Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Object shape differences reflected by somatosensory cortical activation in human

Humans can easily by touch discriminate fine details of the shapes of objects. The computation of representations and the representations of objects differing in shape are, when the differences are not founded in different sensory cues or the objects belong to different categories, assumed to take place in a series of cortical areas, which only show differences at the single-neuron level. How the somatosensory cortex computes shape is unknown, but theoretically it should depend heavily on the curvatures of the object surfaces. We measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of normal volunteers with positron emission tomography (PET) as an index of neuronal activation. One group discriminated a round set of ellipsoids having a narrow spectrum of curvatures and an oblong set of ellipsoids having a broad spectrum of curvatures. Another group discriminated curvatures. When the rCBF from the conditions round and oblong ellipsoid discrimination was contrasted, part of the cortex lining the postcentral sulcus had significantly higher rCBF when ellipsoids having a broader spectrum of curvatures were discriminated. This cortex was also activated by curvature discrimination. The activation is therefore regarded as crucial for the computation of curvature and in accordance with curvature being a major determinant of object form; this cortex is also crucially active in somatosensory shape perception. A comparison of the activation with cytoarchitectural maps, in the anatomical format of the standard brain for both PET and cytoarchitectural brain images, revealed that this part of the cortex lining the postcentral sulcus is situated caudally from cytoarchitectural area 1 and may involve presumptive area 2 on the posterior bank of the sulcus.
Morphological correlations to an electrical resistance barrier in the eye of the locust Schistocerca gregaria

The b a s i c morphology and u l t r a s t r u c t u r e o f the compound eye of the l o c u s t S c h i s t o c e r c a g r e g a r i a , has been i n v e s t i g a t e d . M o r p h o l o g i c a l l y the l o c u s t eye was found to be s i m i l a r to t h a t observed by Horridge (1966) and to those of other i n s e c t s such as the honey-bee drone, Apis m e l l i f e r a ( P e r r e l e t , 1970). U l t r a s t r u c t u r a l l y , t h i s i n v e r t e b r a t e sense organ suggests t h a t there i s l i t t l e e x t r a c e l l u l a r space between the c e l l s o f an ommatidium w i t h i n the r e t i n a , as shown by the presence o f d i f f e r e n t i ated plasma membranes i n the form of narrow gap j u n c t i o n s . This type o f membrane d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n may be r e l a t e d to the demonstrated e x i s t e n c e of a r e t i n a l r e s i s t a n c e b a r r i e r (Shaw, 1975). This suggests t h a t the p h y s i o l o g i c a l l y demonstrated b a r r i e r may r e q u i r e only minor s t r u c t u r a l a l t e r a t i o n s w i t h i n the r e t i n a . I t i s suggested t h a t the b a r r i e r may be the same i n other i n v e r t e b r a t e s .
Development of a model for Simulium damnosum S.L. recolonization dynamics at a breeding site in the onchocerciasis control programme area when control is interrupted

(1) Problems associated with Simulium damnosum s.i. population dynamics and control are discussed in relation to the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in the Volta River Basin. (2) Nulliparous and parous biting rates were observed during the recolonization of Grechan rapids when larvicide applications were interrupted for 3 months during the dry season. (3) A new method of data analysis is proposed and used to estimate population parameters. (4) A new mathematical model of recolonization is proposed which mimics the key features of the process. The model is used to simulate the effect of larvicide and could form the basis for an investigation of alternative management strategies.
Prototyping of CMS storage management

• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Technological advancements to address elderly loneliness: Practical considerations and community resilience implications for COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose Loneliness has been a known severe public health concern among the elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this paper is to discuss the practicalities of using emerging technologies to address elderly loneliness and its implications and adaptations to the outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on examples from the literature and their own observations from working with older adults, to provide an overview of possible ways technology could help this population in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Technological advancements have offered remarkable opportunities to deliver care and maintain connections despite the need to stay physically separated. These tools can be integrated into crisis communications, public health responses, and care programs to address loneliness among the elderly. However, it must be done strategically and informed by the type of loneliness at play, environmental factors, socioeconomics, and technological literacy. Originality Technological advancements can be a valuable tool in addressing known public health concerns, such as loneliness among the elderly populations. However, the use of this tool should be governed by the specific situation at hand, taking into consideration individual needs and environmental factors, especially the compounded effects caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Different technological programs and approaches are appropriate for different types of loneliness. For example, online therapy such as internet-based cognitive behavior therapy may mitigate loneliness caused by fear; online interaction such as videoconferencing may relieve loneliness caused by lack of social engagement. Practical implications Care-providing organizations and policy makers should consider the risk of loneliness while responding to COVID-19 outbreak, particularly within elderly populations. As part of a broader plan, technological solutions as well as low-tech approaches can make a difference in mitigating loneliness. Solutions should be accessible to and usable by older adults. Provision of equipment, training, and guidance may be necessary to execute a technology-centric plan; for some communities and individuals, approaches that do not rely on advanced technology may be more effective.
Organization Ethics in Health Care

Bioethics, clinical ethics, and professional ethics are mature, well-developed fields of applied ethics that focus on medical research, patient autonomy and patient care, patient–healthcare professional relationships, and issues that arise in clinical and other medical settings. However, despite these developments, little attention has been paid to the organizational aspects of healthcare in these fields. This is surprising, because in the last 30 years healthcare has become more and more institutionalized in provider, management, and insurer organizations. Despite JCAHO's preoccupation with organizational ethics during the last decade, the philosophical underpinnings of their requirements have been less explored in the literature. Clinical ethics remains preoccupied with clinical patient care and professional ethics with individual professional guidelines; even the American College of Healthcare Executives focuses primarily on healthcare managers, not on healthcare organizations.
Infaunal molting in Trilobita and escalatory responses against predation

The outstanding fossil record of trilobites contrasts with our limited knowledge of their lifestyles and strategies. Aspects such as infaunalism and behavioral defensive skills in this group have yet to be demonstrated conclusively. We report new insights based on a striking sclerite configuration exhibited by three phacopid trilobite species, part of a late Silurian–Early Devonian Paciphacops ( Paciphacops ) Maksimova, 1972, lineage. An unusual molt pattern provides compelling evidence of infaunal behavior, which accounts for a hiding, antipredatory adaptation. In addition, strengthening of the exoskeleton and acquisition of spines indicate an evolutionary trend toward morphological defensive strategies. Both trends in active and passive traits are considered escalatory in nature, thus providing unequivocal support for understanding the ecological role of trilobites as a main prey group in the context of the global diversification of predators recorded during middle Paleozoic time.
Personal Views for Web Catalogs.

Large growth in e-commerce has culiminated in a technology boom to enable companies to better serve their consumers. The front-end of the e-commerce business is to better reach the consumer which means to better serve the information on the Web. An end-to-end solution that provides such capabilities includes technology to enable personalization of information, to serve the personalized information to individual users, and to manage change both in terms of new data as well as in terms of the evolution of personal taste of the individual user. In this work, we present an approach that allows automated generation of diversified and customized web pages from an object database (based on the ODMG object model), and automated maintenance of these web pages once they have been build. The strength of our approach is its superior re-structuring capabilities to produce personal viewsas well as its generic propagation framework to propagate schema changes, data updates, security information and so on from the base source to the personal view and vice versa.
Geophysical Surveys Across A Ground Subsidence Feature

In many parts of Southern England the Cretaceous chalk formation exhibits solution features which eventually lead to collapse and void formation. During early formation it is difficult to decide when small subsidence features are due to either man-made industrial/archaeological features or due to water ingress. A case history of geophysical surveys is presented over a circular subsidence feature considered to be of possible Iron Age origin and results are compared to similar surveys over known solution voids. Introduction The surface geology of Southern England is dominated by Cretaceous chalk sediments which are frequently overlain by superficial sediments. This chalk is susceptible to dissolution by surface water giving rise to subsidence features known as sinkholes or swallow holes Such features can collapse under the weight of buildings or passing fm, vehicles and represent a known hazard. Frequently advance warning is given by the appearance of a topographic depression. At a site located in a large arable field in the town of Harpenden, Herts. , England there is a circular surface depression. It was decided to deploy geophysical surveys across this feature to attempt to investigate its origin. Harpenden is located 35Kms North of London, and within a radius of a kilometre of the depression local archaeologists have uncovered evidence of Iron Age (BC600 AD400) and Roman (BC350 AD40) anthropogenic activity. A suite of geophysical surveys were carried out across the depression and involved topography, magnetics, inductive conductivity, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and resistivity imaging. The relevance of an in depth background study of local and national records/maps in assisting the geophysical interpretation is demonstrated.
CONTROLLED IMAGING OF FLUID FLOW AND A SALINE TRACER USING TIME LAPSE GPR AND ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY TOMOGRAPHY

A controlled imaging facility was used to setup and execute a number of lD, 2D and 3D time lapse experiments in which geophysical and direct measurements were used to image fluid flow and a saline tracer. The resulting data definitely proves that geophysical data can map 4D fluid flow, however it is imperative to have extremely high spatial and temporal sampling in order to be able to see the processes.
Diversity and composition of Trichoptera (Insecta) larvae assemblages in streams with different environmental conditions at Serra da Bocaina, Southeastern Brazil

Abstract: Aim The goal of this study is to examine the composition and richness of caddisfly assemblages in streams at the Serra da Bocaina Mountains, Southeastern Brazil, and to identify the main environmental variables, affecting caddisfly assemblages at the streams with different conditions of land use. Methods The sampling was conducted in 19 streams during September and October 2007. All sites were characterized physiographically by application of environmental assessment protocol to Atlantic Forest streams and by some physical and chemical parameters. Of the 19 streams sampled, six were classified as reference, six streams as intermediate (moderate anthropic impact) and seven streams as poor (strong anthropic impact). In each site, a multi-habitat sampling was taken with a kick sampler net. The sample was composed by 20 units, each one corresponded to 1 m2 of collected substrate, corresponding 20 m2 of sampling area. The material was placed in a plastic container (500 µm of mesh), washed, homogenized and sub-sampled. For each stream, 6 subsamples were randomly sorted. Results Were collected 2,113 caddisfly larvae, belonging to 12 families and 28 genera. Hydropsychidae and Leptoceridae were the most abundant families, and Smicridea was the most abundant genus. Sorensen’s index results showed that the streams studied were grouped according to environmental integrity. The Indicator Species Analysis showed only characteristic taxa to reference streams. Canonical Correspondence Analysis showed that caddisfly assemblage was strongly influenced by nitrate concentration, pH and condition of riparian vegetation. Multiple regression analysis indicated significant correlations to five genera with some environmental parameters, besides total abundance of Trichoptera. Conclusions Ours results showed that degree of environmental impact, mainly the nitrate concentration, pH, and condition of cover vegetation acted as a major factor in determining the Trichoptera assemblages present in the stream of the Serra da Bocaina, separating streams along an environmental gradient.
Ethylene Production from Wheat Seedlings Infested with Biotypes of Schizaphis graminum (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Gaseous emissions were analyzed by gas chromatography to determine whether increased volatile hydrocarbon production from wheat, Triticum aestivum L. , seedlings infested with greenbugs, Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), was associated with virulence. Ethylene production from wheat seedlings was stimulated by greenbug infestation. Ethylene production was greater from virulent combinations of wheat genotypes and green bug biotypes, compared with avirulent combinations, in most cases. A 6-h interaction period was sufficient to trigger increased ethylene production with evolution rates decreasing sharply by 1 d after removal of greenbugs. No other stress volatiles were detected from infested seedlings, although membrane damage (based on electrolyte leakage), chlorosis, and necrotic spots were evident after 4 d in a susceptible genotype. Wheat seedlings were capable of producing increased levels of volatile hydrocarbons in response to stress because exposure to 55 or −70°C produced more acetaldehyde, ethane, ethanol, methanol, and pentane than controls.
Visualisation and simulation with object-oriented networks

• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Molecular and Morphological Elucidation of the Life Cycle of the Frog Trematode Langeronia macrocirra (Digenea: Pleurogenidae) in Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico

ABSTRACT The genus Langeronia Caballero and Bravo-Hollis, 1949, currently contains 6 species of amphibian trematodes distributed in North and Middle America. The type species of the genus, Langeronia macrocirra Caballero and Bravo-Hollis, 1949, occurs in Mexico and is relatively commonly found as a parasite of leopard frogs. However, information regarding its life cycle is lacking. In this paper, we study the life cycle of L. macrocirra in Laguna Escondida, Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz. Definitive hosts (Rana spp.) as well as potential intermediate hosts (gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans, tadpoles, hemipterans, and odonate naiads) were sampled in the locality and studied to search for the presence of adults and larval stages of the trematode. Specimens were morphologically characterized, and some individuals were sequenced for 1 ribosomal gene (28S rRNA) and 1 mitochondrial gene (COI). DNA sequences of the adults obtained from leopard frogs were matched with those of the larval forms in their intermediate hosts (metacercariae, cercariae, and sporocysts) to demonstrate conspecificity. Further, we conducted a detailed study of the tegument of the body surface with scanning electron microscopy to characterize each of the developmental stages of the life cycle of L. macrocirra.
Leopard (Panthera pardus) density and diet in a forest corridor of Terai: implications for conservation and conflict management

Abstract Context. Increasing forest fragmentation and degradation has forced wildlife to live in close proximity to humans, increasing the chances of human–wildlife conflict. Leopard (Panthera pardus) typifies the problem faced by large carnivores. It is a threatened species with a wide distribution, with a large part of their range outside protected areas, leaving them vulnerable to human–leopard conflict. Understanding their status and diet in such non-protected forests is necessary for their long-term conservation. Aims. The present study aimed to estimate leopard density and assess their diet in a non-protected forest. Methods. A camera-trapping survey was carried out in the Kamdi forest corridor outside of protected areas, covering 791.29 km2 in the western part of Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) in Nepal. Leopard density was estimated based on the photographs obtained in camera traps, using Bayesian Explicit Capture–recapture (B-SECR) models. Scats of leopards were opportunistically collected (n = 60) and their diet analysed through micro-histological characters of hair remains. The frequency of occurrence and relative biomass of different prey species consumed by leopard was calculated. Key results. Leopard density was estimated to be 1.50 (± 0.49 s.e.) 100 km−2 in the survey area. Similarly, we identified 13 prey species in the leopard scats. Wild prey contributed the majority (67.8%) of leopard diet, including 23.2% of wild boar (Sus scrofa) and 18.3% of spotted deer (Axis axis). Nearly one-third of leopard diet consists of domestic livestock (cattle, goat, sheep) and dog. Conclusions. Leopard density was found to be relatively low in the forest corridor compared with protected areas. Nearly one-third of leopard diet from domestic livestock and dogs suggests that human–leopard conflict could be problematic in the survey area. Implications. Increasing prey density in the forest corridor and improving livestock husbandry in the periphery will contribute to increase leopard density, reduce the human–leopard conflict and enhance the functionality of the corridor.
Thermodynamic constraints are sufficient for the emergence of flux sensors in metabolism

Metabolism is a precisely coordinated phenomenon, the apparent goal of which is to balance fluxes to maintain robust growth. However, coordinating fluxes requires information about rates, which is not obviously reconcilable with known regulatory mechanisms in which concentrations are sensed through metabolite binding. While flux sensor examples have been characterized, the fundamental principles underlying the phenomenon in general are not well understood. Specifically, the questions of which fluxes can be sensed, and the mechanism by which they are remain open. We address this by showing that the concentrations of substrates of thermodynamically constrained reactions reflect upstream flux and therefore carry information about rates which can be propagated through regulatory interactions to control other fluxes in the network. Using fluxomic, metabolomic, and thermodynamic data in E coli, we show that the concentrations of a few metabolites in central carbon metabolism reflect their producing fluxes and demonstrate that they can transmit information about these rates because of their positions in the network and their roles as effectors.
Role of ERK activation in H. pylori-induced disruption of cell-cell tight junctions

Background Tight junctions, a network of claudins and other proteins, play an important role in maintaining barrier function and para-cellular permeability. H. pylori, the major etiological agent of various gastroduodenal diseases, is known to cause tight junction disruption. However, the molecular events that triggered cell-cell tight junction disruption in H. pylori-infected cells, remain largely elusive. Materials and Methods Trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) and FITC-Dextran permeability measurement were performed to determine the barrier function in H. pylori 88-3887-infected polarized MKN28 cells. For visualization of tight junction protein localization, immunofluorescence and immunoblotting techniques were used. To examine the role of ERK activation in tight junction disruption, U0126, a MEK inhibitor, was employed. To further support the study, computational analyses of H. pylori-infected primary gastric cells were carried out to decipher the transcriptomic changes. Results The epithelial barrier of polarized MKN28 cells when infected with H. pylori displayed disruption of cell-cell junctions as shown by TEER & FITC-dextran permeability tests. Claudin-4 was shown to delocalize from host cytoplasm to nucleus in H. pylori-infected cells. In contrast, delocalization of claudin-4 was minimized when ERK activation was inhibited. Interestingly, transcriptomic analyses revealed the upregulation of genes associated with cell-junction assembly and ERK pathway forming a dense interacting network of proteins. Conclusion Taken together, evidence from this study indicates that H. pylori regulates ERK pathway triggering cell-cell junction disruption, contributing to host pathogenesis. It indicates the vital role of ERK in regulating key events associated with the development of H. pylori-induced gastroduodenal diseases.