Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Penile rehabilitation therapy following radical prostatectomy

Purpose. To compare erectile function (EF) recovery of patients treated by early penile rehabilitation therapy (PRT) with sildenafil and with control group. Method. Forty men treated by bilateral nerve sparing radical prostatectomy (NSRP) and with a normal pre-operative EF were enrolled. Fourteen days after surgery, they were randomised to a flexible-dose sildenafil group and to a control group. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire was completed before surgery and at 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks after NSRP. Results. In the group treated, the mean IIEF score before surgery was 26.2 and 14.1, 16.2, 22.5 and 25.2 at 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks after NSRP, respectively. In the control group, the respective scores were 26.5 and 12.4, 15.8, 15.3 and 17.4. There was a significant difference in IIEF mean score (25 ± 6 vs. 17 ± 9, p < 0.05) and in the potency rate (87% vs. 56%) between the groups at 24 weeks after NSRP. The percentage of patients who were capable of having medication-unassisted intercourse was 54% vs. 21%; 34% vs. 18% of patients had a normal EF with 72% vs. 32% of responders to sildenafil. Conclusions. PRT with PDE-5 inhibitors should be offered early after RP to allow the recovery of EF.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING DESIGN

In this paper, a method for conceptual synthesis in design is proposed. Conceptual synthesis is useful for creative design; however, the possibilities for selecting two different concepts to synthesize may be unlimited. The problem of conceptual synthesis stems from the difficulty in selecting two different concepts that are appropriate for creative design. In this study, the authors attempt to determine the conditions for successful conceptual synthesis, focusing on the dissimilarity (distance) between the two selected concepts. A design experiment was performed in order to inspect the results of creativity, which depend on the dissimilarity between the two given concepts. From the results of the design experiment, we found that higher creativity could be obtained in the case based on two concepts of high dissimilarity compared with the case based on those of low dissimilarity.
An Ordered Theory Resolution Calculus for Hybrid Reasoning in First-Order Extensions of Description Logic

Systems for hybrid reasoning with first-order logic (FOL) extensions of description logic (DL) date back at least 20 years and are enjoying a renewed interest in the context of recent FOL extensions of OWL DL for the Semantic Web. However, current systems for reasoning with such languages can only handle subsets of FOL or they do not fully exploit recent advances in both FOL theorem proving and DL inference. In response, we present an ordered theory resolution calculus for hybrid reasoning in unrestricted FOL extensions of the DL SHI. This calculus permits near-seamless integration of highly optimized FOL theorem provers and DL reasoners while minimizing redundant reasoning and maintaining soundness and refutational completeness. Empirical results demonstrate the potential of this approach in comparison to the state-of-the-art FOL theorem provers Vampire, Otter, and SPASS.
Ultrastructural Changes of Neuronal Mitochondria After Transient and Permanent Cerebral Ischemia

Background and Purpose— Mitochondrial swelling is one of the most striking and initial ultrastructural changes after acute brain ischemia. The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of reperfusion of the cerebral cortex after transient focal cerebral ischemia on neuronal mitochondrial damage. Methods— Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=16) were subjected to either temporary or permanent occlusion of the middle cerebral artery and bilateral carotid arteries. Three experimental conditions were compared: group I, permanent ischemia (3, 5, and 24 hours); group II, transient ischemia (2, 24 hours of reperfusion); and sham surgery. Anesthetized rats were killed by cardiac perfusion, and brain tissue was removed ipsilaterally and contralaterally from the ischemic core section of the frontoparietal cortex. Fixed tissue was prepared for electron microscopic examination, and electron microscopic thin sections of random neurons were photographed. Perinuclear neuronal mitochondria were analyzed in a blinded manner for qualitative ultrastructural changes (compared with sham control) by 2 independent investigators using an objective grading system. Results— Cortical neuronal mitochondria exposed to severe ischemic/reperfusion conditions demonstrated dramatic signs of injury in the form of condensation, increased matrix density, and deposits of electron-dense material followed by disintegration by 24 hours. In contrast, mitochondria exposed to an equivalent time of permanent ischemia demonstrated increasing loss of matrix density with pronounced swelling followed by retention of their shape by 24 hours. Conclusions— Neuronal mitochondria undergoing transient versus permanent ischemia exhibit significantly different patterns of injury. Structural damage to neuronal mitochondria of the neocortex occurs more acutely and to a greater extent during the reperfusion phase in comparison to ischemic conditions alone. Further research is in progress to delineate the role of oxygen free radical production in the observed mitochondrial damage during postischemic reoxygenation.
Putative Sigma Factor SigI (YkoZ) of Bacillus subtilis Is Induced by Heat Shock

ABSTRACT A Bacillus subtilis disruption mutant with a mutation in sigI (formerly ykoZ) shows a temperature-sensitive growth on agar plates. The transcription of thesigI gene is heat shock induced in rich medium but not in minimal medium. Proteome studies revealed a reduced amount of GsiB protein in the sigI mutant under heat shock conditions.
Involvement of ras p21 in neurotrophin-induced response of sensory, but not sympathetic neurons

Little is known about the signal transduction mechanisms involved in the response to neurotrophins and other neurotrophic factors in neurons, beyond the activation of the tyrosine kinase activity of the neurotrophin receptors belonging to the trk family. We have previously shown that the introduction of the oncogene product ras p21 into the cytoplasm of chick embryonic neurons can reproduce the survival and neurite-outgrowth promoting effects of the neurotrophins nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). To assess the potential signal- transducing role of endogenous ras p21, we introduced function-blocking anti-ras antibodies or their Fab fragments into cultured chick embryonic neurons. The BDNF-induced neurite outgrowth in E12 nodose ganglion neurons was reduced to below control levels, and the NGF- induced survival of E9 dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons was inhibited in a specific and dose-dependent fashion. Both effects could be reversed by saturating the epitope-binding sites with biologically inactive ras p21 before microinjection. Surprisingly, ras p21 did not promote the survival of NGF-dependent E12 chick sympathetic neurons, and the NGF-induced survival in these cells was not inhibited by the Fab-fragments. The survival effect of CNTF on ras-responsive ciliary neurons could not be blocked by anti-ras Fab fragments. These results indicate an involvement of ras p21 in the signal transduction of neurotrophic factors in sensory, but not sympathetic or ciliary neurons, pointing to the existence of different signaling pathways not only in CNTF-responsive, but also in neurotrophin-responsive neuronal populations.
3D curvature analysis with a novel one-shot technique

In this work we will show that it is possible to perform three-dimensional (3D) analysis and extract features without performing a 3D surface reconstruction. We propose a novel approach that consists in acquiring the scene under the projection of structured light (plus the natural ambient illumination), which allows us to obtain the depth gradient map using a simple processing step with very low hardware requirements.
Polynomial extended Kalman filter

This work presents a polynomial version of the well-known extended Kalman filter (EKF) for the state estimation of nonlinear discrete-time stochastic systems. The proposed filter, denoted polynomial EKF (PEKF), consists in the application of the optimal polynomial filter of a chosen degree /spl mu/ to the Carleman approximation of a nonlinear system. When /spl mu/=1 the PEKF algorithm coincides with the standard EKF. For the filter implementation the moments of the state and output noises up to order 2/spl mu/ are required. Numerical simulations compare the performances of the PEKF with those of some other existing filters, showing significant improvements.
Bidirectional Expression of Metabolic, Structural, and Immune Pathways in Early Myopia and Hyperopia

Myopia (short-sightedness) affects 1.45 billion people worldwide, many of whom will develop sight-threatening secondary disorders. Myopic eyes are characterized by excessive size while hyperopic (long-sighted) eyes are typically small. The biological and genetic mechanisms underpinning the retina's local control of these growth patterns remain unclear. In the present study, we used RNA sequencing to examine gene expression in the retina/RPE/choroid across 3 days of optically-induced myopia and hyperopia induction in chick. Data were analyzed for differential expression of single genes, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was used to identify gene sets correlated with ocular axial length and refraction across lens groups. Like previous studies, we found few single genes that were differentially-expressed in a sign-of-defocus dependent manner (only BMP2 at 1 day). Using GSEA, however, we are the first to show that more subtle shifts in structural, metabolic, and immune pathway expression are correlated with the eye size and refractive changes induced by lens defocus. Our findings link gene expression with the morphological characteristics of refractive error, and suggest that physiological stress arising from metabolic and inflammatory pathway activation could increase the vulnerability of myopic eyes to secondary pathologies.
Additive loss-of-function proteasome subunit mutations in CANDLE/PRAAS patients promote type I IFN production.

Autosomal recessive mutations in proteasome subunit β 8 ( PSMB8 ), which encodes the inducible proteasome subunit β5i, cause the immune-dysregulatory disease chronic atypical neutrophilic dermatosis with lipodystrophy and elevated temperature (CANDLE), which is classified as a proteasome-associated autoinflammatory syndrome (PRAAS). Here, we identified 8 mutations in 4 proteasome genes, PSMA3 (encodes α7), PSMB4 (encodes β7), PSMB9 (encodes β1i), and proteasome maturation protein ( POMP ), that have not been previously associated with disease and 1 mutation in PSMB8 that has not been previously reported. One patient was compound heterozygous for PSMB4 mutations, 6 patients from 4 families were heterozygous for a missense mutation in 1 inducible proteasome subunit and a mutation in a constitutive proteasome subunit, and 1 patient was heterozygous for a POMP mutation, thus establishing a digenic and autosomal dominant inheritance pattern of PRAAS. Function evaluation revealed that these mutations variably affect transcription, protein expression, protein folding, proteasome assembly, and, ultimately, proteasome activity. Moreover, defects in proteasome formation and function were recapitulated by siRNA-mediated knockdown of the respective subunits in primary fibroblasts from healthy individuals. Patient-isolated hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells exhibited a strong IFN gene-expression signature, irrespective of genotype. Additionally, chemical […] subunit and a mutation in a constitutive proteasome subunit, and 1 patient was heterozygous for a POMP mutation, thus establishing a digenic and autosomal dominant inheritance pattern of PRAAS. Function evaluation revealed that these mutations variably affect transcription, protein expression, protein folding, proteasome assembly, and, ultimately, proteasome activity. Moreover, defects in proteasome formation and function were recapitulated by siRNA-mediated knockdown of the respective subunits in primary fibroblasts from healthy individuals. Patient-isolated hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells exhibited a strong IFN gene-expression signature, irrespective of genotype. Additionally, chemical proteasome inhibition or progressive depletion of proteasome subunit gene transcription with siRNA induced transcription of type I IFN genes in healthy control cells. Our results provide further insight into CANDLE genetics and link global proteasome dysfunction to increased type I IFN production.
IT Road Warriors: Balancing Work--Family Conflict, Job Autonomy, and Work Overload to Mitigate Turnover Intentions

This study examines the antecedents of turnover intention among information technology road warriors. Road warriors are IT professionals who spend most of their workweek away from home at a client site. Building on Moore's (2000) work on turnover intention, this article develops and tests a model that is context-specific to the road warrior situation. The model highlights the effects of work family conflict and job autonomy, factors especially applicable to the road warrior's circumstances. Data were gathered from a company in the computer and software services industry. This study provides empirical evidence for the effects of work family conflict, perceived work overload, fairness of rewards, and job autonomy on organizational commitment and work exhaustion for road warriors. The results suggest that work family conflict is a key source of stress among IT road warriors because they have to juggle family and job duties as they work at distant client sites during the week. These findings suggest that the context of the IT worker matters to turnover intention, and that models that are adaptive to the work context will more effectively predict and explain turnover intention.
Gender Inequality in the Couple Relationship and Leisure-Based Physical Exercise

Aims To analyse whether gender inequality in the couple relationship was related to leisure-based physical activity, after controlling for earlier physical activity and confounders. Methods Data drawn from the Northern Swedish Cohort of all pupils in their final year of compulsory schooling in a town in the North of Sweden. The sample consisted of 772 respondents (n = 381 men, n = 391 women) in the 26-year follow-up (in 2007, aged 42) who were either married or cohabiting. Ordinal regression, for men and women separately, was used to assess the association between gender inequality (measured as self-perceived equality in the couple relationship using dummy variables) and a measure of exercise frequency, controlling for prior exercise frequency, socioeconomic status, the presence of children in the home, and longer than usual hours in paid work. Results The perception of greater gender equality in the couple relationship was associated with higher levels of physical activity for both men and women. This remained significant when the other variables were controlled for. Amongst men the confidence intervals were high. Conclusions The results point to the potential of perceived gender equality in the couple relationship to counteract the general time poverty and household burden that often arises from the combination of paid work and responsibility for children and the home, especially for women. The high confidence intervals among men indicate the need for more research within the field with larger samples.
Prior Virus Exposure Alters the Long-Term Landscape of Viral Replication during Feline Lentiviral Infection

We developed a feline model of lentiviral cross-species transmission using a puma lentivirus (PLV or FIVPco) which infects domestic cats but does not cause disease. Infection with PLV protects cats from CD4+ T-cell decline caused by subsequent infection with virulent feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). Previous studies implicate innate immune and/or cellular restriction mechanisms for FIV disease attenuation in PLV-infected cats. In this study, we evaluated viral infection and cytokine mRNA transcription in 12 different tissue reservoirs approximately five months post infection. We quantitated tissue proviral load, viral mRNA load and relative transcription of IL-10, IL-12p40 and IFNγ from tissues of cats exposed to FIV, PLV or both viruses and analyzed these parameters using a multivariate statistical approach. The distribution and intensity of FIV infection and IFNγ transcription differed between single and co-infected cats, characterized by higher FIV proviral loads and IFNγ expression in co-infected cat tissues. Variability in FIV mRNA load and IFNγ was significantly more constrained in co-infected versus singly infected cat tissues. Single-infected:co-infected ratios of FIV mRNA load compared to FIV proviral load indicated that active viral transcription was apparently inhibited during co-infection. These results indicate that previous PLV infection increases activation of tissue innate immunity and constrains the ability of FIV to productively infect tissue reservoirs of infection for months, independent of FIV proviral load, supporting a model in which innate immunity and/or modulation of target cell susceptibility play a key role in PLV-induced protection from FIV disease.
Legionella pneumophila Serogroup 1 Strain Paris: Endemic Distribution throughout France

ABSTRACT An analysis of 691 French clinical Legionella isolates showed that the endemic L. pneumophila serogroup 1 strain Paris was responsible for 12.2% of all cases of legionellosis and had a specific pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern. We also demonstrated the presence of this endemic clone throughout Europe.
Delivery of multipurpose prevention drug combinations from electrospun nanofibers using composite microarchitectures

Background Electrospun drug-eluting fabrics have enormous potential for the delivery of physicochemically diverse drugs in combination by controlling the underlying material chemistry and fabric microarchitecture. However, the rationale for formulating drugs at high drug loading in the same or separate fibers is unknown but has important implications for product development and clinical applications. Methods Using a production-scale free-surface electrospinning instrument, we produced electrospun nanofibers with different microscale geometries for the co-delivery of tenofovir (TFV) and levonorgestrel (LNG) – two lead drug candidates for multipurpose prevention of HIV acquisition and unintended pregnancy. We investigated the in vitro drug release of TFV and LNG combinations from composites that deliver the two drugs from the same fiber (combined fibers) or from separate fibers in a stacked or interwoven architecture. For stacked composites, we also examined the role that fabric thickness has on drug-release kinetics. We also measured the cytotoxicity and antiviral activity of the drugs delivered alone and in combination. Results Herein, we report on the solution and processing parameters for the free-surface electrospinning of medical fabrics with controlled microarchitecture and high drug loading (up to 20 wt%). We observed that in vitro release of the highly water-soluble TFV, but not the water-insoluble LNG, was affected by composite microarchitecture, fabric thickness, and drug content. Finally, we showed that the drug-loaded nanofibers are noncytotoxic and that the antiviral activity of TFV is preserved through the electrospinning process and when combined with LNG. Conclusion Electrospun fabrics with high drug loading create multicomponent systems that benefit from the independent control of the nanofibrous microarchitecture. Our findings are significant because they will inform the design and production of composite electrospun fabrics for the co-delivery of physicochemically diverse drugs that may be useful for multipurpose prevention.
Human Migrations and Population Dynamics in the Western Mediterranean: from the Neolithic to the present

XIII Figure Index . XV Table Index . XVII Abbreviations . XVIII Chapter 1. General Introduction . 21 1.1. Neolithic Revolution . 23 1.1.1. Neolithic Transition in Europe . 25 1.1.1.1. Neolithic expansion in Southern Europe and Western Mediterranean . 27 1.1.1.2 Neolithic Transition in the Iberian Peninsula . 28 1.1.2. Neolithic Transition in North Africa . 31 1.2. Genetic Diversity in Human Populations . 33 1.2.1. Genetic Structure in Europe . 34 1.2.1.1. Genetic Structure in the Iberian Peninsula . 37 1.2. 2. Genetic Structure in Africa . 39 1.2. 2.1. Genetic Structure in North Africa . 40 1.3. Spatially explicit approaches applied to human evolution . 41 1.3. 1. Modelling the evolution of modern humans . 45 1.4. Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) applied to human evolution48 1.4. 1. Strategies, goals and pitfalls of Approximate Bayesian Computation . 48 1.4. 1.1. Choice of Summary Statistics . 48 1.4. 1.2. Estimation of posterior distributions . 49 1.4. 1.3. Applying ABC for selection among alternative scenarios . 50 1.4. 1.4. Applying ABC for parameters estimation . 51 1.4. 2. Examples of approximate Bayesian computation applied to analyse human evolution . 52 1.5. Objectives . 54 1.6. References . 55 Chapter 2. Evaluating the Neolithic Expansion at Both Shores of the Mediterranean Sea . 77 VIII FCUP Human Migrations and Population Dynamics in the Western Mediterranean: from the Neolithic to the present 2.
Limnological Patterns in a Large Subtropical Reservoir Cascade

Additional information is available the end of the chapter Abstract The study identified limnological patterns in the Paranapanema River reservoir cascade, one of the main tributaries of the high Paraná River, La Plata Basin, southeast Brazil. Samplings were carried out in eight reservoirs from a total of 37 sites. We analyzed the water transparency, depth, and vertical profiles of temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, total solids, suspended solids, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorophyll a, and thermotolerant coliforms. Additionally, the trophic state index for tropical/subtropical reservoirs, the water retention time and morphometric characteristics of each reservoir were calculated. Longitudinal compart mentalization is conspicuous in storage reservoirs, whereas the magnitude of temporal changes is higher in run-of-river systems. The lateral component of spatial heterogeneity was also very important for some reservoirs, determined basically by the entrance of tributary rivers. On the vertical dimension, summer thermal stratification, followed by oxygen decrease in bottom layers, in the central channel and lacustrine zones of deeper and larger reservoirs was observed. The ultraoligotrophic condition prevailed, despite signals of intensive land use for agriculture—recurrent high phosphorus values. The acquired experience provided a baseline for a permanent limnological and water quality program, which subsidizes management actions in the basin.
Image retrieval with reciprocal and shared nearest neighbors

Content-based image retrieval systems typically rely on a similarity measure between image vector representations, such as in bag-of-words, to rank the database images in decreasing order of expected relevance to the query. However, the inherent asymmetry of k-nearest neighborhoods is not properly accounted for by traditional similarity measures, possibly leading to a loss of retrieval accuracy. This paper addresses this issue by proposing similarity measures that use neighborhood information to assess the relationship between images. First, we extend previous work on k-reciprocal nearest neighbors to produce new measures that improve over the original primary metric. Second, we propose measures defined on sets of shared nearest neighbors for reranking the shortlist. Both these methods are simple, yet they significantly improve the accuracy of image search engines on standard benchmark datasets.