Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution and Diversity of Inherited Spiroplasma Symbionts in Myrmica Ants

ABSTRACT Microbial partners play important roles in the biology and ecology of animals. In insects, maternally transmitted symbionts are especially common and can have host effects ranging from reproductive manipulation to nutrient provisioning and defense against natural enemies. In this study, we report a genus-wide association of Myrmica ants with the inherited bacterial symbiont Spiroplasma. We screen Myrmica ants collected from the wild, including the invasive European fire ant, Myrmica rubra, and find an extraordinarily high prevalence of this symbiont—8 of 9 species, 42 of 43 colonies, and 250 of 276 individual workers harbored Spiroplasma—only one host species was uninfected. In our screens, each host species carried a distinct Spiroplasma strain, and none were infected with more than one strain. All symbionts belong to the citri clade, allied most closely with pathogenic strains of Spiroplasma infecting corn crops and honeybees, and there is strong evidence of host-symbiont persistence across evolutionary time scales. Genome sequencing of two Spiroplasma symbionts revealed candidate genes that may play a part in the symbiosis, a nutrient transporter absent from other Spiroplasma strains, and a ribosome-inactivating protein previously implicated in parasite defense. These results together suggest long-term, likely mutualistic, relationships atypical of Spiroplasma-insect associations with potential significance for broad ecological interactions with Myrmica. IMPORTANCE Animal-associated microbial symbionts can dramatically affect the biology of their hosts. The identification and characterization of these intimate partnerships remain an essential component of describing and predicting species interactions, especially for invasive host species. Ants perform crucial ecological functions as ecosystem engineers, scavengers, and predators, and ants in the genus Myrmica can be aggressive resource competitors and reach high densities in their native and invaded habitats. In this study, a novel symbiosis is identified between Myrmica ants and the facultative bacterial symbiont Spiroplasma. Broad host distribution, high frequencies of infection, and host-symbiont codivergence over evolutionary time scales, an uncommon feature of Spiroplasma associations, suggest an important likely mutualistic interaction. Genome sequencing identified highly divergent gene candidates that may contribute to Spiroplasma's role as a possible defensive or nutritional partner in Myrmica.
Collaboration interactive 3D en réalité virtuelle pour supporter des scénarios aérospatiaux. (3D Interactive Collaboration in Virtual Reality to support aerospace scenario)

De nos jours, l’industrie aerospatiale est composee d’acteurs internationaux.Due a la complexite de leur production (taille, nombre de composants,variete des systemes, .), la conception d’un avion ou d’un lanceurnecessite un grand nombre d’ingenieurs avec des domaines d’expertises varies.De plus, les industries aerospatiales sont distribuees de par le monde. Dans cecontexte complexe, il est necessaire d’utiliser la realite virtuelle afin de proposerdes environnements virtuels accessibles depuis des sites distants afin departager une experience collaborative. Des problemes particuliers, alors, surviennent,particulierement par rapport a la perception des autres utilisateursimmerges.Cette these, en partenariat avec Airbus Group, se concentre sur la conceptionde techniques d’interaction collaboratives efficaces. Ces sessions collaborativespermettent de connecter plusieurs sites distants via le meme environnementvirtuel. Ainsi, des experts de domaines varies peuvent travailler ensembleen etant immerges simultanement. Par exemple, si un probleme survient durantles dernieres etapes d’assemblage d’un lanceur, il peut etre necessairede rassembler des experts qui etaient impliques en amont du projet (bureaud’etude pour la conception, usine pour la fabrication des systemes), afin deconcevoir des solutions pour resoudre le probleme.Dans cette these, nous proposons differentes techniques d’interactions afinde faciliter la collaboration a differents niveaux d’un projet industriel. Nousnous sommes interesses a la communication et la perception entre collaborateursimmerges, a la prise d’annotation et la circulation de ces annotations eta la collaboration asymetrique entre une salle de reunion et un environnementvirtuel a l’aide d’outil de realite mixte.
Comparison of Neurocognitive Performance in Contact and Noncontact Nonconcussed High School Athletes Across a Two-Year Interval

ABSTRACT Investigating short-term effects of subconcussive impacts on neurocognitive functioning, we employed a repeated measures multivariate model and regression-based measure to examine neurocognitive changes in 771 contact and noncontact high school athletes over a two-year period. Results reveal significant changes in Visual Motor Speed for both groups over a two-year period, with small effect sizes. According to regression-based measures, differences in contact sport athletes’ expected Time 2 performances were significant for Visual Motor Speed, also with minimal effects. Results do not conclusively implicate subconcussive hits as the offending factor in differences observed, with gender and sport-type possibly contributing to the small effects.
Morphological Changes and Cellular Dynamics of Oligodendrocyte Lineage Cells in the Developing Vertebrate Central Nervous System

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) originate in multiple restricted regions of the developing central nervous system (CNS). Here, we focus on morphological changes of oligodendrocyte lineage cells and their cellular dynamics including cell motility and proliferation. Morphological studies with molecular markers for OPCs suggest distinct spatiotemporal patterns of OPC migration in vivo, which are directly demonstrated by application of exogenous fluorescent markers to OPCs. Extensive proliferation of OPCs in the CNS parenchyma is also demonstrated by pulse labeling of the cells with bromodeoxyuridine. The results strongly suggest that oligodendrocyte lineage cells are highly motile and actively proliferate with an elongated morphology. These data provide insights into the potential molecular mechanisms of OPC dispersal throughout the CNS.
Laboratory Diagnosis of Lassa Fever

ABSTRACT Lassa virus remains an important cause of illness in West Africa and among the travelers returning from this region with an acute febrile illness. The symptoms of Lassa fever can be nonspecific and mimic those of other endemic infections, especially early in illness, making a clinical diagnosis difficult; therefore, laboratory testing is needed to confirm the diagnosis. An early identification of Lassa fever is crucial for maximizing the benefit of available antiviral therapy, as treatment efficacy rapidly decreases following the clinical onset of the disease. This minireview provides an overview of the currently available diagnostic tests for Lassa fever and their strengths and weaknesses.
Introducing the new Coblation™ Turbinator™ turbinate reduction wand: Our initial experience of twenty‐two patients requiring surgery for nasal obstruction

One of the most common symptoms that patients present to an ENT clinic is a “blocked nose”. Nasal obstruction is caused by mucosal inflammation and/or structural abnormalities. The narrowest part of the nasal cavity is the anterior nasal valve or the isthmus. This area is bound internally by the anterior end of the inferior turbinate and the adjacent nasal septum, thus an anterior deviation of the septum and inferior turbinate hypertrophy can contribute significantly to nasal obstruction. Inferior turbinate hypertrophy is initially managed medically. Patients who fail to benefit from medical management are referred for surgery which may include septoplasty and inferior turbinate reduction surgery. There is a vast selection of surgical techniques to manage the hypertrophic inferior turbinate. This ranges from full or partial turbinectomy to newer technologies, that is, microdebrider-assisted turbinoplasty and Coblation Inferior Turbinate Reduction (CITR). Coblation (cold ablation) is a non-thermal (40-60°C) tissue reduction where radiofrequency energy is delivered through a conductive solution releasing charged plasma particles that break the molecular bonds. The effect is extensive fibrosis with reduction in submucosal glands and venous sinusoids but with intact basement membrane. Coblation Inferior Turbinate Reduction has been performed in the past decade mostly using the Ultra Reflex wand. The Coblation Turbinator turbinate reduction wand differs significantly from the Coblation Reflex series. The Turbinator wand incorporates a broader 2.9-mm shaft with an active electrode at the tip which generates the plasma field common to other Coblation instruments (Figure 1). In addition, there are suction and saline irrigation ports on the reverse side of the tip. The wand is connected to the standard Coblation power unit which will default to the manufacturer’s recommended settings (Ablate 7 and Coag 3). The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of the Coblation Turbinator turbinate reduction wand in a cohort of patients requiring septoturbinal surgery for nasal obstruction. 2 | METHODS
Deguelin suppresses angiogenesis in human hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting HGF-c-Met pathway

Angiogenesis plays a crucial role in the development of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, we found a natural compound, deguelin, has a profound anti-angiogenesis effect on HCC. Deguelin suppressed vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) proliferation, migration, invasion, and capillary-like tube formation in vitro and reduced tumor angiogenesis in vivo. We discovered that VEGF receptor-mediated signal transduction cascades in HUVECs were inhibited by deguelin. Deguelin decreased the autocrine of VEGF in HCC cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Additionally, deguelin suppressed HGF-induced activation of the c-Met signaling pathway. Knocking down c-Met or inhibition of c-Met activation impaired HGF-mediated VEGF production. Importantly, we produced patient-derived hepatocellular carcinoma xenografts to evaluate the therapeutic effect of deguelin in vivo. Taken together, these results indicate that deguelin could inhibit HCC through suppression of angiogenesis on vascular endothelial cells and reduction of proangiogenic factors in cancer cells.
Network Intrusion Detection through Stacking Dilated Convolutional Autoencoders

Network intrusion detection is one of the most important parts for cyber security to protect computer systems against malicious attacks. With the emergence of numerous sophisticated and new attacks, however, network intrusion detection techniques are facing several significant challenges. The overall objective of this study is to learn useful feature representations automatically and efficiently from large amounts of unlabeled raw network traffic data by using deep learning approaches. We propose a novel network intrusion model by stacking dilated convolutional autoencoders and evaluate our method on two new intrusion detection datasets. Several experiments were carried out to check the effectiveness of our approach. The comparative experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model can achieve considerably high performance which meets the demand of high accuracy and adaptability of network intrusion detection systems (NIDSs). It is quite potential and promising to apply our model in the large-scale and real-world network environments.
Sentiment analysis of students' perception on the use of smartphones: A cross sectional study

Emotions have a great impact in the learning outcome of university students. Since students feel differently about mobile electronic devices that aid or hamper their academic progress, there is the need to unceasingly investigate emotions expressed by students as regard these devices. This paper presents preliminary results of a study conducted to investigate the impact of smartphones on students' academic progress in connection to three (3) factors (gender, level of students, and students' phone usage). This was achieved by examining the sentiments expressed by students through written text by applying four (4) open source lexical resources namely Harvard general inquirer Bing Liu's Opinion Lexicon, MPQA subjectivity lexicon and AFINN affective lexicon. Experiments were carried out on 358 students written text using the prior mentioned lexicons and results show that there is a strong relationship between students' sentiments and the factors considered, as some group of students are associated with more positive comments than others. Our results are subject to verification by a more representative sample, as this is an early step into the study using Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria — Nigeria as case study.
Adaptive pitch control design for variable speed wind turbine using chebyshev neural network

This paper presents an adaptive pitch control designed for a variable speed wind turbine (VSWT). Due to nonlinear and uncertain dynamics of VSWT, the conventional controllers show unsatisfactory performance under irregularity of wind speed. The pitch control design problem in the VSWT system is very challenging if the dynamics of the system are unknown. The unknown dynamics of the VSWT has been approximated with the help of Chebyshev neural network (CNN) for the proposed control design. The weight adaptation law for the tuning of CNN is derived using Lyapunov theory. Simulation results demonstrate satisfactory performance of the proposed adaptive pitch control design scheme.
In-silico screening and validation of high-affinity tetra-peptide inhibitor of Leishmania donovani O-acetyl serine sulfhydrylase (OASS)

Abstract OASS is a specific enzyme that helps Leishmania parasite to survive the oxidative stress condition in human macrophages. SAT C-terminal peptides in several organisms, including Leishmania, were reported to inhibit or reduce the activity of OASS. Small peptide and small molecules mimicking the SAT C-terminal residues are designed and tested for the inhibition of OASS in different organisms. Hence, in this study, all the possible tetra-peptide combinations were designed and screened based on the docking ability with Leishmania donovani OASS (Ld-OASS). The top ranked peptides were further validated for the stability using 50 ns molecular dynamic simulation. In order to identify the better binding capability of the peptides, the top peptides complexed with Ld-OASS were also subjected to molecular dynamic simulation. The docking and simulation results favored the peptide EWSI to possess greater advantage than previously reported peptide (DWSI) in binding with Ld-OASS active site. Also, screening of non-peptide inhibitor of Asinex Biodesign library based on the shape similarity of EWSI and DWSI was performed. The top similar molecules of each peptides were docked on to Ld-OASS active site and subsequently simulated for 20 ns. The results suggested that the ligand that shares high shape similarity with EWSI possess better binding capability than the ligand that shares high shape similarity with DWSI. This study revealed that the tetra-peptide EWSI had marginal advantage over DWSI in binding with Ld-OASS, thereby providing basis for defining a pharmacophoric scaffold for the design of peptidomimetic inhibitors as well as non-peptide inhibitors of Ld-OASS. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
Genetic modifiers of sickle cell anemia in the BABY HUG cohort: influence on laboratory and clinical phenotypes

The recently completed BABY HUG trial investigated the safety and efficacy of hydroxyurea in infants with sickle cell anemia (SCA). To investigate the effects of known genetic modifiers, genomic DNA on 190 randomized subjects were analyzed for alpha thalassemia, beta‐globin haplotype, polymorphisms affecting endogenous fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels (XmnI, BCL11A, and HBS1L‐MYB), UGT1A1 promoter polymorphisms, and the common G6PD A− mutation. At study entry, infants with alpha thalassemia trait had significantly lower mean corpuscular volume, total bilirubin, and absolute reticulocyte count. Beta‐globin haplotypes associated with milder disease had significantly higher hemoglobin and %HbF. BCL11A and XmnI polymorphisms had significant effects on baseline HbF, while UGT1A1 promoter polymorphisms significantly influenced baseline serum bilirubin. At study exit, subjects randomized to placebo still exhibited laboratory effects of alpha thalassemia and other modifiers, while those assigned hydroxyurea had treatment effects that exceeded most genetic influences. The pain phenotype was influenced by HbF modifiers in both treatment groups. These data document that genetic polymorphisms do modify laboratory and clinical phenotypes even in very young patients with SCA. The hydroxyurea effects are more potent, however, indicating that treatment criteria should not be limited to certain genetic subsets, and supporting the use of hydroxyurea for all young patients with SCA. Am. J. Hematol. 88:571–576, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Utilizing 18F‐fluoroethyl‐l‐tyrosine positron emission tomography in high grade glioma for radiation treatment planning in patients with contraindications to MRI

Patients with high grade glioma (HGG) and contraindications to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are dependent on contrast‐enhanced computerized tomography (CT) scan imaging for radiation therapy (RT) target volume delineation. This study reviews the experience with the utilization of 18F‐fluoroethyl‐l‐tyrosine positron emission tomography (FET‐PET) to define residual disease post craniotomy and optimize RT planning.
C-myc and c-fos in Human Osteosarcoma: Prognostic Value of mRNA and Protein Expression

The c-myc and c-fos proto-oncogenes have several putative functions, including regulation of cell growth. In many neoplasms c-myc overexpression has been linked to poor prognosis. In order to study the role of c-myc and c-fos expression on the tumorigenesis, and the metastatic spread of osteosarcoma, frozen and paraffin-embedded tissue 38 primary osteosarcoma and 10 lung metastases were analyzed. The mRNA analysis was performed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization. The protein expression was studied by Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. C-myc and c-fos were found overexpressed in a high percentage of the relapsed tumors and of the metastases, and overexpression of both oncogenes in the same tumor was strongly correlated to the development of metastases (p < 0.05), as 6 of the 7 primary tumors overexpressing both the oncogenes gave metastases. In conclusion, both c-myc and c-fos are involved in the growth and spread of osteosarcoma and a synchronous overexpression of both oncogenes is highly significant for a metastatic potential of a primary tumor.
Performance enhancement in active power filter (APF) by FPGA implementation

The generated electrical power in present days is not able meet its end user requirement as power demand is gradually increasing and expected to be increasing more in future days. In the power quality management the parameters/factors like harmonic currents (HC) and reactive power (RP) yields the major issues in the power distribution units causing transformer heating, line losses and machine vibration. In order to overcome these issues several control mechanisms has been presented and implemented in recent past. The mechanism procedure based on synchronous reference frame (SRF) offers better response by dividing the HC and RP. But the SRF based mechanism procedure requires better synchronization among the utility voltage and input current. To achieve this, the existing researches have used digital signal processing (DSP) and microcontroller but these systems fails to provide better performance as they face issues like limited sampling time, less accuracy and high computational complexity. Thus, to enhance the performance of active power filter (APF) we present FPGA based methodology. Also, the performance authorization of the proposed approach, we have used Xilinx 14.7 and Modelsim (6.3f) simulator and compared with the work of [14]. From the results analysis it is found that the approach has got better performance than [14].
Detection and Molecular Identification of Sarcocystis rileyi (Apicomplexa: Sarcocystidae) From a Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) in Mexico

Abstract We detected macroscopic Sarcocystis cysts in a Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) in the Lerma Marshes, State of Mexico, Mexico in February 2014. The 5.0×2.0-mm macrocysts in the breast muscle of the duck were ovoid and yellow. Using an optical microscope, we saw parasitic forms of a Sarcocystis sp. among muscular fibers; the cysts measured 3.5×1.1 mm. The external wall had a smooth surface and the internal wall had a spongy texture. We identified the macrocysts as Sarcocystis rileyi according to sequences of the 18S rRNA gene, 28S rRNA gene, and ITS-1 region. Sarcocystosis should be considered in similar assessments in wild waterfowl in Mexico. Awareness of S. rileyi among anatids in the Lerma Marshes will contribute to more-effective conservation and management actions.
Evaluation and Optimization of a Hybrid Manufacturing Process Combining Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing with Milling for the Fabrication of Stiffened Panels

This paper proposes a hybrid WAAM (wire arc additive manufacturing) and milling process (HWMP), and highlights its application in the fabrication of stiffened panels that have wide applications in aviation, aerospace, and automotive industries, etc. due to their light weight and strong load-bearing capability. In contrast to existing joining or machining methods, HWMP only deposits stiffeners layer-by-layer onto an existing thin plate, followed by minor milling of the irregular surfaces, which provides the possibility to significantly improve material utilization and efficiency without any loss of surface quality. In this paper, the key performances of HWMP in terms of surface quality, material utilization and efficiency are evaluated systematically, which are the results of the comprehensive effects of the deposition parameters (e.g., travel speed, wire-feed rate) and the milling parameters (e.g., spindle speed, tool-feed rate). In order to maximize its performances, the optimization is also performed to find the best combination of the deposition and the milling parameters. The case study shows that HWMP with the optimal process parameters improves the material utilization by 57% and the efficiency by 32% compared against the traditional machining method. Thus, HWMP is believed to be a more environmental friendly and sustainable method for the fabrication of stiffened panels or other similar structures.
Muscle carnitine availability plays a central role in regulating fuel metabolism in the rodent

Meldonium inhibits endogenous carnitine synthesis and tissue uptake, and accelerates urinary carnitine excretion, although the impact of meldonium‐mediated muscle carnitine depletion on whole‐body fuel selection, and muscle fuel metabolism and its molecular regulation is under‐investigated. Ten days of oral meldonium administration did not impact on food or fluid intake, physical activity levels or body weight gain in the rat, whereas it depleted muscle carnitine content (all moieties), increased whole‐body carbohydrate oxidation and muscle and liver glycogen utilization, and reduced whole‐body fat oxidation. Meldonium reduced carnitine transporter protein expression across muscles of different contractile and metabolic phenotypes. A TaqMan PCR low‐density array card approach revealed the abundance of 189 mRNAs regulating fuel selection was altered in soleus muscle by meldonium, highlighting the modulation of discrete cellular functions and metabolic pathways. These novel findings strongly support the premise that muscle carnitine availability is a primary regulator of fuel selection in vivo.