Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fine structural description of the lateral ocellus of Craterostigmus tasmanianus Pocock, 1902 (Chilopoda: Craterostigmomorpha) and phylogenetic considerations

The lateral lens eye of adult Craterostigmus tasmanianus Pocock, 1902 (a centipede from Australia and New Zealand) was examined by light and electron microscopy. An elliptical, bipartite eye is located frontolaterally on either side of the head. The nearly circular posterior part of the eye is characterized by a plano‐convex cornea, whereas no corneal elevation is visible in the crescentic anterior part. The so‐called lateral ocellus appears cup‐shaped in longitudinal section and includes a flattened corneal lens comprising a homogeneous and pigmentless epithelium of cornea‐secreting cells. The retinula consists of two kinds of photoreceptive cells. The distribution of the distal retinula cells is highly irregular. Variable numbers of cells are grouped together in multilayered, thread‐like unions extending from the ventral and dorsal margins into the center of the eye. Around their knob‐like or bilobed apices the distal retinula cells give rise to fused polymorphic rhabdomeres. Both everse and inverse cells occur in the distal retinula. Smaller, club‐shaped proximal retinula cells are present in the second (limited to the peripheral region) and proximal third of the eye, where they are arranged in dual cell units. In its apical region each unit produces a small, unidirectional rhabdom of interdigitating microvilli. All retinula cells are surrounded by numerous sheath cells. A thin basal lamina covers the whole eye cup, which, together with the distal part of the optic nerve, is wrapped by external pigment cells filled with granules of varying osmiophily. The eye of C. tasmanianus seemingly displays very high complexity compared to many other hitherto studied euarthropod eyes. Besides the complex arrangement of the entire retinula, the presence of a bipartite eye cup, intraocellar exocrine glands, inverse retinula cells, distal retinula cells with bilobed apices, separated pairs of proximal retinula cells, medio‐retinal axon bundles, and the formation of a vertically partitioned, antler‐like distal rhabdom represent apomorphies of the craterostigmomorph eye. These characters therefore collectively underline the separate position of the Craterostigmomorpha among pleurostigmophoran centipedes. The remaining retinal features of C. tasmanianus agree with those known from other chilopod eyes and, thus, may be considered plesiomorphies. Characters like the unicorneal eye cup, sheath cells, and proximal rhabdomeres with interdigitating microvilli were already present in the ground pattern of the Pleurostigmophora. Other retinal features were developed in the ancestral lineage of the Phylactometria (e.g., large elliptical eyes, external pigment cells, polygonal sculpturations on the corneal surface). The homology of all chilopod eyes (including Notostigmophora) is based principally on the possession of a dual type retinula. J. Morphol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Carbamazepine extended-release capsules for the treatment of bipolar I disorder

An extended-release capsule formulation of carbamazepine (Equetro™; Shire, PA, USA) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2004 for the treatment of acute manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder. Extended-release capsule formulation of carbamazepine offers several advantages to immediate-release carbamazepine formulations such as decreased dosing frequency and lowered plasma carbamazepine fluctuations. These important considerations combine to enhance patient compliance and tolerability, which is essential for the success of any therapeutic treatment regimen. The efficacy, safety, and tolerability of the extended-release capsule formulation of carbamazepine was demonstrated in two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials and an open-label extension study in patients with bipolar I disorder experiencing either manic or mixed episodes. Although further study is required, the data garnered in these studies, along with the agent’s recent approval by the .
All-Trans Retinoic Acid–Triggered Antimicrobial Activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Is Dependent on NPC2

A role for vitamin A in host defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been suggested through epidemiological and in vitro studies; however, the mechanism is unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that vitamin A–triggered antimicrobial activity against M. tuberculosis requires expression of NPC2. Comparison of monocytes stimulated with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3), the biologically active forms of vitamin A and vitamin D, respectively, indicates that ATRA and 1,25D3 induce mechanistically distinct antimicrobial activities. Stimulation of primary human monocytes with ATRA did not result in expression of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin, which is required for 1,25D3 antimicrobial activity. In contrast, ATRA triggered a reduction in the total cellular cholesterol concentration, whereas 1,25D3 did not. Blocking ATRA-induced cellular cholesterol reduction inhibits antimicrobial activity as well. Bioinformatic analysis of ATRA- and 1,25D3-induced gene profiles suggests that NPC2 is a key gene in ATRA-induced cholesterol regulation. Knockdown experiments demonstrate that ATRA-mediated decrease in total cellular cholesterol content and increase in lysosomal acidification are both dependent upon expression of NPC2. Expression of NPC2 was lower in caseous tuberculosis granulomas and M. tuberculosis–infected monocytes compared with normal lung and uninfected cells, respectively. Loss of NPC2 expression ablated ATRA-induced antimicrobial activity. Taken together, these results suggest that the vitamin A–mediated antimicrobial mechanism against M. tuberculosis requires NPC2-dependent expression and function, indicating a key role for cellular cholesterol regulation in the innate immune response.
Yuan Liu INCREMENTAL LEARNING IN DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS

TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Master’s Degree Program in Information Technology YUAN LIU: Incremental Learning in Deep Neural Networks Master of Science Thesis, 67 pages, 5 Appendix pages June 2015 Major: Pervasive Systems Examiners: Prof. Joni-Kristian Kämäräinen, Dr. Ke Chen
Treatment partners and adherence to HAART in Central Mozambique

Abstract Adherence to highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) has been associated with increased survival rates and decreased drug resistance in various settings. There is growing concern that loss to follow-up will increase and adherence rates will decrease as HAART programs are expanded in resource-limited settings. In Central Mozambique, an innovative program was implemented, using community-based (trained community activists) and self-selected (family members or friends) “treatment partners” to provide psycho-social support to patients on HAART. We calculated adherence rates based on pharmacy records for all patients who refilled their medication for at least six consecutive months between September 2004 and June 2006. Medical charts were reviewed for a subset of 375 patients having high (≥90%) adherence and 59 patients having low (<90%) adherence. Multivariate logistic regression analysis assessed the association between the type of treatment partner used and adherence to HAART. A total of 305 patients (70%) had self-selected treatment partners, 121 (28%) had community-based treatment partners, and 8 (2%) had no treatment partner. In adjusted analysis, patients who had no treatment partner were more likely to have low adherence (OR 9.47; 95% confidence interval 2.37–37.86 compared to self-selected treatment partner). Patients with community-based treatment partners did not have significantly lower adherence than patients with self-selected treatment partners. While it cannot be determined from these data which aspects or types of peer support are most effective in maintaining adherence, it appears that peer support was beneficial to this study population. While the study results are not directly applicable to other populations, other HAART programs should consider the potential benefit of providing treatment support to patients.
Novel superjunction LDMOS with multi-floating buried layers

In this paper, a novel superjunction lateral double-diffused MOSFET (SJ-LDMOS) based on the bulk electric field modulation is proposed. The new structure is characterized by adding the multiple floating buried layers (MFBL) into the substrate/epitaxial layer. In this way, the high bulk electric field under the drain diffusion edge is reduced and the overall bulk electric field distribution is optimized. In addition, the N+/P-substrate junction and the auxiliary MFBL/substrate junctions jointly sustain a high breakdown voltage (BV). Simulated results show that the BV of MFBL SJ-LDMOS is improved by about 80.4% than that of the buffered step doping (BSD) SJ-LDMOS with the same drift region length. Furthermore, compared with the N-type buffered SJ-LDMOS the BV of MFBL SJ-LDMOS significantly increases by 131.7%. Moreover, the power figure-of-merit (FOM=BV2/RON, sp) of MFBL SJ-LDMOS reaches 13.07 MW/cm2 with the excellent performance breaking the silicon limit.
Compact substrate integrated waveguide directional couplers in Ku and K bands

Compact hybrids in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology for Ku and K bands have been designed, simulated and built. The continuous coupling between adjacent waveguide concept has been used. Simulated and experimental results show good agreement. Bandwidth larger than 14% has been measured in Ku-band coupler with return loss higher than 21 dB and insertion loss ripple smaller than ±0.3 dB. A bandwidth of 22 % has been measured for the K-band coupler showing a return loss higher than 15 dB.
Intermolecular Binding between TIFA-FHA and TIFA-pT Mediates Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Stimulation and NF-κB Activation

ABSTRACT The forkhead-associated (FHA) domain recognizes phosphothreonine (pT) with high specificity and functional diversity. TIFA (TRAF-interacting protein with an FHA domain) is the smallest FHA-containing human protein. Its overexpression was previously suggested to provoke NF-κB activation, yet its exact roles in this signaling pathway and the underlying molecular mechanism remain unclear. Here we identify a novel threonine phosphorylation site on TIFA and show that this phosphorylated threonine (pT) binds with the FHA domain of TIFA, leading to TIFA oligomerization and TIFA-mediated NF-κB activation. Detailed analysis indicated that unphosphorylated TIFA exists as an intrinsic dimer and that the FHA-pT9 binding occurs between different dimers of TIFA. In addition, silencing of endogenous TIFA resulted in attenuation of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α)-mediated downstream signaling. We therefore propose that the TIFA FHA-pT9 binding provides a previously unidentified link between TNF-α stimulation and NF-κB activation. The intermolecular FHA-pT9 binding between dimers also represents a new mechanism for the FHA domain.
A Term Association Approach for Genomics Information Retrieval

Modeling and mining term association is important for information retrieval, which allows an information retrieval system to retrieve relevant documents/passages more precisely. In this paper, we propose a new approach for discovering term associations among the keywords from a query. First, factor analysis is applied to discover some hidden common factors as the °eliteness" variables that can be used to estimate the importance of term associations. Second, a factor analysis based model and a corresponding algorithm are proposed. Then, we report experimental results that confirm the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed term association approach. Our approach achieves excellent results on the TREC 2007 and 2006 data sets, which provides a promising avenue for constructing high performance information retrieval systems.
Controversies in the cardiovascular management of type 2 diabetes

In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, intense control of blood pressure, lipids and glucose, aiming at theoretically ideal values, is bought at a cost. Intense blood pressure control has renal complications. Intense lipid control, thus far, has worked for reduction of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, paradoxically at the cost of a small increase in new diabetes. Intense control of glycaemia generally requires insulin added to oral agents, which is consistently accompanied by weight gain, while increased hypoglycaemia has a long-term risk of cerebral damage. Intense glycaemic control has not consistently reduced mortality, whereas a strategy based on tight control of lipids and blood pressure with modestly tight glucose control has succeeded. Looking to the future, incretin mimetics may come to the fore as prime agents because they can reduce weight and glycaemia with little significant hypoglycaemia, thereby making tight glucose control easier to achieve.
Hierarchical cascading in 2D FEM simulation of finite SAW devices with periodic block structure

Application of finite element methods (FEM) to the simulation of SAW devices has been constrained by the large number of degrees-of-freedom required, resulting in large memory usage and long computation times. Here, we propose a hierarchical cascading approach which takes advantage of the periodic structure typical of SAW devices. In this approach, each unique electrode period is modeled and simulated only once. Smaller blocks are cascaded to describe larger blocks until the whole device is modeled. This is equivalent to full simulation of the device with FEM, however - for structures with high degree of periodicity - with drastically reduced memory consumption and simulation time.
Toward a test battery for differential categorization of age-related hearing loss

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL, or presbycusis) results from neural and/or cochlear degeneration. A taxonomy distinguishing presbycusis subtypes according to site of lesion was originally proposed by linking audiometric results to histopathological findings. In most cases, the pathology is complex and audiometry and word recognition scores (WRS) are insufficient to characterize pathologies of the auditory periphery. Several sophisticated tests of auditory function, with some specifically designed to inspect cochlear or neural status (e.g., distortion product otoacoustic emissions [DPOAEs] and auditory brainstem response [ABR]) are available but not in routine use to distinguish between presbycutic subtypes. There are no in vivo methods in place to identify contributing pathologies and their relative dominance in individual instances of presbycusis. However, the promise of upcoming therapies (genetic, pharmaceutical, etc.) cannot be realized without accurate identification of presbycusis subtypes. The goal of the present study was to investigate possible improvements in differential categorization of presbycutic subtypes. We explored a test battery composed of behavioral (audiometry and speech testing) and physiological (ABR, DPOAEs, and electrocochleography) assays in presbycutic ears to ask if improvements beyond the "gold standard" (behavioral thresholds through 8 kHz and word recognition) are possible. Data from 10 hearing impaired (HI) individuals were compared to those from 21 normal hearing (NH) adults. Exploratory factor and hierarchical cluster analyses (EFA and HCA respectively) were used to evaluate phenotyping strategies. The EFA revealed three factors (highest audible frequency (HAF), pure-tone average (PTA), and 2f 1 -f 2(High) DPOAEs) that accounted for most of the variability in hearing outcomes among the 31 participants. Hierarchical cluster analysis using the gold standard and enhanced multivariate approach revealed: (1) The clinical gold standard distinguished NH and HI participants, but failed to find commonalities among individuals with similar hearing profiles and (2) The enhanced test battery grouped participants with similar profiles, presumably indicating an underlying relationship in pathophysiology. Model data support the feasibility of a finer-grained categorization of presbycusis than is available in current practice, although more data are needed to understand the complexities of phenotyping.
Integrating Competition for Food , Hosts [ 27 _ TD $ DIFF ] , or Mates via Experimental Evolution

Competitive interactions shape the evolution of organisms. However, often it is not clear whether competition is the driving force behind the patterns observed. The recent use of experimental evolution in competitive environments can help establish such causality. Unfortunately, this literature is scattered, as competition for food, mates, and hosts are subject areas [31_TD$DIFF] that belong to different research fields. Here, we group these bodies of literature, extract common processes and patterns concerning the role of competition in shaping evolutionary trajectories, and suggest perspectives stemming from an integrative view of competition across these research fields. This review reinstates the power of experimental evolution in addressing the evolutionary consequences of competition, but highlights potential pitfalls in the design of such experiments.
A Glutaredoxin, Encoded by the G4L Gene of Vaccinia Virus, Is Essential for Virion Morphogenesis

ABSTRACT Vaccinia virus encodes two glutaredoxins, O2L and G4L, both of which exhibit thioltransferase and dehydroascorbate reductase activities in vitro. Although O2L was previously found to be dispensable for virus replication, we now show that G4L is necessary for virion morphogenesis. RNase protection and Western blotting assays indicated that G4L was expressed at late times after infection and was incorporated into mature virus particles. Attempts to isolate a mutant virus with a deleted G4L gene were unsuccessful, suggesting that the protein was required for virus replication. This interpretation was confirmed by the construction and characterization of a conditional lethal recombinant virus with an inducible copy of the G4L gene replacing the original one. Expression of G4L was proportional to the concentration of inducer, and the amount of glutaredoxin could be varied from barely detectable to greater than normal amounts of protein. Immunogold labeling revealed that the induced G4L protein was associated with immature and mature virions and adjacent cytoplasmic depots. In the absence of inducer, the production of infectious virus was severely inhibited, though viral late protein synthesis appeared unaffected except for decreased maturation-dependent proteolytic processing of certain core components. Electron microscopy of cells infected under nonpermissive conditions revealed an accumulation of crescent membranes on the periphery of electron-dense globular masses but few mature particles. We concluded that the two glutaredoxin homologs encoded by vaccinia virus have different functions and that G4L has a role in virion morphogenesis, perhaps by acting as a redox protein.
Minkowski tensors of anisotropic spatial structure

This paper describes the theoretical foundation of and explicit algorithms for a novel approach to morphology and anisotropy analysis of complex spatial structure using tensor-valued Minkowski functionals, the so-called Minkowski tensors. Minkowski tensors are generalizations of the well-known scalar Minkowski functionals and are explicitly sensitive to anisotropic aspects of morphology, relevant for example for elastic moduli or permeability of microstructured materials. Here we derive explicit linear-time algorithms to compute these tensorial measures for three-dimensional shapes. These apply to representations of any object that can be represented by a triangulation of its bounding surface; their application is illustrated for the polyhedral Voronoi cellular complexes of jammed sphere configurations and for triangulations of a biopolymer fibre network obtained by confocal microscopy. The paper further bridges the substantial notational and conceptual gap between the different but equivalent approaches to scalar or tensorial Minkowski functionals in mathematics and in physics, hence making the mathematical measure theoretic formalism more readily accessible for future application in the physical sciences.
Temerosidad en ratas heterogéneas (N/NIH-HS) y romanas (RHA/RLA): estudios hormonales y de expresión génica diferencial

La presente Tesis tuvo como objetivos, estudiar la diferencia en ansiedad y otros rasgos conductuales relacionados (p. ej. miedo, susceptibilidad al estres), a traves de una bateria de tests conductuales, en tres cepas o stocks de ratas diferentes (RHA-I -poco ansiosas-, RLA-I –muy ansiosas- y N/Nih-HS –ratas geneticamente heterogeneas-), y relacionar dichos perfiles conductuales/psicologicos con la expresion diferencial de genes en estructuras/circuitos cerebrales de conocida importancia en tales fenotipos (p. ej. amigdala e hipocampo). Para alcanzar tales objetivos, se realizaron dos estudios (Estudio 1, con 128 ratas macho de los tres stocks/cepas mencionados; Estudio 2, con 114 ratas macho), que incluyeron las siguientes pruebas conductuales: Laberinto Circular Elevado (ansiedad incondicionada), test de actividad en situacion de novedad (“timidez” y habituacion en una “Caja nueva”), test de Campo Abierto, miedo condicionado a un contexto (respuesta de petrificacion condicionada), adquisicion de evitacion activa en dos sentidos en la “Shuttle-box” (ansiedad debida a un conflicto de doble evitacion –pasiva y activa- condicionada) y test de natacion forzada (como modelo de sintomas relacionados con la depresion y los efectos de los antidepresivos). En el Estudio 1 se obtuvieron tambien medidas hormonales (ACTH, corticosterona y prolactina) en respuesta al estres de exponer los animales a una ambiente nuevo y desconocido durante 20 minutos. Tras el analisis conductual y hormonal de estos dos estudios, en el Estudio 3 se llevo a cabo un analisis de expresion genica en amigdala e hipocampo (analisis de microarray y qRT-PCR) de subgrupos de ratas N/Nih-HS seleccionadas (a partir del Estudio 1) por presentar valores extremos en ansiedad (subgrupos de “Baja ansiedad” o “Alta ansiedad”). A partir de este analisis se pudo concluir que: a) las ratas N/Nih-HS presentan un perfil de comportamiento defensivo y hormonal cercano al estilo de afrontamiento pasivo caracteristico de las ratas RLA-I; b) la heterogeneidad genetica de las ratas N/Nih-HS y los resultados obtenidos en el analisis de microarray, permiten que sea un modelo animal util para el estudio de las bases geneticas de la ansiedad y el miedo; c) los analisis de microarray han detectado expresion diferencial (entre dichos subgrupos de ratas extremas en ansiedad) de genes implicados en la regulacion de funciones neuroendocrinas, como la prolactina, arginina-vasopresina y la oxitocina, que podrian modular las respuestas de ansiedad y miedo condicionado en amigdala e hipocampo. d) Tambien se ha observado expresion diferencial (entre ambos subgrupos de ratas extremas en ansiedad) de genes reguladores de receptores sensoriales (sobretodo olfativos), genes de receptores opioides (como Oprd1 y Oprl1), genes que participan en funciones inmunologicas (como el gen H2-M9) y genes relacionados con la funcion tiroidea, como el gen TRH, Tg en hipocampo o el gen Duox2 en amigdala.
Influence of Professional Cleaning and Drying of Occlusal Surfaces on Laser Fluorescence in vivo

Three dentists recorded laser fluorescence (LF) values on 117 teeth in 70 patients, in the sequence: (1) moist, uncleaned; (2) dried, uncleaned; (3) moist, cleaned; (4) dried, cleaned. LF values varied significantly with surface status (p < 0.01). The optimal cutoffs were up to 5 units lower on uncleaned, moist surfaces compared to the other states. Drying uncleaned surfaces significantly increased LF readings for dentinal caries (p < 0.01). It was concluded that occlusal surfaces should be clean and dry, for precise longitudinal monitoring of caries with LF as well as for detailed visual inspection, which should precede LF measurements.