Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shell structure and affinity of vermiform ‘gastropods’

Vermiform ‘gastropods’ are reported from a variety of rocks ranging from Givetian to Lower Triassic age. Examples encrusting shells and plants have been identified in non-marine shales, in addition to previously recognized occurrences in shallow marine microbial bioherms and stromatolites. SEM studies of the planorbiform or trochiform protoeonch reveal a shell wall comprising three calcite layers: an outer, initial acicular layer: a blocky prismatic layer: and an inner irregular micro-lamellar layer. Minor irregularities and microstructural details suggest a high original organic content. allowing flexibility for attachment. The sinistrally coiled (or hyperstrophic dextral) calcitie teleoconch is composed of an outer simple prismatic layer and inner micro-lamellar layer comprising sheets of irregular, platy, sometimes fused calcite tablets. displaying ridges and grooves similar to those of cross-bladed fabric. Repetition of layers may occur. Regular closely-spaced punctae. passing through and disrupting the micro-lamellar layer. are unlike any mollusean tubulation. Punetation may he a shell-strengthening response to uncoiling. Septa bear a centrai, anteriorly-projecting, probebly perforate protrusion. reminiscent of the siphunele of cephalopods and similar structures in tentaculitoida. The micro-lamellar layer in the protoconch, the micro-lamellar layer with distinctive ridge and groove structure and punetation in the teleoconch, and the structure of the septa point to a close affinity between vermiform ‘gastropods’ and the Tentaculitoidea. The three-layered microstructure of the protoconch and the coiled nature of the shell distinguish vermiform ‘gastropods’ from tentaculitoids. A consideration of the shared characters indicates that the tentaculitoids and vermiform ‘gastropods’ should be regarded as a sister group to the molluses. ***Vermiform gastropods: microstructure, protoconch, teleoconch, acicular laver, prismatic laver, micro-lameller layer. cross-bladed structure. punetation, septation. Tentaculitoidea
Model of familiarity discrimination in the brain – efficiency , speed and robustness

Results of psychological and neurological experiments suggest that familiarity discrimination (recognising whether a stimulus is familiar or novel) is distinct from recall (recognising the stimulus itself). The perirhinal cortex, part of the temporal lobe, has been shown to be essential in familiarity discrimination. Here, we describe a neural network model of the perirhinal cortex. The spike trains of the simulated neurons of the spike-response version of the model are virtually indistinguishable from those recorded from monkeys’ brains. The network is very efficient, it achieves such high compression of information that it may explain how the comparatively small perirhinal cortex can discriminate familiarity for a much larger number of stimuli than can be recalled by the remaining areas of the cortex. It is also very fast – although so high capacity, it may compute familiarity within 10 ms. The network is very robust to damage and noise as well.
Automatic linguistic segmentation of conversational speech

As speech recognition moves toward more unconstrained domains such as conversational speech, we encounter a need to be able to segment (or resegment) waveforms and recognizer output into linguistically meaningful units such a sentences. Toward this end, we present a simple automatic segmenter of transcripts based on N-gram language modeling. We also study the relevance of several word-level features for segmentation performance. Using only word-level information, we achieve 85% recall and 70% precision on linguistic boundary detection.
Non-erythropoietic tissue-protective peptides derived from erythropoietin: WO2009094172

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a cytokine with erythropoietic and tissue protective activities. Its action as a tissue protective agent requires, however, high dosage that results in limiting side effects associated with abnormally augmented erythropoiesis. Elimination of the erythropoietic activity of EPO while preserving its tissue protective properties was nevertheless achieved in carbamoylated EPO (CEPO), whose therapeutic activity and apparent safety were documented in experimental models of nervous, heart, kidney and other tissue damage, justifying ongoing clinical trials. Here, we review patent application WO2009094172 by Araim Pharmaceuticals, which describes novel EPO-derived peptides having tissue protective but no erythropoietic activity. The preferred peptide, UEQLERALNSS, which mimics the external 3D structure of the helix B of EPO, was shown to exhibit the same spectrum of tissue protective activity as CEPO in several in vivo models. In addition, it could reduce radiation-induced mortality when administered 24 h after irradiation in mice, suggesting its possible utility in emergency situations after mass irradiation casualties. Owing to their low manufacturing cost, high stability and low immunogenicity, such peptides might well offer a superior alternative to CEPO for therapeutic tissue protection in human pathologies and are likely to provide valuable probes to study the molecular mechanisms of EPO-mediated cytoprotection.
Tracers in Hydrology

Preface. Acknowledgements. 1 Introduction. 2 The Integrated Concept of Tracers in Hydrology. 2.1 System approach. 2.2 Definition of tracers. 2.3 Modelling in the context of integrated tracerhydrology. 2.4 Fields of application. 3 Environmental Tracers. 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Stable isotopes of water. 3.3 Stable isotopes in soil. 3.4 Stable isotopes in surface and groundwater. 3.5 The use of environmental isotopes for hydrological system analysis. 3.6 Nitrogen isotopes and origin assignment. 3.7 Age dating. 4 Artificial Tracers. 4.1 Fluorescent tracers. 4.2 Salt tracers. 4.3 Drifting particles as tracers. 4.4 Radioactive tracers. 4.5 Other tracers. 5 Mathematical Modelling of Experimental Data. 5.1 Artificial tracer (ideal) under saturated flow conditions. 5.2 Tracer experiments under unsaturated flow conditions. 5.3 Tracer experiments in streams and rivers. 5.4 Environmental tracer data. 5.5 The goodness-of-fit of a model. 6 Technical Instructions. 6.1 Planning and execution of a tracer study. 6.2 Estimation of tracer injection mass. 6.3 Gauging discharge. 6.4 Chloride method for groundwater recharge estimation. 6.5 Hydrograph separation using the end member mixing analysis (EMMA). 7 Case Studies. 7.1 Groundwater. 7.2 Case studies in the unsaturated zone and in soils. 7.3 Surface water. 7.4 Glaciers. 7.5 Catchment scale. Colour Plate Section. References. Index.
Evidence for the Biosynthesis of Bryostatins by the Bacterial Symbiont “Candidatus Endobugula sertula” of the BryozoanBugula neritina

ABSTRACT The marine bryozoan, Bugula neritina, is the source of the bryostatins, a family of macrocyclic lactones with anticancer activity. Bryostatins have long been suspected to be bacterial products. B. neritina harbors the uncultivated gamma proteobacterial symbiont “Candidatus Endobugula sertula. ” In this work several lines of evidence are presented that show that the symbiont is the most likely source of bryostatins. Bryostatins are complex polyketides similar to bacterial secondary metabolites synthesized by modular type I polyketide synthases (PKS-I). PKS-I gene fragments were cloned from DNA extracted from the B. neritina-“E. sertula”association, and then primers specific to one of these clones, KSa, were shown to amplify the KSa gene specifically and universally from total B. neritina DNA. In addition, a KSa RNA probe was shown to bind specifically to the symbiotic bacteria located in the pallial sinus of the larvae of B. neritina and not to B. neritina cells or to other bacteria. Finally,B. neritina colonies grown in the laboratory were treated with antibiotics to reduce the numbers of bacterial symbionts. Decreased symbiont levels resulted in the reduction of the KSa signal as well as the bryostatin content. These data provide evidence that the symbiont E. sertula has the genetic potential to make bryostatins and is necessary in full complement for the host bryozoan to produce normal levels of bryostatins. This study demonstrates that it may be possible to clone bryostatin genes from B. neritina directly and use these to produce bryostatins in heterologous host bacteria.
Occurrence of uraemic autonomic dysfunction in relation to age

Abstract A battery of cardiovascular reflex tests were performed on 20 patients with chronic rena! failure on intermittent haemodialysis, to assess occurrence of parasympathetic and sympathetic abnormalities. Using age‐adjusted confidence limits, elderly uraemics showed more extensive parasympathetic and sympathetic dysfunction than middle‐aged patients. The results suggest that the autonomic nervous system in the elderly is more susceptible to uraemic toxins than in the middle aged. This should lead to better preventive and therapeutic strategies for older uraemics.
Dynamics of late autumn rainfall reduction over southeastern Australia

During 1950–2006, austral autumn rainfall over the south‐eastern Australian state of Victoria decreased by about 40% from its long‐term seasonal average. The dynamics of this decline are not understood. We show that the reduction predominantly occurs in May, with variations of rainfall linked to two sources of sea surface temperature (SST) variability. A higher SST in the Indonesian Throughflow region, which occurs as the Indo‐Pacific system enters into La Niña‐like conditions, is associated with a rainfall increase over northern Victoria. An SST variability pattern with a positive anomaly in the central southern Indian Ocean (IO) and a negative anomaly in the subtropical IO are linked to atmospheric wave‐trains, with a low pressure center over Victoria, is conducive to a rainfall increase. The weakening of the wave‐trains since 1950, and an increase (reduction) in El Niño (La Niña) events, contribute to the rainfall decline. Possible influences from climate change forcing are discussed.
An instability of the Godunov scheme

We construct a solution to a 2 × 2 strictly hyperbolic system of conservation laws, showing that the Godunov scheme [13] can produce an arbitrarily large amount of oscillations. This happens when the speed of a shock is close to rational, inducing a resonance with the grid. Differently from the Glimm scheme or the vanishing‐viscosity method, for systems of conservation laws our counterexample indicates that no a priori BV bounds or L1‐stability estimates can in general be valid for finite difference schemes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Development and Evaluation of a Multi-Year Fractional Surface Water Data Set Derived from Active/Passive Microwave Remote Sensing Data

The sensitivity of Earth’s wetlands to observed shifts in global precipitation and temperature patterns and their ability to produce large quantities of methane gas are key global change questions. We present a microwave satellite-based approach for mapping fractional surface water (FW) globally at 25-km resolution. The approach employs a land cover-supported, atmospherically-corrected dynamic mixture model applied to 20+ years (1992–2013) of combined, daily, passive/active microwave remote sensing data. The resulting product, known as Surface WAter Microwave Product Series (SWAMPS), shows strong microwave sensitivity to sub-grid scale open water and inundated wetlands comprising open plant canopies. SWAMPS’ FW compares favorably (R2 = 91%–94%) with higher-resolution, global-scale maps of open water from MODIS and SRTM-MOD44W. Correspondence of SWAMPS with open water and wetland products from satellite SAR in Alaska and the Amazon deteriorates when exposed wetlands or inundated forests captured by the SAR products were added to the open water fraction reflecting SWAMPS’ inability to detect water underneath the soil surface or beneath closed forest canopies. Except for a brief period of drying during the first 4 years of observation, the inundation extent for the global domain excluding the coast was largely stable. Regionally, inundation in North America is advancing while inundation is on the retreat in Tropical Africa and North Eurasia. SWAMPS provides a consistent and long-term global record of daily FW dynamics, with documented accuracies suitable for hydrologic assessment and global change-related investigations.
Would primary healthcare professionals prescribe a polypill to manage cardiovascular risk? A qualitative interview study

Objectives A ‘polypill’ containing both blood pressure-lowering and cholesterol-lowering drugs could prevent up to 80% of cardiovascular disease events. Since little is known about the attitudes of primary healthcare professionals to use of such a pill for cardiovascular disease prevention, this study aimed to investigate opinions. Design Semistructured interviews were conducted with participants. A qualitative description approach was used to analyse and report the results. Setting Participants were recruited from nine primary care practices in Birmingham. Participants Sixteen healthcare professionals (11 primary care physicians and 5 practice nurses) were selected through purposive sampling to maximise variation of characteristics. Outcome measures Outcome measures for this study were: the attitude of healthcare professionals towards the use of a polypill for primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention; their views on monitoring the drug; and the factors influencing their willingness to prescribe the medication. Results Healthcare professionals expressed considerable concern over using a polypill for primary prevention for all people over a specific age, although there was greater acceptance of its use for secondary prevention. Regularly monitoring patients taking the polypill was deemed essential. Evidence of effectiveness, patient risk level and potential medicalisation were key determinants in willingness to prescribe such a pill. Conclusions Primary healthcare professionals have significant concerns about the use of a polypill, particularly in the prevention of cardiovascular disease in people who are not regarded as being at ‘high risk’. If a population-based polypill strategy is to be successfully implemented, healthcare professionals will need to be convinced of the potential benefits of a drug-based population approach to prevention.
The expression of desiccation-induced damage in orthodox seeds is a function of oxygen and temperature

From the premise that desiccation-induced damage is associated with a free-radical mechanism of injur\. we address the hypothesis thai expression of desiccation damage is dependent on metabolism. The effects of temperature and O, concentration on the expression of damage were studied in germinating bean (Phaseoius vuigaris L. cv. Pole Kentucky Wtinder) axes and maize {Zea mavs L. cv. Kelvedon G)or\> radicles submitted to flash drying. Damage in desiccation tolerant and -intolerant material was assessed by measurements of electrolyte leakage and accumulation of a stable free radical, (n desiccalion-t oierant material leakage rates remained low during water removal. In contrast, in desiccation-i ntolerant tissues, leakage profiles revealed the presence of a critical moisture conlent below which leakage rates increased sharply. In the desiccation-intolerant stage, a highly significant con'elation was found between critical moisture contents and temperatures of drjing. The concentration ofthe stahle radical was lower if tissues were dried below ) 5'^C and higher when tissues were dried at . 30°C and above. Both leakage and build up of free radicals were highly sensitive to O, concentration s: damage was lower when tissues were dried in the presence of N,. but increased several-fold when tissues were exposed to O; concentrations between 2 and lOO^f. In contrast, neithei temperature nor O; concentrations affected electrolyte leakage in desiccation-tolerant samples. Treatment with a respiration inhibitor (KCN) prior to drying reduced the desiccjtion . sensitivitv of tis.sues. as noted by a reduction ot the critical moisture content. We conclude that the expression of desiccation damage depends on the drying history and that factors that limit metabolism also reduce the incidence of desiccation injur\.
Editor’s Choice-Clinical impact of delirium and antipsychotic therapy: 10-Year experience from a referral coronary care unit

Background: Little is known about safety of antipsychotic therapy for delirium in the coronary care unit (CCU). Our aim was to examine the effect of delirium and antipsychotic therapy among CCU patients. Methods and results: Pre-study Confusion Assessment Method-Intensive Care Unit (CAM–ICU) criteria were implemented in screening consecutive patients admitted to a referral CCU from 2004–2013. Death status was prospectively ascertained. Of 11,079 study patients, the incidence of delirium was 8.3% (n=925). Delirium was associated with an increased risk of in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.49; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08–2.08; p=0.02) and one-year mortality among patients who survived from CCU admission (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.46; 95% CI, 1.12–1.87; p=0.005). A total of 792 doses of haloperidol (5 mg/day; interquartile range (IQR) 3–10) or quetiapine (25 mg/day; IQR 13–50) were given to 244 patients with delirium. The clinical characteristics of patients with delirium who did and did not receive antipsychotic therapy were not different (baseline corrected QT (QTc) interval 457±58 ms vs 459±60 ms, respectively; p=0.65). In comparison to baseline, mean QTc intervals after the first and third doses of the antipsychotics were not significantly prolonged in haloperidol (448±56, 458±57 and 450±50 ms, respectively) or quetiapine groups (470±66, 467±68 and 462±46 ms, respectively) (p>0.05 for all). Additionally, in-hospital mortality (adjusted OR 0.67; 95% CI, 0.42–1.04; p=0.07), ventricular arrhythmia (adjusted OR 0.87; 95% CI, 0.17–3.62; p=0.85) and one-year mortality among the hospital survivors (adjusted HR 0.86; 95% CI 0.62–1.17; p=0.34) were not different in patients with delirium irrespective of whether or not they received antipsychotics. Conclusion: In patients admitted to the CCU, delirium was associated with an increase in both in-hospital and one-year mortality. Low doses of haloperidol and quetiapine appeared to be safe, without an increase in risk of sudden cardiac death, in-hospital mortality, or one-year mortality in carefully monitored patients.
Intercomparison of Evapotranspiration Estimates at the Different Ecological Zones in Jordan

An estimate of evapotranspiration (ET) is needed for many applications in diverse disciplines such as agriculture, hydrology, and meteorology. The objective of this study was to compare two methods for estimating daily actual ET (ETa) from six sites located in four different ecological zones within Jordan. The first method used the analytical land–atmosphere radiometer model (ALARM) and the dimensionless temperature procedure, whereas the second method used ETa calculated from the FAO-56 reference evapotranspiration. ALARM converts general remotely sensed surface temperatures to aerodynamic temperature. Standard meteorological data from weather stations were used with both methods, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)–based leaf area index, surface temperature, and albedo were obtained to estimate ETa, using the former method. A validation study was conducted on an alfalfa field in Jordan Valley using ALARM and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) method, which is very similar to FAO-56 except it uses alfalfa as a reference crop. Because this alfalfa field was irrigated and because of warm air advection, ET rates based on measurements of soil moisture change ranged from about 6 to 10 mm day 1 . For this range, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) for ALARM was 0.87 mm day 1 and the coefficient of determination r 2 was 0.36, whereas the RMSE for ASCE was 1.25 mm day 1 and r 2 0.06. There was good agreement between minimum, maximum, and average ETa for the two methods at all sites except for Irbid, for which the minimum and, consequently, the average were different. Much of the site-to-site and temporal variability was found to be statistically significant. Reasons for this variability include soil types, vegetation cover, irrigation, and warm advection.
Hepatitis E Virus Infection among Domestic Animals in Eastern China

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic pathogen of which several species of animal were reported as reservoirs. Antibodies to HEV and HEV RNA have been detected in some Chinese population and swine groups but few other domestic animals. In this study, to investigate the HEV prevalence, we tested sera from 788 pigs, 100 cows, 50 goats, 49 horses, 101 pet dogs, 105 chickens, 47 duck and 45 pigeons in eastern China for anti‐HEV immunoglobulin G (IgG). We also tested 50% of the swine sera, all of sera from the other domestic animals and 13 Shanghai human sera which were positive for anti‐HEV immunoglobulin M (IgM) for HEV RNA using reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction. Our results indicated that 82.5% (222/269) of the sows, 53.9% (104/193) of the 4‐ to 6‐month‐old swine, 63.4% (168/265) of the 1‐ to 3‐month‐old swine, 55.7% (34/61) of the slaughterhouse swine, 24% (12/50) of the goats, 16.3% (8/49) of the horses, 17.8% (21/101) of the pet dogs, 6% (6/100) of the cows, 12.8% (6/47) of the ducks, 4.4% (2/45) of the pigeons and 1.9% (2/105) of the chickens exhibited positive for anti‐HEV IgG. Inhibition assay confirmed the infection with HEV or HEV‐like viruses in these domestic animals except pigeons and chickens. From the sera, we isolated 18 swine HEV strains, one horse HEV strain and two human HEV strains. Sequence analysis showed that the horse HEV isolate and one swine isolate belonged to genotype 3. The other isolates belonged to genotype 4. The two human isolates were phylogenetically closely related to eight of the swine isolates. In short, the presence of anti‐HEV antibody had been confirmed in several species of domestic animals in eastern China and HEV RNA has been identified in swine, human and horse. This suggested that the authorities should pay more attention to the prevalence of HEV in eastern China.
HCMV Spread and Cell Tropism are Determined by Distinct Virus Populations

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can infect many different cell types in vivo. Two gH/gL complexes are used for entry into cells. gH/gL/pUL(128,130,131A) shows no selectivity for its host cell, whereas formation of a gH/gL/gO complex only restricts the tropism mainly to fibroblasts. Here, we describe that depending on the cell type in which virus replication takes place, virus carrying the gH/gL/pUL(128,130,131A) complex is either released or retained cell-associated. We observed that virus spread in fibroblast cultures was predominantly supernatant-driven, whereas spread in endothelial cell (EC) cultures was predominantly focal. This was due to properties of virus released from fibroblasts and EC. Fibroblasts released virus which could infect both fibroblasts and EC. In contrast, EC released virus which readily infected fibroblasts, but was barely able to infect EC. The EC infection capacities of virus released from fibroblasts or EC correlated with respectively high or low amounts of gH/gL/pUL(128,130,131A) in virus particles. Moreover, we found that focal spread in EC cultures could be attributed to EC-tropic virus tightly associated with EC and not released into the supernatant. Preincubation of fibroblast-derived virus progeny with EC or beads coated with pUL131A-specific antibodies depleted the fraction that could infect EC, and left a fraction that could predominantly infect fibroblasts. These data strongly suggest that HCMV progeny is composed of distinct virus populations. EC specifically retain the EC-tropic population, whereas fibroblasts release EC-tropic and non EC-tropic virus. Our findings offer completely new views on how HCMV spread may be controlled by its host cells.