Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual stimulus characteristics that elicit tracking and striking in the praying mantises Parasphendale affinis, Popa spurca and Sphodromantis lineola

SUMMARY We tested three species of praying mantis, Parasphendale affinis, Popa spurca and Sphodromantis lineola, with computer-generated stimuli that differed in size, contrast, configuration and movement pattern to determine the effects of these parameters on visual tracking and striking behavior. Overall, black disks moving erratically against a white background were strong releasers of both behaviors. When stimulus presentation order was randomized by size, P. affinis and P. spurca struck at progressively higher rates as the stimuli enlarged up to 44 deg; S. lineola struck most at intermediate sized (10–20 deg) disks. When disks were size-ordered from small to large, P. affinis and S. lineola struck at the smaller disks at higher rates; however, when the order was reversed, the early appearance of large disks suppressed subsequent responses to the smaller disks. Stimulus order did not differentially affect the responses of P. spurca. All species responded at higher rates to black disks moving against a white background versus the reverse. However, only P. spurca and S. lineola responded at higher rates to relatively darker grey disks, only P. affinis responded to mottled grey disks moving against an identically patterned background, and only P. spurca struck more frequently in response to rectangular stimuli oriented parallel (versus orthogonal) to their direction of movement. In conjunction with data on other species, these results support the hypothesis that praying mantises recognize prey based on assessment of several category-specific, spatiotemporal features, e.g. size, contrast, speed, movement pattern and leading edge length.
Bovine Oviduct Epithelial Cells Dedifferentiate Partly in Culture, While Maintaining their Ability to Improve Early Embryo Development Rate and Quality.

There are convincing arguments to suggest that the success of early reproductive events is reliant on a satisfactory dialogue between gametes-embryo and the oviduct epithelium. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize an in vitro model to study these interactions. Cattle zygotes produced in vitro were cultured in either SOF or TCM-199 in the presence or absence of bovine oviduct cell monolayers (BOEC), under 20% or 5% O2 . The embryonic development rate and its quality (cell numbers, cryosurvival) were evaluated, as were the BOEC contents in 11 candidate transcripts (real-time PCR) at different time points. A BOEC co-culture did indeed increase the rate of development in both media under 5% O2 (41 vs 27% and 28 vs 10% of Day 8 blastocysts in SOF and TCM-199, respectively; p < 0.05). The effect of BOEC on the developmental rate was more pronounced under 20% O2 (35 vs 6% and 27 vs 4% of Day 8 blastocysts in SOF and TCM-199, respectively; p < 0.05). BOEC significantly increased the embryonic cell count in TCM-199 (122.5 ± 11.1 vs 70.3 ± 9.6; p < 0.05) and embryonic cryosurvival in both media. The expression levels of SOD, FGF2 and TGF-β1 in BOEC remained steady during culture, although mRNA levels of OGP, C3, PGR and ESR2 were clearly reduced, suggesting a dedifferentiation of BOEC during culture. However, SSP1 and GPX4 transcripts were slightly increased during culture, this rise becoming significant by the end of the culture period. In conclusion, our co-culture system with bovine oviduct epithelial cells used for the development of bovine zygotes produced in vitro enhanced blastocyst formation and above all the quality of the resulting embryos, which was associated with specific transcriptomic changes.
Trauma equals danger—damage control by the immune system

Traumatic injuries induce a complex host response that disrupts immune system homeostasis and predisposes patients to opportunistic infections and inflammatory complications. The response to injuries varies considerably by type and severity, as well as by individual variables, such as age, sex, and genetics. These variables make studying the impact of trauma on the immune system challenging. Nevertheless, advances have been made in understanding how injuries influence immune system function as well as the immune cells and pathways involved in regulating the response to injuries. This review provides an overview of current knowledge about how traumatic injuries affect immune system phenotype and function. We discuss the current ideas that traumatic injuries induce a unique type of a response that may be triggered by a combination of endogenous danger signals, including alarmins, DAMPs, self‐antigens, and cytokines. Additionally, we review and propose strategies for redirecting injury responses to help restore immune system homeostasis.
Deterministic Parsing of Syntactic Non-fluencies

It is often remarked that natural language, used naturally, is unnaturally ungrammatical. *Spontaneous speech contains all manner of false starts, hesitations, and self-corrections that disrupt the well-formedness of strings. It is a mystery then, that despite this apparent wide deviation from grammatical norms, people have little difficulty understanding the non-fluent speech that is the essential medium of everyday life. And it is a still greater mystery that children can succeed in acquiring the grammar of a language on the basis of evidence provided by a mixed set of apparently grammatical and ungrammatical strings.
Pure-Tone Masking Patterns for Monopolar and Phantom Electrical Stimulation in Cochlear Implants

Objectives: Monopolar stimulation of the most apical electrode produces the lowest pitch sensation in cochlear implants clinically. A phantom electrode that uses out-of-phase electrical stimulation between the most apical and the neighboring basal electrode can produce a lower pitch sensation than that associated with the most apical electrode. However, because of the absence of contacts beyond the apical tip of the array, the ability to assess the spread of electrical excitation associated with phantom stimulation is limited in the typical cochlear implant subject with no residual hearing. In the present study, the spread of electrical excitation associated with monopolar and phantom stimulation of the most apical electrode was assessed using electrical masking of acoustic thresholds in cochlear implant subjects with residual, low-frequency, acoustic hearing. Design: Eight subjects with an Advanced Bionics cochlear implant and residual hearing in the implanted ear participated in this study (nine ears in total). Unmasked and masked thresholds for acoustic pure tones were measured at 125, 250, 500, 750, 1000, and 2000 Hz in the presence of monopolar and phantom electrode stimulation presented at the apical-most end of the array. The current compensation for phantom electrode stimulation was fixed at 50%. The two electrical maskers were loudness balanced. Differences between the unmasked and masked acoustic thresholds can be attributed to (1) the electrical stimulus–induced interference in the transduction/conduction of the acoustic signal through cochlear periphery and the auditory nerve and/or (2) masking at the level of the central auditory system. Results: The results show a significant elevation in pure-tone thresholds in the presence of the monopolar and phantom electrical maskers. The unmasked thresholds were subtracted from the masked thresholds to derive masking patterns as a function of the acoustic probe frequency. The masking patterns show that phantom stimulation was able to produce more masking than that associated with the monopolar stimulation of the most apical electrode. Conclusion: These results suggest that for some cochlear implant subjects, phantom electrode stimulation can shift the neural stimulation pattern more apically in the cochlea, which is consistent with reports that phantom electrode stimulation produces lower pitch sensations than those associated with monopolar stimulation of the most apical electrode alone.
On Rational Interpolation-Based List-Decoding and List-Decoding Binary Goppa Codes

We derive the Wu list-decoding algorithm for generalized Reed-Solomon (GRS) codes by using Gröbner bases over modules and the Euclidean algorithm as the initial algorithm instead of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm. We present a novel method for constructing the interpolation polynomial fast. We give a new application of the Wu list decoder by decoding irreducible binary Goppa codes up to the binary Johnson radius. Finally, we point out a connection between the governing equations of the Wu algorithm and the Guruswami-Sudan algorithm, immediately leading to equality in the decoding range and a duality in the choice of parameters needed for decoding, both in the case of GRS codes and in the case of Goppa codes.
A Novel Precoder Design for MIMO Multicasting with MMSE-DFE Receivers

A novel precoding scheme is proposed for MIMO multicasting systems, using the criterion of maximizing the minimal signal-to-interference-plus- noise ratio (SINR) among multiple data streams, while considering the minimum mean-squared-error decision feedback equalizer (MMSE-DFE) at each user side. We decompose the precoding matrix into a transformation matrix multiplied by a unitary matrix, and perform the design process within two steps. In the first step, the transformation matrix is obtained by solving a convex optimization and using Gaussian randomization. In the second one, the unitary matrix is iteratively optimized by decomposing the original multiple-stream problem into several simplified dual-stream sub-problems. At each iteration, the dual-stream sub-problem is converted into a real-valued optimization problem equivalently, which can be solved by an iterative approach based on the Lozano's algorithm. Simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme achieves better performance in terms of both achievable rate and symbol error rate than the other existing schemes.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging Demonstrates Brainstem and Cerebellar Abnormalities in Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome

Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) patients show reduced breathing drive during sleep, decreased hypoxic and hypercapnic ventilatory responses, and autonomic and affective deficits, suggesting both brainstem and forebrain injuries. Forebrain damage was previously described in CCHS, but methodological limitations precluded detection of brainstem injury, a concern because genetic mutations in CCHS target brainstem autonomic nuclei. To assess brainstem and cerebellar areas, we used diffusion tensor imaging-based measures, namely axial diffusivity, reflecting water diffusion parallel to fibers, and sensitive to axonal injury, and radial diffusivity, measuring diffusion perpendicular to fibers, and indicative of myelin injury. Diffusion tensor imaging was performed in 12 CCHS and 26 controls, and axial and radial diffusivity maps were compared between groups using analysis of covariance (covariates; age and gender). Increased axial diffusivity in CCHS appeared within the lateral medulla and clusters with injury extended from the dorsal midbrain through the periaqueductal gray, raphé, and superior cerebellar decussation, ventrally to the basal-pons. Cerebellar cortex and deep nuclei, and the superior and inferior cerebellar peduncles showed increased radial diffusivity. Midbrain, pontine, and lateral medullary structures, and the cerebellum and its fiber systems are injured in CCHS, likely contributing to the characteristics found in the syndrome.
A case study of hardware and software synthesis in ForSyDe

ForSyDe (FORmal SYstem DEsign) is a methodology which addresses the design of SoC applications which may contain control as well as data flow dominated parts. Starting with a formal system specification, which captures the functionality of the system, it provides refinement methods inside the functional domain to transform the abstract specification into an efficient implementation model which serves as a starting point for synthesis into hardware and software. In this paper we illustrate with a case study of a digital equalizer how a ForSyDe model can be synthesized into a hardware, a software or a combined hardware/software implementation.
Shark: scaling file servers via cooperative caching

Network file systems offer a powerful, transparent interface for accessing remote data. Unfortunately, in current network file systems like NFS, clients fetch data from a central file server, inherently limiting the system's ability to scale to many clients. While recent distributed (peer-to-peer) systems have managed to eliminate this scalability bottleneck, they are often exceedingly complex and provide non-standard models for administration and accountability. We present Shark, a novel system that retains the best of both worlds--the scalability of distributed systems with the simplicity of central servers. Shark is a distributed file system designed for large-scale, wide-area deployment, while also providing a drop-in replacement for local-area file systems. Shark introduces a novel cooperative-caching mechanism, in which mutually-distrustful clients can exploit each others' file caches to reduce load on an origin file server. Using a distributed index, Shark clients find nearby copies of data, even when files originate from different servers. Performance results show that Shark can greatly reduce server load and improve client latency for read-heavy workloads both in the wide and local areas, while still remaining competitive for single clients in the local area. Thus, Shark enables modestly-provisioned file servers to scale to hundreds of read-mostly clients while retaining traditional usability, consistency, security, and accountability.
HIV Therapy with Unknown HBV Status is Responsible for Higher Rate of HBV Genome Variability in Ethiopia

Background In Ethiopia, HBV and HIV are co-circulating. Since patients are not routinely tested for HBV, the use of antiretroviral drugs could contribute to unintended HBV drug resistance and surface gene variability during HIV coinfection. Methods A total of 161 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive sera from 58 HIV-coinfected and 103 drug-naive HBV-monoinfected individuals were characterized for HBV drug resistance and immune escape HBsAg variants. HBV polymerase/surface gene fragment of 716 bp was analysed by direct sequencing. Results In 34 out of 161 study subjects (21.1%) HBV drug resistance mutations (DRMs) were detected with a frequency of 3.1% rtL80F/I, 0.6% rtA181V, 1.2% rtT184S, 6.2% rtV173L, 10.6% rtL180M, 10.6% rtM204V/I and 8.1% rtI233V. The prevalence of the major DRMs in HBV–HIV-coinfected individuals was significantly higher than monoinfected individuals (41.4% versus 10.7%). Lamivudine selected DRMs, that is, rtL180M (29.3%) and rtM204V/I (29.3%) and rtV173L (15.5%) were more prevalent in HBV–HIV-coinfected individuals but absent in HBV-monoinfected individuals. Despite the finding that rtL180M and rtM204V/I were higher among ART-experienced individuals, the overall prevalence of DRMs (48.0% versus 36.4%) showed no significance difference among antiretroviral therapy (ART) status. The study also revealed higher frequency and heterogeneity of putative and known immune escape HBsAg mutations both in the major hydrophilic region (MHR; 68.3%) and outside the MHR (82.5%) of the surface gene. In particular, the ‘a’ determinant surface gene mutations (sT125S, sA128V, sQ129H/R, sT131I, sC137S, sT143M, sD144D/E, sG145R, sT148P) and the majority of clustered/multiple as well as drug selected immune escape HBsAg mutations were more prevalent in HBV–HIV-coinfected individuals. Conclusions HIV therapy without HBV co-management in Ethiopia fosters emergence and circulation of HBV variants of public health importance. It is highly recommended to include HBV testing and co-management as part of routine HIV care programmes for a better ART selection.
The algebra of transition matrices for the AdS 5 × S 5 superstring

We consider integrability properties of the superstring on AdS5 × S5 background and construct a new one parameter family of currents which satisfies the vanishing curvature condition. We present the hamiltonian analysis for the sigma model action and determine the Poisson algebra of the transition matrices. We reveal the generalization of the 4 automorphism analogous to the sigma models defined on a symmetric space coset. A possible regularization scheme for the ambiguities present, which respects the generalized automorphism, is also discussed.
Protonation versus Oxonium Salt Formation: Basicity and Stability Tuning of Cyanoborate Anions.

Anhydrous H[BH2 (CN)2 ] crystallizes from acidic aqueous solutions of the dicyanodihydridoborate anion. The formation of H[BH2 (CN)2 ] is surprising as the protonation of nitriles requires strongly acidic and anhydrous conditions but it can be rationalized based on theoretical data. In contrast, [BX(CN)3 ]- (X=H, F) gives the expected oxonium salts (H3 O)[BX(CN)3 ] while (H3 O)[BF2 (CN)2 ]/H[BF2 (CN)2 ] is unstable. H[BH2 (CN)2 ] forms chains via N-H⋅⋅⋅N bonds in the solid state and melts at 54 °C. Solutions of H[BH2 (CN)2 ] in the room-temperature ionic liquid [EMIm][BH2 (CN)2 ] contain the [(NC)H2 BCN-H⋅⋅⋅NCBH2 (CN)]- anion and are unusually stable, which enabled the study of selected spectroscopic and physical properties. [(NC)H2 BCN-H⋅⋅⋅NCBH2 (CN)]- slowly gives H2 and [(NC)H2 BCN-BH(CN)2 ]- . The latter compound is a source of the free Lewis acid BH(CN)2 , as shown by the generation of [BHF(CN)2 ]- and BH(CN)2 ⋅py.
Object Fusion in Mediator Systems

One of the main tasks of mediators is to fuse information from heterogeneous information sources. This may involve, for example, removing redundancies, and resolving inconsistencies in favor of the most reliable source. The problem becomes harder when the sources are unstructured/semistructured and we do not have complete knowledge of their contents and structure. In this paper we show how many common fusion operations can be specified non-procedurally and succinctly. The key to our approach is to assign semantically meaningful object ids to objects as they are “imported” into the mediator. These semantic ids can then be used to specify how various objects are combined or merged into objects “exported” by the mediator. In this paper we also discuss the implementation of a mediation system based on these principles. In particular, we present key optimization techniques that significantly reduce the processing costs associated with information fusion.
Nutrition and respiratory health in children in six Central and Eastern European countries

Background: The results of studies on the effect of nutrition on respiratory diseases are inconsistent. The role of nutrition in children’s respiratory health was therefore analysed within the cross sectional Central European Study on Air Pollution and Respiratory Health (CESAR). Method: A total of 20 271 children aged 7–11 were surveyed in six European countries. Respiratory health and food intake were assessed using questionnaires. Associations between four symptoms and nutritional factors were evaluated using logistic regression, controlling for area plus other potential confounders. Results: All symptoms showed initial associations with nutritional factors. Low consumption of fish and of summer and winter fruit were the most consistent predictors. In a fully adjusted model low fish intake remained a significant independent predictor of persistent cough (OR=1.18; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.34), wheeze ever (OR=1.14; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.25) and current wheeze (OR=1.21; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.39) and a weaker predictor of winter cough (OR=1.10; 95% CI 0.99 to 1.23). Low summer fruit intake was a predictor of winter cough (OR=1.40; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.79) and persistent cough (OR=1.35; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.82). Low winter fruit intake was associated with winter cough (OR=1.28; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.51). Associations between symptoms and vegetable intake were inconsistent. Low summer intake was significantly associated with winter cough (OR=1.23; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.47) but, overall, winter intake had inverse associations with both coughs. Associations between winter vegetable intake and wheeze varied considerably between countries. Conclusion: A number of associations were found between respiratory symptoms and low intake of fish, fruit and vegetables in children. Low fish intake was the most consistent predictor of poor respiratory health. Fruit and vegetable intake showed stronger associations with cough than with wheeze.
Characterization of the neurogenesis quiescent zone in the rodent brain: Effects of age and exercise

Although it is accepted that new neurons continue to be generated in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) throughout adulthood, it has recently become apparent that this process is not homogeneous, and that a small region of the DG lacks neurogenesis. Here, we show that the relative area of this neurogenesis quiescent zone (NQZ) did not vary after the peak in hippocampal postnatal neurogenesis and until animals reached adulthood, although the ratio between its actual volume and the total volume of the DG doubled during this time. However, we were able to identify a few mitotic cells that reside within this subregion in early adolescent rats. Furthermore, these cells can be activated, and 1 week of voluntary exercise was enough to significantly increase the number of mitotic cells within the NQZ of adolescent rats. There was, however, no corresponding increase in the number of new neurons in this subregion of the DG, suggesting that some factor necessary to allow these cells to develop into a mature phenotype is missing. Moreover, the same intervention was ineffective in increasing either proliferation or neurogenesis in older adult rats. Surprisingly, we found no evidence for the existence of an NQZ in the mouse DG, suggesting that the neurogenic process in these two rodent species is differently regulated. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the existence of the NQZ in the rat DG might shed light on the processes that regulate adult neurogenesis and its modulation by factors such as aging and exercise.