Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liver-Derived IGF-I Regulates GH Secretion at the Pituitary Level in Mice.

We have reported that liver-specific deletion of IGF-I in mice (LI-IGF-I−/−) results in decreased circulating IGF-I and increased GH levels. In the present study, we determined how elimination of hepatic IGF-I modifies the hypothalamic-pituitary GH axis to enhance GH secretion. The pituitary mRNA levels of GH releasing factor (GHRF) receptor and GH secretagogue (GHS) receptor were increased in LI-IGF-I−/− mice, and in line with this, their GH response to ip injections of GHRF and GHS was increased. Expression of mRNA for pituitary somatostatin receptors, hypothalamic GHRF, somatostatin, and neuropeptide Y was not altered in LI-IGF-I−/− mice, whereas hypothalamic IGF-I expression was increased. Changes in hepatic expression of major urinary protein and the PRL receptor in male LI-IGF-I−/− mice indicated an altered GH release pattern most consistent with enhanced GH trough levels. Liver weight was enhanced in LI-IGF-I−/− mice of both genders. In conclusion, loss of liver-derived IGF-I enhances GH release by.
Territory exclusivity and intergroup encounters in the indris (Mammalia: Primates: Indridae: Indri indri) upon methodological tuning

Abstract Territorial, socially monogamous species actively defend their home range against conspecifics to maintain exclusive access to resources such as food or mates. Primates use scent marks and loud calls to signal territory occupancy and limit the risk of intergroup encounters, maximizing their energetic balance. Indri indri is a little-studied territorial, socially monogamous singing primate living in family groups. The groups announce territory occupancy with long-distance calls, and actively defend their territories from conspecific intruders. This work includes data collected in three forests in Madagascar on 16 indri groups over up to 5 years. We aimed (1) to estimate the extent of territories using minimum convex polygon (MCP), implementing minimum sampling effort requirements; (2) to quantify territorial exclusivity, measuring the overlap between territories; and (3) to evaluate the intergroup encounter rate and to quantify the dynamics of group encounters. Our results showed that indris range evenly within exclusive small territories with no or little overlap. Intergroup encounters are rare (0.05 encounters per day), and are located on the periphery of the territories. Disputes were mostly solved with vocal confrontation and only in 13% of the cases ended in physical fights. This frame underlines a cost–benefit explanation of territoriality, favouring a strategy that efficiently limits overlap and avoids costly intergroup encounters. We hypothesize that territorial behaviour in indri is related to mate-guarding strategy and that vocal behaviour plays a fundamental role in regulating intergroup spacing dynamics.
Prognostic Value of the Variability in Home-Measured Blood Pressure and Heart Rate: The Finn-Home Study

The objective of the study was to assess the prognostic value of variability in home-measured blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in a general population. We studied a representative sample of the Finnish adult population with 1866 study subjects aged 45–74 years. BP and HR self-measurements were performed on 7 consecutive days. The variabilities of BP and HR were defined as the SDs of morning minus evening, day-by-day, and first minus second measurements. The primary end point was incidence of a cardiovascular event. The secondary end point was total mortality. During a follow-up of 7.8 years, 179 subjects had experienced a cardiovascular event, and 130 subjects had died. In Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for age, sex, BP/HR, and other cardiovascular risk factors, morning-evening home BP variability (systolic/diastolic relative hazard: 1.04/1.10 [95% CI: 1.01–1.07/1.05–1.15] per 1-mm Hg increase in BP variability) and morning day-by-day home BP variability (relative hazard: 1.04/1.10 [95% CI: 1.00–1.07/1.04–1.16] per 1-mm Hg increase in BP variability) were predictive of cardiovascular events. Morning-evening home HR variability (relative hazard: 1.07 [95% CI: 1.02–1.12] per 1-bpm increase in HR variability) and morning day-by-day home HR variability (relative hazard: 1.11 [95% CI: 1.05–1.17] per 1-bpm increase in HR variability) were also independent predictors of cardiovascular events. Greater variabilities of morning home BP and HR are independent predictors of cardiovascular events. Because the variabilities of home BP and HR are easily acquired in conjunction with home BP and HR level, they should be used as the additive information in the assessment of cardiovascular risk.
Micro Bat Algorithm for High Dimensional Optimization Problems

Very recently bat inspired algorithms have gained increasing attention as a powerful technique for solving optimization problems. Bat algorithm (BA) is the first one in this group. It is based on the echolocation behavior of bats. BA is very good at exploitation however it is generally poor at exploration. Dynamic Virtual Bats Algorithm (DVBA) is another bat inspired algorithm, which is proposed lately. Although the algorithm is fundamentally inspired from BA, it is conceptually very different. DVBA employs just two bats and uses role based search mechanism. It is very efficient in exploration but relatively poor in exploitation, when it comes to high dimensional problems. In this paper, a novel micro-bat algorithm ( BA) is proposed which possess the advantages of both algorithms. BA employs a very small population compared to its classical version. It combines the swarming technique of bats in Bat Algorithm with the role based search in Dynamic Virtual Bats Algorithm. Our empirical results demonstrate that the proposed BA achieves a good balance between exploration and exploitation. And it exhibits a better overall performance than the standard BA with larger and smaller populations on high dimensional problems.
Sensitivity of multi-user filter-bank multicarrier systems to synchronization errors

In this paper we investigate the sensitivity of multiuser filter-bank multicarrier (FBMC) systems to synchronization errors in both the uplink and the downlink scenarios. In particular, the performance degradation caused by synchronization errors is evaluated analytically and with numerical simulations and compared with that of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. It is shown that, as all multicarrier systems, FBMC systems are very sensitive to synchronization errors, since timing errors and carrier frequency offsets produce intercarrier interference and interference between successive symbols. However, in an asynchronous multi-user scenario FBMC systems are more robust than OFDM systems to time and frequency misalignments among the users.
The Persistence of the Accruals Anomaly

The accruals anomaly - the negative relationship between accounting accruals and subsequent stock returns - has been well documented in the academic and practitioner literatures for almost a decade. To the extent that this anomaly represents market inefficiency, one would expect sophisticated investors to learn about it and arbitrage the anomaly away. Yet, we show that the accruals anomaly still persists and its magnitude has not declined over time. While we find that institutional investors react promptly to accruals information, it is clear that their reaction is rather weak and is primarily characteristic of active investors who constitute a minority of institutions. The main reason: Extreme accruals firms have characteristics which are unattractive to most institutional investors. Individual investors are by and large unable to profit from trading on accruals information due to the high transaction and information costs associated with implementing a consistently profitable accruals strategy. Consequently, the accruals anomaly persists, and will probably endure.
T H E N U C L E O I D S OF R A T L I V E R CELL M I C R O B O D I E S Fine Structure and Enzymes

The nucleoids of microbodies of rat liver cells were isolated in a highly homogeneous and pure state, by treating the microbody-rich fraction, prepared from 10% Folyvinylpyrrolidone-0.25 M sucrose homogenate, with Triton X-100. Three treatments with 0.1% detergent were enough to render the nucleoids free from contamination with mitochondria, microsomes, lysosomes, and intact microbodies. Electron microscopically, the nucleoids were found to consist of parallel bundles of highly dense hollow tubules, the outer and inner diameters of which are approximately 150 and 50 A, respectively. Ten tubules are arranged around a longitudinal space 190 X 200 A in width. The nucleoids thus show a honeycomb appearance in the cross-plane and a parallel-packed structure in the longitudinal plane. Biochemically, the nucleoids were found to bear only urate oxidase among probably microbody-enzymes, and they might be the only cytoplasmic particles of rat liver cells in which the enzyme locates. Urate oxidase activity, on a unit protein basis, of the nucleoid preparation is approximately 380 times as high as that of the whole homogenate, and is almost comparable with that of a commercial type I enzyme preparation. No enzymes of mitochondrial, microsomal, and lysosomal origins were detected in the nucleoids. The fine structure of the nucleoids is described in detail, and a probable schematic diagram is presented. I N T R O D U C T I O N On the basis of density gradient centrifugation of cytoplasmic particles of rat liver cells, it was reported that the particles bearing catalase, urate oxidase, and D-amino acid oxidase showed an equilibrium density different from that of mitochondria and lysosomes (7). Furthermore, the possibility was suggested by Baudhuin and Beaufay (3), Baudhuin, Beaufay, and de Duve (4), and Beaufay and Berthet (5) that these particles correspond to microbodies described by Rouiller and Bernhard (19) in rat liver cells. Among these three enzymes, urate oxidase was found not to be released from the particles in any suspending media commonly used in the fractionation of intracellular particles and even in those to which was added a detergent such as Triton X-100 (10, 21). On the other hand, a major portion of particle-bound catalase was readily solubilized in isotonic sucrose solution, and a considerable portion of bound D-amino acid oxidase was also released from the particles in the presence of the detergent (I0, 21). Because of the fact that urate oxidase is bound firmly to a particulate component, the present experiments were carried out to isolate and identify the particles involved, or their enzyme-bearing
Repetition Priming and Recognition of Dynamic and Static Chimeras

Chimeric faces, produced by combining the top half of a familiar face with the bottom half of a different familiar face, are difficult to recognise explicitly. However, given that they contain potentially useful configurational and featural information for face recognition, they might nevertheless produce some activation of representations of their constituent faces. Repetition priming with dynamic and static facial chimeras was used to test this possibility. Whereas half-faces produced significant repetition priming of their familiar counterparts, both types of chimera did not. When analyses were restricted to faces that were recognised during the prime phase, repetition priming was both significant, and equivalent, for chimeras and half-faces. The results suggest that the constituents of a facial chimera must be parsed, and recognised, in order for them to cause repetition priming for their familiar counterparts. Facial motion does not help with the parsing of a facial chimera.
The Plastid Genome-Encoded Ycf4 Protein Functions as a Nonessential Assembly Factor for Photosystem I in Higher Plants1[W]

Photosystem biogenesis in the thylakoid membrane is a highly complicated process that requires the coordinated assembly of nucleus-encoded and chloroplast-encoded protein subunits as well as the insertion of hundreds of cofactors, such as chromophores (chlorophylls, carotenoids) and iron-sulfur clusters. The molecular details of the assembly process and the identity and functions of the auxiliary factors involved in it are only poorly understood. In this work, we have characterized the chloroplast genome-encoded ycf4 (for hypothetical chloroplast reading frame no. 4) gene, previously shown to encode a protein involved in photosystem I (PSI) biogenesis in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Using stable transformation of the chloroplast genome, we have generated ycf4 knockout plants in the higher plant tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Although these mutants are severely affected in their photosynthetic performance, they are capable of photoautotrophic growth, demonstrating that, different from Chlamydomonas, the ycf4 gene product is not essential for photosynthesis. We further show that ycf4 knockout plants are specifically deficient in PSI accumulation. Unaltered expression of plastid-encoded PSI genes and biochemical analyses suggest a posttranslational action of the Ycf4 protein in the PSI assembly process. With increasing leaf age, the contents of Ycf4 and Y3IP1, another auxiliary factor involved in PSI assembly, decrease strongly, whereas PSI contents remain constant, suggesting that PSI is highly stable and that its biogenesis is restricted to young leaves.
Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Infection Promotes Immune Evasion by Preventing NKG2D-Ligand Surface Expression

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has recently gained attention for its oncolytic ability in cancer treatment. Initially, we hypothesized that VSV infection could increase immune recognition of cancer cells through induction of the immune stimulatory NKG2D-ligands. Here we show that VSV infection leads to a robust induction of MICA mRNA expression, however the subsequent surface expression is potently hindered. Thus, VSV lines up with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and adenovirus, which actively subvert the immune system by negatively affecting NKG2D-ligand surface expression. VSV infection caused an active suppression of NKG2D-ligand surface expression, affecting both endogenous and histone deacetylase (HDAC)-inhibitor induced MICA, MICB and ULBP-2 expression. The classical immune escape mechanism of VSV (i.e., the M protein blockade of nucleocytoplasmic mRNA transport) was not involved, as the VSV mutant strain, VSVΔM51, which possess a defective M protein, prevented MICA surface expression similarly to wild-type VSV. The VSV mediated down modulation of NKG2D-ligand expression did not involve apoptosis. Constitutive expression of MICA bypassed the escape mechanism, suggesting that VSV affect NKG2D-ligand expression at an early post-transcriptional level. Our results show that VSV possess an escape mechanism, which could affect the immune recognition of VSV infected cancer cells. This may also have implications for immune recognition of cancer cells after combined treatment with VSV and chemotherapeutic drugs.
Why are web browsers slow on smartphones?

We report the first work that examines the internals of web browsers on smartphones, using the WebKit codebase, two generations of Android smartphones, and webpages visited by 25 smart-phone users over three months. We make many surprising findings. First, over half of the webpages visited by smartphone users are not optimized for mobile devices. This highlights the importance of client-based optimization and the limitation of prior work that only studies mobile webpages. Second, while prior work suggests that several compute-intensive operations should be the focus of optimization, our measurement and analysis show that their improvement will only lead to marginal performance gain with existing webpages. Furthermore, we find that resource loading, ignored by all except one prior work, contributes most to the browser delay. While our results agree with a recent network study showing that network round-trip time is a major problem, we further demonstrate how the internals of the browser and operating system contribute to the browser delay and therefore reveal new opportunities for optimization.
Brief report: clonal proliferation of type 2 helper T cells in a man with the hypereosinophilic syndrome.

The hypereosinophilic syndrome is characterized by persistent eosinophilia of unknown origin often associated with the dysfunction of multiple organs as a result of tissue infiltration by eosinophils and the toxic effects of their products1. Previous studies have suggested that T lymphocytes may be involved in the induction of the syndrome through the secretion of an eosinophil differentiation factor2,3. Helper T lymphocytes (CD4+ T cells) play a central part in normal and pathologic immune responses through the secretion of cytokines. Interleukin-2, interferon gamma, and tumor necrosis factor are involved in cell-mediated immunity, whereas interleukin-4 stimulates the production of .
Neutrophils recruited by CXCR1/2 signalling mediate post‐incisional pain

Neutrophil recruitment mediated by the CXCL1/KC chemokine and its receptors CXCR1/CXCR2 plays a critical role in inflammatory diseases. Recently, neutrophil migration and activation triggered by CXCL1‐CXCR1/2 signalling was implicated in inflammatory nociception; however, their role in post‐surgical pain has not been elucidated. In this study, we addressed the function of neutrophils in the genesis of post‐incisional pain in an experimental model of post‐surgical pain.
Index Coded PSK Modulation for Prioritized Receivers

A noisy index coding problem (ICP) over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh fading channels is studied. First, a single-input single-output AWGN broadcast channel is considered. For a chosen index code and an arbitrary mapping (of broadcast vectors to phase-shift keying (PSK) signal points), a decision rule for the maximum-likelihood (ML) decoder is derived. The message error performance of a receiver at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is characterized by a parameter called <italic>PSK-index coding gain (PSK-ICG)</italic>. The PSK-ICG of a receiver is determined by a metric called <italic>minimum inter-set distance</italic>. For a given ICP with an order of priority among the receivers, and a chosen <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^N$</tex-math> </inline-formula>-PSK constellation, an algorithm to find <italic>(index code, mapping)</italic> pairs, each of which gives the best performance in terms of PSK-ICG of the receivers, is proposed. No other pair of index code (of length <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula> with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^N$</tex-math></inline-formula> broadcast vectors) and mapping can give a better PSK-ICG for the highest priority receiver. Also, given that the highest priority receiver achieves its best performance, the next highest priority receiver achieves its maximum gain possible and so on in the specified order of priority. Next, the noisy ICP over a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Rayleigh fading channel is considered. The receivers are equipped with a single antenna and a server with two antennas. To obtain the diversity gain along with the coding gain, a MIMO scheme that employs space-time coding along with index coded PSK modulation is proposed. For a chosen index code, an arbitrary mapping (of broadcast vectors to PSK signal points), and a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 1$</tex-math></inline-formula> MIMO system employing Alamouti code, we derive a decision rule for the ML decoding. We show that for the best coding gain at high SNR, the mapping must maximize the minimum inter-set distance.
Quantitative Analysis of Immune Response and Erythropoiesis during Rodent Malarial Infection

Malarial infection is associated with complex immune and erythropoietic responses in the host. A quantitative understanding of these processes is essential to help inform malaria therapy and for the design of effective vaccines. In this study, we use a statistical model-fitting approach to investigate the immune and erythropoietic responses in Plasmodium chabaudi infections of mice. Three mouse phenotypes (wildtype, T-cell-deficient nude mice, and nude mice reconstituted with T-cells taken from wildtype mice) were infected with one of two parasite clones (AS or AJ). Under a Bayesian framework, we use an adaptive population-based Markov chain Monte Carlo method and fit a set of dynamical models to observed data on parasite and red blood cell (RBC) densities. Model fits are compared using Bayes' factors and parameter estimates obtained. We consider three independent immune mechanisms: clearance of parasitised RBCs (pRBC), clearance of unparasitised RBCs (uRBC), and clearance of parasites that burst from RBCs (merozoites). Our results suggest that the immune response of wildtype mice is associated with less destruction of uRBCs, compared to the immune response of nude mice. There is a greater degree of synchronisation between pRBC and uRBC clearance than between either mechanism and merozoite clearance. In all three mouse phenotypes, control of the peak of parasite density is associated with pRBC clearance. In wildtype mice and AS-infected nude mice, control of the peak is also associated with uRBC clearance. Our results suggest that uRBC clearance, rather than RBC infection, is the major determinant of RBC dynamics from approximately day 12 post-innoculation. During the first 2–3 weeks of blood-stage infection, immune-mediated clearance of pRBCs and uRBCs appears to have a much stronger effect than immune-mediated merozoite clearance. Upregulation of erythropoiesis is dependent on mouse phenotype and is greater in wildtype and reconstitited mice. Our study highlights the informative power of statistically rigorous model-fitting techniques in elucidating biological systems.
Phenotypic plasticity: its role in trophic radiation and explosive speciation in cichlids (Teleostei: Cichlidae)

Phenotypic plasticity is the capacity of an organism's phenotype to vary in different environments. Although diet-induced phenotypic plasticity has been documented in New World cichlids, it has been hypothesised that this type of plasticity would be limited in certain Old World cichlids, because of the morphological constraints on the jaw imposed by mouth-brooding. This hypothesis was experimentally tested by determining the effect of different diets on the head and jaw morphology of split broods of several species of haplochromine cichlids from Lake Malaŵi, Africa, and two substrate-spawning cichlids, one from the Old World, Tilapia mariae (Boulenger), and one from the New World, Herichthys cyanoguttatum (Baird and Girard). Different feeding regimes resulted in differences in head morphologies in both New and Old World cichlid species. Although Old World mouth-brooding haplochromine cichlids exhibited phenotypic plasticity, the magnitude of head-shape plasticity observed was greater in the New World substrate-spawning cichlid, H. cyanoguttatum . The Old World tilapiine cichlid, T. mariae , did not exhibit phenotypic plasticity of head morphology. Experiments with modified foods demonstrated that the observed changes were unrelated to dietary nutrition, but were a result of differing feeding modes. Phenotypic plasticity might have contributed to the extensive trophic radiation and subsequent explosive speciation observed in Old World haplochromine cichlids. The existence of phenotypic plasticity has implications for morphology-based species descriptions as well.