Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activation of Male Liver Chromatin Accessibility and STAT5-Dependent Gene Transcription by Plasma Growth Hormone Pulses

Sex differences in pituitary growth hormone (GH) secretion (pulsatile in males vs near continuous/persistent in females) impart sex-dependent expression to hundreds of genes in adult mouse liver. Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 5, a GH-activated transcription factor that is essential for liver sexual dimorphism, is dynamically activated in direct response to each male plasma GH pulse. However, the impact of GH-induced STAT5 pulses on liver chromatin accessibility and downstream transcriptional events is unknown. In this study, we investigated the impact of a single pulse of GH given to hypophysectomized mice on local liver chromatin accessibility (DNase hypersensitive site analysis), transcription rates (heterogeneous nuclear RNA analysis), and gene expression (quantitative polymerase chain reaction and RNA sequencing) determined 30, 90, or 240 minutes later. The STAT5-dependent but sex-independent early GH response genes Igf1 and Cish showed rapid, GH pulse-induced increases in chromatin accessibility and gene transcription, reversing the effects of hypophysectomy. Rapid increases in liver chromatin accessibility and transcriptional activity were also induced in hypophysectomized male mice for some (Ces2b, Ugt2b38) but not for other liver STAT5-dependent male-biased genes (Cyp7b1). Moreover, in pituitary-intact male mice, Igf1, Cish, Ces2b, and Ugt2b38 all showed remarkable cycles of chromatin opening and closing, as well as associated cycles of induced gene transcription, which closely followed each endogenous pulse of liver STAT5 activity. Thus, the endogenous rhythms of male plasma GH pulsation dynamically open and then close liver chromatin at discrete, localized regulatory sites in temporal association with transcriptional activation of Igf1, Cish, and a subset of STAT5-dependent male-biased genes.
Shared and Distributed X-in-the-Loop Tests for Automotive Systems: Feasibility Study

X-in-the-loop (XIL) technologies are receiving increased attention in modern automotive development processes. In particular, collaborative experiments, such as XIL tools, have efficient applications in the design of multi-actuated, electric, and automated vehicles. The presented paper introduces results of such a collaborative study for XIL, which focused on the feasibility of coordinated real-time simulations for the control of vehicle dynamics systems. The outcomes are based on extensive co-simulation tests performed using remote connections among different geographical locations; the connections were between Germany, on one side, and USA, South Africa, and The Netherlands, from the other side. The performed study allowed formulating requirements for further shared and distributed XIL-experiments for functional validation of automotive control systems.
Determination of knockdown resistance allele frequencies in global human head louse populations using the serial invasive signal amplification reaction.

BACKGROUND Pediculosis is the most prevalent parasitic infestation of humans. Resistance to pyrethrin- and pyrethroid-based pediculicides is due to knockdown (kdr)-type point mutations in the voltage-sensitive sodium channel alpha-subunit gene. Early detection of resistance is crucial for the selection of effective management strategies. RESULTS Kdr allele frequencies of lice from 14 countries were determined using the serial invasive signal amplification reaction. Lice collected from Uruguay, the United Kingdom and Australia had kdr allele frequencies of 100%, while lice from Ecuador, Papua New Guinea, South Korea and Thailand had kdr allele frequencies of 0%. The remaining seven countries investigated, including seven US populations, two Argentinian populations and populations from Brazil, Denmark, Czech Republic, Egypt and Israel, displayed variable kdr allele frequencies, ranging from 11 to 97%. CONCLUSION The newly developed and validated SISAR method is suitable for accurate monitoring of kdr allele frequencies in head lice. Proactive management is needed where kdr-type resistance is not yet saturated. Based on sodium channel insensitivity and its occurrence in louse populations resistant to pyrethrin- and pyrethroid-based pediculicides, the T917I mutation appears to be a key marker for resistance. Results from the Egyptian population, however, indicate that phenotypic resistance of lice with single or double mutations (M815I and/or L920F) should also be determined.
Who Bears Firm-Level Risk? Implications for Cash Flow Volatility

Public firms in the United States that provide better insurance against productivity shocks to their workers experience higher cash flow volatility. Difference in intra-firm risk sharing between workers and capital owners accounts for more than 50\% of the variation in firm-level cash flow volatility. I develop a theory in which wages can act either as a hedge or as leverage, depending on the history of the productivity shocks the firm has faced. Heterogeneous roles of workers in the firm are derived by analyzing the dynamic equilibrium wage contracts between risk-neutral owners and risk-averse workers who can leave with a fraction of the accumulated human capital. Owners of the firm will optimally bear more risk when the current value of the firm's human capital is lower than the peak value it has reached. The model successfully explains the joint distribution of cash flow volatility and the wage-output sensitivity. Also, the model produces predictions for the dynamics of cash flow volatility that are consistent with the time series properties of the firm-level data.
Deep Keck Adaptive Optics Searches for Extrasolar Planets in the Dust of ϵ Eridani and Vega

A significant population of nearby stars have strong far-infrared excesses, now known to be due to circumstellar dust in regions analogous to the Kuiper Belt of our solar system, although orders of magnitude more dense. Recent submillimeter and millimeter imaging of these systems resolves the circumstellar dust and reveals complex structures, often in the form of rings with azimuthal nonaxisymmetric variations. This structure might well be due to the presence of embedded brown dwarfs or planets. We have carried out deep adaptive optics imaging of two nearby stars with such asymmetric dust: ϵ Eri and Vega. Ten and seven candidate companions were seen in and near the dust rings of ϵ Eri and Vega, respectively, but second-epoch proper motion measurements indicate that all are background objects. Around these two stars we can thus exclude planetary companions at spatial scales comparable to the radius of the dust structures to a level of MK = 24, corresponding to 5 Jupiter masses, for ϵ Eri, and MK = 19-21, corresponding to 6-8 Jupiter masses, for Vega.
Serum Wisteria floribunda agglutinin‐positive Mac‐2‐binding protein levels and liver fibrosis: A meta‐analysis

A reliable, non‐invasive biomarker for diagnosis of liver fibrosis in chronic liver disease patients is needed. The aim of this study was to assess by meta‐analysis the efficacy of measuring serum levels of Wisteria floribunda agglutinin‐positive Mac‐2‐binding protein (WFA+‐M2BP), a novel and promising biomarker, for staging liver fibrosis and predicting the development of hepatocellular carcinoma and overall survival.
Association of Environmental Contamination in the Home With the Risk for Recurrent Community-Associated, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection.

IMPORTANCE The role of environmental contamination in recurrent Staphylococcus aureus infections within households and its potential effect on intervention strategies has been debated recently. OBJECTIVE To assess whether household environmental contamination increases the risk for recurrent infection among individuals with a community-associated methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) infection. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cohort study was conducted from November 1, 2011, to June 30, 2014, in the Columbia University Medical Center catchment area. All patients within 72 hours of presentation with skin or soft-tissue infections and blood, urine, or sputum cultures positive for MRSA were identified. Two hundred sixty-two patients met study inclusion criteria; 83 of these (31.7%) agreed to participate (index patients) with 214 household members. Participants were followed up for 6 months, and 62 of the 83 households (74.7%) completed follow-up. Participants and researchers were blinded to exposure status throughout the study. Follow-up was completed on June 30, 2014, and data were assessed from July 1, 2014, to February 19, 2016. EXPOSURE Concordant environmental contamination, defined as having an isolate with the identical staphylococcal protein A and staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec type or antibiogram type as the index patient's clinical isolate, present on 1 or more environmental surfaces at the time of a home visit to the index patient after infection. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Index recurrent infection, defined as any self-reported infection among the index patients during follow-up. RESULTS One patient did not complete any follow-up. Of the remaining 82 index patients, 53 (64.6%) were female and 59 (72.0%) were Hispanic. The mean age was 30 (SD, 20; range, 1-79) years. Forty-nine of 61 MRSA infections where the clinical isolate could be obtained (80.3%) were due to the epidemic strain USA300. Among the 82 households in which a patient had an index MRSA infection, the clinical isolate was present in the environment in 20 (24.4%) and not found in 62 (75.6%). Thirty-five patients (42.7%) reported a recurrent infection during follow-up, of whom 15 (42.9%) required hospitalization. Thirteen recurrent infections were from the 20 households (65.0%) with and 22 were from the 62 households (35.5%) without environmental contamination (P = .04). Environmental contamination increased the rate of index recurrent infection (incident rate ratio, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.03-4.10; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Household environmental contamination was associated with an increased rate of recurrent infection. Environmental decontamination should be considered as a strategy to prevent future MRSA infections, particularly among households where an infection has occurred.
DNA methylation profiles between airway epithelium and proxy tissues in children

Epidemiological studies of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation in airway disease have largely been conducted using blood or buccal samples. However, given tissue specificity of DNA methylation, these surrogate tissues may not allow reliable inferences about methylation in the lung. We sought to compare the pattern of DNA methylation in blood, buccal and nasal epithelial cells to that in airway epithelial cells from children.
ISO 14000 and Its Perceived Impact on Corporate Performance

ISO14000 is an international environmental standard that acts as a guideline for companies to improve its performance in environmental aspects. Researches related to ISO14000 shows that the implementation has not only improved companies’ environmental performance, but this has also enhanced companies’ corporate performance. In this research, a project is carried out to determine the benefits and costs of ISO14000, which necessitates the inspections of companies’ performance in corporate and environmental aspects. A questionnaire survey was carried out to achieve this and s the results from the survey shows that ISO14000 had an excellent performance in environmental aspects such as reducing waste and usage of materials and energy. In the business aspects, however, the performances were average due to high time expense for this system maintenance and cost of certification and surveillance.
The State of the Art in Integrating Machine Learning into Visual Analytics

Visual analytics systems combine machine learning or other analytic techniques with interactive data visualization to promote sensemaking and analytical reasoning. It is through such techniques that people can make sense of large, complex data. While progress has been made, the tactful combination of machine learning and data visualization is still under‐explored. This state‐of‐the‐art report presents a summary of the progress that has been made by highlighting and synthesizing select research advances. Further, it presents opportunities and challenges to enhance the synergy between machine learning and visual analytics for impactful future research directions.
Larval vertical migration and hierarchical selectivity of settlement in a brooding marine sponge

Knowledge of larval behaviours of sessile marine invertebrates from release to recruitment and of the role these behaviours play in determining adult distributions is limited. In manipulative experiments using larvae from the Great Barrier Reef sponge Rhopaloeides odorabile, we quantified larval behaviours associated with vertical migration, phototaxis and swimming ability. We also measured settlement responses to cues associated with light, settlement surface micro-topography, coral rubble and biofilms. Following an afternoon release, the majority of larvae (72%) migrated vertically to the surface (light) for 6 to 18 h. After 24 h, 55% of active larvae had moved from the surface to the bottom and maintained this position for up to 54 h before settling. Larvae did not display gregarious settlement patterns, or a preference for settlement surface topographies, but did preferentially settle to light-exposed surfaces. Initial settlement to biofilms or coral rubble was higher than in controls with no cue. However, the transition from initial settlement and attachment to metamorphosis was much higher when treatments comprised a combination of biofilm and coral rubble compared to biofilm-only treatments (49 vs. 9%). Overall, this demonstrates that hierarchical cues contribute to selective settlement. Vertical migration to surface waters facilitates passive dispersal via wind-driven surface currents and contributes to wide-scale dispersal, while a subsequent demersal phase, where larvae actively explore the benthos for settlement sites, enables dispersal over fine, micro-geographic spatial scales.
SpeckMAC: low-power decentralised MAC protocols for low data rate transmissions in specknets

This paper introduces SpeckMAC, a novel low-power distributed, unsynchronised, random-access MAC protocol for a wireless mobile ad-hoc network of miniature specks called specknet. Two variations of the SpeckMAC protocol were compared theoretically with the well-known B-MAC protocol. All three MAC protocols were implemented on a larger speck prototype called the ProSpeckz for a logical location maintenance algorithm for two types of batteries with differing current drain profiles. ProSpeckz utilizing SpeckMAC-B and SpeckMAC-D showed improvements in lifetime over those using the B-MAC protocol by 27.4% and 38.0%, respectively when Polymer Li-ion batteries were used; and by 83.5% and 117.9%, respectively, when CR1220 button cells were employed.
Crk adaptor protein promotes PD-L1 expression, EMT and immune evasion in a murine model of triple-negative breast cancer

ABSTRACT The tumor infiltration of immune cells in solid cancers can profoundly influence host antitumor responses. In recent years, immunotherapeutic regimens, that target immune checkpoints, demonstrated significant antitumor response by increasing intra-tumoral immune cell populations, including CD8+ effector T cells. However, administration of such immune checkpoint inhibitors is largely inefficacious in inducing immunogenicity and treating breast cancer. Currently, there is a great need to better understand cell autonomous mechanisms of immune evasion in breast cancer to identify upstream therapeutic targets that increase the efficacy of immunotherapy. Here we show that Crk, an SH2 and SH3 domain-containing adaptor protein implicated in focal adhesion signaling, cell migration, and invasion, and frequently up-regulated in human cancers, has an important role in regulating the tumor immune microenvironment. Using a murine 4T1 breast adenocarcinoma model of spontaneous metastasis in immune-competent BALB/C mice, we show that genetic ablation of Crk by CRISPR-Cas9 leads to enhanced anti-tumor immune cell populations, cytotoxic effector and immune surveillance cytokines in primary tumor. Pathologically, this leads to a significant reduction in tumor growth and lung metastasis. Mechanistically, Crk KO suppresses EMT and PD-L1 expression on tumor cells and acts additively with anti-PD1 therapy to suppress tumor growth and metastasis outcomes. Taken together, these data reveal a previously un-described function of Crk adaptor protein expression in tumor cells for cell autonomous regulation of tumor immune microenvironment.
An Experimental Study on Flexural Behavior of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Recycled Coarse Aggregates

One of the problems of modern society is that the environment of the construction sector is more serious than other industries. However, use of recycled aggregates in the construction sector in order to solve these environmental problems is lower. Given the lack of such effects, the main objective of this experimental study is to investigate flexural behavior (and/or flexural strength) of steel fiber RC beams using recycled aggregates. The main variables are longitudinal steel ratios (=0.45, 0.8, 1.27 and 1.83%) and steel-fiber volume fraction (=0, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%). A total of 16 specimens were tested as a simply supported beam subjected to a two-point load. As a result, specimens' failure modes were quite different according to the steel fiber volume fraction. Also, with the addition of more steel fibers, beam crack size and spacing was reduced, and beam ductility was increased.
Mean Achievable Rates in Clustered Coordinated Base Station Transmission with Block Diagonalization

We focus on the mean achievable rate per user of the coordinated base station downlink transmission in a clustered cellular environment, with transmit power constraints at the base stations. Block Diagonalization is employed within the cluster to remove interference among users while the interference from other clusters remains. The average achievable rate per user is evaluated considering the effects of the propagation channel and the interference and a theoretical framework is presented to provide its analytical expression, validated by simulation results with different power allocation schemes. As an application, the number of cells of the cluster that maximizes the mean achievable rate per user is investigated. It can be seen that in most of the cases a reduced cluster size, close to seven cells, guarantees a rate very close to the maximum achievable.
CD34+ selected stem cell boosts can improve poor graft function after paediatric allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Poor graft function (PGF) is a severe complication of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and administration of donor stem cell boosts (SCBs) represents a therapeutic option. We report 50 paediatric patients with PGF who received 61 boosts with CD34+ selected peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) after transplantation from matched unrelated (n = 25) or mismatched related (n = 25) donors. Within 8 weeks, a significant increase in median neutrophil counts (0·6 vs. 1·516 × 109/l, P < 0·05) and a decrease in red blood cell and platelet transfusion requirement (median frequencies 1 and 7 vs. 0, P < 0·0001 and <0·001), were observed, and 78·8% of patients resolved one or two of their cytopenias. 36·5% had a complete haematological response. Median lymphocyte counts for CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD19+ and CD56+ increased 8·3‐, 14·2‐, 22. ‐ and 1·6‐fold. The rate of de novo acute graft‐versus‐host disease (GvHD) grade I–III was only 6% and resolved completely. No GvHD grade IV or chronic GvHD occurred. Patients who responded to SCB displayed a trend toward better overall survival (OS) (P = 0·07). Thus, administration of CD34+ selected SCBs from alternative donors is safe and effective. Further studies are warranted to clarify the impact on immune reconstitution and survival.
Major vascular resections in retroperitoneal sarcoma

Retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS) frequently involve major vessels, which either originate from them or secondarily encase or invade them. In this field, major vascular resections result in increased morbidity. However, survival does not seem to be affected by the need for vascular resection or by this higher morbidity. This paper aims to provide descriptions of the surgical strategy and outcomes for retroperitoneal sarcomas involving major vessels.
Detection and analysis of fine particulate matter and microbial aerosol in chicken houses in Shandong Province, China

Abstract Bacteria and fungi are primary constituents of airborne microbes in fine particulate matter and harmful to health. To evaluate the environmental quality of different poultry houses in Shandong Province, China, the airborne aerobic bacteria, airborne fungi, and airborne Escherichia coli were collected by the Andersen‐6 air microorganism sampler. The fine particulate matter was collected by a ZR‐3920 ambient air particulate matter sampler, and bacterial and fungal diversities and relative abundances analyzed using high‐throughput sequencing. Results showed that the concentrations of airborne aerobic bacteria, airborne fungi, and airborne Escherichia coli in poultry houses were 0.167 to 4.484 × 104 CFU/m3, 0.236 to 4.735 × 103 CFU/m3, and 0 to 33.0 CFU/m3, respectively. 11.4 to 34.3% of aerobic bacteria and 16.8 to 37.5% of fungi were distributed at levels 5 and 6 (0.6 to 2.1 &mgr;m, the particle sizes similar to fine particulate matter) in the Andersen sampler. The concentration of fine particulate matter in the poultry houses was 114 to 230 &mgr;g/m3, which was higher than the safety value 10 specified by WHO. In fine particulate matter, the main bacteria at phylum level were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria, whereas the dominant phylum of fungus was Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Importantly, the relative abundances of Escherichia and Corynebacterium in the broiler houses were greater than those in layer houses. However, the percentages of Aspergillus and Penicillium were 13.5 and 0.56%, with a relatively high level in the layer houses. Altogether, results revealed that the ambient air quality in the poultry houses sampled had a relatively high abundance of conditional pathogenic bacteria and concentration of fine particulate matter, which could threaten the health of animals and workers in those environments.