Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do You See What I See? Exploring the Consequences of Luminosity Limits in Black Hole–Galaxy Evolution Studies

In studies of the connection between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and their host galaxies, there is widespread disagreement on some key aspects of the connection. These disagreements largely stem from a lack of understanding of the nature of the full underlying AGN population. Recent attempts to probe this connection utilize both observations and simulations to correct for a missed population, but presently are limited by intrinsic biases and complicated models. We take a simple simulation for galaxy evolution and add a new prescription for AGN activity to connect galaxy growth to dark matter halo properties and AGN activity to star formation. We explicitly model selection effects to produce an “observed” AGN population for comparison with observations and empirically motivated models of the local universe. This allows us to bypass the difficulties inherent in models that attempt to infer the AGN population by inverting selection effects. We investigate the impact of selecting AGNs based on thresholds in luminosity or Eddington ratio on the “observed” AGN population. By limiting our model AGN sample in luminosity, we are able to recreate the observed local AGN luminosity function and specific star formation-stellar mass distribution, and show that using an Eddington ratio threshold introduces less bias into the sample by selecting the full range of growing black holes, despite the challenge of selecting low-mass black holes. We find that selecting AGNs using these various thresholds yield samples with different AGN host galaxy properties.
Absence of Vasoactive Peptide Release from Brain to Cerebral Circulation During Onset of Migraine With Aura

In eight patients carotid angiography was required for evaluation of transient neurological attacks. Cerebral blood flow results, angiography and clinical observations subsequently suggested the diagnosis of migraine. We measured plasma concentrations of substance P(SP), neuropeptide Y (NPY), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in repeated blood samples obtained from the carotid artery and the internal jugular vein in conjunction with cerebral angiography followed by 4 to 6 repeated recordings of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with the intracarotid Xenon-133 injection technique. This technique is known to induce attacks of migraine with aura in many sufferers. Four patients developed aura symptoms. In three this was succeeded by throbbing headache, Typical, migraine-related, focal hypoperfusion occurred in conjunction with the aura symptoms. The remaining four patients had no symptoms or rCBF changes. There were no systematic or statistically significant changes over time in arterial-venous plasma concentrations or in the release rates of any of the peptides. All migraineurs had an overall elevated mean CGRP value compared to control values from the literature. The overall plasma levels of the potent vasoconstrictor NPY were higher (p < 0.10) in the group that developed symptoms and rCBF changes (136 pmol/l) than in the non-symptomatic group (97 pmol/l). The difference in NPY levels could perhaps be associated with the focal rCBF decrease seen in the attack group.
The successional status of tropical rainforest tree species is associated with differences in leaf carbon isotope discrimination and functional traits

We characterised the among species variability in leaf gas exchange and morphological traits under controlled conditions of seedlings of 22 tropical rainforest canopy species to understand the origin of the variability in leaf carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) among species with different growth and dynamic characteristics (successional gradient). Our results first suggest that these species pursue a consistent strategy in terms of Δ throughout their ontogeny (juveniles grown here versus canopy adult trees from the natural forest). Second, leaf Δ was negatively correlated with WUE and N, and positively correlated with gs, but among species differences in Δ were mainly explained by differences in WUE. Finally, species belonging to different successional groups display distinct leaf functional and morphological traits. We confirmed that fast growing early successional species maximise carbon assimilation with high stomatal conductance. In contrast, fast and slow growing late successional species are both characterised by low carbon assimilation values, but by distinct stomatal conductance and leaf morphological features. Along the successional gradient, these differences result in much lower Δ for the intermediate species (i.e. fast growing late successional) as compared to the two other groups. RésuméNous avons caractérisé la variabilité interspécifique des échanges gazeux et des traits morphologiques foliaires en conditions environnementales contrôlées de jeunes plants de 22 espèces d’arbres de la canopée en forêt tropicale humide afin de comprendre l’origine de la variabilité de la discrimination isotopique du carbone foliaire (Δ) observée entre ces espèces présentant des caractéristiques de croissance et de dynamique distinctes (groupes successionnels). Nous montrons premièrement que les espèces tropicales possèdent une stratégie très conservée de Δ au cours de leur ontogénie (juvéniles élevés ici versus arbres adultes de la canopée en forêt naturelle). Deuxièmement, Δ était négativement corrélée à WUE et N, et positivement à gs, mais les différences de Δ entre espèces sont principalement expliquées par des différences de WUE. Enfin, nous montrons que les espèces appartenant à des groupes successionnels distincts présentent des traits fonctionnels et morphologiques foliaires distincts. Nous confirmons que les espèces à croissance rapide qui s’installent en premier au cours de la succession écologique (FE) maximisent A avec de fortes conductances stomatiques. Les espèces climax (qui s’installent en second dans la succession écologique), à croissance rapide (FL) ou à croissance faible (SL), présentent des valeurs de A identiques, mais des valeurs de gs ainsi que des caractéristiques morphologiques foliaires distinctes. Dans la succession écologique, ces différences se traduisent par des valeurs de Δ nettement plus faibles pour les espèces intermédiaires (c’est-à-dire les espèces climax à croissance rapide) par rapport aux deux autres groupes.
Cenozoic record of elongate, cylindrical, deep-sea benthic foraminifera in the Indian Ocean

A group of ~100 species of elongate, cylindrical deep-sea benthic foraminifera (families Stilostomellidae, Pleurosto-mellidae, Nodosariidae) with complex, often constricted apertural structures, became extinct during increasingly cold glacial periods in the late Pliocene to mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition (MPT, ~2.6-0.6 Ma). We document the evolutionary history and architecture of this Extinction Group (Ext. Gp) through the Cenozoic at four lower bathyal-upper abyssal Indian Ocean sites (ODP 722, 744/738, 758, 763), seeking clues to the cause of this morphologically-targeted extinction episode late in the Cenozoic. Eighty percent of the 116 Ext Gp. species present in the Cenozoic of the Indian Ocean originated globally in the Eocene or earlier, compared with 23-37% of other Quaternary deep-sea foraminifera. The Ext. Gp had its peak species richness and relative and absolute abundances in the late Eocene. The rapid warming of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, that resulted in a loss of 30-50% of deep-sea foraminiferal species, had no impact on the Ext. Gp in the one Indian Ocean section (ODP 744/738) studied. Major Cenozoic changes in the Ext. Gp, including increased species turnover, changes in dominant species, a decline in abundance, loss in diversity, and finally extinction, mostly occurred during the middle Eocene to early Oligocene, middle to late Miocene, and late Pliocene to middle Pleistocene. These were times of stepped increase in the volume of polar ice, global oceanic cooling, surface-water eutrophication, seasonality of phytoplankton production, deep-water ventilation, and southern deep-water carbonate corrosiveness. The final decline and disappearance of the Ext. Gp began in the late Miocene at high latitudes (744/738), but not until the late Pliocene (758, 763) or MPT (722) at lower latitudes. We hypothesize that the loss of the Ext. Gp of deep-sea foraminifera may have been caused by the decline or demise of their specific food source (detrital phytoplankton or bottom-dwelling microbes) that was abundant in the Greenhouse World and was decimated by the stepwise cooling, ventilation, or eutrophication of the oceans that began in the middle and late Eocene.
The Haemodynamics of Endovascular Aneurysm Treatment: A Computational Modelling Approach for Estimating the Influence of Multiple Coil Deployment

This paper proposes a novel computational methodology for modelling the haemodynamic effects of endovascular coil embolization for cerebral aneurysms. We employ high-resolution 3-D angiographic data to reconstruct the intracranial geometry and we model the coiled part of the aneurysm as a porous medium, with porosity decreasing as coils are inserted. The actual dimensions of the coils employed are used to determine the characteristics of the porous medium. Simulation results for saccular aneurysms from the anterior communicating and middle cerebral arteries show that insertion of coils rapidly changes intraaneurysmal blood flow and causes reduction in mural pressure and blood velocity up to stagnation, providing favorable conditions for thrombus formation and obliteration of the aneurysm.
Aging enhances lymphocyte cytokine defects after injury

Mortality and sepsis after a traumatic injury is greater in the elderly than in young individuals. The altered lymphocyte response observed to occur in healthy aged individuals is proposed to be a contributing factor to increased mortality. The immune response associated with the increased mortality was explored using a murine scald injury model. In the absence of injury, aged mice had depressed delayed‐type hypersensitivity (DTH) and splenocyte proliferative responses relative to young mice. There was also an increase with age in the production of the TH2 cytokines interleukin (IL)‐4 and IL‐10 by splenocytes. There was no change in the TH1 cytokines IFNγ or IL‐12 with age. However, IL‐2 production was significantly lower. Following injury, there was a further decrease in the DTH response of aged injured mice, compared with aged sham mice. In addition, there was a decrease in all of the cytokines examined, regardless of age. In contrast, IFNγ and IL‐2 were significantly lower in the aged injured animals compared with the young injured animals. These results suggest that the lack of an adequate amount of TH1 cytokines shortly after injury in the aged mice may parallel the increased incidence of sepsis and death that occurs in aged burn patients.
Successful treatment of New World cutaneous leishmaniasis with a combination of topical paromomycin/methylbenzethonium chloride and injectable meglumine antimonate.

Colombian patients with New World cutaneous leishmaniasis were treated with a combination of a topical formulation (15% paromomycin sulfate/5% methylbenzethonium chloride, twice a day) and parenteral meglumine antimonate (20 mg of antimony [Sb]/kg.d]). Cohort 1 received topical therapy for 10 days and Sb for 7 days; 18 (90%) of the 20 patients were cured (follow-up, 12 months). Other clinical data suggested that neither the topical formulation alone nor the 7-day regimen of Sb alone would have cured many patients. In a subsequent cohort, which received topical therapy for 10 days and Sb for 3 days, the cure rate was 42% (eight of 19 patients). In Colombian cohorts (historical controls) treated with Sb alone for 10-15 days, the cure rate was 31%-36%. Side effects in cohort 1 patients consisted of local reactions to the topical formulation: burning and pruritus in 25% of patients and vesicle formation in 15% of patients. This is the first report that a regimen partially composed of topical antimicrobial agents can be highly effective for treatment of New World cutaneous leishmaniasis.
ACCESO A TIERRAS Y DESPLAZAMIENTO FORZADO EN COLOMBIA

El desplazamiento forzado en Colombia, consecuencia del conflicto armado, ha conllevado a una crisis humanitaria sin precedentes para el Estado Colombiano. El objetivo de este trabajo es, por un lado, identificar las causas municipales del desplazamiento en Colombia y, por otro lado, estimar los determinantes del deseo de retorno de la poblacion desplazada. Las estimaciones municipales indican que: (i) hay un vinculo estrecho entre el desplazamiento forzado y la concentracion de la tierra; (ii) la accion de los grupos armados promueve el desplazamiento; y (iii) una fuerte presencia institucional asi como una amplia oferta de servicios estatales mitigan el desplazamiento. La investigacion encuentra que la tenencia de la tierra y las oportunidades economicas en el lugar de origen son incentivos importantes para retornar. De otro lado, el estudio identifica que los hogares uniparentales, con jefatura femenina o pertenecientes a minorias etnicas manifiestan un menor deseo de retorno. Por ultimo, se encontro que la cohesion social y la accion colectiva parece producir una percepcion de seguridad y proteccion contra la accion de los grupos armados y, por lo tanto, la participacion en organizaciones y la propiedad colectiva de tierras inducen una mayor disposicion a retornar. La inclusion de datos municipales en las regresiones sugiere que al controlar por la violencia, desaparece el efecto positivo de las variables economicas en el origen sobre el deseo de retorno, con excepcion de la tenencia de tierras. De igual forma, una mayor inversion social en el municipio de origen esta asociada a un mayor deseo de retorno al tiempo que elevadas tasas de homicidios en el municipio receptor, aumentan el deseo de retorno de los hogares desplazados.
Subgingival Microbial Profiles of Smokers with Periodontitis

The subgingival microbiome is largely uncultivated, and therefore, cultivation-based and targeted molecular approaches have limited value in examining the effect of smoking on this community. We tested the hypothesis that the subgingival biofilm is compositionally different in current and never-smokers by using an open-ended molecular approach for bacterial identification. Subgingival plaque from deep sites of current and never-smokers matched for disease was analyzed by 16S sequencing. Smokers demonstrated greater abundance of Parvimonas, Fusobacterium, Campylobacter, Bacteroides, and Treponema and lower levels of Veillonella, Neisseria, and Streptococcus. Several uncultivated Peptostreptococci, Parvimonas micra, Campy-lobacter gracilis, Treponema socranskii, Dialister pneumosintes, and Tannerella forsythia were elevated in this group, while Veillonella sp. oral clone B2, Neisseria sp. oral clone 2.24, Streptococcus sanguinis, and Capnocytophaga sp. clone AH015 were at lower levels. The microbial profile of smoking-associated periodontitis is distinct from that of non-smokers, with significant differences in the prevalence and abundance of disease-associated and health-compatible organisms.
Treatment of human tumor cells with ADP or ATP yields arrest of growth in the S phase of the cell cycle

Treatment of a variety of cultured human tumor cells with low levels (40–80 μM) of adenosine 5′‐dephosphate (ADP) or adenosine 5′ ‐triphosphate (ATP) has produced arrest of these cells in the S phase of their cycle followed by cellular death. ADP and ATP are demonstrated to be incorporated into the cellular acid‐soluble nucleotide pools, presumably by permeation through the plasma membrane of these cells. Since AMP, adenosine, 3′,5′ cycle AMP, or a variety of diadenosine polyhosphates do not produce similar cytostatic effects or similar alterations of the cellular acid‐soluble nucleotide pools, we suggest that the effects of ADP and ATP are not due to their prior breakdown or modification. Cultured animal cells have been widely acknowledged not to incroporte acid‐soluble adenine nucleotides although incorporation of exogenous intact nucleoside monophosphate into cellular pools has been demonstrated in a few cases. A 48‐hour treatment of logarithmically growing human tumor cells with 40mUM of ADP or ATP produced substantial arrest of cell populations in the S phase of their cycle and a dramatic reduction in total cellular uridine 5′ ‐triphosphate (UTP) pools. AMP, adenosine, 3′,5′ cyclic AMP, Ap3A, Ap4A or Ap5A produced small and dissimilar effects. The experiments reported here suggest that the plasma membranes of several lines of human tumor cells are premeable to low levels of intact ADP and ATP. The suggestion of en bloc incorporation of low ADP and ATP levels into human tumor cells is supported by the almost identical effects of ADP and ATP on total cellular acid‐soluble nucleotide pools and cellular growth. The rapid conversion of intracellular ADP pools into ATP in tumor cells has been reported.
Wavelet Imaging on Multiple Scales (WIMS) reveals focal adhesion distributions, dynamics and coupling between actomyosin bundle stability

We introduce and use Wavelet Imaging on Multiple Scales (WIMS) as an improvement to fluorescence correlation spectroscopy to measure physical processes and features that occur across multiple length scales. In this study, wavelet transforms of cell images are used to characterize molecular dynamics at the cellular and subcellular levels (i.e. focal adhesions). We show the usefulness of the technique by applying WIMS to an image time series of a migrating osteosarcoma cell expressing fluorescently labelled adhesion proteins, which allows us to characterize different components of the cell ranging from optical resolution scale through to focal adhesion and whole cell size scales. Using WIMS we measured focal adhesion numbers, orientation and cell boundary velocities for retraction and protrusion. We also determine the internal dynamics of individual focal adhesions undergoing assembly, disassembly or elongation. Thus confirming as previously shown, WIMS reveals that the number of adhesions and the area of the protruding region of the cell are strongly correlated, establishing a correlation between protrusion size and adhesion dynamics. We also apply this technique to characterize the behavior of adhesions, actin and myosin in Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing a mutant form of myosin IIB (1935D) that displays decreased filament stability and impairs front-back cell polarity. We find separate populations of actin and myosin at each adhesion pole for both the mutant and wild type form. However, we find these populations move rapidly inwards toward one another in the mutant case in contrast to the cells that express wild type myosin IIB where those populations remain stationary. Results obtained with these two systems demonstrate how WIMS has the potential to reveal novel correlations between chosen parameters that belong to different scales.
Use of verbal autopsy by health workers in under-five children.

We conducted this study to ascertain whether health workers can routinely administer verbal autopsy (VA) to determine the cause of death in their area. The health workers were trained to administer verbal autopsy tool on the deaths occurring in the population under them. All the verbal autopsies of under-five deaths between January 2000 to December 2001 were reviewed by a pediatrician. There were 262 deaths of children under five years in this period, and 71% of them were infants, out of which 34% were neonatal deaths. The health workers reported PEM, fever, pneumonia, and diarrhea as the leading causes of death, based on the existing system of obtaining information provided by the family members. Verbal autopsy forms reviewed by a pediatrician also showed that apart from fever, the first three causes of death were the same i.e., PEM, diarrhea and pneumonia. This study shows that health workers can be trained to use the verbal autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.
A Subthreshold Voltage Reference With Scalable Output Voltage for Low-Power IoT Systems

This paper presents a subthreshold voltage reference in which the output voltage is scalable depending on the number of stacked PMOS transistors. A key advantage is that its output voltage can be higher than that obtained with conventional low-power subthreshold voltage references. The proposed reference uses native NMOS transistors as a current source and develops a reference voltage by stacking one or more PMOS transistors. The temperature coefficient of the reference voltage is compensated by setting the size ratio of the native NMOS and stacked pMOS transistors to cancel temperature dependence of transistor threshold voltage and thermal voltage. Also, the transistor size is determined considering the trade-off between diode current between n-well and p-sub and process variation. Prototype chips are fabricated in a 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process. Measurement results from three wafers show <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3\sigma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> inaccuracy of ±1.0% from 0 °C to 100 °C after a single room-temperature trim. The proposed voltage reference achieves a line sensitivity of 0.31%/V and a power supply rejection of −41 dB while consuming 35 pW from 1.4 V at room temperature.
Ca2+‐dependent proteolysis of junctophilin‐1 and junctophilin‐2 in skeletal and cardiac muscle

If skeletal muscle fibres are subjected to excessive activation, or stretched whilst contracting, they subsequently display long‐term reductions in their force response, apparently due in part to structural or molecular changes at the triad junction, where excitation of the surface membrane triggers Ca2+ release from the internal Ca2+ store. The changes appear to be due to excessive or prolonged increases in intracellular Ca2+ levels, which activate Ca2+‐dependent proteases known as calpains, but their target proteins are currently unknown. This study shows that excessive muscle stimulation, or directly raising intracellular Ca2+ levels, causes calpain activation in tandem with proteolysis of junctophilin, a key protein thought to hold the triad junction together. Proteolysis of junctophilin is also seen in muscle of mice with muscular dystrophy and in cardiac muscle following ischaemic damage. Proteolysis of junctophilin may be a major factor causing muscle weakness and cardiac dysfunction in a range of circumstances.