Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF PLANT ADAPTATION TO SERPENTINE SOILS

■ Abstract Plant adaptation to serpentine soil has been a topic of study for many decades, yet investigation of the genetic component of this adaptation has only recently begun. We review the defining properties of serpentine soil and the pioneering work leading to three established physiological and evolutionary mechanisms hypothesized to be responsible for serpentine tolerance: tolerance of a low calcium-to-magnesium ratio, avoidance of Mg toxicity, or a high Mg requirement. In addition, we review recent work in serpentine ecology documenting the high proportion of endemic species present, the adaptive morphologies of serpentine-tolerant plants, and the distinctive structure of serpentine communities. Studies of the physiological mechanisms proposed to confer serpentine tolerance have shown that uptake of particular ions and heavy metals varies between serpentine-tolerant and -intolerant species. Recent studies examining the genetic basis of serpentine adaptation have shown serpentine-adaptive quantitative trait loci (QTL) to have large phenotypic effects, drought tolerance to be as important as metal tolerance, and serpentine adaptation to have evolved independently multiple times within species. Investigations of plant races and species adapted to contrasting soil types have shown disparate flowering times, divergent floral morphologies, and pollen incompatibility to contribute to reproductive isolation. Finally, we propose that future studies involving serpentine systems should merge the fields of ecology, evolution, physiology, and genetics.
Temporal Patterns and Environmental Correlates of Macroinvertebrate Communities in Temporary Streams

Temporary streams are characterised by short periods of seasonal or annual stream flow after which streams contract into waterholes or pools of varying hydrological connectivity and permanence. Although these streams are widespread globally, temporal variability of their ecology is understudied, and understanding the processes that structure community composition in these systems is vital for predicting and managing the consequences of anthropogenic impacts. We used multivariate and univariate approaches to investigate temporal variability in macroinvertebrate compositional data from 13 years of sampling across multiple sites from autumn and spring, in South Australia, the driest state in the driest inhabited continent in the world. We examined the potential of land-use, geographic and environmental variables to predict the temporal variability in macroinvertebrate assemblages, and also identified indicator taxa, that is, those highly correlated with the most significantly associated physical variables. Temporal trajectories of macroinvertebrate communities varied within site in both seasons and across years. A combination of land-use, geographic and environmental variables accounted for 24% of the variation in community structure in autumn and 27% in spring. In autumn, community composition among sites were more closely clustered together relative to spring suggesting that communities were more similar in autumn than in spring. In both seasons, community structure was most strongly correlated with conductivity and latitude, and community structure was more associated with cover by agriculture than urban land-use. Maintaining temporary streams will require improved catchment management aimed at sustaining seasonal flows and critical refuge habitats, while also limiting the damaging effects from increased agriculture and urban developments.
Diagnostic and Treatment Decisions in US Healthcare

The practice of medicine links diagnosis to treatment. However, for many diagnosed conditions diagnosis and treatment may not affect health outcome. Examples include low-grade cancers that do not influence life expectancy or quality of life. Further, there is considerable uncertainty about the point along a biologic continuum where treatment should begin. Changes in diagnostic thresholds often increase healthcare costs even though the benefit of the treatment is uncertain. Although this uncertainty is understood by the healthcare providers, it often is not shared with patients. We advocate a new paradigm called shared medical decision making that makes uncertainty about diagnosis and treatment transparent to patients and engages them in the treatment decision process.
Bankfull discharge in mountain streams in the Cauca Region of Colombia

A flow considered effective or dominant in the process of stable channel forming, is the bankfull discharge associated to frequency between 1 and 2 years with an average of 1.5 year, according to Dunne and Leopold, 1978. Bankfull discharge or forming discharge is the flow which defines the morphological characteristics of the channel such as bars, meanders and curves. In this article, different approxima- tions for channel forming discharge are explored from the morphological and statisti- cal point of view, in order to establish the frequency of the forming discharge for some rivers in the Andes Region of the Department of Cauca, Colombia
Theta phase precession of grid and place cell firing in open environments

Place and grid cells in the rodent hippocampal formation tend to fire spikes at successively earlier phases relative to the local field potential theta rhythm as the animal runs through the cell's firing field on a linear track. However, this ‘phase precession’ effect is less well characterized during foraging in two-dimensional open field environments. Here, we mapped runs through the firing fields onto a unit circle to pool data from multiple runs. We asked which of seven behavioural and physiological variables show the best circular–linear correlation with the theta phase of spikes from place cells in hippocampal area CA1 and from grid cells from superficial layers of medial entorhinal cortex. The best correlate was the distance to the firing field peak projected onto the animal's current running direction. This was significantly stronger than other correlates, such as instantaneous firing rate and time-in-field, but similar in strength to correlates with other measures of distance travelled through the firing field. Phase precession was stronger in place cells than grid cells overall, and robust phase precession was seen in traversals through firing field peripheries (although somewhat less than in traversals through the centre), consistent with phase coding of displacement along the current direction. This type of phase coding, of place field distance ahead of or behind the animal, may be useful for allowing calculation of goal directions during navigation.
The validity of the transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership model as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X)

THE VALIDITY OF THE TRANSFORMATIONAL, TRANSACTIONAL, AND LAISSEZ-FAIRE LEADERSHIP MODEL AS MEASURED BY THE MULTIFACTOR LEADERSHIP QUESTIONNAIRE (MLQ 5X) by John Antonakis Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Applied Management and Decision Sciences Walden University February 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Candidatus Coxiella massiliensis Infection

Bacteria genetically related to Coxiella burnetii have been found in ticks. Using molecular techniques, we detected Coxiella-like bacteria, here named Candidatus Coxiella massiliensis, in skin biopsy samples and ticks removed from patients with an eschar. This organism may be a common agent of scalp eschar and neck lymphadenopathy after tick bite.
Contributions of Psychoanalysis To the Understanding and Treatment of Depression

Psychoanalysis continues to make important contributions to basic clinical understanding of adaptive and maladaptive psychological development, and particularly to the understanding of depression and its treatment. This paper demonstrates that a basic theoretical conceptualization, central to many of Freud's fundamental contributions, has provided the basis for a wide range of contemporary psychoanalytic and nonpsychoanalytic formulations of personality development and organization; for understanding various forms of psychopathology in adults as deriving from disruptions of normal developmental processes, especially personality disorders and depression; and for conducting research on psychotherapeutic process and outcome in both brief and long-term intensive treatment.
Student Involvement and Racial Identity Attitudes among African American Males.

The relationship between student involvement and racial identity attitudes among African American males was examined. The Student Involvement Survey (SIS), and the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS-B) were administered to 117 African American males at 10 predominantly White universities. A significant relationship was found among the 4 subscales of the RIAS-B and the SIS total. Recommendations for student affairs practitioners working with African American students are presented.
Evolutionary and Lifetime Learning in Varying NK Fitness Landscape Changing Environments: An Analysis of Both Fitness and Diversity

This paper examines the effects of lifetime learning on populations evolving genetically in a series of changing environmets. The analysis of both fitness and diversity of the populations provides an insight into the improved performance provided by lifetime learning. The NK fitness landscape model is employed as the problem task, which has the advantage of being able to generate a variety of fitness landscapes of varying difficulty. Experiments observe the response of populations in an environment where problem difficulty increases and decreases with varying frequency. Results show that lifetime learning is capable of overall higher fitness levels and, in addition, that lifetime learning stimulates the diversity of the population. This increased diversity allows lifetime learning a greater level of recovery and stability than evolutionary learning alone.
MRI Brain Extraction with Combined Expectation Maximization and Geodesic Active Contours

This paper presents a new fully automated method for the extraction of brain cortex from Tl-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) head scans. Combined with the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, and a hybrid of pre- and post-processing techniques, incorporating mathematical morphology and connected component analysis, geodesic active contours are evolved in 3D space to segment the cortex. The robustness and accuracy of our proposed method are validated with both synthetic and real MRI data. Our method outperforms standard techniques including the brain extraction tool (BET) and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) by lowering the misclassification rate, especially when analyzing real MRI data
Mefloquine Blockade of Pannexin1 Currents: Resolution of a Conflict

Abstract The authors’ laboratory has reported potent block of Pannexin1 (Panx1) currents by the antimalarial quinine derivative mefloquine. However, other laboratories have found little or no mefloquine sensitivity of Panx1 currents or processes attributable to these channels. In order to resolve this issue, the authors have performed extensive dose-response studies on Panx1-transfected neuroblastoma (Neuro2A) and rat insulinoma (Rin) cells, comparing mefloquine obtained from three suppliers and also comparing the sensitivity to diastereomers. Results indicate a 20-fold difference in sensitivity to the (−)-threo-(11R/2R) diastereomer compared to the erythro enatiomers and much lower potency of (±)-erythro-(R*/S*)-mefloquine obtained from one of the commercial sources. This markedly lower efficacy presumably accounts for the disparity in results from different laboratories who have applied it in Panx1 studies.
Phenotypic determinants of individual fitness in female fur seals: larger is better

Inter-individual differences in fitness in female vertebrates have often been related to phenotypic discrepancies, suggesting that bigger individuals exhibit greater fitness. However, the use of the temporally variable indices of quality, such as body mass/condition, may not represent the most reliable index over longer time intervals. Few studies have assessed the direct influence of body size (BS) on individual fitness. We addressed this knowledge gap using data from long-term monitoring of individually marked female subantarctic fur seals. The females of higher quality (i.e. higher lifetime reproductive success) were larger in BS than their counterparts, which correlated with their ability to provision their pup with greater and more regular energy supply, possibly through the maximization of foraging performance and body fat storage. We accordingly found that our study population could be divided into three contrasted categories of maternal quality, with 33% of the females producing over 71% of the viable offspring constituting the next generation. We suggest that a larger BS represents a crucial selective advantage for a central place forager, especially when exploiting remotely available resources.
Cortical Spiking Network Interfaced with Virtual Musculoskeletal Arm and Robotic Arm

Embedding computational models in the physical world is a critical step towards constraining their behavior and building practical applications. Here we aim to drive a realistic musculoskeletal arm model using a biomimetic cortical spiking model, and make a robot arm reproduce the same trajectories in real time. Our cortical model consisted of a 3-layered cortex, composed of several hundred spiking model-neurons, which display physiologically realistic dynamics. We interconnected the cortical model to a two-joint musculoskeletal model of a human arm, with realistic anatomical and biomechanical properties. The virtual arm received muscle excitations from the neuronal model, and fed back proprioceptive information, forming a closed-loop system. The cortical model was trained using spike timing-dependent reinforcement learning to drive the virtual arm in a 2D reaching task. Limb position was used to simultaneously control a robot arm using an improved network interface. Virtual arm muscle activations responded to motoneuron firing rates, with virtual arm muscles lengths encoded via population coding in the proprioceptive population. After training, the virtual arm performed reaching movements which were smoother and more realistic than those obtained using a simplistic arm model. This system provided access to both spiking network properties and to arm biophysical properties, including muscle forces. The use of a musculoskeletal virtual arm and the improved control system allowed the robot arm to perform movements which were smoother than those reported in our previous paper using a simplistic arm. This work provides a novel approach consisting of bidirectionally connecting a cortical model to a realistic virtual arm, and using the system output to drive a robotic arm in real time. Our techniques are applicable to the future development of brain neuroprosthetic control systems, and may enable enhanced brain-machine interfaces with the possibility for finer control of limb prosthetics.
Sex, age, cardiovascular risk factors, and coronary heart disease: a prospective follow-up study of 14 786 middle-aged men and women in Finland.

BACKGROUND Coronary heart disease (CHD) is markedly more common in men than in women. In both sexes, CHD risk increases with age, but the increase is sharper in women. We analyzed the extent to which major cardiovascular risk factors can explain the sex difference and the age-related increase in CHD risk. METHODS AND RESULTS The study cohort consists of 14 786 Finnish men and women 25 to 64 years old at baseline. The following cardiovascular risk factors were determined: smoking, serum total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index, and diabetes. Risk factor measurements were done in 1982 or 1987, and the cohorts were followed up until the end of 1994. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the relation between risk factors and CHD risk. CHD incidence in men compared with women was approximately 3 times higher and mortality was approximately 5 times higher. Most of the risk factors were more favorable in women, but the sex difference in risk factor levels diminished with increasing age. Differences in risk factors between sexes, particularly in HDL cholesterol and smoking, explained nearly half of the difference in CHD risk between men and women. Differences in serum total cholesterol level, blood pressure, body mass index, and diabetes prevalence explained about one-third of the age-related increase in CHD risk among men and 50% to 60% among women. CONCLUSIONS Differences in major cardiovascular risk factors explained a substantial part of the sex difference in CHD risk. An increase in risk factor levels was associated with the age-related increase in CHD incidence and mortality in both sexes but to a larger extent in women.
Genetic Interaction of Per1 and Dec1/2 in the Regulation of Circadian Locomotor Activity

In mammals, 24-h rhythms are controlled by a hierarchical system of endogenous clocks, with a circadian pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus that synchronizes peripheral oscillators throughout the body. The molecular clock machinery is regulated by interlocked transcriptional translational feedback loops (TTLs). The core TTL includes the transcriptional modulators PER (1-3) and CRY (1/2) that feed back on their own expression by interaction with CLOCK/BMAL1. An accessory loop involving the transcription factors DEC1 and DEC2 has been described that also impinges on CLOCK/BMAL1-mediated transactivation. In Drosophila, the DEC ortholog CWO shows synergistic activity to PER. This prompted the authors to analyze PER1-DEC interaction in the mammalian SCN. They generated Per1/Dec double and triple mutant mice to monitor activity rhythms under entrained and free-running conditions. Furthermore, they analyzed expression of the clock genes Per2, Rev-Erbα, and Bmal1 in wild-type and Per1/Dec mutant SCN by in situ hybridization. The experiments reveal a critical role for Per1-Dec interaction in regulating activity phase under entrained conditions. In constant darkness, a synergistic function for Per1 and Dec1/2 in period regulation was found, correlating with disrupted clock gene mRNA levels in the SCN. Luciferase reporter gene assays indicate an activatory function of DECs on Bmal1 expression. Together, the results suggest a partially redundant and bidirectional regulatory function for the 2 Dec genes in the TTL and a conservation of Per-Dec (Cwo) synergism between vertebrate and invertebrate clocks.
Place cognition and active perception A study with evolved robots.

We describe a study of place cognition and “place units” in robots produced via artificial evolution. Previous studies have investigated the possible role of place cells as building blocks for “cognitive maps” representing place, distance and direction. Studies also show, however, that when animals are restrained, the spatial selectivity of place cells is partially or completely lost. This suggests that the role of place cells in spatial cognition depends not only on the place cells themselves but on representations of the animal’s physical interactions with its environment. We test this hypothesis in a population of evolved robots. The results suggest that successful place cognition requires not only the ability to process spatial information but also the ability to select the environmental stimuli to which the agent is exposed. If this is so, theories of active perception can make a useful contribution to explaining the role of place cells in spatial cognition.
The bivariate brightness function of galaxies and a demonstration of the impact of surface brightness selection effects on luminosity function estimations

In this paper we fit an analytic function to the bivariate brightness distribution (BBD) of galaxies. It is a combination of the classical Schechter Function convolved with a Gaussian distribution in surface brightness: thus incorporating the luminosity–surface brightness correlation as seen in many recent data sets. We fit this function to a recent measurement of the BBD based on 45 000 galaxies from the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey. The parameters for the best-fitting model are , , , , and . φ*, and α equate to the conventional Schechter parameters. β is the slope of the luminosity–surface brightness correlation, is the characteristic effective surface brightness at and σ is the width of the Gaussian. Using a BBF we explore the impact of the limiting detection isophote on classical measures of the galaxy luminosity distribution. We demonstrate that if isophotal magnitudes are used then errors of , per cent and are likely for . If Gaussian corrected magnitudes are used these change to , per cent and for . Hence while the faint-end slope, α, appears fairly robust to surface brightness issues, both the M* and φ* values are highly dependent. The range over which these parameters were seen to vary is fully consistent with the scatter in the published values, reproducing the range of observed luminosity densities ). If total magnitudes are recovered then there is no change in the luminosity function within the errors for . We conclude that surface brightness selection effects are primarily responsible for this variation. After due consideration of these effects, we derive a value of .
Choline Diet and Its Gut Microbe–Derived Metabolite, Trimethylamine N-Oxide, Exacerbate Pressure Overload–Induced Heart Failure

Background—Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbe–dependent metabolite of dietary choline and other trimethylamine-containing nutrients, is both elevated in the circulation of patients having heart failure and heralds worse overall prognosis. In animal studies, dietary choline or TMAO significantly accelerates atherosclerotic lesion development in ApoE-deficient mice, and reduction in TMAO levels inhibits atherosclerosis development in the low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout mouse. Methods and Results—C57BL6/J mice were fed either a control diet, a diet containing choline (1.2%) or a diet containing TMAO (0.12%) starting 3 weeks before surgical transverse aortic constriction. Mice were studied for 12 weeks after transverse aortic constriction. Cardiac function and left ventricular structure were monitored at 3-week intervals using echocardiography. Twelve weeks post transverse aortic constriction, myocardial tissues were collected to evaluate cardiac and vascular fibrosis, and blood samples were evaluated for cardiac brain natriuretic peptide, choline, and TMAO levels. Pulmonary edema, cardiac enlargement, and left ventricular ejection fraction were significantly (P<0.05, each) worse in mice fed either TMAO- or choline-supplemented diets when compared with the control diet. In addition, myocardial fibrosis was also significantly greater (P<0.01, each) in the TMAO and choline groups relative to controls. Conclusions—Heart failure severity is significantly enhanced in mice fed diets supplemented with either choline or the gut microbe–dependent metabolite TMAO. The present results suggest that additional studies are warranted examining whether gut microbiota and the dietary choline→TMAO pathway contribute to increased heart failure susceptibility.