Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The evolution and phylogeography of the African elephant inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence and nuclear microsatellite markers

Recent genetic results support the recognition of two African elephant species: Loxodonta africana, the savannah elephant, and Loxodonta cyclotis, the forest elephant. The study, however, did not include the populations of West Africa, where the taxonomic affinities of elephants have been much debated. We examined mitochondrial cytochrome b control region sequences and four microsatellite loci to investigate the genetic differences between the forest and savannah elephants of West and Central Africa. We then combined our data with published control region sequences from across Africa to examine patterns at the continental level. Our analysis reveals several deeply divergent lineages that do not correspond with the currently recognized taxonomy: (i) the forest elephants of Central Africa; (ii) the forest and savannah elephants of West Africa; and (iii) the savannah elephants of eastern, southern and Central Africa. We propose that the complex phylogeographic patterns we detect in African elephants result from repeated continental–scale climatic changes over their five–to–six million year evolutionary history. Until there is consensus on the taxonomy, we suggest that the genetic and ecological distinctness of these lineages should be an important factor in conservation management planning.
Validation of a Method Using Queenless Bombus terrestris Micro-Colonies for Testing the Nutritive Value of Commercial Pollen Mixes by Comparison with Queenright Colonies

Abstract The nutritive value of pollen blends purchased by bumble bee producers from beekeepers is a key factor of successful mass rearing. We have already devised a method for quality ranking of pollen diets. It was a 1-mo bioassay using queenless micro-colonies of three callow workers (Bombus terrestris L.; Apidae: Bombinae). In the current study, we tested three pollen diets through the micro-colony method and compared the results to the development of queenright colonies supplied with the same diets. The three diets were “A,” a spring blend with a protein rate of 15.7% and a dominance of Corylus avellana L. (46%) and Buxus sempervivens L. (35%); “B,” a summer assemblage with a lower crude protein content (14.4%), with a dominance of Helianthus annuus L. (37%), Zea mays L. (35%), and Poaceae (21%); and “C,” a 50/50 mixture by weight of A and B, with a crude protein content of 15.8%. In micro-colonies, the more sensitive parameter for diet ranking was the mean weight of a larva, whereas in queenright colonies, the discrimination between treatments was enabled by considering the body size of new queens (weight and length of the radial cell) and the slope of the sigmoidal curve of the pollen consumption at the inflection point reflecting brood growth. Both testing methods assigned the lower rank to diet B compared with diet A. Despite the closeness of the three diets in terms of nitrogen content, we concluded that micro-colonies were a good estimate of colony development when nutritive value of pollen was tested.
Regulation of macrophage nitric oxide production by the protein tyrosine phosphatase Src homology 2 domain phosphotyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP‐1)

Nitric oxide (NO) is a potent molecule involved in the cytotoxic effects mediated by macrophages (MØ) against microorganisms. We previously reported that Src homology 2 domain phosphotyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP‐1)‐deficient cells generate a greater amount of NO than wild‐type cells in response to interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ). We also reported that the Leishmania‐induced MØ SHP‐1 activity is needed for the survival of the parasite within phagocytes through the attenuation of NO‐dependent and NO‐independent mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated the role of SHP‐1 in regulating key signalling molecules important in MØ NO generation. Janus tyrosine kinase 2 (JAK2), mitogen‐activated extracellular signal‐regulated protein kinase kinase (MEK), extracellular signal‐regulated kinases 1 and 2 (Erk1/Erk2) mitogen‐activated protein kinases, p38 and stress‐activated mitogen‐activated protein kinases/c‐Jun NH2‐terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) were examined in immortalized bone marrow‐derived MØ (BMDM) from both SHP‐1‐deficient motheaten mice (me‐3) and their respective littermates (LM‐1). The results indicated that Erk1/Erk2 and SAPK/JNK are the main kinases regulated by SHP‐1 because the absence of SHP‐1 caused an increase in their phosphorylation. Moreover, only Apigenin, the specific inhibitor of Erk1/Erk2, was able to block IFN‐γ‐induced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) transcription and translation in me‐3 cells. Transcription factor analyses revealed that in the absence of SHP‐1, activator protein‐1 (AP‐1) was activated. The activation of AP‐1, and not nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) or signal transducer and activator of transcription‐1α (STAT‐1α), may explain the enhanced NO generation in SHP‐1‐deficent cells. These observations emphasize the involvement of the MAPKs Erk1/Erk2 and SAPK/JNK in NO generation via AP‐1 activation. Collectively, our findings suggest that SHP‐1 plays a pivotal role in the negative regulation of signalling events leading to iNOS expression and NO generation. Furthermore, our observations underline the importance of SHP‐1‐mediated negative regulation in maintaining NO homeostasis and thus preventing the abnormal generation of NO that can be detrimental to the host.
Patients' views on care and treatment after phototherapy for psoriasis and atopic eczema including a gender perspective

Background: Psoriasis and atopic eczema are reportedly as common among women as among men and are not known to differ in severity between sexes. Research has shown that men get more treatment with ultraviolet (UV) light for longer periods than women. This fact, together with ongoing efforts to improve patient satisfaction with care and treatment at our department, prompted us to gather information from our patients. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore patients' views of dermatological care and treatment methods. Method: A questionnaire‐based survey was carried out, complemented with qualitative interviews. Results: The main findings fall under three areas of clinical relevance: information to patients must be individually designed with a gender perspective; men and women have different attitudes towards greasing which must be kept in mind in clinical practice; and women often appear to be under‐prescribed UV treatment. Conclusion: The information from our study can form a basis for new therapeutic strategies, taking a gender perspective into account.
Physical activity increases gains in and prevents loss of physical function: results from the lifestyle interventions and independence for elders pilot study.

BACKGROUND Physical activity (PA) appears to have a positive effect on physical function, however, studies have not examined multiple indices of physical function jointly nor have they conceptualized physical functioning as a state rather than a trait. METHODS About 424 men and women aged 70-89 were randomly assigned to complete a PA or a successful aging (SA) education program. Balance, gait speed, chair stand performance, grip strength, and time to complete the 400-m walk were assessed at baseline and at 6 and 12 months. Using hidden Markov model, empiric states of physical functioning were derived based on these performance measures of balance, strength, and mobility. Rates of gain and loss in physical function were compared between PA and SA. RESULTS Eight states of disability were identified and condensed into four clinically relevant states. State 1 represented mild disability with physical functioning, states 2 and 3 were considered intermediate states of disability, and state 4 severe disability. About 30.1% of all participants changed states at 6 months, 24.1% at 12 months, and 11.0% at both time points. The PA group was more likely to regain or sustain functioning and less likely to lose functioning when compared with SA. For example, PA participants were 20% more likely than the SA participants to remain in state 1. CONCLUSION PA appears to have a favorable effect on the dynamics of physical functioning in older adults.
The Added Value of Analyzing Pooled Health-Related Quality of Life Data: A Review of the EORTC PROBE Initiative.

BACKGROUND The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Patient-Reported Outcomes and Behavioural Evidence (PROBE) initiative was established to investigate critical topics to better understand health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of cancer patients and to educate clinicians, policy makers, and healthcare providers. METHODS The aim of this paper is to review the major research outcomes of the pooled analysis of HRQOL data along with the clinical data. We identified 30 pooled EORTC randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 18 NCIC-Clinical Trials Group RCTs, and two German Ovarian Cancer Study Group RCTs, all using the EORTC QLQ-C30. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Evidence was found that HRQOL data can offer prognostic information beyond clinical measures and improve prognostic accuracy in cancer RCTs (by 5.9%-8.3%). Moreover, models that considered both patient- and clinician-reported scores gained more prognostic overall survival accuracy for fatigue (P < .001), vomiting (P = .01), nausea (P < .001), and constipation (P = .01). Greater understanding of the association between symptom and/or functioning scales was developed by identifying physical, psychological, and gastrointestinal clusters. Additionally, minimally important differences in interpreting HRQOL changes for improvement and deterioration were found to vary across different patient populations and disease stages. Finally, HRQOL scores are statistically significantly affected by deviations from the intended time point at which the questionnaire is completed. CONCLUSIONS The use of existing pooled data shows that it is possible to learn about general aspects of cancer HRQOL and methodology. Our work shows that setting up international pooled datasets holds great promise for understanding patients' unmet psychosocial needs and calls for additional empirical investigation to improve clinical care and understand cancer through retrospective HRQOL analyses.
Dynamic properties of horizontal and vertical eye movements in parkinsonian syndromes

We studied dynamic properties of horizontal, vertical, and oblique eye movements in 23 patients with the following parkinsonian syndromes: idiopathie parkinsonism (PD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), pure akinesia (PA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and cortical‐basal ganglionic degeneration (CBGD). Compared with age‐matched controls, only PSP patients showed slowing of saccades. Patients in all groups showed saccadic hypometria that was most marked vertically. The trajectories of saccades made to diagonal target jumps were deviated toward the horizonal plane, due to the vertical hypometria; this was most marked in PA and PSP groups. Saccade latency was only increased in the CBGD group. Sinusoidai smooth pursuit did not differentiate between controls and patients; however, with step‐ramp stimuli, pursuit eye acceleration was impaired in all patient groups compared with controls. The vestibulo‐ocular reflex, with or without visual enhancement, was similar in patients and controls. These findings indicate that (1) in parkinsonian syndromes apart from PSP, the saccade‐generating brainstem burst neurons are probably spared, but the signals that they receive, specifying the size and direction of saccades, are flawed; and (2) measurements of the gain and trajectory of oblique saccades, and initiation of smooth pursuit, may aid in diagnosing these different types of parkinsonism.
Cluster-randomized Trial of Infant Nutrition Training for Caries Prevention

The objective of this study was to estimate the caries impact of providing training in infant feeding guidelines to workers at Brazilian public primary care clinics. In a cluster-randomized controlled trial (n = 20 clinics), health care workers either were trained in guidelines for infant nutrition, stressing healthful complementary feeding, or were assigned to a ‘usual practices’ control, which allowed for maternal counseling at practitioner discretion. Training occurred once; the amount of counseling provided to mothers was not assessed. Eligible pregnant women were enrolled to follow health outcomes in their children. Early childhood caries (ECC) was measured at age three years (n = 458 children). The overall reductions in ECC (relative risk, 0.92; 95%CI, 0.75, 1.12) and severe ECC (RR, 0.87; 95%CI, 0.64, 1.19) were not statistically significant. There was a protective effect among mothers who remained exclusively at the same health center (S-ECC RR, 0.68; 95%CI, 0.47, 0.99) and among those naming the health center as their principal source of feeding advice (S-ECC RR, 0.53; 95%CI, 0.29, 0.97). Health care worker training did not yield a statistically significant reduction in caries overall, although caries was reduced among children of mothers more connected to their health centers (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00635453).
Sexually Transmitted Infection Services as a Component of HIV Care: Findings of a Demonstration Project Among HIV-Infected Women in Thailand

Objectives: As Thailand scales up its antiretroviral treatment program, the role of sexually transmitted infection (STI) services to prevent HIV'transmission has not been addressed. We provided STI services for HIV-infected women as a component of HIV care and assessed STI prevalence and risk behaviors. Methods: HIV-infected women attending an infectious disease clinic and an STI clinic in Bangkok were screened for the presence of genital ulcers by visual inspection, for gonorrhea and chlamydial infection by polymerase chain reaction, for trichomoniasis by wet mount, and for syphilis by serology. Women were asked about sexual risk behavior and use of antiretroviral treatment. Risk-reduction counseling, condoms, and STI treatment were provided. Results: Two-hundred ten HIV-infected women at an infectious disease clinic (n = 150) and an STI clinic (n = 60) received STI services from July 2003 through February 2004. The prevalence for any STI was 8.0% at the infectious disease clinic and 30.0% at the STI clinic (P < 0.01). Of the 116 (55.2%) sexually active women, 42 (36.2%) reported sex without a condom during the last 3 months. Women receiving antiretroviral treatment reported condom use during last sex more often compared with those not receiving antiretroviral treatment (82.2% vs. 58.8%; P = 0.03). Conclusion: STIs and sexual risk behavior were common among these HIV-infected women, and STI services for HIV-infected persons have been expanded to more clinics in Thailand. Further analysis of HIV transmission risk is necessary for developing a national strategy for prevention of HIV transmission among HIV-infected persons.
Anomaly detection of CAN bus messages through analysis of ID sequences

This paper proposes a novel intrusion detection algorithm that aims to identify malicious CAN messages injected by attackers in the CAN bus of modern vehicles. The proposed algorithm identifies anomalies in the sequence of messages that flow in the CAN bus and is characterized by small memory and computational footprints, that make it applicable to current ECUs. Its detection performance are demonstrated through experiments carried out on real CAN traffic gathered from an unmodified licensed vehicle.
A model for optimizing delivery of targeted radionuclide therapies into resection cavity margins for the treatment of primary brain cancers

Radionuclides conjugated to molecules that bind specifically to cancer cells are of great interest as a means to increase the specificity of radiotherapy. Currently, the methods to disseminate these targeted radiotherapeutics have been either systemic delivery or by bolus injection into the tumor or tumor resection cavity. Herein we model a potentially more efficient method of delivery, namely pressure-driven fluid flow, called convection-enhanced delivery (CED), where a device infuses the molecules in solution (or suspension) directly into the tissue of interest. In particular, we focus on the setting of primary brain cancer after debulking surgery, where the tissue margins surrounding the surgical resection cavity are infiltrated with tumor cells and the most frequent sites of tumor recurrence. We develop the combination of fluid flow, chemical kinetics, and radiation dose models needed to examine such protocols. We focus on Auger electrons emitting radionuclides (e.g. 67Ga, 77Br, 111In, 125I, 123I, 193mPt, 195mPt) whose short range makes them ideal for targeted therapy in this setting of small foci of tumor spread within normal tissue. By solving these model equations, we confirm that a CED protocol is promising in allowing sufficient absorbed dose to destroy cancer cells with minimal absorbed dose to normal cells at clinically feasible activity levels. We also show that Auger emitters are ideal for this purpose while the longer range alpha particle emitters fail to meet criteria for effective therapy (as neither would energetic beta particle emitters). The model is used with simplified assumptions on the geometry and homogeneity of brain tissue to allow semi-analytic solutions to be displayed, and with the purpose of a first examination of this new delivery protocol proposed for radionuclide therapy. However, we emphasize that it is immediately extensible to personalized therapy treatment planning as we have previously shown for conventional CED, at the price of requiring a fully numerical computerized approach.
Microtwin Structure and Its Influence on the Mechanical Properties of REBCO Coated Conductors

The elastic properties of REBCO tape (i.e., REBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub> O<sub>7-d</sub>, RE = <i>Y</i>, Sm and Gd) have been investigated by means of diffraction techniques using synchrotron radiation. Total local strain <i>A</i><sub>hkl</sub><sup>l</sup>, which consists of thermal strain <i>A</i><sub>hkl</sub><sup>T</sup> and lattice strain <i>A</i><sub>hkl</sub>, was analyzed using a microscopic structure model, with two types of microtwin configuration along the tensile axis, i.e., with the [100] or [110] crystal axis oriented parallel to the longitudinal direction of the tape. Experimental results were: (a) slope <i>dA</i><sub>h00</sub><sup>l</sup>/<i>dA</i> is larger than <i>dA</i><sub>0k0</sub><sup>l</sup>/<i>dA</i> (where <i>A</i> is the external tensile strain), which is attributed to the elastic modulus <i>E</i><sub>a</sub> along the <i>a</i>-axis being smaller than <i>E</i><sub>b</sub> along the <i>b</i>-axis; (b) both <i>dA</i><sub>h00</sub><sup>l</sup>/<i>dA</i> and <i>dA</i><sub>0k0</sub><sup>l</sup>/<i>dA</i> are smaller than unity, but <i>dA</i><sub>110</sub><sup>l</sup>/<i>dA</i> is almost unity depending on the configuration of microtwin; (c) the thermal strain for different planes is different as <i>A</i><sub>h00</sub><sup>T</sup> ≠ <i>A</i><sub>0k0</sub><sup>T</sup> due to the elastic behavior of the superconducting layer being modified because it is constrained by the substrate and the outer metallic layer; and (d) a large Poisson ratio is attributed to this constraint state. It is suggested that the microtwin structure is critical to understand and model this unusual stress/strain behavior.
Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: how magnitude, accessibility, and type of discrepancy influence affect.

Two studies examined whether the type of emotional change experienced by individuals is influenced by the magnitude and accessibility of the different types of self-discrepancies they possess. In both studies, subjects filled out a measure of self-discrepancy a few weeks prior to the experimental session. Subjects were asked to list up to 10 attributes each for different self-states--their actual self, their ideal self (their own or others' hopes and goals for them), and their ought self (their own or others' beliefs about their duty and obligations). Magnitude of self-discrepancy was calculated by comparing the attributes in the actual self to the attributes in either the ideal self or the ought self, with the total number of attribute pairs that matched being subtracted from the total number of attribute pairs that mismatched. In Study 1, subjects were asked to imagine either a positive event or a negative event and were then given a mood measure and a writing-speed task. Subjects with a predominant actual:ideal discrepancy felt more dejected (e.g., sad) and wrote more slowly in the negative event condition than in the positive event condition, whereas subjects with a predominant actual:ought discrepancy, if anything, felt more agitated (e.g., afraid) and wrote more quickly in the negative event condition. In Study 2, subjects were selected who were either high in both kinds of discrepancies or low in both. Half of the subjects in each group were asked to discuss their own and their parents' hopes and goals for them (ideal priming), and the other half were asked to discuss their own and their parents' beliefs concerning their duty and obligations (ought priming). For high-discrepancy subjects, but not low-discrepancy subjects, ideal priming increased their dejection whereas ought priming increased their agitation. The implications of these findings for identifying cognitive-motivational factors that may serve as vulnerability markers for emotional problems is discussed.
Optimization of amniotic membrane (AM) denuding for tissue engineering.

INTRODUCTION Amniotic membrane (AM) has gained increasing popularity as a useful carrier for ex vivo-expanded cells for tissue engineering, particularly in ocular surface reconstruction. However, current methods employed for denuding AM are highly variable, and the consequent effects on the structural and molecular composition of the AM basement membrane (BM) are ambiguous. We compare the effects of the main denuding procedures, and propose a highly effective standardized alternative. METHODS AMs preserved for transplantation were denuded using published ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)- and dispase-based methodologies and our novel thermolysin-based procedure. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry, for BM components (collagens IV and VII, laminin 5, and integrins alpha6 and beta4), were used to assess effectiveness of denuding epithelium, whilst maintaining the integrity of the BM. RESULTS EDTA- and dispase-based denuding techniques resulted in the disaggregation and even destruction of the BM structure and molecular composition. Employing thermolysin effectively denuded epithelium whilst maintaining BM structural and molecular integrity. CONCLUSION Current procedures for preparing AM are variable and often ineffective, resulting in nonstandard membranes. Our novel thermolysin-based technique effectively denudes the AM whilst preserving an essentially intact and consistent BM. Therefore, we propose that this novel thermolysin procedure may potentially improve overall generation of tissue-engineered constructs using AM.