Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Glycine-Alanine Dipeptide Repeat from C9orf72 Hexanucleotide Expansions Forms Toxic Amyloids Possessing Cell-to-Cell Transmission Properties*

Hexanucleotide expansions, GGGGCC, in the non-coding regions of the C9orf72 gene were found in major frontotemporal lobar dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients (C9FTD/ALS). In addition to possible RNA toxicity, several dipeptide repeats (DPRs) are translated through repeat-associated non-ATG-initiated translation. The DPRs, including poly(GA), poly(GR), poly(GP), poly(PR), and poly(PA), were found in the brains and spinal cords of C9FTD/ALS patients. Among the DPRs, poly(GA) is highly susceptible to form cytoplasmic inclusions, which is a characteristic of C9FTD/ALS. To elucidate DPR aggregation, we used synthetic (GA)15 DPR as a model system to examine the aggregation and structural properties in vitro. We found that (GA)15 with 15 repeats fibrillates rapidly and ultimately forms flat, ribbon-type fibrils evidenced by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The fibrils are capable of amyloid dye binding and contain a characteristic cross-β sheet structure, as revealed by x-ray scattering. Furthermore, using neuroblastoma cells, we demonstrated the neurotoxicity and cell-to-cell transmission property of (GA)15 DPR. Overall, our results show the structural and toxicity properties of GA DPR to facilitate future DPR-related therapeutic development.
Severe injury mechanisms in two paediatric trauma centres: Determination of prevention priorities.

BACKGROUND To meet community needs, injury prevention programs for children should be targeted to trends in objective data on mechanisms of injury. The aim of the present study was to identify the most important severe injury mechanisms. METHODS The present study retrospectively reviewed severe paediatric trauma patients in two regional trauma centres. Injury prevention priority scores were computed using different severity measures - injury severity score (ISS), revised trauma score, trauma-related injury severity score, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and mortality - to identify prevention priorities. RESULTS A total of 3732 children with severe injury were identified; mean age (+/-SD) was 9.0+/-5.2 years and 2469 (66.2%) were boys. The GCS was 7 or lower in 209 patients (5.6%) and the median ISS was 9. Overall, there were 77 deaths (2.1%). 'Fall from height' was the most frequent mechanism of injury, and 'motor vehicle traffic injury' resulted in the most severe injury. The most significant mechanisms of injury, using ISS, were 'fall from height', 'motor vehicle traffic injury', 'pedestrian struck by motor vehicle', 'bicycle injuries' and 'child abuse'. Different priorities were identified depending on the severity measures used - 'fall from height' would be the priority with ISS, revised trauma score and trauma-related injury severity score; 'motor vehicle traffic injury' with mortality and 'drowning/submersion' with GCS. 'Fall from height' was the highest ranked mechanism of injury in one centre compared with 'motor vehicle traffic injury' in the other. Younger children tended to have injuries as a result of falls, while adolescents had more motor vehicle occupant injuries. Failure to use safety devices, such as helmets and seat belts, was a common finding among severely injured children. CONCLUSION The present study shows that the severe injury prevention priorities identified vary depending on the severity measures used. The variations seen across age groups and between the two centres are also important factors that must be taken into account when developing prevention programs or considering research initiatives.
Direct Measurements of Temporal Wave Field Evolution in a Laboratory Tank and Comparison with Strongly Nonlinear Simulations

The evolution along a tank of unidirectional nonlinear wave groups with narrow spectrum previously studied in [1] is compared with numerical simulations based on weakly, strongly and fully nonlinear models. Measurements of the instantaneous surface elevation within the laboratory tank were carried out using digital processing of video-recorded sequences of images of the contact line movement at the tank side wall. Records of the measured surface displacements variation were obtained along the entire tank at different instants. The accumulated set of experimental data enables to compare directly the experimental data with the results of numerical simulations based on conventional numerical models which describe wave field evolution in time.
Adult‐born neurons are necessary for extended contextual discrimination

New neurons are continuously produced in the adult dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. It has been shown that one of the functions of adult neurogenesis is to support spatial pattern separation, a process that transforms similar memories into nonoverlapping representations. This prompted us to investigate whether adult‐born neurons are required for discriminating two contexts, i.e., for identifying a familiar environment and detect any changes introduced in it. We show that depleting adult‐born neurons impairs the animal's ability to disambiguate two contexts after extensive training. These data suggest that the continuous production of new dentate neurons plays a crucial role in extracting and separating efficiently contextual representation in order to discriminate features within events. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Validation of a Clinical Shack-Hartmann Aberrometer

Purpose. To validate the accuracy, tolerance, and repeatability of the complete ophthalmic analysis system aberrometer (COAS, Wavefront Sciences Inc.) with model eyes and normal human eyes. Method. Model eyes were constructed from six polymethyl methacrylate, single-surface lenses with known characteristics. Accuracy of second-order aberrations was verified by measuring defocus and astigmatism induced by series of spherical and cylindrical trial lenses. Accuracy of higher-order aberrations was evaluated by comparing ray-tracing predictions with measured spherical aberration and coma of the aspheric model eyes. Tolerance to axial and lateral misalignment was measured by controlled displacements of the model eye relative to the aberrometer. Repeatability was tested on the same model eyes with repeated measurements taken within 1 s or within half an hour with realignment between each trial. Analyses were based on a 5-mm pupil diameter. Results. Defocus and astigmatism were accurately measured within the working range of the instrument automatic focus adjustment (e.g., measured defocus was within ±0.25 diopters over a −6.50 to +3.00 D range of refractive error). Accuracy of spherical aberration and coma agreed closely with theoretical predictions (e.g., for all six aspheric models, the mean absolute difference between predicted and measured Z40 was 0.007 &mgr;m). Axial displacements over the range ±2.5 mm had little effect on measurements for myopic and emmetropic model eyes. Also, lateral displacements over the range ±1.5 mm did not produce significant coma. The standard deviations of repeated measurements of higher-order root mean square on model eyes were <1% of the mean with repeated measures within 1 s and 10% of the mean for five individual measurements with realignment in between each. Tolerance to small lateral displacements was also observed for human eyes. Conclusion. The complete ophthalmic analysis system aberrometer can measure second-, third-, and fourth-order aberrations accurately and repeatedly on model eyes.
Prevalence of the antiphospholipid syndrome in primary systemic vasculitis

Background: The antiphospholipid (APS or Hughes’) syndrome, anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), and the lupus anticoagulant (LA) are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, malignancy, infection, and drugs. It has been described in patients with primary systemic vasculitis (PSV). Objective: To determine the prevalence of APS in patients with PSV attending a vasculitis clinic and the prevalence of patients with positive aCL and/or the LA who do not fulfil the classification criteria for APS. Methods: All case notes of patients attending the vasculitis clinic over a 12 month period were reviewed. Outpatients and inpatients were both included and were assessed for features of the APS and presence of aPL. Patients with positive aCL or LA tests were classified according to the significance of these results. Results: Of 144 patients with PSV, 25 had positive aCL or LA on at least one occasion, representing a point prevalence of 17%. Of these, nine had definite APS (classified by the Sapporo criteria) and a further four patients had clinical and serological features of APS, although insufficient to satisfy the Sapporo criteria. Twelve had only positive aPL. Conclusion: The antiphospholipid syndrome, aCL, and the LA may occur in association with PSV.
View-invariant gait recognition system using a gait energy image decomposition method

Gait recognition systems can capture biometrical information from a distance and without the user's active cooperation, making them suitable for surveillance environments. However, there are two challenges for gait recognition that need to be solved, namely when: (i) the walking direction is unknown and/or (ii) the subject's appearance changes significantly due to different clothes being worn or items being carried. This study discusses the problem of gait recognition in unconstrained environments and proposes a new system to tackle recognition when facing the two listed challenges. The system automatically identifies the walking direction using a perceptual hash (PHash) computed over the leg region of the gait energy image (GEI) and then compares it against the PHash values of different walking directions stored in the database. Robustness against appearance changes are obtained by decomposing the GEI into sections and selecting those sections unaltered by appearance changes for comparison against a database containing GEI sections for the identified walking direction. The proposed recognition method then recognises the user using a majority decision voting. The proposed view-invariant gait recognition system is computationally inexpensive and outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of recognition performance.
A Bridgeless Single-Stage Half-Bridge AC/DC Converter

This paper proposes a new bridgeless single-stage half-bridge ac-dc converter for power factor correction. The proposed converter integrates the bridgeless boost rectifier with the asymmetrical pulse-width modulation half-bridge dc-dc converter. The proposed converter provides an isolated dc output voltage without using any full-bridge diode rectifier. Conduction losses are lowered by eliminating the full-bridge diode rectifier. Zero-voltage switching of the power switches reduces the switching power losses. The proposed converter gives a high efficiency, high power factor, and low cost. The effectiveness of the proposed converter is verified on a 250 W (48 V/5.2 A) experimental prototype. The proposed converter achieves a high efficiency of 93.0% and an almost unity power factor for 250 W output power at 90 Vrms line voltage.
Constraints on dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31

We used radio observations of the neighbor galaxy M31 in order to put constraints on the dark matter particle mass and annihilation cross section. Dark matter annihilation in M31 halo produces highly energetic leptons, which emit synchrotron radiation on radio frequencies in the galactic magnetic field. We predicted expected radio fluxes for the two annihilation channels: χχ→bb and χχ→τ^+τ^-. We then compared them with available data on the central radio emission of M31 as observed by four radio surveys: VLSS (74 MHz), WENSS (325 MHz), NVSS (1400 MHz), and GB6 (4850 MHz). Assuming a standard Navarro-Frenk-White dark matter density profile and a conservative magnetic field distribution inside the Andromeda galaxy, we find that the thermal relic annihilation cross section or higher ⟨σv⟩≥3×10^(-26) cm^3/s are only allowed for weakly interacting massive particle masses greater than ≈100 and ≈55 GeV for annihilation into bb and τ^+τ^-, respectively. Taking into account potential uncertainties in the distributions of dark matter density and the magnetic field, the mentioned weakly interacting massive particle limiting masses can be as low as 23 GeV for both channels, and as high as 280 and 130 GeV for annihilation into bb and τ^+τ^-, respectively. These mass values exceed the best up-to-date known constraints from Fermi gamma observations: 40 and 19 GeV, respectively [A. Geringer-Sameth and S. M. Koushiappas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 241303 (2011)]. Precise measurements of the magnetic field in the relevant region and better reconstruction of the dark matter density profile of M31 will be able to reduce the uncertainties of our exclusion limits.
Trace fossils and substrates of the terminal Proterozoic–Cambrian transition: Implications for the record of early bilaterians and sediment mixing

The trace fossil record is important in determining the timing of the appearance of bilaterian animals. A conservative estimate puts this time at ≈555 million years ago. The preservational potential of traces made close to the sediment–water interface is crucial to detecting early benthic activity. Our studies on earliest Cambrian sediments suggest that shallow tiers were preserved to a greater extent than typical for most of the Phanerozoic, which can be attributed both directly and indirectly to the low levels of sediment mixing. The low levels of sediment mixing meant that thin event beds were preserved. The shallow depth of sediment mixing also meant that muddy sediments were firm close to the sediment–water interface, increasing the likelihood of recording shallow-tier trace fossils in muddy sediments. Overall, trace fossils can provide a sound record of the onset of bilaterian benthic activity.
DNA Methylation Signatures of the Plant Chromomethyltransferases

DNA methylation in plants is traditionally partitioned into CG, CHG and CHH contexts (with H any nucleotide but G). By investigating DNA methylation patterns in trinucleotide contexts in four angiosperm species, we show that such a representation hides spatial and functional partitioning of different methylation pathways and is incomplete. CG methylation (mCG) is largely context-independent whereas, at CHG motifs, there is under-representation of mCCG in pericentric regions of A. thaliana and tomato and throughout the chromosomes of maize and rice. In A. thaliana the biased representation of mCCG in heterochromatin is related to specificities of H3K9 methyltransferase SUVH family members. At CHH motifs there is an over-representation of different variant forms of mCHH that, similarly to mCCG hypomethylation, is partitioned into the pericentric regions of the two dicots but dispersed in the monocot chromosomes. The over-represented mCHH motifs in A. thaliana associate with specific types of transposon including both class I and II elements. At mCHH the contextual bias is due to the involvement of various chromomethyltransferases whereas the context-independent CHH methylation in A. thaliana and tomato is mediated by the RNA-directed DNA methylation process that is most active in the gene-rich euchromatin. This analysis therefore reveals that the sequence context of the methylome of plant genomes is informative about the mechanisms associated with maintenance of methylation and the overlying chromatin structure.
Vascular reactions to histamine, histamine‐liberator and leukotaxine in the skin of guinea‐pigs

A substantial increase in capillary permeability is a feature of acute inflammation in bacterial infections. The present investigation is part of an attempt to prove an old hypothesis, namely, that this increase in permeability is mediated by histamine. A comparative study was made of histamine, of the histamineliberator 48/80, a condensation product ofp-methoxyphenylethylmethylamine and formaldehyde (Baltzly, Buck, de Beer & Webb, 1949), and of leukotaxine (Menkin, 1936, 1938a, b). In animals with a recently injected vital dye in their blood, the intradermal injection of substances that increase permeability of the blood vessels is followed by an accumulation of dye at the site of injection, presumably due to the passage of an excess of dye-stained plasma into the tissue spaces. When the blood flow and the vascular bed of the skin are relatively constant, differences in the size and intensity of stained areas of skin reflect differences in vascular permeability, and may be used to investigate the properties of substances that increase permeability in this way. Our work was confined to the skin of guinea-pigs, partly because much is already known about skin reactions to toxins and other inflammatory agents, and partly because it is a tissue readily studied in the intact and unanaesthetized animal-an important consideration with phenomena which, like the passage of dye through vascular endothelium, are peculiarly dependent on the state of the blood vessels in the tissue under test.
The effect of unilateral ovariectomy on plasma gonadotropin levels, estrus and ovulation rate in sheep.

The effect of unilateral ovariectomy on plasma gonadotropin levels estrus and ovulation rate in the sheep was studied. 5-6 year old parous Border Leicester-Merino cross ewes were ovariectomized unilaterally on Days 14 and 16 of the estrous cycle or during anestrus. Luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured. The proportion of ewes in estrus and the length of the estrous cycle during the breeding season were unaffected by unilateral ovariectomy. During the breeding season FSH levels increased (p less than .05) 5 1/2-12 hours after unilateral ovariectomy performed on either day. Removal of 1 ovary on Day 14 allowed for full compensation of ovulation rates by the next estrus. When surgery was performed on Day 16 the ovulation rate was incomplete by the next estrus. 12-14 days after estrus following laparotomy ovarian weights had increased significantly (p less than .05) in both groups. When laparotomy was performed during the anestrous season ovarian weight and FSH levels were similar to control values. Ovulation rate can thus be determined within the 3 days prior to the onset of estrus. It is suggested that FSH levels particularly around Day 14 of estrus are important in determining the ovulation rate for the next estrus.
Pasteurellosis in Small Ruminants : biochemical Isolation , Characterization and Prevalence Determinationin Relation to Associated Risk Factors in Fogera Woreda , North-West Ethiopia

The study was conducted from September 2014 to August 2015 in Fogera Woreda, Amhara Regional State, North-West of Ethiopia with the objectives of isolation and characterization of pasteurella species with culture and biochemical tests,and to determine its prevalence in relation to associated risk factors in apparently pneumonic sheep and goats.Out of 988 nasal swabs and blood samples from small ruminants (696 sheep and 292 goats) examined,322 were found positive to pasteurellosis with overall prevalence of 32.6%, of which 180 (55.9%) were from nasal swabs and 142 (44.1%) were from blood samples. Accordingly, 79.5% of the isolates were Mannheimia haemolytica and 20.5% were Pasteurella multocida.Species, age, sex, management system and seasons of the year were found risk factors and significantly associated with pasteurella infectionin small ruminants (P<0.05). The prevalence in sheep (37.1%), female (36.42%), young (< 2 years) (52.97%) and extensively managed animals (38.15%) were found higher than the prevalence in goats (21.9%), male (25.29%), adults (= 2 years) (21.26%) and sheep and goats managed under semi-intensive production system (17.18%), respectively.Similarly, the frequency of infection was significantly (p<0.05) higher in winter (48.6%) and spring (32.85%) as compared to autumn (23.79%) and summer (19.67%). In conclusion, this finding clearly indicates that the disease is highly prevalent in the study area. Thus, an integrated application of vaccination and overall management measures should be implemented to prevent and control the disease in animals.
Role of Nucleolin in Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 3 Infection of Human Lung Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT Human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV-3) is an airborne pathogen that infects human lung epithelial cells from the apical (luminal) plasma membrane domain. In the present study, we have identified cell surface-expressed nucleolin as a cellular cofactor required for the efficient cellular entry of HPIV-3 into human lung epithelial A549 cells. Nucleolin was enriched on the apical cell surface domain of A549 cells, and HPIV-3 interacted with nucleolin during entry. The importance of nucleolin during HPIV-3 replication was borne out by the observation that HPIV-3 replication was significantly inhibited following (i) pretreatment of cells with antinucleolin antibodies and (ii) preincubation of HPIV-3 with purified nucleolin prior to its addition to the cells. Moreover, HPIV-3 cellular internalization and attachment assays performed in the presence of antinucleolin antibodies and purified nucleolin revealed the requirement of nucleolin during HPIV-3 internalization but not during attachment. Thus, these results suggest that nucleolin expressed on the surfaces of human lung epithelial A549 cells plays an important role during HPIV-3 cellular entry.
The production of opacity in serum by group A streptococci and its relationship withthe presence of M antigen.

Surmmary The ability to produce opacity in horse serum is a characteristic of certain M types of group A streptococci. The types that produce the opacity factor (O factor) are generally those for which it is difficult to produce good anti-M sera. M-positive (M+) and true M-negative (M —) variants of strains that belong to serotypes in which the serum opacity reaction (s.o.r.) is positive both possess the O factor, but there is a difference in binding of the factor to other cellular components in the two variants. The O factor is closely bound to the wall-membrane fraction of M — cells, whereas in M + cells it is easily extracted by Lancefield's method or 1% sodium deoxycholate. It is detectable in broth culture supernatants, in the cytoplasm and in the areas surrounding colonies in pour plates of M+ but not of M — cultures. The O factor is poorly antigenic, but when it is possible to obtain a good antiserum the inhibitory action is type specific. The O factor produced by several M types appears to be inhibited by normal rabbit serum.
De-ghosting of tomographic images in a radar network with sparse angular sampling

Taking into account sparsity of the reflectivity function of several radar targets of interest, efficient low-complexity Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) systems can be designed. A low-dimensional 2D spatial model, where information on the radar target signature is compressed, can be estimated using High Range Resolution (HRR) data from a sparse system of view angles. Incoherent tomographic processing of HRR data from a distributed surveillance system, made up of several radar nodes, is studied in this paper. A sparse angular sampling scheme is proposed, which exploits diversity due to both the distributed radar system and the target motion. The novelty is in the exploitation of this locally dense, but otherwise sparse set of viewing angles of the targets, obtained using a sparse network of radars. The de-ghosting efficiency of such a sampling scheme is demonstrated geometrically. This results in identification of minimal information resources for unambiguous estimation of a 2D target model, useful for radar target classification.