Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lower ADD1 Gene Promoter DNA Methylation Increases the Risk of Essential Hypertension

The goal of our study is to investigate the contribution of promoter DNA methylation of α-adducin (ADD1) gene to the risk of essential hypertension (EH). Using the bisulphite pyrosequencing technology, DNA methylation levels of five CpG dinucleotides on ADD1 promoter were measured among 33 EH cases and 28 healthy controls. Significantly higher ADD1 DNA methylation levels were observed in the females than in the males (CpG1: P = 0.016; CpG2-5: P = 0.021). A breakdown analysis by gender showed that lower CpG1 methylation was associated with an increased risk of EH in females (adjusted P = 0.042). A much more significant association between lower CpG2-5 methylation levels and the increased risk of EH was found in males (adjusted P = 0.008). CpG1 methylation was inversely correlated with age in females (r = −0.407, P = 0.019) but not in males. ADD1 CpG1 and CpG2-5 methylation levels were significantly lower in post-menopausal (>50 years) women than pre-menopausal (≤50 years) women (CpG1: P = 0.006; CpG2-5: P = 0.034). A significant interaction between CpG1 methylation and age was found in females (CpG1*age: P = 0.029). CpG2-5 methylation was shown as a significant predictor of EH in males [area under curve (AUC) = 0.855, P = 0.001], in contrast that CpG1 methylation was a trend toward indicator in females (AUC = 0.699, P = 0.054). In addition, significant differences were observed between males and females for alanine aminotransferase (ALT, P = 0.001), aspartate aminotransferase (AST, P = 0.005) and uric acid (P<0.001). The concentration of AST was inversely correlated with ADD1 CpG2-5 methylation levels in female controls (r = −0.644, P = 0.024). These observations may bring new hints to elaborate the pathogenesis of EH.
Distributed route choice control in DCV-based baggage handling systems

In this paper we develop advanced control methods for routing individual vehicles which ensure automatic transportation of bags in a baggage handling system of an airport. In particular we consider distributed model predictive control and a distributed heuristic control approach. The baggage handling system performs efficiently if all the bags are transported to the corresponding end points within a specific time window, and this makes the process of handling baggage time-critical. The proposed control approaches are effective for the given application. To assess their performance we consider a benchmark case study, in which the methods are compared for several scenarios. Results indicate that the distributed approaches improve the performance of the vehiclebased baggage handling system with up to 20%.
Motoneurons and oligodendrocytes are sequentially generated from neural stem cells but do not appear to share common lineage-restricted progenitors in vivo

Olig gene expression is proposed to mark the common progenitors of motoneurons and oligodendrocytes. In an attempt to further dissect the in vivo lineage relationships between motoneurons and oligodendrocytes, we used a conditional cell-ablation approach to kill Olig-expressing cells. Although differentiated motoneurons and oligodendrocytes were eliminated, our ablation study revealed a continuous generation and subsequent death of their precursors. Most remarkably, a normal number of oligodendrocyte precursors are formed at day 12 of mouse development, after all motoneuron precursors have been killed. The data presented herein supports a sequential model in which motoneuron and oligodendrocyte precursors are sequentially generated in vivo from neuroepithelial stem cells, but do not share a common lineage-restricted progenitor.
Deciding and axiomatizing weak ST bisimulation for a process algebra with recursion and action refinement

Due to the complex nature of bisimulation equivalences that express some form of history dependence, it turned out to be problematic to decide them over nontrivial classes of recursive systems. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, the problem of axiomatizing them over such classes of systems has never been solved. In this article, we face this problem in the case of weak ST bisimulation, an equivalence that expresses the execution of an action as the combination of the two interdependent events of action start and action termination and that supports the operation of action refinement. We first consider a basic process algebra with CSP multiway synchronization and recursion and we show that a simple technique based on static names is sufficient to decide weak ST bisimulation over processes that are finite state according to the standard interleaving semantics. Then we introduce a different technique based on dynamic names and on the new idea of compositional level-wise renaming of actions (which produces semantic models via SOS such that weak ST bisimulation can be established through standard weak bisimulation) and we show that it can be applied to decide and axiomatize weak ST bisimulation over the same class of processes. Finally, we introduce a third technique based on pointers, updated according to a pseudo-stack discipline, which preserves the possibility of deciding and axiomatizing weak ST bisimulation also when an action refinement operator is considered.
Feather corticosterone of a nestling seabird reveals consequences of sex-specific parental investment

Offspring of long-lived species should face costs of parental trade-offs that vary with overall energetic demands encountered by parents during breeding. If sex differences exist in how parents make the trade-off, sex-specific differences may exist in the contribution of each parent to those costs. Adaptations of offspring facing such costs are not well understood, but the hormone corticosterone probably plays a role. We manipulated breeding effort in Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea) to increase costs to offspring and used an integrated measure of corticosterone from chick feathers to investigate how experimental variation in parental investment influences offspring physiology. Average foraging trip duration and foraging efficiency (FE) of breeding pairs were not related to chick corticosterone, but sex biases in FE were. Adult male investment was more strongly related to chick corticosterone than was female investment. Importantly, we show for the first time suppression of adrenocortical activity in nestling Procellariiform seabirds, and explain how our results indicate an adaptive mechanism invoked by chicks facing increased costs of parental trade-offs.
Effective management of microbial contamination in cultured skin substitutes after grafting to athymic mice

Cultured skin substitutes have become therapeutic alternatives for treatment of acute and chronic skin wounds, but all models of these substitutes are avascular and susceptible to microbial destruction during vascularization. To develop a practical management protocol for increased survival of skin substitutes, experimental wounds were contaminated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and treated with a formulation of noncytotoxic antimicrobial agents (polymyxin B, neomycin, ciprofloxacin, mupirocin, amphotericin B) in a nutrient medium (vehicle). Cultured skin substitutes consisting of human keratinocytes and fibroblasts attached to collagen‐glycosaminoglycan sponges were grafted to 2 × 2 cm full‐thickness wounds on athymic mice that were contaminated with the strain SBI‐N of P. aeruginosa at 1 × 104, 1 × 105, and 1 × 106 organisms/wound. Experimental wounds were irrigated with 1 ml/day topical antimicrobial solution for 10 days, and controls received vehicle only. Two, three, and four weeks after grafting, wounds were traced and swabbed for microbial culture and areas were measured with planimetry. At 4 weeks, biopsy samples were scored histochemically for immunoreactivity to HLA antigens. Data analysis by chi‐square, analysis of variance, and Tukey's test shows that treatment of contaminated wounds with noncytotoxic topical antimicrobials is associated with an increased area of healed wounds, positive detection of HLA antigens, and negative cultures for P. aeruginosa. These results show that microbial contamination of cultured skin substitutes on full‐thickness wounds may be managed effectively during graft vascularization. However, this formulation of antimicrobial agents is not currently approved for human use and is investigational only. Effective management of microbial contamination suggests that clinical efficacy of avascular tissue analogs may be increased by local application of noncytotoxic antimicrobial agents.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use among Norwegian Cancer Survivors: Gender-Specific Prevalence and Associations for Use

The associations for CAM use are only occasionally differentiated by gender in populations where both male and female cancer survivors occur. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of CAM use in individuals with a previous cancer diagnosis and to investigate gender differences regard to factors associated with use. A total of 12982 men and women filled in a questionnaire with questions about life style and health issues. Eight hundred of those had a previous cancer diagnosis of whom 630 answered three questions concerning CAM use in the last 12 months. A total of 33.8% of all cancer survivors reported CAM use, 39.4% of the women and 27.9% of the men (P < 0.01). The relationship between the demographic variables and being a CAM user differed significantly between men and women with regard to age (P = 0.03), education (P = 0.04), and income (P < 0.01). Female CAM users were more likely to have a university degree than the nonusers, while male CAM users were more likely to have a lower income than the nonusers. According to this study, prevalence and factors associated with CAM use differ significantly between male and female survivors of cancer.
Biological and Molecular Characterization of a Korean Isolate of Cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus Infecting Cucumis Species in Korea

Surveys of yellowing viruses in plastic tunnels and in open field crops of melon (Cucumis melo cultivar catalupo), oriental melon (C. melo cultivar oriental melon), and cucumber (C. sativus) were carried out in two melon-growing areas in 2014, Korea. Severe yellowing symptoms on older leaves of melon and chlorotic spots on younger leaves of melon were observed in the plastic tunnels. The symptoms were widespread and included initial chlorotic lesions followed by yellowing of whole leaves and thickening of older leaves. RT-PCR analysis using total RNA extracted from diseased leaves did not show any synthesized products for four cucurbit-infecting viruses; Beet pseudo-yellows virus, Cucumber mosaic virus, Cucurbit yellows stunting disorder virus, and Melon necrotic spot virus. Virus identification using RT-PCR showed Cucurbit aphid-borne yellows Virus (CABYV) was largely distributed in melon, oriental melon and cucumber. This result was verified by aphid (Aphis gossypii) transmission of CABYV. The complete coat protein (CP) gene amplified from melon was cloned and sequenced. The CP gene nucleotide and the deduced amino acid sequence comparisons as well as phylogenetic tree analysis of CABYV CPs showed that the CABYV isolates were undivided into subgroups. Although the low incidence of CABYV in infections to cucurbit crops in this survey, CABYV may become an important treat for cucurbit crops in many different regions in Korea, suggesting that CABYV should be taken into account in disease control of cucurbit crops in Korea.
The Role of Established Breast Cancer Susceptibility Loci in Mammographic Density in Young Women

Recently, three genome-wide association studies identified and validated multiple novel loci as contributors to breast cancer susceptibility ([1][1]-[3][2]). In two of these studies ([1][1], [2][3]), the most significant association was with a common variant (rs2981582) in FGFR2 , a gene implicated
Averaging and large deviation principles for fully-coupled piecewise deterministic Markov processes and applications to molecular motors

We consider Piecewise Deterministic Markov Processes (PDMPs) with a finite set of discrete states. In the regime of fast jumps between discrete states, we prove a law of large numbers and a large deviation principle. In the regime of fast and slow jumps, we analyze a coarse-grained process associated to the original one and prove its convergence to a new PDMP with eective force fields and jump rates. In all the above cases, the continuous variables evolve slowly according to ODEs. Finally, we discuss some applications related to the mechanochemical cycle of macromolecules, including strained-dependent power-stroke molecular motors. Our analysis covers the case of fully-coupled slow and fast motions.
Discovery of Interstellar Hydrogen Fluoride

We report the first detection of interstellar hydrogen fluoride. Using the Long Wavelength Spectrometer of the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), we have detected the 121.6973 μm J=2-1 line of HF in absorption toward the far-infrared continuum source Sagittarius B2. The detection is statistically significant at the 13 σ level. On the basis of our model for the excitation of HF in Sgr B2, the observed line equivalent width of 1.0 nm implies a hydrogen fluoride abundance of ~3 × 10-10 relative to H2. If the elemental abundance of fluorine in Sgr B2 is the same as that in the solar system, then HF accounts for ~2% of the total number of fluorine nuclei. We expect hydrogen fluoride to be the dominant reservoir of gas-phase fluorine in Sgr B2, because it is formed rapidly in exothermic reactions of atomic fluorine with either water or molecular hydrogen; thus, the measured HF abundance suggests a substantial depletion of fluorine onto dust grains. Similar conclusions regarding depletion have previously been reached for the case of chlorine in dense interstellar clouds. We also find evidence at a lower level of statistical significance (~5 σ) for an emission feature at the expected position of the 432-423 121.7219 μm line of water. The emission-line equivalent width of 0.5 nm for the water feature is consistent with the water abundance of 5×10−6 relative to H2 that has been inferred previously from observations of the hot core of Sgr B2.
Interfacial assembly of proteins and peptides: recent examples studied by neutron reflection

Through reviewing a number of recent neutron reflection studies of interfacial adsorption of peptides and proteins, this paper aims to demonstrate the significance of this technique in studying interfacial biomolecular processes by illustrating the typical structural details that can be derived. The review will start with the introduction of relevant theoretical background, followed by an outline of representative biomolecular systems that have recently been studied to indicate the technical strengths of neutron reflection.
Methods for Handling Faults and Asynchrony in Parallel Computation

The issue of reliability has always been of considerable importance to the designers and users of computer systems. In fact, the entire eld of fault-tolerant computing has been devoted to the study of reliability for over two decades. With the practical realization of massively parallel computers|or large networks of processors that cooperate in solving a problem|the concerns of reliable computing are assuming even greater signi cance, as we will argue brie y later. These parallel computers are expected not only to provide high-performance computing that is currently o ered only by extremely expensive \supercomputers," but also to enable the solution of computational problems that are too large to be solved by standard computers. Consequently, the application base will expand rapidly with the increasing availability of these machines; in addition to classical scienti c computing, one important domain in this regard will involve controlling very computationally intensive systems in real-time.
Sequential Neural Models with Stochastic Layers

How can we efficiently propagate uncertainty in a latent state representation with recurrent neural networks? This paper introduces stochastic recurrent neural networks which glue a deterministic recurrent neural network and a state space model together to form a stochastic and sequential neural generative model. The clear separation of deterministic and stochastic layers allows a structured variational inference network to track the factorization of the model's posterior distribution. By retaining both the nonlinear recursive structure of a recurrent neural network and averaging over the uncertainty in a latent path, like a state space model, we improve the state of the art results on the Blizzard and TIMIT speech modeling data sets by a large margin, while achieving comparable performances to competing methods on polyphonic music modeling.
Media Psychology is not yet there: Introducing Theories on Media Entertainment to the Presence Debate

Contemporary theoretical explications of presence experiences can be advanced and completed by integrating theoretical frameworks from media psychology. This article briefly presents concepts related to media entertainment that have been elaborated and/or applied by media psychologists and that exhibit considerable overlaps with the explication of presence. Specifically, the concept of involvement (Vorderer, 1992), affective disposition theory (Zillmann, 1996), simulation theory (Oatley, 1994), and the psychological theory of play (Oerter, 1999) are introduced. For each framework, connection points to the theoretical conceptualization of presence are pointed out. The article illuminates new opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation in advancing our understanding of presence.
The Mediating Effects of Approaches to Learning on the Academic Success of First-Year College Students

ABSTRACT Students’ personal predictors of academic success are particularly relevant for first-year college students, given the specific challenges that these students face when entering higher education (HE). Academic success in HE has been related to multiple factors, including the students’ approaches to learning (SAL), satisfaction (linked to commitment and persistence), study time (effort), and prior academic achievement. This study analyzes the combined effect of these predictors on perceived academic success. Data from 247 students was collected using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students and other specific measures to assess presage and process variables of academic success. Although academic success is multidimensional and difficult to explain, factors such as prior academic achievement, satisfaction with the course, SAL, and study time contribute to explain perceived academic success in first-year college students.
Multi-modal Microscopy Characterisation of Nodal Markings in Flax Fibre

Natural fibres such as kenaf, sisal, flax etc. have gained increasing recognition as alternatives to hi-tech synthetic fibres, primarily due to their moderate cost and environmentally friendly nature. However, the well-reported wide variability of their properties, primarily stiffness and strength, presents a significant challenge to the use of these fibres in composite materials and systems that have important implications for reliability and safety. Understanding the sources of variability requires combining different methods of structural analysis, as it is done in the context of multi-modal microscopy reported here. The morphology and internal architecture of flax nodal markings (sometimes also called “dislocations”) are described, and their implications for strength discussed.
A Finite Difference Scheme for Option Pricing in Jump Diffusion and Exponential Lévy Models

We present a finite difference method for solving parabolic partial integro-differential equations with possibly singular kernels which arise in option pricing theory when the random evolution of the underlying asset is driven by a Levy process or, more generally, a time-inhomogeneous jump-diffusion process. We discuss localization to a finite domain and provide an estimate for the localization error under an integrability condition on the Levy measure. We propose an explicit-implicit finite difference scheme which can be used to price European and barrier options in such models. We study stability and convergence of the scheme proposed and, under additional conditions, provide estimates on the rate of convergence. Numerical tests are performed with smooth and nonsmooth initial conditions.
Class numbers of some abelian extensions of rational function fields

Let P be a monic irreducible polynomial. In this paper we generalize the determinant formula for h(K+pn) of Bae and Kang and the formula for h-(Kpn) of Jung and Ahn to any subfields K of the cyclotomic function field Kpn. By using these formulas, we calculate the class numbers h-(K), h(k+) of all subfields K of Kp when q and deg(P) are small.
DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY THE COVER: AN ANALYSIS OF ITALIAN TAX REVENUES AFTER ADJUSTING FOR DISCRETIONARY MEASURES

The performance of tax receipts in Italy during the period 1978-2006 is analysed through the relationship between the growth of revenue and the evolution of the macroeconomic framework. Series of actual tax receipts are adjusted to take account of discretionary measures, transformed into implicit tax rates, and then broken down into the structural components. A regression analysis of the trend element shows that the performance of tax revenue depends not only on the main variables used in forecasting models, but also on a number of factors, some of which (interest rates, oil prices, the output gap, and inflation) have a direct impact on implicit tax rates. Other factors (the share of profits of banks and listed companies, the proportion of energy consumption in total spending, and purchases of durable goods) indirectly effect the incidence of taxation by causing shifts in the tax base among sectors with different opportunities for tax evasion. JEL Classification: C22, E62, H2.
A comprehensive approach to sexual and transgender prejudice

ABSTRACT Prejudice and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals continues to have a detrimental impact on the mental health of this population. Research examining commonalities and uniqueness among negative attitudes toward specific sexual and gender minority groups is extremely limited. The authors propose that research examining sexual prejudice include attitudes toward diverse subgroups within the larger LGBTQ community in order to facilitate development of underlying constructs and identify unique contributing factors. Common and unique factors identified within existing research are organized into categorical themes, which are delineated in a conceptual factor model of sexual and transgender prejudice.
Descriptor Based Methods in the Wild

Recent methods for learning similarity between images have presented impressive results in the problem of pair matching (same/notsame classification) of face images. In this paper we explore how well this performance carries over to the related task of multi-option face identification, specifically on the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) image set. In addition, we seek to compare the performance of similarity learning methods to descriptor based methods. We present the following results: (1) Descriptor-Based approaches that efficiently encode the appearance of each face image as a vector outperform the leading similarity based method in the task of multi-option face identification. (2) Straightforward use of Euclidean distance on the descriptor vectors performs somewhat worse than the similarity learning methods on the task of pair matching. (3) Adding a learning stage, the performance of descriptor based methods matches and exceeds that of similarity methods on the pair matching task. (4) A novel patch based descriptor we propose is able to improve the performance of the successful Local Binary Pattern (LBP) descriptor in both multi-option identification and same/not-same classification.