Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salivary Gland Proteome Analysis Reveals Modulation of Anopheline Unique Proteins in Insensitive Acetylcholinesterase Resistant Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes

Insensitive acetylcholinesterase resistance due to a mutation in the acetylcholinesterase (ace) encoding ace-1 gene confers cross-resistance to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides in Anopheles gambiae populations from Central and West Africa. This mutation is associated with a strong genetic cost revealed through alterations of some life history traits but little is known about the physiological and behavioural changes in insects bearing the ace-1R allele. Comparative analysis of the salivary gland contents between An. gambiae susceptible and ace-1R resistant strains was carried out to charaterize factors that could be involved in modifications of blood meal process, trophic behaviour or pathogen interaction in the insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. Differential analysis of the salivary gland protein profiles revealed differences in abundance for several proteins, two of them showing major differences between the two strains. These two proteins identified as saglin and TRIO are salivary gland-1 related proteins, a family unique to anopheline mosquitoes, one of them playing a crucial role in salivary gland invasion by Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites. Differential expression of two other proteins previously identified in the Anopheles sialome was also observed. The differentially regulated proteins are involved in pathogen invasion, blood feeding process, and protection against oxidation, relevant steps in the outcome of malaria infection. Further functional studies and insect behaviour experiments would confirm the impact of the modification of the sialome composition on blood feeding and pathogen transmission abilities of the resistant mosquitoes. The data supports the hypothesis of alterations linked to insecticide resistance in the biology of the primary vector of human malaria in Africa.
Jejunal Brush Border Microvillous Alterations inGiardia muris-Infected Mice: Role of T Lymphocytes and Interleukin-6

ABSTRACT Intestinal colonization with the protozoan Giardiacauses diffuse brush border microvillous alterations and disaccharidase deficiencies, which in turn are responsible for intestinal malabsorption and maldigestion. The role of T cells and/or cytokines in the pathogenesis of Giardia-induced microvillous injury remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the role of T cells and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the brush border pathophysiology of acute murine giardiasis in vivo. Athymic nude (nu−/nu−) CD-1 mice and isogenic immunocompetent (nu+/nu+) CD-1 mice (4 weeks old) received an axenic Giardia muris trophozoite inoculum or vehicle (control) via orogastric gavage. Weight gain and food intake were assessed daily. On day 6, segments of jejunum were assessed for parasite load, brush border ultrastructure, IL-6 content, maltase and sucrase activities, villus-crypt architecture, and intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) infiltration. Despite similar parasitic loads on day 6, infected immunocompetent animals, but not infected nude mice, showed a diffuse loss of brush border microvillous surface area, which was correlated with a significant reduction in maltase and sucrase activities and a decrease in jejunal IL-6 concentration. In both athymic control and infected mice, jejunal brush border surface area and disaccharidases were high, but levels of tissue IL-6 were low and comparable to the concentration measured in immunocompetent infected animals. In both immunocompetent and nude mice, infection caused a small but significant increase in the numbers of IELs. These findings suggest that the enterocyte brush border injury and malfunction seen in giardiasis is, at least in part, mediated by thymus-derived T lymphocytes and that suppressed jejunal IL-6 does not necessarily accompany microvillous shortening.
Job strain and depressive symptoms in men and women: a prospective study of the working population in Sweden

Background Several prospective studies have indicated increased risk of developing depressive symptoms in employees who report psychologically demanding and uncontrollable work (job strain). There are diverging findings regarding gender differences in this relationship. The aim was to analyse whether men and women differ with regard to the prospective relationship between adverse psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms during a 2-year period. Method The Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health cohort based on representative recruitment of working men and women in Sweden was used. 2731 men and 3446 women had answered questions regarding work environment and mental health in 2008 and 2010. Psychological demands, decision authority, age and income as well as depressive symptoms in 2008 were used as predictors of depressive symptoms in 2010. Results Women reported less decision authority at work and their demand level developed more unfavourably than did men’s—resulting in increased job strain gap between men and women from 2008 to 2010. The relationship between demand and decision authority (and job strain) on one hand and depressive symptoms on the other hand was not statistically different in men and women. Conclusions Overall, women reported higher levels of job strain than men. In Sweden, job strain was as strongly related to depressive symptoms among men as among women.
Soft Pneumatic Bending Actuator with Integrated Carbon Nanotube Displacement Sensor

The excellent compliance and large range of motion of soft actuators controlled by fluid pressure has lead to strong interest in applying devices of this type for biomimetic and human-robot interaction applications. However, in contrast to soft actuators fabricated from stretchable silicone materials, conventional technologies for position sensing are typically rigid or bulky and are not ideal for integration into soft robotic devices. Therefore, in order to facilitate the use of soft pneumatic actuators in applications where position sensing or closed loop control is required, a soft pneumatic bending actuator with an integrated carbon nanotube position sensor has been developed. The integrated carbon nanotube position sensor presented in this work is flexible and well suited to measuring the large displacements frequently encountered in soft robotics. The sensor is produced by a simple soft lithography process during the fabrication of the soft pneumatic actuator, with a greater than 30% resistance change between the relaxed state and the maximum displacement position. It is anticipated that integrated resistive position sensors using a similar design will be useful in a wide range of soft robotic systems.
Methods for capturing spectro-temporal modulations in automatic speech recognition

Psychoacoustical and neurophysiological results indicate that spectro-temporal modulations play an important role in sound perception. Speech signals, in particular, exhibit distinct spectro-temporal patterns which are well matched by receptive fields of cortical neurons. In order to improve the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems a number of different approaches are presented, all of which target at capturing spectro-temporal modulations. By deriving secondary features from the output of a perception model the tuning of neurons towards different envelope fluctuations is modeled. The following types of secondary features are introduced: product of two or more windows (sigma-pi cells) of variable size in the spectro-temporal representation, fuzzy-logical combination of windows and a Gabor function to model the shape of receptive fields of cortical neurons. The different approaches are tested on a simple isolated word recognition task and compared to a standard Hidden Markov Model recognition system. The results show that all types of secondary features are suitable for ASR. Gabor secondary features, in particular, yield a robust performance in additive noise, which is comparable and in some conditions superior to the Aurora 2 reference system.
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING: (RE)CONSIDERING THE EXCELLENCE OF ACTIVISM IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINING INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT One of the greatest changes organisations in South Africa experienced through the country's democratisation is the introduction of ‘legitimate’ activism in organisational settings. Organisational communication literature – specifically as manifest in the excellence theory – compounded this through views on the potentially positive impact activism could have on organisations by ‘pushing’ them beyond equilibrium to a state of dynamic equilibrium – mediated through strategic and effectual communication. This view, however, is somewhat fouled by occurrences such as those at Marikana, and concomitant strikes in the country's platinum industry, which have held the economy ‘captive’ in various ways. Organisations – especially the mining industry – need to ask ‘How much activism is too much activism? ’ and organisational communication practitioners need to introspectively consider whether this theoretical contribution should not perhaps have come with greater guidance in terms of the chary (if not restrained) implementation of this potentially positive, yet almost insidiously dangerous, communicative feature. this article aims to explore activism in the mining industry of South Africa, specifically from the vantage points of industry heads, as it concerns the changed communicative landscape in this industry post-marikana. to this end, the article will report on seven qualitative, semi- structured interviews – along with existing literature on the topic – as it offers up six considerations in applying the aspect of excellence and ‘positive activism’ within organisations in South Africa's mining industry.
A mathematical model and analysis of the anti-angiogenic and tumor immunotherapy

This paper considers a model of tumor growth and treatment with anti-angiogenesis therapy and immunotherapy. A model consisting of five ordinary differential equations to simulate the interactions between normal cells, cancer cells, endothelial cells, immune cells and anti-angiogenic agent in tumor growth is developed. This paper also studies the effect of anti-angiogenesis therapy, immunotherapy and a combination of both therapies. Through the analysis and numerical simulation of the model, it is shown that only anti-angiogenesis therapy could not completely eliminate the tumor cells; Immunotherapy can eradicate tumor cells. The results also show that the model combined with tumor anti-angiogenesis therapy can achieve better therapeutic effect. The proportion of the overall drug used has decreased by about 17.5% through numerical simulation.
Nonstationary Analysis for Bivariate Distribution of Flood Variables in the Ganjiang River Using Time-Varying Copula

Nonstationarity of univariate flood series has been widely studied, while nonstationarity of some multivariate flood series, such as discharge, water stage, and suspended sediment concentrations, has been studied rarely. This paper presents a procedure for using the time-varying copula model to describe the nonstationary dependence structures of two correlated flood variables from the same flood event. In this study, we focus on multivariate flood event consisting of peak discharge (Q), peak water stage (Z) and suspended sediment load (S) during the period of 1964–2013 observed at the Waizhou station in the Ganjiang River, China. The time-varying copula model is employed to analyze bivariate distributions of two flood pairs of (Z-Q) and (Z-S). The main channel elevation (MCE) and the forest coverage rate (FCR) of the basin are introduced as the candidate explanatory variables for modelling the nonstationarities of both marginal distributions and dependence structure of copula. It is found that the marginal distributions for both Z and S are nonstationary, whereas the marginal distribution for Q is stationary. In particular, the mean of Z is related to MCE, and the mean and variance of S are related to FCR. Then, time-varying Frank copula with MCE as the covariate has the best performance in fitting the dependence structures of both Z-Q and Z-S. It is indicated that the dependence relationships are strengthen over time associated with the riverbed down-cutting. Finally, the joint and conditional probabilities of both Z-Q and Z-S obtained from the best fitted bivariate copula indicate that there are obvious nonstationarity of their bivariate distributions. This work is helpful to understand how human activities affect the bivariate flood distribution, and therefore provides supporting information for hydraulic structure designs under the changing environments.
Disability retirement and public sector reorganization

This paper analyses the effect of hospital mergers on the probability of employee disability retirement, focussing on whether the effect on disability retirement differs with employee educational attainment. It uses register data for all employees of Norwegian public hospitals from 2000 to 2006. The analyses employ a difference-in-differences approach using hospital fixed effects. The results show that the probability of entering disability retirement only increases in the second year after the merger compared with non-merger years, indicating that the effect is short-term. Predicted probabilities indicate that the effect is only significant for employees with lower education. Possible explanations are that increased strain in association with the merger leads to disability among employees or that managers use disability retirement as a way of achieving staff reductions without formally laying off staff.
Spammers' networks within online social networks: a case-study on Twitter

We analyze the strategies employed by contemporary spammers in Online Social Networks (OSNs) by identifying a set of spam-accounts in Twitter and monitoring their link-creation strategies. Our analysis reveals that spammers adopt intelligent 'collaborative' strategies of link-formation to avoid detection and to increase the reach of their generated spam, such as forming 'spam-farms' and creating large number of links with targeted legitimate users. The observations are verified through the analysis of a giant 'spam-farm' embedded within the Twitter OSN.
DIMINISHED AFFECTIVE MODULATION OF STARTLE TO THREATENING STIMULI IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science DIMINISHED AFFECTIVE MODULATION OF STARTLE TO THREATENING STIMULI IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE By Kimberly M. Miller May 2004 Chair: Dawn Bowers Major Department: Clinical and Health Psychology Rationale. Studies of patients with Parkinson’s disease have suggested various deficits in emotional processing. These impairments may be linked to a decrease in dopamine levels regulating key limbic circuitry, and pathology of the amygdala in Parkinson’s patients. In the present study, the issue as to whether patients with Parkinson’s disease display normal emotional modulation of startle to unpleasant and pleasant pictures was examined. Furthermore, within the category of unpleasant pictures, reactivity to threat-eliciting versus other types of aversive pictures was investigated. It was hypothesized that Parkinson’s patients would show diminished emotional reactivity in general to the emotional pictures, based on suggestions of amygdala and limbic circuitry dysfunction. Additionally, it was hypothesized that Parkinson’s patients would exhibit reduced emotional reactivity, relative to controls, to threat-eliciting pictures specifically, due to the role of the amygdala in processing of threatening stimuli.
ThunderSTORM: a comprehensive ImageJ plug-in for PALM and STORM data analysis and super-resolution imaging

Summary: ThunderSTORM is an open-source, interactive and modular plug-in for ImageJ designed for automated processing, analysis and visualization of data acquired by single-molecule localization microscopy methods such as photo-activated localization microscopy and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy. ThunderSTORM offers an extensive collection of processing and post-processing methods so that users can easily adapt the process of analysis to their data. ThunderSTORM also offers a set of tools for creation of simulated data and quantitative performance evaluation of localization algorithms using Monte Carlo simulations. Availability and implementation: ThunderSTORM and the online documentation are both freely accessible at https://code.google. com/p/thunder-storm/ Contact: guy.hagen@lf1.cuni. cz Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A 65nm CMOS 2.4GHz 31.5dBm power amplifier with a distributed LC power-combining network and improved linearization for WLAN applications

The integration of the power amplifier (PA) is one of the greatest challenges facing the designers of complex wireless SoCs. Recently, there has been a significant effort to implement PA's in CMOS [1–4]. The 802.11g standard utilizes OFDM modulation, which has a very high peak-to-average ratio (PAR) and therefore requires a highly linear PA. In addition, WLAN SoCs are evolving to accommodate more advanced applications, like the transmission and reception of multiple streams of high-definition video across long distances. This requires a higher linear transmit power. However, the low power supply, lossy substrate and lower breakdown voltage make the design of a linear, high power, high efficiency and reliable CMOS PA quite challenging. In this paper, a linear 65nm CMOS PA operating at 3.3V supply with an on-chip distributed LC power combining network and improved linearization is presented. The result is the highest combination of output power and efficiency yet reported for a packaged linear WLAN amplifier at 2.4GHz in a CMOS process.
The scientist's code of ethics

Few echoes of the controversy over the nature of science will be found in this article. An earlier generation agonized over the question: “Does scientific inquiry tell us anything about values and moral obligations? ” and reached a very skeptical conclusion. Fifteen years ago studies of the language and logic of science appeared to many scientists and philosophers to have settled the question: you could not logically leap from assertions about what is and what is possible to assertions about what ought to be. Then came war and the Manhattan project, and many who had accepted the divorce of science and ethics were frightened into reconsidering the matter. If science had nothing to say about values and duties, so much the worse for science. There ought to be a connection between science and ethics. Whatever the semantic difficulties, something needed to be done to prevent a suicidal use of scientific knowledge. Since 1945 there have been many conferences, many symposia, reconsidering the relation of fact to .
The Equivalence of the Behavior Problem Index Across U.S. Ethnic Groups

In this study, the authors examine the equivalence of the factor structure of a commonly used symptom checklist of behavioral and emotional problems—the Behavior Problem Index (BPI)—across African American, Hispanic, and White children in the United States. The sample is drawn from the 1998 data file of the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a U.S. data set. The results of the study suggest that the BPI is not equivalent across the three ethnic groups. These findings are consistent when equivalence is tested for a one-factor model, a two-factor model using the internalizing and externalizing dimensions of the BPI, and a six-factor model using the subscales of the BPI. Item-level analyses identify the statistically significant items that are associated with nonequivalence across ethnic groups. The implications of nonequivalent measures for cross-cultural research and practice with families and children are discussed.
Kindlin1 regulates microtubule function to ensure normal mitosis

Loss of Kindlin 1 (Kin1) results in the skin blistering disorder Kindler Syndrome (KS), whose symptoms also include skin atrophy and reduced keratinocyte proliferation. Kin1 binds to integrins to modulate their activation and more recently it has been shown to regulate mitotic spindles and cell survival in a Plk1-dependent manner. Here we report that short-term Kin1 deletion in mouse skin results in impaired mitosis, which is associated with reduced acetylated tubulin (ac-tub) levels and cell proliferation. In cells, impaired mitosis and reduced ac-tub levels are also accompanied by reduced microtubule stability, all of which are rescued by HDAC6 inhibition. The ability of Kin1 to regulate HDAC6-dependent cellular ac-tub levels is dependent on its phosphorylation by Plk1. Taken together, these data define a novel role for Kin1 in microtubule acetylation and stability and offer a mechanistic insight into how certain KS phenotypes, such as skin atrophy and reduced cell proliferation, arise.
Molecular Mechanism of Emotional Stress‐Induced and Catecholamine‐Induced Heart Attack

Summary: Emotional or physical stress triggers ‘tako‐tsubo’ cardiomyopathy or ‘transient left ventricular apical ballooning’, but the pathogenesis is unclear. In response to the immobilization stress of rats, a useful model of emotional stress, rapid activation of p44/p42 mitogen‐activated protein kinase was observed in the heart, followed by a transient upregulation of immediate early genes in the smooth muscle cells of coronary arteries, the endothelial cells and the myocardium. Heat shock protein 70 was induced in the aortic and coronary arterial smooth muscle cells and in the myocardium. Natriuretic peptide genes were also upregulated in the myocardium. Sequential gene expression can be considered as an adaptive response to emotional stress. Blocking of both &bgr;‐adrenoceptors and &bgr;‐adrenoceptors eliminated the upregulation of immediate early genes induced by stress, while &agr;‐agonists and &bgr;‐agonists upregulated immediate early genes in the perfused heart. Activation of &agr;‐adrenoceptors and &bgr;‐adrenoceptors is the primary trigger of emotional stress‐induced molecular changes in the heart.
Measuring method used for DC-DC converters

We created fast and precise behavioral blocks used for the measurement of power, average and root mean square values in electronic circuits. The obtained results are better than the ones offered by the Pspice functions. The method was tested on some filters and illustrated on some DC-DC converters, where the switch period is of /spl mu/seconds and it is hard to obtain accurate data. The signals can be seen through an adjustable window.