Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tipping the Balance: Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Secreted Oxalic Acid Suppresses Host Defenses by Manipulating the Host Redox Environment

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a necrotrophic ascomycete fungus with an extremely broad host range. This pathogen produces the non-specific phytotoxin and key pathogenicity factor, oxalic acid (OA). Our recent work indicated that this fungus and more specifically OA, can induce apoptotic-like programmed cell death (PCD) in plant hosts, this induction of PCD and disease requires generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the host, a process triggered by fungal secreted OA. Conversely, during the initial stages of infection, OA also dampens the plant oxidative burst, an early host response generally associated with plant defense. This scenario presents a challenge regarding the mechanistic details of OA function; as OA both suppresses and induces host ROS during the compatible interaction. In the present study we generated transgenic plants expressing a redox-regulated GFP reporter. Results show that initially, Sclerotinia (via OA) generates a reducing environment in host cells that suppress host defense responses including the oxidative burst and callose deposition, akin to compatible biotrophic pathogens. Once infection is established however, this necrotroph induces the generation of plant ROS leading to PCD of host tissue, the result of which is of direct benefit to the pathogen. In contrast, a non-pathogenic OA-deficient mutant failed to alter host redox status. The mutant produced hypersensitive response-like features following host inoculation, including ROS induction, callose formation, restricted growth and cell death. These results indicate active recognition of the mutant and further point to suppression of defenses by the wild type necrotrophic fungus. Chemical reduction of host cells with dithiothreitol (DTT) or potassium oxalate (KOA) restored the ability of this mutant to cause disease. Thus, Sclerotinia uses a novel strategy involving regulation of host redox status to establish infection. These results address a long-standing issue involving the ability of OA to both inhibit and promote ROS to achieve pathogenic success.
Action Research in Industrial Training in BSE Course

Action research involves practitioners in attempting to improve their own teaching through cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. This idea was adopted by a group of interested staff to evaluate the industrial training in the third year of the four‐year sandwich course, B.Eng. (Hons) in Building Services Engineering, at Hong Kong Polytechnic. As there are foreseen difficulties in locating suitable and adequate high quality industrial placements, research was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing arrangement. Assesses attitudes of BSE staff, students and industrial supervisors towards the training. Results of the survey indicated that objectives of the training were not wholly fulfilled. Suggestions are included to improve the management of the training system.
Stability analysis of adaptive Jacobian controller for free-floating space manipulators

In this paper, we have presented an adaptive Jacobian tracking controller for free-floating space manipulators with uncertainties in both kinematics and dynamics. Due to the nonlinearly parametric nature of the dynamics of free-floating manipulators, the conventional linearly-parametric-model based adaptive control schemes cannot work. But here we do not perform controller design based on the conventional dynamics of free-floating space manipulators. Instead, we attempt to resolve this problem based on normal form augmentation approach. And we have also, for the first time, presented a complete stability analysis of the normal form augmentation based scheme. The applicability and the restriction of this approach has been discussed. Simulation results are presented to show the performance of the proposed controller.
THE HAEMODYNAMICS OF COMPLETE TRANSPOSITION OF THE GREAT VESSELS.

In the normal circulation blood goes around the body in one circuit. Two resistances are encountered by the blood in this circuit, the systemic and the pulmonary vascular resistances. In complete transposition of the great vessels, blood goes round in two separate circuits, namely the systemic and pulmonary circuits. Owing to the separate nature of the two circuits, any shunt that occurs between them has to be bidirectional and exactly equal in both directions. Theoretically if a large communication, such as a ventricular septal defect, exists between the two circuits, a shunt occurs from the circuit with the higher pressure to that with the lower pressure only until the pressures in the two ventricles equalize. The fact that the pulmonary and systemic resistances are often different in complete transposition of the great vessels will not result in itself in the exchange of blood between the two circuits, because even if it explains the direction of the shunt from the circuit with the higher resistance to that with the lower resistance, it will not explain the occurrence of an equal shunt in the reverse direction, that is from the circuit with the lower resistance to that with the higher. Several views have been expressed about the mechanism of blood shunting in transposition of the great vessels (Astley and Parsons, 1952; Wood, 1956; Kjellberg et al., 1959; Taussig, 1960). These authors thought that the volume and the direction of the shunt in transposition of the great vessels was probably determined by the total resistances in the two vascular systems. The reason why some of the deeply cyanosed patients have evidence of increased systemic blood flow (Campbell and Suzman, 1951; Astley and Parsons, 1952; Cleland et al., 1957; Kjellberg et al., 1959; Noonan et al., 1960; D. C. Deuchar, 1962, personal communication) has never been explained. The object of this paper is to discuss the hemodynamics of complete transposition of the great vessels. The belief that cardiac catheterization contributes little to the diagnosis of this condition (Campbell et al., 1949; Blalock and Hanlon, 1950; Lillehei and Varco, 1953; Keith, Rowe, and Vlad, 1958) has probably led to the scarcity of the data in any one hospital. For this reason the majority of the patients studied haemodynamically in this paper have been obtained from published reports, particularly from the excellent paper by Noonan et al. (1960).
In vitro Isolation and Cell Culture of Vestibular Inner Ear Melanocytes

Introduction: Melanocytes of the membranous labyrinth of the inner ear have been described morphologically in various contexts. Nature and functions of these cells are as yet not completely clear, even though several hypotheses exist regarding the same. The limited knowledge is due in part to a lack of methods regarding in vitro cell culture. The aim of this study was to describe conditions for the successful cell culture of vestibular inner ear melanocytes (VIEM), to compare their growth properties with those of epidermal melanocytes, and to characterize them immunohistochemically. Materials and Methods: Membranous labyrinth cells from freshly slaughtered sheep were isolated, and melanocytes and fibroblasts subsequently cultured. In addition, melanocytes from the skin of the same sheep were cultured. Antibodies specific to tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TRP-1/Mel-5), and melanoma-specific antigen A (Melan A) were used to analyze the cultured cells. Results: The proliferation of VIEM was retarded in comparison to epidermal melanocytes. After 14 days, VIEM began to proliferate for the first time, whereas epidermal melanocytes proliferated already after 7 days. In contrast to epidermal melanocytes, the culturing process of VIEM seemed to be dependent on the presence of fibroblasts, and VIEM often accumulated in the vicinity of fibroblasts forming three-dimensional clusters. Moreover, VIEM showed a higher ratio of highly pigmented cells with a round cell shape and small dendrites in comparison to epidermal melanocytes. Immunohistochemical techniques proved the VIEM to be positive for Melan A, TRP-1 and, in the majority of cases, also for tyrosinase. Conclusion: We successfully cultured melanocytes of the inner ear vestibular labyrinth for the first time and demonstrated melanocytic characteristics of these cells. This accomplishment will provide the opportunity to investigate VIEM in more detail in future experiments.
Low Serum Cartonectin/CTRP3 Concentrations in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: In Vivo Regulation of Cartonectin by Glucose

Objectives Cartonectin is a novel adipokine of the C1q complement/TNF-related protein (CTRP) superfamily, with glucose lowering effects, anti-inflammatory and cardio-protective properties. We sought to investigate circulating cartonectin concentrations in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) as well as age and BMI matched control subjects. We also examined the effects of a 2 hour 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) on serum cartonectin concentrations in T2DM subjects. Design Cross-sectional study [newly diagnosed (first discovery, not on any treatments) T2DM (n = 47) and control (n = 63) subjects]. Serum cartonectin was measured by ELISA. Results Serum cartonectin concentrations were significantly lower in patients with T2DM compared to controls (P<0.05). Furthermore, serum cartonectin was significantly negatively correlated with glucose and CRP, and significantly positively correlated with leptin, in all subjects (n = 110). When subjected to multiple regression analysis, none of these variables were predictive of serum cartonectin (P>0.05). There were no significant correlations in T2DM subjects (n = 47). In control subjects (n = 63), serum cartonectin was significantly negatively correlated with CRP, and significantly positively correlated with insulin, HOMA-IR and leptin. However, when subjected to multiple regression analysis, none of these variables were predictive of serum cartonectin (P>0.05). Finally, serum cartonectin concentrations were significantly lower in T2DM subjects after a 2 hour 75 g OGTT (P<0.01). Conclusions Cartonectin may serve as a novel biomarker for the prediction and early diagnosis of T2DM patients. Furthermore, cartonectin and/or pharmacological agents that increase circulating cartonectin levels can represent a new therapeutic field in the treatment of T2DM patients. Further research is needed to clarify these points.
Use of LUCAS LC Point Database for Validating Country-Scale Land Cover Maps

In this study, the Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS) of 2009 was used as a reference dataset for validating a Land Cover Map of Greece for 2007, produced with remote sensing by the Greek Office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF Hellas). First, all class definitions were decomposed in terms of four vegetation parameters (type, height, density, and composition), considered as critical in indicating unconformities between LUCAS and the WWF Hellas map; their inter-class relations were described in a table of correspondence. Then, a two-tier methodology was applied: an “automated” process, where thematic agreement was based exclusively on the main land cover attribute of LUCAS (LC1); and a “supervised” process, where thematic agreement was based on the reinterpretation of LUCAS ground photos and use of ancillary earth observation imagery; non-square error matrix was deployed in both processes. For the supervised process specifically, a decision-tree was designed, using the critical vegetation parameters (mentioned above) as quantified criteria, thus allowing objective labelling of testing points in both systems. The results show that only a small proportion of the reassessed points verified the WWF Hellas map predictions and that the overall accuracy of the supervised process was reduced compared to that of the automated process. In conclusion, the LUCAS point database was found to be supportive, but not fully efficient, for identifying the various sources of error in country-scale land cover maps derived with remote sensing. Synergy with very high resolution satellite images and air photos, or a dedicated ground truth campaign, seems to be inevitable in order to validate their thematic accuracy, especially in highly heterogeneous environments. In this direction, LUCAS could be used as a verification, rather than a validation, dataset.
Theodore Millon, una teoría de la personalidad y su patología

From its seminal work of 1976, Psicopatologia moderna: un enfoque biosocial de los aprendizajes erroneos y de los disfuncionalismos, and by more than 30 years Theodore Millon has developed a complex science of the personality and its pathology. In his model, the author postulates the existence of three basic polarities, pleasure-pain, active-passive and I-other, to explain the differences between the different types from personality. The original model of biosocial learning was reformulated in 1990 to the light of the evolutionary concepts. Throughout all this time, Millon next to their followers has established a paradigm to understand the personality. At the same time, it has argued repeatedly that a comprehensive clinical science of the personality needs to integrate four basic components: explanatory theory or conceptual schemes, a formal nosology, suitable tools of evaluation, and therapeutic interventions. In this work, the fundamental aspects of the Model of Millon are transformed in which it does to those different components.
Speaker-individuality in Fujisaki model f0 features:implications for forensic voice comparison

Fundamental frequency (f0) is a highly speaker-specific feature. Consequently, practitioners often use f0 information in forensic casework. Current research principally examines the use of long-term f0 statistics such as f0 means and standard deviations for forensic voice comparison. The present study investigates how short-term f0 features such as measured by the Fujisaki intonation model capture speaker-individuality. Based on data of a homogeneous group of Zurich German speakers, we conducted an experiment on a large corpus of read speech and on a subset of sentences that included speaking style variability (spontaneous vs. read). The latter is characteristic of forensic casework. Speakers demonstrated high between-speaker variability and low within-speaker variability across the two speaking styles for a number of f0 features. Given this evidence of speaker-individuality, we discuss Fujisaki f0 features’ potential for forensic voice comparison.
Home hemodialysis and mortality risk in Australian and New Zealand populations.

BACKGROUND There is a resurgence of interest in home hemodialysis (HD), especially frequent or extended forms involving unconventionally frequent (>3 times/wk) and/or long (>6 hours) treatments. This resurgence is driven by cost containment and experience suggesting lower mortality risk compared with facility HD and peritoneal dialysis (PD). STUDY DESIGN We performed an observational cohort study using the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry, using marginal structural modeling to adjust for time-varying medical comorbidity as both a source of selection bias and an intermediary variable on the causal pathway to death. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS All adult patients starting renal replacement therapy in Australia and New Zealand since March 31, 1996, followed up to December 31, 2007. PREDICTOR The main predictor was dialysis modality (conventional facility HD, conventional home HD, frequent/extended facility HD, frequent/extended home HD, and PD). We adjusted for the confounding effects of patient demographics and comorbid conditions. OUTCOME Patient mortality. RESULTS We analyzed 26,016 patients with 856,007 patient-months of follow-up. Relative to conventional facility HD, adjusted mortality HRs were 0.51 (95% CI, 0.44-0.59) for conventional home HD, 1.16 (95% CI, 0.94-1.44) for frequent/extended facility HD, 0.53 (95% CI, 0.41-0.68) for frequent/extended home HD, and 1.10 (95% CI, 1.06-1.16) for PD. The apparent benefit of home HD on mortality risk was less for patients who were nonwhite, non-Asian, and older. LIMITATIONS Potential for residual confounding from the limited collection of comorbid conditions (no collection of cognitive or motor impairment, depression, left ventricular volume or structure, or blood pressure/fluid volume status) and lack of socioeconomic, medication, and biochemical data in analyses. CONCLUSIONS Our study supports a survival advantage of home HD without a difference between conventional and frequent/extended modalities. Suitably designed clinical trials of frequent/extended HD are needed to determine the presence and extent of mortality benefit with this modality.
Influences of inter-stream synchronization errors among haptic media, sound, and video on quality of experience in networked ensemble

In this paper, we deal with a networked ensemble with a keyboard harmonica and a tambourine by using haptic media, sound, and video, and we investigate the influence of inter-stream synchronization errors among haptic media, sound, and video by quality of experience (QoE) assessment. In the QoE assessment, we handle two cases (cases 1 and 2). In case 1, we use low quality sound and normal video as well as haptic media. In case 2, we employ higher quality sound and stereo video with higher resolution than those in case 1. Assessment results illustrate that for example, the allowable range of inter-stream synchronization error in the networked ensemble is narrower than that in previous work.
QRS detectors performance comparison in public databases

Automatic QRS detection remains a challenging task in certain types of recordings, limiting the capacity of automating subsequent tasks that heavily depends on proper heartbeat location. Performance estimation of these algorithms is calculated almost exclusively in a few databases, ignoring the generalization to other more complex situations. In this work, we evaluated six QRS detection algorithms in 13 ECG databases. Four out of the six algorithms, and 11 out of 13 databases are publicly available. The databases were categorized into 5 groups: normal sinus rhythm, arrhythmia, ST and T morphology changes, stress-test and long-term. The best evaluated algorithm was gqrs, achieving S of 95 (85-98) (median and percentile range 5-95) and P+of 93 (90-96) across all databases. When analyzing the performance by groups of databases, this algorithm obtained the first rank in 4 out of 5 groups. The algorithm developed in our group achieved a performance close to gqrs, and obtained the best performance in the stress group. This evaluation setup includes a broad variety of recordings, being useful to estimate the actual performance of QRS detection algorithms, not only in a global sense but also specific to specific type of recordings.
Relative entropy and score function: New information-estimation relationships through arbitrary additive perturbation

This paper establishes new information-estimation relationships pertaining to models with additive noise of arbitrary distribution. In particular, we study the change in the relative entropy between two probability measures when both of them are perturbed by a small amount of the same additive noise. It is shown that the rate of the change with respect to the energy of the perturbation can be expressed in terms of the mean squared difference of the score functions of the two distributions, and, rather surprisingly, is unrelated to the distribution of the perturbation otherwise. The result holds true for the classical relative entropy (or Kullback-Leibler distance), as well as two of its generalizations: Rényi's relative entropy and the f-divergence. The result generalizes a recent relationship between the relative entropy and mean squared errors pertaining to Gaussian noise models, which in turn supersedes many previous information-estimation relationships. A generalization of the de Bruijn identity to non-Gaussian models can also be regarded as consequence of this new result.
A case of pathological excitability located with navigated-TMS: presurgical evaluation of focal neocortical epilepsy.

PURPOSE The quality of presurgical evaluation in focal extratemporal epilepsy surgery is highly dependent on precise structural and functional identification of the epileptic focus. Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) is a tool that combines the spatial information of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the functionality of non-invasive cortical stimulation. The non-invasive character of nTMS suggests that it could be a promising tool for presurgical evaluation of cortical excitability. METHODS Presurgical nTMS evaluation was performed on an 8-year-old boy with left-sided intractable focal epilepsy, somatosensory auras and epilepsia partialis continua. In line with standardized procedures, motor evoked potentials were sought in both hemispheres over perirolandic cortex during simultaneous belly-tendon surface recordings of the first dorsal interosseus muscles. RESULTS One singular motor-evoked potential (MEP) could be elicited in the unaffected hemisphere. In contrast, in the affected hemisphere MEPs could be elicited over a large area of the cortex even after the stimulation strength was reduced by at least 44%. Latency stratification in the affected hemisphere differentiated a motor from a sensory region of interest. Stimulation over the sensory region induced a sensory aura. The sensory site was concordant with a previous transient diffusion restriction found in an MRI two years prior to nTMS. CONCLUSIONS NTMS can locate pathological excitability with high spatial precision. Future studies should compare nTMS with direct cortex stimulation, as well as the combination of nTMS with electroencephalography (EEG) in a larger patient-collective.