Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Saccharomyces boulardii protease inhibits Clostridium difficile toxin A effects in the rat ileum

Saccharomyces boulardii, a nonpathogenic yeast, is effective in treating some patients with Clostridium difficile diarrhea and colitis. We have previously reported that S. boulardii inhibits rat ileal secretion in response to C. difficile toxin A possibly by releasing a protease that digests the intestinal receptor for this toxin (C. Pothoulakis, C. P. Kelly, M. A. Joshi, N. Gao, C. J. O'Keane, I. Castagliuolo, and J. T. LaMont, Gastroenterology 104: 1108-1115, 1993). The aim of this study was to purify and characterize this protease. S. boulardii protease was partially purified by gel filtration on Sephadex G-50 and octyl-Sepharose. The effect of S. boulardii protease on rat ileal secretion, epithelial permeability, and morphology in response to toxin A was examined in rat ileal loops in vivo. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the purified S. boulardii protease revealed a major band at 54 kDa. Pretreatment of rat ileal brush border (BB) membranes with partially purified protease reduced specific toxin A receptor binding (by 26%). Partially purified protease digested the toxin A molecule and significantly reduced its binding to BB membranes in vitro (by 42%). Preincubation of toxin A with S. boulardii protease inhibited ileal secretion (46% inhibition, P < 0.01), mannitol permeability (74% inhibition, P < 0.01), and histologic damage caused by toxin A. Thus, S. boulardii protease inhibits the intestinal effects of C. difficile toxin A by proteolysis of the toxin and inhibition of toxin A binding to its BB receptor. Our results may be relevant to the mechanism by which S. boulardii exerts its protective effects in C. difficile infection in humans.
Increased Neovascularization in Advanced Lipid-Rich Atherosclerotic Lesions Detected by Gadofluorine-M–Enhanced MRI: Implications for Plaque Vulnerability

Background—Inflammation and neovascularization may play a significant role in atherosclerotic plaque progression and rupture. We evaluated gadofluorine-M–enhanced MRI for detection of plaque inflammation and neovascularization in an animal model of atherosclerosis. Methods and Results—Sixteen rabbits with aortic plaque and 6 normal control rabbits underwent gadofluorine-M–enhanced MRI. Eight rabbits had advanced atherosclerotic lesions, whereas the remaining 8 had early lesions. Magnetic resonance atherosclerotic plaque enhancement was meticulously compared with plaque inflammation and neovessel density as assessed by histopathology. Advanced plaques and early atheroma were enhanced after gadofluorine-M injection. Control animals displayed no enhancement. After accounting for the within-animal correlation of observations, mean contrast-to-noise ratio was significantly higher in advanced plaques than compared with early atheroma (4.29±0.21 versus 3.00±0.32; P=0.004). Macrophage density was higher in advanced plaques in comparison to early atheroma (geometric mean=0.50 [95% CI, 0.19 to 1.03] versus 0.25 [0.07 to 0.42]; P=0.05). Furthermore, higher neovessel density was observed in advanced plaques (1.83 [95% CI, 1.51 to 2.21] versus 1.29 [0.99 to 1.69]; P=0.05). The plaque accumulation of gadofluorine-M correlated with increased neovessel density as shown by linear regression analysis (r=0.67; P<0.001). Confocal and fluorescence microscopy revealed colocalization of gadofluorine-M with plaque areas containing a high density of neovessels. Conclusion—Gadofluorine-M–enhanced MRI is effective for in vivo detection of atherosclerotic plaque inflammation and neovascularization in an animal model of atherosclerosis. These findings suggest that gadofluorine-M enhancement reflects the presence of high-risk plaque features believed to be associated with plaque rupture. Gadofluorine-M plaque enhancement may therefore provide functional assessment of atherosclerotic plaque in vivo.
The cricetid rodents described by Leidy and Cope from the Tertiary of North America. American Museum novitates ; no. 822

In the course of studying the fossil Cricetids of North America in an attempt to unravel their evolution, it was immediately obvious that very little progress could be made until the original type specimens had been restudied and refigured, due to the inadequate nature of the original figures and descriptions of these small rodents. An opportunity to study these fossils was presented while I was Cutting Traveling Fellow in Columbia University. This study was further assisted by a grant from the Marsh Fund of the National Academy of Sciences. I wish to express my thanks to the authorities of the American Museum of Natural History, the United States National Museum, and The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science for permission and facilities to study these specimens. The illustrations are by the author.
Object detection in medical images based on improved morphological multiresolution decomposition and morphological segmentation

A semi-automatic object detection method based on mathematical morphology image processing techniques is presented. This paper does not present a complete methodology but rather an illustration of a potential application of mathematical morphology to medical images. The method based on mathematical morphology tools includes an improved multiresolution morphological decomposition algorithm (IMMD) and other morphological segmentation techniques. In IMMD, a group of openings by morphological reconstruction with different structuring elements permits a size-oriented object decomposition. Each image component contains objects with a limited size distribution, and the original image can be completely reconstructed by addition, from these decomposed images. Thus, specific methods can be employed separately on these image components for a better segmentation result. Image processing techniques based on mathematical morphology including morphological filtering, morphological gradient transform, dilation, hit/miss transform and so on, are employed in the segmentation procedures. In applications to object detection of various medical CT (Computer Tomography) and MR (Magnetic Resonance) images, fairly good results have been obtained which show that this approach bears higher degree of segmentation accuracy and consistency.
Negotiating Identities in the Transition from Graduate Student to Teacher Educator

Although practitioners, policy-makers, and academics call for reform in teacher education, there is ambiguity surrounding the identity transformation of graduate students who “become” teacher educators. This self-study uses narratives, based on intricate personal and collaborative reflection, to explore how the assumption of new role identities is an intricate and ongoing process of learning and reflection. In addition to considering the complexities and interrelationships inherent in role socialization, implications for teacher education practice and policy are raised. We conclude that it is beneficial, for both teacher educators and preservice teachers, to engage in collaborative and relational forms of self-study that foster educative understanding and heightened awareness of professional identity.
Investigation of Age Polyethism in Food Processing of the Fungus-Growing Termite Odontotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Termitidae) using a Laboratory Artificial Rearing System

ABSTRACT Laboratory rearing systems are useful models for studying Rhinotermitid behavior. Information on the biology of fungus-growing termites, however, is limited because of the difficulty of rearing colonies in the laboratory settings. The physical structure of termite nests makes it impossible to photograph or to observe colonies in the field. In this study, an artificial rearing system for field-collected colonies of the fungus-growing termite Odontotermes formosanus (Shiraki) was developed to facilitate observation in the laboratory. We recorded colony activity within the artificial rearing system and documented a variety of social behaviors that occurred throughout the food processing of the colony. This complex miniature ecosystem was cooperatively organized via division of labor in the foraging and processing of plant materials, and the observed patterns largely resembled the caste and age-based principles present in Macrotermes colonies. This work extends our insights into polyethism in the subfamily Macrotermitinae.
Spatial representation of context-dependent sentences and its application to sentence generation

Abstract We propose a novel approach to embedding sentences into a high-dimensional space. Independent words in the sentence are located at points in the space, and the sentence is represented by a curve along these words. A set of functions that evaluates a sequence of words is designed over this space and is helpful for searching for words that are likely to follow the observed sentences. More generally, our approach makes sentences sequentially depending on the context. We simplify Japanese grammar and subsequently implement it as a grammar that constrains simple sentences to be generated. In this study, we performed experiments in which we created a dictionary containing 2877 different independent words and constructed a semantic space from texts in eight digital archived books, consisting of 8495 independent words and 161 paragraphs in total. It was demonstrated that several meaningful sentences can be generated that are likely to follow untrained input sentences. Graphical Abstract
Anionic Micelles and Vesicles Induce Tau Fibrillization in Vitro*

Alzheimer's disease is defined in part by the intraneuronal accumulation of filaments comprised of the microtubule-associated protein tau. In vitro, fibrillization of recombinant tau can be induced by treatment with various agents, including phosphotransferases, polyanionic compounds, and fatty acids. Here we characterize the structural features required for the fatty acid class of tau fibrillization inducer using recombinant full-length tau protein, arachidonic acid, and a series of straight chain anionic, cationic, and nonionic detergents. Induction of measurable tau fibrillization required an alkyl chain length of at least 12 carbons and a negative charge consisting of carboxylate, sulfonate, or sulfate moieties. All detergents and fatty acids were micellar at active concentrations, due to a profound, taudependent depression of their critical micelle concentrations. Anionic surfaces larger than detergent micelles, such as those supplied by phosphatidylserine vesicles, also induced tau fibrillization with resultant filaments originating from their surface. These data suggest that anionic surfaces presented as micelles or vesicles can serve to nucleate tau fibrillization, that this mechanism underlies the activity of fatty acid inducers, and that anionic membranes may serve this function in vivo.
A comprehensive picture of phloem loading strategies

Mechanisms of phloem loading in the minor veins of leaves are known for only a few species. We propose that there are a limited number of loading strategies for the primary photoassimilates, sucrose and sugar alcohols. These strategies can be predicted based on thermodynamic and anatomical considerations and identified by autoradiography of veins following uptake of 14C-labeled compounds, analysis of leaf solute composition and concentrations, and plasmodesmatal counting. Experiments on 45 dicotyledonous species identified the predicted loading patterns. Over 50-fold differences in concentrations of sucrose and sugar alcohols in leaves were measured. The cumulative concentrations of transport compounds in leaves correlated with loading mechanisms, a previously unrecognized association. Comparisons of solute concentrations and osmotic potentials of whole leaves suggest that sucrose and sugar alcohols are more concentrated in the cytosol than in the vacuoles of mesophyll cells, thus increasing the driving force for passive loading in species that employ this strategy. Passive loading is more widespread than previously thought, especially in trees. The results indicate that plants have exploited all thermodynamically feasible and structurally compatible loading strategies and that these strategies can be identified with straightforward protocols.
Computational analysis of gene-gene interactions using multifactor dimensionality reduction

Understanding the relationship between DNA sequence variations and biologic traits is expected to improve the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of common human diseases. Success in characterizing genetic architecture will depend on our ability to address nonlinearities in the genotype-to-phenotype mapping relationship as a result of gene–gene interactions, or epistasis. This review addresses the challenges associated with the detection and characterization of epistasis. A novel strategy known as multifactor dimensionality reduction that was specifically designed for the identification of multilocus genetic effects is presented. Several case studies that demonstrate the detection of gene–gene interactions in common diseases such as atrial fibrillation, Type II diabetes and essential hypertension are also discussed.
3D Object Classification via Spherical Projections

In this paper, we introduce a new method for classifying 3D objects. Our main idea is to project a 3D object onto a spherical domain centered around its barycenter and develop neural network to classify the spherical projection. We introduce two complementary projections. The first captures depth variations of a 3D object, and the second captures contour-information viewed from different angles. Spherical projections combine key advantages of two main-stream 3D classification methods: image-based and 3D-based. Specifically, spherical projections are locally planar, allowing us to use massive image datasets (e.g, ImageNet) for pre-training. Also spherical projections are similar to voxel-based methods, as they encode complete information of a 3D object in a single neural network capturing dependencies across different views. Our novel network design can fully utilize these advantages. Experimental results on ModelNet40 and ShapeNetCore show that our method is superior to prior methods.
Nutrient-Gene Interactions Dietary Protein Restriction of Pregnant Rats Induces and Folic Acid Supplementation Prevents Epigenetic Modification of Hepatic Gene Expression in the Offspring 1

Environmental constraints during early life result in phenotypic changes that can be associated with increased disease risk in later life. This suggests persistent alteration of gene transcription. DNA methylation, which is largely established in utero, provides a causal mechanism by which unbalanced prenatal nutrition results in such altered gene expression. We investigated the effect of unbalanced maternal nutrition on the methylation status and expression of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) genes in rat offspring after weaning. Dams were fed a control protein (C; 180 g/kg protein plus 1 mg/kg folic acid), restricted protein (R; 90 g/kg casein plus 1 mg/kg folic acid), or restricted protein plus 5 mg/kg folic acid (RF) diet throughout pregnancy. Pups were killed 6 d after weaning ( n (cid:1) 10 per group). Gene methylation was determined by methylation-sensitive PCR and mRNA expression by semiquantitative RT-PCR. PPAR (cid:1) gene methylation was 20.6% lower ( P (cid:2) 0.001) and expression 10.5-fold higher in R compared with C pups. GR gene methylation was 22.8% lower ( P (cid:2) 0.05) and expression 200% higher ( P (cid:2) 0.01) in R pups than in C pups. The RF diet prevented these changes. PPAR (cid:2) methylation status and expression did not differ among the groups. Acyl-CoA oxidase expression followed that of PPAR (cid:1) . These results show that unbalanced prenatal nutrition induces persistent, gene-speciﬁc epigenetic changes that alter mRNA expression. Epigenetic regulation of gene transcription provides a strong candidate mechanism for fetal programming. J. Nutr. 135: 1382–1386, 2005. GR, and AOX. mRNA expression was normalized using the house- keeping gene cyclophilin and quantiﬁed by densitometry using the Quantity 1 program (Bio-Rad Laboratories). All PCR products were veriﬁed by restriction mapping and by hybridization with PPAR (cid:1) and (cid:2) , GR, AOX, or cyclophilin probes (data not shown). Statistical analysis. Results are expressed as means (cid:6) SD. Comparisons of mRNA expression or DNA methylation between dietary groups were by 1-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post hoc test. Differences were considered signiﬁcant at P (cid:2) 0.05.
The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History

Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction: The Disputed Origins Chapter 3 Section I: Debates in Antiquity Chapter 4 Section II: Late Antiquity and Middle Ages: Christian Appropriation, Codification, and Female Imagery Chapter 5 Section III: In the modernus University, 1100s -1500 Chapter 6 Section IV: The Humanist and Collegiate Traditions Chapter 7 Section V: Humanist, Scholastic, and Sectarian Strains in the Colonial College Chapter 8 Section VI: Intellectual and Social Challenges to the College, 1790s-1850s Chapter 9 Section VII: Struggle between the University and the College, 1860s-1900s Chapter 10 Section VIII: Experimentation and Search for Coherence, 1910s-1930s Chapter 11 Section IX: The "Emerging Curricular Blueprint" of the Mid-Twentieth Century Chapter 12 Section X: Approaching the Past in the New Millennium Chapter 13 Glossary of Names Chapter 14 Index
A Novel Orientation-Context Descriptor and Locality-Preserving Fisher Discrimination Dictionary Learning for Action Recognition

This paper presents a novel local posture orientation-context descriptor, and proposes a FDDL(Fisher discriminant dictionary learning) method based on local orientation-preserving(LOP-FDDL) for sparse coding in action recognition task. To take full use of the information about the position of the local body-part related to the center of the torso, ant the spatial-temporal shape changes of the human body-parts, we extract orientation-context descriptors of local body-parts to express the local posture of human body. Our descriptors not only include orientation information, but and also include the information of geometric structure and motion of body-parts. In order to accurately express action sequences, we need to learn a discriminative dictionary with strong expressive power which consists of the information about categories and orientations of body-parts from the extracted posture descriptors. Hence, a discriminative dictionary learning model based on the manifold constraint of local orientation-preserving is proposed, and Fisher Criteria is considered in the sparse coding stage of this model, which makes the coding coefficients discriminative. Meanwhile, to improve the performance of dictionary and learning efficiency, we initialize the dictionary as a class-structured dictionary which is a block-structured dictionary with orientation information. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method is better than other related action recognition methods on Weizmann and KTH public datasets.
Transfer Learning with Feedback Networks

Transfer learning is a tool often used to take knowledge learned from one domain and applying it to another. Pretrained feedforward convolutional neural networks, trained on a large dataset like ImageNet, are often used for other visual recognition tasks by training a new model on feature representations extracted from the image using these pre-trained networks. Feedback networks are an alternative tool that find significantly different representations by running a representation of an image through a feedback loop and re-classifying at every iteration. We apply a range of transfer learning techniques from feedforward networks to feedback networks and show that important properties from feedback networks, such as early prediction hold across transfer learning to a new dataset.
The role of NMDA glutamate receptors, PKA, MAPK, and CAMKII in the hippocampus in extinction of conditioned fear

Pavlovian conditioning involves the association of initially neutral conditioned stimuli (CS) with unconditioned stimuli (US) that elicit a response. In contextual fear conditioning in rodents, the CS is the context of a training apparatus and the US is a foot shock. Retrieval of memory of the training is tested by presenting the CS alone. But a retrieval test also initiates extinction of the conditioned response. That is, presentation of the CS alone results in new learning, i.e., the CS no longer predicts the US. Here we report that extinction is triggered by two hippocampal signaling pathways underlying retrieval (the cAMP‐dependent protein kinase and the mitogen‐activated protein kinase pathways) and two other mechanisms that become activated at the same time and are not necessary for retrieval (N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate glutamatergic receptors and the calcium/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II signaling pathway). Thus, the molecular mechanisms underlying acquisition and/or consolidation of the memory for extinction are similar to those described for the acquisition and/or consolidation of the original contextual fear. Hippocampus 2003;13:53–58. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
GALS-SA: Synchronous-asynchronous configurable platform

The paper presents a new class of hybrid circuits named GALS-SA (Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous - Structured ASIC) that incorporates the advantages of GALS (Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous) architecture together with the ones of structured ASIC platforms. Specialized modules are developed to implement asynchronous communication channel between synchronous modules. Dedicated test modules are added to the new hybrid structure to ensure the newly added resources can be tested. The structure is designed to ensure that already existent synchronous implementation flow can be applied with very few specific, nonstandard steps to implement a fully synchronous design as a GALS design.
Argon Laser Treatment of Head and Neck Vascular Lesions

Port wine stains (PWSs), hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasias (HHTs), hemangiomas, arterial venous malformations (AVMs), vascular granulomas and polyps, glomus tumors, and nasopharyngeal angiofibromas are vascular lesions of the head and neck potentially responsive to treatment with the argon laser. One hundred consecutive patients with PWSs, 25 patients with HHTs, three with subglottic hemangiomas, three with oral and/or lingual hemangiomas, two with labial AVMs, three with vascular laryngeal polyps, and one patient with inoperable glomus tumor were treated with the argon laser. Results were good to excellent in 94% of the facial PWS patients. All treated patients in the HHT group demonstrated improvement. Results with the other lesions were variable. The argon laser is a valuable treatment modality in vascular lesions of the head and neck. Posttreatment scarring and failure to achieve desired results are complications encountered. Pretreatment counseling will assist the patient in understanding the expected results.
Accelerating reference frame for electromagnetic waves in a rapidly growing plasma: Unruh-Davies-Fulling-DeWitt radiation and the nonadiabatic Casimir effect.

Shortly after Hawking's prediction of thermal radiation from black holes, it became apparent that observers in accelerating frames should see a Planck distribution of electromagnetic radiation (Unruh radiation). Since an acceleration g=980 cm/${\mathrm{sec}}^{2}$ produces a radiation temperature of only \ensuremath{\sim}4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}20}$ K, the detection of such thermal radiation is a major challenge. A nonlinear optical medium whose index of refraction is changing rapidly with time accelerates zero-point quantum fluctuations. The sudden ionization of a gas or a semiconductor crystal to generate a plasma on a subpicosecond time scale can produce a reference frame accelerating at \ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{20}$g relative to an inertial frame.