Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CBP gene transfer increases BDNF levels and ameliorates learning and memory deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Cognitive dysfunction and memory loss are common features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Abnormalities in the expression profile of immediate early genes that play a critical role in memory formation, such as the cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB), have been reported in the brains of AD patients. Here we show that amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation, which plays a primary role in the cognitive deficits of AD, interferes with CREB activity. We further show that restoring CREB function via brain viral delivery of the CREB-binding protein (CBP) improves learning and memory deficits in an animal model of AD. Notably, such improvements occur without changes in Aβ and tau pathology, and instead are linked to an increased level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. The resulting data suggest that Aβ-induced learning and memory deficits are mediated by alterations in CREB function, based on the finding that restoring CREB activity by directly modulating CBP levels in the brains of adult mice is sufficient to ameliorate learning and memory. Therefore, increasing CBP expression in adult brains may be a valid therapeutic approach not only for AD, but also for various brain disorders characterized by alterations in immediate early genes, further supporting the concept that viral vector delivery may be a viable therapeutic approach in neurodegenerative diseases.
Individual and Group Child‐Centered Play Therapy: Impact on Social‐Emotional Competencies

A randomized controlled trial study was conducted to test the effectiveness of 16 sessions of the modalities of individual and group child-centered play therapy (CCPT) on improving social-emotional assets, including self-regulation/responsibility, social competence, and empathy. Participants were 56 students in four urban elementary schools in north central Texas, referred by teachers for disruptive or problematic behavior: 10 female and 46 male; ages 5 to 10 years with mean age 7.12; and 21 identifying as Hispanic, 17 as White, 8 as Multiracial, 1 as Asian, and 9 unspecified. Teachers and parents completed the Social and Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale (SEARS; Merrill, 2011) at pre- and post-treatment. With a significance criterion of p< . 05, teacher reports provided no statistically significant results. However, parent reports indicated a statistically and practically significant interaction effect with a medium to large effect size, indicating a substantial improvement in children's scores from pre- to post-test attributed to group assignment. Mean differences indicated substantial gains in overall social-emotional assets, according to Total scores, in both individual and group treatment conditions as compared to the waitlist control group. Additionally, both individual and group play therapy was correlated with significant improvement with a large effect for the constructs of self-regulation/responsibility and social competence, with the group condition having a larger effect than the individual condition. Regarding empathy, neither modality resulted in significant improvement, though individual CCPT resulted practically in a large effect. These results indicate CCPT may provide a developmentally appropriate treatment for clinicians working with children in schools and in the community to foster their social and emotional competencies.
Enhancement of Phenol Biodegradation by Pseudochrobactrum sp. through Ultraviolet-Induced Mutation

The phenol-degrading efficiency of Pseudochrobactrum sp. was enhanced by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. First, a bacterial strain, Pseudochrobactrum sp. XF1, was isolated from the activated sludge in a coking plant. It was subjected to mutation by UV radiation for 120 s and a mutant strain with higher phenol-degrading efficiency, Pseudochrobactrum sp. XF1-UV, was selected. The mutant strain XF1-UV was capable of degrading 1800 mg/L phenol completely within 48 h and had higher tolerance to hydrogen ion concentration and temperature variation than the wild type. Haldane’s kinetic model was used to fit the exponential growth data and the following kinetic parameters were obtained: μmax = 0.092 h−1, Ks = 22.517 mg/L, and Ki = 1126.725 mg/L for XF1, whereas μmax = 0.110 h−1, Ks = 23.934 mg/L, and Ki = 1579.134 mg/L for XF1-UV. Both XF1 and XF1-UV degraded phenol through the ortho-pathway; but the phenol hydroxylase activity of XF1-UV1 was higher than that of XF1, therefore, the mutant strain biodegraded phenol faster. Taken together, our results suggest that Pseudochrobactrum sp. XF1-UV could be a promising candidate for bioremediation of phenol-containing wastewaters.
Fast, scalable detection of "Piggybacked" mobile applications

Mobile applications (or apps) are rapidly growing in number and variety. These apps provide useful features, but also bring certain privacy and security risks. For example, malicious authors may attach destructive payloads to legitimate apps to create so-called "piggybacked" apps and advertise them in various app markets to infect unsuspecting users. To detect them, existing approaches typically employ pair-wise comparison, which unfortunately has limited scalability. In this paper, we present a fast and scalable approach to detect these apps in existing Android markets. Based on the fact that the attached payload is not an integral part of a given app's primary functionality, we propose a module decoupling technique to partition an app's code into primary and non-primary modules. Also, noticing that piggybacked apps share the same primary modules as the original apps, we develop a feature fingerprint technique to extract various semantic features (from primary modules) and convert them into feature vectors. We then construct a metric space and propose a linearithmic search algorithm (with O(n log n) time complexity) to efficiently and scalably detect piggybacked apps. We have implemented a prototype and used it to study 84,767 apps collected from various Android markets in 2011. Our results show that the processing of these apps takes less than nine hours on a single machine. In addition, among these markets, piggybacked apps range from 0.97% to 2.7% (the official Android Market has 1%). Further investigation shows that they are mainly used to steal ad revenue from the original developers and implant malicious payloads (e.g., for remote bot control). These results demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of our approach.
Geometric Modeling of Multi-Material Printed Objects

We introduce a set of tools for interactive modeling of multi-material objects. We use non-manifold surface meshes to deﬁne complex objects, which can have multiple connected solid regions of different materials. Our suite of tools can create and edit non-manifold surfaces, while maintaining a consistent labeling of distinct regions. We also introduce a technique for generating approximate material gradients, using a set of thin layers with varying material properties. We demonstrate our approaches by printing physical objects with a multi-material printer.
Computed tomography texture analysis to facilitate therapeutic decision making in hepatocellular carcinoma

This study explored the potential of computed tomography (CT) textural feature analysis for the stratification of single large hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) > 5 cm, and the subsequent determination of patient suitability for liver resection (LR) or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Wavelet decomposition was performed on portal-phase CT images with three bandwidth responses (filter 0, 1.0, and 1.5). Nine textural features of each filter were extracted from regions of interest. Wavelet-2-H (filter 1.0) in LR and wavelet-2-V (filter 0 and 1.0) in TACE were related to survival. Subsequently, LR and TACE patients were divided based on the wavelet-2-H and wavelet-2-V median at filter 1.0 into two subgroups (+ or −). LR+ patients showed the best survival, followed by LR-, TACE+, and TACE-. We estimated that LR+ patients treated using TACE would exhibit a survival similar to TACE- patients and worse than TACE+ patients, with a severe compromise in overall survival. LR was recommended for TACE- patients, whereas TACE was preferred for LR- and TACE+ patients. Independent of tumor size, CT textural features showed positive and negative correlations with survival after LR and TACE, respectively. Although further validation is needed, texture analysis demonstrated the feasibility of using HCC patient stratification for determining the suitability of LR vs. TACE.
Clinical experience in 52 patients with tigecycline-containing regimens for salvage treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium chelonae infections

Objectives We report the largest clinical experience using tigecycline-containing regimens for salvage treatment of patients with Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium chelonae. Patients and methods Data were collected from 52 patients on emergency/compassionate use (n = 38) or two open-label studies (n = 7 patients each). Based on information that was available, 46 (88.5%) of the subjects received antibiotic therapy prior to treatment with tigecycline. Treatment groups were evaluated based on length of tigecycline therapy (<1 and ≥1 month). ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: Study 205, NCT00600600 and Study 310, NCT00205816. Results The most commonly used concomitant antimicrobials were macrolides, amikacin and linezolid. Pulmonary disease was the most common presentation (36/52; 69.2%), and 58.3% of these patients had underlying cystic fibrosis. The majority were M. abscessus complex (n = 30) or M. chelonae/abscessus (n = 4). With therapy ≥1 month (mean, 255.0 ± 265.7 days), 10/15 patients (66.7%) with cystic fibrosis and 16/26 (61.5%) overall were considered improved. Skin/soft-tissue/bone infections were the most common extrapulmonary infections. With therapy ≥1 month (mean, 143 ± 123 days), 9/12 patients (75.0%) were considered improved. Nine of the 16 cases reported as failures regardless of site of infection occurred in patients who stopped treatment due to adverse events. There were eight deaths; none was related to tigecycline. Conclusions Tigecycline given for ≥1 month as part of a multidrug regimen resulted in improvement in >60% of patients with M. abscessus and M. chelonae infections, including those with underlying cystic fibrosis, despite failure of prior antibiotic therapy. Adverse events were reported in >90% of cases, the most common being nausea and vomiting.
Propagation model based on ray tracing for the design of personal communication systems in indoor environments

A ray tracing technique to predict the propagation channel parameters in indoor scenarios is presented. It is a deterministic technique, fully three-dimensional, based on geometrical optics (GO) and the uniform theory of diffraction (UTD). A model of plane facets is used for the geometrical description of the environment. The ray tracing is accelerated considerably by using the angular Z-buffer algorithm. Some comparisons between predicted results and measurements are presented to validate the method.
A Product Formula for Gromov-Witten Invariants

We establish a product formula for Gromov-Witten invariants for closed relatively semi-positive Hamiltonian fibrations, with connected fiber, and over any connected symplectic base. Furthermore, we show that the fibration projection induces a locally trivial (orbi-)fibration map from the moduli space of pseudo-holomorphic maps with marked points in the total space of the Hamiltonian fibration to the corresponding moduli space of pseudo-holomorphic maps with marked points in the base. We use this induced map to recover the product formula by means of integration. Finally, we give applications to c-splitting and symplectic uniruledness.
Facilitating collaborative interdisciplinary research: exploring process and implications for leisure scholars

ABSTRACT Many institutions encourage interdisciplinary research (IDR) to maximize organizational resources and to develop more practical approaches to address transdisciplinary ‘real world’ issues such as obesity. Leisure researchers have joined fields such as public health and kinesiology to address increased rates of obesity and physical inactivity with the perspective that these issues require integrated cross-disciplinary knowledge. This case study examined the collaborative process throughout an IDR project involving leisure, health education, physical education and STEM education faculty (five members). The major research questions addressed are as follows: (1) What are the synergies, opportunities and/or obstacles identified by faculty throughout the development, implementation and evaluation of the IDR program? (2) What are the implications of these findings for leisure researchers working in IDR? Faculty responded to email questions and surveys and were interviewed individually before and during the planning phase, during the implementation phase and at the end of the study. All data were transcribed and analyzed inductively, relying on the constant comparative method, with triangulation within and across different data types and member checks. Themes relating to synergies, constraints, understanding of collaborative processes and interdisciplinary knowledge were identified.
Transforming Growth Factor-β–Induced Cross Talk Between p53 and a MicroRNA in the Pathogenesis of Diabetic Nephropathy

Elevated p53 expression is associated with several kidney diseases including diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the mechanisms are unclear. We report that expression levels of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β), p53, and microRNA-192 (miR-192) are increased in the renal cortex of diabetic mice, and this is associated with enhanced glomerular expansion and fibrosis relative to nondiabetic mice. Targeting miR-192 with locked nucleic acid–modified inhibitors in vivo decreases expression of p53 in the renal cortex of control and streptozotocin-injected diabetic mice. Furthermore, mice with genetic deletion of miR-192 in vivo display attenuated renal cortical TGF-β and p53 expression when made diabetic, and have reduced renal fibrosis, hypertrophy, proteinuria, and albuminuria relative to diabetic wild-type mice. In vitro promoter regulation studies show that TGF-β induces reciprocal activation of miR-192 and p53, via the miR-192 target Zeb2, leading to augmentation of downstream events related to DN. Inverse correlation between miR-192 and Zeb2 was observed in glomeruli of human subjects with early DN, consistent with the mechanism seen in mice. Our results demonstrate for the first time a TGF-β–induced feedback amplification circuit between p53 and miR-192 related to the pathogenesis of DN, and that miR-192–knockout mice are protected from key features of DN.
Wind-Driven Thermocline Variability in the Pacific: A Model–Data Comparison

Abstract The spatial and temporal patterns of interannual temperature variability within the main thermocline (200–400-m depth) of the Pacific (30°S–60°N) during 1968–97 are documented in two observational datasets and an ocean general circulation model forced with observed winds and air temperatures. Analysis of the processes responsible for the subsurface temperature variance is used to verify the performance of the model and as a basis for assessing the realism of the two observational archives. The subsurface temperature variance is largest in the western portion of the basin, with maxima along the Kuroshio Current Extension and along the equatorward flanks of the subtropical gyres in both hemispheres. In the latter regions, approximately half of the temperature variability may be attributed to local wind-induced Ekman pumping fluctuations one season earlier. A contribution from westward-propagating Rossby waves is also evident in the band 10°–20°N. In contrast, subsurface temperature fluctuations alo.
Uncertain links in host–parasite networks: lessons for parasite transmission in a multi-host system

For many parasites, the full set of hosts that are susceptible to infection is not known, and this could lead to a bias in estimates of transmission. We used counts of individual adult parasites from historical parasitology studies in southern Africa to map a bipartite network of the nematode parasites of herbivore hosts that occur in Botswana. Bipartite networks are used in community ecology to represent interactions across trophic levels. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to predict the full set of host–parasite interactions from existing data on parasitic gastrointestinal nematodes of wild and domestic ungulates given assumptions about the distribution of parasite counts within hosts, while accounting for the relative uncertainty of less sampled species. We used network metrics to assess the difference between the observed and predicted networks, and to explore the connections between hosts via their shared parasites using a host–host unipartite network projected from the bipartite network. The model predicts a large number of missing links and identifies red hartebeest, giraffe and steenbok as the hosts that have the most uncertainty in parasite diversity. Further, the unipartite network reveals clusters of herbivores that have a high degree of parasite sharing, and these clusters correspond closely with phylogenetic distance rather than with the wild/domestic boundary. These results provide a basis for predicting the risk of cross-species transmission of nematode parasites in areas where livestock and wildlife share grazing land. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Opening the black box: re-examining the ecology and evolution of parasite transmission’.
Binaural Electric-Acoustic Interactions Recorded from the Inferior Colliculus of Guinea Pigs: The Effect of Masking Observed in the Central Nucleus of the Inferior Colliculus

OBJECTIVES To investigate the electric-acoustic interactions within the inferior colliculus of guinea pigs and to observe how central masking appears in invasive neural recordings of the inferior colliculus (IC). METHODS A platinum-iridium wire was inserted to scala tympani through cochleostomy with a depth no greater than 1 mm for intracochlear stimulation of electric pulse train. A 5 mm 100 µm, single-shank, thin-film, penetrating recording probe was inserted perpendicularly to the surface of the IC in the coronal plane at an angle of 30-40° off the parasagittal plane with a depth of 2.0-2.5 mm. The peripheral and central masking effects were compared using electric pulse trains to the left ear and acoustic noise to the left ear (ipsilateral) and to the right ear (contralateral). Binaural acoustic stimuli were presented with different time delays and compared with combined electric and acoustic stimuli. The averaged evoked potentials and total spike numbers were measured using thin-film electrodes inserted into the central nucleus of the IC. RESULTS Ipsilateral noise had more obvious effects on the electric response than did contralateral noise. Contralateral noise decreased slightly the response amplitude to the electric pulse train stimuli. Immediately after the onset of acoustic noise, the response pattern changed transiently with shorter response intervals. The effects of contralateral noise were evident at the beginning of the continuous noise. The total spike number decreased when the binaural stimuli reached the IC most simultaneously. CONCLUSION These results suggest that central masking is quite different from peripheral masking and occurs within the binaural auditory system, and this study showed that the effect of masking could be observed in the IC recording. These effects are more evident and consistent with the psychophysical data from spike number analyses than with the previously reported gross potential data.
Dibutyltin Disrupts Glucocorticoid Receptor Function and Impairs Glucocorticoid-Induced Suppression of Cytokine Production

Background Organotins are highly toxic and widely distributed environmental chemicals. Dibutyltin (DBT) is used as stabilizer in the production of polyvinyl chloride plastics, and it is also the major metabolite formed from tributyltin (TBT) in vivo. DBT is immunotoxic, however, the responsible targets remain to be defined. Due to the importance of glucocorticoids in immune-modulation, we investigated whether DBT could interfere with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function. Methodology We used HEK-293 cells transiently transfected with human GR as well as rat H4IIE hepatoma cells and native human macrophages and human THP-1 macrophages expressing endogenous receptor to study organotin effects on GR function. Docking of organotins was used to investigate the binding mechanism. Principal Findings We found that nanomolar concentrations of DBT, but not other organotins tested, inhibit ligand binding to GR and its transcriptional activity. Docking analysis indicated that DBT inhibits GR activation allosterically by inserting into a site close to the steroid-binding pocket, which disrupts a key interaction between the A-ring of the glucocorticoid and the GR. DBT inhibited glucocorticoid-induced expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and tyrosine-aminotransferase (TAT) and abolished the glucocorticoid-mediated transrepression of TNF-α-induced NF-κB activity. Moreover, DBT abrogated the glucocorticoid-mediated suppression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and TNF-α production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated native human macrophages and human THP-1 macrophages. Conclusions DBT inhibits ligand binding to GR and subsequent activation of the receptor. By blocking GR activation, DBT may disturb metabolic functions and modulation of the immune system, providing an explanation for some of the toxic effects of this organotin.
Mindfulness and cognitive aging

reasoning and the capacity to effectively engage novel situations, are among the earliest and the most profoundly impacted in the process of normal cognitive aging (Nisbett et al., 2012; Perfetti, Tesse, Varanese, Saggino, & Onofrj, 2011; Raz, GunningDixon, Head, Dupuis, & Acker, 1998). With the exception of recent work by Gard, Taquet, et al. (2014), the impact of mindfulness on fluid abilities and age-related change has received little attention. However, findings from a number of cognitive and neurological studies point toward the potential for mindfulness practices to ameliorate aging’s detrimental effects (Allen et al., 2012; Gard, Holzel, & Lazar, 2014; Ivanovski & Malhi, 2007; Lazar et al., 2005; Mrazek, Franklin, Phillipe, Baird, & Schooler, 2013; Prakash et al., 2013; Ritskes, Ritkes-Hoitinga, Stodkilde-Jorgensen, Baerentsen, &
Diffusion creep of dry, melt‐free olivine

[1] Deformation experiments were conducted on fine-grained (3–6 μm), fully synthetic Fo90 olivine aggregates in a gas-medium apparatus at 300 MPa confining pressure and temperatures of 1150–1360°C. The strain rates of the solution-gelation-derived and therefore genuinely melt-free, dry samples are about two orders of magnitude lower than the strain rates for nominally melt-free aggregates at the same pressure and temperature conditions and grain size. Benchmark deformation tests with Anita Bay dunite and mild steel reproduce published data. The creep strength of melt-added sol-gel olivine is similar to the published creep strength of dry, melt-bearing olivine derived from natural rocks. Nonlinear least-squares fits to the melt-free deformation data give an activation energy of 484 kJ/mol, a stress exponent of 1.4, and a grain-size exponent of 3 over a range of stresses from 15 to 210 MPa. These results suggest that small amounts of melt may be similarly effective in reducing the creep strength of upper mantle rocks as small amounts of water. However, a possible contribution of grain boundary composition to the observed differences in rheology in the absence of melt cannot be conclusively ruled out by the current experiments.