Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tree Regeneration by Seed in Bottomland Hardwood Forests: A Review

Abstract Bottomland hardwood forests (BLH) are found in temperate, humid regions of the southeastern US, primarily on alluvial floodplains adjacent to rivers. Altered hydrology in rivers and floodplains has caused changes in stand development and species composition of BLHs. We hypothesize that the driving mechanisms behind these changes are related to the regeneration process because of the complexity of recruitment and the vulnerability of species at that age in development. Here we review the state of our understanding regarding BLH regeneration, and identify potential bottlenecks throughout the stages of seed production, seed dispersal, germination, establishment, and survival. Our process-level understanding of regeneration by seed in BLHs is rudimentary, thus limiting our ability to predict the effects of hydrologic alterations on species composition. By focusing future research on the appropriate stages of regeneration, we can better understand the sources of forest-community transitions across the diverse range of BLH systems.
Information system for a digital method in social science

The massive use of new technologies, especially the Internet, creates many challenges for the understanding of contemporary society. On the one hand, traditional methodological approaches already have serious weaknesses in explaining networked life forms. On the other hand, native digital methods still need reinforcing its scientific structures. This paper presents and analyzes the information system of the Living Lab on Media Content and Platforms (LLMCP), an online panel of Internet users able to monitor, in real time, online behaviour of users.With the combination of the areas of Panel Studies and Big Data, LLMCP's goal is to develop an extension of Google Chrome to collect navigation actions and to map connectivity trends. Results reveal that the complexity of network life requires the articulation of innovative research themes and robust software tools, indicating the potential of browsing history as a digital object for the social sciences.
The effect of sequential exposure to antigenically drifted strains of influenza on antibody specificity and antibody mediated protection

Antibodies (Abs) elicited by influenza viruses often bind with higher affinities to past influenza strains than to the current strain. This has been associated with the hypothesis of “original antigenic sin” which postulates that B cell clones elicited by prior exposure are recalled at the expense of generating a strain-specific response to the current strain. It is clear that prior exposures to influenza viruses focus the response on conserved epitopes of influenza’s hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein. Here, pre-exposure to influenza is shown to affect Ab fine specificity and Ab mediated protection in mice, ferrets, and humans. Sequential vaccination of mice with antigenically drifted strains of influenza virus elicited a large proportion of cross-reactive Abs, but also recalled Abs that have a higher affinity for the priming strain while binding to the same region of HA with different fine specificities. These fine specificities were modified by somatic hypermutation, which affected the degree of cross-reactivity. Surprisingly, Abs that bound with relatively low affinities to an antigenically drifted strain effectively neutralized the drifted strain following passive transfer. This indicates that Abs expressed by recalled B cell clones share some level of cross-reactivity between antigenically drifted priming and recall strains. This was also observed by measuring the reactivity of sera to HA of antigenically drifted influenza strains. Similarly, ferrets and humans sequentially exposed to influenza viruses had Ab repertoires that were focused on epitopes conserved between recent strains and earlier strains that circulated during their childhood. As influenza viruses continually mutate, humans had Ab repertoires that were focused on different regions of the HA, potentially due to unique pre-exposure histories. A recently acquired HA mutation abrogated binding of Abs predominantly found in middle-aged adults that were unusually susceptible to influenza infection during the 2013-2014 influenza season. These findings highlight that while weakly crossreactive Abs can protect against antigenically drifted strains, shifting the Ab repertoire to partially conserved sites can focus the response on regions of the virus that undergo continual antigenic drift. Recall of crossreactive Abs can thus result in protection or susceptibility to influenza, depending upon the exposure history and Ab fine specificities. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Immunology First Advisor Scott E. Hensley
Pathophysiology, current treatments and future targets in hereditary forms of renal Fanconi syndrome

ABSTRACT Introduction: Renal Fanconi syndrome describes a general dysfunction of the proximal tubules characterized by urinary losses of water, electrolytes, low-molecular weight proteins, aminoacids and glucose. The heterogeneity of its underlying causes has complicated the understanding of renal Fanconi syndrome for many years. Recent studies of its isolated form, only affecting the proximal tubule and no other nephron segments, allow new insights into the understanding of pathophysiology and development of disease models. Areas covered: In this review, we discuss the most recent insights into pathophysiology of renal Fanconi syndrome as well as novel disease and potential developments of new therapeutic strategies. Expert opinion: The importance of fatty acid oxidation in proximal tubules in human disease has just recently been established. So far this has not yet led to pharmaceutical development of medicines, due to lack of understanding of the exclusive use of fatty acids by mitochondria in the proximal tubule for energy generation. Nevertheless, novel insights have resulted in potential targets for development of new therapeutic strategies.
Forest Cover and Bird Diversity: Drivers of Fruit Consumption in Forest Interiors in the Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia, Brazil

Forest loss and fragmentation change the dynamics and structure of remnant populations, ultimately affecting key processes with implications for ecosystem functioning. Fruit consumption has important consequences for seed dispersal, maintaining the plant demography, which is also critical to the populations of animals that utilize them for resources. Therefore, understanding how forest cover reduction affects fruit consumption and, consequently, seed dispersal is essential to informing conservation policy for the remaining forest patches. This study was conducted in 20 forest sites with varying amounts of forest cover (from 6% - 85%) located in the Atlantic forest of southern Bahia, Brazil. We investigated whether forest loss and local bird diversity affected fruit consumption rates in the forest edge and interior. We used artificial fruit to estimate fruit consumption by birds. At each site, we set up 14 experimental stations, one located on the forest edge (∼3m) and the others in the forest interior (75 m), each one composed of 15 artificial fruits fixed to a plant. Our results showed that forest loss and the reduction of bird abundance led to a decrease in fruit consumption in the forest interiors, but not on the forest edges. This verifies that forest cover loss results in changes in fruit consumption, and has important consequences for seed dispersal by birds in forest remnants.
Integrin Linked Kinase Is Expressed in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Blasts and Its Inhibition Is Cytotoxic to Leukemic Progenitors.

Constitutive activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI-3K) pathway is frequent in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts and down-regulation of this pathway results in apoptotic death of these cells from many patient samples. Integrin linked kinase (ILK) is stimulated by activated PI-3K and ILK, in turn, activates AKT, a key downstream effector of the PI-3K pathway. The expression and activity of ILK are increased in a range of solid tumors. Small-molecule inhibitors of ILK activity have been identified and shown to inhibit tumour growth, invasion and angiogenesis. We investigated the possible role of ILK in AML blast and colony forming cell (AML-CFC) survival. Using Western blotting, ILK protein was detected in 30 of 35 primary AML blast samples although the levels seen were variable. ILK kinase activity correlated strongly with ILK protein expression as quantitated by densitometry (r = 0.91) in 6 samples where both were studied. Activation of the PI-3K pathway, as measured by detection of AKT phosphorylation on serine 473 (ser473), was also found in 27 of 30 samples expressing ILK protein. QLT0267 is a potent second generation small molecule inhibitor (from QLT Inc., Vancouver, Canada) which selectively inhibits the kinase activity of ILK but not a variety of other kinases. Treatment of AML blasts with QLT0267 resulted in a time and dose dependent decrease in p-AKT ser473 expression as well as downstream targets of AKT (p-S6, p-GSK-3β). 27 AML and 5 normal bone marrow (NBM) samples were incubated for 48h with QLT0267 or 10 μM of the PI-3K inhibitor, LY294002, and then plated in CFC assay. There was a direct correlation between the % AML-CFC kill seen with LY204002 and QLT0267 (r= 0.70 and 0.60 comparing % kill with LY294002 and QLT0267 at 3 and 10 μM, respectively). The IC 50 of QLT0267 was ≤ 3μM for 6 of 23 AML samples and 0 of 5 NBM samples (range % kill of AML and normal CFC after treatment with 3μM; 0 – 86% and 0 – 23%, respectively). The IC 90 for this inhibitor was ≤ 10μM for 9 of 27 AML and 0 of 5 NBMs (range % kill 6 – 99 and 30 – 68, respectively, for AML and normal CFC treated with 10μM QLT0267). Interestingly, AML-CFC from 4 AML samples in which ILK protein could not be detected were resistant to killing with QLT0267. Thus, ILK is expressed in a large proportion of AML samples. Inhibition of ILK kinase is cytotoxic to leukemic progenitors suggesting that this molecule is important for the survival of these cells. Approximately one third of AML samples tested were more susceptible to killing by ILK inhibition than NBM cells suggesting that selective targeting of malignant rather than normal hematopoietic cells may be achieved in some cases. Furthermore, it may be possible to predict which AML samples will be sensitive to inhibitors such as QLT0267 by measuring expression of the target protein.
Sur l'origine des cellules germinales primordiales chez la cistude d'Europe (Emys orbicularis L.): étude expérimentale des stades gastruléens

Au stade didermique, toutes les CGP de la tortue sont localisees dans l'aire ectoblastique presomptive du feuillet superficiel. Au cours de la gastrulation, elles migrent en profondeur avec le mesoblaste postero-lateral qui s'invagine au niveau des ailes du blastopore. A la fin de la gastrulation, les CGP sont rassembles dans la formation endophyllienne du «croissant germinal posterieur» typique des cheloniens
Biochemical Characterization of the Kinase Activity of the DNA Repair Enzyme PNKP from C. elegans

DNA damage by genotoxic agents such as ionizing radiation or reactive oxygen species is likely to occur in the DNA of all living organisms. Therefore the cells of living organisms have developed complex protein networks overtime to help discover and repair DNA damage (Bernstein et al. 2005). Polynucleotide Kinase/Phosphatase (PNKP) is an enzyme that plays a crucial role in repairing a type of DNA damage known as DNA strand breaks (Bernstein et al. 2005). This enzyme has 3 domains, a kinase domain at the C-terminal, a phosphatase domain at the center, and an FHA domain at the Nterminal (Figure 1) (Bernstein et al. 2008). The kinase and phosphatase domains are responsible for directly repairing DNA strand breaks while the FHA domain is responsible for binding PNKP to other DNA repair enzymes (Bernstein et al. 2008).
Optimización de un procedimiento de control de calidad para la radioterapia de intensidad modulada

A patient-specific quality assurance (QA) program to carry out the dosimetric verification of the intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) was optimized at the Department of Radiotherapy at the Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology, belonging to the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba. A dosimetric set-up composed of two-dimensional (2D) ionization chambers and an octagonal phantom were used to implement a patient-specific IMRT QA in a more comprehensive manner (collapsed and non-collapsed fields), keeping the accuracy and precision standards of these controls according to institutional protocols and international guidelines. The proposed procedure was used in three clinical IMRT cases for head and neck cancers. The confidence limit calculated from the passing rates for evaluated points in the compound dose maps was 90 % for the Gamma function comparison. The tolerance criteria used was a distance to agreement of 3 mm and the dose difference of 4 %. These results are within the institutional accepted limits and the recommended values as set by international guidelines for these kinds of tests.