Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coordinating the overall stomatal response of plants: Rapid leaf-to-leaf communication during light stress

Light stress in one part of a plant is communicated to other leaves to coordinate stomatal responses. Sending a canopy-wide message A stress experienced by one part of a plant can be transmitted to other parts of the plant not directly exposed to the stress. Although not all leaves in the canopy of a plant may be exposed to light at the same time, it is beneficial to coordinate the closure of pores in leaves called stomata to prevent desiccation. Devireddy et al. showed that a wave of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Ca2+ enabled leaves experiencing light stress in Arabidopsis thaliana plants to trigger stomatal closure in leaves not exposed to light. Stomatal closure required abscisic acid in light-stressed leaves and jasmonic acid in nonexposed leaves, hormones previously implicated in stomatal closure. This coordinated and dynamic response may enable plants to acclimate to light stress. The plant canopy functions as an aerial array of light-harvesting antennas. To achieve maximal yield, each leaf within this array and the array as a whole need to rapidly adjust to naturally occurring fluctuations in light intensity and quality. Excessive light stress triggers the closing of pores in leaves called stomata to minimize moisture loss. We found that different leaves within the canopy of an Arabidopsis thaliana plant, including leaves not directly exposed to light, coordinated stomatal closure in response to light stress by sending and receiving rapid systemic signals. This response required the plant hormones abscisic acid and jasmonic acid and was mediated by a rapid autopropagating wave of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Furthermore, this response depended on the function of genes encoding the ROS-generating NADPH oxidase RBOHD and various stomatal regulators, such as the anion channel SLAC1, GHR1 (guard cell hydrogen peroxide resistant 1), and lipoxygenase 1 (LOX1). Our findings reveal that plants function as highly dynamic and coordinated organisms, optimizing the overall response of their canopies to fluctuating light intensities.
Reduced Central Retinal Artery Blood Flow Is Related to Impaired Central Visual Function in Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients

ABSTRACT Purpose: We evaluated the test-retest repeatability of blood flow velocities in the retrobulbar central retinal artery (CRA) and explored whether reduced blood flow is related to the degree of visual function loss in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients with wide range of disease severity. Materials and Methods: We measured CRA peak systolic velocity (PSV) and end diastolic velocity (EDV) to calculate mean flow velocity (MFV) in 18 RP patients using color Doppler imaging with spectral flow Doppler (GE Logiq7 ultrasound) twice in each eye at each of two visits within a month. At each of these two visits, we measured ETDRS visual acuity (VA), quick Contrast Sensitivity Function (qCSF), Goldmann visual fields (GVF), 10–2 Humphrey visual fields (HVF), and dark-adaptation at 5° from fixation with the AdaptDx; multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) was obtained at a single visit. Results: Mean coefficients of variation for PSV, EDV and MFV were 16.1–19.2% for within-visit measurements and 20.1–22.4% for between-visit measures. Across patients, greater visual function loss assessed with VA (p = 0.04), extinguished versus measurable amplitude in ring 1 for mfERG (p = 0.001), and cone-only versus rod function with the AdaptDx (p = 0.002) were statistically significantly correlated with reduced MFV in the CRA when included a multilevel multivariate regression model along with the qCSF and HVF results, which all together accounted for 47% of the total variance in MFV. GVF log retinal areas (V4e and III4e; p = 0.30 and p = 0.95, respectively) and measurable far peripheral vision during GVF testing (p = 0.66) were not significantly related to MFV. Conclusions: MFV in the CRA decreased with impaired central vision due to loss of both rod and cone function, had good test-retest repeatability, and may serve as a biomarker outcome to determine the potential physiological basis for improvements in RP clinical trials of therapies with indirect effects on blood flow to the retina.
Topic Modeling Reveals Distinct Interests within an Online Conspiracy Forum

Conspiracy theories play a troubling role in political discourse. Online forums provide a valuable window into everyday conspiracy theorizing, and can give a clue to the motivations and interests of those who post in such forums. Yet this online activity can be difficult to quantify and study. We describe a unique approach to studying online conspiracy theorists which used non-negative matrix factorization to create a topic model of authors' contributions to the main conspiracy forum on Reddit.com. This subreddit provides a large corpus of comments which spans many years and numerous authors. We show that within the forum, there are multiple sub-populations distinguishable by their loadings on different topics in the model. Further, we argue, these differences are interpretable as differences in background beliefs and motivations. The diversity of the distinct subgroups places constraints on theories of what generates conspiracy theorizing. We argue that traditional “monological” believers are only the tip of an iceberg of commenters. Neither simple irrationality nor common preoccupations can account for the observed diversity. Instead, we suggest, those who endorse conspiracies seem to be primarily brought together by epistemological concerns, and that these central concerns link an otherwise heterogenous group of individuals.
Velocity tracking of a high-rise building elevator using PDF control

The control system design for a high-rise building elevator has been investigated in this study. For such a system, user ride comfort must be at an acceptable level while subjected to various disturbances in its operation. A nonlinear elevator model, including the DC motor and sensor sub-systems, was developed within the Simulink environment. The velocity of a 3200 kg elevator car, required to traverse a distance of 100 m in under 65 s, was the focus of the controller design. A baseline Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller was designed and its performance was compared with the proposed Pseudo-Derivative Feedback controller. Sensitivity to variations in the car mass was investigated to compare controller performance. Analysis of the time-domain parameters revealed that the Pseudo-Derivative Feedback controller achieved superior performance in rise time, settling time, total run time, sensitivity to variations in elevator car mass, disturbance rejection and tracking of the desired velocity signal.
Investigating Associative Learning Effects in Patients with Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease Using the Temporal Context Model

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate associative learning effects in patients with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (prAD) by referring to the Temporal Context Model (TCM; Howard, Jing, Rao, Provyn, & Datey, 2009), in an attempt to enhance the understanding of their associative memory impairment. TCM explains fundamental effects described in classical free-recall tasks and cued-recall tasks involving overlapping word pairs (e.g., A-B, B-C), namely (1) the contiguity effect, which is the tendency to successively recall nearby items in a list, and (2) the observation of backward (i.e., B-A) and transitive associations (i.e., A-C) between items. In TCM, these effects are hypothesized to rely on contextual representation, binding and retrieval processes, which supposedly depend on hippocampal and parahippocampal regions. As these regions are affected in prAD, the current study investigated whether prAD patients would show reduced proportions of backward and transitive associations in free and cued-recall, coupled to a reduced contiguity effect in free-recall. Seventeen older controls and 17 prAD patients performed a cued-recall task involving overlapping word pairs and a final free-recall task. Proportions of backward and transitive intrusions in cued-recall did not significantly differ between groups. However, in free-recall, prAD patients demonstrated a reduced contiguity effect as well as reduced proportions of backward and transitive associations compared to older controls. These findings are discussed within the hypothesis that the contextual representation, binding and/or retrieval processes are affected in prAD patients compared to healthy older individuals. (JINS, 2015, 21, 699–708)
Aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use reduce gastric cancer risk: A dose-response meta-analysis

Background The association between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and gastric cancer (GC) risk is controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the chemopreventive effect of NSAIDs for GC. Methods A literature search was performed for relevant studies using the PubMed and Embase database (up to March 2016). Risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used as the effect measures. The dose–response analysis and subgroup analysis were also performed. Results Twenty-four studies were included. Our results indicated that NSAIDs could reduce GC risk (any NSAIDs: RR=0.78, 96%CI=0.72-0.85; aspirin: RR=0.70, 95%CI=0.62-0.80; non-aspirin NSAIDs: RR=0.86, 95%CI=0.80-0.94), especially for non-cardia GC risk. Moreover, the dose-response analysis indicated the risk of GC decreased by 11% and 5% for 2 years increment of any NSAIDs and aspirin use, respectively. There were nonlinear relationships between the frequency of any NSAIDs use and aspirin use and GC risk (P for non-linearity<0.01), with a threshold effect of 5 times/week. A monotonically decreasing trend was observed only for the frequency of less than 5 times/week. Conclusions Our results indicate that NSAIDs is inversely associated with GC risk, especially for non-cardia GC risk. NSAIDs use may become a feasible approach to prevent GC.
Failure Load Prediction of Composite Joints using Linear Analysis

With the wide application of fiber-reinforced composite materials in aero-structures, robotic arms, and mechanical parts, the design of composite joints has become a very important research area. In this article, linear finite element analyses in which the pin of the composite joint is assumed to be a frictionless rigid body are performed and the failure load of the mechanically fastened composite joint is predicted by the failure area index (FAI) method. From these analyses, it has been found that the FAI method can predict the failure loads of composite joints to within 20.1%.
Wrist Acceleration Cut Points for Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity in Youth

PurposeThis study aimed to examine the validity of wrist acceleration cut points for classifying moderate (MPA), vigorous (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) physical activity. MethodsFifty-seven children (5–12 yr) completed 15 semistructured activities. Three sets of wrist cut points (>192 mg, >250 mg, and >314 mg), previously developed using Euclidian norm minus one (ENMO192+), GENEActiv software (GENEA250+), and band-pass filter followed by Euclidian norm (BFEN314+), were evaluated against indirect calorimetry. Analyses included classification accuracy, equivalence testing, and Bland–Altman procedures. ResultsAll cut points classified MPA, VPA, and MVPA with substantial accuracy (ENMO192+: &kgr; = 0.72 [95% confidence interval = 0.72–0.73], MVPA: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) = 0.85 [0.85–0.86]; GENEA250+: &kgr; = 0.75 [0.74–0.76], MVPA: ROC-AUC = 0.85 [0.85–0.86]; BFEN314+: &kgr; = 0.73 [0.72–0.74], MVPA: ROC-AUC = 0.86 [0.86–0.87]). BFEN314+ misclassified 19.7% non-MVPA epochs as MPA, whereas ENMO192+ and GENEA250+ misclassified 32.6% and 26.5% of MPA epochs as non-MVPA, respectively. Group estimates of MPA time were equivalent (P < 0.01) to indirect calorimetry for the BFEN314+ MPA cut point (mean bias = −1.5%, limits of agreement [LoA] = −57.5% to 60.6%), whereas estimates of MVPA time were equivalent (P < 0.01) to indirect calorimetry for the ENMO192+ (mean bias = −1.1%, LoA = −53.7% to 55.9%) and GENEA250+ (mean bias = 2.2%, LoA = −56.5% to 52.2%) cut points. Individual variability (LoA) was large for MPA (min: BFEN314+, −60.6% to 57.5%; max: GENEA250+, −42.0% to 104.1%), VPA (min: BFEN314+, −238.9% to 54.6%; max: ENMO192+, −244.5% to 127.4%), and MVPA (min: ENMO192+, −53.7% to 55.0%; max: BFEN314+, −83.9% to 25.3%). ConclusionWrist acceleration cut points misclassified a considerable proportion of non-MVPA and MVPA. Group-level estimates of MVPA were acceptable; however, error for individual-level prediction was larger.
Informal care for people with chronic psychotic symptoms: four case studies in a San community in South Africa

Despite the internationally recognised importance of informal care, especially in settings with limited services, few studies focus on the informal care for people with mental health problems in low- and middle-income countries. Making informal care visible is important for understanding the challenges and identifying the needs to be addressed. This ethnographic case study explored the dynamics of informal care for people with chronic psychotic symptoms in a group of San living in poor socioeconomic circumstances in a township near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. Data were collected in 2013 and 2014 and included semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and observations. Using local terminology, four individuals with chronic psychotic symptoms were identified and selected during the research process. A total of 33 semi-structured interviews took place with their caregivers. Data were analysed using descriptive, interpretive and pattern coding to identify core themes and interrelations across the four cases. Results indicate that informal care is characterised by shared and fragmented care structures. Care was shared among family members from various households and unrelated community members. This allowed for an adaptive process that responded to local dynamics and the care recipients' needs. However, informal care was fragmented as it was generally uncoordinated, which increased the recipients' vulnerability as caregivers could redirect care-giving responsibility and withdraw care. Specific challenges for providing care were related to poverty and care resistance. To improve the living conditions of people suffering from psychosis-related mental health problems, community-based mental healthcare should broaden its scope and incorporate local strengths and challenges.
Regional Difference of Causative Pollen in Children with Allergic Rhinitis

The aim of this study was to investigate role of common pollen in Korean school-aged children with allergic rhinitis (AR) in 5 provinces (Incheon Metropolitan City-Gyeonggi Province, Chungcheongbuk-do, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Busan Metropolitan City, and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province), using a questionnaire and skin prick test, and to assess the differences among the residential regions. Among the enrolled 14,678 total children, 1,641 (22.0%) had AR. The sensitization rate to pollen (38.7%) was the second highest among examined allergens and significant differences were in the sensitization rates to trees, weeds, and grasses among the 5 provinces (P < 0.05). The sensitization to trees (25.2%) was the highest common among the pollen types and significant differences also were observed in the sensitization rates to alder, birch, Japanese cedar, oak, and elm among the 5 provinces. The sensitization rate to weeds (19.9%) was the second highest and significant differences were observed in the sensitization rate to Japanese hop, mugwort, and ragweed among the 5 provinces. The sensitization rate to house dust mite was 86.8%, the highest among examined allergens and that to Dermatophagoides farinae exhibited regional differences (P = 0.003) but not to D. farinae (P = 0.584). The sensitization rate to mold (13.5%) was the highest in Jeju and lowest in Busan, and a statistically significant difference was detected among the 5 provinces. These results support that examined pollen allergens are strongly associated with residential region due to regional causative pollen differences among children with AR within Korea to investigate the main pollen allergens.
Axons of retinal ganglion cells are insulted in the optic nerve early in DBA/2J glaucoma

Here, we use a mouse model (DBA/2J) to readdress the location of insult(s) to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in glaucoma. We localize an early sign of axon damage to an astrocyte-rich region of the optic nerve just posterior to the retina, analogous to the lamina cribrosa. In this region, a network of astrocytes associates intimately with RGC axons. Using BAX-deficient DBA/2J mice, which retain all of their RGCs, we provide experimental evidence for an insult within or very close to the lamina in the optic nerve. We show that proximal axon segments attached to their cell bodies survive to the proximity of the lamina. In contrast, axon segments in the lamina and behind the eye degenerate. Finally, the Wlds allele, which is known to protect against insults to axons, strongly protects against DBA/2J glaucoma and preserves RGC activity as measured by pattern electroretinography. These experiments provide strong evidence for a local insult to axons in the optic nerve.
Nonlinear dynamic characteristics of a dielectric elastomer membrane undergoing in-plane deformation

This paper proposes a free energy model to study the dynamic characteristics of a dielectric elastomer membrane undergoing in-plane deformation, subject to the combined loads of a mechanical press and an electric field. The natural frequency of the small-amplitude perturbation around the state of equilibrium is calculated with focus on the damping effects and the resonance phenomenon. The numerical results, such as the oscillation, phase diagrams and Poincaré maps, are presented to show the influence of the damping on the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of the dielectric elastomer. The numerical results indicate that pre-stresses, damping effects and applied voltages could tune the natural frequency and modify the dynamic behavior of the dielectric elastomer. There is a stability transition when taking the damping effect into account. The damping effect could cause the dynamic responses to constant vibration and decrease the amplitude. These conclusions may guide the exploration of high-performance dielectric elastomers under dynamic mechanical and electrical loads.
Repair of Iron Centers RIC protein contributes to the virulence of Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT RICs are a family of bacterial proteins involved in the repair of iron centers containing proteins damaged by the antimicrobial reactive species liberated by the innate immune system of infected hosts. Staphylococcus aureus is a human pathogen with increasing antibiotic resistance that also contains a RIC-like protein. In this work, we show that the survival of S. aureus within macrophages decreases upon inactivation of ric, and that the viability was restored to levels similar to the wild-type strain by reintroduction of ric via in trans complementation. Importantly, in macrophages that do not produce reactive oxygen species, the lower survival of the ric mutant was no longer observed. In lung epithelial cells, the intracellular viability of the S. aureus ric mutant was also shown to be lower than that of the wild-type. The wax moth larvae Galleria mellonella infected with S. aureus ric mutant presented an approximately 2.5-times higher survival when compared to the wild-type strain. Moreover, significantly lower bacterial loads were determined in the larvae hemolymph infected with strains not expressing ric, and complementation assays confirmed that this behavior was related to RIC. Furthermore, expression of the S. aureus ric gene within the larvae increased along the course of infection with a ~20-fold increase after 8 h of infection. Altogether, the data show that RIC is important for the virulence of S. aureus.
Role played by the SP4 gene in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population

Background Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are likely to be caused by multiple susceptibility genes, each with small effects in increasing the risk of illness. Identifying DNA variants associated with schizophrenia and MDD is a crucial step in understanding the pathophysiology of these disorders. Aims To investigate whether the SP4 gene plays a significant role in schizophrenia or MDD in the Han Chinese population. Method We focused on nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) harbouring the SP4 gene and carried out case–control studies in 1235 patients with schizophrenia, 1045 patients with MDD and 1235 healthy controls recruited from the Han Chinese population. Results We found that rs40245 was significantly associated with schizophrenia in both allele and genotype distributions (P allele = 0.0005, P allele = 0.004 after Bonferroni correction; P genotype = 0.0023, P genotype = 0.0184 after Bonferroni correction). The rs6461563 SNP was significantly associated with schizophrenia in the allele distributions (P allele = 0.0033, P allele = 0.0264 after Bonferroni correction). Conclusions Our results suggest that common risk factors in the SP4 gene are associated with schizophrenia, although not with MDD, in the Han Chinese population.
Subdeterminant Maximization via Nonconvex Relaxations and Anti-Concentration

Several fundamental problems that arise in optimization and computer science can be cast as follows: Given vectors v_1,. ,v_m in R^d and a constraint family B of subsets of [m], find a set S in B that maximizes the squared volume of the simplex spanned by the vectors in S. A motivating example is the ubiquitous data-summarization problem in machine learning and information retrieval where one is given a collection of feature vectors that represent data such as documents or images. The volume of a collection of vectors is used as a measure of their diversity, and partition or matroid constraints over [m] are imposed in order to ensure resource or fairness constraints. Even with a simple cardinality constraint, the problem becomes NP-hard and has received much attention starting with a result by Khachiyan who gave an r^{O(r)} approximation algorithm for this problem. Recently, Nikolov and Singh presented a convex program and showed how it can be used to estimate the value of the most diverse set when there are multiple cardinality constraints (i.e., when B corresponds to a partition matroid). Their proof of the integrality gap of the convex program relied on an inequality by Gurvits, and was recently extended to regular matroids. The question of whether these estimation algorithms can be converted into the more useful approximation algorithms &#x2013; that also output a set &#x2013; remained open.The main contribution of this paper is to give the first approximation algorithms for both partition and regular matroids. We present novel formulations for the subdeterminant maximization problem for these matroids; this reduces them to the problem of finding a point that maximizes the absolute value of a nonconvex function over a Cartesian product of probability simplices. The technical core of our results is a new anti-concentration inequality for dependent random variables that arise from these functions which allows us to relate the optimal value of these nonconvex functions to their value at a random point. Unlike prior work on the constrained subdeterminant maximization problem, our proofs do not rely on real-stability or convexity and could be of independent interest both in algorithms and complexity where anti-concentration phenomena has recently been deployed.