Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Use of Electrophoresis for the Study of Saliva Involvement in Ingestive Behavior

Whole saliva contains a wide variety of proteins and peptides, of glandular or blood origin, with diverse functions, namely proteins that participate in teeth and oral tissues protection, as well as proteins related to ingestive and digestive processes [1]. Several studies, in animals and humans, present evidences that saliva is involved in eating behaviour [e.g. [2–5]]. The link between saliva composition and oral perception is increasingly reported. Several studies refer that oral sensations, such as astringency, result from an interaction between food constituents (e.g. polyphenols) and salivary proteins [6]. Moreover, the involvement of saliva in taste sensitivity has been also considered and an example of this relationship is the correlation established between taste dysfunction and reduced levels of the salivary protein carbonic anhydrase VI [7]. Recently, some studies added evidences that protein saliva composition is involved in taste by associating salivary proteins to fat perception and liking [8], as well as to sensitivity for the bitter tastes of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) [9] and caffeine [10]. Besides the involvement of saliva in oral perception, which can greatly influence food choices, the effect of this fluid in ingestive behaviour can also be considered by the role of certain salivary proteins in digestive processes and/or in the regulation of energy intake: one example is salivary αamylase, which is involved in the digestion of starch in the mouth; another example is the presence in saliva of proteins involved in appetite/satiety regulation such as leptin [11] and ghrelin [12].
Diversity Analysis on Transmit Antenna Selection for Spatial Multiplexing Systems With ML Detection

In this paper, we analyze the diversity order of the optimal transmit antenna selection (TAS) for spatial multiplexing (SM) systems with maximum-likelihood (ML) detection. By deriving the upper and lower bounds on the diversity order, we prove that the optimal TAS of selecting L antennas among M transmit antennas in the SM system with M transmit antennas and N receive antennas obtains a diversity order of N(M - L + 1), which coincides with the well-known results of the respective diversity orders MN and N for the special cases when L = 1 and L = M. Monte Carlo simulations confirm our theoretical result.
Supply Chain Management and performance: A bibliometric analysis

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has often been discussed and studied by academics and practitioners over the last two decades. One reason for the growing interest in SCM is that a company's performance is no longer solely determined by the decisions it makes and actions it takes, but also by the contribution and performance of all the members along the supply chain. This study examines the academic literature on SCM. The aim is not to perform an exhaustive analysis. Rather, the goal is to carry out a representative work. This article interconnects two study areas: supply chain management and organizational performance. The analysis was based on 172 academic articles. This study helps to identify opportunities and weaknesses in the field of operations management and helps researchers to find trends that could support future studies in SCM.
Altered reflex cardiovascular control during exercise in heart failure: animal studies

This brief review summarizes recent studies describing the potential role of the muscle metaboreflex in mediating the altered cardiovascular responses to dynamic exercise in heart failure and the interaction between the muscle metaboreflex and the arterial baroreflex in these responses. In normal dogs, activation of the muscle metaboreflex (via partial reductions in hindlimb blood flow) during submaximal exercise, elicits a powerful pressor response. This increase in arterial pressure is mediated by an increase in cardiac output with little, if any, peripheral vasoconstriction. The metaboreflex pressor response is buffered by the arterial baroreflex via baroreflex‐mediated inhibition of metaboreflex‐induced peripheral vasoconstriction. In contrast, after induction of heart failure, the mechanisms involved in the muscle metaboreflex are shifted to vasoconstriction with little, if any, increase in cardiac output. The loss of the cardiac output response of the metaboreflex in heart failure probably stems from inability to improve ventricular function. The shift towards vasoconstriction in this setting may be due to depressed ability of the arterial baroreflex to buffer metaboreflex‐induced peripheral vasoconstriction. The relative underperfusion of active skeletal muscle in heart failure may tonically activate the metaboreflex and this probably contributes to the enhanced sympatho‐excitation seen during exercise in heart failure.
Breakdown investigation in GaN-based MIS-HEMT devices

Breakdown mechanisms in AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices are here analyzed, placing particular emphasis in the analysis of GaN based device grown on silicon substrate. Based on combined experimental data and bi-dimensional numerical simulation we demonstrate that many physical mechanisms can contribute to increase the leakage current leading to the final breakdown of the device. In particular we show how band-to-band phenomena, rather than impact ionization, can be responsible of the premature breakdown even in double-heterostructure HEMTs.
Total Alkaloids of Sophorea alopecuroides‐induced Down‐regulation of AcrAB‐ToLC Efflux Pump Reverses Susceptibility to Ciprofloxacin in Clinical Multidrug Resistant Escherichia coli isolates

In this report, total alkaloids extracted from the seeds of Sophorea alopecuroides (TASA) was evaluated against clinical Escherichia coli isolates resistant to four tested antibiotics, ampicillin (AM), amikacin (AN), cefotaxime (CTX) and ciprofloxacin (CIP). The TASA showed an antibacterial activity against the multidrug resistant (MDR) isolates. In combination with TASA, synergistic effects on the tested antibiotics against the MRD isolates were observed. Similarly, the isolates pretreated with a lower dose of TASA yielded increased and stable susceptibilities to CIP by 16–32‐fold determined by a microbroth dilution checkerboard method. Moreover, quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) analysis revealed a constitutive overexpression of the AcrAB‐TolC pump system in the tested MDR isolates. The pretreatment of MDR isolates with TASA resulted in a statistically down‐regulated expression of acrA and acrB genes, and an up‐regulated expression of acrR gene (p < 0.05). But the expression of tolC gene was not significantly altered (p > 0.05). These results suggested that the TASA‐induced reversal resistance to CIP might be partially through a mechanism of inhibition of the AcrAB‐TolC pump activity in these isolates, implying that the TASA can be used as a potential natural source to develop efflux pump inhibitors (EPI) against AcrAB‐TolC pump mediated MDR in E. coli isolates. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Treatment options in Kienböck's disease.

Kienböck’s disease or lunatomalacia is an aseptic osteonecrosis of the lunate bone initiating a progressive collapse of the lunate bone, followed by total carpal collapse. The first description was made one hundred years ago (107). Thus far, its exact cause and natural history remain unknown (44). Several extrinsic and intrinsic factors have been investigated as to their role in the aetiology of the bone necrosis. Kienböck’s disease is a slowly progressive disorder with well recognised stages leading to various treatment options. However, little is known about their effectiveness, mainly because Kienböck’s disease is not very common and a long follow-up is needed to evaluate the ultimate outcome (1,84).
Recent advances in the characterization of tumour antigens : prerequisite for successful vaccine development

Substantial progress has been made in vaccine development in recent years for the treatment of malignant diseases. New technologies have fostered the identification of potentially immunogenic tumour antigens that can be used to activate the patient’s immune system to specifically recognize and destroy human tumour cells. More detailed insights into the process of intracellular protein degradation, processing and cell surface presentation have allowed immunogenic peptide domains to be identified that can be used in vaccine trials. Still a matter of intensive debate is the question of the most optimal presentation of tumour-derived proteins or peptides to the immune system to achieve a maximum response. In this area, major progress has been made by using dendritic cell or even naked DNA-based vaccines. The generation of new tools such as HLA–tetramer complexes now allows researchers to monitor more closely the expansion of peptide-specific T cells under the process of vaccination. On the basis of these advances, a couple of vaccine trials have been performed that have increased our knowledge of vaccine development and provided indications that the concept of tumour-specific vaccination might be valid. However, we are still at the beginning of this process and should always remember that only well-designed, prospective clinical trials can define the optimal use of tumour vaccines in oncology.
Geographic variation in sex‐chromosome differentiation in the common frog (Rana temporaria)

In sharp contrast with birds and mammals, sex‐determination systems in ectothermic vertebrates are often highly dynamic and sometimes multifactorial. Both environmental and genetic effects have been documented in common frogs (Rana temporaria). One genetic linkage group, mapping to the largest pair of chromosomes and harbouring the candidate sex‐determining gene Dmrt1, associates with sex in several populations throughout Europe, but association varies both within and among populations. Here, we show that sex association at this linkage group differs among populations along a 1500‐km transect across Sweden. Genetic differentiation between sexes is strongest (FST = 0.152) in a northern‐boreal population, where male‐specific alleles and heterozygote excesses (FIS = −0.418 in males, +0.025 in females) testify to a male‐heterogametic system and lack of X‐Y recombination. In the southernmost population (nemoral climate), in contrast, sexes share the same alleles at the same frequencies (FST = 0.007 between sexes), suggesting unrestricted recombination. Other populations show intermediate levels of sex differentiation, with males falling in two categories: some cluster with females, while others display male‐specific Y haplotypes. This polymorphism may result from differences between populations in the patterns of X‐Y recombination, co‐option of an alternative sex‐chromosome pair, or a mixed sex‐determination system where maleness is controlled either by genes or by environment depending on populations or families. We propose approaches to test among these alternative models, to disentangle the effects of climate and phylogeography on the latitudinal trend, and to sort out how this polymorphism relates to the ‘sexual races’ described in common frogs in the 1930s.
The velocity dependence of direction selectivity of visual cortical neurones in the cat.

1. The range of velocities, yielding direction‐selective responses, was investigated in a total of 167 direction‐selective cells from areas 17 and 18 of the cat, using a high‐contrast light bar moving at velocities ranging from 0.6 to 900 deg s‐1. 2. 11% of the cells were direction selective over the full range of velocities tested. Most cells (66%) gave only responses at low velocities and thus were not direction selective at high velocities. The remaining cells gave responses over a broad range of velocities but the direction selectivity was limited to either high or intermediate velocities (18 and 5% of the cells, respectively). Cells with direction selectivity at high but not at low velocities had large receptive fields with non‐overlapping 'on' and 'off' subregions and they responded quickly and phasically to stationary flashes. This suggests that the latter cells relied on fast and brief interactions over large distances. 3. In thirty cells the spatial and temporal limits of direction selectivity were investigated using a stroboscopically illuminated moving light bar. In all cells direction selectivity depended both on the interflash distance and the interflash time interval. Area 17 cells with large receptive field at high eccentricity tolerated much larger interflash spacings than area 17 cells with small receptive fields near the area centralis. For eleven of the thirty cells the effective interflash distance could be larger than the width of the receptive field. The largest effective interflash time interval varied between 35 and 250 ms. 4. Eight of the thirty cells were direction selective at high but not at low velocities. These eight cells all remained direction selective over large interflash distances and they required brief interflash intervals (less than or equal to 65 ms). 5. Responses to single stroboscopic flashes within the sequence were observed in ten cells, which all responded well at high apparent velocities. While most cells (eight out of ten) showed both response increments in the preferred direction and response decrements in the non‐preferred, the decrements constituted the dominant element in the direction selectivity of six out of ten cells while the remaining four cells relied mainly on response increments. 6. It is concluded that the range of direction‐selective velocities of some cat visual cortical cells can be predicted from a knowledge of the spatial extent and the time course of the direction‐selective interactions. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Bites ’ n ’ Bits : Eating Behavior in Context from Mobile Data

Eating follows patterns and occurs in context. We present a mobile data collection study to capture food consumption in everyday life, and study connections between eating behaviors and context (time, location, social context, related activities and physical activity). Our contributions are three-fold. First, we developed a cross-platform smartphone application to collect geo-localized food photos, context survey data, and physical activity data from Fitbit devices. Second, we deployed a data collection campaign with 122 Swiss university students, resulting in 1208 days of food data, 3414 meal occasions, 1034 snacking occasions, 5097 photos, and 998 days of physical activity. We analyzed the collected data and report findings associated to the compliance and user experience, snacks vs. meals patterns, physical activity, and associations between contextual factors and eating occasions. Third, we addressed a novel ubicomp task, namely the classification of eating occasions (meals vs. snacks) in everyday life. We show that a machine learning method using time of day, time since last intake, and location is able to discriminate eating occasions with 84% precision, which significantly outperforms a baseline method based only on time.
Sex Determination from the Second Cervical Vertebra: A Test of Wescott’s Method on a Modern American Sample *

Abstract: Numerous methods for establishing a biological profile exist; however, many of these methods rely on the recovery of several specific bones or on fragile skeletal elements that are sometimes irrecoverable. It is for this reason new methods utilizing other previously under‐documented bones should be established and tested by the forensic anthropological community. This study tests the accuracy of Wescott’s (J Forensic Sci 2000;45(2)) method for determining sex from the second cervical vertebra. Specimens were drawn from the donated skeletal collection curated at the Hamilton County Forensic Center (n = 57) and the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection (n = 243). Both intra‐ and inter‐observer error rates were low and accurate classifications ranged from 78% (females‐Function 1) to 90.6% (males‐Function 5). Of the five functions, Function 4 achieved the highest overall accuracy, with 260 individuals (86.7%) falling into the correct category. Overall, this method is an effective classificatory tool for sex estimation.
Ultrastructure of male reproductive system of Eurydema ventrale Kolenati 1846 (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)

The male reproductive system of Eurydema ventrale Kolenati 1846 is studied morphologically and histologically by using light, scanning and transmission electron microscopes. The reproductive system of the male E.ventrale consists of a pair of testis, a pair of vas deferens, a pair of seminal vesicles, accessory glands, a bulbus ejaculatorius, a pair of ectodermal sacs, and a ductus ejaculatorius. The testicular follicles have three different development zones (growth zone, maturation zone, and differentiation zone). The testes are connected to the seminal vesicles by the vas deferens that is a specialized in sperm storage. Sperm have an elongated head and a tail (flagellum) with an axonema and two mitochondrial derivatives. Vas deferens and seminal vesicles are fine, long, and cylindrical. The seminal vesicle is connected with bulbus ejaculatorius, which is balloon shaped and surrounded with accessory glands. The bulbus ejaculatorius is continuous with ductus ejaculatorius which is connected to the aedeagus. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:643–653, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Galaxy end sequence

A common assumption is that galaxies fall in two distinct regions on a plot of specific star-formation rate (SSFR) versus galaxy stellar mass: a star-forming Galaxy Main Sequence (GMS) and a separate region of `passive' or `red and dead galaxies'. Starting from a volume-limited sample of nearby galaxies designed to contain most of the stellar mass in this volume, and thus being a fair representation of the Universe at the end of 12 billion years of galaxy evolution, we investigate the distribution of galaxies in this diagram today. We show that galaxies follow a strongly curved extended GMS with a steep negative slope at high galaxy stellar masses. There is a gradual change in the morphologies of the galaxies along this distribution, but there is no clear break between early-type and late-type galaxies. Examining the other evidence that there are two distinct populations, we argue that the `red sequence' is the result of the colours of galaxies changing very little below a critical value of the SSFR, rather than implying a distinct population of galaxies, and that Herschel observations, which show at least half of early-type galaxies contain a cool interstellar medium, also imply continuity between early-type and late-type galaxies. This picture of a unitary population of galaxies requires more gradual evolutionary processes than the rapid quenching processes needed to to explain two distinct populations. We challenge theorists to reproduce the properties of this `Galaxy End Sequence'.
Determinants of pharmaceutical innovation diffusion: social contagion and prescribing characteristics

This article studies the determinants of pharmaceutical innovation diffusion among specialists. To this end, it investigates the influences of six categories of factors—social embeddedness, socio-demography, scientific orientation, prescribing patterns, practice characteristics, and patient panel composition—on the use of new drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Hungary. Here, in line with international trends, 11 brands were introduced between April 2008 and April 2010, outperforming all other therapeutic classes. The Cox proportional hazards model identifies three determinants—social contagion (in the social embeddedness category) and prescribing portfolio and insulin prescribing ratio (in the prescribing pattern category). First, social contagion has a positive effect among geographically close colleagues—the higher the adoption ratio, the higher the likelihood of early adoption—but no influence among former classmates and scientific collaborators. Second, the wider the prescribing portfolio, the earlier the new drug uptake. Third, the lower the insulin prescribing ratio, the earlier the new drug uptake—physicians’ therapeutic convictions and patients’ socioeconomic statuses act as underlying influencers. However, this finding does not extend to opinion-leading physicians such as scientific leaders and hospital department and outpatient center managers. This article concludes by arguing that healthcare policy strategists and pharmaceutical companies may rely exclusively on practice location and prescription data to perfect interventions and optimize budgets.
Gene Transfer between Related Bacteria by Electrotransformation: Mapping Salmonella typhi Genes in Salmonella typhimurium

ABSTRACT Transfer of newly isolated mutations into a fresh background is an essential step of genetic analysis and strain construction. Gene transfer is hampered in Salmonella typhi and in other pathogenic bacteria by the lack of a generalized transduction system. We show here that this problem can be partially circumvented by using electrotransformation as a means for delivering S. typhiDNA into suitable S. typhi or Salmonella typhimurium recipients. Transferred DNA can recombine with the homologous region in the host chromosome. In one application of the method, mutations isolated in S. typhi were genetically mapped in S. typhimurium.
Effects of Adrenalectomy on the Excitability of Neurosecretory Parvocellular Neurones in the Hypothalamic Paraventricular Nucleus

Glucocorticoids are well known to inhibit the release of hypophysiotrophic hormones from neurones originating in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), but the cellular mechanisms of the inhibition are not well understood. Here, we examined the effects of adrenalectomy (ADX) on the spontaneous firing activity in the neurosecretory parvocellular PVN neurones of rat brain slices. The neurones were identified by injecting a retrograde dye into the pituitary stalk and classified according to their electrophysiological properties. The intranuclear distribution, electrophysiological properties, and hypophysiotrophic hormone phenotype of the labelled type II PVN neurones were similar to neurosecretory parvocellular PVN neurones. In the neurones of sham‐operated rats under the cell‐attached recording mode, we observed three spontaneous activity patterns: tonic regular (24%), tonic irregular (36%), and silent (40%). Noradrenaline (100 µM) induced an excitatory or an inhibitory effect on the spontaneous activity. Noradrenergic excitation was blocked by prazosin (2 µM, α1‐adrenoceptor antagonist), and mimicked by phenylephrine (100 µM, α1‐adrenoceptor agonist), whereas noradrenergic inhibition was blocked by yohimbine (2 µM, α2‐adrenoceptor antagonist) and mimicked by clonidine (50 µM, α2‐adrenoceptor agonist). In the neurones of ADX rats, we found burst firing in 35% of neurones tested and an increase in the frequency of spontaneous firing. The burst firing was not observed in the neurones of the sham‐operated rats. ADX caused a 1.7‐fold increase in the proportion of neurones showing the noradrenergic excitation. Supplementation of the ADX rats with corticosterone (10 mg pellet) reversed the ADX‐induced burst firing, and the potentiation of noradrenergic excitation. In summary, our results show that removal of corticosterone by ADX can elevate the neuronal excitability by increasing the spontaneous firing rate and by potentiating the α1‐adrenoceptor‐mediated noradrenergic excitation, and it can facilitate hormone release by inducing burst firing. Our results provide new insight to the cellular mechanisms of the feedback inhibition by glucocorticoids in the neurosecretory parvocellular neurones of the PVN.