Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hierarchical order of coexisting pre- and postsynaptic forms of long-term potentiation at synapses in amygdala

Synaptic rules that may determine the interaction between coexisting forms of long-term potentiation (LTP) at glutamatergic central synapses remain unknown. Here, we show that two mechanistically distinct forms of LTP could be induced in thalamic input to the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) with an identical presynaptic stimulation protocol, depending on the level of postsynaptic membrane polarization. One form of LTP, resulting from pairing of postsynaptic depolarization and low-frequency presynaptic stimulation, was both induced and expressed postsynaptically (“post-LTP”). The same stimulation in the absence of postsynaptic depolarization led to LTP, which was induced and expressed presynaptically (“pre-LTP”). The inducibility of coexisting pre- and postsynaptic forms of LTP at synapses in thalamic input followed a well-defined hierarchical order, such that pre-LTP was suppressed when post-LTP was induced. This interaction was mediated by activation of cannabinoid type 1 receptors by endogenous cannabinoids released in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala in response to activation of the type 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor. These results suggest a previously unknown mechanism by which the hierarchy of coexisting forms of long-term synaptic plasticity in the neural circuits of learned fear could be established, possibly reflecting the hierarchy of memories for the previously experienced fearful events according to their aversiveness level.
Vaccine coverage and compliance in Mexico with the two-dose and three-dose rotavirus vaccines

ABSTRACT Worldwide, rotavirus infection has been a leading cause of severe diarrhea morbidity and mortality. Two rotavirus vaccines have been used in the National Immunization Program (NIP) in Mexico; two-dose Rotarix from 2006 to 2011 and three-dose RotaTeq since 2011. This study assessed coverage (receiving at least one dose or full dose series) in eligible infants, compliance (% completing dose series and % completing series on schedule) in eligible infants vaccinated with Rotarix (2010) versus RotaTeq (2012), using Mexican Social Security Institute data nationwide and by regions. In 2010, 80.7% received at least one dose of Rotarix, 75.6% received both doses and 57.0% received both doses on schedule. In 2012, 85.7% received at least one dose of RotaTeq, 61.0% received all three doses and 43.2% received all three doses on schedule. More eligible infants received all doses with Rotarix versus RotaTeq (p < 0.001). Among infants vaccinated with Rotarix versus RotaTeq, 93.7% versus 71.1% completed full series (p < 0.001), and 75.5% versus 70.9% completed full series on schedule (p = 0.105), respectively. The full series coverage and compliance decreased in all regions with RotaTeq compared with Rotarix. In conclusion, rotavirus vaccination has successfully reduced morbidity and mortality in children under 5 years in Mexico. This study found significant differences in full series coverage and compliance among infants and a higher proportion of completed scheduled at an earlier age in Mexico when comparing a two-dose vaccine in 2010 with a three-dose vaccine in 2012. Such differences might need to be taken into consideration to maximize NIP benefits, including early protection of the rotavirus vaccination program.
Extra-pair paternity in monogamous tree swallows

Abstract Abstract. Multilocus DNA fingerprinting of offspring of monogamous pairs of tree swallows, Tachycineta bicolor , revealed that 50% (8/16) of broods contained young sired by extra-pair males, totalling 38% (33/86) of all offspring analysed. No young resulted from intraspecific brood parasitism. The distribution of extra-pair paternity showed a bimodal pattern; either none or many illegitimate young per brood. Thirty-three per cent of illegitimate offspring were sired by three to five nearest male neighbours. Females copulated frequently with their own mate at their own box, but they were never seen copulating with other males. Hence, there was a striking contrast between the rate of extra-pair copulation and the rate of extra-pair fertilization. There was no relationship between the pair copulation rate and the proportion of illegitimate young in a brood, suggesting that males cannot use the number of copulations performed with their mate as a reliable cue to their share of paternity. Males provisioned their young at nearly the same rate as did females, and males with illegitimate offspring in their nest did not reduce provisioning effort compared to males with only legitimate offspring. Hence, females did not suffer any apparent costs of promiscuity. It is argued that females control the sperm transfer success of copulations. Because females do not receive anything other than sperm from extra-pair copulation, the promiscuous behaviour is probably driven by some genetic factors enhancing female fitness. Although the data presented seem consistent with female choice for male genetic quality, there were no detectable phenotypic characteristics of males with high fertilization success.
Custom-Designed Glassy Carbon Tips for Atomic Force Microscopy

Glassy carbon is a graphenic form of elemental carbon obtained from pyrolysis of carbon-rich precursor polymers that can be patterned using various lithographic techniques. It is electrically and thermally conductive, mechanically strong, light, corrosion resistant and easy to functionalize. These properties render it very suitable for Carbon-microelectromechanical systems (Carbon-MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (Carbon-NEMS) applications. Here we report on the fabrication and characterization of fully operational, microfabricated glassy carbon nano-tips for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). These tips are 3D-printed on to micro-machined silicon cantilevers by Two-Photon Polymerization (2PP) of acrylate-based photopolymers (commercially known as IP-series resists), followed by their carbonization employing controlled pyrolysis, which shrinks the patterned structure by ≥98% in volume. Tip performance and robustness during contact and dynamic AFM modes are validated by morphology and wear tests. The design and pyrolysis process optimization performed for this work indicate which parameters require special attention when IP-series polymers are used for the fabrication of Carbon-MEMS and NEMS. Microstructural characterization of the resulting material confirms that it features a frozen percolated network of graphene sheets accompanied by disordered carbon and voids, similar to typical glassy carbons. The presented facile fabrication method can be employed for obtaining a variety of 3D glassy carbon nanostructures starting from the stereolithographic designs provided by the user.
Male mating behaviour and patterns of sperm precedence in Arctic ground squirrels

Ground squirrels (genus Spermophilus) display considerable interspecific variation in male reproductive behaviour. Although male Arctic ground squirrels, S. parryii plesius, are territorial during the mating period, males in several other species ofSpermophilusare not. To begin exploring the reasons for this behavioural diVerence, patterns of mating behaviour and sperm precedence were characterized for a free-living population of S. parryii plesius. Twenty females that were monitored continuously throughout behavioural oestrus consorted and presumably copulated with a mean of 1.9&0.8 males during a single period of sexual receptivity. A combination of electrophoretic and DNA fingerprinting analyses revealed that more than 90% of pups in litters (N=11) reared by females that consorted with two or more males were sired by a female's first mate. The percentage of young sired by each of a female's consorts did not vary with either consortship duration or the interval between consortships by diVerent males. Instead, the only consistent correlate of paternity was consortship order. Both pre-consortship calling and post-consortship defence of females were significantly associated with first consortships, suggesting that males were able to distinguish unmated females from females that had already copulated. Because the probability of siring young should influence which females are preferred as mates and how males compete for access to those females, comparative studies of sperm precedence patterns may yield insights into the evolution of interspecific variation in male mating behaviour. 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
IT Self-Service Blueprinting A Visual Notation for Designing IT Self-Services

IT self-services have gained momentum in more and more organizations in recent years. The rationale for IT self-services is the reduction of the IT personnel’s workload in IT service production. However, prior research has shown that the realization of this anticipated benefit is not self-evident. Therefore, scholars have called for research leading to artifacts that guide IT operations at devolving service tasks to employees. In this paper, we present a visual notation for designing IT self-services. The meta-model of this visual notation includes the concepts and relationships in service blueprinting and extends these with concepts and relationships for IT self-service blueprinting. IT self-service blueprinting supports IT operations at analyzing the devolvement of service tasks at the design stage. The demonstration of the use of our visual notation proofs that the visual notation complies with the principles for cognitively effective vis-
Intravenous Chlorpromazine for the Short-Term Treatment of Insomnia in End-Stage Cancer Patients With Difficulty in Oral Administration

Abstract The objective of the study was to evaluate effectiveness and safety of intravenous chlorpromazine for the short-term treatment of insomnia in end-stage cancer patients. Insomnia occurs as one of distressing symptoms in 70% of end-stage cancer patients. End-stage cancer patients often have difficulty in oral administration because of disease progress. We retrospectively evaluated 30 end-stage cancer patients with difficulty in oral administration who received intravenous chlorpromazine for the short-term treatment of insomnia. A primary end point was sleep quality based on St. Mary’s Hospital Sleep Questionnaire 3 days after the treatment. Improved sleep quality was observed on the day after the treatment and later (P < .001), and the effective rate mean was 0.63 (95% confidential interval: 0.45–0.81) 3 days after the treatment. Increased total sleep time and decreased sleep latency time were observed 3 days after the treatment (P < .001); however, no improvement in depth of sleep was achieved (P = .231). There was no adverse event except for two delirium cases. The study indicated that intravenous chlorpromazine can be applied safely and effectively for the short-term treatment of insomnia in end-stage cancer patients with difficulty in oral administration.
Nanoliposomes as Vehicles for Astaxanthin: Characterization, In Vitro Release Evaluation and Structure

Astaxanthin was encapsulated in nanoliposomes by a film dispersion-ultrasonic technique using soybean phosphatidyl choline. The astaxanthin-loaded nanoliposomes displayed advantages in the aspects of high encapsulation efficiency and less particle size with a remarkably homodisperse size distribution. Based on X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry the analysis, it has been demonstrated that there could be interactions of astaxanthin with the lipid bilayer, resulting in the forming of astaxanthin-loaded nanoliposomes. The thermal gravimetric analysis revealed that the thermal stability of astaxanthin after encapsulation in nanoliposomes was remarkably enhanced as compared to astaxanthin alone. Furthermore, encapsulation could greatly enhance the water dispersibility of astaxanthin. This study also confirmed that encapsulation of astaxanthin in nanoliposomes could be an effective way to supply astaxanthin continuously in the body. The effects of astaxanthin incorporation on structural changes of the liposomal membrane were investigated through steady-state fluorescence measurements. This study revealed that the incorporation of astaxanthin into the lipid bilayer decreased membrane fluidity, but increased micropolarity in the membrane within a certain range of astaxanthin concentrations. Additionally, it indicated that the encapsulation of astaxanthin in the lipid bilayer could be applied to modulate the structural properties of membranes.
EGFR signaling coordinates patterning with cell survival during Drosophila epidermal development

Extensive apoptosis is often seen in patterning mutants, suggesting that tissues can detect and eliminate potentially harmful mis-specified cells. Here we show that the pattern of apoptosis in the embryonic epidermis of Drosophila is not a response to fate mis-specification but can instead be explained by the limiting availability of pro-survival signalling molecules released from locations determined by patterning information. In wild type embryos, the segmentation cascade elicits the segmental production of several EGFR ligands, including the TGF-alpha, Spitz and the Neuregulin, Vein. This leads to an undulating pattern of signalling activity, which prevents expression of the pro-apoptotic gene hid throughout the epidermis. In segmentation mutants, where specific peaks of EGFR ligands fail to form, gaps in signalling activity appear, leading to coincident hid upregulation and subsequent cell death. These data provide a mechanistic understanding of how cell survival, and thus appropriate tissue size, is made contingent on correct patterning.
Predation-sensitive grouping and habitat use by eastern grey kangaroos: a field experiment

Abstract Eastern grey kangaroos, Macropus giganteus , are thought to respond to high risks of predation by foraging closer to refuge and by forming larger groups, but females with newly emergent offspring mostly forage alone, a response thought to reduce predation risk on the latter. I tested these hypotheses for wild kangaroo populations in southeastern Australia, using a field-based experimental reduction of a potential predator, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes . I monitored kangaroo foraging behaviour in two fox removal and two control sites by counting scats at 30 and 150 m from refuge during September 1994 and 1995 (after 5 and 16 months of fox control). I also monitored kangaroo group sizes in all sites, using monthly or bimonthly direct observations over 22 months of fox reduction. In both years, fox removal caused kangaroos to deposit relatively more scats further from refuge than in control sites where fox numbers were more than 85% higher. This suggests strongly that kangaroos spend more time foraging close to refuge when predation risk is high. Group sizes were also smaller in fox removal sites although only during June–October when the majority of females had large pouch young. In November–March, group size decreased in all sites owing to the solitary behaviour of many females with young at foot. However, where foxes were removed, the mean group size of such females was smaller than in control sites and females were also more often alone where foxes were removed. These results suggest that solitary behaviour increases rather than decreases predation risk. This experiment highlights that grouping behaviour is risk sensitive and that some individuals accept higher risks of predation to mitigate other costs of group foraging.
Environmental and genetic background of tiptoe-initiating behaviour in the dwarfspider Erigone atra


Ballooning is a widespread behavioural trait in invertebrates, which enhances passive aerial dispersal. We investigated the influence of common lineage (family effect) and postnatal environmental conditions on latency to initiate preballooning tiptoe behaviour (ballooning latency) in the dwarfspider Erigone atra (Blackwall, 1841). The ballooning latency of individual spiders was tested in a specially designed test chamber. In a 3-week experiment, in which the spiders were fed only during the first day of each week, ballooning latency had low repeatability at weekly intervals. Ballooning latency declined with increasing food deprivation during the first week but not during the second and the third weeks. At intervals of less than 1 h, however, ballooning latency showed high repeatability. We also investigated whether maternal and postnatal environmental conditions (i.e. during juvenile development) influence phenotypic variation in ballooning latency. We reared offspring of several families under two feeding and two temperature conditions. Environmental conditions explained more variation in ballooning latency than family. Ballooning latency was lower in spiders reared at 20°C than in those reared at 15°C. In addition, spiderlings fed four prey per 3 days were faster ballooners than those fed only four prey per week. An interaction between factors was present, indicating the existence of different reaction norms between the two environmental conditions. The expression of ballooning latency behaviour thus strongly depends on current nutrition, feeding history and the feeding and temperature conditions during juvenile development. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Profiling Rest Intervals between Sets and Associated Factors in Resistance Training Participants

The aims of this study were: (1) to report on and analyse rest interval (RI) control between sets adopted by resistance training (RT) participants; (2) to evaluate how RT participants control RIs; and (3) to describe the factors associated with controlling RIs, such as, gender, RT experience, and professional guidance. Four hundred and fifteen volunteers (198 women and 217 men) answered a questionnaire about RI control. Among the participants, 89.9% (n = 373) reported receiving guidance during physical training, of which 74.5% (n = 278) received instruction from a sports and exercise professional. The proportion of subjects that reported controlling RIs was 71.6% (n = 297). Most subjects that reported controlling RIs (95.0%, n = 282) reported adopting an RI of 60 s or less. There is no association of RI control with gender and professional guidance. The RI adopted by most of the participants might be considered short (<60 s), which is not in line with most RT guidelines. The results of the current study could be used to improve attitudes toward RT.
Entrepreneurial Strategies and Factors Stimulate the Business of Tech Startups

Enterprising a startup business is depending on personal experiences of investors and their social relationships with all stockholders. Startup entrepreneurs are typically involved in the qualitative evaluations of their business counterparts operating in the market. However, startup entrepreneurs shall look at what caused them to fail in their ventures, they examine the reasons for their failures, and finally, entrepreneurs develop a culture of strategic thinking for getting success in the business. In this context, this paper examined the entrepreneurial strategies of tech startups and deliberated the factors that stimulate the growth of a tech startup business in India. However, initiatives of the government to promote tech startups in India also exposed in this paper.
Mathematics Preservice Teachers Learning About English Language Learners Through Task-Based Interviews and Noticing

This article describes the 3rd cycle of an intervention in a mathematics content course that was designed to foster awareness among middle school mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) of the challenges that English language learner (ELL) students face and the resources they draw on as they learn mathematics and communicate their thinking in English-only classrooms. Pairs of PSTs engaged 2 different ELL students in a videotaped task-based interview using 4 measurement tasks. Following each interview, the PSTs wrote a structured report guided by Mason’s (2002) framework of noticing. The results of the intervention indicated that the PSTs went beyond awareness of ELLs’ needs and challenges and also adopted strategies outlined in the literature that were aligned with best practices for teaching ELLs. The article also discusses the potential of the intervention and how it can be used by other mathematics educators.
Direct Network Transfer: Transfer Learning of Sentence Embeddings for Semantic Similarity

Sentence encoders, which produce sentence embeddings using neural networks, are typically evaluated by how well they transfer to downstream tasks. This includes semantic similarity, an important task in natural language understanding. Although there has been much work dedicated to building sentence encoders, the accompanying transfer learning techniques have received relatively little attention. In this paper, we propose a transfer learning setting specialized for semantic similarity, which we refer to as direct network transfer. Through experiments on several standard text similarity datasets, we show that applying direct network transfer to existing encoders can lead to state-of-the-art performance. Additionally, we compare several approaches to transfer sentence encoders to semantic similarity tasks, showing that the choice of transfer learning setting greatly affects the performance in many cases, and differs by encoder and dataset.
Biomaterials Meet Microfluidics: From Synthesis Technologies to Biological Applications

Microfluidics is characterized by laminar flow at micro-scale dimension, high surface to volume ratio, and markedly improved heat/mass transfer. In addition, together with advantages of large-scale integration and flexible manipulation, microfluidic technology has been rapidly developed as one of the most important platforms in the field of functional biomaterial synthesis. Compared to biomaterials assisted by conventional strategies, functional biomaterials synthesized by microfluidics are with superior properties and performances, due to their controllable morphology and composition, which have shown great advantages and potential in the field of biomedicine, biosensing, and tissue engineering. Take the significance of microfluidic engineered biomaterials into consideration; this review highlights the microfluidic synthesis technologies and biomedical applications of materials. We divide microfluidic based biomaterials into four kinds. According to the material dimensionality, it includes: 0D (particulate materials), 1D (fibrous materials), 2D (sheet materials), and 3D (construct forms of materials). In particular, micro/nano-particles and micro/nano-fibers are introduced respectively. This classification standard could include all of the microfluidic biomaterials, and we envision introducing a comprehensive and overall evaluation and presentation of microfluidic based biomaterials and their applications.