Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of extrinsic incubation temperature on natural selection during Zika virus infection of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) require replication across a wide range of temperatures to perpetuate. While vertebrate hosts tend to maintain temperatures of approximately 37°C—40°C, arthropods are subject to ambient temperatures which can have a daily fluctuation of > 10°C. Temperatures impact vector competence, extrinsic incubation period, and mosquito survival unimodally, with optimal conditions occurring at some intermediate temperature. In addition, the mean and range of daily temperature fluctuations influence arbovirus perpetuation and vector competence. The impact of temperature on arbovirus genetic diversity during systemic mosquito infection, however, is poorly understood. Therefore, we determined how constant extrinsic incubation temperatures of 25°C, 28°C, 32°C, and 35°C control Zika virus (ZIKV) vector competence and population dynamics within Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. We also examined fluctuating temperatures which better mimic field conditions in the tropics. We found that vector competence varied in a unimodal manner for constant temperatures peaking between 28°C and 32°C for both Aedes species. Transmission peaked at 10 days post-infection for Aedes aegypti and 14 days for Aedes albopictus. Conversely, fluctuating temperature decreased vector competence. Using RNA-seq to characterize ZIKV population structure, we identified that temperature alters the selective environment in unexpected ways. During mosquito infection, constant temperatures more often elicited positive selection whereas fluctuating temperatures led to strong purifying selection in both Aedes species. These findings demonstrate that temperature has multiple impacts on ZIKV biology, including major effects on the selective environment within mosquitoes.
Elongated microparticles tuned for targeting hyaluronic acid delivery to specific skin strata

Microneedle or fractional laser applications are the most common topical delivery enhancement platforms. However, these methods of drug delivery are not skin strata specific. Drug delivery approaches which could target specific stratum of the skin remains a challenge. Elongated microparticles (EMPs) have been used in enhancing drug delivery into the skin. The aim of this study was to evaluate, for the first time, elongated silica microparticles with two different length profiles to enhance delivery of hyaluronic acid into different strata of human skin.
Sobrevivência e Diâmetro de Plantas Intactas e Brotações de Clones de Eucalipto

Eucalypt clone plants in 3 × 3 m spacing, in Vazante, State of Minas Gerais - Brazil, were decapitated at the age of 13 months to evaluate stump survival, number of sprouts/stump and sprout and intact plant diameter. Stump survival of clones 58, GG100, 1000, 36, 8B (with and without sprout thinning) and clone 910 (without sprout thinning) ranged from 100 to 93%, 55 months after planting, being the lowest (63%) for clone 1270 and intermediate (87-90%) for the remaining ones. Most clones presented sprout number reduction to about two sprouts per stump in the no-thinning treatments. There was a decrease to about 1.6 sprouts/stump when thinning to two sprouts per stump was applied and diameter growth was similar or greater than for the no-thinned treatment. Intact plants diameter was the greatest. Decapitation of juvenile eucalypt plant had no effect on stump survival for most clones. Sprout thinning is not necessary for the studied clones.
Longitudinal Measurement of Empathy in Student Pharmacists

Objective. To assess empathy longitudinally in student pharmacists and describe how it changes during their four years of pharmacy education. Methods. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Professions Student version (JSE-HPS) was completed by a cohort of student pharmacists at the beginning and end of their first year of pharmacy school (P1), then at the end of their second, third, and fourth years of pharmacy school (P2, P3, P4). Demographic data and information about students’ previous pharmacy work experience and experience interacting with patients were also collected. Results. Student pharmacists’ empathy scores were relatively high at the beginning of P1, comparable to scores reported for medical and other health professions students. Empathy scores declined over the first two years of the pharmacy curriculum but increased during both P3 and P4, recovering to the level observed at the beginning of P1. Factor analysis identified three factors, namely “perspective taking,” “compassionate care,” and “walking in a patient’s shoes” that accounted for 26%, 19%, and 7% of the variance, respectively, and supported the construct validity of the JSE-HPS. Conclusion. Student pharmacists’ empathy decreased during the early, primarily didactic years of the pharmacy curriculum but increased during the latter years that emphasize clinical experiences.
Effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue treatment in improving final adult height of children with central precocious puberty or early and fast puberty: a Meta analysis.

OBJECTIVES To systematically evaluate the effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue (GnRHa) treatment on the final adult height of children over 6 years of age with central precocious puberty (CPP) or early and fast puberty (EFP). METHODS PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang Data were searched for related articles on GnRHa treatment for children with CPP or EFP. Stata 12.0 software was used to perform a Meta analysis of related data. RESULTS A total of 10 studies were included, and the total sample size was 720 children, with 475 children in the GnRHa treatment group and 245 children in the control group. The Meta analysis showed that compared with the control group, the GnRHa treatment group had significantly better final adult height (WMD=3.30, 95%CI: 2.49-4.12, P<0.001), standard deviation score of final adult height (WMD=0.51, 95%CI: 0.29-0.73, P<0.001), and height gain (WMD=2.89, 95%CI: 2.17-3.60, P<0.001). No severe adverse events were reported in these studies. CONCLUSIONS GnRHa treatment is safe and effective in improving the final adult height of children over 6 years of age with CPP or EFP.
Machine-Guided Polymer Knowledge Extraction Using Natural Language Processing: The Example of Named Entity Normalization

A rich body of literature has emerged in recent years that discusses the extraction of structured information from materials science text through named entity recognition models. Relatively little work has been done to address the "normalization" of extracted entities, that is, recognizing that two or more seemingly different entities actually refer to the same entity in reality. In this work, we address the normalization of polymer named entities, polymers being a class of materials that often have a variety of common names for the same material in addition to the IUPAC name. We have trained supervised clustering models using Word2Vec and fastText word embeddings reported in previous work so that named entities referring to the same polymer are categorized within the same cluster in the word embedding space. We report the use of parameterized cosine distance functions to cluster and normalize textually derived entities, achieving an F1 score of 0.85. Furthermore, a labeled data set of polymer names was utilized to train our model and to infer the true total number of unique polymers that are actively reported in the literature. For ∼15,500 polymer named entities extracted from our corpus of 0.5 million papers, we detected 6734 unique clusters (i.e., unique polymers), 632 of which were manually curated to train the normalization model. This work will serve as a critical ingredient in a natural language processing-based pipeline for the automatic and efficient extraction of knowledge from the polymer literature.
Condensed Supramolecular Helices: The Twisted Sisters of DNA

Abstract Condensation of DNA helices into hexagonally packed bundles and toroids represents an intriguing example of functional organization of biological macromolecules at the nanoscale. The condensation models are based on the unique polyelectrolyte features of DNA, however here we could reproduce a DNA‐like condensation with supramolecular helices of small chiral molecules, thereby demonstrating that it is a more general phenomenon. We show that the bile salt sodium deoxycholate can form supramolecular helices upon interaction with oppositely charged polyelectrolytes of homopolymer or block copolymers. At higher order, a controlled hexagonal packing of the helices into DNA‐like bundles and toroids could be accomplished. The results disclose unknown similarities between covalent and supramolecular non‐covalent helical polyelectrolytes, which inspire visionary ideas of constructing supramolecular versions of biological macromolecules. As drug nanocarriers the polymer–bile salt superstructures would get advantage of a complex chirality at molecular and supramolecular levels, whose effect on the nanocarrier assisted drug efficiency is a still unexplored fascinating issue.
Relationship Between Serum Lipid Profiles and Carotid Intraplaque Neovascularization in a High–Stroke‐Risk Population: A Cross‐Sectional Study in China

Background Evidence of the association between serum lipid profiles and intraplaque neovascularization (IPN) is still limited. We aimed to study the value of a novel Doppler method, superb microvascular imaging, in correlating serum lipid profiles and evidence of IPN in a population with a high risk of stroke. Methods and Results A community‐based cross‐sectional study was conducted in Beijing, China. Residents (aged ≥40 years) underwent questionnaire interviews, physical examinations, and laboratory testing in 2018 and 2019. Subjects with a high risk of stroke were then selected. Standard carotid ultrasound and carotid plaque superb microvascular imaging examinations were then performed on the high–stroke‐risk participants. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between serum lipid profiles and carotid plaque IPN. Overall, a total of 250 individuals (mean age, 67.20±8.12 years; 66.4% men) met the study inclusion criteria. Superb microvascular imaging revealed carotid plaque IPN in 96 subjects (38.4%). Subjects with IPN were more likely to be current smokers (34.0% versus 46.9%, P=0.046), and their identified carotid plaques were much thicker (2.35±0.63 mm versus 2.75±0.80 mm, P=0.001). Serum lipids, including total cholesterol, non–high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol were positively associated with the presence of IPN (4.33±1.00 mmol/L versus 4.79±1.12 mmol/L, P=0.001; 2.96±0.92 mmol/L versus 3.40±1.01 mmol/L, P=0.001; 2.18±0.76 mmol/L versus 2.46±0.80 mmol/L, P=0.005, respectively), and after adjustment for other confounders, the positive relationship remained significant. Furthermore, non–high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (odds ratio, 2.62 [95% CI, 1.35–5.06]) was significantly associated with the presence of carotid plaque IPN even after adjusting for low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol. Conclusions Total cholesterol, non–high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol were positively associated with the presence of carotid IPN in a Chinese high–stroke‐risk population. Further prospective studies should be conducted to better understand how much finding IPN adds to current stroke prediction tools.
Fine-Grained Image Analysis With Deep Learning: A Survey

Fine-grained image analysis (FGIA) is a longstanding and fundamental problem in computer vision and pattern recognition, and underpins a diverse set of real-world applications. The task of FGIA targets analyzing visual objects from subordinate categories, e.g., species of birds or models of cars. The small inter-class and large intra-class variation inherent to fine-grained image analysis makes it a challenging problem. Capitalizing on advances in deep learning, in recent years we have witnessed remarkable progress in deep learning powered FGIA. In this paper we present a systematic survey of these advances, where we attempt to re-define and broaden the field of FGIA by consolidating two fundamental fine-grained research areas – fine-grained image recognition and fine-grained image retrieval. In addition, we also review other key issues of FGIA, such as publicly available benchmark datasets and related domain-specific applications. We conclude by highlighting several research directions and open problems which need further exploration from the community.
Inhibition of gap junction communication between cells can induce apoptosis of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle in guinea pigs

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of gap junction (GJ) on apoptosis of smooth muscle. Forty adult male guinea pigs were randomly divided into four groups with 10 guinea pigs in each group. Adeno‐associated virus (AAV) and Gap27 were injected at the root of the corpus cavernosum. Two weeks later, the corpus cavernosum tissue was taken to be tested. The expression of Cx43 and α‐SMC protein was detected by immunofluorescence and Western blotting. The content of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle was detected by Masson trichrome staining. Apoptosis was detected by TUNEL staining and Western blotting. The results showed that Gap27 did not affect Cx43 but decreased the expression of smooth muscle. The results of TUNEL staining and detection of apoptosis‐related proteins showed that apoptosis was induced by Gap27. In addition, we found that corpus cavernosum injection of AAV could induce obvious apoptosis. In this study, we examined the effect of inhibition of gap junction on smooth muscle, and suggested that the decrease of gap junction function may be a potential mechanism of smooth muscle apoptosis.
Beyond muscles: Role of intramuscular connective tissue elasticity and passive stiffness in the octopus arm muscle function.

The octopus arm is a 'one of a kind' muscular hydrostat, as demonstrated by its high maneuverability and complexity of motions. It is composed of a complex array of muscles and intramuscular connective tissue, allowing force and shape production. In this study, we investigated the organization of the intramuscular elastic fibers in two main muscles composing the arm bulk: the longitudinal (L) and the transverse (T) muscles. We assessed their contribution to the muscles' passive elasticity and stiffness and inferred their possible roles in limb deformation. First, we performed confocal imaging of whole arm samples and provided evidence of a muscle-specific organization of elastic fibers (more chaotic and less coiled in T than in L). We next show that in an arm at rest, L muscles are maintained under 20% compression and T muscles under 30% stretching. Hence, tensional stresses are inherently present in the arm and affect the strain of elastic fibers. Because connective tissue in muscles is used to transmit stress and store elastic energy, we investigated the contribution of elastic fibers to passive forces using step-stretch and sinusoidal length-change protocols. We observed a higher viscoelasticity of L and a higher stiffness of T muscles, in line with their elastic fiber configurations. This suggests that L might be involved in energy storage and damping, while T in posture maintenance and resistance to deformation. The elastic fiber configuration thus supports the specific role of muscles during movement and may contribute to the mechanics, energetic and control of arm motion.
An Adaptive Algorithm for Forest Fire Spread Based on Genetic Algorithm

The spread of forest fire is a complex adaptive system. The spread could be seen as the result of fire agents continuous learning, adaptation and co-ordination. This paper founded an Agent-based model for forest fire spread, modeled the generating of fire spread rules based on Genetic Algorithms. Created the spread rules with effect of wind and topography independently for forest fire, designed the fitness function, and took the genetic operation on the rules, which created new rules. Implemented the adaptive algorithm on Repast S, and used it in the Agent-based model of forest fire spread. The result of models running indicated the adaptive algorithm could improve the adaptive ability of fire agent.
Improving dose calculation accuracy in preclinical radiation experiments using multi-energy element resolved cone-beam CT

Objective. Cone-beam CT (CBCT) in modern pre-clinical small-animal radiation research platforms provides volumetric images for image guidance and experiment planning purposes. In this work, we implemented multi-energy element-resolved (MEER) CBCT using three scans with different kVps on a SmART platform (Precision x-ray Inc.) to determine images of relative electron density (rED) and elemental composition (EC) that are needed for Monte Carlo-based radiation dose calculation. Approach. We performed comprehensive calibration tasks to achieve sufficient accuracy for this quantitative imaging purpose. For geometry calibration, we scanned a ball bearing phantom and used an analytical method together with an optimization approach to derive gantry angle specific geometry parameters. Intensity calibration and correction included the corrections for detector lag, glare, and beam hardening. The corrected CBCT projection images acquired at 30, 40, and 60 kVp in multiple scans were used to reconstruct CBCT images using the Feldkamp–Davis–Kress reconstruction algorithm. After that, an optimization problem was solved to determine images of rED and EC. We demonstrated the effectiveness of our CBCT calibration steps by showing improvements in image quality and successful material decomposition in cases with a small animal CT calibration phantom and a plastinated mouse phantom. Main results. It was found that artifacts induced by geometry inaccuracy, detector lag, glare, and beam hardening were visually reduced. CT number mean errors were reduced from 19% to 5%. In the CT calibration phantom case, median errors in H, O, and Ca fractions for all the inserts were below 1%, 2%, and 4% respectively, and median error in rED was less than 5%. Compared to the standard approach deriving material type and rED via CT number conversion, our approach improved Monte Carlo simulation-based dose calculation accuracy in bone regions. Mean dose error was reduced from 47.5% to 10.9%. Significance. The MEER-CBCT implemented on an existing CBCT system of a small animal irradiation platform achieved accurate material decomposition and significantly improved Monte Carlo dose calculation accuracy.
Urinary catheter management: what neurologists need to know

Patients with neurological disorders often have lower urinary tract dysfunction, manifesting as urinary retention or urinary incontinence, and so commonly use catheters. Neurologists should therefore be aware of the different types of catheters and appliances and their risks, benefits and complications. Clean intermittent self-catheterisation is preferable to an indwelling catheter; however, if this is not possible, then a suprapubic indwelling catheter is preferable to a urethral catheter for long-term management. We review the decision-making process when selecting catheters for neurological patients, the evidence base regarding the different options and how neurologists can recognise and address complications. We also discuss alternatives to catheterisation, such as non-invasive containment products and surgical treatments, and the indications for urological referral.
Overoptimistic Literature and Methodological Biases Favoring Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the Prevention of Psychosis.

1Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK; 2OASIS Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; 3Department of Brain and Behavioral Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; 4Imaging Moodand Anxiety-Related Disorders (IMARD) Group, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Mental Health Research Networking Center (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain; 5Centre for Psychiatric Research and Education, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Disparities in Tumor Mutational Burden, Immunotherapy Use, and Outcomes Based on Genomic Ancestry in Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

PURPOSE In patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (aNSCLC), tumor mutational burden (TMB) may vary by genomic ancestry; however, its impact on treatment outcomes is unclear. This retrospective, observational study describes treatment patterns of patients with aNSCLC by genomic ancestry and electronic health record (EHR)-reported race and/or ethnicity and evaluates differences in TMB, cancer immunotherapy (CIT) access, and treatment outcomes across racial and ancestral groups. METHODS Patients diagnosed with aNSCLC after January 1, 2011, were selected from a real-world deidentified clinicogenomics database and EHR-derived database; continuously enrolled patients were evaluated. Race and/or ethnicity was recorded using variables from the EHR database; genomic ancestry was classified by single-nucleotide polymorphisms on a next-generation sequencing panel. A threshold of 16 mutations per megabase was used to categorize TMB status. RESULTS Of 59,559 patients in the EHR-derived database and 7,548 patients in the clinicogenomics database, 35,016 (58.8%) and 4,392 (58.2%) were continuously enrolled, respectively. CIT use was similar across EHR-reported race groups, ranging from 34.4% to 37.3% for non-Hispanic Asian and non-Hispanic Black patients, respectively. TMB levels varied significantly across ancestry groups (P < .001); patients of African ancestry had the highest median TMB (8.75 mutations per megabase; interquartile range, 4.35-14.79). In patients who had received CIT, high TMB was associated with improved overall survival compared with low TMB (20.89 v 11.83 months; hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.70) across genomic ancestral groups. CONCLUSION These results suggest that equitable access to next-generation sequencing may improve aNSCLC outcome disparities in racially and ancestrally diverse populations.
A new era in HVDC

The authors review the advantages of high-voltage DC transmission, and discuss the benefits that the use of voltage-sourced converters could bring. They start by giving a simple representation of an HVDC interconnection and then discuss the use and benefits of HVDC for bulk power transmission, power transmission via cables, termination between unsynchronised AC systems, parallel AC/DC transmission, and minimising short circuit capacity increases. New power semiconductor devices for HVDC are discussed, in particular, the voltage source converter and its applications in HVDC for rotating machines and reactive power control.