Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variación morofológica en la culebra lisa meridional Coronella girondica (Daudin, 1803) en su área de distribución

La culebra lisa meridional muestra una distribucion global con poblaciones separadas desde el limite Mioceno-Plioceno (europea versus africana), y posibles poblaciones aisladas en peninsulas normediterraneas (iberica, italiana), durante las glaciaciones cuaternarias. Para evaluar la posible variabilidad intraespecifica derivada de estos aislamientos, se estudiaron dos caracteres de su biometria y 10 de la folidosis en siete poblaciones que comprenden una parte significativa de su area de distribucion (Italia, Francia continental, Iberia al norte del Rio Ebro, Iberia Central, Iberia al sur del Rio Guadalquivir, montanas del Rif, y montanas del Atlas). Tanto las variables discretas como las continuas fueron consideradas conjuntamente mediante un analisis multivariante para variables mixtas. En conjunto, el dimorfismo sexual fue muy manifiesto en todas las poblaciones, tanto en caracteres previamente estudiados (ventrales, subcaudales), como en otros (hileras de dorsales). Se encontro relacion entre la talla corporal y el numero de escamas ventrales, planteando aqui la hipotesis de una mayor supervivencia en los ejemplares con mas ventrales. En el analisis regional, las poblaciones norteafricanas exhibieron tallas menores, aunque las correlaciones con la latitud no resultaron significativas. En folidosis, tambien aparecio tendencia geografica en el numero de ventrales, aunque la correlacion con la latitud solamente fue significativa en machos. No se detectaron cambios geograficos en la folidosis cefalica. La ausencia de variaciones geograficas significativas, no clinales, en los caracteres morfologicos aqui analizados,confirma la condicion monotipica de la especie.
Bioreactance-based passive leg raising test can predict fluid responsiveness in elderly patients with septic shock

Background: Few studies have reported the value of volume responsiveness evaluation on bioreactance-based passive leg raising (PLR) test in elderly patients.This study was carried out to determinate the predictive value of bioreactance-based PLR test for predicting fluid responsiveness (FR) of elderly patients with septic shock, and to compare it to central venous pressure (CVP). Methods: This prospective, single-centre study enrolled 50 elderly patients with septic shock from the Department of Critical Care Medicine of Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China, from October 2012 to October 2015. All patients underwent PLR test and fluid infusion test sequentially. Noninvasive cardiac output monitoring (NICOM) was used to continuously record hemodynamic parameters such as cardiac output (CO), heart rate (HR) and CVP, at baseline 1, PLR, baseline 2, and volume expansion (VE). FR is defined as the change in CO (ΔCO) ≥10% after the fluid infusion test. Results: CO clearly increased after PLR and VE (5.21±2.34 vs . 6.03±2.73, P<0.05; 5.09±1.99 vs . 5.60±2.11, P<0.05). The PLR induced change in CO (ΔCOPLR) and VE induced change in CO (ΔCOVE) were highly correlated [r=0.80 (0.64–0.90)], while the CVP and ΔCOVE were uncorrelated [r=0.12 (−0.16–0.32)]. The areas under the ROC curves of ΔCOPLR and CVP predicting FR were 0.868 and 0.514 respectively. ΔCOPLR ≥10% was found to predict FR with a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 79%. Conclusions: Bioreactance-based PLR tests could predict FR of elderly patients with septic shock, while CVP could not.
Molecular and biophysical characterization of TT virus: evidence for a new virus family infecting humans.

The recent isolation of a novel DNA virus from the serum of a Japanese patient (T.T.) has provided the latest possible candidate virus associated with cryptogenic hepatitis. In the present study, we report the complete nucleotide sequence of this virus (TTV) isolated from the serum of a West African. Based on PCR studies designed to amplify overlapping regions of the viral genome and sensitivity to digestion with mung bean nuclease, the viral genome is circular and negative stranded, and comprises 3,852 nt, which is 113 nt longer than the prototype isolate from Japan. Cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation demonstrated banding of the virus at 1.31-1.34 g/ml; filtration studies indicated that TTV had a particle size of 30-50 nm. These results suggest that the virus is similar to the Circoviridae, viruses known to infect plants and vertebrates (e. g., birds and swine); however, sequence similarity searches of available databases did not reveal identity between TTV and other viruses. Phylogenetic analyses of a 260-nt region from 151 globally distributed isolates demonstrated the existence of three major TTV genotypes. Several individuals at high risk for infection with parenterally transmitted viruses were infected with more than one genotype. There was no correlation between genotype and geographic origin. Finally, intravenous inoculation of TTV-positive human serum into chimpanzees demonstrated that TTV can be transmitted to primates; no biochemical or histological evidence for hepatitis was obtained. The distinct biophysical and molecular characteristics of TTV suggest that it is a member of a new family of viruses, which we have tentatively named the Circinoviridae.
Generalized linear model for partially ordered data

Within the rich literature on generalized linear models, substantial efforts have been devoted to models for categorical responses that are either completely ordered or completely unordered. Few studies have focused on the analysis of partially ordered outcomes, which arise in practically every area of study, including medicine, the social sciences, and education. To fill this gap, we propose a new class of generalized linear models—the partitioned conditional model—that includes models for both ordinal and unordered categorical data as special cases. We discuss the specification of the partitioned conditional model and its estimation. We use an application of the method to a sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth to illustrate how the new method is able to extract from partially ordered data useful information about smoking youths that is not possible using traditional methods. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Electronic Structures, and Optical and Magnetic Properties of Quadruple-Decker Phthalocyanines

For applications of magnetic devices with operating nuclear-spin-based quantum bits in quantum computing, electronic structures, and magnetic and optical properties of quadruple-decker phthalocyanines with 3d transition metals, such as scandium, yttrium, and lanthanum atoms (M3Pc4: M = Sc, Y, and La), were studied by quantum calculation using density function theory. Electron density distributions at the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital were considerably delocalized on the phthalocyanine ring with considerable bias of the electrostatic potential. The wide energy gaps and the ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectra of the systems were based on the phthalocyanine ring-ring interactions with overlapping π-orbitals on the phthalocyanine rings. The chemical shift behavior of 13C and 14N-NMR of Sc3(Pc)4, Y3(Pc)4, and La3(Pc)4 depended on the deformation of their structures owing to Jahn-Teller splitting of the d-orbital in the metal ligand field, the considerable perturbation of the metal ligand crystal field on the phthalocyanine ring, the electronic structure based on the electron density distribution, and the magnetic interaction of the nuclear quadrupole interaction. The magnetic parameters of the principle g-tensor, the V-tensor of the electronic field gradient, and the asymmetric parameters were influenced by the deformed structures of the complex with the considerable deviation of the charge density distribution. The quadruple-decker metal phthalocyanines using 3d transition metals have an advantage in controlling the electronic structure and magnetic parameters based on the nuclear spin interaction in spin lattice relaxation with respect to applications of single-molecular magnets.
Serial serum C‐reactive protein to monitor recovery from acute hematogenous osteomyelitis in children

Serial C‐reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate determinations were compared with clinical course and outcome at 1 to 2 months in 63 children with acute hematogenous osteomyelitis. High CRP values (163 \pm 108 mg/liter) on admission began to descend after the second day of treatment. From the fourth day on higher (P = 0.03 to P = 0.0001) CRP values distinguished a complicated from an uneventful course of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis and the patients symptomatic at follow‐up (P = 0.003 to P = 0.0001) from asymptomatic ones. Children who developed extensive radiographic changes had elevated CRP values for a longer time (32 \pm 13 days) than children with typical changes (11 \pm 6 days, P = 0.0001). Erythrocyte sedimentation rates did not identify the type of clinical course but higher values on Days 4 to 7 distinguished children symptomatic at follow‐up (P = 0.02) from asymptomatic ones. Monitoring serial CRP values can alert the physician to complications and predict outcome earlier than clinical signs or roentgenograms.
Is Sir Astley Cooperˈs 1823 advice to medical students still relevant?

In an 1823 lecture to medical students on the principles and practice of surgery, London surgeon Sir Astley Cooper raised many issues still discussed among doctors today, including: the importance of studying anatomy; factors leading to what would now be called “adverse events”; and the possible legal consequences of making errors. Cooper stressed the need for open communication between doctors and patients. Cooper practised surgery during a period when old medical guild controls were breaking down and before new professional regulatory bodies had developed. Cooper's lecture suggests that the important principles that underpin competent, caring professional practice endure today.
Cellular and molecular effects of resveratrol in health and disease

Resveratrol, a natural polyphenol abundantly found in grape skins and red wine, possesses diverse biochemical and physiological actions, including anti‐inflammatory, anti‐oxidation, anti‐proliferation and promotion of differentiation, and chemopreventive effects. Recently, it is attracting increased attention due to its health benefits, especially in common age‐related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and neurological conditions. In this review, we discuss the latest cellular and molecular findings that account for the beneficial actions of resveratrol. J. Cell. Biochem. 113: 752–759, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Schema-based Parallel Compression and Decompression of XML Data

Whenever huge amounts of XML data have to be transferred from a web server to multiple clients, the transferred data volumes can be reduced significantly by sending compressed XML instead of plain XML. Whenever applications require querying a compressed XML format and XML compression or decompression time is a bottleneck, parallel XML compression and parallel decompression may be of significant advantage. We choose the XML compressor XSDS as starting point for our new approach to parallel compression and parallel decompression of XML documents for the following reasons. First, XSDS generally reaches stronger compression ratios than other compressors like gzip, bzip2, and XMill. Second, in contrast to these compressors, XSDS not only supports XPath queries on compressed XML data, but also XPath queries can be evaluated on XSDS compressed data even faster than on uncompressed XML. We propose a String-search-based parsing approach to parallelize XML compression with XSDS, and we show that we can speed-up the compression of XML documents by a factor of 1.4 and that we can speed-up the decompression time even by a factor of up to 7 on a quad-core processor.
Improved 3-D MIMO-RMA based on modified sampling scheme

This paper introduces a 3-D near-field range migration (RM) imaging algorithm oriented for MIMO array configuration. The image reconstruction process is performed in the range-cross range domain and requires a modified sampling scheme. The proposed algorithm is able to provide high quality images for short range targets with high computational efficiency. The proposed algorithm is tested by numerical simulation. The result demonstrates its high accuracy and computational efficiency for near-field MIMO array imaging.
Protection Against CTL Escape and Clinical Disease in a Murine Model of Virus Persistence1

CTL escape mutations have been identified in several chronic infections, including mice infected with mouse hepatitis virus strain JHM. One outstanding question in understanding CTL escape is whether a CD8 T cell response to two or more immunodominant CTL epitopes would prevent CTL escape. Although CTL escape at multiple epitopes seems intuitively unlikely, CTL escape at multiple CD8 T cell epitopes has been documented in some chronically infected individual animals. To resolve this apparent contradiction, we engineered a recombinant variant of JHM that expressed the well-characterized gp33 epitope of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, an epitope with high functional avidity. The results show that the presence of a host response to this second epitope protected mice against CTL escape at the immunodominant JHM-specific CD8 T cell epitope, the persistence of infectious virus, and the development of clinical disease.
Role of free p70 (Ku) subunit in posttranslational stabilization of newly synthesized p80 during DNA-dependent protein kinase assembly.

The Ku antigen (p70/p80 heterodimer) is the DNA binding component of a DNA-dependent serine/threonine kinase (DNA-PK), the catalytic activity of which is carried by a 350 kDa polypeptide (p350). In the present studies, the assembly of p70, p80, and p350 was investigated in human K562 (erythroleukemia) cells, and rabbit (RK13) or murine (L-929) cells infected with recombinant vaccinia viruses directing the synthesis of human p70 and p80. Pulse-chase analysis and density gradient centrifugation revealed a pool of free p70 subunits in K562 cells that dimerized within minutes with newly synthesized p80, whereas Ku became associated with newly synthesized p350 1 to 4 h after the onset of p70/p80 heterodimer assembly. A stable pool of free p80 subunits was not detected, and newly synthesized p80 was degraded rapidly (t1/2 < 1.5 h) unless it became incorporated into a p70/p80 dimer. The explanation for the absence of unassembled p80 subunits in K562 cells was investigated further by expressing human p70 and p80 individually or together in Ku-deficient RK13 or L-929 cells infected with recombinant vaccinia viruses p70-vacc and/or p80-vacc. As in uninfected K562 cells, the t1/2 of the free recombinant human p80 subunit expressed in RK13 cells was < 1.5 h unless it was "rescued" by dimerization with p70. The t1/2 of human p70 as well as p70/p80 heterodimers was > 16 h in RK13 cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Characterisation of a subtype of colorectal cancer combining features of the suppressor and mild mutator pathways.

BACKGROUND: 10% of sporadic colorectal cancers are characterised by a low level of microsatellite instability (MSI-L). These are not thought to differ substantially from microsatelite-stable (MSS) cancers, but MSI-L and MSS cancers are distinguished clinicopathologically and in their spectrum of genetic alterations from cancers showing high level microsatellite instability (MSI-H). AIMS: To study the distribution of molecular alterations in a series of colorectal cancers stratified by DNA microsatellite instability. METHODS: A subset of an unselected series of colorectal cancers was grouped by the finding of DNA MSI at 0 loci (MSS) (n = 51), 1-2 loci (MSI-L) (n = 38) and 3-6 loci (MSI-H) (n = 25). The frequency of K-ras mutation, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at 5q, 17p and 18q, and patterns of p53 and beta catenin immunohistochemistry was determined in the three groups. RESULTS: MSI-H cancers had a low frequency of K-ras mutation (7%), LOH on chromosomes 5q (0%), 17p (0%) and 18q (12.5%), and a normal pattern of immunostaining for p53 and beta catenin. MSI-L cancers differed from MSS cancers in terms of a higher frequency of K-ras mutation (54% v 27%) (p = 0.01) and lower frequency of 5q LOH (23% v 48%) (p = 0.047). Whereas aberrant beta catenin expression and 5q LOH were concordant (both present or both absent) in 57% of MSS cancers, concordance was observed in only 20% of MSI-L cancers (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: MSI-L colorectal cancers are distinct from both MSI-H and MSS cancers. This subset combines features of the suppressor and mutator pathways, may be more dependent on K-ras than on the APC gene in the early stages of neoplastic evolution, and a proportion may be related histogenetically to the serrated (hyperplastic) polyp.
Possible involvement of microtubule disruption in bipolar budding of a Sendai virus mutant, F1-R, in epithelial MDCK cells

Envelope glycoproteins F and HN of wild-type Sendai virus are transported to the apical plasma membrane domain of polarized epithelial MDCK cells, where budding of progeny virus occurs. On the other hand, a pantropic mutant, F1-R, buds bipolarly at both the apical and basolateral domains, and the viral glycoproteins have also been shown to be transported to both of these domains (M. Tashiro, M. Yamakawa, K. Tobita, H.-D. Klenk, R. Rott, and J.T. Seto, J. Virol. 64:4672-4677, 1990). MDCK cells were infected with wild-type virus and treated with the microtubule-depolymerizing drugs colchicine and nocodazole. Budding of the virus and surface expression of the glycoproteins were found to occur in a nonpolarized fashion similar to that found in cells infected with F1-R. In uninfected cells, the drugs were shown to interfere with apical transport of a secretory cellular glycoprotein, gp80, and basolateral uptake of [35S]methionine as well as to disrupt microtubule structure, indicating that cellular polarity of MDCK cells depends on the presence of intact microtubules. Infection by the F1-R mutant partially affected the transport of gp80, uptake of [35S]methionine, and the microtubule network, whereas wild-type virus had a marginal effect. These results suggest that apical transport of the glycoproteins of wild-type Sendai virus in MDCK cells depends on intact microtubules and that bipolar budding by F1-R is possibly due, at least in part, to the disruption of microtubules. Nucleotide sequence analyses of the viral genes suggest that the mutated M protein of F1-R might be involved in the alteration of microtubules.
A randomized study of high-dose cytarabine in induction in acute myeloid leukemia.

High-dose cytarabine (ara-c) may overcome cytarabine resistance in leukemic blasts. It has been used as a successful salvage and in postremission therapy but not as initial induction treatment. Patients aged 15 to 60 years, presenting with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were randomized to receive either high-dose cytarabine, 3 g/m2 12 hourly on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 for 8 doses, daunorubicin 50 mg/m2 days 1 to 3, etoposide 75 mg/m2 days 1 to 7, (HIDAC-3-7) or standard dose cytarabine 100 mg/m2 continuous intravenous infusion for 7 days with daunorubicin and etoposide at the same dose and schedule as above (7-3-7). Patients could receive a second or third induction course if complete remission (CR) was not achieved. All patients received the same postinduction consolidation therapy (5-2-5) for 2 courses. Eligible patients had no prior chemotherapy or myelodysplastic disease. Patients have been followed for a median of 4.5 years. Of 301 patients treated, complete response (CR) was achieved in 71% with HIDAC-3-7 and 74% with 7-3-7. For patients in CR, the estimated median remission duration was 45 months with HIDAC-3-7 and 12 months with 7-3-7 (P = .0005 univariate analysis, P = .0004 multivariate analysis). The estimated percentage of patients relapse free 5 years after achieving a CR was 49% on HIDAC-3-7 and 24% on 7-3-7. Patients in CR tended to survive longer with HIDAC-3-7 but there were no overall survival differences between the two arms. HIDAC-3-7 was associated with significantly more toxicity in induction with more leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, nausea, and vomiting and eye toxicity (all P < .001) but a similar incidence of severe central nervous system and cerebellar toxicity compared to 7-3-7. The consolidation treatment was the same in both arms but caused significantly more leukopenia and thrombocytopenia in patients previously treated with HIDAC-3-7 induction (P < .0001). We conclude that a dose-effect exists for cytarabine in AML and that HIDAC-3-7 prolongs remission duration and disease-free survival and is tolerable when used as initial induction therapy in patients with de novo AML.
Chiral Orientation of Skeletal Muscle Cells Requires Rigid Substrate

Reconstitution of tissue morphology with inherent left–right (LR) asymmetry is essential for tissue/organ functions. For skeletal muscle, the largest tissue in mammalian organisms, successful myogenesis requires the regulation of the LR asymmetry to form the appropriate muscle alignment. However, the key factor for reproducing the LR asymmetry of skeletal tissues in a controllable, engineering context remains largely unknown. Recent reports indicate that cell chirality may underlie the LR development in tissue morphogenesis. Here, we report that a rigid substrate is required for the chirality of skeletal muscle cells. By using alternating micropatterned cell-adherent and cell-repellent stripes on a rigid substrate, we found that C2C12 skeletal muscle myoblasts exhibited a unidirectional tilted orientation with respect to the stripe boundary. Importantly, such chiral orientation was reduced when soft substrates were used instead. In addition, we demonstrated the key role of actin stress fibers in the formation of the chiral orientation. This study reveals that a rigid substrate is required for the chiral pattern of myoblasts, paving the way for reconstructing damaged muscle tissue with inherent LR asymmetry in the future.
Improved robust Du-stability measures via S-procedure

In this paper we focus on the notion of robust matrix root-clustering analysis in a union of regions that are possibly disjoint and non symmetric. Indeed this work aims at computing a bound on the size of the uncertainty domain preserving matrix Du-stability. A Linear Fractional Transform (LFT) uncertainty is considered. To reduce conservatism, a new approach, based on some generalized S-procedure, is addressed. In the case where the studied matrices depend afflnely on the uncertain parameters or when the studied matrices are subject to polytopic uncertainty, it is known that recently developed L.M. J conditions are effective to assess the robust performance in a less conservative fashion. This paper further extends the preceding results and propose a unified way to obtain new L.M. J conditions even in the case of rational parameter dependence. Some conservatism induced by some techniques encountered in the literature is here reduced .
Observer with small gains in the presence of a long delay in the measurements

For a particular family of systems, we construct observers in the case where the measured variables are affected by the presence of a point-wise time-varying delay. The key feature of the proposed observers is that the size of their gains is proportional to the inverse of the largest value taken by the delay. The main result is first presented in the case of linear chain of integrators and next is extended to nonlinear systems with specific nonlinearities. Numerical examples are provided to show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed observers.