Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The specificity of afferent cutaneous C fibres in mammals.

By dissecting very fine strands of cutaneous nerves in rats, dogs and cats it has been possible to record spikes from single afferent C fibres when applying different stimuli to the skin. Confirming earlier investigators, records have been obtained of the activity of C fibres which responded specifically to tactile stimulation of the skin and from C fibres which responded rather unspecifically to strong thermal changes in the skin in both directions (± 10dg C) as well as to mechanical stimulation of the skin. In addition to these fibres a new type of C fibres were found which responded specifically to warming or to cooling the skin to less than 1dg C. These specific “warm” C fibres and specific “cold” C fibres showed in general a behaviour similar to that of δ thermal fibres previously described. They did not respond to touching their receptive field. The skin of the mammals investigated thus possess specific “warm” C fibres as well as specific “cold” C fibres which are reciprocally brought in and out of action when the skin is subjected to even slight temperature changes.
Profile distribution of juvenile Aedes species in an urban area of Malaysia.

BACKGROUND Dengue fever (DF) is an urban vector-borne disease transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Both species deposit their eggs in favorable breeding sites either in natural or artificial containers. An understanding of their habitat characteristics is crucial in curbing DF outbreaks METHODS A search and destroy survey was carried out at 10 dengue hotspot localities in Shah Alam, Malaysia. A quantitative in-situ measurement of selected physical parameters was conducted focusing on the environmental characteristics and the presence of vegetation. Larvae and pupae found in different types of container were morphologically identified. RESULTS Evidence of breeding was discovered in 62 containers. Rubber materials (container efficiency: 2.10), with clear water in the presence of dead vegetation (71 and 33% respectively) were found to be most efficient for pupae development. Furthermore, low water volume (60%) was preferred for breeding purposes. Kruskal-Wallis test demonstrated that water volume, wind velocity and distance from habitation were statistically significant towards dengue vectors. CONCLUSIONS Our findings have provided the profile of Aedes species based on environmental and water conditions in hotspot areas in Malaysia. These outcomes provide useful information regarding container characteristics that can enable selective elimination of vector habitat thus minimizing the risk of dengue outbreak.
Effect of vermicompost tea on yield and nitrate reductase enzyme activity in saladette tomato

In conventional agriculture, heavy doses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are often used to improve the yield of various horticultural crops. These chemical fertilizers and pesticides cause health problems among consumers. Due to the adverse effects of chemical fertilizers, there is interest in the use of organic fertilizers. It has long been recognized that the rate-limiting step for nitrogen assimilation, the reduction of NO 3 to NO 2 catalyzed by nitrate reductase (NR), is highly regulated. An increase in the amount and activity of NR leads to a corresponding increase in the potential for nitrate reduction and confers a greater capacity for general amino-acid synthesis, protein synthesis or total nitrogen assimilation. The aim of the current experiment was to determine the effect of organic and conventional fertilizers on yield and nitrate reductase activity in saladette tomato.Tomato plants were grown under controlled greenhouse conditions and treated with either organic or conventional fertilizer. We evaluated five treatments: F1, sand + inorganic fertilizer; F2, sand + vermicompost tea; F3, a 1:1 mixture of sand: compost + vermicompost tea; F4, a 1:1 mixture of sand: vermicompost + vermicompost tea; and F5, a 2:1:1 mixture of sand: compost: vermicompost + vermicompost tea. The evaluated variables were yield, fruit size, number of fruits, fruit quality, chlorophyll content, and in vivo nitrate reductase enzyme activity. Fertilizer type strongly influenced the yield, fruit size, and fruit quality. The best organic fertilizer for tomatoes was sand + vermicompost tea. Tomatoes in this treatment group produced the second highest yield, the best NO 3 assimilation, the greatest nitrate reductase
A Novel Rectangular Waveguide T-Junction for Power Combining Application

In this letter, a novel rectangular waveguide T-junction is proposed for power combining application. In order to achieve good isolation and port matching performances, a metallic strip probe is inserted into the junction through a window at the center of the waveguide side wall to couple even mode energy and a matched load is used to absorb the coupled energy. As it is independent of the junction, match load of high power-handling capability can be used meeting specific application requirements. A Ka-band T-junction prototype is designed and fabricated to validate the design concept. Measured results show that the insertion loss is less than 0.2 dB, the reflection is better than -17 dB and the isolation above 20 dB over the frequency range of 27 to 33 GHz.
Endoscopy of the upper respiratory tract during treadmill exercise: a clinical study of 100 horses.

Endoscopy of the upper respiratory tract was performed in 100 horses during high speed treadmill exercise. Reasons for endoscopy were a history of an abnormal noise during exercise in 75 horses, poor performance in 17 horses and to evaluate the results of upper respiratory tract surgery in 8 horses. Of the 75 horses with a history of an abnormal noise during exercise the cause was determined in 67 (89%). Endoscopic abnormalities were detected at rest in 40 of these 75 horses (53%). In these 40 horses, a similar diagnosis as to the cause of the abnormal noise was made at rest and during exercise on the treadmill in 19 cases, while in the remaining 21 the endoscopic findings during exercise varied from that seen at rest. This included 3 horses in which a diagnosis was made at rest but no abnormalities were detected during exercise. Some of the findings during treadmill endoscopy included laryngeal dysfunction, grades 3, 4 and 5 (22 cases), dorsal displacement of the soft palate (20), epiglottic entrapment (8), epiglottic flutter (4), aryepiglottic fold flutter (4), pharyngeal collapse (3), arytenoiditis (3), vocal cord flutter (3), false nostril noise (2), pharyngeal lymphoid hyperplasia (2), soft palate haemorrhage (1) and positional arytenoid collapse (1). More than one abnormality was observed during exercise in 7 horses. A complete and correct diagnosis based on the resting endoscopy findings alone was made in 19 (25%) of these 75 cases. In the 17 horses examined because of poor performance, no abnormalities were detected during treadmill endoscopy that were not evident at rest. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Characterization of the Dynamic Effects of the Reentry Plasma Sheath on Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

This paper investigates the dynamic effects of the reentry plasma sheath on electromagnetic wave propagation from the viewpoint of communication. Both the spatial turbulence and the temporal variation of the plasma electron density are included in our model, and the transmission matrix method is employed to investigate the interactions between the plasma and the electromagnetic wave. The simulation results indicated that because of the nonlinear property of plasma, the amplitude variation caused by the plasma sheath has a lognormal distribution, while the phase fluctuation is Rayleigh distributed. Moreover, with a higher relative variation intensity, the probability density function curves become more decentralized, indicating larger channel dynamics of both amplitude variation and phase fluctuation. The power spectrum broadening phenomena caused by the plasma sheath are also investigated and discussed.
On Utilizing Test Cube Properties to Reduce Test Data Volume Further

Test data compression has become a dominant approach to reduce the test cost today. Majority of test compression schemes are based on the fact that the generated test cubes have very few specified bits. This paper studies additional test cube properties and utilizes them to reduce the test data volume (TDV) further. Two approaches are proposed in this paper. The first one requires no additional hardware and the second one is based on the new DFT hardware, named background chains. The proposed approaches can be combined with other test compression schemes to achieve additional TDV reduction. The experimental results based on embedded deterministic test (EDT) show the proposed approaches achieve significant TDV reduction for industrial designs.
Long-term effects of levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system on tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study is to assess the efficacy of the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) on the tamoxifen-induced endometrial lesions in breast cancer patients. METHODS PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched for eligible studies. Odds ratios were obtained to estimate the association between the LNG-IUS and tamoxifen-induced endometrial lesions. The fixed effects or random-effects model was used to combine data depending on heterogeneity. RESULTS With three eligible randomized clinical trials involving 359 patients, this analysis demonstrated tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients using the LNG-IUS derived benefit from de novo polyps prevention (P < 0.0001, OR 0.18, 95% CI: 0.08-0.42). However, the LNG-IUS only showed a trend of maintaining endometrial proliferation or secretory status (P = 0.05, OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.13-1.02) and no statistical difference in atrophic or inactive changes (P = 0.13, OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.04-1.53) or endometrial hyperplasia without atypia (P = 0.08, OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.04-1.18). The LNG-IUS didn't have an increased incidence in breast cancer recurrence (P = 0.28, OR 1.75, 95% CI: 0.64-4.80) and cancer-induced death (P = 0.71, OR 1.22, 95% CI: 0.42-3.52). Bleeding in the treatment group was statistically more frequent than that in the control group (OR 6.20, 95% CI: 2.99-12.85, P < 0.00001). CONCLUSIONS This analysis verifies the efficacy of the LNG-IUS in preventing tamoxifen-induced polyps. The LNG-IUS didn't have an increased incidence in breast cancer recurrence and cancer-induced death. Long-term, large randomized studies of the LNG-IUS will be necessary to determine the benefit and risk in tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients.
Static simulation: A method for power and energy estimation in embedded microprocessors

Current methodologies for software-level power and energy estimation use a microprocessor's power model combined with specialized tools that profile the program under study. These tools commonly rely on real-time program execution or simulations to gather the information needed, a process that usually requires a full set of real run-time data. This work proposes the use of static code simulation as an alternative to analyze and predict the program's behavior. This, in combination with a microprocessor's power model, allows to estimate power and energy with only a small amount of run-time data. Furthermore, the low execution time of the proposed method allows for its use as in iterative power optimizers. We present results obtained for a set of representative benchmark programs applied ran on a PowerPC 603e microprocessor. Power and energy estimates with mean absolute errors below 7% and 15%, respectively, are reported for the analyzed test cases.
Phase variation of the gonococcal siderophore receptor FetA

FetA, the recently characterized gonococcal ferric enterobactin receptor, exhibited extremely rapid phase variation between high‐ and low‐expression levels. The frequency of phase variation was ≈ 1.3% in both directions in gonococcal strain FA1090. FetA expression in the ‘high phase’ was significantly greater than the level of expression in the ‘low phase’. Expression levels correlated with the number of cytosine residues in a string of cytosines located close to the transcriptional start site for fetA between the putative −10 and −35 consensus sequences. Antibody production against FetA commonly occurs in infected patients, and we therefore hypothesize that phase variation reflects a balance between the advantages of being able to use a ferric siderophore as an iron source and evasion of the host immune response.
Fine‐tuning of choline metabolism is important for pneumococcal colonization

The human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is rare in having a strict requirement for the amino alcohol choline, which decorates pneumococcal teichoic acids. This process relies on the lic locus, containing the lic1 and lic2 operons. These operons produce eight proteins that import and metabolize choline, generate teichoic acid precursors and decorate these with choline. Three promoters control expression of lic operons, with Plic1P1 and Plic1P2 controlling lic1 and Plic2 controlling lic2. To investigate the importance of lic regulation for pneumococci, we assayed the activity of transcriptional fusions of the three lic promoters to the luciferase reporter gene. Plic1P1, whose activity depends on the response regulator CiaR, responded to fluctuations in extracellular choline, with activity increasing greatly upon choline depletion. We uncovered a complex regulatory mechanism controlling Plic1P1, involving activity driven by CiaR, repression by putative repressor LicR in the presence of choline, and derepression upon choline depletion mediated by LicC, a choline metabolism enzyme. Finally, the ability to regulate Plic1P1 in response to choline was important for pneumococcal colonization. We suggest that derepression of Plic1P1 upon choline depletion maximizing choline internalization constitutes an adaptive response mechanism allowing pneumococci to optimize growth and survival in environments where choline is scarce.
The importance of transient's dynamics in spatially extended populations

Recent theoretical works on the dynamics of metapopulations have highlighted the existence of very long transients (supertransients) with abrupt changes in behaviour which occur following perturbation of the system away from its attractor. If this phenomenon is common in natural systems, populations that do not oscillate can begin to fluctuate wildly without any change in the environmental conditions. However, the frequency of occurrence of supertransients is currently poorly understood even in model systems. Here we explore their occurrence in metapopulation models which relax the important assumption of global synchrony of events implicit in all the coupled map lattice models for which supertransients have so far been demonstrated. We find supertransients in all the models but always only for a very restricted range of parameter combinations. However, we also report for the first time another type of longer–lived transient (mesotransients) that occurs on shorter time–scales than supertransients and is found for a much wider set of conditions. We argue that these medium–term changes in the dynamics of populations can be of more ecological relevance than the long–term changes of supertransients.
Earnings Pressure and Long-Term Corporate Governance: Can Long-Term-Oriented Investors and Managers Reduce the Quarterly Earnings Obsession?

Recent research has shown that managers in publicly traded companies facing earnings pressure—the pressure to meet or beat securities analysts’ earnings forecasts—may make business decisions to improve short-term earnings. Analysts’ forward-looking performance forecasts can serve as powerful motivation for managers, but may also encourage them to undertake short-term actions detrimental to future competitiveness and performance. To identify whether managerial reactions to earnings pressure suggest evidence of intertemporal trade-offs, we explored how companies respond to earnings pressure under different conditions of corporate governance that shape the temporal orientations of managers. Using data on competitive decisions made by U.S. airlines under quarterly earnings pressure, we examined the effect of earnings pressure on competitive behavior under different ownership structures (ownership by long-term dedicated investors versus transient investors) and CEO incentives (unvested incentives that are restricted or unexercisable in the short term, versus vested incentives). The results suggest that companies with more long-term-oriented investors and long-term-aligned CEOs with unvested incentives are less likely to soften competitive behavior in response to earnings pressure, relative to companies with transient investors and CEOs with vested, immediately exercisable stock-based incentives. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) specification for stronger identification, we also found that firms respond to their rivals’ earnings pressure shocks by increasing capacity and prices, particularly when those rivals do not have long-term-oriented investors and CEO incentives. The evidence is more aligned with the view that the pursuit of short-term earnings as a result of earnings pressure may be detrimental to long-term competitiveness.
How structural adaptability exists alongside HLA-A2 bias in the human αβ TCR repertoire

Significance T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition of antigenic peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins defines specificity in cellular immunity. Evidence suggests that TCRs are intrinsically biased toward MHC proteins, yet how this bias coexists alongside the considerable structural variability that is necessary for TCRs to engage different ligands has been a longstanding puzzle. By examining structural and sequence data, we found evidence that human αβ TCRs have an inherent compatibility with structural and chemical properties of MHC proteins. This compatibility leads TCRs to an intrinsic MHC bias but does not compel the formation of particular modes of binding, providing a solution to how TCRs can be MHC-biased but still structurally adaptable. How T-cell receptors (TCRs) can be intrinsically biased toward MHC proteins while simultaneously display the structural adaptability required to engage diverse ligands remains a controversial puzzle. We addressed this by examining αβ TCR sequences and structures for evidence of physicochemical compatibility with MHC proteins. We found that human TCRs are enriched in the capacity to engage a polymorphic, positively charged “hot-spot” region that is almost exclusive to the α1-helix of the common human class I MHC protein, HLA-A*0201 (HLA-A2). TCR binding necessitates hot-spot burial, yielding high energetic penalties that must be offset via complementary electrostatic interactions. Enrichment of negative charges in TCR binding loops, particularly the germ-line loops encoded by the TCR Vα and Vβ genes, provides this capacity and is correlated with restricted positioning of TCRs over HLA-A2. Notably, this enrichment is absent from antibody genes. The data suggest a built-in TCR compatibility with HLA-A2 that biases receptors toward, but does not compel, particular binding modes. Our findings provide an instructional example for how structurally pliant MHC biases can be encoded within TCRs.
Nutritional status of children during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Guatemala

Most children with cancer live in developing countries where the prevalence of malnutrition may reach 50% and influence the course of the disease. This study examined the prevalence and severity of malnutrition at diagnosis, as well as after 3 and 6 months of chemotherapy, in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in Guatemala.
Syntenin-1 and ezrin link ALCAM to the actin cytoskeleton Syntenin-1 and ezrin link Activated Leukocyte Cell Adhesion Molecule to the actin cytoskeleton*.

and cancer metastasis. Results: ALCAM is linked to the actin cytoskeleton through a supramolecular complex including ezrin and syntenin-1. Conclusions: ALCAM supramolecular complex engaged to CD6 stabilizes the immunological synapse. Significance: Insights into the immunological synapse at the dendritic cell side contribute to clarify immune regulation mechanisms. ABSTRACT Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) is a type I transmembrane protein member of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell adhesion molecules (Ig-CAMs). Involved in important pathophysiological processes such as the immune response, cancer metastasis and neuronal development, ALCAM undergoes both homotypic interactions with other ALCAM molecules and heterotypic interactions with the surface receptor CD6 expressed at the T cell surface. Despite biochemical and biophysical evidence of a dynamic association between ALCAM and the actin cytoskeleton, no detailed information is available about how this association occurs at the molecular level. We here exploit a combination of complementary microscopy techniques including FRET detected by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and single cell force spectroscopy, and demonstrate the existence of a preformed ligand-independent supramolecular complex where ALCAM stably interacts with actin by binding to syntenin-1 and ezrin. Interaction with the ligand CD6 further enhances these multiple interactions. Altogether, our results propose a novel biophysical framework to understand the stabilizing role of the ALCAM supramolecular complex engaged to CD6 during dendritic cell-T cell interactions and provide novel information on the molecular players involved in the formation and signaling of the immunological synapse at the dendritic cell side.
Sulfate and Nitrate Concentrations from a South Greenland Ice Core

An ice core in south Greenland covering the period 1869 to 1984 was analyzed for oxygen isotopes and chloride, nitrate, and sulfate concentrations. The data show that the "excess" (nonsea-salt) sulfate concentration has tripled since approximately 1900 to 1910 and the nitrate concentration has doubled since approximately 1955. The increases may be attributable to the deposition of these chemical specis from air masses carrying North American and Eurasian anthropogenic emissions.
Multiple Roles for Cysteine Cathepsins in Cancer

Cysteine cathepsins are a family of proteases that have recently emerged as important players in cancer, and have variously been reported to be involved in apoptosis, angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and invasion. In normal cells, cysteine cathepsins are typically localized in lysosomes and other intracellular compartments, and are involved in protein degradation and processing. However, in certain tumors, cathepsins are translocated from their intracellular compartments to the cell surface, and can even be secreted. In addition, the expression and activity levels of some cysteine cathepsins are upregulated in human and mouse cancers. Understanding which cathepsins are critically involved, what their substrates are, and how they may be mediating these complex roles in cancer are important questions to address. We highlight recent results that begin to answer some of these questions, illustrating in particular the lessons from studying a mouse model of multistage carcinogenesis, which suggests distinctive roles for individual cysteine cathepsins in tumor progression.