Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antiretroviral Therapy in Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Sooty Mangabeys: Implications for AIDS Pathogenesis

ABSTRACT Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected sooty mangabeys (SMs) do not develop AIDS despite high levels of viremia. Key factors involved in the benign course of SIV infection in SMs are the absence of chronic immune activation and low levels of infection of CD4+ central memory (TCM) and stem cell memory (TSCM) T cells. To better understand the role of virus replication in determining the main features of SIV infection in SMs, we treated 12 SMs with a potent antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen for 2 to 12 months. We observed that ART suppressed viremia to <60 copies/ml of plasma in 10 of 12 animals and induced a variable decrease in the level of cell-associated SIV DNA in peripheral blood (average changes of 0.9-, 1.1-, 1.5-, and 3.7-fold for CD4+ transitional memory [TTM], TCM, effector memory [TEM], and TSCM cells, respectively). ART-treated SIV-infected SMs showed (i) increased percentages of circulating CD4+ TCM cells, (ii) increased levels of CD4+ T cells in the rectal mucosa, and (iii) significant declines in the frequencies of HLA-DR+ CD8+ T cells in the blood and rectal mucosa. In addition, we observed that ART interruption resulted in rapid viral rebound in all SIV-infected SMs, indicating that the virus reservoir persists for at least a year under ART despite lower infection levels of CD4+ TCM and TSCM cells than those seen in pathogenic SIV infections of macaques. Overall, these data indicate that ART induces specific immunological changes in SIV-infected SMs, thus suggesting that virus replication affects immune function even in the context of this clinically benign infection. IMPORTANCE Studies of natural, nonpathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of African monkeys have provided important insights into the mechanisms responsible for the progression to AIDS during pathogenic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of humans and SIV infection of Asian macaques. In this study, for the first time, we treated SIV-infected sooty mangabeys, a natural host for the infection, with a potent antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen for periods ranging from 2 to 12 months and monitored in detail how suppression of virus replication affected the main virological and immunological features of this nonpathogenic infection. The observed findings provide novel information on both the pathogenesis of residual immunological disease under ART during pathogenic infection and the mechanisms involved in virus persistence during primate lentiviral infections.
Ligand‐directed signalling within the opioid receptor family

The classic model of GPCR activation proposed that all agonists induce the same active receptor conformation. However, research over the last decade has shown that GPCRs exist in multiple conformations, and that agonists can stabilize different active states. The distinct receptor conformations induced by ligands result in distinct receptor–effector complexes, which produce varying levels of activation or inhibition of subsequent signalling cascades. This concept, referred to as ligand‐directed signalling or biased agonism has important biological and therapeutic implications. Opioid receptors are Gi/o GPCRs and regulate a number of important physiological functions, including pain, reward, mood, stress, gastrointestinal transport and respiration. A number of in vitro studies have shown biased agonism at the three opioid receptors (µ, δ and κ); however, in vivo consequences of this phenomenon have only recently been demonstrated. For the µ and δ opioid receptors, the majority of reported ligand selective behavioural effects are observed as differential adaptations to repeated drug administration. In terms of the κ opioid receptor, clear links between ligand‐selective signalling events and specific in vivo responses have been recently characterized. Drugs for all three receptors are either already used or are being developed for clinical applications. There is clearly a need to better characterize the specific events that occur following agonist stimulation and how these relate to in vivo responses. This understanding could eventually lead to the development of tailor‐made pharmacotherapies where advantageous drug effects can be selectively targeted over adverse effects.
Anti-Diabetic Effect of Bryophyllum pinnatum Leaves

: Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that affects the quality of life in terms of physical health, social and psychological well-being. In spite of the enormous progress in the treatment of diabetes using existing commercial drugs, such as, insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents, the quest and search for new drugs is imperative due to several limitations of the commercial drugs. In addition, the existing diabetic drugs are expensive and unaffordable by the rural populace in the developing countries. Therefore, the present study investigates and demonstrates the anti-diabetic property of aqueous extract of Bryophyllum pinnatum leaves. The anti-diabetic effect of the aqueous extract was demonstrated using diabetic rats (albino rats) as models, because of their similar blood components and physiology to human beings. At the same time, the anti-diabetic effect of the aqueous extract was compared to that of a sample containing a mixture of the extract and a commercial diabetic medicine, glibenclamide. The albino rats were made diabetic by injecting them with glucose D to raise their blood glucose level (BGL). Then a specified dose of aqueous extract of Bryophyllum pinnatum (BP) leaves was administered on the experimental diabetic rats, and their BGL was measured and recorded. The results showed a significant drop in the BGL of the diabetic rats to a value close to normal blood glucose level within 120 minutes when only aqueous extract from BP leaves was used. When a sample containing a mixture of the aqueous extract and glibenclamide was administered, a further drop in BGL was observed. Therefore, the results reveal that aqueous extract of Bryophyllum pinnatum leaves have significant anti-diabetic properties, and that the performance of the existing drugs (glibenclamide) could be enhanced with the use of the aqueous extract. Bryophyllum pinnatum, Blood glucose level, albino rats
Anoplocephaloides dentatoides sp . n . from the Gray Red-backed Vole ,

Small, wedge-shape d cestodes , Anoplocephaloides dentatoides sp. n. , were found from the terminal ileum of gray red-backed voles, Clethrionomys rufocanus bedfordiae, in Hokkaido, Japan. Prevalenc e in 48 yearling voles was 33% at 1 locality (43°12'N, 141°27'E) in the early summer of 1989. Morphologically, the new species most closel y resembles the European form or population of Anoplocephaloides dentata (Galli-Valerio, 1905) Rausch, 1976, which is known principally from Microtus spp. in wester n Eurasi a but differs from the latter in the following points: larger cirrus sac, which does not substantiall y cross the poral excretor y canals, female organs situated more centrall y in segments , and smaller eggs. In addition, these 2 species apparentl y differ in host specificity; A. dentatoides appear s limited to voles of the genus Clethrionomys, whereas A dentata is primarily a parasit e of Microtus spp. (a genus of vole not currentl y known to occur in Hokkaido, Japan) and has only been incidentall y reported from red-backed voles in the Palaearctic .
Dynamic Packet Length Optimization in Wireless Sensor Network

In wireless sensor networks, dynamic packet length control is more efficient in terms of channel utilization and energy efficiency. In previous packet length optimizations for sensor network often employ a fixed optimal packet length scheme, while dynamic packet length provide accurate radio link estimation and increase system throughput. The adaptation of dynamic packet length is 802.11 wireless system. The packet delivery ratio keeps high i.e. 95% above and link estimated error within 10% for 95% link. The experiments provide optimization of dynamic packet length achieves best performances related to the previous experiments.
Enhancement of photosynthetic carbon assimilation efficiency by phytoplankton in the future coastal ocean

A mesocosm experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of photosynthetic performance on the energetic balance of coastal phytoplankton, in relation to community production and autotrophic phytoplankton biomass in future coastal oceans. Natural phytoplankton assemblages were incubated in field mesocosms under ambient condition (control: ca. 400 μatm CO 2 and ambient temperature), and two sets of potential future ocean conditions (acidification: ca. 900 μatm CO 2 and ambient temperature; greenhouse: ca. 900 μatm CO 2 and 3 °C warmer). The photosynthetic performances were estimated by in vivo fluorometry (effective quantum yield (Φ PSII ), steady-state light response curves (LCs)) and in situ incorporation of 14 C (photosynthesis-irradiance curves). The Φ PSII and rETR m,LC (relative maximum electron transport rate) clearly reduced under acidification, in particular, when phytoplankton were exposed to high light levels. However, P B max (maximum photosynthetic rate) was the same in the ambient and acidification conditions. Thus, phytoplankton utilized less light under acidification condition, but could still assimilate a similar amount of carbon compared to the ambient condition. The P B max and α (photosynthetic efficiency) under greenhouse condition were significantly higher than those under ambient condition without any difference in Φ PSII , rETR m,LC and α ,LC (electron transport efficiency) between the treatments. Therefore, phytoplankton utilized the same amount of light under greenhouse condition, but could assimilate more carbon than under ambient condition. As a result, Chl a normalized primary production was higher in greenhouse than in other conditions. Nevertheless, the community production did not change between the experimental treatments. The main reason for the lack of a change in primary production under future climate conditions is the control of autotrophic phytoplankton biomass by grazing. Consequently, acidification and greenhouse environments have a potential to increase growth and primary production of phytoplankton by enhancing inorganic carbon assimilation efficiency when top-down regulation is negligible.
Inference for Structural Impulse Responses in Svar-Garch Models

Conditional heteroskedasticity can be exploited to identify the structural vector autoregressions (SVAR) but the implications for inference on structural impulse responses have not been investigated in detail yet. We consider the conditionally heteroskedastic SVAR-GARCH model and propose a bootstrap-based inference procedure on structural impulse responses. We compare the finite-sample properties of our bootstrap method with those of two competing bootstrap methods via extensive Monte Carlo simulations. We also present a three-step estimation procedure of the parameters of the SVAR-GARCH model that promises numerical stability even in scenarios with small sample sizes and/or large dimensions.
Bifurcation analysis of two coupled Jansen-Rit neural mass models

We investigate how changes in network structure can lead to pathological oscillations similar to those observed in epileptic brain. Specifically, we conduct a bifurcation analysis of a network of two Jansen-Rit neural mass models, representing two cortical regions, to investigate different aspects of its behavior with respect to changes in the input and interconnection gains. The bifurcation diagrams, along with simulated EEG time series, exhibit diverse behaviors when varying the input, coupling strength, and network structure. We show that this simple network of neural mass models can generate various oscillatory activities, including delta wave activity, which has not been previously reported through analysis of a single Jansen-Rit neural mass model. Our analysis shows that spike-wave discharges can occur in a cortical region as a result of input changes in the other region, which may have important implications for epilepsy treatment. The bifurcation analysis is related to clinical data in two case studies.
Bacterial Communities of Diatoms Display Strong Conservation Across Strains and Time

Interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria play important roles in shaping the microenvironment surrounding these organisms and in turn influence global biogeochemical cycles. This microenvironment, known as the phycosphere, is presumed to shape the bacterial diversity around phytoplankton and thus stimulate a diverse array of interactions between both groups. Although many studies have attempted to characterize bacterial communities that associate and interact with phytoplankton, bias in bacterial cultivation and consistency and persistence of bacterial communities across phytoplankton isolates likely impede the understanding of these microbial associations. Here, we isolate four strains of the diatom Asterionellopsis glacialis and three strains of the diatom Nitzschia longissima and show through metabarcoding of the bacterial 16S rDNA gene that though each species possesses a unique bacterial community, the bacterial composition across strains from the same species are highly conserved at the genus level. Cultivation of all seven strains in the laboratory for longer than 1 year resulted in only small changes to the bacterial composition, suggesting that despite strong pressures from laboratory culturing conditions associations between these diatoms and their bacterial communities are robust. Specific operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to the Roseobacter-clade appear to be conserved across all strains and time, suggesting their importance to diatoms. In addition, we isolate a range of cultivable bacteria from one of these cultures, A. glacialis strain A3, including several strains of Shimia marina and Nautella sp. that appear closely related to OTUs conserved across all strains and times. Coculturing of A3 with some of its cultivable bacteria as well as other diatom-associated bacteria shows a wide range of responses that include enhancing diatom growth. Cumulatively, these findings suggest that phytoplankton possess unique microbiomes that are consistent across strains and temporal scales.
Effect of gear shift and engine start losses on control strategies for hybrid electric vehicles

In this paper, energetic loss models in the events of shifting gear and starting engine in a parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicle equipped with an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) will be introduced. The optimal control algorithm for the start-stop, power split and gear shift problem based on Dynamic Programming-Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle control approach is used to evaluate the effect of gear shift and engine start losses on the optimal solution. Furthermore, with preview route information available, a model predictive control algorithm is utilized to investigate the achievable fuel savings with respect to the prediction horizon. Under influence of the gear shift loss, simulation results of the prototype hybrid passenger car disclose a superior fuel efficiency property of the powershift AMT over its normal AMT counterpart. Sensitivity analysis of the traction force interruption time in a gear shift process can give a new perception on fuel economy benefit of powershift transmissions (e.g. automatic, dual clutch, powershift AMT, etc.) over a normal AMT. The study also reveals a minimum prediction length of 4s required for the design of such a realtime implementable controller to get the possible maximum fuel economy level under the impact of the engine start loss.
Top-Down Dysregulation—From ADHD to Emotional Instability

Deficient cognitive top-down executive control has long been hypothesized to underlie inattention and impulsivity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, top-down cognitive dysfunction explains a modest proportion of the ADHD phenotype whereas the salience of emotional dysregulation is being noted increasingly. Together, these two types of dysfunction have the potential to account for more of the phenotypic variance in patients diagnosed with ADHD. We develop this idea and suggest that top-down dysregulation constitutes a gradient extending from mostly non-emotional top-down control processes (i.e., “cool” executive functions) to mainly emotional regulatory processes (including “hot” executive functions). While ADHD has been classically linked primarily to the former, conditions involving emotional instability such as borderline and antisocial personality disorder are closer to the other. In this model, emotional subtypes of ADHD are located at intermediate levels of this gradient. Neuroanatomically, gradations in “cool” processing appear to be related to prefrontal dysfunction involving dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and caudal anterior cingulate cortex (cACC), while “hot” processing entails orbitofrontal cortex and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). A similar distinction between systems related to non-emotional and emotional processing appears to hold for the basal ganglia (BG) and the neuromodulatory effects of the dopamine system. Overall we suggest that these two systems could be divided according to whether they process non-emotional information related to the exteroceptive environment (associated with “cool” regulatory circuits) or emotional information related to the interoceptive environment (associated with “hot” regulatory circuits). We propose that this framework can integrate ADHD, emotional traits in ADHD, borderline and antisocial personality disorder into a related cluster of mental conditions.
Ultrasonographic features of the normal filum terminale

Purpose The filum terminale (FT) is a fibrous band that connects the conus medullaris to the posterior body of the coccyx. Considering the advances of ultrasonography (US) technology and improvements in the resolution of US images, we aimed to re-establish the US features of the normal FT in infants younger than 6 months of age. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 30 spinal US scans, stored as video clips. The internal structure of the FT and the marginal echogenicity of the FT were assessed, and transverse and longitudinal US were compared. Results On US, a central echogenic line was defined in 18 (60%) normal FTs; however, there was no visible internal structure in 12 cases (40%). The marginal echogenicity of the FT was hyperechoic in eight cases (27%) in comparison with the cauda equina and was isoechoic in 22 cases (73%). In differentiating the normal FT from the surrounding nerve roots, transverse US was superior in 18 cases (60%), while longitudinal US was superior in two cases (7%). Conclusion On US, the central canal of the FT was defined in 60% of normal FTs. Hyperechoic marginal echogenicity and the use of transverse US were helpful in distinguishing the normal FT from the nerve roots of the cauda equina.
Quantifying the Influence of MT Output in the Translators’ Performance: A Case Study in Technical Translation

This paper presents experiments on the use of machine translation output for technical translation. MT output was used to produced translation memories that were used with a commercial CAT tool. Our experiments investigate the impact of the use of different translation memories containing MT output in translations’ quality and speed compared to the same task without the use of translation memory. We evaluated the performance of 15 novice translators translating technical English texts into German. Results suggest that translators are on average over 28% faster when using TM.
Articulatory gestures as phonological units

We have argued that dynamically defined articulatory gestures are the appropriate units to serve as the atoms of phonological representation. Gestures are a natural unit, not only because they involve task-oriented movements of the articulators, but because they arguably emerge as prelinguistic discrete units of action in infants. The use of gestures, rather than constellations of gestures as in Root nodes, as basic units of description makes it possible to characterise a variety of language patterns in which gestural organisation varies. Such patterns range from the misorderings of disordered speech through phonological rules involving gestural overlap and deletion to historical changes in which the overlap of gestures provides a crucial explanatory element. Gestures can participate in language patterns involving overlap because they are spatiotemporal in nature and therefore have internal duration. In addition, gestures differ from current theories of feature geometry by including the constriction degree as an inherent part of the gesture. Since the gestural constrictions occur in the vocal tract, which can be charactensed in terms of tube geometry, all the levels of the vocal tract will be constricted, leading to a constriction degree hierarchy. The values of the constriction degree at each higher level node in the hierarchy can be predicted on the basis of the percolation principles and tube geometry. In this way, the use of gestures as atoms can be reconciled with the use of Constriction degree at various levels in the vocal tract (or feature geometry) hierarchy. The phonological notation developed for the gestural approach might usefully be incorporated, in whole or in part, into other phonologies. Five components of the notation were discussed, all derived from the basic premise that gestures are the primitive phonological unit, organised into gestural scores. These components include (1) constriction degree as a subordinate of the articulator node and (2) stiffness (duration) as a subordinate of the articulator node. That is, both CD and duration are inherent to the gesture. The gestures are arranged in gestural scores using (3) articulatory tiers, with (4) the relevant geometry (articulatory, tube or feature) indicated to the left of the score and (5) structural information above the score, if desired. Association lines can also be used to indicate how the gestures are combined into phonological units. Thus, gestures can serve both as characterisations of articulatory movement data and as the atoms of phonological representation.
P 5 G : A Bio-inspired Algorithm for the Superfluid Management of 5 G Networks

5G is expected to become the dominant technology in the forthcoming years. In this work, we consider a 5G Superfluid network, as an outcome of the H2020 project SUPERFLUIDITY. The project exploits the concept of Reusable Functional Block (RFB), a virtual resource that can be deployed on top of 5G physical nodes. In this work, we target the management of the RFBs in a Superfluid network to deliver a high definition video to the users. Specifically, we design an efficient algorithm, called P5G, which is based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Our solution targets different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including the maximization of user throughput, or the minimization of the number of used 5G nodes. Results, obtained over a representative scenario, show that P5G is able to wisely manage the RFBs, while always guaranteeing a large throughput to the users.