Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The secreted Frizzled-related protein Sizzled functions as a negative feedback regulator of extreme ventral mesoderm

The prevailing model of dorsal ventral patterning of the amphibian embryo predicts that the prospective mesoderm is regionalized at gastrulation in response to a gradient of signals. This gradient is established by diffusible BMP and Wnt inhibitors secreted dorsally in the Spemann organizer. An interesting question is whether ventrolateral tissue passively reads graded levels of ventralizing signals, or whether local self-organizing regulatory circuits may exist on the ventral side to control cell behavior and differentiation at a distance from the Organizer. We provide evidence that sizzled, a secreted Frizzled-related protein expressed ventrally during and after gastrulation, functions in a negative feedback loop that limits allocation of mesodermal cells to the extreme ventral fate, with direct consequences for morphogenesis and formation of the blood islands. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of Sizzled protein results in expansion of ventral posterior mesoderm and the ventral blood islands, indicating that this negative regulation is required for proper patterning of the ventral mesoderm. The biochemical activity of sizzled is apparently very different from that of other secreted Frizzled-related proteins, and does not involve inhibition of Wnt8. Our data are consistent with the existence of some limited self-organizing properties of the extreme ventral mesoderm.
Mast cells contribute to altered vascular reactivity and ischemia-reperfusion injury following cerium oxide nanoparticle instillation

Abstract Cerium oxide (CeO2) represents an important nanomaterial with wide ranging applications. However, little is known regarding how CeO2 exposure may influence pulmonary or systemic inflammation. Furthermore, how mast cells would influence inflammatory responses to a nanoparticle exposure is unknown. We thus compared pulmonary and cardiovascular responses between C57BL/6 and B6.Cg-KitW-sh mast cell deficient mice following CeO2 nanoparticle instillation. C57BL/6 mice instilled with CeO2 exhibited mild pulmonary inflammation. However, B6.Cg-KitW-sh mice did not display a similar degree of inflammation following CeO2 instillation. Moreover, C57BL/6 mice instilled with CeO2 exhibited altered aortic vascular responses to adenosine and an increase in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury which was absent in B6.Cg-KitW-sh mice. In vitro CeO2 exposure resulted in increased production of PGD2, TNF-α, IL-6 and osteopontin by cultured mast cells. These findings demonstrate that CeO2 nanoparticles activate mast cells contributing to pulmonary inflammation, impairment of vascular relaxation and exacerbation of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury.
The 100th: An appealing new species of Dendropsophus (Amphibia: Anura: Hylidae) from northeastern Brazil

We describe a new species of the Dendropsophus leucophyllatus Group from the Atlantic Forest of the southern region of State of Bahia, Brazil. It can be distinguished from all species of the D. leucophyllatus Group on the basis of morphological characters (especially its unique dorsal pattern and snout in dorsal view), advertisement calls and divergence in mitochondrial DNA gene sequences. The inclusion of D. anceps on the group remains controversial but our phylogenetic analyses do not recover the new species as sister to syntopic species of the D. leucophyllatus Group (with or without D. anceps). These results also highlight the palimpsest that is past relation between the Atlantic and Amazon forests.
4. Mechanistic and Other Relevant Data 4.1 Toxicokinetics 4.1.1 General Considerations

The toxicokinetics of inhaled compounds is defined by exposure, absorption of the material and its local metabolites, the tissue–plasma concentration–time curve, distribution within the body, and overall metabolism and excretion. Under controlled conditions of animal studies and human clinical trials, total exposures and estimated doses of individual compounds or simple mixtures of aerosols, gases and PM can readily be defined. However, methods for defining the toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic properties of mixtures at this time are ill equipped to deal with exposures to atmospheres that contain thousands of individual components at varying concentrations. In general, attempts have been made to model and define empirically the disposition of only very simple mixtures. For example, the most complex of toxicokinetic data and models generated have been with refined gasoline and seven to eight primary chemical components (Dennison et al., 2003, 2004). The caveat to these studies is that, unlike the variety of chemical components that are contained within combustion-derived materials, many liquid-and vapour-phase gasoline components have similar structure and generally similar pathways of absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion. The definition of the toxicokinetics of anthropogenic indoor air pollutants such as those from wood smoke and coal combustion emissions are complicated by two main factors: (a) the diversity and concentration of components and (b) the phase distribution of components. (a) Diversity and concentration of components Combustion emissions are composed of hundreds to thousands of individual components that can overlap in many cases yet be discrete in others, depending on the material burned (coal versus wood versus dung), its subtype (species of wood, type of coal), its application (open fire, stove, pit, cooking, heating) and the burn rate (hot fire/smoldering fire). The sheer number of components, many in very small quantities, makes an empirical definition of the toxicokinetics of individual compounds or classes of compounds extremely challenging. In addition, up to 85% of the PM within some complex mixtures remains ill-defined which makes assessments of these species impossible (McDonald et al., 2006). PAHs in hardwood-smoke emissions may be used to highlight this issue. Combined PAHs (58 individual compounds) from the vapour-phase semivolatile organic compounds of diluted whole hardwood smoke generated from a wood stove operated over a three-phase burn cycle and delivered to an animal exposure chamber system totalled ~11 µg/m 3
Use of Body Mass Index and Percentage Overweight Cutoffs to Screen Japanese Children and Adolescents for Obesity-Related Risk Factors

Background Cutoffs based on percentage overweight (POW) are used for screening students in Japan; however, body mass index (BMI) is more common in the rest of the world. To screen for risk factors related to obesity among Japanese primary and secondary school students, we compared fasting and postprandial values, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the POW and BMI criteria. Methods The subjects were students aged 10 and 13 years living in Shunan City, Japan between 2006 and 2008 (n = 6566). POW and International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) BMI criteria were used to screen for obesity-related risk factors. The lower (20%, 18-year-old equivalent: 25 kg/m2) and higher (50%, 18-year-old equivalent: 30 kg/m2) cutoffs were examined, and ROC curves were drawn. Results Fasting cholesterol levels were higher than postprandial levels. The prevalences of overweight/obesity were 6.6% to 10.0% using the lower cutoff and 0.6% to 5.0% using the higher cutoff. Among overweight subjects under fasting conditions, dyslipidemia was present in 12% to 52%, hypertriglyceridemia in 29% to 54%, hyperglycemia in 11% to 21%, and hypertension in 15% to 40%. Although the use of the lower and higher POW cutoffs resulted in lower sensitivity and the higher specificity, the POW and BMI ROC curves largely overlapped. However, for girls aged 10 years, the POW curve for ≥3 risks factors was lower than that of the latter (P = 0.013). Conclusions For Japanese aged 10 and 13 years, both BMI and POW are useful for risk factor screening. However, subjects may be misclassified with dyscholesterolemia if postprandial blood samples are used.
Foreign Influence and Welfare

How do foreign interests in uence the policy determination process? What are the welfare implications of such foreign in uence? In this paper we develop a model of foreign in uence and apply it to the study of optimal tari s. We develop a twocountry voting model of electoral competition, where we allow the incumbent party in each country to take costly actions that probabilistically a ect the electoral outcome in the other country. We show that policies end up maximizing a weighted sum of domestic and foreign welfare, and we study the determinants of this weight. We show that although foreign in uence is zero in equilibrium, its \threat" may be welfareenhancing from the point of view of aggregate world welfare. This is because foreign in uence helps alleviate externalities arising from cross-border e ects of policies. The threat of foreign in uence can however prove harmful in the presence of large imbalances in in uence power across countries. We apply our model of foreign in uence to the study of optimal trade policy. We derive a modi ed formula for the optimal import tari and show that a country's import tari is more distorted whenever the in uenced country is small relative to the in uencing country and whenever natural trade barriers between the two countries are small. We thank Daron Acemoglu, Maitreesh Ghatak, Elhanan Helpman, Torsten Persson, Andrea Prat and seminar participants at the NBER and Columbia University for helpful comments, and Giovanni Maggi for a particularly insightful discussion at the 2008 AEA Meetings. We are grateful to Eduardo Morales for superb research assistance.
Hydrogels in Biology and Medicine: From Molecular Principles to Bionanotechnology

Hydrophilic polymers are the center of research emphasis in nanotechnology because of their perceived “intelligence”. They can be used as thin films, scaffolds, or nanoparticles in a wide range of biomedical and biological applications. Here we highlight recent developments in engineering uncrosslinked and crosslinked hydrophilic polymers for these applications. Natural, biohybrid, and synthetic hydrophilic polymers and hydrogels are analyzed and their thermodynamic responses are discussed. In addition, examples of the use of hydrogels for various therapeutic applications are given. We show how such systems' intelligent behavior can be used in sensors, microarrays, and imaging. Finally, we outline challenges for the future in integrating hydrogels into biomedical applications.
Subsistence as a Social Right: A Political Ideal for Socialism?

The internal collapse of most Communist regimes in 1989 has hastened the urgency for democratic socialists to not just state or assume their difference from state socialism, but to re-form their critique of capitalism so that it does not, even implicitly, suggest that state centralism might be a viable alternative to the "anarchy" of the capitalist market. Also, with the rise of neo-liberal critiques of social welfare in capitalist states, social democratic parties have been subject to a constant pressure toward the centre of the political spectrum. They seem limited to arguing that globalization need not necessarily mean a race toward the lowest common denominator and that social welfare policies are "good for business. " Rare indeed are the instances in which social democratic parties have put proposals for deep-seated economic and social reform before the population. Finally, while political parties and institutions, including those of the Left, have suffered from de-legitimation and charges of irrelevance, social movements have managed to put new issues in front of the public, and to keep alive the spirit of social criticism.
Social inequalities in antidepressant treatment and mortality: a longitudinal register study

Background. Despite an increased prevalence of depression among people of low socio-economic position, it remains unclear whether their treatment with antidepressants appropriately matches their increased need compared with people from more affluent backgrounds. This study examined socio-economic differences in antidepressant prescriptions and mortality related to depressive disorders. Method. A longitudinal register study of 17947 male and 47458 female local government employees with linked information on socio-economic indicators (education and occupational status) and data on antidepressant use and mortality associated with depressive disorder (suicide, alcohol-related deaths) during the years 1994 to 2000. Results. In men, antidepressant treatment was less common among low educational groups than among high educational groups (OR 0·87, 95% CI 0·76–0·99) and a corresponding difference was seen between occupational statuses (OR for manual v. upper non-manual 0·72, 95% CI 0·62–0·84). In women, socio-economic position was not associated with antidepressant use. However, both among the men and women, employees with low socio-economic position had increased risk for mental-health-related mortality, as indicated by suicides, deaths from alcohol-related causes, and all-cause mortality. Conclusions. These data suggest a mismatch in the treatment of depression relative to apparent clinical need, with the lowest levels of treatment concentrated in the lower socio-economic groups, despite evidence of their increased prevalence of depression and suicide.
High‐resolution backprojection at regional distance: Application to the Haiti M7.0 earthquake and comparisons with finite source studies

A catastrophic M_w7 earthquake ruptured on 12 January 2010 on a complex fault system near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Offshore rupture is suggested by aftershock locations and marine geophysics studies, but its extent remains difficult to define using geodetic and teleseismic observations. Here we perform the multitaper multiple signal classification (MUSIC) analysis, a high-resolution array technique, at regional distance with recordings from the Venezuela National Seismic Network to resolve high-frequency (about 0.4 Hz) aspects of the earthquake process. Our results indicate westward rupture with two subevents, roughly 35 km apart. In comparison, a lower-frequency finite source inversion with fault geometry based on new geologic and aftershock data shows two slip patches with centroids 21 km apart. Apparent source time functions from USArray further constrain the intersubevent time delay, implying a rupture speed of 3.3 km/s. The tips of the slip zones coincide with subevents imaged by backprojections. The different subevent locations found by backprojection and source inversion suggest spatial complementarity between high- and low-frequency source radiation consistent with high-frequency radiation originating from rupture arrest phases at the edges of main slip areas. The centroid moment tensor (CMT) solution and a geodetic-only inversion have similar moment, indicating most of the moment released is captured by geodetic observations and no additional rupture is required beyond where it is imaged in our preferred model. Our results demonstrate the contribution of backprojections of regional seismic array data for earthquakes down to M ≈ 7, especially when incomplete coverage of seismic and geodetic data implies large uncertainties in source inversions.
An Identity-Based Key Management Framework for Personal Networks

Personal networks and PN federations are new networking paradigms that merge concepts from ad hoc, P2P and wireless networks, built around user's needs. Even though they are a promise of a practical achievement of ubiquitous computing, managing security associations in these frameworks proves to be a challenge. We present in this paper a security architecture, including a uniform personal namespace using crypto-based identifiers and a key management scheme based on identity-based cryptography. We also provide an evaluation of our scheme, in terms of computation complexity, communication cost and security.
1/ $f$  Noise Characteristics of MoS2 Thin-Film Transistors: Comparison of Single and Multilayer Structures

We report on the transport and low-frequency noise measurements of MoS2 thin-film transistors (TFTs) with thin (2-3 atomic layers) and thick (15-18 atomic layers) channels. The back-gated transistors made with the relatively thick MoS2 channels have advantages of the higher electron mobility and lower noise level. The normalized noise spectral density of the low-frequency 1/f noise in thick MoS2 transistors is of the same level as that in graphene. The MoS2 transistors with the atomically thin channels have substantially higher noise levels. It was established that, unlike in graphene devices, the noise characteristics of MoS2 transistors with thick channels (15-18 atomic planes) could be described by the McWhorter model. Our results indicate that the channel thickness optimization is crucial for practical applications of MoS2 TFTs.
Heart rate analysis with NevroEkg

NevroEkg is a computer application for analysis of ECG and related bio-signals, such as breathing and blood pressure. It was made in collaboration between computer scientists, engineers and neurocardiologists. Recently, it has been modified to also support the unconventional measurements of differential ECG, made on wireless wearable gadgets. These wearable gadgets measure ECG a bit differently - with lower resolution, lower sampling frequency, and more noise. These features require modified and additional processing of the ECG signal, which is not required for standard 12-channel ECGs. A novel algorithm is proposed to help the human operator handle beat-detection in novel ECG measurements.
Metrics and Connections for Rigid-Body Kinematics

The set of rigid-body motions forms a Lie group called SE(3), the special Euclidean group in three dimensions. In this paper, we investigate possilble choices of Riemannian metrics and affine connections on SE(3) for applications to kinematic analysis and robot-trajectory planning. In the first part of the paper, we study metrics whose geodesics are screw motions. We prove that no Riemannian metrics call have such geodesics, and we show that the metrics whose geodesics are screw motions form a two-parameter family of semi-Riemannan metrics. In the second part of the paper, we investigate affine connections which through the covariant derivative give the correct expression for the acceleration of a rigid body. We prove that there is a unique symmetric connection with this property. Furthermore, we show that there is a family of Riemannian metrics that are compatible with such a connection. These metrics are products of the bi-invariant metric on the group of rotations and a positive-definite constant metric on the group of translations.
Primary psychiatric conditions associated with cognitive impairment Delirium Prevalence and severity in HIV infection and AIDS

(unported, v3.0) License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. Permissions beyond the scope of the License are administered by Dove Medical Press Limited. Information on how to request permission may be found at: http://www.dovepress. com/permissions.php HIV/AIDS – Research and Palliative Care 2015:7 35–47 HIV/AIDS – Research and Palliative Care Dovepress
Gaze Direction Modulates the Relation between Neural Responses to Faces and Visual Awareness

Gaze direction and especially direct gaze is a powerful nonverbal cue that plays an important role in social interactions. Here we studied the neural mechanisms underlying the privileged access of direct gaze to visual awareness. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy human volunteers who were exposed to faces with direct or averted gaze under continuous flash suppression, thereby manipulating their awareness of the faces. A gaze processing network comprising fusiform face area (FFA), superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, and intraparietal sulcus showed overall reduced neural responses when participants reported to be unaware of the faces. Interestingly, direct gaze elicited greater responses than averted gaze when participants were aware of the faces, but smaller responses when they were unaware. Additional between-subject correlation and single-trial analyses indicated that this pattern of results was due to a modulation of the relationship between neural responses and awareness by gaze direction: with increasing neural activation in the FFA, direct-gaze faces entered awareness more readily than averted-gaze faces. These findings suggest that for direct gaze, lower levels of neural activity are sufficient to give rise to awareness than for averted gaze, thus providing a neural basis for privileged access of direct gaze to awareness. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Another person's eye gaze directed at oneself is a powerful social signal acting as a catalyst for further communication. Here, we studied the neural mechanisms underlying the prioritized access of direct gaze to visual awareness in healthy human volunteers and show that with increasing neural activation, direct-gaze faces enter awareness more readily than averted-gaze faces. This suggests that for a socially highly relevant cue like direct gaze, lower levels of neural activity are sufficient to give rise to awareness compared with averted gaze, possibly because the human brain is attuned to the efficient neural processing of direct gaze due to the biological importance of eye contact for social interactions.
The Tax-Inducible Actin-Bundling Protein Fascin Is Crucial for Release and Cell-to-Cell Transmission of Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1)

The delta-retrovirus Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) preferentially infects CD4+ T-cells via cell-to-cell transmission. Viruses are transmitted by polarized budding and by transfer of viral biofilms at the virological synapse (VS). Formation of the VS requires the viral Tax protein and polarization of the host cytoskeleton, however, molecular mechanisms of HTLV-1 cell-to-cell transmission remain incompletely understood. Recently, we could show Tax-dependent upregulation of the actin-bundling protein Fascin (FSCN-1) in HTLV-1-infected T-cells. Here, we report that Fascin contributes to HTLV-1 transmission. Using single-cycle replication-dependent HTLV-1 reporter vectors, we found that repression of endogenous Fascin by short hairpin RNAs and by Fascin-specific nanobodies impaired gag p19 release and cell-to-cell transmission in 293T cells. In Jurkat T-cells, Tax-induced Fascin expression enhanced virus release and Fascin-dependently augmented cell-to-cell transmission to Raji/CD4+ B-cells. Repression of Fascin in HTLV-1-infected T-cells diminished virus release and gag p19 transfer to co-cultured T-cells. Spotting the mechanism, flow cytometry and automatic image analysis showed that Tax-induced T-cell conjugate formation occurred Fascin-independently. However, adhesion of HTLV-1-infected MT-2 cells in co-culture with Jurkat T-cells was reduced upon knockdown of Fascin, suggesting that Fascin contributes to dissemination of infected T-cells. Imaging of chronically infected MS-9 T-cells in co-culture with Jurkat T-cells revealed that Fascin’s localization at tight cell-cell contacts is accompanied by gag polarization suggesting that Fascin directly affects the distribution of gag to budding sites, and therefore, indirectly viral transmission. In detail, we found gag clusters that are interspersed with Fascin clusters, suggesting that Fascin makes room for gag in viral biofilms. Moreover, we observed short, Fascin-containing membrane extensions surrounding gag clusters and clutching uninfected T-cells. Finally, we detected Fascin and gag in long-distance cellular protrusions. Taken together, we show for the first time that HTLV-1 usurps the host cell factor Fascin to foster virus release and cell-to-cell transmission.