Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The bumble bee microbiome increases survival of bees exposed to selenate toxicity.

Bumble bees are important and widespread insect pollinators who face many environmental challenges. For example, bees are exposed to the metalloid selenate when foraging on pollen and nectar from plants growing in contaminated soils. As it has been shown that the microbiome of animals reduces metalloid toxicity, we assayed the ability of the bee microbiome to increase survivorship against selenate challenge. We exposed uninoculated or microbiota-inoculated Bombus impatiens workers to a field-realistic dose of 0.75 mg l-1 selenate and found that microbiota-inoculated bees survive slightly but significantly longer than uninoculated bees. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we found that selenate exposure altered gut microbial community composition and relative abundance of specific core bacteria. We also grew two core bumble bee microbes - Snodgrassella alvi and Lactobacillus bombicola - in selenate-spiked media and found that these bacteria grew in the tested concentrations of 0.001-10 mg l-1 selenate. Furthermore, the genomes of these microbes harbour genes involved in selenate detoxification. The bumble bee microbiome slightly increases survivorship when the host is exposed to selenate, but the specific mechanisms and colony-level benefits under natural settings require further study.
Effect of Macroalgal Expansion and Marine Protected Areas on Coral Recovery Following a Climatic Disturbance

Disturbance plays an important role in structuring marine ecosystems, and there is a need to understand how conservation practices, such as the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), facilitate postdisturbance recovery. We evaluated the association of MPAs, herbivorous fish biomass, substrate type, postdisturbance coral cover, and change in macroalgal cover with coral recovery on the fringing reefs of the inner Seychelle islands, where coral mortality after a 1998 bleaching event was extensive. We visually estimated benthic cover and fish biomass at 9 sites in MPAs where fishing is banned and at 12 sites where fishing is permitted in 1994, 2005, 2008, and 2011. We used analysis of variance to examine spatial and temporal variations in coral cover and generalized additive models to identify relations between coral recovery and the aforementioned factors that may promote recovery. Coral recovery occurred on all substrate types, but it was highly variable among sites and times. Between 2005 and 2011 the increase in coral cover averaged 1%/year across 21 sites, and the maximum increase was 4%/year. However, mean coral cover across the study area (14%) remained at half of 1994 levels (28%). Sites within MPAs had faster rates of coral recovery than sites in fished areas only where cover of macroalgae was low and had not increased over time. In MPAs where macroalgae cover expanded since 1998 there was no recovery. Where coral was recovering on granite reefs there was a shift in relative prevalence of colony life‐form from branching to encrusting species. This simplification of reef structure may affect associated reef fauna even if predisturbance levels of coral cover are attained.
UBC‐Nepal expedition: phenotypical evidence for evolutionary adaptation in the control of cerebral blood flow and oxygen delivery at high altitude

Sherpa have lived in the Nepal Himalaya for 25–40 thousand years and display positive physiological adaptations to hypoxia. Sherpa have previously been demonstrated to suffer less negative cerebral side effects of ascent to extreme altitude, yet little is known as to whether or not they display differential regulation of oxygen delivery to the brain compared to lowland natives. We demonstrate that Sherpa have lower brain blood flow during ascent to and acclimatization at high altitude compared to lowlanders and that this difference in flow is not attributable to factors such as mean arterial pressure, blood viscosity and pH. The observed lower cerebral oxygen delivery in Sherpa likely represents a positive adaptation that may indicate a cerebral hypometabolic conservation of energy at altitude and/or decreased risk of other cerebral consequences such as vasogenic oedema.
Soluble RANKL Cleaved from Activated Lymphocytes by TNF-α–Converting Enzyme Contributes to Osteoclastogenesis in Periodontitis

Host immune responses play a key role in promoting bone resorption in periodontitis via receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL)–dependent osteoclastogenesis. Both membrane-bound RANKL (mRANKL) expressed on lymphocytes and soluble RANKL (sRANKL) are found in periodontal lesions. However, the underlying mechanism and cellular source of sRANKL release and its biological role in periodontitis are unclear. TNF-α–converting enzyme (TACE) is reported to cleave the following: 1) precursor TNF-α with release of mature, soluble TNF-α and 2) mRANKL with release of sRANKL. Both soluble TNF-α and sRANKL are found in the periodontitis lesion, leading to the hypothesis that TACE expressed on lymphocytes is engaged in RANKL shedding and that the resulting sRANKL induces osteoclastogenesis. In the current study, upon stimulating PBLs with mitogens in vitro, RANKL expression, sRANKL secretion, and TACE expression were all upregulated. Among the four putative mRANKL sheddases examined in neutralization assays, TACE was the only functional sheddase able to cleave mRANKL expressed on PBL. Moreover, PBL culture supernatant stimulated with mitogens in the presence of anti-TACE Ab or anti-RANKL Ab showed a marked reduction of osteoclastogenesis from osteoclast precursors, indicating that TACE-mediated sRANKL may possess sufficient osteoclastogenic activity. According to double-color confocal microscopy, B cells expressed a more pronounced level of RANKL and TACE expression than T cells or monocytes in periodontally diseased gingiva. Conditioned medium of patients’ gingival lymphocyte culture increased in vitro osteoclastogenic activity, which was suppressed by the addition of anti-TACE Ab and anti-RANKL Ab. Therefore, TACE-mediated cleavage of sRANKL from activated lymphocytes, especially B cells, can promote osteoclastogenesis in periodontitis.
Therapeutic Effects of Curcumin on Ultrasonic Morphological Characteristics of Liver in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome (METS) represent a simultaneous presence of multiple metabolic disorders in one person. Prevalence is increasing worldwide, which is probably related to increased obesity and sedentary lifestyle. Non-alcoholic steatosis or “fatty liver” is a metabolic disease caused by fat dysfunction. It can be a sign of some other disease, and can often be found in patients with metabolic disorders. Ultrasound is an acceptable method for the identification of fatty steatosis. There is evidence that when turmeric is used as a herbal diet, with its active metabolite of curcumin, can repair fatty acidosis and thus prevent progression of fatty steatosis complications such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Goal. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of 400 mg curcuminaddition to the nutrition on ultrasound morphological characteristics of the liver in METS patients. Methodology: A prospective cohort study was conducted on 100 subjects with METS, treated in the family medicine practice of the Tuzla Canton, aged 35-70 years. The therapeutic effects of 400 mg curcumin on ultrasound-morphological characteristics of the liver were followed, validated by ultrasound in 50 respondents of experimental groups with METS. The data were processed by the IBM SPSS Statistics 21 statistical analysis program using parametric techniques andStudent’s t-test for paired samples. Results: There were 65% of women in the study. There were no statistically significant differences in the age of respondents within the analyzed groups. The use of 400 mg curcumin per day was statistically significantly improved ultrasound morphological characteristics of the liver in subjects with METS. Conclusion: All respondents with METS who used curcumin had beneficial effects on the morphological characteristics of the liver. Curcumin had stronger effects on subjects with METS and DM type 2 than others.
Efficacy of submucosal bupivacaine injection for pain relief after endoscopic submucosal dissection

Background and aim: Although abdominal pain is a common adverse event related to endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), it can be sometimes underestimated by endoscopists. There are some endoscopic interventions available for the prevention of post-ESD pain, but their efficacy has not been established. We investigated whether a submucosal injection of bupivacaine (BP) can reduce procedure-related abdominal pain compared with the standard method. Methods: We performed a multicenter, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial of 86 adult patients referred for ESD as treatment for gastric neoplasms. Patients were randomly assigned to either the BP submucosal or conventional solution group. Questionnaires were collected when the study began (baseline) and immediately after ESD, as well as at 6, 12, and 24 hours post-operatively. The primary outcome was indicated by the visual analog scale (VAS) evaluated at 6 hours after procedure. Results: There were no significant differences in primary outcomes between groups and among all time points (immediately, 12, and 24 hours after ESD). The VAS and short-form McGill pain (SF-MP) scores were higher immediately after ESD than at 6, 12, or 24 hours post-operatively. The incidence of abdominal pain immediately after ESD was 94.0% (78/83) for all patients of both groups, and there was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the rate of abdominal pain immediately after ESD (BP group 37/40 [92.5%] versus non-BP group 41/43 [95.3%], P = .934). In univariable and multivariable analyses, BP did not have protective effect on post-ESD abdominal pain. Conclusions: Submucosal BP injection does not promote pain relief or mitigate the effects of post-ESD abdominal pain.
Alternative Splicing in Angiogenesis

Alternative splicing of pre-mRNA allows the generation of multiple splice isoforms from a given gene, which can have distinct functions. In fact, splice isoforms can have opposing functions and there are many instances whereby a splice isoform acts as an inhibitor of canonical isoform function, thereby adding an additional layer of regulation to important processes. Angiogenesis is an important process that is governed by alternative splicing mechanisms. This review focuses on the alternative spliced isoforms of key genes that are involved in the angiogenesis process; VEGF-A, VEGFR1, VEGFR2, NRP-1, FGFRs, Vasohibin-1, Vasohibin-2, HIF-1α, Angiopoietin-1 and Angiopoietin-2.
Proceedings of the Pacific Knowledge Acquisition Workshop 2004

This is a proceeding of PKAW knowledge acqusition workshop Table of Contents Active Learning Finding cue expressions for knowledge extraction from scientific text: 1 early results Masashi Shimbo, Sayaka Tamamori and Yuji Matsumoto Mining Diagnostic Taxonomy for Multi-Stage Medical Diagnosis 14 Shusaku Tsumoto Constructing Compact Dual Ensembles for Efficient Active Learning 29 Huan Liu, Amit Mandvikar and Hiroshi Motoda Ripple Down Rules: Incremental Knowledge Acquisition Generalising Incremental Knowledge Acquisition 44 Paul Compton, Tri Minh Cao and Julian Kerr Knowledge Acquisition Module for Conversational Agents 54 Pauline Mak, Byeong HoKang, Claude Sammut and Waleed Kadous Personalized Web Document Classification using MCRDR 63 Sungsik Park, Yangsok Kim and ByeongHo Kang Achieving Rapid Knowledge Acquisition in a High-Volume Call Centre 74 Megan Vazey and Debbie Richards Acquisition of Articulable Tacit Knowledge 87 Peter Busch and Debbie Richards Knowledge Acquisition Tools Incremental Knowledge Acquisition using RDR for Soccer Simulation. 102 Angela Finlayson and Paul Compton Domain Ontology Construction with Quality Refinement 116 Takeshi Morita, Yoshihiro Shigeta, Naoki Sugiura, Naoki Fukuta, Noriaki Izumi and Takahira Yamaguchi Developing an Intelligent Learning Tool 127 for Knowledge Acquisition on Problem-based Discussion Akcell Chiang, Isaac Pak-Wah Fung and R. H. Kemp View of Knowledge Acquisition / Evaluate Knowledge Acquisition methods Towards Acquiring and Refining Class Hierarchy Design of 143 Web Application Integration Software Naoki Fukuta, Mayumi Ueno, Noriaki Izumi and Takahira Yamaguchi Consideration on 'Educationality' of Knowledge Acquisition 158 Support Systems Toshiro Minami A Comparative Study on Cost and Benefit of Capturing Design 172 Rationale Yoshikiyo Kato and Koichi Hori Knowledge Acquisition and Machine Learning Using Neural Network to Weight the Partial Rules: 183 Application to Classification of Dopamine Antagonist Molecules Sukree Sinthupinyo, Cholwich Nattee, Masayuki Numao, Takashi Okada and Boonserm Kijsirikul Future Directions in Adapting GAs using Knowledge Acquisition 196 J.P. Bekmann and Achim Hoffmann Incremental Learning of Control Knowledge for Lung Boundary Extraction 211 Avishkar Misra, Arcot Sowmya and Paul Compton E-Mail Document Categorization Using BayesTH-MCRDR Algorithm: 226 Empirical Analysis and Comparison with Other Document Classification Methods Woo-Chul Cho and Debbie Richards Detecting the Knowledge Frontier: An Error Predicting Knowledge 241 Based System Richard Peter Dazeley and Byeong Ho Kang
The Tarantula Toxin Psalmotoxin 1 Inhibits Acid-sensing Ion Channel (ASIC) 1a by Increasing Its Apparent H+ Affinity

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are ion channels activated by extracellular protons. They are involved in higher brain functions and perception of pain, taste, and mechanical stimuli. Homomeric ASIC1a is potently inhibited by the tarantula toxin psalmotoxin 1. The mechanism of this inhibition is unknown. Here we show that psalmotoxin 1 inhibits ASIC1a by a unique mechanism: the toxin increases the apparent affinity for H+ of ASIC1a. Since ASIC1a is activated by H+ concentrations that are only slightly larger than the resting H+ concentration, this increase in H+ affinity is sufficient to shift ASIC1a channels into the desensitized state. As activation of ASIC1a has recently been linked to neurodegeneration associated with stroke, our results suggest chronic desensitization of ASIC1a by a slight increase of its H+ affinity as a possible way of therapeutic intervention in stroke.
A Novel Connection between Rods and ON Cone Bipolar Cells Revealed by Ectopic Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 7 (mGluR7) in mGluR6-Deficient Mouse Retinas

Since the discovery of direct chemical synapses between rod photoreceptor and OFF cone bipolar cells in mouse retinas, whether the ON cone bipolar cell also receive direct chemical input from rod has been a pending question. In finding that metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7) was uniquely expressed in dendrites of ON cone bipolar cells in the mGluR6-deficient mouse retina, we used this ectopic mGluR7 immunoreactivity as a specific marker for the ON cone bipolar to search for its rod connection. Here, we show that a certain type of ON cone bipolar cell forms ribbon-associated synapses not only with cones, but also rods. This finding was verified in the wild-type mouse retina by three-dimensional reconstruction of bipolar cells from serial electron micrographs. These ON cone bipolars were further identified as corresponding to type 7 of mouse bipolar cell described by Ghosh et al. (2004) and also to the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled type 7 bipolars in the α-gustducin-GFP transgenic mouse. Our findings suggest that, in mice, rod signals bifurcate into a third ON and OFF pathway in addition to the two known routes to cone bipolar cells: (1) via rod chemical synapse → rod bipolar → AII amacrine → ON and OFF cone bipolar cells; (2) via rod–cone gap junction → cone chemical synapse → ON and OFF cone bipolar cells; and (3) via rod chemical synapse → ON and OFF cone bipolar cells. This third novel pathway is thought to transmit fast and moderately light-sensitive rod signals, functioning to smooth out the intensity changes at the scotopic–mesopic interface.
Communications on Stochastic Analysis Communications on Stochastic Analysis

This is a survey of results about permanental processes, real valued positive processes which are a generalization of squares of Gaussian processes. In a certain sense the symmetric positive de(cid:12)nite function that determines a Gaussian process is replaced by a function that is not necessarily symmetric nor positive de(cid:12)nite, but that nevertheless determines a stochastic process. This is a new avenue of research with very many open problems.
Body composition and physical activity in end-stage renal disease.

OBJECTIVE The study objective was to examine the relationship between visceral and somatic protein stores and physical activity in individuals with end-stage renal disease. DESIGN This was a prospective single-center study. SETTING The study took place at the Vanderbilt University Outpatient Dialysis Unit and General Clinical Research Center. PATIENTS Fifty-five patients with prevalent chronic hemodialysis (CHD) were included: 33 males, 22 females, 45 African Americans, 9 Caucasians, and 1 Asian. The mean age was 47.0 +/- 1.6 years, height was 166.4 +/- 13.9 cm, and weight was 83.1 +/- 2.6 kg. METHODS Body composition was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Minute-by-minute physical activity was assessed over a 7-day period with a triaxial accelerometer. Participants were interviewed by a trained registered dietitian for two 24-hour diet recalls (one from a hemodialysis day; one from a nonhemodialysis day). Laboratory values for serum concentrations of albumin, prealbumin, C-reactive protein, and creatinine were also collected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Predictors of somatic protein stores were the main outcome measure. RESULTS Serum albumin was negatively and significantly correlated with the percentage of fat mass (P = .016) and kg of fat mass (P = .044). C-reactive protein was positively and significantly correlated with body weight (P = .006), percentage of fat mass (P = .017), kg of fat mass (P = .006), and body mass index (P = .004). Physical activity and total daily protein intake were the strongest predictors of the amount of lean body mass (P = .01 and .003, respectively). CONCLUSION The association between somatic protein and visceral protein stores is weak in patients with CHD. Whereas increased levels of physical activity and total daily protein intake are associated with higher lean body mass in patients with CHD, higher adiposity is associated with higher C-reactive protein and lower albumin values.
Path planning for cooperative underwater range-only navigation using a single beacon

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that rely on dead reckoning suffer from unbounded localization error growth at a rate dependent on the quality (and cost) of the navigational sensors. Many AUVs surface occasionally to get a GPS position update. Alternatively underwater acoustic beacons such as long baseline (LBL) arrays are used for localization, at the cost of substantial deployment effort. The idea of cooperative localization with a few vehicles with high navigation accuracy (beacon vehicles) among a team of AUVs with poor navigational sensors has recently gained interest. Autonomous surface crafts (ASCs) with GPS, or sophisticated AUVs with expensive navigational sensors may play the role of beacon vehicles. Other AUVs are able to measure their range to these acoustically, and use the resulting information for self-localization. Since a single range measurement is insufficient for unambiguous localization, multiple beacon vehicles are usually required. In this paper, we explore the use of a single beacon vehicle to support multiple AUVs. We develop path planning algorithms for the beacon vehicle that take into account and minimize the errors being accumulated by other AUVs. We show that the generated beacon vehicle path enables the other AUVs to get sufficient information to keep their localization errors bounded over time.
Feasibility of coal combustion fly ash alone and in combination with gypsum and green manure for reclamation of degraded sodic soils of the Indo‐Gangetic Plains: A mechanism evaluation

The disposal of coal combustion fly ash (FA) generated from thermal power plants is a worldwide problem. However, its low bulk density and presence of calcium and iron–aluminium sesquioxide make it a prospective ameliorant alternative to gypsum for amending degraded sodic soils. A field experiment consisting of eight treatments with variable doses of FA and gypsum along with green manure (GM) was conducted for evaluating the amelioration mechanism by measuring changes in pH, exchangeable sodium percentage, zeta (ζ) potential, and properties of meso‐aggregates (0.5–2.0 mm). The results showed that compared with control, FA significantly reduced ζ‐potential, bulk density, and pH. The GM with FA further decreased ζ‐potential and increased hydraulic conductivity. The hydrolysis of iron and aluminium sesquioxide, present in FA, functioned to lower soil pH, whereas the reduction in exchangeable sodium percentage is attributed to bioavailable Ca (27.4%). A lower FA application rate produced better crop yields. FA 2.5% (w/w) alone, compared to the FA 5% (w/w), resulted in higher yield of rice (1.96 tonnes ha−1), whereas 25% gypsum requirement (25GR) + FA 2.5% (w/w) and 25GR + FA 2.5% (w/w) + GM provided wheat yield on par with 50% gypsum requirement (50GR). The study identifies that where gypsum is scarce, the recommended amendment is 25GR + FA 2.5% or 25GR + FA 2.5% + GM when applied for sodic soil to achieve a similar yield response to standard 50GR. If gypsum is unavailable, a one‐time application of FA 2.5% (w/w) alone will improve the productivity of degraded sodic soils corresponding to more exchangeable calcium and organic carbon, which were found to be higher for meso‐aggregates (0.5–2.0 mm).
A new modeling of Matlab transformer for accurate simulation of ferroresonance

The main aim of this paper is to present a new modelling of transformers in Simulink/Matlab enabling to simulate slow transients more accurate than the existing models used in the software. In this paper, first several types of transformer cores and their magnetic behaviors are described. Next, for accurate simulation of slow transients, extended transformer models based on duality principle of magnetic circuits is introduced. Then, two conventional three- and five-legged core transformers are simulated in Simulink/Matlab and in order to verify accuracy of models, simulation results are compared with those obtained from measurements. Finally, ferroresonance simulations are examined by both the proposed models and existing transformer models in Matlab/Simulink. The comparison clearly shows inability of existing transformer models to study slow transients for transformers.
Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-down Movement and Rural Education in China: Further Reply

This paper estimates the effects on rural education of the send-down movement during the Cultural Revolution, when about 16 million urban youth were mandated to resettle in the countryside. Using a county-level dataset compiled from local gazetteers and population censuses, we show that greater exposure to the sent-down youths significantly increased rural children’s educational achievement. This positive effect diminished after the urban youth left the countryside in the late 1970s but never disappeared. Rural children who interacted with the sent-down youths were also more likely to pursue more-skilled occupations, marry later, and have smaller families than those who did not. (JEL I21, J13, J24, N35, O15, P36, R23)