Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elasticity‐Driven Membrane Budding through Cholesterol Concentration on Supported Lipid Monolayer–Bilayer Junction

Membrane budding is an essential process during various biological activities, such as intercellular communication and transportation of life‐sustaining molecules and signals, which primarily occur with the aid of particular proteins. During such processes, the presence of cholesterol and its assembly into particular domains within the membranes have attracted considerable attention due to their unique characteristics in terms of the regulation of signal activities, membrane fluidity, and hormone production during metabolic pathways. However, despite these crucial roles, the precise mechanisms of their spatiotemporal localization toward specific areas and their physiological roles in membrane budding without the assistance of particular proteins remain unclear. Herein, a model membrane platform is reconstituted with lipid monolayer–bilayer junctions, which facilitate the selective concentration of cholesterol on the lipid monolayer regions. In vitro membrane budding is demonstrated by the remaining vesicles where the lipid monolayer membrane is ruptured. The physicochemical approach to the selective concentration of cholesterol and its consequent membrane vesiculation offer important clues to help understand the underlying mechanisms of cholesterol in the lipid‐driven membrane‐budding process.
Freedom and addiction in four discursive registers: A comparative historical study of values in addiction science

Mainstream addiction science is today widely marked by an antinomy between a neurologically determinist understanding of the human brain ‘hijacked’ by the biochemical allure of intoxicants and a liberal voluntarist conception of drug use as a free exercise of choice. Prominent defenders of both discourses strive, ultimately without complete success, to provide accounts that are both universal and value-neutral. This has resulted in a variety of conceptual problems and has undermined the utility of such research for those who seek to therapeutically care for people presumed to suffer from addictions. This article contrasts these two contemporary discourses to two others that played vital historical roles in initiating both scientific and popular concern for addiction. These are the Puritan and civic republican discourses that dominated scholarly discussions of addiction in the early modern era. In each case, the place of values in these discussions is highlighted. By comparing them to their early modern historical antecedents, this article seeks to reflexively explore and develop more intellectually sound and therapeutically relevant alternatives to the troubled attempts at universality and value-neutrality now fettering debates in mainstream addiction science.
Energy Drinks’ effect on Pre Adult development of Drosophila melanogaster

Quality of energy drinks consumed by an organism has a significant effect on an organism’s fitness. In the present investigation D. melanogaster were reared in Alternative natural energy drink based media, Synthetic energy drink based media and Wheat cream agar media. Feeding rate and pre adult development in these energy drinks, based media were studied. Results revealed that flies fed on alternative natural energy drink had consumed significantly greater quantity of food than those flies fed on synthetic energy drink and wheat cream agar media. Egg to larva, larva to pupa and pupa to adult viability was found to be significantly greater in alternative natural energy drink, whereas in larva to pupa viability wheat cream agar media was greater. This suggests that the consumption of alternative natural energy drink was beneficial in pre adult development of D. melanogaster.
Dissolved organic carbon sorption dynamics in tidal marsh soils

Coastal wetlands are significant sources of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to adjacent waters and, consequently, exert a strong influence on the quantity and quality of DOC exported to the coastal oceans. Our understanding of the factors that control the exchange of DOC at the tidal marsh‐estuarine interface, however, remains limited. We hypothesize that tidal marsh soils act as a regulator and that their physical characteristics, such as organic carbon content and mineral phase composition, are key controls on DOC exchange between soil surfaces and both surface and interstitial waters. To test this hypothesis, we generated traditional Langmuir sorption isotherms using anaerobic batch incubations of four tidal wetland soils, representing a range of soil organic carbon content (1.77% ± 0.12% to 36.2% ± 2.2%) and salinity regimes (freshwater to mixoeuhaline), across four salinity treatments. Results suggest that the maximum soil sorption capacity and DOC binding affinity increase and decrease with greater salinity, respectively, though the enhancement of maximum soil sorption capacity is somewhat mitigated in soils richer in poorly crystalline iron minerals. Initial natively sorbed organic carbon showed a significant positive correlation with soil specific surface area and K showed a moderate yet significant positive correlation with poorly crystalline iron mineral content. Taken together, these results point to a strong mineralogical control on tidal marsh sorption dynamics and a complex physicochemical response of those dynamics to salinity in tidal marsh soils.
Chronic Toxic Effect of Lead on Male Testis Tissue in Adult Pelophylax nigromaculata

Lead (Pb) is one of the most common heavy metals in nature which has an adverse effect on aquatic ecosystems and affects animal health. Animal survival depends on its reproductive ability. To analyse the influence of Pb on the male testis tissues in the spot frog ( Pelophylax nigromaculata ), the male adult individuals were exposed to Pb (10, 100 and 1000 μg/L) in water for 30 days. We observed the spermatic histopathologic structure and detected the expression and location of androgen receptors (AR) on the germ cells by immunohistochemical method. Compared to the control, the testis histopathologic structure and the expression of AR at Pb treatment were different. At relatively higher concentration (100 and 1000 μg/L), the changes of spermatic pathological mainly included germ cell necrosis, congestion and fibrosis congestion. The expressions of AR on the gonad cells were affected by Pb. With the increase of Pb concentration, AR expressions were decreased.
A critical review of Antarcticeras Doguzhaeva, 2017 – teuthid affinities can explain the poorly mineralized phragmocone

Abstract Antarcticeras from the Early Eocene of Seymour Island (Antarctica) has recently been described as a representative of the ‘Paracoleoidea’, a previously unknown cephalopod subclass. After reinvestigation of the type material of Antarcticeras nordenskjoeldi Doguzhaeva, 2017, the justification of this new cephalopod subclass is here rejected. Phragmocone characteristics allow alternative interpretations and these justify to consider the poorly mineralized phragmocone of Antarcticeras being transitional between a heavily mineralized, fully functional phragmocone and a completely demineralized gladius of an oegopsid coleoid. Eocene Antarcticeras therefore might represent the first evidence of teuthid shell remains in the fossil record. Its poor state of mineralization accordingly suggests remarkably late development of teuthid gladii.
Formation of counter-rotating stars during gas-rich disc–disc mergers

We present a new scenario for the origin of the counter-rotating stars in disc galaxies, defined as stars that have a negative tangential velocity. This scenario involves a merger between two gas-rich disc galaxies that have comparable masses, are nearly coplanar, and are rotating in the same direction. The merger results in an intense starburst, during which a significant fraction of the gas is converted to stars. The system then settles into an equilibrium configuration consisting of a thick disc and a bulge partly supported by velocity dispersion and a thin disc supported by rotation. Star formation proceeds until most of the gas supply is exhausted. Stars formed during the starburst have tangential velocities ranging from $-600$ to $600\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$. Stars formed afterward in the thick disc and bulge have high eccentricities and low tangential velocities, typically in the range $-100$ to $100\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$, while stars formed in the thin disc have large, positive velocities. All fast, counter-rotating stars ($V\lt -200\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$) are old, metal-poor, with very low dispersion in ages and metallicities. By contrast, fast, corotating stars ($V\gt 200\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$) have a wide range of ages and metallicities. The average abundances ratios $\rm [O/H]$ and [Fe/H] for fast, corotating stars typically exceed the corresponding ratios for fast, counter-rotating stars by $0.1-0.4\,\mathrm{ dex}$, while the dispersion in the values of NFe/NH are larger by factors between 2 and 14. This provides an observational signature of major, gas-rich mergers at high redshift.
Spatial distribution and temporal trend of pan evaporation in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and its surroundings during 1952-2013

Under climate warming and impoundment conditions of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), spatial distribution and temporal trend of pan evaporation in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) and its surroundings offer valuable information about regional hydrology and ecosystem succession. In this study, pan evaporation measured by a pan of 20 cm diameter at 27 meteorological stations during 1952-2013 in the TGRA and its surroundings were calculated, compared and analyzed. Their spatial distribution and temporal trend were examined and the causes for the variations are discussed. The results show that: (1) The average annual pan evaporation in the TGRA and its surroundings is 1208.03 mm,and it appears an east–west downward gradient. (2) Examined by Mann-Kendall (MK) test, pan evaporation significantly declined at the rate of -40.8 mm/decade during 1952-2013. It shows upward trend in 1960s, 1970s, but downward trend in 1980s and 2000s. (3) The decreasing of pan evaporation is the results of comprehensive influences of air temperature (TEM), wind speed (WIN), sunshine duration (SSD) and relative humidity (RHU). Among them, SSD is the largest contributor.
Post-transplant cancer: An epidemiological evaluation

Kidney transplantation is a lifechanging event for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) because it improves the quality of life and survival of these patients. However, it is not a cure and is not without complications. Transplant recipients have an excess risk of premature death (largely from cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD)) by at least 10-times compared to the general population. Published work has identified cancer as one of the most important and feared outcomes in transplant recipients and is a key research priority recognised by both patients and health professionals. There is also convincing epidemiological evidence, suggesting the overall risk of developing cancer in the transplant population is approximately 2 to 3-fold higher compared to the age-matched general population. Unlike CVD, where the death rates have fallen considerably over the past decade in this population in response to better screening, preventative and intervention approaches, the excess risk of cancer-related deaths in transplant recipients remains at least 10-fold higher compared to cancer patients in the general population. The causes of the increased risk of death are unknown but may be a consequence of possible differences in tumour biology under the influence of immunosuppression. In this review, we will discuss the epidemiology of overall and site-specific cancer risk and death across different countries. We will also focus on the current evidence on the prevention and screening in our at-risk transplant candidates. Finally, management strategies of common cancers such as skin, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease and solid organ cancers such as colorectal, breast and lung cancer will be evaluated.
Numerical Investigation of Freely Falling Objects Using Direct-Forcing Immersed Boundary Method

The fluid-structure interaction of solid objects freely falling in a Newtonian fluid was investigated numerically by direct-forcing immersed boundary (DFIB) method. The Navier–Stokes equations are coupled with equations of motion through virtual force to describe the motion of solid objects. Here, we rigorously derived the equations of motion by taking control-volume integration of momentum equation. The method was validated by a popular numerical test example describing the 2D flow caused by the free fall of a circular disk inside a tank of fluid, as well as 3D experimental measurements in the sedimentation of a sphere. Then, we demonstrated the method by a few more 2D sedimentation examples: (1) free fall of two tandem circular disks showing drafting, kissing and tumbling phenomena; (2) sedimentation of multiple circular disks; (3) free fall of a regular triangle, in which the rotation of solid object is significant; (4) free fall of a dropping ellipse to mimic the falling of a leaf. In the last example, we found rich falling patterns exhibiting fluttering, tumbling, and chaotic falling.
The effect of vincristine on morpho-functional state of neurons of cerebrospinal sensitive ganglions in experiment

В експерименті на 31 щурі методами світлової та електронної мікроскопії, морфометричного аналізу встановлено, що вплив вінкристину проявляється порушенням нейротрубочок і нейрофіламентів в аферентних нейронах з ураженням білоксинтезуючих органел. У динаміці розвитку вінкристин-індукованих порушень нейронів та гліоцитів чутливих спинномозкових вузлів можна виділити дві основні стадії: 1) стадія неглибоких дистрофічних змін перикаріонів аферентних нейронів спинномозкових вузлів (7-а доба); 2) стадія глибоких дистрофічних порушень перикаріонів аферентних нейронів (8–21-а доби) Ключові слова: вінкристин, нейротоксичність, спинномозковий вузол, нейрони, гліоцити,нейротрубочки, нейрофіламенти, стадія, порушення
Prédiction markovienne in silico des régions constantes et variables des lentivirus

Les lentivirus presentent une evolution rapide du gene env, notamment dans la region codant la glycoproteine de surface (SU). Un fait remarquable est que les mutations de la SU sont localisees dans des zones specifiques, appelees regions variables (V), separees par des regions dites constantes (C). Afin de determiner s'il existe des signatures specifiques des regions C et V, nous avons developpe des modeles de Markov caches, ou HMM (Hidden Markov Models), bases sur la composition en oligonucleotides de chaque type de region, capables de differencier les regions C et V des lentivirus. Nous avons entraine des modeles de Markov caches sur des sequences des SU des lentivirus equins, humains, simiens et des petits ruminants. Nous avons obtenu une delimitation claire des regions C et V de tous ces lentivirus ainsi que des lentivirus bovins et felins qui n'avaient pas ete utilises pour definir les modeles. Nos resultats suggerent que les regions C et V des lentivirus ont des compositions statistiques en mots de nucleotides et d'acides amines differentes. Des signatures caracteristiques des regions C et V ont ete extraites a partir des modeles definis
Sensitivity of a GCM simulation to inclusion of inland water surfaces

Abstract A land surface model that includes a subgrid parameterization for inland water (lake, swamp, marsh) was coupled to a modified version of the NCAR CCM2. The coupled model was run for 5 yr with and without inland water subgrid points to determine the importance of inland water for global climate simulation. In July, the inclusion of these water bodies resulted in a spatially consistent signal in which high inland water regions were 2°–3°C cooler, had increased latent heat flux (10–45 W m−2), and decreased sensible heat flux (5–30 W m−2) compared to the simulation without these water bodies. These changes were statistically significant in the lake region of northwest Canada, the Great Lakes region of North America, the swamp and marsh region of the Siberian lowlands, and the lake region of East Africa, but were not significantly different in the swamp and marsh region of Finland and northwest Russia. The effect on Northern Hemisphere January air temperature was difficult to interpret due to large in.
DisGCo

Graph algorithms are widely used in various applications. Their programmability and performance have garnered a lot of interest among the researchers. Being able to run these graph analytics programs on distributed systems is an important requirement. Green-Marl is a popular Domain Specific Language (DSL) for coding graph algorithms and is known for its simplicity. However, the existing Green-Marl compiler for distributed systems (Green-Marl to Pregel) can only compile limited types of Green-Marl programs (in Pregel canonical form). This severely restricts the types of parallel Green-Marl programs that can be executed on distributed systems. We present DisGCo, the first compiler to translate any general Green-Marl program to equivalent MPI program that can run on distributed systems. Translating Green-Marl programs to MPI (SPMD/MPMD style of computation, distributed memory) presents many other exciting challenges, besides the issues related to differences in syntax, as Green-Marl gives the programmer a unified view of the whole memory and allows the parallel and serial code to be inter-mixed. We first present the set of challenges involved in translating Green-Marl programs to MPI and then present a systematic approach to do the translation. We also present a few optimization techniques to improve the performance of our generated programs. DisGCo is the first graph DSL compiler that can handle all syntactic capabilities of a practical graph DSL like Green-Marl and generate code that can run on distributed systems. Our preliminary evaluation of DisGCo shows that our generated programs are scalable. Further, compared to the state-of-the-art DH-Falcon compiler that translates a subset of Falcon programs to MPI, our generated codes exhibit a geomean speedup of 17.32×.
The Effect of Molecular Targeted Agents used in Combination with Chemotherapy to Inhibit the Repopulation of Tumour Cells and Xenografts

The effect of molecular targeted agents used in combination with chemotherapy to inhibit the repopulation of tumour cells and xenografts Andrea Sabrina Fung Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Graduate Department of Medical Biophysics University of Toronto Chemotherapy is often administered once every three weeks to allow repopulation of essential normal tissues such as the bone marrow. Repopulation of surviving tumour cells can also occur between courses of chemotherapy and can decrease the efficacy of anticancer treatment. This thesis aims to characterize repopulation, to study the effect of targeted cytostatic agents to inhibit repopulation, and to determine the optimal scheduling of chemotherapy and molecular targeted treatment. The distribution of proliferating and apoptotic cells in human squamous cell carcinoma (A431) xenografts was studied following chemotherapy using fluorescence immunohistochemistry. There was an initial decrease in cell proliferation and in the total functional blood vessels, and an increase in apoptosis observed following treatment with paclitaxel chemotherapy. A rebound in cell proliferation occurred approximately 12 days following treatment, which corresponded with a rebound in vascular perfusion. The effect of gefitinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, to inhibit repopulation between courses of chemotherapy was determined using EGFRoverexpressing A431 cells and xenografts. Furthermore, concurrent and sequential schedules of combined chemotherapy and molecular targeted treatment were compared. Gefitinib inhibited the repopulation of A431 cells in culture when administered sequentially between chemotherapy; sequential treatment was more efficacious than
Transcriptional Analysis of VvOSM1 Gene in Grapevine ( Vitis vinifera L.) under Salt Stress

Transcriptional response of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) VvOSM1 has been investigated in Baladi and Halawani cultivars and B41 rootstock grapevine leaves, under salt stress [(0, 1, 2 and 3 dS/m of sea water (SW)] treatment after 1, 3 and 5 days of exposure. Real-Time PCR (RT-qPCR) technique has been employed to investigate VvOSM1 gene expression in two cultivars and one rootstock grapevine. Data revealed that the VvOSM1 transcription level increased for the two cultivars as the applied salt concentration increased from 1 to 3 dS/m, and also with salt exposure time from 1 to 5 days; expect for Baladi. Overall, transcript expression was higher in the examined cultivars compared to the B41 rootstock. Whereas, with a prolonged time exposure up to 3 days, VvOSM1 gene showed up-regulation in Halawani cultivar and down-regulation in Baladi cv. and B41 rootstock. Thereby, RT-qPCR technique could be used as a potential tool for VvOSM1 transcriptional response in grapevine breeding programs.
On Honey Bee Colony Dynamics and Disease Transmission

The work herein falls under the umbrella of mathematical modeling of disease transmission. The majority of this document focuses on the extent to which infection undermines the strength of a honey bee colony. These studies extend from simple mass-action ordinary differential equations models, to continuous age-structured partial differential equation models and finally a detailed agent-based model which accounts for vector transmission of infection between bees as well as a host of other influences and stressors on honey bee colony dynamics. These models offer a series of predictions relevant to the fate of honey bee colonies in the presence of disease and the nonlinear effects of disease, seasonality and the complicated dynamics of honey bee colonies. We are also able to extract from these models metrics that preempt colony failure. The analysis of disease dynamics in age-structured honey bee colony models required the study of next generation operators (NGO) and the basic reproduction number, R0, for partial differential equations. This led us to the development of a coherent path from the NGO to its discrete compartmental counterpart, the next generation matrix (NGM) as well as the derivation of new closed-form formulae for the NGO for specific classes of disease models.
Preovulatory oocyte aging in mice affects fertilization rate and embryonic genome activation

Delayed ovulation, or preovulatory aging, can seriously compromise the developmental competence of oocytes. In the present study, we have investigated the effect of preovulatory aging on preimplantation embryos. Delaying ovulation with the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist Cetrorelix led to a decline in 2-cell rate from 76 to 46%. From control mice, an average of 17 embryos per mouse was retrieved. This number decreased to a mean of 5 embryos per mouse after preovulatory aging, suggesting that fertilization is impaired by aging. For analysis of zygotic genome activation, 2-cell embryos were incubated with BrUTP, which was incorporated into nascent RNA and detected by immunohistochemistry. A 2.85-fold increase in fluorescence intensity was detected after aging, pointing to a precocious activation of the genome. A possible effect of preovulatory aging on genomic imprint maintenance was investigated at the 8-cell stage. Deep amplicon bisulfite sequencing of Igf2r, Snrpn, H19 and Pou5f1 showed no significant changes between embryos derived from preovulatory-aged oocytes and control embryos, indicating stable imprint maintenance throughout epigenetic reprogramming. We conclude that preovulatory aging of the oocyte affects fertilization and embryonic genomic activation.