Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance, morphology and control of power-amplified mandibles in the trap-jaw ant Myrmoteras (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

ABSTRACT Trap-jaw ants are characterized by high-speed mandibles used for prey capture and defense. Power-amplified mandibles have independently evolved at least four times among ants, with each lineage using different structures as a latch, spring and trigger. We examined two species from the genus Myrmoteras (subfamily Formicinae), whose morphology is unique among trap-jaw ant lineages, and describe the performance characteristics, spring-loading mechanism and neuronal control of Myrmoteras strikes. Like other trap-jaw ants, Myrmoteras latch their jaws open while the large closer muscle loads potential energy in a spring. The latch differs from other lineages and is likely formed by the co-contraction of the mandible opener and closer muscles. The cuticle of the posterior margin of the head serves as a spring, and is deformed by approximately 6% prior to a strike. The mandibles are likely unlatched by a subgroup of closer muscle fibers with particularly short sarcomeres. These fast fibers are controlled by two large motor neurons whose dendrites overlap with terminals of large sensory neurons originating from labral trigger hairs. Upon stimulation of the trigger hairs, the mandibles shut in as little as 0.5 ms and at peak velocities that are comparable with other trap-jaw ants, but with much slower acceleration. The estimated power output of the mandible strike (21 kW kg−1) confirms that Myrmoteras jaws are indeed power amplified. However, the power output of Myrmoteras mandibles is significantly lower than distantly related trap-jaw ants using different spring-loading mechanisms, indicating a relationship between power-amplification mechanism and performance. Summary: The kinematics, anatomy and power-amplification mechanism for trap-jaw ants in the genus Myrmoteras, one of four convergent ant lineages with spring-loaded mandibles, are described.
Analog Beamforming With Low Resolution Phase Shifters

In this letter, we consider analog beamforming using low resolution phase shifters for millimeter waves communications. We propose a hierarchical codebook design, where the beamforming vectors in the codebook are grouped into multiple levels and the preferred beamforming vector at each level is constructed to approximate an amplitude beamforming gain mask by using a low complexity local search algorithm. We show, by simulations, that the proposed codebook using low resolution phase shifters outperforms the existing schemes using high resolution phase shifters.
Role of Infrared Spectroscopy and Imaging in Cancer Diagnosis.

BACKGROUND Cancer is a major global health issue. It causes extensive individual suffering and gives a huge burden on the health care in society. Despite extensive research and different tools have been developed it still remains a challenge for early detection of this disease. FTIR imaging has been used to diagnose and differentiate the molecular differences between normal and diseased tissues. METHODS Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) is able to measure biochemical changes in tissue, cell and biofluids based on the vibrational signature of their components. This technique enables to the distribution and structure of lipids, proteins, nucleic acids as well as other metabolites. These differences depended on the type and the grade of cancer. RESULTS We emphasize here, that the FTIR spectroscopy and imaging can be considered as a promising technique and will find its place on the detection of this dreadful disease because of high sensitivity, accuracy and inexpensive technique. Now the medical community started using and accepting this technique for early stage cancer detection. We discussed this technique and the several challenges in its application for the diagnosis of cancer in regards of sample preparations, data interpretation, and data analysis. The sensitivity of chemotherapy drugs on individual specific has also discussed. CONCLUSION So far progressed has done with the FTIR imaging in understanding of cancer disease pathology. However, more research is needed in this field and it is necessary to understand the morphology and biology of the sample before using the spectroscopy and imaging because invaluable information to be figured out.
Competing consumers: contrasting the patterns and impacts of fire and mammalian herbivory in Africa

Fire and herbivory are the two consumers of above-ground biomass globally. They have contrasting impacts as they differ in terms of selectivity and temporal occurrence. Here, we integrate continental-scale data on fire and herbivory in Africa to explore (i) how environmental drivers constrain these two consumers and (ii) the degree to which each consumer affects the other. Environments conducive to mammalian herbivory are not necessarily the same as those conducive to fire, although their spheres of influence do overlap—especially in grassy ecosystems which are known for their frequent fires and abundance of large mammalian herbivores. Interactions between fire and herbivory can be competitive, facultative or antagonistic, and we explore this with reference to the potential for alternative ecosystem states. Although fire removes orders of magnitude more biomass than herbivory their methane emissions are very similar, and in the past, herbivores probably emitted more methane than fire. We contrast the type of herbivory and fire in different ecosystems to define ‘consumer-realms’. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation’.
A comparison of COPD patients with and without ACOS in the ECLIPSE study

There is growing interest in asthma–chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome (ACOS) [1, 2]. Yet, there is no consensus on the best definition of ACOS [1, 2] and, therefore, it is difficult to appropriately characterise these patients. Here, we compare the main clinical characteristics and outcomes of COPD patients with and without ACOS in the ECLIPSE cohort [3] according to six different definitions of ACOS. ECLIPSE offers an opportunity to examine ACOS in a large well-characterised COPD cohort followed over 3 years http://ow.ly/Zcycr
Synchronicity: pushing the envelope of fine-grained localization with distributed mimo

Indoor localization of mobile devices and tags has received much attention recently, with encouraging fine-grained localization results available with enough line-of-sight coverage and enough hardware infrastructure. Synchronicity is a location system that aims to push the envelope of highly-accurate localization systems further in both dimensions, requiring less line-of-sight and less infrastructure. With Distributed MIMO network of wireless LAN access points (APs) as a starting point, we leverage the time synchronization that such a network affords to localize with time-difference-of-arrival information at the APs. We contribute novel super-resolution signal processing algorithms and reflection path elimination schemes, yielding superior results even in non-line-of-sight scenarios (with one to two walls separating client and APs). We implement and briefly evaluate Synchronicity on the WARP hardware radio platform using standard 20~MHz wireless LAN channels.
Do socioeconomic disparities in stroke and its consequences decrease in older age?

BACKGROUND Overall decreased socioeconomic status (SES) has been linked to increased stroke incidence and mortality. Questions remain regarding whether these relationships persist into older age and apply to stroke sequelae. It is also unknown whether the influence of SES on absolute risk-the metric of most importance for population health-differs by age. METHODS A nationally representative cross-sectional survey conducted in 2009 in France involved 26 000 participants, 1653 of whom declared previous stroke. We identified stroke with sequelae and stroke with dependency. SES was characterized as low, medium or high education. We compared the prevalence of stroke outcome across education within age groups (40-59, 60-79 and 80+). RESULTS Prevalence of stroke was 23.8 per thousand. 65.1% of patients had sequelae and 19.6% were dependent. Variations in the prevalence of stroke and of stroke sequelae were statistically significant only in the youngest generations. A significant education gradient for stroke with dependency was apparent in all three generations, although the prevalence ratio (PR) was highest in the 40-59 (low to high education PR = 8.4, P < 10-3) compared with that in the 80+ (PR = 2.5; P < 10-3); conversely, the absolute difference was of much greater magnitude in the oldest vs. youngest generation (prevalence differences, respectively, 22.8 vs. 1.3 per thousand). CONCLUSIONS SES disparities in the older age group were significant and large in absolute terms when considering more severe outcomes such as stroke dependency. These findings question the ability of universal health care systems to answer equitably the need of the aging population.
Prognostic Factors for Satisfaction After Decompression Surgery for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

BACKGROUND Surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis is associated with both short- and long-term benefits with improvements in patient function and pain. Even though most patients are satisfied postoperatively, some studies report that up to one-third of patients are dissatisfied. OBJECTIVE To present clinical outcome data and identify prognostic factors related to patient satisfaction 1 yr after posterior decompression surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis. METHODS This multicenter register study included 2562 patients. Patients were treated with various types of posterior decompression. Patients with previous spine surgery or concomitant fusion were excluded. Patient satisfaction was analyzed for associations with age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, duration of pain, number of decompressed vertebral levels, comorbidities, and patient-reported outcome measures, which were used to quantify the effect of the surgical intervention. RESULTS At 1-yr follow-up, 62.4% of patients were satisfied but 15.1% reported dissatisfaction. The satisfied patients showed significantly greater improvement in all outcome measures compared to the dissatisfied patients. The outcome scores for the dissatisfied patients were relatively unchanged or worse compared to baseline. Association was seen between dissatisfaction, duration of leg pain, smoking status, and patient comorbidities. Patients with good walking capacity at baseline were less prone to be dissatisfied compared to patients with poor walking capacity. CONCLUSION This study found smoking, long duration of leg pain, and cancerous and neurological disease to be associated with patient dissatisfaction, whereas good walking capacity at baseline was positively associated with satisfaction after 1 yr.
Crystal Structure of Human Toll-Like Receptor 3 (TLR3) Ectodomain

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play key roles in activating immune responses during infection. The human TLR3 ectodomain structure at 2.1 angstroms reveals a large horseshoe-shaped solenoid assembled from 23 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). Asparagines conserved in the 24-residue LRR motif contribute extensive hydrogen-bonding networks for solenoid stabilization. TLR3 is largely masked by carbohydrate, but one face is glycosylation-free, which suggests its potential role in ligand binding and oligomerization. Highly conserved surface residues and a TLR3-specific LRR insertion form a homodimer interface in the crystal, whereas two patches of positively charged residues and a second insertion would provide an appropriate binding site for double-stranded RNA.
Aquaporin 4 expression in human skeletal muscle fiber types

Introduction: Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of transmembrane proteins involved in the maintenance of osmotic gradients. AQP4 is abundant in skeletal muscle, where it seems to be associated with glycolytic metabolism. We investigated the pattern of expression of AQP4 in normal human myofibers relative to the main forms of myosin heavy chain (MHC). Methods: Six normal human muscle biopsies were analyzed by double immunofluorescence for co‐expression of AQP4 and slow or fast MHC. Results: A high percentage (64–99%) of MHC‐fast positive fibers showed immunoreaction for AQP4. Immunoreactivity for AQP4 was also present in MHC‐slow positive fibers, but with a higher variability (5–72%) among biopsies. Discussion: The expression pattern of AQP4 in human myofibers is highly variable among different patients and cannot be predicted for single fibers depending on MHC type expression. Other factors, possibly related to muscle activity, may modulate AQP4 expression. Muscle Nerve 57: 856–859, 2018
Suppressors and activators of JAK-STAT signaling at diagnosis and relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Down syndrome

Significance Children with Down syndrome are at increased risk for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (DS-ALL), often expressing cytokine receptor-like factor 2 (CRLF2). Here we studied matched diagnosis and relapse DS-ALLs to understand the pathogenesis of relapse. We confirm that enhanced JAK-STAT signaling frequently “drives” CRLF2pos DS-ALL at diagnosis, but discovered that clones with JAK mutations are unstable, suggesting that they also endowed the transformed cells with vulnerabilities. We find USP9X loss in up to 25% of CRLF2pos ALLs, and demonstrate that its ablation decreases the toxic effect of JAK2 hypersignaling. Thus, in CRLF2pos ALLs JAK-STAT signaling is often buffered by loss of USP9X. These results have therapeutic implications because they suggest that ALL cells can tolerate a limited range of JAK-STAT signaling. Children with Down syndrome (DS) are prone to development of high-risk B-cell precursor ALL (DS-ALL), which differs genetically from most sporadic pediatric ALLs. Increased expression of cytokine receptor-like factor 2 (CRLF2), the receptor to thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), characterizes about half of DS-ALLs and also a subgroup of sporadic “Philadelphia-like” ALLs. To understand the pathogenesis of relapsed DS-ALL, we performed integrative genomic analysis of 25 matched diagnosis-remission and -relapse DS-ALLs. We found that the CRLF2 rearrangements are early events during DS-ALL evolution and generally stable between diagnoses and relapse. Secondary activating signaling events in the JAK-STAT/RAS pathway were ubiquitous but highly redundant between diagnosis and relapse, suggesting that signaling is essential but that no specific mutations are “relapse driving. ” We further found that activated JAK2 may be naturally suppressed in 25% of CRLF2pos DS-ALLs by loss-of-function aberrations in USP9X, a deubiquitinase previously shown to stabilize the activated phosphorylated JAK2. Interrogation of large ALL genomic databases extended our findings up to 25% of CRLF2pos, Philadelphia-like ALLs. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of USP9X, as well as treatment with low-dose ruxolitinib, enhanced the survival of pre-B ALL cells overexpressing mutated JAK2. Thus, somehow counterintuitive, we found that suppression of JAK-STAT “hypersignaling” may be beneficial to leukemic B-cell precursors. This finding and the reduction of JAK mutated clones at relapse suggest that the therapeutic effect of JAK specific inhibitors may be limited. Rather, combined signaling inhibitors or direct targeting of the TSLP receptor may be a useful therapeutic strategy for DS-ALL.
Novel Robust Stability Criteria For Uncertain Stochastic Neural Networks With Time-Varying Delay

This paper considers the robust stability analysis problem for a class of uncertain stochastic neural networks with time-varying delay. Based on the Lyapunov functional method, and by resorting to the new technique for estimating the upper bound of the stochastic derivative of Lyapunov functionals, the novel asymptotic stability criteria are obatined in terms of Linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Two numerical examples are presented to show the effectiveness and the less conservativeness of the proposed method.
Trait differentiation and adaptation of plants along elevation gradients

Studies of genetic adaptation in plant populations along elevation gradients in mountains have a long history, but there has until now been neither a synthesis of how frequently plant populations exhibit adaptation to elevation nor an evaluation of how consistent underlying trait differences across species are. We reviewed studies of adaptation along elevation gradients (i) from a meta‐analysis of phenotypic differentiation of three traits (height, biomass and phenology) from plants growing in 70 common garden experiments; (ii) by testing elevation adaptation using three fitness proxies (survival, reproductive output and biomass) from 14 reciprocal transplant experiments; (iii) by qualitatively assessing information at the molecular level, from 10 genomewide surveys and candidate gene approaches. We found that plants originating from high elevations were generally shorter and produced less biomass, but phenology did not vary consistently. We found significant evidence for elevation adaptation in terms of survival and biomass, but not for reproductive output. Variation in phenotypic and fitness responses to elevation across species was not related to life history traits or to environmental conditions. Molecular studies, which have focussed mainly on loci related to plant physiology and phenology, also provide evidence for adaptation along elevation gradients. Together, these studies indicate that genetically based trait differentiation and adaptation to elevation are widespread in plants. We conclude that a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying adaptation, not only to elevation but also to environmental change, will require more studies combining the ecological and molecular approaches.
Clinical utility of 18F‐fluorodeoxyglucose/positron emission tomography in diagnosis of immunoglobulin G4–related sclerosing sialadenitis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of 18F‐fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for accurately diagnosing immunoglobulin G4‐related sclerosing sialadenitis (IgG4‐SS).
Dimensionality-Dependent Generalization Bounds for k-Dimensional Coding Schemes

Abstract The k-dimensional coding schemes refer to a collection of methods that attempt to represent data using a set of representative k-dimensional vectors and include nonnegative matrix factorization, dictionary learning, sparse coding, k-means clustering, and vector quantization as special cases. Previous generalization bounds for the reconstruction error of the k-dimensional coding schemes are mainly dimensionality-independent. A major advantage of these bounds is that they can be used to analyze the generalization error when data are mapped into an infinite- or high-dimensional feature space. However, many applications use finite-dimensional data features. Can we obtain dimensionality-dependent generalization bounds for k-dimensional coding schemes that are tighter than dimensionality-independent bounds when data are in a finite-dimensional feature space? Yes. In this letter, we address this problem and derive a dimensionality-dependent generalization bound for k-dimensional coding schemes by bounding the covering number of the loss function class induced by the reconstruction error. The bound is of order , where m is the dimension of features, k is the number of the columns in the linear implementation of coding schemes, and n is the size of sample, when n is finite and when n is infinite. We show that our bound can be tighter than previous results because it avoids inducing the worst-case upper bound on k of the loss function. The proposed generalization bound is also applied to some specific coding schemes to demonstrate that the dimensionality-dependent bound is an indispensable complement to the dimensionality-independent generalization bounds.
Biomarkers and surrogate markers: An FDA perspective

SummaryInterest is increasing rapidly in the use of surrogate markers as primary measures of the effectiveness of investigational drugs in definitive drug trials. Many such surrogate markers have been proposed as potential candidates for use in definitive effectiveness trials of agents to treat neurologic or psychiatric disease, but as of this date, there are no such markers that have been adequately “validated,” that is, shown to predict the effect of the treatment on the clinical outcome of interest. While the current law and regulations permit the United States Food and Drug Administration to base the approval of a drug product on a determination the effect of the drug on an unvalidated surrogate marker (that is, one for which it is not known that an effect on the surrogate actually predicts the desired clinical benefit), there are a number of difficulties in interpreting trials that use surrogate markers as primary measures of drug effect. In this article, the relevant regulatory context will be discussed, as well as the epistemological problems related to the interpretation of clinical trials in which unvalidated surrogate markers are used as primary outcomes.
RNA Binding Protein RBM38 Regulates Expression of the 11-Kilodalton Protein of Parvovirus B19, Which Facilitates Viral DNA Replication

ABSTRACT Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) expresses a single precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA), which undergoes alternative splicing and alternative polyadenylation to generate 12 viral mRNA transcripts that encode two structural proteins (VP1 and VP2) and three nonstructural proteins (NS1, 7.5-kDa protein, and 11-kDa protein). Splicing at the second 5′ donor site (D2 site) of the B19V pre-mRNA is essential for the expression of VP2 and the 11-kDa protein. We previously identified that cis-acting intronic splicing enhancer 2 (ISE2) that lies immediately after the D2 site facilitates the recognition of the D2 donor for its efficient splicing. In this study, we report that ISE2 is critical for the expression of the 11-kDa viral nonstructural protein. We found that ISE2 harbors a consensus RNA binding motif protein 38 (RBM38) binding sequence, 5′-UGUGUG-3′. RBM38 is expressed during the middle stage of erythropoiesis. We first confirmed that RBM38 binds specifically with the ISE2 element in vitro. The knockdown of RBM38 significantly decreases the level of spliced mRNA at D2 that encodes the 11-kDa protein but not that of the D2-spliced mRNA that encodes VP2. Importantly, we found that the 11-kDa protein enhances viral DNA replication and virion release. Accordingly, the knockdown of RBM38 decreases virus replication via downregulating 11-kDa protein expression. Taken together, these results suggest that the 11-kDa protein facilitates B19V DNA replication and that RBM38 is an essential host factor for B19V pre-mRNA splicing and for the expression of the 11-kDa protein. IMPORTANCE B19V is a human pathogen that can cause fifth disease, arthropathy, anemia in immunocompromised patients and sickle cell disease patients, myocarditis, and hydrops fetalis in pregnant women. Human erythroid progenitor cells (EPCs) are most susceptible to B19V infection and fully support viral DNA replication. The exclusive tropism of B19V for erythroid-lineage cells is dependent not only on the expression of viral receptors and coreceptors on the cell surface but also on the intracellular host factors that support B19V replication. Our present study shows that B19V uses a host factor, RNA binding motif protein 38 (RBM38), for the processing of its pre-mRNA during virus replication. Specifically, RBM38 interacts with the intronic splicing enhancer 2 (ISE2) element of B19V pre-mRNA and promotes 11-kDa protein expression, thereby regulating the 11-kDa protein-mediated augmentation of B19V replication. The identification of this novel host-pathogen interaction will provide mechanistic insights into B19V replication and aid in finding new targets for anti-B19V therapeutics.