Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phenotypic heterogeneity is a selected trait in natural yeast populations subject to environmental stress

Populations of genetically uniform microorganisms exhibit phenotypic heterogeneity, where individual cells have varying phenotypes. Such phenotypes include fitness-determining traits. Phenotypic heterogeneity has been linked to increased population-level fitness in laboratory studies, but its adaptive significance for wild microorganisms in the natural environment is unknown. Here, we addressed this by testing heterogeneity in yeast isolates from diverse environmental sites, each polluted with a different principal contaminant, as well as from corresponding control locations. We found that cell-to-cell heterogeneity (in resistance to the appropriate principal pollutant) was prevalent in the wild yeast isolates. Moreover, isolates with the highest heterogeneity were consistently observed in the polluted environments, indicating that heterogeneity is positively related to survival in adverse conditions in the wild. This relationship with survival was stronger than for the property of mean resistance (IC50) of an isolate. Therefore, heterogeneity could be the major determinant of microbial survival in adverse conditions. Indeed, growth assays indicated that isolates with high heterogeneities had a significant competitive advantage during stress. Analysis of yeasts after cultivation for ≥ 500 generations additionally showed that high heterogeneity evolved as a heritable trait during stress. The results showed that environmental stress selects for wild microorganisms with high levels of phenotypic heterogeneity.
Aneurysms of the posterior cerebral artery: classification and endovascular treatment.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We present a retrospective review of our experience in the endovascular treatment of posterior cerebral artery (PCA) aneurysms. We detail the anatomic location of these aneurysms, the technique of endovascular treatment, morphologic results, and clinical outcome. We also discuss the segmental anatomy of the PCA as it relates to the various neurologic deficits that may result from occlusion of the parent artery. METHODS From 1993 to 1998, 20 patients (12 female, eight male; mean age, 44 yrs) harboring a PCA aneurysm were treated via an endovascular approach. One patient had two aneurysms, comprising a total of 21 lesions. Fourteen (66%) of 21 aneurysms were saccular in nature, five (24%) were giant serpentine aneurysms, and two (10%) were posttraumatic. All aneurysms were treated using Guglielmi detachable coils (GDC) either by selective obliteration of the aneurysm sac or by parent artery occlusion. RESULTS Fourteen (66%) of the 21 aneurysms were successfully treated with preservation of the parent artery. In the remaining seven (33%), the parent artery was permanently occluded. The overall complication rate in this series was 15%, with a permanent morbidity rate of 10% and a 0% mortality rate. CONCLUSION Aneurysms of the PCA are rare compared with other locations in the intracranial circulation. Saccular PCA aneurysms can be treated effectively, by use of GDC, to obliterate the aneurysm yet preserve the parent artery. Fusiform and giant serpentine aneurysms of the PCA can effectively be treated by permanent occlusion of the parent artery; in these cases, thorough knowledge of the PCA segmental anatomy is crucial in order to select the site of occlusion and to avoid major neurologic deficits.
Lower Lipid Peroxide Levels in Practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation[registered sign] Program

Objective Oxidative stress or free radical activity may contribute to the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and other chronic diseases associated with aging. Because psychosocial stress has been shown to increase oxidative stress, we conducted an exploratory study to investigate the effects of stress reduction with the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program on serum lipid peroxide levels in elderly subjects. Method Forty-one normally healthy subjects (aged 56 to 74 years, average 67 years) were recruited from the same Midwest city. Eighteen were long-term practitioners of the TM program (average 16.5 years.). Twenty-three controls were not practicing a formal stress management technique. Venous blood samples were analyzed for lipid peroxides by the TBARS assay. A dietary questionnaire was used to assess fat intake, red meat consumption, antioxidant vitamin supplementation, and smoking. Differences between groups and subgroups were analyzed by t test, and correlations. Results Significantly lower serum levels of lipid peroxides were found in the TM practitioners compared with controls (-15%, p = .026). No significant differences were found between groups on smoking, fat intake, or vitamin supplementation. TM practitioners also had lower red meat consumption but matched subgroup analysis and partial correlations did not confirm a relationship between red meat intake and lipid peroxide levels. Conclusions These preliminary findings suggest that lower serum lipid peroxide levels may be associated with stress reduction using the Transcendental Meditation technique. Prospective controlled trials are needed to confirm that this effect is because of TM practice rather than other lifestyle factors, such as diet.
Lushchak DISSECTION OF THE HORMETIC CURVE : ANALYSIS OF COMPONENTS AND MECHANISMS

ᮀ The relationship between the dose of an effector and the biological response frequently is not described by a linear function and, moreover, in some cases the dose-response relationship may change from positive/adverse to adverse/positive with increasing dose. This complicated relationship is called " hormesis ". This paper provides a short analysis of the concept along with a description of used approaches to characterize hormetic relationships. The whole hormetic curve can be divided into three zones: I – a lag-zone where no changes are observed with increasing dose; II – a zone where benefi-cial/adverse effects are observed, and III – a zone where the effects are opposite to those seen in zone II. Some approaches are proposed to analyze the molecular components involved in the development of the hormetic character of dose-response relationships with the use of specific genetic lines or inhibitors of regulatory pathways. The discussion is then extended to suggest a new parameter (half-width of the hormetic curve at zone II) for quantitative characterization of the hormetic curve. The problems limiting progress in the development of the hormesis concept such as low reproducibility and predictability may be solved, at least partly, by deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying the hormetic dose-effect relationship. " That which does not kill us makes us stronger. " Friedrich Nietzche, German philosopher, XIX century.
Diversity at the Locus Associated with Transcription of a Variable Surface Antigen of Pneumocystis carinii as an Index of Population Structure and Dynamics in Infected Rats

ABSTRACT Pneumocystis carinii expresses a surface glycoprotein called MSG. Different isoforms of MSG are encoded by a gene family spread over at least 15 telomeric sites. Only one locus, called UCS, supports the production of MSG mRNA. Previous studies showed that P. carinii populations from individual rats exhibited high degrees of diversity with respect to the MSG genes attached to the UCS locus. This diversity could have been generated primarily in the rats studied. Alternatively, the rats may have been infected by P. carinii organisms that were already different at the UCS locus. To investigate this issue, we examined the UCS locus in P. carinii from rats that had been exposed to few of the microbes at a specified time, which produced a bottleneck in the microbial population. Some of the rats with bottlenecks produced P. carinii populations in which a single MSG sequence resided at the UCS locus in 80 to 90% of the organisms, showing that P. carinii can proliferate within a rat without generating the very high levels of UCS diversity previously seen. From the degree of diversity observed in the bottlenecked populations, the maximum rate of switching appeared to be 0.01 event per generation. These data also suggest that the infectious dose is as low as one organism, that rats that share a cage readily infect each other, and that the doubling time of P. carinii in vivo is ∼3 days. In addition, we found that inoculation with 107P. carinii organisms from a population highly heterogeneous at the UCS locus reproduced this heterogeneity. By contrast, shifts in population structure occurred in rats given 104P. carinii organisms, suggesting that a small fraction of these proliferated.
Cognition in Friedreich's ataxia: a behavioral and multimodal imaging study

Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is a spinocerebellar degenerative disorder, in which cognitive deficits are sparsely explored. In this behavioral and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study, we investigated the neurocognitive profile and cortico‐cerebellar dysfunctions underlying executive functioning in individuals with FRDA.
Euclidean Steiner minimum trees: An improved exact algorithm

The Euclidean Steiner tree problem asks for a shortest network interconnecting a set of terminals in the plane. Over the last decade, the maximum problem size solvable within 1 h (for randomly generated problem instances) has increased from 10 to approximately 50 terminals. We present a new exact algorithm, called geosteiner96. It has several algorithmic modifications which improve both the generation and the concatenation of full Steiner trees. On average, geosteiner96 solves randomly generated problem instances with 50 terminals in less than 2 min and problem instances with 100 terminals in less than 8 min. In addition to computational results for randomly generated problem instances, we present computational results for (perturbed) regular lattice instances and public library instances. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Networks 30:149–166, 1997
Symbol-wavelength MMSE gain in a multi-antenna UWB system

Ultra wideband (UWB) technology has the potential to provide high speed data services. These speeds can be greatly increased by using multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques. Multiple antennas are used to achieve spatial diversity and these antenna elements must be separated properly to have uncorrelated communication signals. The separation can be on the scale of a symbol wavelength ([speed of light]/[symbol rate]). We have designed a printed circular disc monopole and measured the UWB radio channel. Finally, we used the measurements to show the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) performance gain which occurs when the receiver antennas are separated on the scale of a symbol wavelength
Cover Crops and Ecosystem Services: Insights from Studies in Temperate Soils

2449 Enhancing ecosystem services of current cropping systems is a priority for sustaining crop and livestock production, developing biofuel industries, and maintaining or improving soil and environmental quality. Integrating CCs with existing cropping systems has the potential to enhance ecosystem services such as: (i) food, feed, fi ber, and fuel production, (ii) C and other nutrient and water cycling, and (iii) soil, water, and air quality improvement. Th is is particularly important with increased concerns about the following challenges to agriculture: high production costs, environmental degradation, food security, and climate change. According to the Soil Science Society of America Glossary of Terms, CCs are defi ned as a “close-growing crop that provides soil protection, seeding protection, and soil improvement between periods of normal crop production, or between trees in orchards and vines in vineyards. When plowed under and incorporated into the soil, CCs may be referred to as green manure crops” (SSSA, 2008). While the use of CCs is not a new concept, the implications of their re-emerging importance and impacts on ecosystem services such as crop and livestock production and soil and environmental quality deserve further discussion. Historically, CCs have been used to meet a few specifi c needs (i.e., soil conservation, N2 fi xation, and weed and pest management), but now CC management questions increasingly revolve around the potential multi-functionality of CCs including soil C sequestration, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, benefi ts to “soil health,” feed for livestock, biofuel production, farm economics, and others. Th ere are many studies on CCs assessing soil and crop production, but few have attempted to discuss or integrate all the multiple ecosystem services that CCs provide (Dabney et al., 2001; Snapp et al., 2005). Th us, a summarization of the existing knowledge about potential multiple CC benefi ts is needed for a broader understanding of CC impacts on soil and agricultural production and identifi cation of knowledge gaps that deserve further research. Th is summarization will help answer the following question: Can CCs provide multiple ecosystem services to address the current challenges in soil and environmental quality, crop and livestock production, biofuel production, among others? review & interpretation
Digital Search Trees Revisited

Several algorithms have been proposed which build search trees using digital properties of the search keys. A general approach to the study of the average case performance of such algorithms is discussed, with particular attention to the analysis of the digital search tree structures of Coflman and Eve. Specifically, the method leads to the solution of a problem left open by Knuth, finding the average number of nodes in digital search trees with both sons null.The paper may be of interest as a survey and tutorial treatment of the analysis of the three primary digital tree search methods: digital search trees, radix search tries, and Patricia tries.
Human Action Recognition Using Salient Opponent-Based Motion Features

Human action recognition can be performed using multiscale salient features which encode the local events in the video. Existing feature extraction methods use non-causal spatio-temporal filtering, and hence, they are not biologically plausible. To address this inconsistency, new features extracted from a biologically plausible perception model are introduced. In this model, the opponent-based motion energy is computed using oriented motion filters constructed from a bio-inspired time-causal filtering. The salient features are then extracted from the regions of interest in the motion energy map. The extracted opponent based motion features are then utilized for action classification with a bag-of-words approach. Experiments using a publicly available (Weizmann) data set shows 93:5% classification accuracy which is an improvement over comparable methods.
Cadmium-Related Mortality and Long-Term Secular Trends in the Cadmium Body Burden of an Environmentally Exposed Population

Background Few population studies have reported on the long-term changes in the internal cadmium dose and simultaneously occurring mortality. Objective We monitored blood cadmium (BCd), 24-hr urinary cadmium (UCd), and mortality in an environmentally exposed population. Methods Starting from 1985, we followed BCd (until 2003), UCd (until 1996), and mortality (until 2007) among 476 and 480 subjects, randomly recruited from low- exposure areas (LEA) and high-exposure areas (HEA). The last cadmium-producing plant in the HEA closed in 2002. Results From 1985–1989 to 1991–1996, BCd decreased by 40.3% and 18.9% in the LEA and HEA, respectively (p < 0.0001 for between-area difference). From 1991–1996 until 2001–2003, BCd remained unchanged in the HEA (+ 1.8%) and increased by 19.7% in the LEA (p < 0.0001). Over the entire follow-up period, the annual decrease in BCd averaged 2.7% in the LEA (n = 258) and 1.8% in the HEA (n = 203). From 1985–1989 to 1991–1996, UCd fell by 12.9% in the LEA and by 16.6% in the HEA (p = 0.22), with mean annual decreases of 2.7% (n = 366) and 3.4% (n = 364). Over 20.3 years (median), 206 deaths (21.5%) occurred. At baseline, BCd (14.6 vs. 10.2 nmol/L) and UCd (14.1 vs. 8.6 nmol/24-hr) were higher in deaths than in survivors. The risks (p ≤ 0.04) associated with a doubling of baseline UCd were 20% and 44% for total and noncardiovascular mortality, and 25% and 33% for a doubling of BCd. Conclusions Even if zinc–cadmium smelters close, historical environmental contamination remains a persistent source of exposure. Environmental exposure to cadmium increases total and noncardiovascular mortality in a continuous fashion without threshold.
Peripartum Cardiomyopathy as a Part of Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Background— Anecdotal cases of familial clustering of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) and familial occurrences of PPCM and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) together have been observed, suggesting that genetic factors play a role in the pathogenesis of PPCM. We hypothesized that some cases of PPCM are part of the spectrum of familial DCM, presenting in the peripartum period. Methods and Results— We reviewed our database of 90 DCM families, focusing specifically on the presence of PPCM patients. Then, in a reverse approach, we reviewed 10 PPCM patients seen in our clinic since the early 1990s and performed cardiological screening of the first-degree relatives of 3 PPCM patients who did not show a full recovery. Finally, we analyzed the genes known to be most commonly involved in DCM in the PPCM patients. We identified a substantial number (5 of 90, 6%) of DCM families with PPCM patients. Second, cardiological screening of first-degree relatives of 3 PPCM patients who did not show full recovery revealed undiagnosed DCM in all 3 families. Finally, genetic analyses revealed a mutation (c.149A>G, p.Gln50Arg) in the gene encoding cardiac troponin C (TNNC1) segregating with disease in a DCM family with a member with PPCM, supporting the genetic nature of disease in this case. Conclusions— Our findings strongly suggest that a subset of PPCM is an initial manifestation of familial DCM. This may have important implications for cardiological screening in such families.
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers

In general, the term “viral hemorrhagic fever” is used to describe a severe multi-system syndrome (multi-system in that multiple organ systems in the body are affected). Characteristically, the overall vascular system is damaged, and the body’s ability to regulate itself is impaired. These symptoms are often accompanied by bleeding, which is rarely lifethreatening. While some types of hemorrhagic fever viruses can cause relatively mild illnesses, many of these viruses cause severe, life-threatening disease.
Effect of square dimples on the temperature distribution and heat transfer coefficient of an NACA0012 airfoil

ABSTRACT The thermal boundary layer is the barrier for convective heat transfer, since the temperature within the thermal boundary layer is lower than the free stream temperature; therefore, it is preferable to maintain a small thermal boundary layer thickness (δt). Among the various categories of dimples like square, rectangle and triangle we considered square dimples for the upper surface of the NACA0012 wing throughout the span. The dimples increase the coefficient of lift due to delayed flow separation. The skin friction coefficient improvement reduces the δh which in turn reduces the (δt), therefore the rate of heat transfer is increased and surface temperature distribution becomes smooth. Dimples also act as fins, reducing the upper surface temperature to lower than the lower surface, which in turn increases the lift particularly in low-speed and micro-scale airfoils [Kim, Jongmin, Zvi Rusak, and Nikhil Koratkar. 2003. ‘Small-Scale Airfoil Aerodynamic Efficiency Improvement by Surface Temperature and Heat Transfer. ’ AIAA Journal 41 (11): 2105–2113].
Spatial pattern formation facilitates eradication of infectious diseases

Control of animal-born diseases is a major challenge faced by applied ecologists and public health managers. To improve cost-effectiveness, the effort required to control such pathogens needs to be predicted as accurately as possible. In this context, we reviewed the anti-rabies vaccination schemes applied around the world during the past 25 years. We contrasted predictions from classic approaches based on theoretical population ecology (which governs rabies control to date) with a newly developed individual-based model. Our spatially explicit approach allowed for the reproduction of pattern formation emerging from a pathogen's spread through its host population. We suggest that a much lower management effort could eliminate the disease than that currently in operation. This is supported by empirical evidence from historic field data. Adapting control measures to the new prediction would save one-third of resources in future control programmes. The reason for the lower prediction is the spatial structure formed by spreading infections in spatially arranged host populations. It is not the result of technical differences between models. Synthesis and applications. For diseases predominantly transmitted by neighbourhood interaction, our findings suggest that the emergence of spatial structures facilitates eradication. This may have substantial implications for the cost-effectiveness of existing disease management schemes, and suggests that when planning management strategies consideration must be given to methods that reflect the spatial nature of the pathogen–host system.
Learning a Multi-concept Video Retrieval Model with Multiple Latent Variables

Effective and efficient video retrieval has become a pressing need in the "big video" era and how to deal with multi-concept queries is a central component. The objective of this work is to provide a principled model for calculating the ranking scores of video in response to multiple concepts. However, it has been long overlooked and simply implemented by weighted averaging the corresponding concept detectors' scores. Our approach, which can be considered as a latent ranking SVM, integrates the advantages of various recent works on text and image retrieval, such as choosing ranking over structured prediction and modeling inter-dependencies between querying concepts and the others. Videos consist of shots and we use latent variables to account for the mutually complementary cues within and across shots. We introduce a simple and effective way to make our model robust to outliers and scarce data. Our approach gives rise to superior performance when it is tested on not only the queries seen at training, but also novel queries, some of which consist of more concepts than the seen queries used for training.