Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inter-Annual Variation in Characteristics of Endozoochory by Wild Japanese Macaques

Endozoochory is important to the dynamics and regeneration of forest ecosystems. Despite the universality of inter-annual variation in fruit production, few studies have addressed the sign (seed predation versus seed dispersal) and strength (frequency and quantity) of fruit-frugivore interaction and the effectiveness of endozoochory in response to the long-term temporal context. In this study I evaluated the characteristics of endozoochorous dispersal by wild Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata inhabiting deciduous forest in northern Japan for five different years. I collected 378 fecal samples from the macaques in fall (September to November) and quantified the proportion of feces containing seeds, number of seeds per fecal sample, ratio of intact seeds, and seed diversity. The proportion of feces containing seeds of any species (five-year mean: 85.9%, range: 78–97%) did not show significant inter-annual variation, while species-level proportions did. The intact ratio of seeds (mean: 83%, range: 61–98%) varied significantly both between years and between months, and this varied among dominant plant species. The number of seeds per fecal sample (mean: 78, range: 32–102) varied monthly but did not between years, and the seed diversity (mean: 0.66, range: 0.57–0.81) did not show significant inter-annual variation, both of which were attributed to longer duration of macaques’ gastro-intestinal passage time of seeds exceed their feeding bouts. This study demonstrated that frequency and success of seed dispersal over seed predation of macaque endozoochory showed inter-annual variation, indicating low specificity across the seed–macaque network. The temporal variability in the quality of seed dispersal may provide evidence of high resilience in response to fluctuating environmental conditions in the temperate forests.
Robust stability of networked control systems

In this paper, a robust stability criterion is proposed for NCSs liable to model uncertainties and time-varying delays. The analysis concerns the establishment of a maximum allowable delay bound for continous time NCSs under parameter uncertainties. The new proposed criterion is based on the solution of a set of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs). Numerical examples are given to validate the theoretical result.
Flavopiridol Induces p 53 via Initial Inhibition of Mdm 2 and p 21 and , Independently of p 53 , Sensitizes Apoptosis-Reluctant Cells to Tumor Necrosis Factor

Flavopiridol (FP) inhibits gene expression and causes apoptosis, and these effects cannot be explained by inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinases that govern cell cycle. The simple and established notion that FP is an inhibitor of transcription predicts its effects. Because Mdm-2 targets p53 for degradation, FP, as predicted, dramatically induced p53 by inhibiting Mdm-2. Once p53 was induced, restoration of transcription (by removal of FP) resulted in superinduction of p21 and Mdm-2. Similarly, low concentrations of FP (50 nM) induced p21 and Mdm-2 because of their initial down-regulation. A sustained decrease of Mdm-2/p21 expression and accumulation of p53 coincided with near-maximal cytotoxicity of FP at concentrations >100 nM. Induction of p53 was a marker, not a cause, of cytotoxicity. FP caused rapid apoptosis (caspase-dependent cell death) in p53-null leukemia cells. In these cells, FP-induced apoptosis was converted to growth arrest by inhibitors of caspases. In apoptosis-reluctant A549 and PC3M cancer cells, FP inhibited cell proliferation but did not cause apoptosis. Like typical inhibitors of transcription, FP sensitized cells to apoptotic stimuli, allowing tumor necrosis factor to cause rapid and massive apoptosis in otherwise apoptosis-reluctant cells. We discuss that, as a reversible inhibitor of transcription, FP can be used clinically in novel rational drug combinations.
Quantum cohomology of smooth complete intersections in weighted projective spaces and in singular toric varieties

Givental's theorem for complete intersections in smooth toric varieties is generalized to Fano varieties. The Gromov-Witten invariants are found for Fano varieties of dimension ≥3 that are complete intersections in weighted projective spaces or singular toric varieties. A generalized Riemann-Roch equation is also obtained for such varieties. As a consequence, the counting matrices of smooth Fano threefolds with Picard group and anticanonical degrees 2, 8, and 16 are calculated. Bibliography: 29 titles.
Response to 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine in patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia resistant to fludarabine.

BACKGROUND Patients with untreated B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia have a high rate of complete remission when given the halogenated nucleoside analogue fludarabine. However, patients in whom the disease has proved refractory to primary treatment have a reduced life expectancy and a dismal outcome. METHODS We treated four consecutive patients who had unsatisfactory responses to second-line or subsequent treatment with fludarabine with another halogenated nucleoside analogue, 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine. RESULTS One patient with progressing lymphocytosis, anemia, and thrombocytopenia despite 10 courses of fludarabine entered a complete remission when treated with 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine. Two patients who had less-than-partial remissions after six courses of fludarabine had good partial remissions when treated with 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine. One patient with Coombs-positive hemolytic anemia who had no response to three courses of fludarabine had a partial remission, with resolution of hypogammaglobulinemia, when treated with 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine. CONCLUSIONS There was no evidence of cross-resistance between fludarabine and 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine despite their similar structures. 2-Chlorodeoxyadenosine may induce a complete remission in chronic lymphocytic leukemia that is highly resistant to chemotherapy, and it deserves wider clinical evaluation in patients with this condition.
New complex- and quaternion-hyperbolic reflection groups

We consider the automorphism groups of various Lorentzian lattices over the Eisenstein, Gaussian, and Hurwitz integers, and in some of them we find reflection groups of finite index. These provide new finite-covolume reflection groups acting on complex and quaternionic hyperbolic spaces. Specifically, we provide groups acting on CH^n for all n<6 and n=7, and on HH^n for n=1,2,3 and 5. We compare our groups to those discovered by Deligne and Mostow and show that our largest examples are new. For many of these Lorentzian lattices we show that the entire symmetry group is generated by reflections, and obtain a description of the group in terms of the combinatorics of a lower-dimensional positive-definite lattice. The techniques needed for our lower-dimensional examples are elementary, but to construct our best examples we also need certain facts about the Leech lattice. We give a new and geometric proof of the classifications of selfdual Eisenstein lattices of dimension < 7 and of selfdual Hurwitz lattices of dimension < 5.
American Sign Language Syntax and Analogical Reasoning Skills Are Influenced by Early Acquisition and Age of Entry to Signing Schools for the Deaf

Failing to acquire language in early childhood because of language deprivation is a rare and exceptional event, except in one population. Deaf children who grow up without access to indirect language through listening, speech-reading, or sign language experience language deprivation. Studies of Deaf adults have revealed that late acquisition of sign language is associated with lasting deficits. However, much remains unknown about language deprivation in Deaf children, allowing myths and misunderstandings regarding sign language to flourish. To fill this gap, we examined signing ability in a large naturalistic sample of Deaf children attending schools for the Deaf where American Sign Language (ASL) is used by peers and teachers. Ability in ASL was measured using a syntactic judgment test and language-based analogical reasoning test, which are two sub-tests of the ASL Assessment Inventory. The influence of two age-related variables were examined: whether or not ASL was acquired from birth in the home from one or more Deaf parents, and the age of entry to the school for the Deaf. Note that for non-native signers, this latter variable is often the age of first systematic exposure to ASL. Both of these types of age-dependent language experiences influenced subsequent signing ability. Scores on the two tasks declined with increasing age of school entry. The influence of age of starting school was not linear. Test scores were generally lower for Deaf children who entered the school of assessment after the age of 12. The positive influence of signing from birth was found for students at all ages tested (7;6–18;5 years old) and for children of all age-of-entry groupings. Our results reflect a continuum of outcomes which show that experience with language is a continuous variable that is sensitive to maturational age.
Central nociceptive sensitization vs. spinal cord training: opposing forms of plasticity that dictate function after complete spinal cord injury

The spinal cord demonstrates several forms of plasticity that resemble brain-dependent learning and memory. Among the most studied form of spinal plasticity is spinal memory for noxious (nociceptive) stimulation. Numerous papers have described central pain as a spinally-stored memory that enhances future responses to cutaneous stimulation. This phenomenon, known as central sensitization, has broad relevance to a range of pathological conditions. Work from the spinal cord injury (SCI) field indicates that the lumbar spinal cord demonstrates several other forms of plasticity, including formal learning and memory. After complete thoracic SCI, the lumbar spinal cord can be trained by delivering stimulation to the hindleg when the leg is extended. In the presence of this response-contingent stimulation the spinal cord rapidly learns to hold the leg in a flexed position, a centrally mediated effect that meets the formal criteria for instrumental (response-outcome) learning. Instrumental flexion training produces a central change in spinal plasticity that enables future spinal learning on both the ipsilateral and contralateral leg. However, if stimulation is given in a response-independent manner, the spinal cord develops central maladaptive plasticity that undermines future spinal learning on both legs. The present paper tests for interactions between spinal cord training and central nociceptive sensitization after complete spinal cord transection. We found that spinal training alters future central sensitization by intradermal formalin (24 h post-training). Conversely intradermal formalin impaired future spinal learning (24 h post-injection). Because formalin-induced central sensitization has been shown to involve NMDA receptor activation, we tested whether pre-treatment with NMDA would also affect spinal learning in manner similar to formalin. We found intrathecal NMDA impaired learning in a dose-dependent fashion, and that this effect endures for at least 24 h. These data provide strong evidence for an opposing relationship between nociceptive plasticity and use-dependent learning in the spinal cord. The present work has clinical implications given recent findings that adaptive spinal training improves recovery in humans with SCI. Nociception below the SCI may undermine this rehabilitation potential.
Arabidopsis nanodomain-delimited ABA signaling pathway regulates the anion channel SLAH3

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a key role in the plant response to drought stress. Hence, ABA-dependent gene transcription and ion transport is regulated by a variety of protein kinases and phosphatases. However, the nature of the membrane-delimited ABA signal transduction steps remains largely unknown. To gain insight into plasma membrane-bound ABA signaling, we identified sterol-dependent proteins associated with detergent resistant membranes from Arabidopsis thaliana mesophyll cells. Among those, we detected the central ABA signaling phosphatase ABI1 (abscisic-acid insensitive 1) and the calcium-dependent protein kinase 21 (CPK21). Using fluorescence microscopy, we found these proteins to localize in membrane nanodomains, as observed by colocalization with the nanodomain marker remorin Arabidopsis thaliana remorin 1.3 (AtRem 1.3). After transient coexpression, CPK21 interacted with SLAH3 [slow anion channel 1 (SLAC1) homolog 3] and activated this anion channel. Upon CPK21 stimulation, SLAH3 exhibited the hallmark properties of S-type anion channels. Coexpression of SLAH3/CPK21 with ABI1, however, prevented proper nanodomain localization of the SLAH3/CPK21 protein complex, and as a result anion channel activation failed. FRET studies revealed enhanced interaction of SLAH3 and CPK21 within the plasma membrane in response to ABA and thus confirmed our initial observations. Interestingly, the ABA-induced SLAH3/CPK21 interaction was modulated by ABI1 and the ABA receptor RCAR1/PYL9 [regulatory components of ABA receptor 1/PYR1 (pyrabactin resistance 1)-like protein 9]. We therefore propose that ABA signaling via inhibition of ABI1 modulates the apparent association of a signaling and transport complex within membrane domains that is necessary for phosphorylation and activation of the S-type anion channel SLAH3 by CPK21.
Nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in Lakes Bonilla and Bonillita, Costa Rica

t is widely reported that there are important differences berween tropical and temperate zone lakes. In tropicallakes, nutrient recycling rates are higher, and primary production is higher and more uniform over the entire year (voN SPERLING 1997). LEWlS (1990) reports that tropical lakes of a given trophic state have a higher minimum biomass rhan temperate lakes. Data suggest that tropical lakes are more frequently nitrogen limited than temperate zones lakes (DoWNING er al. 1999) although, in some cases, phosphorus apparently remains limiting to primary production (eHAcoN-TORRES & RosAs-MoNGE 1998). In the present srudy, two smalllakes in eosta Rica were tested for evidence of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation. UMANA (1997) hypothesized that the pattern of nutrient limitation in these lakes shifi:ed from phosphorus limitation during the wet season to nitrogen limitation during the dry season. The results of the current srudy confirm a shifting pattern oflimitation by the rwo nutrients over the year, with nitrogen limitation becoming relatively more important months after the onset of stratification, late in the dry season.
Comparative Activities of the Oxa-β-Lactam LY127935, Cefotaxime, Cefoperazone, Cefamandole, and Ticarcillin Against Multiply Resistant Gram-Negative Bacilli

A total of 91 multiply resistant bacterial strains, including Klebsiella pneumoniae (32 strains), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (16 strains), and Serratia marcescens (43 strains), were collected during hospital epidemics of nosocomial infection from 1975 to 1979. These strains were resistant to gentamicin, tobramycin, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, and ampicillin. Their susceptibility to three new broad-spectrum β-lactams, LY127935 (a 1-oxa-β-lactam), cefotaxime (HR 756), and cefoperazone (T 1551), was compared with the susceptibility of random strains of nine species of aerobic gram-negative bacilli collected in the same hospital in 1979. Susceptibility to cefamandole and ticarcillin was also determined. Strains of staphylococci and streptococci from that hospital and two nearby city-county hospitals were also compared for the three new cephalosporins and other effective antibiotics. The agar dilution method was used to measure the minimum inhibitory concentration for each antibiotic. The multiply resistant strains (minimum inhibitory concentration for gentamicin ≥ 8 μg/ml) usually were as susceptible to the three new broad-spectrum β-lactams as were non-multiply resistant strains. Both Klebsiella pneumoniae and Serratia marcescens, including multiply resistant and non-multiply resistant strains, were most susceptible to the 1-oxa-β-lactam LY127935 and cefotaxime. P. aeruginosa (both multiply resistant and non-multiply resistant strains) were most susceptible to cefoperazone. All three new β-lactams were active against non-multiply resistant strains of Escherichia coli, Enterobacter spp. , Proteus spp. , and Citrobacter spp. Providencia stuartii were most susceptible to cefotaxime and the 1-oxa-β-lactam LY127935. The three new β-lactams were all less active against staphylococci (especially methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) than cephalothin. Streptococcus pyogenes and S. pneumoniae were very susceptible to cefotaxime and cefoperazone, though less susceptible to LY127935. None of the three new β-lactams was active against S. faecalis. All were very active against both penicillinase-positive and -negative strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Mixed H-Infinity and Passive Filtering for Discrete Fuzzy Neural Networks With Stochastic Jumps and Time Delays

In this brief, the problems of the mixed H-infinity and passivity performance analysis and design are investigated for discrete time-delay neural networks with Markovian jump parameters represented by Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model. The main purpose of this brief is to design a filter to guarantee that the augmented Markovian jump fuzzy neural networks are stable in mean-square sense and satisfy a prescribed passivity performance index by employing the Lyapunov method and the stochastic analysis technique. Applying the matrix decomposition techniques, sufficient conditions are provided for the solvability of the problems, which can be formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities. A numerical example is also presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.
HIV-1 Group M Conserved Elements Vaccine

Recent HIV vaccine designs have sought to block viral escape pathways by compressing antigenic diversity. In light of HIV's propensity to mutate and thereby to ever ramify viral populations, could it be that providing sufficient protection against global diversity is an insurmountable problem? We propose an alternative HIV-1 vaccine design that deliberately includes viral segments conserved across the entire main group (or M group) of HIV-1 strains and excludes variable segments. We describe a prototype conserved elements (CE) vaccine constituted of 45 viral segments at least eight amino acids long that fulfill stringent conservation criteria. Our paradigm contends that the best way to cope with HIV-1 diversity may be to avoid it altogether. We argue that a successful vaccine must elicit responses against conserved regions of the viral proteome in which mutations would severely compromise the viability of the virus. Simultaneously, it must not elicit responses against variable, “decoy” elements of the virus, i.e., features that can mutate while retaining function, and that can absorb much of the adaptive host immune response. Coping with HIV-1′s extensive diversity is a major challenge for vaccine design strategies. Centralized (consensus and ancestral) immunogens [1–3] have in some cases improved the breadth of responses, and recent designs seek to compress the more common variant features among circulating strains into immunogens [4–6]. However, there is a practical limit to antigenic complexity that may prevent inclusion of all escape pathways in realistically sized immunogens. Besides, HIV's propensity to mutate has been shown to provide means for HIV to escape from antiretrovirals and antibody and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) pressures. The foregoing considerations led us to propose a vaccine exclusively composed of viral segments strictly conserved in all HIV-1 M group proteins and specifically devoid of mutable segments. The presence of segments that are nearly invariant in all HIV-1 M group proteomes strongly suggests that those CE are both obligatory for viral viability and are the Achilles' heels of the virus. Additionally, considering that variable segments can readily escape CTL pressures and can be highly immunogenic epitopes, we propose that mutable segments may act as immunologic decoys, subverting responses away from conserved elements.
Early Maternal Deprivation Enhances Voluntary Alcohol Intake Induced by Exposure to Stressful Events Later in Life

In the present study, we aimed to assess the impact of early life stress, in the form of early maternal deprivation (MD, 24 h on postnatal day, pnd, 9), on voluntary alcohol intake in adolescent male and female Wistar rats. During adolescence, from pnd 28 to pnd 50, voluntary ethanol intake (20%, v/v) was investigated using the two-bottle free choice paradigm. To better understand the relationship between stress and alcohol consumption, voluntary alcohol intake was also evaluated following additional stressful events later in life, that is, a week of alcohol cessation and a week of alcohol cessation combined with exposure to restraint stress. Female animals consumed more alcohol than males only after a second episode of alcohol cessation combined with restraint stress. MD did not affect baseline voluntary alcohol intake but increased voluntary alcohol intake after stress exposure, indicating that MD may render animals more vulnerable to the effects of stress on alcohol intake. During adolescence, when animals had free access to alcohol, MD animals showed lower body weight gain but a higher growth rate than control animals. Moreover, the higher growth rate was accompanied by a decrease in food intake, suggesting an altered metabolic regulation in MD animals that may interact with alcohol intake.
Trajectory grouping structure

The collective motion of a set of moving entities like people, birds, or other animals, is characterized by groups arising, merging, splitting, and ending. Given the trajectories of these entities, we define and model a structure that captures all of such changes using the Reeb graph, a concept from topology. The trajectory grouping structure has three natural parameters that allow more global views of the data in group size, group duration, and entity inter-distance. We prove complexity bounds on the maximum number of maximal groups that can be present, and give algorithms to compute the grouping structure efficiently. We also study how the trajectory grouping structure can be made robust, that is, how brief interruptions of groups can be disregarded in the global structure, adding a notion of persistence to the structure. Furthermore, we showcase the results of experiments using data generated by the NetLogo flocking model and from the Starkey project. The Starkey data describe the movement of elk, deer, and cattle. Although there is no ground truth for the grouping structure in this data, the experiments show that the trajectory grouping structure is plausible and has the desired effects when changing the essential parameters. Our research provides the first complete study of trajectory group evolvement, including combinatorial, algorithmic, and experimental results.