Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vesicular glutamate transporter transcript expression in the thalamus in schizophrenia

Previously, we have reported alterations in thalamic NMDA receptor subunit and excitatory amino acid transporter expression in schizophrenia, consistent with the hypothesis that thalamic glutamatergic dysfunction may contribute to the pathophysiology of this illness. We have generalized this hypothesis to include other molecules of the glutamate synapse. Using riboprobes specific for human brain-specific Na+-dependent inorganic phosphate transporter (BNPi) and differentiation-associated Na+/Pi co-transporter (DNPi), both vesicular glutamate transporters, in situ hybridization was performed in the thalami of persons with schizophrenia and comparison subjects. We detected increased expression of DNPi mRNA in the thalamus in schizophrenia, while BNPi mRNA was not expressed in the thalamus in any subjects. These findings support the hypothesis of glutamatergic dysfunction in the thalamus in schizophrenia.
Local Changes in Marching Cubes to Generate Less Degenerated Triangles

The Marching Cubes algorithm is widely used to generate surfaces from implicit functions. It builds a mesh of triangles but many degenerated ones happen to appear among them, which can make the mesh thus built unfit for many applications, like the Finite Element Method. To overcome this undesired behavior our work proposes changes on the triangle generation that are automatically generated by Marching Cubes inside each voxel. We first generate the polygon border inside each voxel that intersects the surface. Each polygon is tested so as to guarantee the need to insert a new vertex inside itself, the triangles being then generated according to each polygon properties in order to guarantee the best ratio between their sides and angles. The resulting triangles inside each voxel exhibit the best possible ratio between their dimensions, thus leading to a better mesh.
Pseudonegative BCL2 protein expression in a t(14;18) translocation positive lymphoma cell line: a need for an alternative BCL2 antibody

Aim: The t(14;18)(q32;q21) chromosomal translocation induces BCL2 protein expression in most follicular lymphomas. However, a small number of cases lack BCL2 expression despite carrying the t(14;18)(q32;q21) translocation. This study aims to explore the mechanism accounting for the lack of BCL2 protein expression when the t(14;18) translocation is present. Methods: BCL2 expression in the t(14;18) positive cell lines FL18, Karpas‐422, SU‐DHL‐4 and SU‐DHL‐6, was analysed by Western blotting and by immunohistochemistry using two different antibodies. FISH analysis was performed to confirm the cytogenetic changes in the cell lines and real time quantitative PCR was used to evaluate the BCL2 mRNA level. Sequence analysis of translocated BCL2 was performed on FL18, Karpas‐422, SU‐DHL‐4 and SU‐DHL‐6 cell lines. Results: In FL18, Karpas‐422, and SU‐DHL‐4, the BCL2 mRNA level correlated with the BCL2 protein expression. In contrast, BCL2 protein was not detected in SU‐DHL‐6 line using standard anti‐BCL2 antibody (BCL2/124), despite the presence of the t(14;18) translocation and high level of mRNA. cDNA sequencing of translocated BCL2 showed three mutations in the SU‐DHL‐6 cell line, one of which resulted in an amino acid substitution (I48F) in the region recognised by the standard BCL2 antibody, whereas the other two were silent mutations at aa71 and aa72. Interestingly, when BCL2 expression was tested with an alternative antibody, E17, the protein was detected in SU‐DHL‐6, suggesting that the ‘negativity’ of SU‐DHL‐6 line for BCL2 using the standard antibody is spurious. Amino acid changes were found in Karpas‐422 (G47D, P59L) and SU‐DHL‐4 (P59T, S117R) but these did not affect BCL2 detection. Conclusions: This study suggests that some somatic mutations of the translocated BCL2 gene may prevent epitope recognition by BCL2 antibodies, and hence cause false negative expression using the standard antibody. It is recommended that in practice all BCL2 negative cases should routinely be stained with an alternative antibody to prevent false negativity.
CONTRAIL AND CIRRUS CLOUD AVOIDANCE

Recent climate assessments have stressed the importance of perturbations in the Earth’s radiation budget caused by air traffic. They are caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, aerosols, contrails and aviation induced cirrus clouds. The contribution from contrails and cirrus clouds might be larger than that of all other aircraft emissions combined. Facing an increasing demand in air travel, the challenge is to find technological and operational enablers for a more sustainable air traffic. A preliminary analysis of the proposed techniques is necessary for an adequate comparison. In this paper, an analysis tool is presented to compare different technologies regarding their environmental compability. A sample study is presented where the effect on block fuel consumption is examined if contrails were avoided by avoiding regions facilitating the formation of persistent contrails. For this purpose meteorological data is evaluated regarding persistent contrail formation.
SOLUBILITY ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR POORLY SOLUBLE DRUGS : A REVIEW

Among all newly discovered chemical entities about 40% drugs are lipophillic and fail to reach market due to their poor aqueous solubility. For orally administered drugs solubility is one of the rate limiting parameter to achieve their desired concentration in systemic circulation for pharmacological response. Problem of solubility is a major challenge for formulation scientist, which can be solved by different technological approaches during the pharmaceutical product development. Solid dispersion, Micronization, Salt formation, are some of the vital approaches routinely employed to enhance the solubility of poorly soluble drugs but each approach has some limitation and advantages. Novel techniques like Nano-suspension, Supercritical processing, Cryogenic technology may allow greater opportunities in the delivery of poorly soluble drugs. The solubility behavior of drugs remains one of the most challenging aspects in formulation development. The present review is devoted to various traditional and novel techniques for enhancing drug solubility to reduce the percentage of poorly soluble drug candidates eliminated from the development.
Smiling reduces air trapping in severe refractory chronic obstructive lung disease – a controlled intervention trial

Title: Smiling reduces dynamic hyperinflation in severe refractory chronic obstructive lung disease – a controlled intervention trial Objectives – To study whether laughter can reduce hyperinflation through repetitive expiratory efforts in patients with severe COPD. Design – controlled proof-of-concept intervention trial Setting – University hospital Participants – Patients with severe COPD (n=19) and healthy controls (n=10). Intervention In small groups, Clown Pello performed humour intervention triggering regular laughter. Main Outcome Measures – Evaluation of total lung capacity (TLC) measured by plethysmography before and up to 24 hours after intervention. Response was defined as a reduction of ≥ 10% of predicted TLC. Laughing and smiling were quantified with video-analysis. Real-time breathing pattern was assessed with the LifeShirtTM, and the psychological impact of the intervention was monitored with self-administered questionnaires. Results – Patients had severe airflow obstruction (FEV1/FVC 0.38±0.15; controls 0.80±0.09) and showed hyperinflation (TLC 124±47%; controls 103±22%). The intervention improved cheerfulness in patients (p=.0223) and controls (p=.0226) without lowering degrees of state seriousness and state bad mood (both ns). The intervention led to a reduction of TLC in COPD (mean reduction 0.31±0.54 [0.36;1.55] mL, 5±9 [-6;24] %,predicted, p=0.04), but not in controls (mean reduction 0.24±0.28 [-0.10;0.58] mL, 5±6 [-2;13] %,predicted, p=0.9). TLC reduction was due to a decline of the residual volume. Four (22 [CI95% 7 to 46] %) patients and 2 (20%) controls were ≥10%-responders. Smiling but not laughing, and a high degree of cheerfulness were associated with TLC response. Smiling was associated with lowlevel expiratory efforts of prolonged duration leading to reduced end-expiratory lung volumes, whereas laughing – due to forced inand expiratory efforts and increased minute ventilation – rather led to dynamic hyperinflation in patients with severe airflow obstruction. Conclusions Smiling induced by a humour intervention was able to reduce hyperinflation in severe refractory COPD. The humour intervention improved SMILING REDUCES AIR TRAPPING IN COPD 4/30 cheerfulness, but not state seriousness nor state bad mood. A smiling-derived breathing technique might complement pursed-lips breathing in patients with symptomatic obstruction. Word count of abstract: 300
A / B Testing Using the Negative Binomial Distribution in an Internet Search Application

A/B testing plays an important role in modern appli cations, particularly on the internet, as it helps businesses to optimize their user experience to max imize usage and profits. In this paper we discuss A/B testing on counts (such as number of se arch s by a user), and point out the importance of using appropriate distributions for statistical analysis. We discuss the use of the negative binomial (NB) distribution to evaluate performance instead of the commonly used Poisson distribution. Our motivating application is in A/B testing on number of searches of users of an internet search engine made by the company SweetIM. We demonstrate the inappropriateness of the standard Poisson assumption for these data, and show that the conclusions from analyses of specific A/A and A/B tests run in this application with NB differ from those with an incorrect Poisson assumption. Using a normal approximation, w e describe a general property of NB tests – the existence of a bound on testing power, which is independent of mean expected usage (or length of time running the test) under typical assumptions . This leads to a disconcerting conclusion that such tests cannot guarantee high statistical power for identifying a small difference between the A and B groups, no matter how long they are run. This is n sharp contrast to "standard" tests with binomial, normal or Poisson assumptions, where any desired power can be attained by running the test long enough, as long as the A and B groups dif fer. We also describe and apply a permutation test as a non-parametric approach for testing. In o ur view, the non-parametric approach is an important complement to parametric tests like NB in ference, because it is valid for testing the most general null hypotheses of equality between A and B istributions, without assuming anything about the form of these distributions.
Experimental Study on Edge Confinement of Reinforced Concrete Core Walls

In the core wall system in high-rise buildings, the four L-shaped core walls at the center are subjected to high axial load under diagonal seismic force. In particular, the corner and the area near the corner of an L-shaped core wall are exposed to high compressive stress, and should be reinforced to improve the deformation capacity of the core walls. In this study, lateral loading tests were conducted on eleven wall columns simulating the corner and the area near the corner of L-shaped core walls. The test parameters were the number of confining bars, type of concrete confinement, level of axial stress and presence/absence of the hook. Based on the results of the lateral loading tests, the effect of edge confinement on the deformation capacity of core walls was clarified.
Culture in Computer-Based Learning Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

Computer-based learning technologies are now being used worldwide, but are mostly researched in a small number of countries and contexts. Increasing research suggests that modifications are needed to make computer-based learning responsive for all students worldwide. In this article for the inaugural special issue of Computer-Based Learning in Context, we discuss the virtues and limitations of existing theoretical paradigms of culture and context, relevant to computer-based learning. We note cases where existing approaches are successful, while listing some key phenomena in computer-based learning that fail to be explained by current approaches. We close by unpacking some open questions that limit our ability to make progress on such systems and suggesting some of the attributes of useful next-generation theory on culture and context in computer-based learning. In particular, we discuss possible steps forward that can be used to better operationalize culture and make theory on culture and context more concrete and
Mandolin: A Knowledge Discovery Framework for the Web of Data

Markov Logic Networks join probabilistic modeling with first-order logic and have been shown to integrate well with the Semantic Web foundations. While several approaches have been devised to tackle the subproblems of rule mining, grounding, and inference, no comprehensive workflow has been proposed so far. In this paper, we fill this gap by introducing a framework called Mandolin, which implements a workflow for knowledge discovery specifically on RDF datasets. Our framework imports knowledge from referenced graphs, creates similarity relationships among similar literals, and relies on state-of-the-art techniques for rule mining, grounding, and inference computation. We show that our best configuration scales well and achieves at least comparable results with respect to other statistical-relational-learning algorithms on link prediction.
A SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF EVOLANG: INTERSECTIONS AND AUTHORSHIPS

Research on the evolution of language has grown rapidly, and is now a large and diverse field. Because of this growing complexity as a scientific domain, seeking new methods for exploring the field itself may help synthesize knowledge, compare theories, and identify conceptual intersections. Using computational methods, we analyze the scientific content presented at EvoLang conferences. Drawing on 365 abstracts, publication patterns are quantified using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), which extracts a semantic summary from individual abstracts. We then cluster these semantic summaries to reveal the frameworks and different domains present at EvoLang. Of course, our results show that EvoLang is an interdisciplinary field, attracting research from various fields such as linguistics and animal studies. Furthermore, we show that the framework of iterated learning and cultural evolution is a hub topic at EvoLang.
Perch to Fly: Embodied Virtual Reality Flying Locomotion with a Flexible Perching Stance

Many studies have proposed different ways of supporting flying in embodied virtual reality (VR) interfaces with limited success. Our research explores the usage of a user's lower body to support flying locomotion control through a novel "flexible perching" (FlexPerch) stance that provides user with leg moving ability while sitting. We conducted an observational study exploring participants' preferred usage of the FlexPerch stance, and a mixed-method study comparing the same flying experience with existing sitting and standing stances. Our results show that FlexPerch markedly increased participants' feelings of flying. However, people may not like "flying" when they really can - the freedom, feeling of floating, and novelty contributing to this sensation can also mean more effort and feeling unsafe or unfamiliar. We suggest that researchers studying VR flying interfaces evaluate the feeling of flying, and raise design considerations to use stances like FlexPerch to elicit feelings of flying and stimulation.
Platelet function tests predict bleeding in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and thrombocytopenia

Bleeding is frequent among patients with thrombocytopenia. We studied whether in vitro platelet function predicts future bleeding in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and thrombocytopenia. Adult AML patients with platelet count <5.0 × 1010/L were included. Detailed bleeding history and blood samples were collected at inclusion and every 7 days. We analyzed hematology and coagulation parameters. With flow cytometry we evaluated platelet activation (activated GPIIb/IIIa, P‐selectin, and CD63 expression), and platelet aggregation. Agonists were thrombin‐receptor activating peptide (TRAP) and collagen‐related peptide (CRP‐XL). During 18 months, sixty participants were enrolled and followed for a total of 114 weeks. Bleeding occurred in 52 weeks, and was not associated with clinical, hematology or coagulation parameters. Predictors of bleeding were assessed using multivariate logistic regression, adjusted for platelet count, sex, and age. Bleeding history and receiver operating curves were compared using c‐index. Reduced TRAP‐induced platelet aggregation had Odds ratio 3.00 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.38‐6.60). Reduced CRP‐XL‐induced platelet aggregation had Odds ratio 4.00 (95%‐CI 1.70‐9.20) for bleeding. Overall, C‐index was 0.71 for the models including platelet aggregation results, 0.72 for activated GPIIb/IIIa‐positive platelets after stimulation with TRAP, 0.68 for percent P‐selectin positive platelets with TRAP and 0.63 for the platelet count. Among patients receiving no platelet transfusion, C‐index was 0.83–0.91 for bleeding; highest for models using platelet aggregation. Change in platelet aggregation did not correlate with the number of platelet concentrates administered. In conclusion, platelet aggregation and platelet activation results predict bleeding better than platelet count alone, among AML patients with thrombocytopenia.
Functional connectivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder and its subtypes

Abstract Background Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder with significant morbidity whose pathophysiology is not fully understood. Neuroimaging studies have characterized OCD in terms of elevated striatal and prefrontal reactivity to emotion provocation. This neural model may be informed by investigation of functional connectivity in OCD, identifying alterations in how sensory information is integrated into frontostriatal regions. Methods The current study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare neural activity and connectivity in 31 OCD patients (12 washing and 19 checking subtypes) and 17 healthy volunteers in an emotion provocation paradigm using visual stimuli. Results OCD status was associated with hyper-activation of the posterior cingulate (PCg) in response to emotion provocation. Additionally, OCD patients demonstrated elevated PCg functional connectivity with the visual cortices and frontostriatal regions. Exploratory analyses suggested that stimulus-provoked activity and connectivity was elevated for checking subtypes in motor cortices, and elevated in washing subtypes in the anterior insula and orbitofrontal cortex. Conclusions The PCg's role in moderating connectivity between the visual cortex and frontolimbic regions is muted in OCD, consistent with the PCg's suggested role in regulating attention towards emotional stimuli. Exploratory analyses suggest distinct PCg connectivity profiles in OCD subtypes, with checking linked to motor activation, but washing linked to a network supporting emotional salience. The study was not powered to fully investigate the effects of medication, patients often endorsed secondary symptom subtypes that muddied washing/checking distinctions, and the emotion provocation paradigm was of limited intensity compared to life stressors.
A morphological integration perspective on the evolution of dimorphism among sexes and social insect castes.

Many species have evolved alternate phenotypes, thus enabling individuals to conditionally produce phenotypes that are favorable for reproductive success. Examples of this phenomenon include sexual dimorphism, alternative reproductive strategies, and social insect castes. While the evolutionary functions and developmental mechanisms of dimorphic phenotypes have been studied extensively, little attention has focused on the evolutionary covariance between each phenotype. We extend the conceptual framework and methods of morphological integration to hypothesize that dimorphic traits tend to be less integrated between sexes or social castes. In the case of social insects, we describe results from our recent study of an ant genus in which workers have major and minor worker castes that perform different behavioral repertoires in and around the nest. In the case of birds, we describe a new analysis of a family of songbirds that exhibits plumage coloration that can differ greatly between males and females, with apparently independent changes in each sex. Ant head shape, which is highly specialized in each worker caste, was weakly integrated between worker castes, whereas thorax shape, which is more monomorphic, was tightly integrated. Similarly, in birds we found a negative association between dimorphism and the degree of integration between sexes. We also found that integration decreased in fairy wrens (Malurus) for many feather patches that evolved greater dichromatism. Together, this suggests that the process of evolving increased dimorphism results in a decrease in integration between sexes and social castes. We speculate that once a mechanism for dimorphism evolves, that mechanism can create independent variation in one sex or caste upon which selection may act.
Metaproteomics: Much More than Measuring Gene Expression in Microbial Communities

Metaproteomics is the large-scale identification and quantification of proteins from microbial communities and thus provides direct insight into the phenotypes of microorganisms on the molecular level. Initially, metaproteomics was mainly used to assess the “expressed” metabolism and physiology of microbial community members. ABSTRACT Metaproteomics is the large-scale identification and quantification of proteins from microbial communities and thus provides direct insight into the phenotypes of microorganisms on the molecular level. Initially, metaproteomics was mainly used to assess the “expressed” metabolism and physiology of microbial community members. However, recently developed metaproteomic tools allow quantification of per-species biomass to determine community structure, in situ carbon sources of community members, and the uptake of labeled substrates by community members. In this perspective, I provide a brief overview of the questions that we can currently address, as well as new metaproteomics-based approaches that we and others are developing to address even more questions in the study of microbial communities and plant and animal microbiota. I also highlight some areas and technologies where I anticipate developments and potentially major breakthroughs in the next 5 years and beyond.
The Benefits of a Mindfulness Exercise in a Performance Situation

Background Mindfulness is a state of nonjudgmental attentiveness to moment-to-moment experiences. Interest in implementing mindfulness-based interventions is growing. Objective We investigated the benefit of a short mindfulness exercise for mindfulness novices in a performance situation. Method Participants (N = 97) engaged in a mindfulness or relaxation exercise and subsequently worked on an achievement test. Results Participants in the mindfulness condition had fewer distracting evaluative thoughts during and experienced less negative affect after the achievement test. Participants also exerted less self-control (vagal withdrawal measured via heart rate variability) during the mindfulness exercise than on the relaxation exercise. In a subsample (n = 84), selected on the basis of serious involvement in the exercise, mindfulness eliminated the negative association between distracting evaluative thoughts and performance. Furthermore, beneficial effects of mindfulness on distractive thoughts were found for participants low but not high in trait mindfulness. The mindfulness exercise did not influence performance. Conclusion In performance contexts, even brief mindfulness exercises may have beneficial effects for mindfulness novices and people low in trait mindfulness.