Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between C reactive protein and coronary heart disease: mendelian randomisation analysis based on individual participant data

Objective To use genetic variants as unconfounded proxies of C reactive protein concentration to study its causal role in coronary heart disease. Design Mendelian randomisation meta-analysis of individual participant data from 47 epidemiological studies in 15 countries. Participants 194 418 participants, including 46 557 patients with prevalent or incident coronary heart disease. Information was available on four CRP gene tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs3093077, rs1205, rs1130864, rs1800947), concentration of C reactive protein, and levels of other risk factors. Main outcome measures Risk ratios for coronary heart disease associated with genetically raised C reactive protein versus risk ratios with equivalent differences in C reactive protein concentration itself, adjusted for conventional risk factors and variability in risk factor levels within individuals. Results CRP variants were each associated with up to 30% per allele difference in concentration of C reactive protein (P<10−34) and were unrelated to other risk factors. Risk ratios for coronary heart disease per additional copy of an allele associated with raised C reactive protein were 0.93 (95% confidence interval 0.87 to 1.00) for rs3093077; 1.00 (0.98 to 1.02) for rs1205; 0.98 (0.96 to 1.00) for rs1130864; and 0.99 (0.94 to 1.03) for rs1800947. In a combined analysis, the risk ratio for coronary heart disease was 1.00 (0.90 to 1.13) per 1 SD higher genetically raised natural log (ln) concentration of C reactive protein. The genetic findings were discordant with the risk ratio observed for coronary heart disease of 1.33 (1.23 to 1.43) per 1 SD higher circulating ln concentration of C reactive protein in prospective studies (P=0.001 for difference). Conclusion Human genetic data indicate that C reactive protein concentration itself is unlikely to be even a modest causal factor in coronary heart disease.
Minimal cut sets in a metabolic network are elementary modes in a dual network

MOTIVATION Elementary modes (EMs) and minimal cut sets (MCSs) provide important techniques for metabolic network modeling. Whereas EMs describe minimal subnetworks that can function in steady state, MCSs are sets of reactions whose removal will disable certain network functions. Effective algorithms were developed for EM computation while calculation of MCSs is typically addressed by indirect methods requiring the computation of EMs as initial step. RESULTS In this contribution, we provide a method that determines MCSs directly without calculating the EMs. We introduce a duality framework for metabolic networks where the enumeration of MCSs in the original network is reduced to identifying the EMs in a dual network. As a further extension, we propose a generalization of MCSs in metabolic networks by allowing the combination of inhomogeneous constraints on reaction rates. This framework provides a promising tool to open the concept of EMs and MCSs to a wider class of applications. CONTACT utz-uwe.haus@math.ethz. ch; klamt@mpi-magdeburg.mpg. de SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
High Diversity of Genes for Nonhost Resistance of Barley to Heterologous Rust Fungi

Inheritance studies on the nonhost resistance of plants would normally require interspecific crosses that suffer from sterility and abnormal segregation. Therefore, we developed the barley–Puccinia rust model system to study, using forward genetics, the specificity, number, and diversity of genes involved in nonhost resistance. We developed two mapping populations by crossing the line SusPtrit, with exceptional susceptibility to heterologous rust species, with the immune barley cultivars Vada and Cebada Capa. These two mapping populations along with the Oregon Wolfe Barley population, which showed unexpected segregation for resistance to heterologous rusts, were phenotyped with four heterologous rust fungal species. Positions of QTL conferring nonhost resistance in the three mapping populations were compared using an integrated consensus map. The results confirmed that nonhost resistance in barley to heterologous rust species is controlled by QTL with different and overlapping specificities and by an occasional contribution of an R-gene for hypersensitivity. In each population, different sets of loci were implicated in resistance. Few genes were common between the populations, suggesting a high diversity of genes conferring nonhost resistance to heterologous pathogens. These loci were significantly associated with QTL for partial resistance to the pathogen Puccinia hordei and with defense-related genes.
The Impact of Terrorism on Public Opinion and Psychosocial Adjustment

Abstract Most contemporary definitions agree that the main goal of terrorism is to intimidate civilians and, thereby, influence national policy. I attempt to evaluate whether terrorists have achieved their goal by examining research on the impact of terrorism on public opinion and psychosocial adjustment. After distinguishing 21st-century terrorism from past terrorism, I conclude that existing evidence of terrorism’s impact may have limited utility in predicting the impact offuture terrorist attacks.
HERC 1 Ubiquitin Ligase Mutation Affects Neocortical, CA3 Hippocampal and Spinal Cord Projection Neurons: An Ultrastructural Study

The spontaneous mutation tambaleante is caused by the Gly483Glu substitution in the highly conserved N terminal RCC1-like domain of the HERC1 protein, which leads to the increase of mutated protein levels responsible for cerebellar Purkinje cell death by autophagy. Until now, Purkinje cells have been the only central nervous neurons reported as being targeted by the mutation, and their degeneration elicits an ataxic syndrome in adult mutant mice. However, the ultrastructural analysis performed here demonstrates that signs of autophagy, such as autophagosomes, lysosomes, and altered mitochondria, are present in neocortical pyramidal, CA3 hippocampal pyramidal, and spinal cord motor neurons. The main difference is that the reduction in the number of neurons affected in the tambaleante mutation in the neocortex, the hippocampus, and the spinal cord is not so evident as the dramatic loss of cerebellar Purkinje cells. Interestingly, signs of autophagy are absent in both interneurons and neuroglia cells. Affected neurons have in common that they are projection neurons which receive strong and varied synaptic inputs, and possess the highest degree of neuronal activity. Therefore, because the integrity of the ubiquitin-proteasome system is essential for protein degradation and hence, for normal protein turnover, it could be hypothesized that the deleterious effects of the misrouting of these pathways would depend directly on the neuronal activity.
Positive News Makes Readers Feel Good: A “Silver-Lining” Approach to Negative News Can Attract Audiences

ABSTRACT After much criticism that the media publish too much negative news, some media outlets have dedicated themselves to publishing only happy, upbeat stories. The current experiment examined the positive news industry by testing the effects of three types of story valence—positive, negative, and silver lining—on readers’ affect, story enjoyment, perceived well-being, and sharing intentions. Results suggest that valence plays a significant role in readers’ affect, in that positive news makes readers feel good. Additionally, findings suggest that the silver-lining story—one that highlights a positive outcome of a negative event—may present a practical way for media outlets to maintain the time-honored surveillance function of negative news yet also reap the affective benefits of positive news.
Activating WASP mutations associated with X-linked neutropenia result in enhanced actin polymerization, altered cytoskeletal responses, and genomic instability in lymphocytes

X-linked neutropenia (XLN) is caused by activating mutations in the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) that result in aberrant autoinhibition. Although patients with XLN appear to have only defects in myeloid lineages, we hypothesized that activating mutations of WASP are likely to affect the immune system more broadly. We generated mouse models to assess the role of activating WASP mutations associated with XLN (XLN-WASP) in lymphocytes. XLN-WASP is expressed stably in B and T cells and induces a marked increase in polymerized actin. XLN-WASP–expressing B and T cells migrate toward chemokines but fail to adhere normally. In marked contrast to WASP-deficient cells, XLN-WASP–expressing T cells proliferate normally in response to cell-surface receptor activation. However, XLN-WASP–expressing B cells fail to proliferate and secrete lower amounts of antibodies. Moreover, XLN-WASP expression in lymphocytes results in modestly increased apoptosis associated with increased genomic instability. These data indicate that there are unique requirements for the presence and activation status of WASP in B and T cells and that WASP-activating mutations interfere with lymphocyte cell survival and genomic stability.
Implications of extrinsic cognitive load on three levels of adult woodwind players

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two levels of extrinsic cognitive load when three levels of adult woodwind musicians practiced. Extrinsic load was manipulated through repetitive and random practice orders. Participants (N = 43) were novice, intermediate, and advanced university woodwind players who completed a three-day, repeated measures design. At the end of two days of practice, novices who had practiced in a blocked (repetitive) practice order played significantly faster than those who had practiced in a random order. However, this difference was eliminated at 24-hour retention testing. Intermediate players experienced no differential effects of extrinsic cognitive load at the end of practice or at retention. For the advanced players, a trend was found for speed increasing from the end of practice to 24-hour retention (p = .06). While the constructs of cognitive load theory are relevant to woodwind learning, further research is needed to determine effective paradigms for their implementation.
Short- and Long-Term Plasticity at the Axon Initial Segment

The axon initial segment (AIS) is a highly specialized neuronal subregion that is the site of action potential initiation and the boundary between axonal and somatodendritic compartments. In recent years, our understanding of the molecular structure of the AIS, its maturation, and its multiple fundamental roles in neuronal function has seen major advances. We are beginning to appreciate that the AIS is dynamically regulated, both over short timescales via adaptations in ion channel function, and long timescales via activity-dependent structural reorganization. Here, we review results from this emerging field highlighting how structural and functional plasticity relate to the development of the initial segment, and to neuronal disorders linked to AIS dysfunction.
When Fisher meets Fukunaga-Koontz: A New Look at Linear Discriminants

The Fisher Linear Discriminant (FLD) is commonly used in pattern recognition. It finds a linear subspace that maximally separates class patterns according to Fisher’s Criterion. Several methods of computing the FLD have been proposed in the literature, most of which require the calculation of the so-called scatter matrices. In this paper, we bring a fresh perspective to FLD via the Fukunaga-Koontz Transform (FKT). We do this by decomposing the whole data space into four subspaces, and show where Fisher’s Criterion is maximally satisfied. We prove the relationship between FLD and FKT analytically, and propose a method of computing the most discriminative subspace. This method is based on the QR decomposition, which works even when the scatter matrices are singular, or too large to be formed. Our method is general and may be applied to different pattern recognition problems. We validate our method by experimenting on synthetic and real data.
Book Bibliometrics - A New Perspective and Challenge in Indicator Building Based on the Book Citation Index

This study aims to gain a better understanding of communication patterns in different publication types and the applicability of the Book Citation Index (BKCI) for building indicators for use in both informetrics studies and research evaluation. The authors investigate the differences not only in citation impact between journal and book literature, but also in citation patterns between edited books and their monographic authored counterparts. The complete 2005 volume of the Web of Science Core collection database including the three journal databases and the BKCI has been processed as source documents. Annual cumulative citation rates in a three-year (x3) and a nine-year (x9) citation window are applied to compute the citation impact of different types of publications. The ratio x3/x9 is utilized as a kind of prospective Price index to examine the extent of ageing. The results of this study show that books are more heterogeneous information sources and addressed to more heterogeneous target groups than journals. Comparatively, the differences between edited and authored books in terme:s of the citation impact are not so impressive as books vs. journals. Humanities have the most different citation impact between books and journals, whereas life sciences have the most similar impact between two groups. Conference Topic Journals, databases and electronic publications; Citation and co-citation analysis
Time-Dependent Changes in Human Corticospinal Excitability Reveal Value-Based Competition for Action during Decision Processing

Our choices often require appropriate actions to obtain a preferred outcome, but the neural underpinnings that link decision making and action selection remain largely undetermined. Recent theories propose that action selection occurs simultaneously, i.e., parallel in time, with the decision process. Specifically, it is thought that action selection in motor regions originates from a competitive process that is gradually biased by evidence signals originating in other regions, such as those specialized in value computations. Biases reflecting the evaluation of choice options should thus emerge in the motor system before the decision process is complete. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we sought direct physiological evidence for this prediction by measuring changes in corticospinal excitability in human motor cortex during value-based decisions. We found that excitability for chosen versus unchosen actions distinguishes the forthcoming choice before completion of the decision process. Both excitability and reaction times varied as a function of the subjective value-difference between chosen and unchosen actions, consistent with this effect being value-driven. This relationship was not observed in the absence of a decision. Our data provide novel evidence in humans that internally generated value-based decisions influence the competition between action representations in motor cortex before the decision process is complete. This is incompatible with models of serial processing of stimulus, decision, and action.
The Occupy and Indignados movement and the importance of political context: differences between occasionals and regulars in Spain and the UK

In this work we look into the individuals’ reasons that led Occupy protesters to participate in this movement. We interviewed Occupy participants in the UK and Spain. We wanted to find out if the reasons that lead them to participate are the same in both countries. The context of the country where the demonstration was held was taken into account, as well as the differences there may be in the reasons for participation if we consider whether they are occasional or regular participants in collective protest actions. Using a two-by-two design defined by country of demonstration and the history of mobilisation (occasional vs. regular), our results show important differences in both factors. The study contributes to the literature, highlighting the importance of analysing the context where the demonstration takes place and which motives must be underlined in order to attract participants to protests.
A Time-Splitting Technique for the Advection-Dispersion Equation in Groundwater

In this paper a time-splitting technique for the two-dimensional advection-dispersion equation is proposed. A high resolution in space Godunov method for advection is combined with the RT0 Mixed Finite Element for the discretization of the dispersion term. Numerical tests on an analytical one-dimensional example ascertain the convergence properties of the scheme. At different Peclet numbers, the choice of optimal time step size used for the two equations is discussed, showing that with accurate selection of the time step sizes, the overall CPU time required by the simulations can be drastically reduced. Results on a realistic test case of groundwater contaminant transport confirm that the proposed scheme does not suffer from Peclet limitations and always displays only small amounts of numerical diffusion across the entire range of Peclet numbers.
The executive function in Han Chinese children with Tourette' s syndrome and its association with the polymorphism of DRD4exonIII48bp VNTR

Objective:To study the relationship of DRD4exonIII48bp VNTR and executive function in children with Tourette' s Syndrome.Methods:Eighty-six Han Chinese children with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome(GTS)were tested with a set of neuropsychological test(Stroop test,trail making test,modified Wisconsin Card sorting test)and compared with 51 healthy control group to understand the relationship between executive deficits and genetics.Results:Compared with normal children,the scores of C error of Stroop test[(44.39±65.3)vs.(20.50±10.85),P0.01](including C error correction,C time,C correct,CW error correction,CW time,CW error correction),the time of trail making test A[(69.80±25.84)vs.(35.69±8.25),P0.01](including the B time,wrong numbers and fouls),the correct number of WCST[(44.39±65.37)vs.(27.49±10.85),P0.01](including wrong numbers,persistent wrong numbers,no-persistent wrong numbers and classified numbers and so on)in GTS group was worse.In some items of Stroop test,combined ADHD group differed from the GTS-alone group.No evidence showed significantly difference among DRD4exonIII48bp VNTR and executive function.Conclusion:The patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome have executive function deficits which may be not related to DRD4exonIII48bp VNTR.
The Psychometric Properties of the Autobiographical Memory Test in Preschool-Aged Children

The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is the most commonly used tool to assess the phenomenon of overgeneral memory. The AMT has mainly been used in adult populations, but its use in preschool children is less common. The need to create an appropriate instrument to study the memory specificity in preschool years led us to develop an AMT version adapted for early childhood. The AMT–Preschool (AMT-P) was administered to a sample of preschool children aged between 3 and 6 (N = 364). The results suggest that the AMT-P functions differently in preschoolers depending on age. With children older than 53 months, results suggest that the AMT-P is appropriate for assessing overgenerality. Nevertheless, with younger children age, the task is more difficult. These results concur with previous research suggesting that the ability to recall specific memories is consolidated from the age of 4½.
Deontic Logic and Preference Change

The normative realm involves deontic notions such as obligation or permission, as well as information about relevant actions and states of the world. This mixture is not static, given once and for all. Both information and normative evaluation available to agents are subject to changes with various triggers, such as learning new facts or accepting new laws. This paper explores models for this setting in terms of dynamic logics for information-driven agency. Our paradigm will be dynamic-epistemic logics for knowledge and belief, and their current extensions to the statics and dynamics of agents’ preferences. Here the link with deontics is that moral reasoning may be viewed as involving preferences of the acting agent as well as moral authorities such as lawgivers, one’s conscience, or yet others. In doing so we discuss a large number of themes: primitive ‘betterness’ order versus reason-based preferences (employing a model of ‘priority graphs’), the entanglement of preference and informational attitudes such as belief, interactive social agents, and scenarios with long-term patterns emerging over time. Specific deontic issues considered include paradoxes of deontic reasoning, acts of changing obligations, and changing norm systems. We conclude with some further directions, as well as a series of pointers to related work, including different paradigms for looking at these same phenomena.
Moving towards industrial software ecosystems: Are our software architectures fit for the future?

The development of large-scale software product-lines within large enterprises commonly involves various internal business units. Although within the same enterprise, each business unit has individual motivations and participation interests. For coordinating development, the emerging discipline of software ecosystems intents to explicitly discover and analyze the different players' interests, and manage them, often by means of a suitable software architecture. Already within a single enterprise, this discipline can be of high value. Instead of detailed managerial orders to coordinate internal interactions, an analysis of the players, their interests, and a suitable software architecture may slacken organizational structures and simplify processes. We have started to analyze the ecosystems of several Siemens internal product-lines in order to determine the different players and their interests, and to derive suitable software architectural requirements from this setting. This will enable us to compare these requirements to the actual architecture, for identifying reusable pain points and best practices of the existing system. However, there is no systematic (A) approach to model and analyze the collaboration among the participants from a technical perspective, as well as (B) to derive reusable architectural design-patterns and anti-patterns from such software ecosystems. By illustrating these problems using an existing software productline that moves towards a software ecosystem, we are looking for answers to the two questions above to evaluate whether our product-lines are fit for a future as internal software ecosystems.
Steady-State and Transient Thermal Analysis of High-Power Planar Schottky Diodes

Recent progress in power amplifier technology has made it possible to construct W-band sources which are capable of producing powers in the 1-Watt range. These sources are required in order to build multiplier based local oscillator chains in the frequency range of 2-3 THz. However, it becomes imperative that the multipliers, in particular the initial stage multipliers, be able to withstand the large input power without degrading efficiency or burning out. In this work, we present a systematic study of the steady-state as well as transient thermal behavior of doubler and tripler chips in the 200 GHz range that have been developed at JPL. The Ansys Structural Mechanic software tool has been used to simulate thermal performance of the planar Schottky diodes using a finite-element approach. Experimental verification of the simulation tool is achieved by performing infra-red (IR) thermal imaging on a multiplier chip mounted in a half open waveguide block. The simulation tool is used to explore the various parameters (chip topology, novel materials, cryogenic temperatures etc) and it is concluded that a careful thermal design of the first stage multiplier is necessary in order to produce robust LO chains in the 2-3 THz range. The thermal effects on the multiplier performances will also be discussed.