Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Type 4 OFF cone bipolar cells of the mouse retina express calsenilin and contact cones as well as rods

Immunocytochemical discrimination of distinct bipolar cell types in the mouse retina is a prerequisite for analyzing retinal circuitry in wild‐type and transgenic mice. Here we demonstrate that among the more than 10 anatomically defined mouse bipolar cell types, type 4 bipolar cells are specifically recognized by anti‐calsenilin antibodies. Axon terminals in the inner plexiform layer are not readily identifiable because calsenilin is also expressed in a subset of amacrine and ganglion cells. In contrast, in the outer plexiform layer calsenilin immunoreactivity allows the analysis of photoreceptor to type 4 bipolar cell contacts. A dense plexus of calsenilin‐positive dendrites makes several basal contacts at cone pedicles. An individual calsenilin‐positive bipolar cell contacts five to seven cones. In addition, some calsenilin‐positive dendrites contact rod photoreceptors. On average we counted 10 rod spherule contacts per type 4 bipolar cell, and approximately 10% of rods contacted type 4 bipolar cells. We suggest that type 4 bipolar cells, together with the recently described type 3a and b cells, provide an alternative and direct route from rods to OFF cone bipolar cells. In the Bassoon ΔEx4/5 mouse, a mouse mutant that shows extensive remodeling of the rod system including sprouting of horizontal and rod bipolar cells into the outer nuclear layer due to impaired synaptic transmission, we found that in addition mixed‐input (type 3 and 4) OFF bipolar cells sprout to ectopic sites. In contrast, true cone‐selective type 1 and 2 OFF cone bipolar cells did not show sprouting in the Bassoon mouse mutant. J. Comp. Neurol. 507: 1087–1101, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
First-Author Determinants and the Benefits of Being Professor a (and Not Z)

We report the results of an empirical analysis of name ordering strategies used for multi-authored academic papers in economics. We distinguish two name-ordering outcomes: alphabetic and non -alphabetic. We investigate two questions. (1) What are the determinants of an author group's name ordering? And (2) Is scientific output affected by the relative alphabetic position of one's last name, given the dominant usage of alphabetic name ordering in our profession? We find that author groups clearly account for the relative individual costs and benefits of being a first author when positioning authors of a group: Economists perceive name ordering as a deliberate decision. The usefulness of this deliberation is supported by the answer to our second question: is scientific output higher for authors whose names rank first in the alphabet? Career prospects are indeed better for academic economists who have high chances to be a first author. This productivity effect does not become visible in the beginning of one's career: it turns out to be a reputation or visibility effect and it therefore only shows up when an economist's career is more advanced.
The financial viability of heritage tourism attractions: three cases from rural Australia

Heritage tourism (whether historic, cultural or natural) is widely seen as one of the mainstays of rural tourism. Most research on heritage tourism has focussed on issues such as the protection of the physical fabric at heritage attractions, balancing authenticity and accessibility in interpretation and the meaning of heritage for people. However the issue of the viability and sustainability of heritage tourism operations as businesses has in contrast hardly been considered. This paper addresses this issue by focussing on three rural heritage tourism attractions which have experienced financial problems. They are: 1. The Toolangi Forest Discovery Centre. A government run attraction presenting the story of forestry. 2. Coal Creek Heritage Village. A community run recreation of a 1880s farming and mining community. 3. Seal Rocks Sea Life Centre. A privately operated attraction which allows observation of nearby seal colonies. All three are between 60 to 90 miles of Melbourne, Australia. In addition to examining the nature and causes of their difficulties, the paper explores two factors which may limit research into the financial viability of attractions. The first is that problems may be manifested in many different ways, of which bankruptcy and closure are only the most extreme. The second is the difficulty of gaining useful objective information from and regarding businesses in trouble.
Changes of the upper lip in orthodontic and orthopedic treatment of angle's class II malocclusion.

AIMS This study aimed to evaluate the changes in upper lips due to incisors retraction in Class II Division 1 patients treated with mandibular protraction, fixed appliances, and without extraction. MATERIALS AND METHODS The sample consisted of 64 pre- and post-treatment lateral cephalometric X-rays of 32 patients with 9-12 years old (16 men and 16 women), who presented ANB > 4 o , overjet ≥ 4 mm, treated with Balter's Bionator and fixed appliances. The average period between initial and final radiographies was 5 years (maximum of 5.5 years and minimum of 4.5 years). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED A Student's t-test (P < 0.01) evaluated the statistical significance of differences between the mean values obtained for pre- and post-treatment in each variable, for males and females. Linear regression analysis for hard-tissue variables in relation to soft-tissue variables were also made for correlation. RESULTS The male group presented cervical point with r = 0.40 and incisal point with r = 0.42. Female subjects showed incisor cervical point with r = 0.86 and incisal point r = 0.74. The average Ls retraction was 0.55 mm in 2.43 mm of incisal point movement and 0.34 mm of cervical point. The nasolabial angle showed increase average of 2° for men and 3.9° for women. CONCLUSION There is a difference between genders regarding the lip-incisor relation at this age. Males presented thickening of soft tissue and week correlation between the movement of the incisor and soft tissue both cervical and incisal point. In females' subjects, a strong correlation between the retraction movement and soft tissue, both cervical and incisal point.
The relative susceptibility of the field-vole to the bovine, human and avian types of tubercle bacilli and to the vole strain of acid-fast bacillus (Wells, 1937)

The occurrence in this country of an epizootic disease among field-voles (Microtus agrestis), resembling tuberculosis in its anatomical features but due to an acid-fast bacillus different from the tubercle bacilli found in other species of warm-blooded animals, has raised several interesting questions. One of these is the relative susceptibility of the field-vole, and other species of wild rodents belonging to the family Muridae, to the bovine, human and avian types of tubercle bacilli and the possibility of using any of these species in place of the rabbit for differentiating between the three types. Some work on the subject was done by me in the year 1923, the rodents tested being field-voles and wood-mice (Mus sylvaticus). These experiments, reported in 1937, showed that the field-vole is highly susceptible to bovine bacilli, and can also be infected with human bacilli, though with less certainty and less severity than with bovine bacilli. The wood-mouse is susceptible to bovine and human bacilli, perhaps more so to the former than to the latter, and stands in an intermediate position between the vole and the white mouse in its susceptibility to mammalian tubercle bacilli.
Intra-endosomal trafficking mediated by lysobisphosphatidic acid contributes to intracellular release of phosphorothioate-modified antisense oligonucleotides

Abstract Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) with phosphorothioate (PS) linkages are broadly used as research tools and therapeutic agents. Chemically modified PS-ASOs can mediate efficient target reduction by site-specific cleavage of RNA through RNase H1. PS-ASOs are known to be internalized via a number of endocytotic pathways and are released from membrane-enclosed endocytotic organelles, mainly late endosomes (LEs). This study was focused on the details of PS-ASO trafficking through endocytic pathways. It was found that lysobisphosphatidic acid (LBPA) is required for release of PS-ASOs from LEs. PS-ASOs exited early endosomes (EEs) rapidly after internalization and became co-localized with LBPA by 2 hours in LEs. Inside LEs, PS-ASOs and LBPA were co-localized in punctate, dot-like structures, likely intraluminal vesicles (ILVs). Deactivation of LBPA using anti-LBPA antibody significantly decreased PS-ASO activities without affecting total PS-ASO uptake. Reduction of Alix also substantially decreased PS-ASO activities without affecting total PS-ASO uptake. Furthermore, Alix reduction decreased LBPA levels and limited co-localization of LBPA with PS-ASOs at ILVs inside LEs. Thus, the fusion properties of ILVs, which are supported by LBPA, contribute to PS-ASO intracellular release from LEs.
Image Processing Using Color and Object Information for Wireless Capsule Endoscopy

Wireless capsule endoscopy provides real-time images in the digestive tract. Capsule images are usually low resolution and are diverse images due to travel through various regions of human body. Color information has been a primary reference in predicting abnormalities such as bleeding. Often color is not sufficient for this purpose. In this study, we took morphological shapes into account as additional, but important criterion. First, we processed gastric images in order to indentify various objects in the image. Then, we analyzed color information in the object. In this way, we could remove unnecessary information and increase the accuracy. Compared to our previous investigations, we could handle images of various degrees of brightness and improve our diagnostic algorithm. Keywords—Capsule Endoscopy, HSV model, Image processing, Object Identification, Color Separation.
ON THE DENOISING OF CROSS-SPECTRAL MATRICES FOR (AERO)ACOUSTIC APPLICATIONS

The use of multichannel measurements is a current practice for source characterization in multiple fields. But common to all experimental approaches is the presence of extraneous noise such as calibration, electronic or ambient noise. However, signals are supposed to be stationary and performing averaging of cross-spectral quantities over several time snapshots will concentrate uncorrelated noise along the cross-spectral matrix (CSM) diagonal. A common practice is thus to set the CSM diagonal to zero, which is known to improve the dynamic range of the source localization maps, yet this also leads to underestimated source levels. More advanced techniques have been recently developed to avoid such problems by preserving or reconstructing source information that lies in the CSM diagonal. Several existing approaches for CSM denoising are investigated in this paper and a new one is proposed as well. We consider an unknown number of uncorrelated sources and no reference background noise. The proposed method is based on the decomposition of the CSM into a low-rank part and a residual diagonal part attached to the unwanted noise; the corresponding inference problem is set up within a probabilistic framework which is ideally suited to take the non-deterministic nature of the estimated CSM into account. This is then solved by computing the maximum a posteriori estimates of the decomposition by estimating the full a posteriori prob- ability distribution by running a Markov chain Monte Carlo. For each method, reconstruction errors are compared in the frame of various numerical experiments, for different acoustic signals and noise structures.
A high-power-factor DC-linked resonant inverter

A new approach of power-factor correction for the DC-linked high-frequency resonant inverters is proposed. The high-power-factor operation is achieved by altering the energy delivery process of the conventionally used topology. The load resonant circuit of the proposed topology draws a high-frequency pulse current directly from the AC source. This approach can be accomplished merely with an additional small capacitor as the energy buffer and a diode as the energy transfer switch. The design and experimental results for an implementation example are given to verify the theoretical analyses.
Carry-over effects and habitat quality in migratory populations

Determining the factors that influence migratory population abundance has been constrained by the inability to connect events in different periods of the annual cycle. Carry-over effects are events that occur in one season but influence individual success the following season and recent empirical evidence suggests that they may play an important role in migratory population dynamics. Using a long distance migratory shorebird as an example, I incorporate carry-over effects and changes in the relative amount of habitat quality into a density-dependent equilibrium population model. The model uses the example where the quality of habitat on the wintering grounds (nonbreeding season) influences breeding output the following summer (breeding season). Carry-over effects, however, may be manifested in a number of other ways that could influence population dynamics. In the simulations, population declines occur when habitat is lost on the wintering grounds. However, results show that carry-over effects can magnify these declines when a disproportionate amount of high quality habitat is lost the previous winter. Simulations also show that carry-over effects can have a relative, positive impact on population size when the majority of habitat that is lost in the previous season is low quality. In this case, the carry-over interacts with density-dependence the following season producing an additive and positive effect, buffering the population from severe declines. To predict changes in population size of migratory animals, it will be important to determine (i) which demographic factors in which season produce strong carry-over effects and, (ii) not just the amount, but the relative quality of habitat that is lost. If carry-over effects are significant, they could potentially mitigate ‘seasonal compensation effects’ from density-dependence, leading to exacerbated population declines.
Kinetic Analysis of DNA Strand Joining by Chlorella Virus DNA Ligase and the Role of Nucleotidyltransferase Motif VI in Ligase Adenylylation*

Background: DNA ligases play essential roles in DNA replication, recombination, and repair. Results: Rapid mix-quench methods reveal the kinetic mechanism of nick sealing by a eukaryal ATP-dependent DNA ligase. Conclusion: The rate-limiting step in ligase catalysis changes as a function of pH. Significance: Structure-guided mutagenesis and kinetic analysis underscore distinctive enzymic requirements for the three chemical steps of the ligation pathway. Chlorella virus DNA ligase (ChVLig) is an instructive model for mechanistic studies of the ATP-dependent DNA ligase family. ChVLig seals 3′-OH and 5′-PO4 termini via three chemical steps: 1) ligase attacks the ATP α phosphorus to release PPi and form a covalent ligase-adenylate intermediate; 2) AMP is transferred to the nick 5′-phosphate to form DNA-adenylate; 3) the 3′-OH of the nick attacks DNA-adenylate to join the polynucleotides and release AMP. Each chemical step requires Mg2+. Kinetic analysis of nick sealing by ChVLig-AMP revealed that the rate constant for phosphodiester synthesis (kstep3 = 25 s−1) exceeds that for DNA adenylylation (kstep2 = 2.4 s−1) and that Mg2+ binds with similar affinity during step 2 (Kd = 0.77 mm) and step 3 (Kd = 0.87 mm). The rates of DNA adenylylation and phosphodiester synthesis respond differently to pH, such that step 3 becomes rate-limiting at pH ≤ 6.5. The pH profiles suggest involvement of one and two protonation-sensitive functional groups in catalysis of steps 2 and 3, respectively. We suggest that the 5′-phosphate of the nick is the relevant protonation-sensitive moiety and that a dianionic 5′-phosphate is necessary for productive step 2 catalysis. Motif VI, located at the C terminus of the OB-fold domain of ChVLig, is a conserved feature of ATP-dependent DNA ligases and GTP-dependent mRNA capping enzymes. Presteady state and burst kinetic analysis of the effects of deletion and missense mutations highlight the catalytic contributions of ChVLig motif VI, especially the Asp-297 carboxylate, exclusively during the ligase adenylylation step.
Venous bubble count declines during strenuous exercise after an open sea dive to 30 m.

INTRODUCTION The effect of post-dive exercise on bubble formation remains controversial, although the current practice of divers and aviators is to avoid strenuous exercise after diving. Previously, we have shown that exercising 24 h before a dive, or during a decompression stop, significantly reduces bubble formation in man. The objective of this study was to determine whether a short period of strenuous post-dive exercise promotes venous bubble formation. METHODS Seven male military divers performed an open-sea field dive to a maximum depth of 30 m for 30 min. At maximum depth, subjects performed mild underwater fin swimming, followed by standard decompression. Diving was followed by a post-dive exercise session consisting of short, strenuous incremental upright cycle ergometry, up to 85% of maximal oxygen uptake, for about 10 min. Subjects were monitored for venous gas bubbles in the right heart with an echo-imaging system starting 20 min post-dive while in the supine position, during cycle ergometry in the seated upright position, and immediately after exercise in a supine position. RESULTS The average number of bubbles was 1.5 +/- 1.4 bubbles x cm(-2) 20 min after diving. Changes in posture from supine to seated upright resulted in significant reduction of bubbles to 0.6 +/- 1.3 bubbles x cm(-2) (p = 0.043), with further reduction to 0.2 +/- 0.3 bubbles x cm(-2) at the end of exercise (p = 0.02). No cases of DCS or intra-pulmonary shunt were observed during or following post-dive exercise. DISCUSSION These results suggest that post-dive strenuous exercise after a single field dive reduces post-dive gas bubble formation in well-trained military divers. Additional findings are needed for normal sports divers.
Wavelet Packet Image Decomposition on MIMD Architectures

In this work, we describe and analyze algorithms for 2D wavelet packet (WP) decomposition for multicomputers and multiprocessors. In the case of multicomputers, the main goal is the generalization of former parallel WP algorithms which are constrained to a number of processor elements equal to a power of 4. For multiprocessors, we discuss several optimizations of shared-memory algorithms and finally we compare the results obtained on multicomputers and multi-processors employing the message passing (MPI) and shared-memory programming (OpenMP) paradigm, respectively.
Taming the Beast: Measuring Vision-Related Disability Using the International Classification of Functioning

This article reviews the way in which the complex phenomenon of vision-related disability is captured by an authoritative classification system: the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. Data from several major national surveys are used to illustrate how the classification system's codes referring to body function and structure, personal activities, social participation, and environmental factors relate to the surveys. Survey items specific to vision-related disability are considered in terms of codes in the International Classification of Functioning to show how the underlying conceptualization of survey questions maps to the classification system's domains. It is suggested that an understanding of the International Classification of Functioning can clarify the purposes and uses of survey questions dealing with vision-related disability. Efforts to develop standardized questions to improve comparability across surveys are encouraged.
ANAPHORA RESOLUTION IN L2 ENGLISH

Abstract We test the interpretation of pronominal forms in L2 speakers of English whose L1 is Spanish. Previous research on learners of nonnull subject languages has shown conflicting results. The aim of the present study is to reconcile previous evidence and shed light on the factors that determine learners’ difficulty to interpret pronominal forms in the L2. In six comprehension experiments, we found that intermediate L2 speakers did not show increased difficulty compared to native speakers in integrating multiple sources of information (syntactic, discourse, pragmatic) to resolve ambiguous pronouns in intrasentential anaphora and cataphora conditions. However, we also found that when two referents with equal prominence are introduced using a conjoined noun phrase in the preceding context, the learner’s performance is significantly different than the performance of the native speakers, both in intrasentential and intersentential anaphora. We suggest that L2 speakers may encounter difficulties evaluating the salience of the antecedents during pronoun resolution.
Investigating International Tourists’ Intention to Revisit Myanmar Based on Need Gratification, Flow Experience and Perceived Risk

ABSTRACT Satisfaction plays an important role in creating loyalty to a tourism destination. However, ensuring consistent satisfactory trip experiences for tourists and increasing their revisit intention remain challenging for many international tourism destinations, including Myanmar. We conducted a survey with 465 international tourists visiting Myanmar. Results indicate that need gratification and flow can increase tourist satisfaction. The perceived risks of tourism destination can decrease tourist satisfaction. Satisfaction is an important factor to mediate the influence of need gratification, flow, and perceived risks. A tourist’s intention to revisit Myanmar can be largely improved by attending to these independent and mediating factors.
Germination ecology for Florida populations of carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata), Carolina geranium (Geranium carolinianum), eclipta (Eclipta prostrata), and goosegrass (Eleusine indica)

Abstract Row-middle weed control in Florida vegetable production is challenging and often necessitates several PRE and POST herbicide applications. Coordinating POST spray applications with emergence timings should increase herbicide efficacy by targeting susceptible growth stages. Most published emergence models were developed in temperate climates, and adapting them to subtropical climates can be complex and requires reductionist insights into seed ecology, particularly germination and dormancy. The study objective was to examine the influence of temperature and osmotic potential on seed germination of carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata L.), Carolina geranium (Geranium carolinianum L.), eclipta [Eclipta prostrata (L.) L. ], and goosegrass [Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. ]. Mollugo verticillata seed germination was positively photoblastic, with increased germination at high temperatures (≥35 C), more so with high fluctuating temperatures (35/20 and 35/25 C), and occurred at osmotic potentials as low as −0.5 MPa. Geranium carolinianum seed germinated between 10 and 20 C in light or darkness and at osmotic potentials as low as −0.4 MPa. Eclipta prostrata seed germination was entirely positively photoblastic, occurring optimally between 15 and 25 C and at osmotic potentials as low as −1 MPa. Eleusine indica seed germination demonstrated some degree of positive photoblasticity, with greater germination in the light, peak germination at 35 C, and germination occurring at osmotic potentials as low as −0.5 MPa. Described germination ecology for selected species will provide insights for building ecology-based growing degree-day accounting restrictions for empirically derived emergence models.