Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secondary syphilis: Clinical morphology and histopathology

Twenty-four biopsy specimens of skin were taken from 23 patients with several types of lesions of secondary syphilis. In macular and maculopapular lesions, the histological changes were not specific. No or few plasma cells were observed in specimens at this stage. In early papular lesions, the histological appearance was more diagnostic. A lymphohistiocytic bandlike infiltrate was present in the upper part of the dermis and extended around blood vessels of the deep plexus. In nearly two-thirds of the cases, plasma cells were present in early papular lesions. The epidermis, too, was frequently involved in these lesions of the disease. In late papular lesions, the pathologic features were distinctive. The infiltrate was dense, diffuse, and, in some instances, nearly completely plasmocytic. In nummular syphilides, many neutrophils were present in a hyperplastic epidermis, whereas in corymbiform lesions, the epidermis was not involved at all.
Acid-Activated Structural Reorganization of the Rift Valley Fever Virus Gc Fusion Protein

ABSTRACT The entry of the enveloped Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) into its host cell is mediated by the viral glycoproteins Gn and Gc. We investigated the RVFV entry process and, in particular, its pH-dependent activation mechanism using our recently developed nonspreading-RVFV-particle system. Entry of the virus into the host cell was efficiently inhibited by lysosomotropic agents that prevent endosomal acidification and by compounds that interfere with dynamin- and clathrin-dependent endocytosis. Exposure of plasma membrane-bound virions to an acidic pH (<pH 6) equivalent to the pH of late endolysosomal compartments allowed the virus to bypass the endosomal route of infection. Acid exposure of virions in the absence of target membranes triggered the class II-like Gc fusion protein to form extremely stable oligomers that were resistant to SDS and temperature dissociation and concomitantly compromised virus infectivity. By targeted mutagenesis of conserved histidines in Gn and Gc, we demonstrated that mutation of a single histidine (H857) in Gc completely abrogated virus entry, as well as acid-induced Gc oligomerization. In conclusion, our data suggest that after endocytic uptake, RVFV traffics to the acidic late endolysosomal compartments, where histidine protonation drives the reorganization of the Gc fusion protein that leads to membrane fusion.
An analysis of the durations of Swift gamma-ray bursts

Context. Swift detectors are found to be more sensitive to long-soft bursts than pre-Swift missions. This may largely bias the distribution of durations and thus classification of gamma-ray bursts. Aims. We systematically investigate the duration distribution of gamma-ray bursts in the Swift era vs. that of pre-Swift bursts. Methods. For the purpose of this study, statistical methods such as the K-S test and linear/non-linear fitting analysis have been used to examine the duration properties of Swift bursts in both observer and source frames. Results. For 95 GRBs with known redshift, we show that two log-normal distributions of duration are clearly divided at T(90) similar or equal to 2 s. The intrinsic durations also show a bimodal distribution but shift systematically toward the smaller value and the distribution exhibits a narrower width than the observed one. Swift long bursts exhibit a wider duration dynamic range in both observer and source frames in comparison to pre-Swift long bursts. Conclusions. We find that Swift bursts and pre-Swift ones can share the same criterion of classification in terms of duration at 2 s, although both monitors have large differences with respect to sensitivity of a given energy band.
Discharge of Raphe Magnus on and offCells Is Predictive of the Motor Facilitation Evoked by Repeated Laser Stimulation

Medullary raphe magnus (RM) on and offcells are thought to modulate spinal nociception by gating withdrawals evoked by noxious stimulation. To test whether withdrawal initiation is the target of RM modulation, we examined the relationship betweenon and off cell discharge and motor withdrawal evoked by noxious laser heat in halothane-anesthetized rats. The cellular responses of both cell types began during the 50 msec after onset of the tail flick, peaked within 200 msec, and outlasted the duration of the motor reaction. Thus, it is unlikely that the target ofon and off cell modulation is withdrawal initiation; instead, on and off cells may modulate reactions to repeated noxious stimulation. We therefore tested whether laser heat-evoked changes in RM cell discharge were predictive of the modulatory effects of one noxious stimulus on the reaction to a subsequent noxious stimulus. Two pulses of laser heat were presented at interpulse intervals of 0.8, 2.0, or 10.0 sec. The motor withdrawal evoked by the second pulse was significantly enhanced relative to that evoked by the first pulse. The observed motor enhancement depended on supraspinal input because it was not present in spinalized rats. Comparison of the relative changes in motor and cellular activity preceding double laser heat stimulation revealed parallel changes between motor facilitation, decreases in off cell discharge, and increases in on cell discharge. This finding suggests a preparatory role for RM on and offcells in enhancing reactions to a noxious stimulus that closely follows another noxious stimulus.
Spatial‐temporal stratifications in natural populations and how they affect understanding and estimation of effective population size

The concept of effective population size (Ne) is based on an elegantly simple idea which, however, rapidly becomes very complex when applied to most real‐world situations. In natural populations, spatial and temporal stratifications create different classes of individuals with different vital rates, and this in turn affects (generally reduces) Ne in complex ways. I consider how these natural stratifications influence our understanding of effective size and how to estimate it, and what the consequences are for conservation and management of natural populations. Important points that emerge include the following:
Reconstructing the Late Palaeozoic - Mesozoic topographic evolution of the Chinese Tian Shan: available data and remaining uncertainties

The topographic evolution of continents and especially the growth and dismembering of mountain ranges plays a major role in the tectonic evolution of orogenic systems, as well as in regional or global climate changes. A large number of studies have concentrated on the description, quantification and dating of relief building in active mountain ranges. However, deciphering the topographic evolution of a continental area submitted to recurrent tectonic deformation over several hundred millions of years remains a challenge. Here we present a synthesis of the tectonic, geochronological and sedimentological data available on the intracontinental Tian Shan Range to describe its general topographic evolution from Late Palaeozoic to Early Tertiary. We show that this evolution has occurred in two very distinct geodynamic settings, initiating during the Carboniferous in an ocean subduction - continent collision tectonic context before becoming, from Early Permian, purely intra-continental. We show that during most of the Mesozoic, the topography is mostly characterized by a progressive general decrease of the relief. Nonetheless localized, recurrent deformation induced the formation of small-scale reliefs during that period. These deformations were driven by far field effects of possibly several geodynamic processes in a way that still remains to be fully understood.
The Chemical Evolution of the Milky Way in a cosmological context

A short overview is presented of several topics concerning the evolution of the Milky Way (MW) in a cosmological context. In particular, the metallicity distribution of the MW halo is derived analytically and the halo metallicity and abundance patterns are compared to those of Local Group galaxies. The inside-out formation of the MW disk is supported by the observed evolution of the abundance gradients, while their magnitude suggests that the role of the Galactic bar has been negligible. Finally, the empirical foundations (age-metallicity relation and metallicity distribution) of the evolution of the solar neighbourhood, which is the best studied galactic sub-system, have been seriously questioned recently.
BET surface area of phosphoric acid treated tropical soils

The specific surface area is an important property in assessing the physical interaction of clay particles with additives. In this paper, the time-dependent changes induced in surface area of phosphoric acid treated tropical soils comprised mainly of kaolinite mineral were investigated. Comparison between the BET results indicated that the effects of acidic stabilizer on the surface area of soil particles were significant. Furthermore, it was found that the presence of free iron oxides in the form of micro-aggregates on the surface of soil particles contributed to achieving higher surface area values while limiting the attack of phosphoric acid on the clay particles.
Hop-by-Hop Frame Aggregation for VoIP on Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

The already severe inefficiency problem in running VoIP on the IEEE 802.11-based wireless LAN is exacerbated in multi-hop networks due to spatial interference. This paper presents a novel scheme that significantly mitigates the effect of the interference by combining the inter-call aggregation and the pseudo-broadcast technique as used in network coding. As such, the proposed scheme works effectively not just for calls traveling the same routed path but also for calls crossing each other inside the multi-hop networks. We demonstrate through extensive simulation that the IEEE 802.11-based multi-hop network can be boosted up to 700% in terms of the number of supportable VoIP calls, with acceptable QoS, through the proposed scheme.
Decoding abstract and concrete concept representations based on single‐trial fMRI data

Previously, multi‐voxel pattern analysis has been used to decode words referring to concrete object categories. In this study we investigated if single‐trial‐based brain activity was sufficient to distinguish abstract (e.g., mercy) versus concrete (e.g., barn) concept representations. Multiple neuroimaging studies have identified differences in the processing of abstract versus concrete concepts based on the averaged activity across time by using univariate methods. In this study we used multi‐voxel pattern analysis to decode functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data when participants perform a semantic similarity judgment task on triplets of either abstract or concrete words with similar meanings. Classifiers were trained to identify individual trials as concrete or abstract. Cross‐validated accuracies for classifying trials as abstract or concrete were significantly above chance (P < 0.05) for all participants. Discriminating information was distributed in multiple brain regions. Moreover, accuracy of identifying single trial data for any one participant as abstract or concrete was also reliably above chance (P < 0.05) when the classifier was trained solely on data from other participants. These results suggest abstract and concrete concepts differ in representations in terms of neural activity patterns during a short period of time across the whole brain. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Patterns of mating call preferences in túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus

We examine acoustic mating preferences of a focal population at four different scales of divergence: within the population, between populations in the same genetic group, between populations in different genetic groups and between different species. At all scales there is substantial genetic divergence, variation in mating signals and preferences are influenced by signal variation. There is, however, no support for the hypothesis that mating preferences accumulate predictably with genetic distance. Females preferred the local conspecific call to the foreign conspecific call in about one‐third of the experiments, and preferred the local call to all of the heterospecific calls tested. But there was no significant relationship between the variation in the strength of preference and genetic distance either among conspecific populations, or among heterospecific species. Thus, in this study macroevolutionary patterns are not apparent at the microevolutionary scale.
Applications of Multiple Nuclear Genes to the Molecular Phylogeny, Population Genetics and Hybrid Identification in the Mangrove Genus Rhizophora

The genus Rhizophora is one of the most important components of mangrove forests. It is an ideal system for studying biogeography, molecular evolution, population genetics, hybridization and conservation genetics of mangroves. However, there are no sufficient molecular markers to address these topics. Here, we developed 77 pairs of nuclear gene primers, which showed successful PCR amplifications across all five Rhizophora species and sequencing in R. apiculata. Here, we present three tentative applications using a subset of the developed nuclear genes to (I) reconstruct the phylogeny, (II) examine the genetic structure and (III) identify natural hybridization in Rhizophora. Phylogenetic analyses support the hypothesis that Rhizophora had disappeared in the Atlantic-East Pacific (AEP) region and was re-colonized from the IWP region approximately 12.7 Mya. Population genetics analyses in four natural populations of R. apiculata in Hainan, China, revealed extremely low genetic diversity, strong population differentiation and extensive admixture, suggesting that the Pleistocene glaciations, particularly the last glacial maximum, greatly influenced the population dynamics of R. apiculata in Hainan. We also verified the hybrid status of a morphologically intermediate individual between R. apiculata and R. stylosa in Hainan. Based on the sequences of five nuclear genes and one chloroplast intergenic spacer, this individual is likely to be an F1 hybrid, with R. stylosa as its maternal parent. The nuclear gene markers developed in this study should be of great value for characterizing the hybridization and introgression patterns in other cases of this genus and testing the role of natural selection using population genomics approaches.
A Note on Distance-based Graph Entropies

A variety of problems in, e.g., discrete mathematics, computer science, information theory, statistics, chemistry, biology, etc., deal with inferring and characterizing relational structures by using graph measures. In this sense, it has been proven that information-theoretic quantities representing graph entropies possess useful properties such as a meaningful structural interpretation and uniqueness. As classical work, many distance-based graph entropies, e.g., the ones due to Bonchev et al. and related quantities have been proposed and studied. Our contribution is to explore graph entropies that are based on a novel information functional, which is the number of vertices with distance \(k\) to a given vertex. In particular, we investigate some properties thereof leading to a better understanding of this new information-theoretic quantity.
Wide Baseline Stereo Matching with Convex Bounded Distortion Constraints

Finding correspondences in wide baseline setups is a challenging problem. Existing approaches have focused largely on developing better feature descriptors for correspondence and on accurate recovery of epipolar line constraints. This paper focuses on the challenging problem of finding correspondences once approximate epipolar constraints are given. We introduce a novel method that integrates a deformation model. Specifically, we formulate the problem as finding the largest number of corresponding points related by a bounded distortion map that obeys the given epipolar constraints. We show that, while the set of bounded distortion maps is not convex, the subset of maps that obey the epipolar line constraints is convex, allowing us to introduce an efficient algorithm for matching. We further utilize a robust cost function for matching and employ majorization-minimization for its optimization. Our experiments indicate that our method finds significantly more accurate maps than existing approaches.
Preparation and Characterization of Poly(butylene terephthalate)/Silica Nanocomposites

In this study, we presented a convenient, in situ polymerization route for the preparation of Poly (butylene terephthalate) (PBT)/silica nanocomposites, in which silica was not premodified. The nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ polymerization of terephthalic acid (TPA), 1,4-butanediol (BD) and silica. The structure of these nanocomposites were investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). The results show that PBT chains were successfully grafted onto the surface of silica. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) micrographs revealed that silica were homogeneously dispersed in PBT matrix at a size level of 10–20 nm. The isothermal crystallization kinetics of pure PBT and PBT/silica nanocomposites were investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and simulated by Avrami model. The existence of silica could lead to an acceleration of crystallization and enhance the thermal stability of PBT. According to dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), the storage modulus of PBT/silica nanocomposites were markedly improved compared with pure PBT.
The usefulness of diffusion tensor imaging in detection of diffuse axonal injury in a patient with head trauma

Diffuse axonal injury is the predominant mechanism of injuries in patients with traumatic brain injury. Neither conventional brain computed tomography nor magnetic resonance imaging has shown sufficient sensitivity in the diagnosis of diffuse axonal injury. In the current study, we attempted to demonstrate the usefulness of diffusion tensor imaging in the detection of lesion sites of diffuse axonal injury in a patient with head trauma who had been misdiagnosed as having a stroke. A 44-year-old man fell from a height of about 2 m. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (32 months after onset) showed leukomalactic lesions in the isthmus of the corpus callosum and the left temporal lobe. He presented with mild quadriparesis, intentional tremor of both hands, and trunkal ataxia. From diffusion tensor imaging results of 33 months after traumatic brain injury onset, we found diffuse axonal injury in the right corticospinal tract (centrum semiovale, pons), both fornices (columns and crus), and both inferior cerebellar peduncles (cerebellar portions). We think that diffusion tensor imaging could be a useful tool in the detection of lesion sites of diffuse axonal injury in patients with head trauma.
Multiple-field inflation and the CMB

In this paper, we investigate some consequences of multiple-field inflation for the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). We derive expressions for the amplitudes, the spectral indices and the derivatives of the indices of the CMB power spectrum in the context of a very general multiple-field theory of slow-roll inflation, where the field metric can be non-trivial. Both scalar (adiabatic, isocurvature and mixing) and tensor perturbations are treated and the differences with single-field inflation are discussed. From these expressions, several relations are derived that can be used to determine the importance of multiple-field effects observationally from the CMB. We also study the evolution of the total entropy perturbation during radiation and matter domination and the influence of this on the isocurvature spectral quantities.
Cytokine induction of interleukin‐24 in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Interleukin‐24 (IL‐24) is a recently identified member of the IL‐10 family of cytokines. It was originally identified as a tumor suppressor molecule, melanoma differentiation‐associated gene 7, and then renamed IL‐24 and classified as a cytokine, based on its chromosomal location in the IL‐10 locus, its mRNA expression in leukocytes, and its secretory sequence elements. Here, we correlate the kinetics of IL‐24 mRNA and protein expression in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) stimulated by polyclonal activators phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or by allogeneic major histocompatbility complex. PHA‐stimulated PBMC express IL‐24 mRNA, reaching peak levels at 8–12 h after stimulation. Protein expression, as measured by intracellular flow cytometry, followed the message, reaching maximum expression at 24 h. Subset analysis of mitogen‐stimulated PBMC showed that IL‐24 was expressed primarily in T cells and macrophages. Expression of IL‐24 in mitogen‐stimulated PBMC is the result of cytokine stimulation. Individual cytokines including IL‐2, IL‐7, IL‐15, tumor necrosis factor α, granulocyte macrophage‐colony stimulating factor, and IL‐1β stimulate the expression of IL‐24 mRNA and protein, whereas interferons and T helper cell type 2 cytokines fail to induce substantial IL‐24. When LPS‐ or PHA‐stimulated cells were treated with Actinomycin D, IL‐24 mRNA persisted at high levels over the 4‐h course of treatment. These data strongly suggest that the expression of IL‐24 in human PBMC results from cytokine stimulation and is regulated at the post‐transcriptional level through stabilization of IL‐24 mRNA.
The large-scale distribution of warm ionized gas around nearby radio galaxies with jet-cloud interactions

Deep, narrow-band Hα observations taken with the TAURUS Tunable Filter on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope are presented for two nearby radio galaxies with strong jet–cloud interactions. Although the brightest emission-line components are closely aligned with the radio jets – providing nearby examples of the ‘alignment effect’ most commonly observed in high-redshift (z>0.5) radio galaxies – lower surface brightness emission-line structures are detected at large distances (tens of kpc) from the radio jet axis. These latter structures cannot be reconciled with anisotropic illumination of the interstellar medium by obscured quasar-like sources, because parts of the structures lie outside any plausible quasar ionization cones. Rather, the distribution of the emission lines around the fringes of the extended radio lobes suggests that the gas is ionized either by direct interaction with the radio components, or by the diffuse photoionizing radiation fields produced in the shocks generated in such interactions. These observations serve to emphasize that the ionizing effects of the radio components can extend far from the radio jet axes, and that deep emission-line imaging observations are required to reveal the true distribution of warm gas in the host galaxies. We expect future deep imaging observations to reveal similar structures perpendicular to the radio axes in high-z radio galaxies.
The typical performance of irregular low-density generator-matrix codes for lossy compression

We evaluate the typical performance of irregular low-density generator-matrix (LDGM) codes, which is defined by sparse matrices with arbitrary irregular bit degree distribution and arbitrary check degree distribution, for lossy compression. We apply the replica method under a one-step replica symmetry breaking (1RSB) ansatz to this problem.