Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing Recognition of the Vector of Lyme Disease Using Resin-Embedded Specimens in a Lyme Endemic Area

Abstract Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. To assess whether a tick bite puts someone at risk for LD, adequate tick identification skills are needed. We surveyed residents of a high LD-incidence state, Wisconsin, on their ability to distinguish ticks from insects and to identify the specimens that could transmit the LD causative agent. Surveys were conducted using resin blocks with four insects and four tick specimens embedded. About half of the participants (64 of 130) recognized all of the ticks, and 60% of those individuals chose only ticks and no insects.Younger participants (18- to 44-yr old) were more likely to identify ticks correctly compared with those 45 yr and older. Participants who agreed strongly with the statement ‘I know a lot about ticks’ were also likelier to correctly identify ticks. When asked to identify which specimens could transmit LD, less than 25% of participants chose both the Ixodes scapularis Say adult female and nymph and about half of those (15% of participants) picked only those two and no other specimens. Although the relatively small convenience sample was biased toward younger participants who consider themselves ‘outdoorsy’, results showed that further assessments of tick recognition skills are needed to understand what determines whether people can recognize medically important ticks and to evaluate the potential benefits of enhanced education. In addition to the value of the resin blocks as research tools, the blocks may be useful as training tools to improve tick check efficacy.
Pathobiologic Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration in Osteopetrosis Derived From Structural and Functional Analysis of 14 ClC‐7 Mutants

ClC‐7 is a chloride‐proton antiporter of the CLC protein family. In complex with its accessory protein Ostm‐1, ClC‐7 localizes to lysosomes and to the osteoclasts' ruffled border, where it plays a critical role in acidifying the resorption lacuna during bone resorption. Gene inactivation in mice causes severe osteopetrosis, neurodegeneration, and lysosomal storage disease. Mutations in the human CLCN7 gene are associated with diverse forms of osteopetrosis. The functional evaluation of ClC‐7 variants might be informative with respect to their pathogenicity, but the cellular localization of the protein hampers this analysis. Here we investigated the functional effects of 13 CLCN7 mutations identified in 13 new patients with severe or mild osteopetrosis and a known ADO2 mutation. We mapped the mutated amino acid residues in the homology model of ClC‐7 protein, assessed the lysosomal colocalization of ClC‐7 mutants and Ostm1 through confocal microscopy, and performed patch‐clamp recordings on plasma‐membrane‐targeted mutant ClC‐7. Finally, we analyzed these results together with the patients' clinical features and suggested a correlation between the lack of ClC‐7/Ostm1 in lysosomes and severe neurodegeneration. © 2020 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
Lipid-Nucleic Acid Complexes: Physicochemical Aspects and Prospects for Cancer Treatment

Cancer is an extremely complex disease, typically caused by mutations in cancer-critical genes. By delivering therapeutic nucleic acids (NAs) to patients, gene therapy offers the possibility to supplement, repair or silence such faulty genes or to stimulate their immune system to fight the disease. While the challenges of gene therapy for cancer are significant, the latter approach (a type of immunotherapy) starts showing promising results in early-stage clinical trials. One important advantage of NA-based cancer therapies over synthetic drugs and protein treatments is the prospect of a more universal approach to designing therapies. Designing NAs with different sequences, for different targets, can be achieved by using the same technologies. This versatility and scalability of NA drug design and production on demand open the way for more efficient, affordable and personalized cancer treatments in the future. However, the delivery of exogenous therapeutic NAs into the patients’ targeted cells is also challenging. Membrane-type lipids exhibiting permanent or transient cationic character have been shown to associate with NAs (anionic), forming nanosized lipid-NA complexes. These complexes form a wide variety of nanostructures, depending on the global formulation composition and properties of the lipids and NAs. Importantly, these different lipid-NA nanostructures interact with cells via different mechanisms and their therapeutic potential can be optimized to promising levels in vitro. The complexes are also highly customizable in terms of surface charge and functionalization to allow a wide range of targeting and smart-release properties. Most importantly, these synthetic particles offer possibilities for scaling-up and affordability for the population at large. Hence, the versatility and scalability of these particles seem ideal to accommodate the versatility that NA therapies offer. While in vivo efficiency of lipid-NA complexes is still poor in most cases, the advances achieved in the last three decades are significant and very recently a lipid-based gene therapy medicine was approved for the first time (for treatment of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis). Although the path to achieve efficient NA-delivery in cancer therapy is still long and tenuous, these advances set a new hope for more treatments in the future. In this review, we attempt to cover the most important biophysical and physicochemical aspects of non-viral lipid-based gene therapy formulations, with a perspective on future cancer treatments in mind.
Heteromerization of endogenous mu and delta opioid receptors tunes mu opioid receptor signaling and trafficking

Increasing evidence indicates that native mu and delta opioid receptors can associate to form heteromers in discrete brain neuronal circuits. However, little is known about their signaling and trafficking. Using double fluorescent knock-in mice, we investigated the impact of neuronal co-expression on the internalization profile of mu and delta opioid receptors in primary hippocampal cultures and in vivo. We established ligand selective mu-delta co-internalization upon activation by exogenous ligands and provide evidence for mu-delta co-internalization by the endogenous opioid peptide met-enkephalin, but not β-endorphin. Co-internalization was driven by the delta opioid receptor, required an active conformation of both receptors and led to sorting to the lysosomal compartment. This alteration in the mu opioid receptor intracellular fate was accompanied by sustained ERK1/2 phosphorylation. In addition, increased mu-delta neuronal co-localization in the rostral ventromedial medulla in a chronic neuropathic state suggests that mu-delta heteromers are involved in the regulation of nociceptive transmission
Adolescent Alcohol Exposure Produces Protracted Cognitive-Behavioral Impairments in Adult Male and Female Rats

Binge drinking is common in adolescence. Rodent studies modeling adolescent binge drinking find persistent effects on the brain’s physiology, including increased expression of neuroimmune genes, impaired neurogenesis, and changes in behavioral flexibility. This study used females and males to investigate the effects of adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) on a battery of behaviors assessing spatial navigation using a radial arm water maze, working memory using the Hebb-Williams maze, non-spatial long-term memory using novel object recognition, and dominance using a tube dominance test. Results indicate that AIE impairs adult acquisition in spatial navigational learning with deficits predominantly driven by females. Surprisingly, AIE slowed the transition from random to serial search strategies in both sexes, suggesting AIE impairs flexibility in problem-solving processing. In the Hebb-Williams maze working memory task, adult AIE rats exhibited deficits in problem solving, resulting in more errors across the 12 maze configurations, independent of sex. Conversely, AIE decreased dominance behaviors in female rats, and at 7 months post-alcohol, female AIE rats continued to exhibit deficits in novel object recognition. These results suggest that cognitive-behavioral alterations after adolescent binge drinking persist well into middle age, despite abstinence. Future studies should focus on intervening treatment strategies in both females and males.
Natural and Synthetic Biomaterials for Engineering Multicellular Tumor Spheroids

The lack of in vitro models that represent the native tumor microenvironment is a significant challenge for cancer research. Two-dimensional (2D) monolayer culture has long been the standard for in vitro cell-based studies. However, differences between 2D culture and the in vivo environment have led to poor translation of cancer research from in vitro to in vivo models, slowing the progress of the field. Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) culture have improved the ability of in vitro culture to replicate in vivo conditions. Although 3D cultures still cannot achieve the complexity of the in vivo environment, they can still better replicate the cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions of solid tumors. Multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) are three-dimensional (3D) clusters of cells with tumor-like features such as oxygen gradients and drug resistance, and represent an important translational tool for cancer research. Accordingly, natural and synthetic polymers, including collagen, hyaluronic acid, Matrigel®, polyethylene glycol (PEG), alginate and chitosan, have been used to form and study MCTS for improved clinical translatability. This review evaluates the current state of biomaterial-based MCTS formation, including advantages and disadvantages of the different biomaterials and their recent applications to the field of cancer research, with a focus on the past five years.
Deep Learning-Based Spread-Spectrum FGSM for Underwater Communication

The limitation of the available channel bandwidth and availability of a sustainable energy source for battery feed sensor nodes are the main challenges in the underwater acoustic communication. Unlike terrestrial’s communication, using multi-input multi-output (MIMO) technologies to overcome the bandwidth limitation problem is highly restricted in underwater acoustic communication by high inter-channel interference (ICI) and the channel multipath effect. Recently, the spatial modulation techniques (SMTs) have been presented as an alternative solution to overcome these issues by transmitting more data bits using the spatial index of antennas transmission. This paper proposes a new scheme of SMT called spread-spectrum fully generalized spatial modulation (SS-FGSM) carrying the information bits not only using the constellated data symbols and index of active antennas as in conventional SMTs, but also transmitting the information bits by using the index of predefined spreading codes. Consequently, most of the information bits are transmitted in the index of the transmitter antenna, and the index of spreading codes. In the proposed scheme, only a few information bits are transmitted physically. By this way, consumed power transmission can be reduced, and we can save the energy of underwater nodes, as well as enhancing the channel utilization. To relax the receiver computational complexity, a low complexity deep learning (DL) detector is proposed for the SS-FGSM scheme as the first attempt in the underwater SMTs-based communication. The simulation results show that the proposed deep learning detector-based SS-FGSM (DLSS-FGSM), compared to the conventional SMTs, can significantly improve the system data rate, average bit error rate, energy efficiency, and receiver’s computational complexity.
Defining the dynamic chromatin landscape of nephron progenitors

Six2+ cap mesenchyme cells, also called nephrons progenitor cells (NPC), are precursors of all epithelial cell types of the nephron, the filtering unit of the kidney. Current evidence indicates that perinatal “old” NPC have a greater tendency to exit the progenitor niche and differentiate into nascent nephrons than their embryonic “young” counterpart. Understanding the underpinnings of NPC aging may offer insights to rejuvenate old NPC and expand the progenitor pool. Here, we compared the chromatin landscape of young and old NPC and found common features reflecting their shared lineage but also intrinsic differences in chromatin accessibility and enhancer landscape supporting the view that old NPC are epigenetically poised for differentiation. Annotation of open chromatin regions and active enhancers uncovered the transcription factor Bach2 as a potential link between the pro-renewal MAPK/AP1 and pro-differentiation Six2/b-catenin pathways that might be of critical importance in regulation of NPC fate. Our data provide the first glimpse of the dynamic chromatin landscape of NPC and serve as a platform for future studies of the impact of genetic or environmental perturbations on the epigenome of NPC. Summary statement Hilliard et al. investigated the chromatin landscape of native Six2+ nephron progenitors across their lifespan. They identified age-dependent changes in accessible chromatin and regulatory regions supporting the view that old nephron progenitors are epigenetically poised for differentiation.
Synthesis of Tosyl- and Nosyl-Ended Polyisobutylenes with High Extent of Functionalities: The Effect of Reaction Conditions

Endfunctional polymers possess significant industrial and scientific importance. Sulfonyl endgroups, such as tosyl and nosyl endfunctionalities, due their ease of substitution are highly desired for a variety of polymer structures. The sulfonylation of hydroxyl-terminated polyisobutylene (PIB-OH), a chemically and thermally stable, biocompatible, fully saturated polymer, with tosyl chloride (TsCl) and nosyl chloride (NsCl) is presented in this study. PIB-OHs derived from commercial exo-olefin-ended PIB (PIBexo-OH) and allyl-terminated polymer made via quasiliving carbocationic polymerization of isobutylene (PIBall-OH) were tosylated and nosylated in the presence of 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP), pyridine and 1-methylimidazole (1-MI) catalysts and triethylamine (TEA). Our systematic investigations revealed that the end product distribution strongly depends on the relative amount of the components, especially that of TEA. While PIBexo-OTs with quantitative endfunctionality is readily formed from PIBexo-OH, its nosylation is not as straightforward. During sulfonylation of PIBall-OH, the formed tosyl and nosyl endgroups are easily substituted with chloride ions, formed in the first step of sulfonylation, leading to chloride termini. We found that decreased amounts of TEA afford the synthesis of PIBall-OTs and PIBall-ONs with higher than 90% endfunctionalities. These sulfonyl-ended PIBs open new ways for utilizing PIB in various fields and in the synthesis of novel PIB-containing macromolecular architectures.
Use of a Zwitterionic Surfactant to Improve the Biofunctional Properties of Wool Dyed with an Onion (Allium cepa L.) Skin Extract

To improve the loadability and antioxidant properties of wool impregnated with onion skin extract, the introduction of SB3-14 surfactant in the dyeing process was evaluated. A preliminary investigation on the surfactant–quercetin interaction indicated that the optimal conditions for dye solubility, stability, and surfactant affinity require double-distilled water (pH = 5.5) as a medium and SB3-14 in a concentration above the c.m. c. (2.5 × 10−3 M). The absorption profile of textiles showed the flavonoid absorption band (390 nm) and a bathochromic feature (510 nm), suggesting flavonoid aggregates. The higher absorbance for the sample dyed with SB3-14 indicated greater dye uptake, which was further confirmed by HPLC analysis. The Folin–Ciocalteu method was applied to evaluate the total phenol content (TPC) released from the treated wool, while the assays FRAP, DPPH, ABTS, and ORAC were applied to evaluate the corresponding total antioxidant activity (TAC). Higher TPCs (about 20%) and TACs (5–55%) were measured with SB3-14, highlighting textiles with improved biofunctional properties. Spectrophotometric analyses were also performed with an artificial sweat. The potential cytotoxic effect of SB3-14 in both monomeric and aggregated forms, cell viability, and induction of apoptosis were evaluated in RAW 264.7 cells. These analyses revealed that SB3-14 is safe at concentrations below the c.m. c.
Small Oscillations of the n-Pendulum and the “Hanging Rope” Limit n→∞

In this paper we will extend the solutions of the single, double, and triple pendulum to a system of arbitrary n pendulums each hanging below the previous, and explore the equations of motion for small oscillations about the equilibrium position. We will approach this problem both from a Newtonian Mechanics and Lagrangian Dynamics perspective. We will also explore the resulting equations of motion for small oscillations of a hanging rope of constant mass density by both taking the limit n→∞ in our solution for the n-pendulum, and by formulating Lagrangian Dynamics for a continuous system. We will show that all of these approaches result in identical equations of motion and are therefore equally valid ways of approaching this problem. Finally, we will present a numerical solution to the nonlinear equations of motion for the n-pendulum and demonstrate chaotic behavior through Mathematica animations.
Investigation of Opto-Mechanical Scanning Systems with the use of a Ray-Tracing Tool

Optical beam scanners are used in a wide range of applications, from data storage to nanometrology and, when combined with an autofocus procedure, an optical probe system is achieved. Such systems are commonly used in precision engineering. They allow the measurement of 3D surfaces with high resolution and accuracy and in each of its applications, especially in the field of nanometrology, the correct project and design of those scanning units is of great importance for system performance. This article presents a systematic evaluation of different possible arrangements and combinations of simple optical components to achieve such probing systems. Concluding the article a selection diagram is proposed in order to assist engineers in the choice of the most appropriate arrangement for each situation based on the advantages and disadvantages of each presented configuration.
The Relationship Between Pharmaceutical R&D Spending and NME Development

In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have used the justification of high R&D expenses to defend the rising prices of prescription drugs. However, as overall R&D expenditure in the industry grows at a substantial pace, whether or not the quantity of NMEs (new molecular entities) has grown meaningfully is questionable. This paper aims to identify a potential relationship between R&D expenditure and NME production utilizing panel data from 1999 to 2016. The results lacked statistical significance indicating no appreciable relationship between R&D expenditure and NME production. Results are robust to different model specifications.
Formation and coarsening of the concertina magnetization pattern in elongated thin-film elements

The concertina is a magnetization pattern in elongated thin-film elements of a soft ferromagnetic material. It is a ubiquitous domain pattern that occurs in the process of magnetization reversal in the direction of the long axis of the small element. Van den Berg and Vatvani [IEEE Trans. Magn. 18, 880 (1982)] argued that this pattern grows out of the flux-closure domains at the sample’s tips as the external field is reduced. Based on experimental observations and theory, we argue that in sufficiently elongated thin-film elements the concertina pattern rather bifurcates from an oscillatory buckling mode. Typical sample widths and thicknesses are of the order of 10-100 μm and of the order of 10-150 nm, respectively. Using a reduced model that is derived by asymptotic analysis from the micromagnetic energy and that is also investigated by means of numerical simulation, we quantitatively predict the average period of the concertina pattern and qualitatively predict its hysteresis. In particular, we argue that the experimentally observed coarsening of the concertina pattern is due to secondary bifurcations related to an Eckhaus instability. We also link the concertina pattern to the magnetization ripple and discuss the effect of a weak (crystalline or induced) anisotropy.
PicWords: Creating Pictures by its keywords

- PicWords can be considered as a kind of Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR), more specifically belonging to a subclass, called NPR Packing, which focuses on re-creating an image by arranging a collection of small pictorial elements. The pictorial elements can obviously be small images, tiles, or text. The most fascinating part of PicWords is that it attracts the human visual system using two modalities, i.e. picture and text (keywords). Once recognizing the picture, on close inspection, the general elements, i.e. the keywords can be noticed. The entire generation process of PicWords consists of four modules: a picture module, a keywords module, a cross modality picture and keywords module and a final post processing module. The output of picture module is ranked patches, which act as containers for the output of the keywords module, i.e. the keywords. In the picture and keywords module, a direct correspondence is made between these patches and keywords based on their ranks, by warping individual keywords along the contour of the image patches. The post processing module refines the output of picture and keywords module for better visual perception. After the post processing module, the final output, the PicWords, is obtained. Experiments were performed on various images and it has been found that the techniques used in this work provide better results than in previous works.
Ab-initio Calculation of the Metallic Fuels

The sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) is one of the Generation IV reactors and metallic fuels have many advantages such as a high density of fissile and fertile materials, a high thermal conductivity, a high breeding performance, a simple fabrication procedure, and a good compatibility with sodium coolant. Therefore, metallic fuels are ideal for SFR. Especially uranium-zirconium (U-Zr) and uranium plutonium-zirconium (U-Pu-Zr) alloys are considered as excellent metallic fuels because of the high melting point, reduced fuel swelling, and reliable fuel performance [1–5]. In Korea, resource of metallic fuels is obtained by using the pyroprocessing of pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuels. In spent nuclear fuels, there are many fission product elements. Rare earth element (REE) such as lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), and neodymium (Nd) is one of the fission product elements. Since the chemical properties of REEs and trans-uranium element (TRU) are similar, separation of REEs and TRU by using pyro-processing is difficult [6,7]. Therefore, the lower the concentration of the REEs component in the metallic fuel, the more expensive it is. Therefore, the metallic fuels might contain rare earth elements. However, there is a lack of information about metallic fuel with rare earth elements because experiments with uranium and plutonium have many limitations. To overcome the lack of experimental data, abinitio calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) are used to predict structural, thermodynamic properties, and physical properties in this paper. DFT is a computational quantum mechanical modeling [8]. DFT is already applied to study the phase equilibria in the U–Zr system [9– 15]. In this paper, we use ab-initio calculations for the U, Zr, and δ UZr2 and then compare the thermodynamic properties from previous experiments [5,16–20] and ab-initio calculation data. 2. Methodology