Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Hypoderma actaeon (Diptera: Oestridae) in red deer (Cervus elaphus) from northern Spain: Microscopy study and molecular analysis

Hypoderma spp. larvae were observed subcutaneously in the dorsal and lumbar regions of red deer (Cervus elaphus) hunted in the province of León (northwestern Spain) causing a myiasis. They were removed and initially classified by their size, shape, color, and location under the skin into the three larval stages that parasitize these animals. The morphological characteristics of the first and second‐instar are described and from the features of the third‐instar the species was identified as Hypoderma actaeon. To accurately identify this species, five isolates of genomic DNA from the third‐instar, two from the second‐instar and two from first‐instar of H. actaeon were analyzed by PCR analysis of the COI region of mt‐DNA. The results confirmed that the examined samples exactly matched with H. actaeon. This study has shown the morphological identification of the three larval stages of H. actaeon and, for the first time, the first and second‐instar larvae have been molecularly characterized. Finally, identification of only H. actaeon suggests that this species is the only affecting red deer in the Iberian Peninsula.
Smad3 promotes adverse cardiovascular remodeling and dysfunction in doxorubicin-treated hearts

Many anticancer therapies cause serious cardiovascular complications that degrade quality of life and cause early mortality in treated patients. Specifically, doxorubicin is known as an effective anticancer agent that causes cardiomyopathy in treated patients. There has been growing interest in defining the role of endothelial cells in cardiac damage by doxorubicin. We have shown in the present study that endothelial nuclei accumulate more intravenously administered doxorubicin than other cardiac cell types. Doxorubicin enhanced cardiac production of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) ligands and nuclear translocation of phospho-Smad3 in both cultured and in vivo cardiac endothelial cells. To examine the role of the TGF-β/mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 3 (Smad3) pathway in cardiac damage by doxorubicin, we used both Smad3 shRNA stable endothelial cell lines and Smad3-knockout mice. We demonstrated using endothelial transcriptome analysis that upregulation of the TGF-β and inflammatory cytokine/cytokine receptor pathways, as well as suppression of cell cycle and angiogenesis by doxorubicin, were alleviated in Smad3-deficient endothelial cells. The results of transcriptomic analysis were validated using qPCR, immunoblotting, and ex vivo aortic ring sprouting assays. Similarly, increased cardiac expression of cytokines and chemokines observed in treated wild-type mice was diminished in treated Smad3-knockout animals. We also detected increased end-diastolic diameter and depressed systolic function in doxorubicin-treated wild-type but not Smad3-knockout mice. This work provides evidence for the critical role of the canonical TGF-β/Smad3 pathway in cardiac damage by doxorubicin. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Microvascular endothelial cells in the heart accumulate more intravenously administered doxorubicin than nonendothelial cardiac cell types. The treatment enhanced the TGF-β/Smad3 pathway and elicited endothelial cell senescence and inflammatory responses followed by adverse cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in wild-type but not Smad3-deficient animals. Our study suggests that the TGF-β/Smad3 pathway contributes to the development of doxorubicin cardiomyopathy and the potential value of novel approaches to ameliorate cardiotoxicity by targeting the Smad3 transcription factor.
Validation of ratings on the six-item Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale obtained via the Simplified Negative and Positive Symptoms Interview among outpatients with schizophrenia

Background: The six-item Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS-6) is a measure of the severity of core symptoms of schizophrenia, which can be administered via the brief Simplified Negative and Positive Symptoms Interview (SNAPSI). A recent study has confirmed the validity of PANSS-6 ratings as derived by SNAPSI (PANSS-6SNAPSI) among inpatients with schizophrenia. Aims: We aimed to test the validity of PANSS-6SNAPSI among outpatients with schizophrenia using PANSS-6 ratings extracted from the 30-item PANSS-30 as derived by the Structured Clinical Interview for the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS-6SCI-PANSS) as a gold standard reference. Methods: PANSS-6SNAPSI and PANSS-6SCI-PANSS ratings were obtained at two time points by independent raters with established inter-rater reliability. Agreement between PANSS-6SNAPSI and PANSS-6SCI-PANSS ratings was estimated via intra-class coefficients (ICCs) and responsiveness over time was quantified using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. Post hoc “leave-one-out” analyses were carried out, in which each rater in turn was excluded from the ICC calculations. Results: Seventy-three outpatients with schizophrenia participated in the study (mean age: 38.3 years; 56% males). The ICC for PANSS-6SNAPSI versus PANSS-6SCI-PANSS was 0.67 [95%CI = 0.56–0.76] and the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient for responsiveness was 0.40 (p = 0.004). When data from a specific outlying rater were excluded, the ICC for PANSS-6SNAPSI versus PANSS-6SCI-PANSS was 0.75 [95% CI = 0.63–0.83] and the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient for responsiveness was 0.55 (p = 0.018). Conclusions: We found PANSS-6SNAPSI ratings to have acceptable clinical validity, suggesting that PANSS-6SNAPSI can be used for both inpatients and outpatients with schizophrenia.
Sickle Cell Disease and Quality of Life: An Evaluation of Reporting of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract Sickle cell disease significantly impacts one’s quality of life (QOL); thus, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have integrated patient-reported outcomes (PROs) to assess patients’ health from their perspective. We aim to evaluate the completeness of reporting of PROs included in sickle cell disease RCTs. We searched MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) for published sickle cell disease RCTs with at least one PRO measure from 2006 to 2021. In a masked, duplicate fashion, two investigators evaluated RCTs using the Consolidated Standards of Reporting in Trials (CONSORT)-PRO adaptation and Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias (RoB) 2.0 tool. The primary objective was mean percent completeness of the CONSORT-PRO adaptation. Additional relationships between trial characteristics and completeness of reporting were evaluated. Mean completeness of reporting of RCTs was 41.49% (SD = 20.90). Randomized controlled trials with primary outcomes were more complete (57.50%, SD = 8.33) than RCTs with secondary PROs (33.48%, SD = 20.91). We did not find a significant difference in completion between trials with primary PROs and secondary PROs (t1 = 2.07; p = 0.06). Our secondary objectives included factors that may be associated with completeness of PRO reporting. Of the 12 included studies, five were considered to be overall ‘high’ RoB (41.67%). In each of the five domains, the majority of studies received ‘low’ RoB evaluations. Incomplete PRO reporting was common within sickle cell RCTs. Therefore, we recommend future RCTs including PROs should take measures to increase completeness of reporting.
What Are We Doing to These Children? Response to Drescher, Clayton, and Balon Commentaries on Levine et al., 2022

In our paper, “Reconsidering Informed Consent for Trans-Identified Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults” (Levine, Abbruzzese, & Mason, 2022), we asserted that the consent process for youth gender transition is so problematic in much of the Western world that it can no longer be considered “informed. ” We reflected on how far the entire field of gender medicine has drifted from the principles of evidence-based medicine and the scientific method. Attempts to study the sharp rise of gender dysphoria in previously gender-normative teens (Bradley, 2022; Littman, 2018) are met with consternation by the gender-medicine establishment (World Professional Association for Transgender Health [WPATH], 2018). The significant rate of problematic adaptations, psychiatric symptoms, and self-harm in this youth cohort (Becerra-Culqui et al., 2018; de Graaf, Giovanardi, Zitz, & Carmichael, 2018; de Graaf et al., 2021; Kaltiala-Heino, Sumia, Työläjärvi, & Lindberg, 2015; Kozlowska, Chudleigh, McClure, Maguire, & Ambler, 2021; Strang et al., 2018; Thrower, Bretherton, Pang, Zajac, & Cheung, 2020) is explained away as merely manifestations of minority stress, with unsubstantiated claims that these mental health problems will resolve with gender transition—and only with gender transition. Efforts to help the distressed teens psychotherapeutically, which is the standard approach for all other types of psychiatric symptoms, are stigmatized as conversion therapy. The growing evidence of detransition, apparent in recent data (Boyd, Hackett, & Bewley, 2021; Hall, Mitchell, & Sachdeva, 2021; Roberts, Klein, Adirim, Schvey, & Hisle-Gorman, 2022), is either dismissed or recast as a benign gender journey (Turban, Loo, Almazan, & Keuroghlian, 2021), and the reports of regret by many of the detransitioners themselves are ignored (Littman, 2021; Vandenbussche, 2022). Perhaps most problematic, the information shared by gender clinicians with patients and families about “gender-affirming” interventions is markedly skewed: it overstates the demonstrated benefits of hormones and surgeries and trivializes their risks and the uncertainties of future outcomes. Our critical ethical evaluation also included proposed solutions. We suggested that clinicians familiarize themselves with the difference between the classical early-onset of cross-sex identification, which typically spontaneously resolves before adulthood (Ristori & Steensma, 2016; Singh, Bradley, & Zucker, 2021), and the novel presentation of youth with postpubertal onset of gender dysphoria and a much wider range of gender identities, for whom the outcomes are unknown. We suggested that rather than merely deferring to their medical societies’ wholesale adoption of “gender-affirmative” guidelines from the gender medicine establishment, clinicians
How do spins interact coherently with ultrashort laser pulses

We investigate the interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with spins including relativistic corrections. The time-ordered magneto-optical signals corresponding to a pump-probe configuration are calculated in the case of one electron submitted to a magnetic field and evolving in eight levels of the fine structure of a hydrogen-like atom. Our simulations explain the origin of the coherent magneto-optical response and ultrafast spin dynamics in ferromagnets excited by intense laser pulses as recently reported in Ni and CoPt3 ferromagnetic thin films. Our detailed analysis allows identifying the respective roles of the coherent spin-photon interaction and spin dynamics unraveling recent controversies about the laser induced ultrafast magnetization dynamics.
Understanding the Magnetic Microstructure through Experiments and Machine Learning Algorithms

Advanced machine learning techniques have unfurled their applications in various interdisciplinary areas of research and development. This paper highlights the use of image regression algorithms based on advanced neural networks to understand the magnetic properties directly from the magnetic microstructure. In this study, Co/Pd multilayers have been chosen as a reference material system that displays maze-like magnetic domains in pristine conditions. Irradiation of Ar+ ions with two different energies (50 and 100 keV) at various fluences was used as an external perturbation to investigate the modification of magnetic and structural properties from a state of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy to the vicinity of the spin reorientation transition. Magnetic force microscopy revealed domain fragmentation with a smaller periodicity and weaker magnetic contrast up to the fluence of 1014 ions/cm2. Further increases in the ion fluence result in the formation of feather-like domains with a variation in local magnetization distribution. The experimental results were complemented with micromagnetic simulations, where the variations of effective magnetic anisotropy and exchange constant result in qualitatively similar changes in magnetic domains, as observed experimentally. Importantly, a set of 960 simulated domain images was generated to train, validate, and test the convolutional neural network (CNN) that predicts the magnetic properties directly from the domain images with a high level of accuracy (maximum 93.9%). Our work has immense importance in promoting the applications of image regression methods through the CNN in understanding integral magnetic properties obtained from the microscopic features subject to change under external perturbations.
Shared Gaussian Process Latent Variable Models for Handling Ambiguous Facial Expressions

Despite the fact, that, in reality facial expressions occur as a result of muscle actions, facial expression models assume an inverse functional relationship, which makes muscles action be the result of facial expressions. Clearly, facial expression should be expressed as a function of muscle action, the other way around as previously suggested. Furthermore, a human facial expression space and the robots actuator space have common features. However, there are also features that the one or the other does not have. This suggests modelling shared and non‐shared feature variance separately. To this end we propose Shared Gaussian Process Latent Variable Models (Shared GP‐LVM) for models of facial expressions, which assume shared and private features between an input and output space. In this work, we are focusing on the detection of ambiguities within data sets of facial behaviour. We suggest ways of modelling and mapping of facial motion from a representation of human facial expressions to a robot’s actuator .
The effect of time of day and high intensity exercise on cognitive performances of elite adolescent karate athletes

ABSTRACT To explore the effect of time of day (TOD) on several components of cognitive performance prior and post to a physically exhaustive task in a sample of adolescent elite athletes. In a counterbalanced and randomized order, fourteen highly trained male karate athletes (17 ± 0.96 years; 1.75 ± 0.07 m; 68.0 ± 9.50 kg; BMI 22.15 ± 0.54 kg.m−2) completed two test sessions at 09h00 and 16h00. Cognitive performance was evaluated before and after the karate specific test (KST). During each session, participants completed the profile of mood state (POMS), simple (SRT) and choice (CRT) reaction times, comparison test (COMT), mental rotation test (MRT), egocentric distance estimation (DE), and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE). KST was not TOD dependent (p > .05, d = 0.33). RPE scores were higher in the afternoon compared to the morning (p < .05, d = 0.68). Before the KST, SRT (p < .01, d = 0.69), CRT (p < .01, d = 0.47), COMT (p < .01, d = 0.62) and MRT (p < .001, d = 0.65) were better in the afternoon than in the morning. However, DE was not affected by the TOD (P > .05). KST improved SRT (p < .01, d = 0.078), CRT (p < .001, d = 0.72), COMT (p < .001, d = 1.31) and MRT (p < .001, d = 0.80) performances only in the morning. Cognitive performances are TOD dependent with higher performances realized in the afternoon. Performing a high intensity exercise in the morning, but not in the afternoon, enhanced several aspects of cognitive performances. The current results indicate that an intensive warm-up could be beneficial when a morning competition requires high cognitive readiness.
The rearing environment persistently modulates mouse phenotypes from the molecular to the behavioural level

The phenotype of an organism results from its genotype and the influence of the environment throughout development. Even when using animals of the same genotype, independent studies may test animals of different phenotypes, resulting in poor replicability due to genotype-by-environment interactions. Thus, genetically defined strains of mice may respond differently to experimental treatments depending on their rearing environment. However, the extent of such phenotypic plasticity and its implications for the replicability of research findings have remained unknown. Here, we examined the extent to which common environmental differences between animal facilities modulate the phenotype of genetically homogeneous (inbred) mice. We conducted a comprehensive multicentre study, whereby inbred C57BL/6J mice from a single breeding cohort were allocated to and reared in 5 different animal facilities throughout early life and adolescence, before being transported to a single test laboratory. We found persistent effects of the rearing facility on the composition and heterogeneity of the gut microbial community. These effects were paralleled by persistent differences in body weight and in the behavioural phenotype of the mice. Furthermore, we show that environmental variation among animal facilities is strong enough to influence epigenetic patterns in neurons at the level of chromatin organisation. We detected changes in chromatin organisation in the regulatory regions of genes involved in nucleosome assembly, neuronal differentiation, synaptic plasticity, and regulation of behaviour. Our findings demonstrate that common environmental differences between animal facilities may produce facility-specific phenotypes, from the molecular to the behavioural level. Furthermore, they highlight an important limitation of inferences from single-laboratory studies and thus argue that study designs should take environmental background into account to increase the robustness and replicability of findings.
Numerical simulations of MHD flows past obstacles in a duct under externally applied magnetic field

In this thesis, we simulate the flow of an electrically conducting fluid past an obstacle placed inside a duct under the influence of an externally applied magnetic field. Three different obstacles are considered: a circular and a square cylinder spanning over the full height of the duct and a square cylinder spanning over the half height of the duct. The magnetic field is oriented along the cylinder axis and the duct is electrically insulating. In a first stage of the thesis, we perform a parametric study over both Ha and Re in the case where both Ha ≫ 1 and N ≫ 1 with 2D simulations using the quasi-2D flow model by [165]. In particular, we provide the first explanation of the collapse of the regular Kármán vortex street observed experimentally by [180]. We also derive two different scaling laws linking the evolutions of the flow coefficients and either Re/Ha or Re/Ha0.8. The second phase of the thesis is dedicated to the development of a 3D MHD capable code to solve the flow equations with the inductionless approximation. This code is used to investigate the 3D MHD flow past a truncated square cylinder in a duct. We explain the different stages of elaboration of our code and validate its performances to MHD duct flows and cylinder wakes. We also implement a wall function at the interface between the Hartmann layers and the bulk flow. The non-MHD flow past the truncated cylinder is simulated for 10 ≤ Re ≤ 400. In particular, the early stages of the unsteady flow regime is characterised by a regular symmetric procession of hairpin vortices. We explain the formation mechanism of these vortices and its evolution when Re is increased. Finally, we investigate the MHD flow past the electrically insulating truncated cylinder at Ha = 100 and 200 for Re up to 1000. The flow dynamics is strongly 2D with the presence of a Hunt’s wake at very low Re. The unsteady regime leads to the development of a Kármán vortex street. Switching to a perfectly conducting truncated square cylinder enhances the braking of the flow by the Lorentz force in the region above the cylinder tip.
Context Binding in Visual Working Memory Is Reflected in Bilateral Event-Related Potentials, But Not in Contralateral Delay Activity

Visual Abstract Successful retrieval of a specific item from visual working memory (VWM) depends on the binding of that item to its unique context. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of VWM manipulating memory set homogeneity have identified an important role for the intraparietal sulcus in context binding, independent of any role in representing stimulus identity. The current study explored whether the contralateral delay activity (CDA), which is an event-related potential (ERP) component derived from posterior electrodes that tracks the amount of information held in VWM, might also be sensitive to context-binding demands. In experiment 1, human participants performed lateralized delayed recognition with memory sets containing one, three, or five items that were drawn from the same category (orientations: “homogeneous”) or from different categories (orientation, color, and luminance: “heterogeneous”). Because the location and identity of the memory probe indicated the item to be retrieved, homogeneous trials placed higher context-binding demands. VWM capacity was higher in heterogeneous trials. ERPs contralateral (contra) and ipsilateral (ipsi) to the remembered stimuli were higher for homogeneous trials, but these differences were removed in the contra – ipsi subtraction that produced the CDA. In experiment 2, human participants performed lateralized delayed recall with memory sets of one or three items (homogeneous or heterogeneous). Behavior was superior for three-item heterogeneous trials than for homogeneous trials, with modeling revealing context-binding errors in the latter. Bilateral ERPs and CDA results replicated experiment 1. These results support that the CDA tracks the number of object files engaged by VWM and establish that it is not sensitive to context-binding demands.
Design of programmable post-translational switch control platform for on-demand protein secretion in mammalian cells

Abstract The development of novel strategies to program cellular behaviors is a central goal in synthetic biology, and post-translational control mediated by engineered protein circuits is a particularly attractive approach to achieve rapid protein secretion on demand. We have developed a programmable protease-mediated post-translational switch (POSH) control platform composed of a chimeric protein unit that consists of a protein of interest fused via a transmembrane domain to a cleavable ER-retention signal, together with two cytosolic inducer-sensitive split protease components. The protease components combine in the presence of the specific inducer to generate active protease, which cleaves the ER-retention signal, releasing the transmembrane-domain-linked protein for trafficking to the trans-Golgi region. A furin site placed downstream of the protein ensures cleavage and subsequent secretion of the desired protein. We show that stimuli ranging from plant-derived, clinically compatible chemicals to remotely controllable inducers such as light and electrostimulation can program protein secretion in various POSH-engineered designer mammalian cells. As proof-of-concept, an all-in-one POSH control plasmid encoding insulin and abscisic acid-activatable split protease units was hydrodynamically transfected into the liver of type-1 diabetic mice. Induction with abscisic acid attenuated glycemic excursions in glucose-tolerance tests. Increased blood levels of insulin were maintained for 12 days.