Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The sigma orientation for analytic circle-equivariant elliptic cohomology

We construct a canonical Thom isomorphism in Grojnowski's equivariant elliptic cohomology, for virtual T-oriented T-equivariant spin bundles with vanishing Borel-equivariant second Chern class, which is natural under pull-back of vector bundles and exponential under Whitney sum. It extends in the complex-analytic case the non-equivariant sigma orientation of Hopkins, Strickland, and the author. The construction relates the sigma orientation to the representation theory of loop groups and Looijenga's weighted projective space, and sheds light even on the non-equivariant case. Rigidity theorems of Witten-Bott-Taubes including generalizations by Kefeng Liu follow.
Scale Saliency: Applications in Visual Matching, Tracking and View-Based Object Recognition

In this paper, we introduce a novel technique for image matching and feature-based tracking. The technique is based on the idea of using the Scale-Saliency algorithm to pick a sparse number of ‘interesting’ or ‘salient’ features. Feature vectors for each of the salient regions are generated and used in the matching process. Due to the nature of the sparse representation of feature vectors generated by the technique, sub-image matching is also accomplished. We demonstrate the techniques robustness to geometric transformations in the query image and suggest that the technique would be suitable for view-based object recognition. We also apply the matching technique to the problem of feature tracking across multiple video frames by matching salient regions across frame pairs. We show that our tracking algorithm is able to explicitly extract the 3D motion vector of each salient region during the tracking process, using a single uncalibrated camera. We illustrate the functionality of our tracking algorithm by showing results from tracking a single salient region in near real-time with a live camera input.
Testing for Prudence and Skewness Seeking

Numerous theoretical predictions such as precautionary saving or preventive behavior have been derived for prudent decision makers. Further, prudence can be characterized as downside risk aversion and plays a key role in preference for skewness. We use a simple experimental method to test for prudence and skewness preference in the laboratory and compare the two. To this end, we introduce a novel graphical representation of compound lotteries that is easily accessible to subjects and test it for robustness, using a factorial design. Prudence is observed on the aggregate and individual level. We find that prudence does not boil down to skewness seeking. We further provide some theoretical explanations for this result. This paper was accepted by Peter Wakker, decision analysis.
Inhibition of Coxsackie B Virus Infection by Soluble Forms of Its Receptors: Binding Affinities, Altered Particle Formation, and Competition with Cellular Receptors

ABSTRACT We previously reported that soluble decay-accelerating factor (DAF) and coxsackievirus-adenovirus receptor (CAR) blocked coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) myocarditis in mice, but only soluble CAR blocked CVB3-mediated pancreatitis. Here, we report that the in vitro mechanisms of viral inhibition by these soluble receptors also differ. Soluble DAF inhibited virus infection through the formation of reversible complexes with CVB3, while binding of soluble CAR to CVB induced the formation of altered (A) particles with a resultant irreversible loss of infectivity. A-particle formation was characterized by loss of VP4 from the virions and required incubation of CVB3-CAR complexes at 37°C. Dimeric soluble DAF (DAF-Fc) was found to be 125-fold-more effective at inhibiting CVB3 than monomeric DAF, which corresponded to a 100-fold increase in binding affinity as determined by surface plasmon resonance analysis. Soluble CAR and soluble dimeric CAR (CAR-Fc) bound to CVB3 with 5,000- and 10,000-fold-higher affinities than the equivalent forms of DAF. While DAF-Fc was 125-fold-more effective at inhibiting virus than monomeric DAF, complement regulation by DAF-Fc was decreased 4 fold. Therefore, while the virus binding was a cooperative event, complement regulation was hindered by the molecular orientation of DAF-Fc, indicating that the regions responsible for complement regulation and virus binding do not completely overlap. Relative contributions of CVB binding affinity, receptor binding footprint on the virus capsid, and induction of capsid conformation alterations for the ability of cellular DAF and CAR to act as receptors are discussed.
Vascular dendritic cells as gatekeepers of lipid accumulation within nascent atherosclerotic plaques.

See related articles, pages 383–390 Recent studies, including a series of articles coauthored by Jongstra-Bilen and Cybulsky, have brought fresh and exciting insight to the earliest stages of atherosclerotic plaque formation in mouse models of the disease. Capturing outstanding images of the lesser curvature of the murine aorta, a site highly prone to atherosclerotic plaque development, the Cybulsky laboratory revealed in 2006 that cells bearing markers of dendritic cells (DCs), including CD11c (αx integrin), take up residence just beneath the endothelium in the lesser curvature of mice.1 Possible counterparts of these DCs have also been observed in lesion-prone arterial sites of rabbits and humans.2 The initial appearance of murine DCs in the lesser curvature depends on endothelium activated in response to disturbed blood flow1,3 and is independent of plasma cholesterol status, because it occurs in standard mouse strains that are not hypercholesterolemic (Figure). 1 These DCs were recently visualized in the CD11c-YFP mouse and shown to possess capacity for potent antigen presentation to T cells.4 Although they sit primarily beneath the endothelial lining, vascular DCs occasionally extend projections into the bloodstream (Figure). 4 Even in the absence of hypercholesterolemia, the density of DCs within the lesser curvature of mice varies according to strain and positively correlates with the tendency of the strains to develop fulminant atherosclerosis under conditions of hypercholesterolemia.1 Moreover, the density of this population rapidly expands in the lesser curvature of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)−/− mice fed a high cholesterol diet for only a few days.1,5 Figure. Role of dendritic cells in atherosclerotic plaque development and progression. CD11c+ DCs accumulate in the subintima of plaque-prone regions in the arterial tree, even in the absence of hypercholesterolemia in a manner that is partially dependent on vascular cell …
Resolved, expanding jets in the Galactic black hole candidate XTE J1908+094

Black hole X-ray binaries undergo occasional outbursts caused by changing inner accretion flows. Here we report high angular resolution radio observations of the 2013 outburst of the black hole candidate X-ray binary system XTE J1908+094, using data from the Very Long Baseline Array and European VLBI Network. We show that following a hard-to-soft state transition, we detect moving jet knots that appear asymmetric in morphology and brightness, and expand to become laterally resolved as they move away from the core, along an axis aligned approximately -11. east of north. We initially see only the southern component, whose evolution gives rise to a 15-mJy radio flare and generates the observed radio polarization. This fades and becomes resolved out after 4 days, after which a second component appears to the north, moving in the opposite direction. From the timing of the appearance of the knots relative to the X-ray state transition, a 90. swing of the inferred magnetic field orientation, the asymmetric appearance of the knots, their complex and evolving morphology, and their low speeds, we interpret the knots as working surfaces where the jets impact the surrounding medium. This would imply a substantially denser environment surrounding XTE J1908+094 than has been inferred to exist around the microquasar sources GRS 1915+105 and GRO J1655-40.
Modeling of scanning laser polarimetry images of the human retina for progression detection of glaucoma

The development of methods to detect slowly progressing diseases is often hampered by the time-consuming acquisition of a sufficiently large data set. In this paper, a method is presented to model the change in images acquired by scanning laser polarimetry, for the detection of glaucomatous progression. The model is based on image series of 23 healthy eyes and incorporates colored noise, incomplete cornea compensation and masking by the retinal blood vessels. Additionally, two methods for detecting progression, taking either one or two follow-up visits into account, are discussed and tested on these simulated images. Both methods are based on Student's t-tests, morphological operations and anisotropic filtering. The images simulated by the model are visually pleasing, show corresponding statistical properties to the real images and are used to optimize the detection methods. The results show that detecting progression based on two follow-up visits greatly improves the sensitivity without adversely affecting the specificity.
The Origins of Extraversion: Joint Effects of Facultative Calibration and Genetic Polymorphism

The origins of variation in extraversion are largely mysterious. Recent theories and some findings suggest that personality variation can be orchestrated by specific genetic polymorphisms. Few studies, however, have examined an alternative hypothesis that personality traits are facultatively calibrated to variations in other phenotypic features, and none have considered how these distinct processes may interact in personality determination. Since physical strength and physical attractiveness likely predicted the reproductive payoffs of extraverted behavioral strategies over most of human history, it was theorized that extraversion is calibrated to variation in these characteristics. Confirming these predicted patterns, strength and attractiveness together explained a surprisingly large fraction of variance in extraversion across two studies— effects that were independent of variance explained by an androgen receptor gene polymorphism. These novel findings initially support an integrative model wherein facultative calibration and specific genetic polymorphisms operate in concert to determine personality variation.
A Deeply-Supervised Deconvolutional Network for Horizon Line Detection

Automatic skyline detection from mountain pictures is an important task in many applications, such as web image retrieval, augmented reality and autonomous robot navigation. Recent works addressing the problem of Horizon Line Detection (HLD) demonstrated that learning-based boundary detection techniques are more accurate than traditional filtering methods. In this paper we introduce a novel approach for skyline detection, which adheres to a learning-based paradigm and exploits the representation power of deep architectures to improve the horizon line detection accuracy. Differently from previous works, we explore a novel deconvolutional architecture, which introduces intermediate levels of supervision to support the learning process. Our experiments, conducted on a publicly available dataset, confirm that the proposed method outperforms previous learning-based HLD techniques by reducing the number of spurious edge pixels.
Analysis of genetic and genotype × environment interaction effects for agronomic traits of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in salt tolerance.

A diallel cross experiment of 4 rice (Oryza sativa L.) female and 6 male varieties was conducted to study the genetic effects and their interaction with salt-stress condition of 7 agronomic traits in normal and salt-stressed planting conditions. The panicle length (PL), effective number of panicles per plant (ENP), plumped number of grains per panicles (PNG), total number of grains per panicles (TNG), 1000-grain weight (W), seed setting ratio (SSR) and grain weight per plant (PGW), were investigated. A genetic model including additive effect, dominance effect and their interaction effects with environment (ADE) was employed for analysis of data. It was observed that significant (p<0.05) additive effects, dominance effects, additive × environment interaction effects and dominance × environment interaction effects exist for most of the agronomic traits of rice. In addition, significant (p<0.05) narrow sense heritabilities of ENP, PNG, TNG, W and PGW were found, indicating that the genetic performance of these traits are greatly affected by salt stress condition. A significant (p<0.05) negative correlations in the additive effects and additive × environment interaction effects detected between ENP and PNG suggesting that selection on increasing of ENP can reduce PNG. In addition, there exist a highly significant (p<0.01) positive dominance correlation among the dominance effects of the ENP, PNG and TNG, which shows that it is possible to breed salt-tolerant rice variety by coordinating large panicle and multi-panicle in utilization of heterosis.
Effects of Iron and Temperature on Expression of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa tolQRA Genes: Role of the Ferric Uptake Regulator

ABSTRACT The tolQRA genes have been recently identified inPseudomonas aeruginosa PAO. In this study, we examined the effect of iron and temperature on tolQRA expression. A promoterless lacZ gene was introduced downstream of plasmid-encoded tolQ and tolA, and expression was monitored by measuring β-galactosidase activity of cultures. Addition of 25 μM FeCl3 to the culture medium reduced tolQRA expression by 50 to 60% in PAO but by only 25% in the fur mutant PAO A4. Northern hybridization analysis revealed that iron regulation occurs at the level of transcription and involves the P. aeruginosaferric uptake regulator (Fur). Primer extension analysis was used to identify the proposed transcriptional start site oftolA. Although a putative Fur box was identified 20 bp upstream of the proposed start site, purified Fur did not bind to thetolA or tolQR promoter regions in an in vitro gel retardation assay. Therefore, iron regulation of thetol genes appears to involve an intermediate regulatory gene. Expression of tolQR andtolA was optimal at 37°C and was reduced by 40 to 50% when cultures were grown at either 42 or 25°C. Growth in high-iron medium at 25°C further reduced tolQR andtolA expression.
Dioxin-induced increase in leukotriene B4 biosynthesis through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and its relevance to hepatotoxicity owing to neutrophil infiltration

Dioxin and related chemicals alter the expression of a number of genes by activating the aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AHR) to produce a variety of disorders including hepatotoxicity. However, it remains largely unknown how these changes in gene expression are linked to toxicity. To address this issue, we initially examined the effect of 2,3,7,8-tetrachrolodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), a most toxic dioxin, on the hepatic and serum metabolome in male pubertal rats and found that TCDD causes many changes in the level of fatty acids, bile acids, amino acids, and their metabolites. Among these findings was the discovery that TCDD increases the content of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), an inducer of inflammation due to the activation of leukocytes, in the liver of rats and mice. Further analyses suggested that an increase in LTB4 comes from a dual mechanism consisting of an induction of arachidonate lipoxygenase-5, a rate-limiting enzyme in LTB4 synthesis, and the down-regulation of LTC4 synthase, an enzyme that converts LTA4 to LTC4. The above changes required AHR activation, because the same was not observed in AHR knock-out rats. In agreement with LTB4 accumulation, TCDD caused the marked infiltration of neutrophils into the liver. However, deleting LTB4 receptors (BLT1) blocked this effect. A TCDD-produced increase in the mRNA expression of inflammatory markers, including tumor-necrosis factor and hepatic damage, was also suppressed in BLT1-null mice. The above observations focusing on metabolomic changes provide novel evidence that TCDD accumulates LTB4 in the liver by an AHR-dependent induction of LTB4 biosynthesis to cause hepatotoxicity through neutrophil activation.
Brain Anatomical Network and Intelligence

Intuitively, higher intelligence might be assumed to correspond to more efficient information transfer in the brain, but no direct evidence has been reported from the perspective of brain networks. In this study, we performed extensive analyses to test the hypothesis that individual differences in intelligence are associated with brain structural organization, and in particular that higher scores on intelligence tests are related to greater global efficiency of the brain anatomical network. We constructed binary and weighted brain anatomical networks in each of 79 healthy young adults utilizing diffusion tensor tractography and calculated topological properties of the networks using a graph theoretical method. Based on their IQ test scores, all subjects were divided into general and high intelligence groups and significantly higher global efficiencies were found in the networks of the latter group. Moreover, we showed significant correlations between IQ scores and network properties across all subjects while controlling for age and gender. Specifically, higher intelligence scores corresponded to a shorter characteristic path length and a higher global efficiency of the networks, indicating a more efficient parallel information transfer in the brain. The results were consistently observed not only in the binary but also in the weighted networks, which together provide convergent evidence for our hypothesis. Our findings suggest that the efficiency of brain structural organization may be an important biological basis for intelligence.
Rhythm classes and speech perception

This study indirectly tests whether American, Greek and Korean listeners can classify low-pass filtered utterances of English, German, Greek, Italian, Korean and Spanish into rhythm classes, by examining how they rate each utterance’s rhythm in comparison to a series of non-speech trochees. Such classification was difficult for all groups of listeners and did not support the rhythmic classification of the languages of the stimuli, casting doubt on the impressionistic basis of the rhythm class hypothesis.
DURATION AND SEQUENCE OF CARBONATE CRYSTALLIZATION ON THE ORGUEIL PROTOLITH: Mn-Cr SYSTEMATICS OF THEIR EVOLUTION IN O AND C ISOTOPIC

PROTOLITH: Mn-Cr SYSTEMATICS OF THEIR EVOLUTION IN O AND C ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION. M. Petitat, K. McKeegan, M. Gounelle, S. Mostefaoui, Y. Marrocchi, A. Meibom, L.A. Leshin. Laboratoire d’Étude de la Matière Extraterrestre, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier 75005 Paris, France; Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567; Office of the Director, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States. E-mail: mpetitat@mnhn.fr.
Congenital long QT syndromes and Brugada syndrome: the arrhythmogenic ion channel disorders

Congenital long QT syndromes (LQTS) and Brugada syndrome are hereditary disorders of cardiac ion channels which result in life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death in patients with anatomically normal hearts. The pathogenesis of these dramatic events has been partially elucidated with the identification of the individual ion channels involved and understanding of the effect of some disease-causing mutations on the membrane currents and action potential. The clinical spectrum of congenital LQTS is broader than previously thought and involves certain patients previously diagnosed with idiosyncratic drug-induced proarrhythmia. The initial treatment for congenital LQTS patients involves β-blockers in most cases. Indications for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or pace-maker (PM) implantation in selected individuals continue to evolve.
Interplay Between Human Adipocytes and T Lymphocytes in Obesity: CCL20 as an Adipochemokine and T Lymphocytes as Lipogenic Modulators

Objective—Adipose tissue (AT) plays a major role in the low-grade inflammatory state associated with obesity. The aim of the present study was to characterize the human AT lymphocytes (ATLs) and to analyze their interactions with adipocytes. Methods and Results—Human ATL subsets were characterized by flow cytometry in subcutaneous ATs from 92 individuals with body mass index (BMI) ranging from 19 to 43 kg/m2 and in paired biopsies of subcutaneous and visceral AT from 45 class II/III obese patients. CD3+ ATLs were composed of effector and memory CD4+ helper and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. The number of ATLs correlated positively with BMI and was higher in visceral than subcutaneous AT. Mature adipocytes stimulated the migration of ATLs and released the chemokine CCL20, the receptor of which (CCR6) was expressed in ATLs. The expression of adipocyte CCL20 was positively correlated with BMI and increased in visceral compared to subcutaneous adipocytes. ATLs expressed inflammatory markers and released interferon gamma (IFNγ). Progenitor and adipocyte treatment with ATL-conditioned media reduced the insulin-mediated upregulation of lipogenic enzymes, an effect involving IFNγ. Conclusions—Therefore, crosstalk occurs between adipocytes and lymphocytes within human AT involving T cell chemoattraction by adipocytes and modulation of lipogenesis by ATLs.
Comparing Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics in Perennial Grasses and Shrubs in a Saline-Alkaline Arid Region, Northwestern China

Background Although semi-arid and arid regions account for about 40% of terrestrial surface of the Earth and contain approximately 10% of the global soil organic carbon stock, our understanding of soil organic carbon dynamics in these regions is limited. Methodology/Principal Findings A field experiment was conducted to compare soil organic carbon dynamics between a perennial grass community dominated by Cleistogenes squarrosa and an adjacent shrub community co-dominated by Reaumuria soongorica and Haloxylon ammodendron, two typical plant life forms in arid ecosystems of saline-alkaline arid regions in northwestern China during the growing season 2010. We found that both fine root biomass and necromass in two life forms varied greatly during the growing season. Annual fine root production in the perennial grasses was 45.6% significantly higher than in the shrubs, and fine root turnover rates were 2.52 and 2.17 yr−1 for the perennial grasses and the shrubs, respectively. Floor mass was significantly higher in the perennial grasses than in the shrubs due to the decomposition rate of leaf litter in the perennial grasses was 61.8% lower than in the shrubs even though no significance was detected in litterfall production. Soil microbial biomass and activity demonstrated a strong seasonal variation with larger values in May and September and minimum values in the dry month of July. Observed higher soil organic carbon stocks in the perennial grasses (1.32 Kg C m−2) than in the shrubs (1.12 Kg C m−2) might be attributed to both greater inputs of poor quality litter that is relatively resistant to decay and the lower ability of microorganism to decompose these organic matter. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that the perennial grasses might accumulate more soil organic carbon with time than the shrubs because of larger amounts of inputs from litter and slower return of carbon through decomposition.