Gorbachev when they first saw the advertisement, yet their analysis varied significantly depending on whether they worked on their essay in class or at home. While the students who wrote the essay in class merely arrived at superficial interpretations of the advertisement, most of the students who worked on the essay as a homework assignment searched for relevant information online as they worked on their essays, and this facilitated a domino effect on students’ learning, in which one discovery of information led to the discovery of more information, including what Gorbachev looks like and why he is prominent, and this allowed them to arrive at deeper interpretations of the advertisement compared to the other group. The process of searching for information relevant to the advertisement also helped the students to fill gaps in their knowledge of the world and deepened their global understanding, which in turn contributed towards cultivating their overall visual literacy skills.
Nonlinear control applied to a dc-dc power converter and the load sharing problem in a dc microgrid

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to apply the Immersion & Invariance and Passivity-based Control to a dc-dc power converter driving a nonlinear load. Experimental results are shown in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed control techniques. Another goal is to find a model for a dc microgrid (load sharing problem) and to show some stability issues.
Fighting Information Overflow with Personalized Comprehensive Information Access: A Proactive Job Recommender

Searching for jobs online is an information intensive activity, because thousands of jobs are posted on the Web daily and it takes a great deal of effort to find the right position. Job search sites require recommender systems to meet diversified information needs: Job seekers who have well-defined careers try to focus on relevant open positions while students who have general and evolving interests want to follow the dominant trends of the job market in order to plan their career path. In this paper, we introduce a comprehensive job recommender system. From the user's perspective, four different kinds of recommendations are implemented. Users of this system can retrieve open jobs with different methods, ranging from exploring to searching.
Detecting dense subgraphs in complex networks based on edge density coefficient

Densely connected patterns in biological networks can help biologists to elucidate meaningful insights. How to detect dense subgraphs effectively and quickly has been an urgent challenge in recent years. In this paper, we proposed a local measure named the edge density coefficient, which could indicate whether an edge locates a dense subgraph or not. Simulation results showed that this measure could improve both the accuracy and speed in detecting dense subgraphs. Thus, the G-N algorithm can be extended to large biological networks by this local measure.
Selective cognitive processing of drug cues in heroin dependence

Previous studies provide evidence for the selective processing of disorder related stimuli on anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. There exist some preliminary indications that selective processing of drug cues may be involved in drug craving and relapse that deserve further investigation. In order to investigate the role of processing bias in an abnormal motivational system, the attentional bias for drug related stimuli was studied in a heroin dependent population. Heroin dependent participants (n = 21) and control participants (n= 30) performed a supra- and subliminal heroin Stroop task and heroin craving was assessed. Heroin dependent participants showed a considerable attentional bias for supraliminally presented heroin cues. However, there was no evidence for a preattentive bias on the subliminal presented cues. Reaction time on heroin cues was significantly predicted by heroin craving-levels. Results indicate that selective processing may be related to motivational induced states in general. The finding are discussed in the context of selective information processing in general psychopathology and in motivational processes as addiction specifically.