Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tectoreticular pathways in the turtle, Pseudemys scripta. II. Morphology of tectoreticular cells

The morphology of tectoreticular neurons in turtles was examined with serial section reconstructions of neurons retrogradely filled with HRP. Six classes of tectal neurons project into the three tectobulbar pathways characterized in the preceding paper (Sereno, '85). (1) Large multipolar neurons with somata in the central gray layers, and with moderately branched dendrites sometimes spanning over a millimeter, project into the dorsal tectobulbar pathway, TBd. Their dendrites are covered with fine spicules and tend to arborize in the lower third of the superficial gray layers. (2) Medium‐sized neurons with multiple radial dendrites and somata in the central white and upper periventricular layers probably project into the ipsilateral intermediate tectobulbar pathway, TBi. Their dendrites also bear fine spicules and usually reach the tectal surface. (3) Small radial cells in the periventricular layers, and (4) small bitufted radial cells in the superficial gray project into the small caliber component of the ipsilateral ventral tectobulbar pathway, TBv(sm). (5) Medium‐sized central gray neurons with stratified dendrites, and (6) medium‐sized central gray neurons with horizontal dendrites probably project into the medium caliber component of the ventral tectobulbar pathway, TBv(med). In contrast to TBd and TBi neurons, these last four classes emit a spray of long, filamentous dendritic appendages in the central gray and have dendritic arbors near the top of the superficial gray.
Supercapacitor Testing for Power Smoothing in a Variable Speed Offshore Wave Energy Converter

This paper investigates power smoothing in a full-scale offshore oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC) by integrating supercapacitors (SCs) with the inertia of a Wells turbine controlled at variable speed. With the simulation package Simulink developed by MathWorks, a model is developed for the WEC system utilizing sea-state data and an SC system is sized to smooth and reduce the grid peak power for a 570-kW (peak) system. Long component lifetime is a requirement for offshore WECs. Hence, a computer-controlled test rig has been built to validate SC lifetimes to manufacturer's specifications and determine application lifetime. Cycle testing is carried out on individual SCs at room temperature and also at rated temperature utilizing a thermal chamber and equipment interconnected by the general purpose interface bus (GPIB) and programmed by the MathWorks developed computing environment Matlab. Application testing is carried out using time-compressed scaled-power profiles from the model to allow a comparison of lifetime degradation. The SCs under standard testing at ambient and rated temperature, and application testing at ambient temperature, have undergone approximately 4 000 000, 700 000, and 500 000 cycles, respectively. The results demonstrate cycle lifetimes in excess of manufacturer specifications.
Insights into the different exploits of colour in the visual cortex

A new method that allows controlled masking of luminance contrast has been developed to study the use of chromatic signals in human vision. The method also makes it possible to examine the different uses of chromatic signals (e. g. the generation of perceived colour, or the construction and representation of object structure and form). By using this technique, we studied the threshold detection of chromatic signals in normal trichromats. The results show that chromatic signals are virtually unaffected by ongoing, randomly varying, luminance contrast changes. These findings suggest that chromatic signals are either processed independently or can be separated completely from any confounding luminance contrast components in the stimulus. Thresholds for detection of colour changes only, and for extraction of stimulus structure from chromatic signals in normal trichromats, in subjects with single cone receptor deficiency (i.e. dichromats) and in three subjects with abnormal colour vision caused by bilateral damage to ventromedial, extra-striate visual cortex (i. e. subjects with cerebral achromatopsia) have also been measured. No significant difference in thresholds for the two conditions was observed either in normal trichromats or in dichromats. Subjects with cerebral achromatopsia, however, reveal markedly different thresholds. The results suggest that chromatic signals are processed independently to generate perceived object colour or to construct spatially structured objects, and that these functions involve different neural substrates. The results help to explain, at least in part, why cerebral achromatopsia is a heterogeneous disorder, and why there can be significant differences in the effective use of chromatic signals in subjects described as cerebral achromatopsics.
Neural Changes Associated with Training Contralateral effects of unilateral strength training : evidence and possible mechanisms

Carroll, Timothy J., Robert D. Herbert, Joanne Munn, Michael Lee and Simon C. Gandevia. Contralateral effects of unilateral strength training: evidence and possible mechanisms. J Appl Physiol 101: 1514 –1522, 2006; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00531. 2006. —If exercises are performed to increase muscle strength on one side of the body, voluntary strength can increase on the contralateral side. This effect, termed the contralateral strength training effect, is usually measured in homologous muscles. Although known for over a century, most studies have not been designed well enough to show a definitive transfer of strength that could not be explained by factors such as familiarity with the testing. However, an updated meta-analysis of 16 properly controlled studies (range 15–48 training sessions) shows that the size of the contralateral strength training effect is 8% of initial strength or about half the increase in strength of the trained side. This estimate is similar to results of a large, randomized controlled study of training for the elbow flexors (contralateral effect of 7% initial strength or one-quarter of the effect on the trained side). This is likely to reflect increased motoneuron output rather than muscular adaptations, although most methods are insufficiently sensitive to detect small muscle contributions. Two classes of central mechanism are identified. One involves a “spillover” to the control system for the contralateral limb, and the other involves adaptations in the control system for the trained limb that can be accessed by the untrained limb. Cortical, subcortical and spinal levels are all likely to be involved in the “transfer,” and none can be excluded with current data. Although the size of the effect is small and may not be clinically significant, study of the phenomenon provides insight into neural mechanisms associated with exercise and training.
South Africa and ecotourism : potential, opportunities and politics

Tourism in the Republic of South Africa appears to have missed the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the country's economy. South Africa has great ecotourism potential, yet as reported prior to the 1994 first democratic election in the country, ecotourism contributed only 2% to the economy. The apartheid ideology in the country has to share the blame for the low economic contribution as tourism activities were based on discriminatory laws. This article therefore, investigates the role of ecotourism in the economy of the country, in particular the potential for improving the economic contribution of the rural communities, and the previous ecotourism politics which compromised its potential for improving its economic contribution, and its previous ecotourism politics which compromised South Africa's ecotourism potential to contribute to the economic development of the rural communities.
Increasing Our Insular World View: Interoception and Psychopathology for Psychotherapists

Interoception has been determined to be an elemental aspect of the neural foundations of physiological homeostasis, subjective experience, and motivated behavior. This paper reviews current neuroscience research regarding interoception and forms of interoceptive dysfunction that may result in psychopathology, focusing on depression, and anxiety, in a manner conducive to psychotherapists engaging with it to consider clinical applications. Pertinent aspects of interoceptive system processes in relation to psychopathology are addressed: Functional interoceptive ability and the forms of its expression, the difficulty of accurate measurement of such within an individual or group, interoceptive inference processes and perturbations. Predictive coding, considered in this context as interoceptive inference, a process that integrates bottom-up and top down lines of neural information emerging from the multitude of bidirectional, anatomically hierarchical connections the insular cortex makes with other cortical, and subcortical structures, will be addressed regarding its place in psychopathological formulations. Clinical vignettes will elucidate how interoceptive disturbances might present in the therapeutic relationship, supporting the evaluation and application of scientific theory, and research findings by psychotherapists. The clinical implications of this neuroscientific research have received little attention in the psychotherapeutic setting. Increasing the knowledge base of psychotherapists and furthering awareness of the functional interactions of body and brain toward the creation of healthy and psychopathological experience benefits the patient. There is immediate need for the translational expression of scientific findings into the psychological evaluation of patients, therapeutic process, and treatment. While it may seem distant and unrelated to the affective processes that occur within the psychotherapeutic exchange, neuroscience adds a unique perspective from which to observe and live such experience for the therapist and patient. With the therapeutic relationship as the backdrop, a scientific perspective will support psychotherapists' comprehension of their patients' experience and the process of change, either through direct information, or the development of different perspectives from which to observe and interact with their patients. This paper will serve not only as a guide for psychotherapists concerning this expanding knowledge base, but also a source for neuroscience researchers intent on formulating research protocols that could produce clinical benefit.
Why is our working memory andprocessing capacity so limited ?

We show that spurious synchronization, as suggested by Luck and Vogel 6], is not suucient to explain the limited storage capacity of working memory. Instead we argue that the sharp breakdown of error free recall suggests a dynamic mechanism behind working memory. We summarize some suggestions for the dynamic basis of working memory and argue that the reason behind our limited processing capacity lies in the enhanced ability to process highly complex tasks by the collaboration of mental subsystems. 1 Limited storage capacity of working memory Cognitive science has formulated the concept of working memory which seems to be central to a vast amount of higher mental processes such as language comprehension, reasoning, problem solving and consciousness. However, the understanding of underlying functional mechanisms and neural correlates have been rather scattered. One of the long recognized features of working memory is that of the limited capacity of keeping information from several independent objects available. The capacity of working memory has been studied extensively for verbal information 1]. Miller 2] stressed the magical number 7 2 as capacity limit, which coincides with the capacity limit for list items shown already in 1928 by Oberley 3] (reproduced in 4]). However, the precise number of objects which can be recalled without error can vary depending on the detailed task, and mental tricks such as the phonetic memorization of a string of letters can shift the observed memory limit towards higher numbers. Luck and Vogel 5] have recently demonstrated in a purely visual task that the memory capacity of this working memory is about 4 objects. It seems puzzling that we have such a severe limit in our short term memory and should ask why evolution was not able to increase our working memory since a larger working memory should make us tter to survive. This is our main motivation for this discussion. A second major contribution of Luck and Vogel is the demonstration that the visual working memory is apparently for integrated objects (independent of the number of features) 5]. In a recent comment 6] they suggested that synchronization of spike trains can explain both, the limited storage capacity as well as it's independence of the number of features. Their argument follows the popular suggestion that diierent features of an object processed in diierent parts of the brain are related by synchronized spike trains (which solves the binding problem). The limited storage capacity …
Quantification of human immunodeficiency virus in plasma by RNA PCR, viral culture, and p24 antigen detection

A semiquantitative PCR technique for detecting human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA in plasma was compared with quantitative viral culture and p24 antigen detection in plasma. Ninety-three samples from 20 symptomatic, 10 asymptomatic, and 10 seronegative individuals were tested. For most of the seropositive patients, consecutives samples were examined. Viral RNA was extracted from plasma by the method described by Boom et al. (R. Boom, C.J. A. Sol, M. M. M. Salimans, C.L. Jansen, P. M. E. Wertheim-van Dillen, and J. van der Noordaa, J. Clin. Microbiol. 28:495-503, 1990). The RNA PCR was the most sensitive method (100 and 74% sensitivity for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, respectively) and produced less divergent results with the consecutive samples from individual patients compared with the other techniques. All samples positive by viral culture or p24 antigen assay were also positive in the RNA PCR. For each of the three assays, the number of positive results obtained correlated with the disease stage. The estimated mean number of HIV-1 RNA copies was significantly higher in symptomatic patients (22,750 copies per ml) than in asymptomatic patients (1,820 copies per ml). It was also higher in samples positive for viral culture than in culture-negative samples. No close correlation was found between the amount of HIV-1 RNA and the amount of p24 antigen or the titer of infectious virus in plasma or between this titer and the level of p24 antigen. The plasma RNA PCR may be a useful additional marker of disease progression and may be valuable for monitoring the effects of antiviral therapy.
Enhancing Transmission Capacity of a Cognitive Radio Network by Joint Spatial-Temporal Sensing with Cooperative Communication Strategy

In static cognitive radio network a secondary transmitter communicates directly with a secondary receiver only when the spectrum is not occupied by any primary user. The secondary user has to stop its transmission when no spectrum holes exist. To improve the transmission capacity, in this paper we approach to combine cognitive radio network with cooperative communication strategy employing spatial sensing as well as temporal sensing. In our proposed scheme when primary user is active, a secondary user transmits to another secondary user via a relay channel. By enabling the use of both the direct and relay channels, the transmission performance of the secondary system can be improved significantly. Our information-theoretic analysis as well as numerical results show that the proposed scheme significantly reduces the average symbol error probability compared to schemes based on pure temporal or spatial sensing.
Doppler studies of the fetal circulation in twin–twin transfusion syndrome

This cross‐sectional study investigated the circulatory profile of the donor and recipient fetuses in 20 pregnancies with twin–twin transfusion syndrome presenting with acute polyhydramnios at 17–27 (mean, 22) weeks' gestation. Doppler investigations of the arterial vessels and ductus venosus, inferior vena cava, right hepatic vein, tricuspid and mitral ventricular inflow were performed in both fetuses. Mean values of most blood flow velocities on the venous side showed a significant decrease in both groups of fetuses, and a significant increase in mean values for indices describing waveform pulsatility was found in all three venous vessels in the group of recipients, whereas in the donor group this was only the case in the ductus venosus. Mean values of atrioventricular flow velocities showed a significant decrease in the donor group. The most significant findings on the arterial side were an increased mean umbilical artery pulsatility index and a decreased mean value for aortic blood flow velocity in both groups of fetuses. Five recipients and four donors had absence or reversal of blood flow during atrial contraction in the ductus venosus. All these fetuses showed pulsations in the umbilical vein. Tricuspid regurgitation was present in eight recipients. Absence or reversal of end‐diastolic velocities in the umbilical artery was found in four donors. The recipient's circulation showed the characteristics of congestive heart failure due to hypervolemia. The significant decrease of diastolic venous blood flow velocities is compatible with increased end‐diastolic ventricular pressure. Alterations in the donor's circulation are consistent with decreased venous return due to hypovolemia and increased cardiac afterload due to increased placental resistance. Copyright © 1995 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology
The Australian freshwater protected area resourcebook: the policy background, role and importance of protected areas for Australian inland aquatic ecosystems

In September 2000, the Australian Society for Limnology (ASL) established a working group to examine the issue of representative reserves (or protected areas) in inland aquatic environments. This monograph is the product of that investigation, and examines government commitments and programs in the light of information related to the use of the “protected area” concept in inland waters. The paper examines the policy background, history, role and importance of protected areas for the conservation of inland aquatic ecosystems in Australia.
First Morning Voided Urinary Gonadotropin Measurements as an Alternative to the GnRH Test

Aims: We studied whether first morning voided (FMV) urinary gonadotropin measurements could be used as a noninvasive alternative to the GnRH test in the assessment of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal function in children. Methods: In a single-center study, we compared FMV urinary gonadotropin concentrations with basal and GnRH-stimulated serum gonadotropin levels in 274 children and adolescents (78 girls, 196 boys) aged 5-17 years referred for growth and pubertal disorders. The concordance between FMV urinary gonadotropin concentrations and GnRH test results was assessed. Results: FMV urinary LH (U-LH), urinary FSH (U-FSH) and their ratios correlated well with the corresponding basal and GnRH-stimulated serum parameters (r ≥ 0.66, p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses using urinary and serum LH and FSH concentrations showed that FMV U-LH and U-LH/U-FSH performed equally well as the GnRH test in the differentiation of early puberty (Tanner stage 2) from prepuberty (Tanner stage 1) (area under the curve 0.768-0.890 vs. 0.712-0.858). FMV U-LH and U-LH/U-FSH performed equally well as basal serum LH in predicting a pubertal GnRH test result (area under the curve 0.90-0.93). Conclusion: FMV U-LH determination can be used for the evaluation of pubertal development and its disorders, reducing the need for invasive GnRH stimulation tests.
Cycling of weathered chlordane residues in the environment: Compositional and chiral profiles in contiguous soil, vegetation, and air compartments

Technical chlordane, a synthetic organic pesticide composed of 147 separate components, some of which exhibit optical activity, was used as an insecticide, herbicide, and termiticide prior to all uses being banned in the United States in 1988. It has been shown that food crops grown in soil treated decades earlier with technical chlordane translocate the weathered chlordane residues from the soil into root and aerial plant tissues. A rigorous analytical method is presented for the simultaneous, quantitative determination of both achiral and chiral components of technical chlordane in soil, plant, and air compartments using chiral gas chromatography interfaced to ion trap mass spectrometry and internal standard calibration. Using this method, we have observed differences in both the absolute and the relative amounts of trans‐ and cis‐chlordane enantiomers and achiral trans‐nonachlor between the soil compartment and various plant tissue compartments for several field‐grown food crops. Changes in the relative amounts of the (+) and (−) enantiomers of trans‐ and cis‐chlordane indicate enantioselective processes are in effect in the contiguous compartments of soil, plant roots, and aerial plant tissues. The data for zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.), in particular, show an approximate fivefold enhancement in absolute concentration for total trans‐chlordane, an eightfold concentration enhancement for total cis‐chlordane, and a 2.5‐fold enhancement for trans‐nonachlor in the root relative to the soil matrix, the largest enhancements of any crop studied. This is the first comprehensive report of enantioselective processes into and through plant tissues for a variety of field‐grown food crops. The selectivity will be related to observed insect toxicities of the enantiomers.
Drugs and Targets in Fibrosis

Fibrosis contributes to the development of many diseases and many target molecules are involved in fibrosis. Currently, the majority of fibrosis treatment strategies are limited to specific diseases or organs. However, accumulating evidence demonstrates great similarities among fibroproliferative diseases, and more and more drugs are proved to be effective anti-fibrotic therapies across different diseases and organs. Here we comprehensively review the current knowledge on the pathological mechanisms of fibrosis, and divide factors mediating fibrosis progression into extracellular and intracellular groups. Furthermore, we systematically summarize both single and multiple component drugs that target fibrosis. Future directions of fibrosis drug discovery are also proposed.
Access to essential paediatric eye surgery in the developing world: a case of congenital cataracts left untreated

Childhood cataracts are a major cause of treatable blindness. Early recognition, surgical intervention and appropriate follow-up after surgery can result in good visual outcomes. However, several factors may impact on the availability of such services, including lack of an available, affordable and accessible comprehensive eye care centre, financial limitations affecting coverage by the national healthcare provider, and household socioeconomic status. We report a case of congenital cataracts in a 12-year-old male adolescent from Northern Samar, the Philippines, who was left blind since birth. This case highlights the disparities in essential health services in the developing world and the challenges patients face in getting the care they need.
A Secure Scheme Based on Layer Model in Multi-Phase Sensor Networks

In some sensor networks, the pre-distribution schemes are based on deployment knowledge. As a result, the performance of such a sensor network could remarkably decline when the deployment error of nodes is large. In this letter, a secure scheme based on layer model (SS-LM) is proposed. When the deployment error is large, analysis and simulation show that the SS-LM can provide higher local connectivity and global connectivity as compared with existing schemes using deployment knowledge.