Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Small Conductance Calcium-Activated K+ Channel in C. elegans, KCNL-2, Plays a Role in the Regulation of the Rate of Egg-Laying

In the nervous system of mice, small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels function to regulate neuronal excitability through the generation of a component of the medium afterhyperpolarization that follows action potentials. In humans, irregular action potential firing frequency underlies diseases such as ataxia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Due to the complexity of studying protein function in the mammalian nervous system, we sought to characterize an SK channel homologue, KCNL-2, in C. elegans, a genetically tractable system in which the lineage of individual neurons was mapped from their early developmental stages. Sequence analysis of the KCNL-2 protein reveals that the six transmembrane domains, the potassium-selective pore and the calmodulin binding domain are highly conserved with the mammalian homologues. We used widefield and confocal fluorescent imaging to show that a fusion construct of KCNL-2 with GFP in transgenic lines is expressed in the nervous system of C. elegans. We also show that a KCNL-2 null strain, kcnl-2(tm1885), demonstrates a mild egg-laying defective phenotype, a phenotype that is rescued in a KCNL-2-dependent manner. Conversely, we show that transgenic lines that overexpress KCNL-2 demonstrate a hyperactive egg-laying phenotype. In this study, we show that the vulva of transgenic hermaphrodites is highly innervated by neuronal processes and by the VC4 and VC5 neurons that express GFP-tagged KCNL-2. We propose that KCNL-2 functions in the nervous system of C. elegans to regulate the rate of egg-laying.
High mobility control for a wheel-legged mobile robot based on resolved momentum control

This paper deals with realization of both rapidity and stabilities for four-wheel-legged locomotion. To achieve these aims, two control approaches are proposed. First, we show the kinematic modeling of constraint for wheel-legged mechanism to achieve the three-dimensional locomotion. Then, the proposed constraint is applied to the resolved momentum control. This method realizes the dynamic locomotion by considering the center of mass and angular momentum directly affecting the stability of dynamic locomotion. Second, a trajectory generating method by using zero-phase low pass filter based on a cart-table model is applied. These schemes can control the robot by stabilizing the zero moment point which is the criteria of dynamic locomotion. In this paper, we focus on the realization of fast and stable wheeled locomotion. Finally, the effect of proposed methods is confirmed by simulations and experiments.
Does a single zealot affect an infinite group of voters?

A method for studying the exact properties of a class of inhomogeneous stochastic many-body systems is developed and presented in the framework of a voter model perturbed by the presence of a "zealot," an individual allowed to favor an "opinion. " We compute exactly the magnetization of this model and find that in one (1D) and two dimensions (2D) it evolves, algebraically ( approximately t(-1/2)) in 1D and much slower ( approximately 1/ln(t) in 2D, towards the unanimity state chosen by the zealot. In higher dimensions the stationary magnetization is no longer uniform: the zealot cannot influence all the individuals. The implications to other physical problems are also pointed out.
Are There Differences in Placental Volume and Uterine Artery Doppler in Pregnancies Resulting From the Transfer of Fresh Versus Frozen-Thawed Embryos Through In Vitro Fertilization

Objective: To compare uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) and 3-dimensional (3D) placental volume values in first-trimester pregnancies conceived naturally or through in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique using either fresh or cryopreserved embryo and to relate these measurements with preeclampsia (PE) development. Methods: Uterine artery PI and placental volume were measured at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation in 266 IVF pregnancies (139 women with fresh embryo and 127 women with frozen-thawed embryo transfer) and in 266 spontaneously conceived pregnancies matched for maternal age. Nulliparous women with singleton pregnancies were recruited. The mean, highest, and lowest uterine artery PI and placental volume values measured were converted to multiples of the expected normal median (MoM) adjusted for gestational age. The MoM values of IVF pregnancies were compared with those of the naturally conceived group and related to PE development. Results: No differences were found in uterine artery PI MoM between the 3 groups. Placental volume was significantly lower than in both IVF groups when compared to the controls (fresh embryo IVF Z = 9.33; P ≤ .0001; frozen-thawed embryos IVF Z = 3.1; P = .04). The IVF pregnancies with fresh embryos showed placental volume MoM values significantly lower than in the frozen-thawed embryo IVF pregnancies (U = 5.4; P ≤ .0001). In fresh embryo IVF pregnancies developing PE placental volume values resulted lower than in the normotensive ones (U = 2.11; P = .03), while no differences were found for uterine artery PI values. Conclusion: First-trimester placental volume, as assessed by 3D ultrasound, is reduced in IVF pregnancies, and these differences are more marked in those obtained with fresh embryos than those obtained with cryopreservation. This may explain the better obstetrical and perinatal outcomes occurring with the former technique.
Cutaneous vascular function during acute hyperglycemia in healthy young adults.

Although it is well established that severe chronic hyperglycemia is associated with microvascular disease, it is not known whether transient hyperglycemia similar to that observed with impaired glucose tolerance or early Type 2 diabetes contributes to this pathology by altering microvascular function. To test the hypothesis that acute hyperglycemia decreases microvascular vasodilator responsiveness in human skin, we measured the cutaneous vasodilator response to local warming. This response can be divided into two phases, an initial peak that relies predominantly on local sensory nerves and a second slower phase that is largely dependent on endothelial nitric oxide. We reasoned that a change in one or both phases would indicate a change in the corresponding mechanism(s) with hyperglycemia. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers (14 women, 14 men) were randomly divided into three groups, corresponding to 6 h of euglycemia (n = 8), 6 h when glucose was clamped at approximately 7 mmol/l (n = 10), or 6 h when glucose was varied to mimic a postprandial pattern (i.e., peak glucose approximately 11.1 mmol/l) commonly observed in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (n = 10). Insulin concentrations in all instances were maintained at approximately 65 pmol/l by means of continuous infusions of somatostatin and insulin. Glucagon and growth hormone were also continuously infused to maintain their basal concentrations. Despite substantial differences in both the level and pattern of glucose concentrations, neither maximum cutaneous vasodilation nor the pattern of the vasodilator response to local warming differed over the 6 h of study. We conclude that acute hyperglycemia similar to levels commonly observed in people with either early Type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance does not alter the vasodilator response to local warming of the skin in humans.
Evolution of feedback-inhibited β/α barrel isoenzymes by gene duplication and a single mutation

The β/α barrel is the common protein fold of numerous enzymes and was proposed recently to be the result of gene duplication and fusion of an ancient half-barrel. The initial enzyme of shikimate biosynthesis possesses the additional feature of feedback regulation. The crystal structure and kinetic studies on chimera and mutant proteins of yeast 3-deoxy-d-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate (DAHP) synthase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae inhibited by phenylalanine (Aro3p) and DAHP synthase S. cerevisiae inhibited by tyrosine (Aro4p) give insight into important regions for regulation in the enzyme: The loop, which is connecting the two half-barrels, and structural elements added to the barrel are prerequisites for regulation and form a cavity on the N-terminal side of the β/α barrel. In the cavity of Aro4p at position 226 is a glycine residue, which is highly conserved in all other tyrosine-regulated DAHP synthases as well. Sequence alignments with phenylalanine-regulated DAHP synthases including Aro3p show a highly conserved serine residue at this position. An exchange of glycine to serine and vice versa leads to a complete change in the regulation pattern. Therefore the evolution of these differently feedback-inhibited isoenzymes required gene duplication and a single mutation within the internal extra element. Numerous additional amino acid substitutions present in the contemporary isoenzymes are irrelevant for regulation and occurred independently.
An Efficient Algorithm to Compute the Inverse of a Fourth Order Positive Definite Symmetric Matrix

This paper presents an efficient and simple algorithm to compute the inverse of a fourth order positive definite symmetric matrix. In GPS related algorithms (whether iterative or non-iterative), the computations of user position or velocity require determination of the inverse of such 4x4 symmetric matrices. The standard Gaussian elimination technique based on LU decomposition technique does not exploit the advantage of matrix symmetry. The approach described here involves a single step LDL T decomposition [Golub 1996] to obtain a block diagonal matrix with two blocks. The blocks will be of the size 1x1 and 3x3. The inverse of the first block is obvious, where as the inverse of the second block may be computed using the classical formula Adj(G)/ det(G). Pivotation can be performed efficiently, again by exploiting the symmetry. This algorithm requires considerably lesser floating-point operations than the standard algorithms.
Distribution of Markers of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Throughout the Body

The detection of markers of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is complicated by the presence of virus in circulating blood. Consequently, it is necessary to target the negative-strand virus RNA or the nonstructural proteins. This has proved challenging, due to unforeseen difficulties in the specific detection of negative-strand viral RNA. However, recent data suggest that although the liver is the major target organ, the virus may be able to replicate in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, lymph nodes, and pancreas and to a more limited degree in bone marrow cells, thyroid, adrenal glands, and spleen. An analysis of the distribution of virus-infected cells in the liver has proved equally challenging. It is clear from the paucity of data generated by immunoblot and Northern blot hybridization that the level of HCV replication in the liver is very low, and this has necessitated studies to detect the viral RNA and antigens by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The results of these studies are quite disparate. Those related to in situ hybridization are nonreproducible and reflect wide disparities in the methodology used by different research workers. The data are often internally inconsistent or are inconsistent with data generated by nucleic acid amplification methods to detect the viral RNA in purified RNA extracts or inconsistent with our current understanding of the virus replication cycle. In contrast, the detection of the viral proteins is more reproducible, and some consensus can be reached. It is clear that frozen sections rather than formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue are preferable. Indeed, it is likely that the use of the latter samples can generate nonspecific positive reactions. Surprisingly, many of the most useful data were derived by the use of polyclonal human antibodies from chronic carriers. HCV proteins were detected in the cytoplasm of infected hepatocytes, often in a punctate granular pattern in some hepatocytes and occasionally in monocytes and other cell types. There is often no correlation between HCV antigen expression and the degree of liver cell injury, although patients with lower levels of antigen expression are more likely to respond to interferon therapy.
Super-fair Platforms Widely Hidden in Multinational Securities Business

A general phenomenon puzzles all investors is that on one hand, most individual investors believe they need to construct the portfolio consisting of 15 or more stocks to prevent risk because that large investment companies frequently get high returns is due to they obey the existing investment theory to make the portfolio consisting of more than 100 stocks, but the individual investors loss their wealth averagely. On the other hand, a few risk-likes bravely invest their total money on at most 3-4 securities with high “risk” and they get higher returns frequently. Fantastically, every single manager of these large investment companies only supervises 3-4 securities even though the whole portfolio consists of more than 100 securities. This phenomenon seems slightly against the existing investment theory, so we propose a new view, the super-fair platforms, to explain it. To answer the suspicion of the potential users, we prove that number of the super-fair platforms is big and the size of each super-fair platform is big enough so that any large investment company in this world can find a super-fair platform to fit his hopes. And we give an alarming function to hint the buying and shelling times so that the users can adjust their amount of securities for getting much higher returns. where, Oi is the odds that means a gambler would get Oi dollars by the end of the horse race for every dollar if the ith horse wins. The economical meaning of the super-fairness is that the organizers will contribute money to enlarge the odds Oi. So, the super-fairness does not exist in really horse race. However, it is very popular in securities businesses. For showing this issue, we introduce some concepts as follows: Odds: Let X be a security, we say the odds of X is O if we may get dollars with a certain probability while we invest every dollar at the beginning of the term. O Let Ai be the events of the ith securities arrives at its odds Oi, then the probability of Ai was denoted by pi (1,2,.,i n =). Let Ai denote the opposite event of, then ( ) i i p A p − = 1 A positive number OΣ is called expectable odds if it satisfies Completed wave: We assume all investors have known Ralph Nelson Elliott’s Wave Principle; they can familiarly to recognize the start point, the wave 1 and wave 2, the left shoulder, the head, the right shoulder and the last bottom as shown in the figure 1. Thus for most investors, they will get the odds
High Resolution Cerebral Blood Flow Imaging by Registered Laser Speckle Contrast Analysis

Laser speckle imaging (LSI) has been widely used for in vivo detecting cerebral blood flow (CBF) under various physiological and pathological conditions. So far, nearly all literature on in vivo LSI does not consider the influence of disturbances due to respiration and/or heart beating of animals. In this paper, we analyze how such physiologic motions affect the spatial resolution of the conventional laser speckle contrast analysis (LASCA). We propose a registered laser speckle contrast analysis (rLASCA) method which first registers raw speckle images with a 3 × 3 convolution kernel, normalized correlation metric and cubic B-spline interpolator, and then constructs the contrast image for CBF. rLASCA not only significantly improves the distinguishability of small vessels, but also efficiently suppresses the noises induced by respiration and/or heart beating. In an application of imaging the angiogenesis of rat's brain tumor, rLASCA outperformed the conventional LASCA in providing a much higher resolution for new small vessels. As a processing method for LSI, rLASCA can be directly applied to other LSI experiments where the disturbances from different sources (like respiration, heart beating) exist.
‘Cand. Actinochlamydia clariae’ gen. nov., sp. nov., a Unique Intracellular Bacterium Causing Epitheliocystis in Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in Uganda

Background and Objectives Epitheliocystis, caused by bacteria infecting gill epithelial cells in fish, is common among a large range of fish species in both fresh- and seawater. The aquaculture industry considers epitheliocystis an important problem. It affects the welfare of the fish and the resulting gill disease may lead to mortalities. In a culture facility in Kampala, Uganda, juveniles of the African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus) was observed swimming in the surface, sometimes belly up, showing signs of respiratory problems. Histological examination of gill tissues from this fish revealed large amounts of epitheliocysts, and also presence of a few Ichthyobodo sp. and Trichodina sp. Methods and Results Sequencing of the epitheliocystis bacterium 16S rRNA gene shows 86.3% similarity with Candidatus Piscichlamydia salmonis causing epitheliocystis in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Transmission electron microscopy showed that the morphology of the developmental stages of the bacterium is similar to that of members of the family Chlamydiaceae. The similarity of the bacterium rRNA gene sequences compared with other chlamydia-like bacteria ranged between 80.5% and 86.3%. Inclusions containing this new bacterium have tubules/channels (termed actinae) that are radiating from the inclusion membrane and opening on the cell surface or in neighbouring cells. Conclusions Radiation of tubules/channels (actinae) from the inclusion membrane has never been described in any of the other members of Chlamydiales. It seems to be a completely new character and an apomorphy. We propose the name Candidatus Actinochlamydia clariae gen. nov., sp. nov. (Actinochlamydiaceae fam. nov., order Chlamydiales, phylum Chlamydiae) for this new agent causing epitheliocystis in African sharptooth catfish.
On the correctness of machine translation: A machine translation post-editing task

Machine translated texts are increasingly used for quickly obtaining an idea of the content of a text and as a basis for editing the text for publication. This paper presents a study examining how well a machine-translated text can convey the intended meaning to the reader. In the experiment described, test subjects edited machine-translated texts from English into Finnish. In order to observe how well it would be possible for the test subjects to decipher the meaning of the source text based on the machine translation alone, they had no access to the source text. Their edits were assessed by the authors of the paper for the correctness of meaning (compared to the source text) and language (compared to the target language norms and conventions). The results show that the test subjects were successful at deducing the correct meaning without the source text for about half of the edited sentences. The results also suggest that errors in word forms and mangled relations that can be deduced based on context are the kind of machine translation errors that are easier to recover from, while mistranslated idioms and missing content seem to be more critical to understand the meaning.
Ringer’s ethyl pyruvate solution ameliorates ischemia/reperfusion-induced intestinal mucosal injury in rats

ObjectivePyruvate has been shown to be protective in numerous in vitro and in vivo models of oxidant-mediated cellular or organ system injury. Unfortunately, the usefulness of pyruvate as a therapeutic agent is abrogated by its very poor stability in solution. In an effort to take advantage of the ability of pyruvate to scavenge reactive oxygen species while avoiding the problems associated with the instability of pyruvate in solution, we sought to determine whether a simple derivative, ethyl pyruvate, would be protective in an animal model of reactive oxygen species-mediated tissue injury, namely mesenteric ischemia and reperfusion in rats. DesignProspective, randomized trial. SettingAnimal research center. SubjectsMale Sprague-Dawley rats. InterventionsUnder general anesthesia, rats were subjected to 60 mins of mesenteric ischemia followed by 60 mins of reperfusion. Controls (n = 6) received intravenous lactated Ringer’s solution according this dosing schedule: 1.5 mL/kg bolus before ischemia, 3.0 mL/kg bolus before resuscitation, and 1.5 mL·kg−1·hr−1 by continuous infusion. Two experimental groups received similar volumes of either pyruvate (n = 6 each) or ethyl pyruvate (n = 9) solution made up exactly like lactated Ringer’s solution except for the substitution of eitherpyruvate or ethyl pyruvate for lactate, respectively. Measurements and Main Results To obtain tissues for assessing mucosal permeability and histology, five 10-cm long segments of small intestine were obtained at the following time points: baseline, after 30 and 60 mins of ischemia, and after 30 and 60 mins of reperfusion. Mucosal permeability to fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran (molecular weight 4000 Da) was assessed ex vivo by using an everted gut sac method. Compared with controls, treatment of rats with either pyruvate solution or ethyl pyruvate solution significantly ameliorated the development of intestinal mucosal hyperpermeability during the reperfusion. Treatment with ethyl pyruvate solution also significantly decreased the extent of histologic mucosal damage after mesenteric reperfusion. ConclusionsTreatment with Ringer’s ethyl pyruvate solution ameliorated structural and functional damage to the intestinal mucosa in a rat model of mesenteric ischemia/reperfusion. Ethyl pyruvate solution warrants further evaluation as a novel therapeutic agent for preventing oxidant-mediated injury in various disease states.
Retinal Mechanisms in the Perception of Subjective Contours: The Contribution of Lateral Inhibition

One mechanism frequently proposed for the creation of subjective contours and their related brightness effects involves lateral neural interactions on the retina, such as the lateral inhibitory effects that underlie brightness contrast. Subjective contour stimuli were displayed under an intermittent light source, with rapid onset and slow offset as has been shown to increase lateral inhibitory interactions by allowing summation of neural onset transients. A sample of forty subjects, using magnitude estimates, reported increased subjective contour clarity and brightness effects under these exposure conditions. The effects were larger for relative brightness differences than for contour visibility. It appears that this technique may have applications in exploring retinal contributions to other aspects of the perception of subjective contours.
John Ridley Stroop: Creator of a landmark cognitive task.

The Stroop colour-word task, the most widely used demonstration of interference in attention, has provided a fascinating empirical and theoretical puzzle for cognitive psychologists for over half a century. This historical note provides a biographical sketch of the task's creator, John Ridley Stroop, and examines the impact of his task on cognitive psychology.
Designing guiding systems for gesture-based interaction

2D or 3D gesture commands are still not routinely adopted, despite the technological advances for tracking gestures. The fact that gesture commands are not self-revealing is a bottleneck for this adoption. Guiding novice users is therefore crucial in order to reveal what commands are available and how to trigger them. However guiding systems are mainly designed in an ad hoc manner. Even if isolated design characteristics exist, they concentrate on a limited number of guidance aspects. We hence present a design space that unifies and completes these studies by providing a coherent set of issues for designing the behavior of a guiding system. We distinguish Feedback and Feedforward and consider four questions: When, What, How and Where. In order to leverage efficient use of our design space, we provide an online tool and illustrate with scenarios how practitioners can use it.