Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Power Spectra for Cold Dark Matter and Its Variants

The bulk of recent cosmological research has focused on the adiabatic cold dark matter model and its simple extensions. Here we present an accurate fitting formula that describes the matter transfer functions of all common variants, including mixed dark matter models. The result is a function of wavenumber, time, and six cosmological parameters: the massive neutrino density, number of neutrino species degenerate in mass, baryon density, Hubble constant, cosmological constant, and spatial curvature. We show how observational constraints—e.g., the shape of the power spectrum, the abundance of clusters and damped Lyα systems, and the properties of the Lyα forest—can be extended to a wide range of cosmologies, which includes variations in the neutrino and baryon fractions in both high-density and low-density universes.
Photochemically‐induced ischemic injury of the rat sciatic nerve: A light‐ and electron microscopic study

Abstract Lesion of presumably ischemic origin of the rat sciatic nerve was induced photochemically by laser irradiation combined with systemic administration of a photosensitizing organic dye, erythrosin B. We have studied the pathologic features of the nerve after the photochemical insult with light‐ and electronmicroscopy and related them to behavioral signs of neuropathic pain. At the irradiated nerve site, occlusion of blood vessels was seen and the vessels were packed with aggregated thrombocytes, fibrins and deformed erythrocytes, supporting the notion that photochemical reaction caused intraneural ischemia. The degree of the nerve injury at the center of irradiation was related to the duration of the laser exposure. Brief irradiation (30 seconds) only caused identifiable injury to myelinated fibers, whereas longer irradiation (2 minutes) caused greater injury to myelinated and unmyelinated fibers, characterized by extensive axonal degeneration and demyelination. The rats irradiated for 2 minutes, but not 30 seconds, exhibited neuropathic pain‐like behaviors, expressed as mechanical and cold allodynia. The nerve injury was most severe 7 days after ischemia and regeneration of both myelinated and unmyelinated fibers was observed 3 months later. The nerve caudal to the irradiation exhibited Wallerian degeneration 7 days after the insult, whereas at 10 mm proximal to the irradiation the nerve was largely normal. It is thus concluded that photochemically induced intraneural ischemia caused injury to both myelinated and unmyelinated fibers, with myelinated fibers being more susceptible. However, the development of neuropathic pain‐like behaviors may require injury to the unmyelinated fibers.
Animal models and therapeutic molecular targets of cancer: utility and limitations

Cancer is the term used to describe over 100 diseases that share several common hallmarks. Despite prevention, early detection, and novel therapies, cancer is still the second leading cause of death in the USA. Successful bench-to-bedside translation of basic scientific findings about cancer into therapeutic interventions for patients depends on the selection of appropriate animal experimental models. Cancer research uses animal and human cancer cell lines in vitro to study biochemical pathways in these cancer cells. In this review, we summarize the important animal models of cancer with focus on their advantages and limitations. Mouse cancer models are well known, and are frequently used for cancer research. Rodent models have revolutionized our ability to study gene and protein functions in vivo and to better understand their molecular pathways and mechanisms. Xenograft and chemically or genetically induced mouse cancers are the most commonly used rodent cancer models. Companion animals with spontaneous neoplasms are still an underexploited tool for making rapid advances in human and veterinary cancer therapies by testing new drugs and delivery systems that have shown promise in vitro and in vivo in mouse models. Companion animals have a relatively high incidence of cancers, with biological behavior, response to therapy, and response to cytotoxic agents similar to those in humans. Shorter overall lifespan and more rapid disease progression are factors contributing to the advantages of a companion animal model. In addition, the current focus is on discovering molecular targets for new therapeutic drugs to improve survival and quality of life in cancer patients.
Ventral Tegmental Area Neuronal Ensembles Accurately Encode Action Number

Real-time updates to behavioral strategy require animals to understand how many actions have been executed toward completion of a goal. These operations are essential for optimizing behavior and have been linked to dopaminergic innervation of prefrontal cortex networks (Gallistel and Gibbon, 2000; Allman et al., 2011; Lustig, 2011). It is an open question how networks of dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) encode information when multiple or complex behaviors are required to earn rewards (Niv et al., 2006; Dayan and Niv, 2008; Niv and Schoenbaum, 2008). Most electrophysiological studies have focused on the averaged activity of dopamine neurons during reward prediction error signaling in simple behavioral paradigms. Thus, VTA neuronal correlates of executive processes and complex behavior remain elusive. In the current experiment, rats learned to repetitively execute actions (nose pokes) to receive rewarding outcomes (sugar pellets). These actions were randomly rewarded, and all actions were identically valued because each was equally likely to be reinforced. Actions differed only by their number within a trial. While animals executed serial actions, many VTA neurons were activated or suppressed by unique subsets of actions within a trial. Some neurons fired preferentially during low numbered actions while others preferred high numbered actions. A population averaging approach, which is conventionally used for analysis of dopaminergic neuronal activity, offered poor decoding of action number. In contrast, action number within a trial was accurately decoded from the entire pool of unique activity patterns, considering each neuron independently. These results suggest that the collective activity of VTA neuronal ensembles signals real-time information about ongoing action number—a critical component of behavioral organization.
Modelling and forecasting of glaucomatous visual fields using genetic algorithms

The prediction of visual field deterioration in patients who are suffering from normal tension glaucoma plays an important role in the management of the disease. The Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) process appears to be an appropriate way of modelling the multivariate time series data from the visual fields. However, standard parameterisation techniques such as the Yule-Walker equations for building a VAR model place a restriction on the minimum length of time series observations. In this paper genetic algorithms are suggested as a way of finding the order and estimating the parameters for the VAR process. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, the VAR process in S-Plus, the Holt-Winters forecasting method, and a pure noise model are applied to the same set of visual field data.
Phylogenetic Analyses in Cornus Substantiate Ancestry of Xylem Supercooling Freezing Behavior and Reveal Lineage of Desiccation Related Proteins

The response of woody plant tissues to freezing temperature has evolved into two distinct behaviors: an avoidance strategy, in which intracellular water supercools, and a freeze-tolerance strategy, where cells tolerate the loss of water to extracellular ice. Although both strategies involve extracellular ice formation, supercooling cells are thought to resist freeze-induced dehydration. Dehydrin proteins, which accumulate during cold acclimation in numerous herbaceous and woody plants, have been speculated to provide, among other things, protection from desiccative extracellular ice formation. Here we use Cornus as a model system to provide the first phylogenetic characterization of xylem freezing behavior and dehydrin-like proteins. Our data suggest that both freezing behavior and the accumulation of dehydrin-like proteins in Cornus are lineage related; supercooling and nonaccumulation of dehydrin-like proteins are ancestral within the genus. The nonsupercooling strategy evolved within the blue- or white-fruited subgroup where representative species exhibit high levels of freeze tolerance. Within the blue- or white-fruited lineage, a single origin of dehydrin-like proteins was documented and displayed a trend for size increase in molecular mass. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that an early divergent group of red-fruited supercooling dogwoods lack a similar protein. Dehydrin-like proteins were limited to neither nonsupercooling species nor to those that possess extreme freeze tolerance.
Scale-based diffusive image filtering preserving boundary sharpness and fine structures

Image acquisition techniques often suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and/or contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Although many acquisition techniques are available to minimize these, post acquisition filtering is a major off-line image processing technique commonly used to improve the SNR and CNR. A major drawback of filtering is that it often diffuses/blurs important structures along with noise. Here, the authors introduce two scale-based filtering methods that use local structure size or "object scale" information to arrest smoothing around fine structures and across even low-gradient boundaries. The first of these methods uses a weighted average over a scale-dependent neighborhood while the other employs scale-dependent diffusion conductance to perform filtering. Both methods adaptively modify the degree of filtering at any image location depending on local object scale. Object scale allows the authors to accurately use a restricted homogeneity parameter for filtering in regions with fine details and in the vicinity of boundaries while a generous parameter in the interiors of homogeneous regions. Qualitative experiments based on both phantoms and patient magnetic resonance images show significant improvements using the scale-based methods over the extant anisotropic diffusive filtering method in preserving fine details and sharpness of object boundaries. Quantitative analyses utilizing 25 phantom images generated under a range of conditions of blurring, noise, and background variation confirm the superiority of the new scale-based approaches.
Tim14, a novel key component of the import motor of the TIM23 protein translocase of mitochondria

The TIM23 translocase mediates the ΔΨ‐ and ATP‐dependent import of proteins into mitochondria. We identified Tim14 as a novel component of the TIM23 translocase. Tim14 is an integral protein of the inner membrane with a typical J‐domain exposed to the matrix space. TIM14 genes are present in the genomes of virtually all eukaryotes. In yeast, Tim14 is essential for viability. Mitochondria from cells depleted of Tim14 are deficient in the import of proteins mediated by the TIM23 complex. In particular, import of proteins that require the action of mtHsp70 is affected. Tim14 interacts with Tim44 and mtHsp70 in an ATP‐dependent manner. A mutation in the HPD motif of the J‐domain of Tim14 is lethal. Thus, Tim14 is a constituent of the mitochondrial import motor. We propose a model in which Tim14 is required for the activation of mtHsp70 and enables this chaperone to act in a rapid and regulated manner in the Tim44‐mediated trapping of unfolded preproteins entering the matrix.
Response Inhibition during Cue Reactivity in Problem Gamblers: An fMRI Study

Disinhibition over drug use, enhanced salience of drug use and decreased salience of natural reinforcers are thought to play an important role substance dependence. Whether this is also true for pathological gambling is unclear. To understand the effects of affective stimuli on response inhibition in problem gamblers (PRGs), we designed an affective Go/Nogo to examine the interaction between response inhibition and salience attribution in 16 PRGs and 15 healthy controls (HCs). Four affective blocks were presented with Go trials containing neutral, gamble, positive or negative affective pictures. The No-Go trials in these blocks contained neutral pictures. Outcomes of interest included percentage of impulsive errors and mean reaction times in the different blocks. Brain activity related to No-Go trials was assessed to measure response inhibition in the various affective conditions and brain activity related to Go trials was assessed to measure salience attribution. PRGs made fewer errors during gamble and positive trials than HCs, but were slower during all trials types. Compared to HCs, PRGs activated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and ventral striatum to a greater extent while viewing gamble pictures. The dorsal lateral and inferior frontal cortex were more activated in PRGs than in HCs while viewing positive and negative pictures. During neutral inhibition, PRGs were slower but similar in accuracy to HCs, and showed more dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex activity. In contrast, during gamble and positive pictures PRGs performed better than HCs, and showed lower activation of the dorsolateral and anterior cingulate cortex. This study shows that gambling-related stimuli are more salient for PRGs than for HCs. PRGs seem to rely on compensatory brain activity to achieve similar performance during neutral response inhibition. A gambling-related or positive context appears to facilitate response inhibition as indicated by lower brain activity and fewer behavioural errors in PRGs.
Bacteria Localization and Chorion Thinning among Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes

Objective Bacterial colonization of the fetal membranes and its role in pathogenesis of membrane rupture is poorly understood. Prior retrospective work revealed chorion layer thinning in preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) subjects. Our objective was to prospectively examine fetal membrane chorion thinning and to correlate to bacterial presence in PPROM, preterm, and term subjects. Study Design Paired membrane samples (membrane rupture and membrane distant) were prospectively collected from: PPROM = 14, preterm labor (PTL = 8), preterm no labor (PTNL = 8), term labor (TL = 10), and term no labor (TNL = 8), subjects. Sections were probed with cytokeratin to identify fetal trophoblast layer of the chorion using immunohistochemistry. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed using broad range 16 s ribosomal RNA probe. Images were evaluated, chorion and choriodecidua were measured, and bacterial fluorescence scored. Chorion thinning and bacterial presence were compared among and between groups using Student's t-test, linear mixed effect model, and Poisson regression model (SAS Cary, NC). Results In all groups, the fetal chorion cellular layer was thinner at rupture compared to distant site (147.2 vs. 253.7 µm, p<0.0001). Further, chorion thinning was greatest among PPROM subjects compared to all other groups combined, regardless of site sampled [PPROM(114.9) vs. PTL(246.0) vs. PTNL(200.8) vs. TL(217.9) vs. TNL(246.5)]. Bacteria counts were highest among PPROM subjects compared to all other groups regardless of site sampled or histologic infection [PPROM(31) vs. PTL(9) vs. PTNL(7) vs. TL(7) vs. TNL(6)]. Among all subjects at both sites, bacterial counts were inversely correlated with chorion thinning, even excluding histologic chorioamnionitis (p<0.0001 and p = 0.05). Conclusions Fetal chorion was uniformly thinner at rupture site compared to distant sites. In PPROM fetal chorion, we demonstrated pronounced global thinning. Although cause or consequence is uncertain, bacterial presence is greatest and inversely correlated with chorion thinning among PPROM subjects.
The Effect of Movement Education Program on Static Balance Skills of Pre-School Children

This study aimed at evaluating the effect of movement education program on static balance skills of preschool children (5-7 years). 80 preschool children in total - 40 in experimental group (20 males and 20 females) and 40 (20 males and 20 females) in control group - were included in this project. While children in the experimental group were administered the movement education program for one hour and three days per a week during 3 months, control group received the regular curriculum. The movement education program was composed of fundamental motor skills, posture exercises and games. Static balance platform was used to assess the static balance ability. SPSS package program was utilized for the statistical analyses. Independent T Test was conducted to compare the results of experimental and control groups. Paired Samples T Test was used for differences between pre- and post-tests in both groups. Significance level was taken as (p<0.05). According to the results of the statistical analysis; the static balance values of the experiment group in the pre- and post- tests were found significant (p<0.001) while the static balance values of the control group in the pre- and post- tests were not found significant (p<0.05). The final static balance test values were found significant for the experiment group (p<0.001). The results tell us that movement education program which was implemented positively affected static balance of preschool children.
Performance Analysis of Uplink Cognitive Cellular Networks with Opportunistic Scheduling

In this letter, we investigate the performance of uplink cognitive cellular networks with opportunistic scheduling with respect to the mean capacity and the average bit error rate (BER) of the scheduled cognitive user (CU). In the considered system, both CUs and the primary user (PU) share the same base station (BS). In contrast to existing CU scheduling schemes, the CU which causes the minimum interference to the PU is selected for transmission. Besides, the transmit power of the selected CU should also satisfy the outage probability requirement of the PU. An interesting observation is that both the mean capacity and the upper bound on the average BER of the scheduled CU are independent of the number of CUs and the transmit power of the PU.
A Colour Opponent Model That Explains Tsetse Fly Attraction to Visual Baits and Can Be Used to Investigate More Efficacious Bait Materials

Palpalis group tsetse flies are the major vectors of human African trypanosomiasis, and visually-attractive targets and traps are important tools for their control. Considerable efforts are underway to optimise these visual baits, and one factor that has been investigated is coloration. Analyses of the link between visual bait coloration and tsetse fly catches have used methods which poorly replicate sensory processing in the fly visual system, but doing so would allow the visual information driving tsetse attraction to these baits to be more fully understood, and the reflectance spectra of candidate visual baits to be more completely analysed. Following methods well established for other species, I reanalyse the numbers of tsetse flies caught at visual baits based upon the calculated photoreceptor excitations elicited by those baits. I do this for large sets of previously published data for Glossina fuscipes fuscipes (Lindh et al. (2012). PLoS Negl Trop Dis 6: e1661), G. palpalis palpalis (Green (1988). Bull Ent Res 78: 591), and G. pallidipes (Green and Flint (1986). Bull Ent Res 76: 409). Tsetse attraction to visual baits in these studies can be explained by a colour opponent mechanism to which the UV-blue photoreceptor R7y contributes positively, and both the green-yellow photoreceptor R8y, and the low-wavelength UV photoreceptor R7p, contribute negatively. A tool for calculating fly photoreceptor excitations is made available with this paper, and this will facilitate a complete and biologically authentic description of visual bait reflectance spectra that can be employed in the search for more efficacious visual baits, or the analysis of future studies of tsetse fly attraction.
Predicting and understanding law-making with word vectors and an ensemble model

Out of nearly 70,000 bills introduced in the U.S. Congress from 2001 to 2015, only 2,513 were enacted. We developed a machine learning approach to forecasting the probability that any bill will become law. Starting in 2001 with the 107th Congress, we trained models on data from previous Congresses, predicted all bills in the current Congress, and repeated until the 113th Congress served as the test. For prediction we scored each sentence of a bill with a language model that embeds legislative vocabulary into a high-dimensional, semantic-laden vector space. This language representation enables our investigation into which words increase the probability of enactment for any topic. To test the relative importance of text and context, we compared the text model to a context-only model that uses variables such as whether the bill’s sponsor is in the majority party. To test the effect of changes to bills after their introduction on our ability to predict their final outcome, we compared using the bill text and meta-data available at the time of introduction with using the most recent data. At the time of introduction context-only predictions outperform text-only, and with the newest data text-only outperforms context-only. Combining text and context always performs best. We conducted a global sensitivity analysis on the combined model to determine important variables predicting enactment.
Evaluating A New Call System

This paper looks at the results of questionnaires administered to students in the Faculty of Communication at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (NUCB) over the past two years. The aim of the questionnaires is to gauge student reaction to a new Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) system purchased by the university. The system came into use in both the Faculty of Communication and the Self-Access Center (SAC) in April 2009. The questionnaire results give us a clearer picture as to what role this particular CALL system is playing in the enhancement of students’ language learning, and independent study in particular. They also help in planning for future development in the language program as a whole.
Bves is expressed in the epithelial components of the retina, lens, and cornea.

PURPOSE To demonstrate the expression pattern and subcellular localization of Bves/Pop1a protein, a newly identified cell adhesion molecule, during eye development and corneal regeneration. METHODS Staged embryonic and adult eyes were assayed using fluorescence immunohistochemistry to detect the Bves protein. A human corneal epithelial (HCE) cell line was used as a model to examine Bves localization during corneal growth and regeneration, with and without antisense morpholino treatment. RESULTS The data detail the expression and localization of Bves protein before, during, and after differentiation of the eye. In these analyses, Bves was localized to an apical-lateral position in the initial epithelial primordia of the eye. Later, Bves became localized to specific cell types and subcellular domains in the retina, lens, and cornea, indicating changes in Bves expression in the differentiated eye. Finally, an in vitro model of corneal wound healing showed that Bves staining was missing at the epithelial surface during cellular migration across the wound, but it reappeared at points of cell contact during the reinitiation of epithelial continuity. When epithelial sheets were treated with Bves antisense morpholinos to inhibit Bves function, disruption of epithelial integrity was observed. After injury, similar treatment resulted in an acceleration of cell movement at the wound surface but regeneration of an intact epithelium was ultimately impeded. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, these studies suggest that Bves is expressed in epithelial elements of the developing eye and may have a role in corneal epithelial growth and regeneration.