Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A direct experimental test of founder‐flush effects on the evolutionary potential for assortative mating

Abstract Founder‐flush speciation models propose that population bottlenecks can enhance evolutionary potential for reproductive isolation. To test this prediction, we subjected bottlenecked (three‐pair founder‐flush) and nonbottlenecked populations of the housefly to 18 generations of selection for assortative mating. After the selection regime, we analysed videotaped courtship bouts in these lines to identify correlated responses to the selection protocol. The realized heritabilities for assortative mating for both the bottlenecked and nonbottlenecked treatments were very low, but still significant. The founder‐flush populations had thus responded to selection as well as the nonbottlenecked populations, although not significantly greater (i.e. total increases in assortative mating were 9.6 and 8.6%, respectively). Multivariate analyses on the courtship repertoires found that, although both bottlenecked and nonbottlenecked treatments attained similar levels of assortative mating, the treatments exhibited different evolutionary solutions in their correlated responses. Specifically, the bottlenecked lines demonstrated a significantly more diverse set of evolutionary trajectories (i.e. significant shifts along the second principal component for courtship). This suggests that the bottlenecked lines had greater potential for the evolution of novel phenotypes as predicted by founder‐induced speciation models. Our results, however, cannot distinguish whether the more variable evolutionary responses resulted from increased heritabilities in courtship components, reduced potential to follow the convergent evolutionary trajectories noted for the nonbottlenecked lines, or some combination of both general processes in determining the resultant multivariate phenotype.
Virions of primary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolates resistant to soluble CD4 (sCD4) neutralization differ in sCD4 binding and glycoprotein gp120 retention from sCD4-sensitive isolates

Primary isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are much less sensitive to neutralization by soluble CD4 (sCD4) and sCD4-immunoglobulin (Ig) chimeras (CD4-IgG) than are HIV-1 strains adapted to growth in cell culture. We demonstrated that there are significant reductions (10- to 30-fold) in the binding of sCD4 and CD4-IgG to intact virions of five primary isolates compared with sCD4-sensitive, cell culture-adapted isolates RF and IIIB. However, soluble envelope glycoproteins (gp120) derived from the primary isolate virions, directly by detergent solubilization or indirectly by recombinant DNA technology, differed in affinity from RF and IIIB gp120 by only one- to threefold. The reduced binding of sCD4 to these primary isolate virions must therefore be a consequence of the tertiary or quaternary structure of the envelope glycoproteins in their native, oligomeric form on the viral surface. In addition, the rate and extent of sCD4-induced gp120 shedding from these primary isolates was lower than that from RF. We suggest that reduced sCD4 binding and increased gp120 retention together account for the relative resistance of these primary isolates to neutralization by sCD4 and CD4-IgG and that virions of different HIV-1 isolates vary both in the mechanism of sCD4 binding and in subsequent conformational changes in their envelope glycoproteins.
A survey of delusional ideation in primary-care patients

Background. To assess the prevalence of delusional ideas in primary-care patients. Method. A survey was carried out with the Aquitaine Sentinel Network of general practitioners (GPs). Consecutive practice attenders were invited to complete the Peters et al. Delusional Inventory (PDI-21) self-report questionnaire, designed to measure delusional ideation in the normal population. GPs, blind to the questionnaire results, provided information on patients' psychiatric history. Results. Of the 1053 attenders included in the survey, 348 (35%) had a lifetime history of psychiatric disorder, of whom 20 (2%) had a history of broadly defined psychotic disorder. The self-report questionnaire was completed by 790 patients. The range of individual PDI-21 item endorsement in subjects with no psychiatric history varied between 5 and 70%, suggesting that delusional ideation is a dimensional phenomenon lying on a continuum with normality. The main discriminative items between psychotic and non-psychotic patients were those exploring persecutory (OR=15·2, 95% CI 4·3–53·7), mystic (OR=6·4, 95% CI 1·9–22·4) and guilt (OR=5·8, 95% CI 1·5–23·2) ideas. Conclusions. This survey demonstrates that questions that explore delusions and hallucinations are well-accepted by most primary-care patients. More research is needed on psychotic disorders in primary-care settings to improving early identification of these disorders.
A Prospective Survey of Radiotherapy Practice 2001 in Sweden

A prospective survey of radiotherapy practice in Sweden was conducted during 12 weeks in the autumn of 2001. All hospitals that provided radiotherapy participated, and all patients who started radiotherapy during the study period were included. The final patient sample comprised 5 105 treatments given to 4 171 patients. The results were compared with those of a similar survey conducted in 1992, and the following conclusions were drawn: <list id="l1" type="5"> <item>A substantial increase in the use of radiotherapy was noted;</item><item>The estimated proportion of cancer cases receiving radiotherapy (compared to the incident number of cases) had increased from 32% in 1992 to 47%;</item><item>The proportion of cancer patients receiving radiotherapy was estimated at between 37 and 46%;</item><item>54% of treatments were given with curative intent, a small increase since 1992;</item><item>The difference between regional and county departments for proportion of treatments with curative intent had diminished;</item><item>Treatments with curative intent used a higher proportion of resources measured in terms of fractions;</item><item>The proportion of palliative treatment was slightly lower than in 1992, but the absolute number of treatments had increased by more than 20%;</item><item>No improvement in participation in clinical trials was noted;</item><item>Treatments given with curative intent were more complex with more fields;</item><item>Hyperfractionation was used, mainly in treatments of cancers of the head and neck, lung, and bladder;</item><item>The use of brachytherapy for non-gynaecological malignancies had increased dramatically;</item><item>Treatment of bone metastases with a single or few fractions was used much more frequently;</item><item>Dose planning and patient set-up showed a high standard but quality control of dosimetry of given treatment did not fully comply with Swedish and European recommendations;</item><item>The treatment devices seem to be used more efficiently. </item></list>
Metalloprotease-Mediated Shedding of Enzymatically Active Mouse ecto-ADP-ribosyltransferase ART2.2 Upon T Cell Activation1

T cells proteolytically shed the ectodomains of several cell surface proteins and, thereby, can alter their responsiveness and can release soluble intercellular regulators. ART2.2 is a GPI-anchored ecto-ADP-ribosyltransferase (ART) related to ADP-ribosylating bacterial toxins. ART2.2 is expressed exclusively by mature T cells. Here we show that ART2.2 is shed from the cell surface in enzymatically active form upon activation of T cells. Shedding of ART2.2 resembles that of L-selectin (CD62L) in dose response, kinetics of release, and sensitivity to the metalloprotease inhibitor Immunex Compound 3, suggesting that ART2.2, like CD62L, is cleaved by TNF-α-converting enzyme or by another metalloprotease. ART2.2 shed from activated T cells migrates slightly faster in SDS-PAGE analyses than does ART2.2 released upon cleavage of the GPI anchor. This indicates that shedding of ART2.2 is mediated by proteolytic cleavage close to its membrane anchor. Shed ART2.2 is enzymatically active and ADP-ribosylates several substrates in vitro. Thus, shedding of ART2.2 releases a potential intercellular regulator. Finally, using a new FACS assay for monitoring ADP-ribosylation of cell surface proteins, we demonstrate that shedding of ART2.2 correlates with a reduced sensitivity of T cell surface proteins to ADP-ribosylation. Our findings suggest that by shedding ART2.2 the activated T cell not only releases a potential intercellular regulator but also may alter its responsiveness to immune regulation by ART2.2-mediated ADP-ribosylation of cell surface proteins.
Minimization of shadow effects in forest canopies for chlorophyll content estimation using red edge optical indices through radiative transfer: implications for MERIS

This paper reports on progress made to develop methods to accurately estimate pigment content in forest canopies from airborne hyperspectral data. Radiative transfer approaches and red edge optical indices were applied to twelve sites of Acer saccharum M. in the Algoma Region, Ontario (Canada), where field measurements and hyperspectral CASI reflectance data have been collected between 1997 and 2000 deployments. Turbid-medium models such as SAILH and Kuusk were successfully applied to closed forest canopies minimizing the effects of canopy shadows and structure by using red edge optical indices in the merit function. Pigment content was successfully estimated linking PROSPECT leaf model to SAILH canopy model, minimizing the merit function by iterative process in MERIS-derived spectra from hyperspectral CASI data. The selection of the merit function used for minimization has been demonstrated to be critical, showing that shadow effects are removed when red edge optical indices are used. Implications for MERIS sensor by ESA on ENVISAT are discussed in this paper.
Cost Effectiveness of Postponed Routing Decisions in a Supply Chain

This paper examines the cost-reduction effect of “postponed” routing decisions in a two-echelon supply chain. When a delivery vehicle leaves the warehouse with system replenishment quantities, it sequentially makes routing decisions to choose the next retailer to visit. To measure this effect this paper studies combined vehicle routing and inventoryallocation policies designed to minimize total expected purchasing, inventory-holding and backordering cost/period for a one-warehouse Nretailer “symmetric” distribution system. Using a numerical study, we demonstrate that optimal dynamic routing and allocation policies can significantly reduce the inventory-management costs associated with fixed routing and dynamic allocation in “medium-to-large” customer demand-variance scenarios.
Correlation of the severity of atopic dermatitis with absolute eosinophil counts in peripheral blood and serum IgE levels.

BACKGROUND Although a number of epidemiological studies, showing incidence and prevalence of atopic dermatitis, were available, scant attention has been paid to the correlation between the parameters of the disease like severity, absolute eosinophil count and IgE level, which has been known to be associated inconsistently. Hence this study was undertaken. METHODS A total of 102 patients of atopic dermatitis, both children and adults, and 107 age matched controls were studied at the Pediatric Dermatology clinic, Institute of Child Health and department of Dermatology, AMRI-Apollo hospitals, Kolkata. RESULTS The average age of onset of atopic dermatitis was observed to be 4.55 years. Both the average absolute eosinophil count and IgE levels in patients of atopic dermatitis were significantly higher than that of the controls. Each of these parameters showed significant correlation with severity of the disease and showed a nonhomogeneous distribution reflected by significant association with personal history of bronchial asthma and family history of atopy, when both parents were atopic. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that clinical activity of the disease as recorded by the "SCORAD" index can be used as an indicator of the hematological abnormalities as well as to some extent as a prognostic indicator. Family history of atopy correlates with the hematological abnormalities only if both parents are involved and bronchial asthma is the only associated atopic condition which correlates with the parameters of the disease .
Clinical and laboratory improvement in ankylosing spondylitis after treatment with etanercept: a case report.

A patient with ankylosing spondylitis involving the back, feet, ankles, knees, wrists, hands, and elbows exhibited intolerance or inadequate response to multiple prior therapies. Because of the potential role of tumor necrosis factor in the pathogenesis of AS, the tumor necrosis factor antagonist etanercept (Enbrel) 25 mg was given s.c. twice weekly. Beginning 2 weeks after the initiation of etanercept, the patient noted symptomatic improvement in axial and peripheral joints. The patient experienced resolution of morning stiffness and near complete resolution of fatigue. Marked improvement in hemoglobin and erythrocyte sedimentation rate was also seen, although knee joint fluid leukocytes did not change appreciably. This response is encouraging, especially because both axial symptoms and peripheral disease responded to treatment, in contrast to what has been previously reported for sulfasalazine. Further study of etanercept in ankylosing spondylitis is warranted.
Regional distribution of neuropeptide somatostatin gene expression in the human brain

The regional distribution of mRNA coding for the neuropeptide somatostatin has been studied in the human brain by in situ hybridization histochemistry using 32P‐labeled oligonucleotides. We show that somatostatin mRNA‐containing neurons are widely distributed in a number of nuclei and grey areas of the human brain, including neocortex, putamen, nucleus caudatus, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, midbrain, medulla oblongata, hippocampal formation, reticular nucleus of the thalamus, and posterior nucleus of the hypothalamus. No significant hybridization signal was observed in the substantia nigra, claustrum, globus pallidus, thalamus, and cerebellum. The topographic localization of neurons containing SOM mRNA in the human brain is in agreement with previous studies using immunocytochemical or radioimmunoassay techniques. These results show that in situ hybridization histochemistry with oligonucleotide probes can be used to map the distribution of neurons expressing SOM mRNA in human postmortem materials. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On-Road Vehicle Trajectory Collection and Scene-Based Lane Change Analysis: Part II

This two-part paper aims to study lane change behaviors at the tactical level from an on-road perspective, with a special focus on analyzing the interactions between an ego and surrounding vehicles during the procedure. Part I addresses vehicle trajectory collection, whereas Part II addresses lane change extraction and scene-based behavioral analysis. Different from the general technique of moving object detection and tracking, trajectory collection for tactical driving behavior study is required to have the properties of consistency, completeness, continuity, and accuracy. This paper proposes a system of on-road vehicle trajectory collection, where an instrumented vehicle is developed with multiple horizontal 2-D lidars that have 360° coverage. The software is developed by fitting the laser points of all lidars on a vehicle model using a coupled estimation of features and reliability along frames to achieve accurate state estimations of occluded data and robust data association in multiviewpoint sensing. The performance is investigated extensively, and a large trajectory set is developed through on-road driving at the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing for a total distance of 64 km, with more than 5700 environmental trajectories with a total length of over 19 h. The performance is demonstrated to be of high quality in terms of the required properties. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first system that is able to automatically collect all-around vehicle trajectories during on-road driving and to demonstrate good performance in providing a high-quality database for driving behavior studies from an on-road perspective that addresses vehicle interactions in real-world traffic at the trajectory level.
Motivating Employees to Explore Collaboration Technology in Team Contexts

Firms are increasing their investments in collaboration technologies in order to leverage the intellectual resources embedded in their employees. Research on post-adoption use of technology suggests that the true gains from such investments are realized when users explore various system features and attempt to incorporate them into their work practices. However, the literature has been silent about how to promote such behavior when individuals are embedded in team settings, where members' actions are interdependent. This research develops a multilevel model that theorizes the cross-level influence of team empowerment on individual exploration of collaboration technology. Further, it identifies two cognitions--intention to continue exploring and expectation to continue exploring--that are oriented toward exploring ways to incorporate implemented technology into daily work routines over time. A 12-month field study of 212 employees in 48 organizational work teams was conducted to test the multilevel research model. The results provide support for the hypotheses, with team empowerment having a positive cross-level influence on intention to continue exploring and expectation to continue exploring and these, in turn, mediating the cross-level influence of team empowerment on individual exploration of collaboration technology.
Surgical and Other Treatments of Diabetic Macular Edema: An Update

The breakdown of the inner and outer retinal barriers is one of the earliest changes in DR. This has been seen in patients with diabetes without retinopathy and can be demonstrated with vitreous fluorophotometry, which shows increased fluorescein concentrations in the vitreous. The principal targets of this breakdown appear to be the tight junctions of the endothelial cells. Two of the components of tight junctions, ZO-1 and occludin, have been found to have decreased levels of expression coincident with increased blood-retina barrier permeability in DR. Another target is the Müller’s cells. They have been shown to maintain the integrity of the BRB, yet are affected early on in diabetic retinopathy (DR) as evidenced by increased levels of anaerobic glycolysis and abnormalities in
Modified constant delay logic

The constant delay (CD) logic makes high speed operation of the dynamic circuits possible. In the CD logic, the timing block plays a vital role as it helps in reduction of the evaluation time, by defining a small window width. This paper proposes a modified timing block which yields minimized area even while accomplishing the function. Use of the CD logic across cascaded stages employing the proposed timing block realises a larger area reduction and hence reduction in power dissipation. All the simulations are done using UMC 90nm technology node library at 1GHz frequency.
Efforts To Increase The Participation Of Paddy Farmers In Paddy Fields In The Program Insurance Paddy Farming (Ipf) In Tanah Bumbu Regency

Various risks and uncertainties in farming, especially rice production, effective handling strategies are needed in addition to helping farmers in terms of production and economy, which helps motivate farmers to run rice farming. Systematic strategies that have been implemented by the government and have been running in various regions namely the agricultural insurance program. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of rice farmers households, respondents of rice farmers and what factors influence the participation of rice farmers in the Rice Farmers Business Insurance (AUTP) program in Tanah Bumbu Regency. The results of the analysis show that the majority of formal education levels of AUTP farmers are Pertam Middle Schools and non-AUTP farmers namely Primary Schools. The activeness in farmer groups AUTP farmers ranged between 56 meetings, while farmers not AUTP namely 3-4 meetings. The area of land cultivated by AUTP farmers and not AUTP majorities is 0.51 1.00 ha. The majority of AUTP farmers' rice farming experience is between 11-20 years, while non-AUTP farmers are between 21-30 years. The risk of possible failure of AUTP farmers and not AUTP farmers ranged from 11-20 percent. The risk of damage to AUTP farmers' harvest is in the majority between 31 40 percent, while non-AUTP farmers range between 21 30 percent. 2. Farmers who responded positively to the AUTP Program were 100.00% of farmers who participated in the AUTP program, while the remaining 16.00% who responded negatively and 84.00% who responded very negatively from farmers who were not AUTP participants. While the factors that significantly influence the AUTP program in paddy fields are activeness in farmer groups, the area of land cultivated, rice farming income, the risk of possible crop failure and the risk of crop damage.
Will neuroimaging ever be used to diagnose pediatric bipolar disorder?

There is a great need for discovery of biological markers that could be used diagnostically for pediatric onset disorders, particularly those with potentially confusing phenomenology such as pediatric-onset bipolar disorder (BD). Obtaining these markers would help overcome current subjective diagnostic techniques of relying on parent and child interview and symptomatic history. Brain imaging may be the most logical choice for a diagnostic tool, and certain neurobiological abnormalities have already been found in pediatric BD. However, much work remains to be done before neuroimaging can be used reliably to diagnose this disorder, and because of the nature of BD and the limitations of imaging technology and technique, neuroimaging will likely at most be only a diagnostic aide in the near future. In this paper we discuss the characteristics of pediatric BD that complicate the use of biological markers as diagnostic tools, how neuroimaging techniques have been used to study pediatric BD so far, and the limitations and potential of such techniques for future diagnostic use.This work was supported in part by NIH Grant MH64460-01 (to K.C.).
Update on the Prevalence, Etiology, Diagnosis, and Monitoring of Normal-Tension Glaucoma

AbstractGlaucoma is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) is a type of open-angle glaucoma with intraocular pressure measurements always 21 mm Hg or less. A controversy surrounding NTG is the question of whether it should be regarded as a disease within the spectrum of primary open-angle glaucoma or as a distinctive disease entity. Nonetheless, NTG does have distinctive features compared with primary open-angle glaucoma: intraocular pressure–independent risk factors for development of NTG, characteristic patterns of structural and functional damage, and a unique disease course. This review provides an overview and update on the current issues surrounding the prevalence, etiology, diagnosis, and monitoring of NTG.