Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extremes of the jet-accretion power relation of blazars, as explored by NuSTAR

Hard X-ray observations are crucial to study the non-thermal jet emission from high-redshift, powerful blazars. We observed two bright z > 2 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) in hard X-rays to explore the details of their relativistic jets and their possible variability. S5 0014+81 (at z = 3.366) and B0222+185 (at z = 2.690) have been observed twice by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) simultaneously with Swift/X-ray Telescope, showing different variability behaviours. We found that NuSTAR is instrumental to explore the variability of powerful high-redshift blazars, even when no γ-ray emission is detected. The two sources have proven to have respectively the most luminous accretion disc and the most powerful jet among known blazars. Thanks to these properties, they are located at the extreme end of the jet–accretion disc relation previously found for γ–ray detected blazars, to which they are consistent.
Different levels of work-related stress and the effects on sleep, fatigue and cortisol.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to relate different levels of work stress to measures of sleep and the diurnal pattern of salivary cortisol and subjective sleepiness. METHODS Thirty-four white-collar workers participated under two different conditions. One workweek with a relatively high stress level (H) and one with a lower stress level (L) as measured through self-rated stress during workdays. The workers wore activity monitors, filled out a sleep diary, gave saliva samples (for cortisol), and rated their sleepiness and stress during one workday and one free day. RESULTS During the week with stress the number of workhours increased and total sleep time decreased. Sleepiness showed a significant interaction between weeks and time of day, with particularly high levels towards the evenings of the stress week. Cortisol also showed a significant interaction, with a more flattened pattern, probably due to increased evening levels during the stress week. Stress (restlessness) at bedtime was significantly increased during the stress week. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that a workweek with a high workload and much stress increases sleepiness and workhours, impairs sleep, and affects the pattern of diurnal cortisol secretion.
Dural ectasia in individuals with Marfan‐like features but exclusion of mutations in the genes FBN1, TGFBR1 and TGFBR2

Sheikhzadeh S, Rybczynski M, Habermann CR, Bernhardt AMJ, Arslan‐Kirchner M, Keyser B, Kaemmerer H, Mir TS, Staebler A, Oezdal N, Robinson PN, Berger J, Meinertz T, von Kodolitsch Y. Dural ectasia in individuals with Marfan‐like features but exclusion of mutations in the genes FBN1, TGFBR1 and TGFBR2.
Parental Smoking During Pregnancy and ADHD in Children: The Danish National Birth Cohort

BACKGROUND: Prenatal maternal smoking has been associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, but the causal nature of this association is still under scrutiny. We examined the association with maternal smoking and nicotine replacement use during pregnancy, using association with paternal smoking as a marker of potential genetic or social confounding. METHODS: We included 84 803 singletons who participated in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Information on parental smoking was reported by the mothers during pregnancy. Children with ADHD were identified from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register, the Danish National Patient Register, and the Register of Medicinal Product Statistics by the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision diagnosis or medication. We also used hyperactivity/inattention score of the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, included in the 7-year follow-up of the National Birth Cohort. RESULTS: Maternal and paternal smoking during pregnancy were associated with an elevated risk of ADHD defined by hospital diagnosis, medication, and hyperactivity/inattention score, but the association was stronger for maternal smoking than for paternal smoking. Compared with children born to nonsmoking mothers and smoking fathers, children born of smoking mothers and nonsmoking fathers had a higher risk of ADHD (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.26; 95% confidence interval, 1.03 to 1.53). We also saw a higher risk of ADHD in children of mothers who used nicotine replacement during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the association between prenatal maternal smoking and ADHD may overestimate a causal link, but nicotine exposure or related factors may still play a causal role.
Choice of statistical method influences apparent association between structure and function in glaucoma.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to explore how different statistical methods may lead to inconsistent inferences about the association between structure and function in glaucoma. METHODS Two datasets from published studies were selected for their illustrative value. The first consisted of measurements of neuroretinal rim area in the superior-temporal sector paired with the corresponding visual field sensitivity. The second consisted of measurements of average retinal nerve fiber layer thickness over all sectors paired with the corresponding visual field sensitivity. Statistical methods included linear and segmented regression, and a nonparametric local-linear fit known as loess. The analyses were repeated with all measurements expressed as percent of mean normal. RESULTS Slopes from linear fits to the data changed by a factor of 10 depending on the linear regression method applied. Inferences about whether structural abnormality precedes functional abnormality varied with the statistical design and the units of measure used. CONCLUSIONS The apparent association between structure and function in glaucoma, and consequent interpretation, varies with the statistical method and units of measure. Awareness of the limitations of any statistical analysis is necessary to avoid finding spurious results that ultimately may lead to inadequate clinical recommendations.
Compensatory Regulation of Dopamine after Ablation of the Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene in the Nigrostriatal Projection*

Background: The tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene, essential for dopamine synthesis, is partially ablated in adult nigrostriatal projection. Results: TH reduction in axon terminals is slower than in soma, and dopamine is better maintained than TH. Conclusion: Striatal dopamine is compensatorily regulated by axonal TH level and l-DOPA synthesis activity per TH level. Significance: This regulation has potential relevance to pathogenesis of Parkinson disease and other dopamine-related psychiatric disorders. The tyrosine hydroxylase (TH; EC 1.14.16.2) is a rate-limiting enzyme in the dopamine synthesis and important for the central dopaminergic system, which controls voluntary movements and reward-dependent behaviors. Here, to further explore the regulatory mechanism of dopamine levels by TH in adult mouse brains, we employed a genetic method to inactivate the Th gene in the nigrostriatal projection using the Cre-loxP system. Stereotaxic injection of adeno-associated virus expressing Cre recombinase (AAV-Cre) into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), where dopaminergic cell bodies locate, specifically inactivated the Th gene. Whereas the number of TH-expressing cells decreased to less than 40% in the SNc 2 weeks after the AAV-Cre injection, the striatal TH protein level decreased to 75%, 50%, and 39% at 2, 4, and 8 weeks, respectively, after the injection. Thus, unexpectedly, the reduction of TH protein in the striatum, where SNc dopaminergic axons innervate densely, was slower than in the SNc. Moreover, despite the essential requirement of TH for dopamine synthesis, the striatal dopamine contents were only moderately decreased, to 70% even 8 weeks after AAV-Cre injection. Concurrently, in vivo synthesis activity of l-dihydroxyphenylalanine, the dopamine precursor, per TH protein level was augmented, suggesting up-regulation of dopamine synthesis activity in the intact nigrostriatal axons. Collectively, our conditional Th gene targeting method demonstrates two regulatory mechanisms of TH in axon terminals for dopamine homeostasis in vivo: local regulation of TH protein amount independent of soma and trans-axonal regulation of apparent l-dihydroxyphenylalanine synthesis activity per TH protein.
A comparison of spatial and temporal patterns in epiphytic macroalgal assemblages of the seagrasses Amphibolis griffithii and Posidonia coriacea

Studies of patterns in assemblages of epiphytic macroalgae growing on seagrasses have largely focussed at the scale of leaves or shoots. Few have examined patterns at larger spatial scales or the influence of host seagrass type on these patterns, despite interest in monitoring changes in epiphyte composition that can lead to the death of seagrasses. We studied spatial pat- terns in assemblages of epiphytic macroalgae on 2 seagrass species with different morphologies and longevity, Amphibolis griffithii and Posidonia coriacea, which co-occur on Success Bank, West- ern Australia. Epiphyte assemblages were described for each species at a hierarchy of spatial scales (sites separated by 10s, 100s and 1000s m) in summer and winter. At all locations and at both times, A. griffithii supported a higher species richness. A total of 91 taxa were recorded on A. griffithii and 70 on P. coriacea. Both seagrass species showed strong temporal patterns in their epiphyte macro- algal assemblages, but this was stronger in P. coriacea. For A. griffithii spatial variation was the dominant pattern. Epiphyte assemblages of the 2 seagrasses displayed striking differences in pat- terns of dissimilarity at different spatial scales. For A. griffithii, Bray-Curtis dissimilarity (D) among pairs of samples progressively increased with increasing spatial scale (D = 0.31, 0.37 and 0.47 at scales of 10s, 100s and 1000s m, respectively). For P. coriacea, the differences among samples sepa- rated by 10s m or 100s m were relatively small (0.29 and 0.32, respectively), but the differences among samples 1000s m apart were much greater (0.52). We suggest that the differences in spatial and temporal patterns between species of seagrass may reflect an interaction of timescales of seagrass longevity with timescales of algal reproductive biology and the dispersal ranges of algal propagules. Due to the high turnover of P. coriacea leaves, the assemblages present at any given time are strongly influenced by recent recruitment events. The epiphytic assemblage of long-lived A. griffithii integrates a much longer period of recruitment, so that recent events may produce comparatively smaller shifts in composition. The longevity of A. griffithii may also permit local reinforcement of existing assemblages, so that differences in assemblage structure increase with spatial scale. The high turnover of P. coriacea leaves results in less opportunity for an assemblage to reinforce its presence, so patterns at the smaller scales are comparatively weaker. Strong patterns across km are more likely to be the result of environmental gradients. Patchiness within these gradients leads to complex, many layered spatial patterns.
ZipTx: Harnessing Partial Packets in 802.11 Networks

Current wireless protocols retransmit any packet that fails the checksum test, even when most of the bits are correctly received. Prior work has recognized this inefficiency, however the proposed solutions (e.g., PPR, HARQ and SOFT) require changes to the hardware and physical layer, and hence are not usable in today's WLANs and mesh networks. They are further tested in channels with fixed modulation and coding, whereas production 802.11 networks adapt their modulation and codes to maximize their ability to correct erroneous bits. This paper makes two key contributions: 1) it introduces ZipTx, a software-only solution that harvests the gains from using correct bits in corrupted packets using existing hardware, and 2) it characterizes the true gains of partially correct packets for the entire range of operation of 802.11 networks, and in the presence of adaptive modulation and error correcting codes. We implement ZipTx as a driver extension and evaluate our implementation in both outdoor and indoor environments, showing that ZipTx significantly improves the throughput.
Damage-induced BRCA1 phosphorylation by Chk2 contributes to the timing of end resection

The BRCA1 tumor suppressor plays an important role in homologous recombination (HR)-mediated DNA double-strand-break (DSB) repair. BRCA1 is phosphorylated by Chk2 kinase upon γ-irradiation, but the role of Chk2 phosphorylation is not understood. Here, we report that abrogation of Chk2 phosphorylation on BRCA1 delays end resection and the dispersion of BRCA1 from DSBs but does not affect the assembly of Mre11/Rad50/NBS1 (MRN) and CtIP at DSBs. Moreover, we show that BRCA1 is ubiquitinated by SCFSkp2 and that abrogation of Chk2 phosphorylation impairs its ubiquitination. Our study suggests that BRCA1 is more than a scaffold protein to assemble HR repair proteins at DSBs, but that Chk2 phosphorylation of BRCA1 also serves as a built-in clock for HR repair of DSBs. BRCA1 is known to inhibit Mre11 nuclease activity. SCFSkp2 activity appears at late G1 and peaks at S/G2, and is known to ubiquitinate phosphodegron motifs. The removal of BRCA1 from DSBs by SCFSkp2-mediated degradation terminates BRCA1-mediated inhibition of Mre11 nuclease activity, allowing for end resection and restricting the initiation of HR to the S/G2 phases of the cell cycle.
Security Notions for Bidirectional Channels

This paper closes a definitional gap in the context of modeling cryptographic two-party channels. We note that, while most security models for channels consider exclusively unidirectional communication, real-world protocols like TLS and SSH are rather used for bidirectional interaction. The motivational question behind this paper is: Can analyses conducted with the unidirectional setting in mind—including the current ones for TLS and SSH—also vouch for security in the case of bidirectional channel usage? And, in the first place, what does security in the bidirectional setting actually mean? After developing confidentiality and integrity notions for bidirectional channels, we analyze a standard way of combining two unidirectional channels to realize one bidirectional channel. Although it turns out that this construction is, in general, not as secure as commonly believed, we confirm that for many practical schemes security is provided also in the bidirectional sense.
Context-aware modeling of neuronal morphologies

Neuronal morphologies are pivotal for brain functioning: physical overlap between dendrites and axons constrain the circuit topology, and the precise shape and composition of dendrites determine the integration of inputs to produce an output signal. At the same time, morphologies are highly diverse and variant. The variance, presumably, originates from neurons developing in a densely packed brain substrate where they interact (e.g., repulsion or attraction) with other actors in this substrate. However, when studying neurons their context is never part of the analysis and they are treated as if they existed in isolation. Here we argue that to fully understand neuronal morphology and its variance it is important to consider neurons in relation to each other and to other actors in the surrounding brain substrate, i.e., their context. We propose a context-aware computational framework, NeuroMaC, in which large numbers of neurons can be grown simultaneously according to growth rules expressed in terms of interactions between the developing neuron and the surrounding brain substrate. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate that by using NeuroMaC we can generate accurate virtual morphologies of distinct classes both in isolation and as part of neuronal forests. Accuracy is validated against population statistics of experimentally reconstructed morphologies. We show that context-aware generation of neurons can explain characteristics of variation. Indeed, plausible variation is an inherent property of the morphologies generated by context-aware rules. We speculate about the applicability of this framework to investigate morphologies and circuits, to classify healthy and pathological morphologies, and to generate large quantities of morphologies for large-scale modeling.
Synchronization of nonlinear systems over intranet: Cart-pendulum case study

The master-slave synchronization problem for two cart-pendulum systems when both measurement and control signals are transmitted via intranet communication channel is examined. The speed-gradient method for exciting master system and linear state feedback for slave system is used. Theoretical analysis is performed by the nonlinear extension of Fridman's method. Experimental results are presented for a cart-pendulum system constructed from Lego. Theoretical bound for sampling interval guaranteeing synchronization is about h=0.1 sec. Such bounds are positive for control over intranet and very negative for control over internet. However experiments show that real values of the communication delays are even bigger.
Changing risk of environmental Campylobacter exposure with emerging poultry production systems in Ethiopia

SUMMARY Campylobacter is a leading cause of diarrhoea, and its presence in chickens is a significant risk for zoonotic infection. Poultry production is becoming increasingly intensive in Ethiopia and is incorporating more high-producing breeds into traditionally managed smallholdings, especially in peri-urban areas. This cross-sectional study sampled 219 household environments in one peri-urban and two rural areas of Ethiopia, and an additional 20 semi-intensive farms in the peri-urban district. Campylobacter was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-specific assays in 44 samples; 16 of which could be identified as C. jejuni. Flocks in the peri-urban area were at significantly greater odds of detection, including those which only kept indigenous birds under a scavenging system. It was also noted that scavenging flocks of exotic high-production birds (Rhode Island Red) were at slightly greater risk, perhaps as exotic birds are under more stress when kept under traditional management systems. We suggest that changes to the system of chicken production may alter the ecology and epidemiology of Campylobacter in the environment, chickens and people, which may drive emergence of new epidemiological patterns of disease. Further research is needed to determine the extent to which the current management intensification and the distribution programmes of exotic and/or improved indigenous birds may alter Campylobacter epidemiology, ecology and public health risk, before their widespread adoption.
Antiquity of MicroRNAs and Their Targets in Land Plantsw⃞

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) affect the morphology of flowering plants by the posttranscriptional regulation of genes involved in critical developmental events. Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of miRNA activity during development is therefore central for understanding miRNA functions. We describe a microarray suitable for detection of plant miRNAs. Profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana miRNAs during normal development extends previous expression analyses, highlighting differential expression of miRNA families within specific organs and tissue types. Comparison of our miRNA expression data with existing mRNA microarray data provided a global intersection of plant miRNA and mRNA expression profiles and revealed that tissues in which a given miRNA is highly expressed are unlikely to also show high expression of the corresponding targets. Expression profiling was also used in a phylogenetic survey to test the depth of plant miRNA conservation. Of the 23 families of miRNAs tested, expression of 11 was detected in a gymnosperm and eight in a fern, directly demonstrating that many plant miRNAs have remained essentially unchanged since before the emergence of flowering plants. We also describe an empirical strategy for detecting miRNA target genes from unsequenced transcriptomes and show that targets in nonflowering plants as deeply branching as ferns and mosses are homologous to the targets in Arabidopsis. Therefore, several individual miRNA regulatory circuits have ancient origins and have remained intact throughout the evolution and diversification of plants.
Sex-Related Differences in the Effects of Sleep Habits on Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory

Poor sleep quality negatively affects memory performance, and working memory in particular. We investigated sleep habits related to sleep quality including sleep duration, daytime nap duration, nap frequency, and dream content recall frequency (DCRF). Declarative working memory can be subdivided into verbal working memory (VWM) and visuospatial working memory (VSWM). We hypothesized that sleep habits would have different effects on VWM and VSWM. To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate differences between VWM and VSWM related to daytime nap duration, nap frequency, and DCRF. Furthermore, we tested the hypothesis that the effects of duration and frequency of daytime naps and DCRF on VWM and VSWM differed according to sex. We assessed 779 healthy right-handed individuals (434 males and 345 females; mean age: 20.7 ± 1.8 years) using a digit span forward and backward VWM task, a forward and backward VSWM task, and sleep habits scales. A correlation analysis was used to test the relationships between VWM capacity (VWMC) and VSWM capacity (VSWMC) scores and sleep duration, nap duration, nap frequency, and DCRF. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with VWMC and VSWMC scores and to identify sex-related differences. We found significant positive correlations between VSWMC and nap duration and DCRF, and between VWMC and sleep duration in all subjects. Furthermore, we found that working memory capacity (WMC) was positively correlated with nap duration in males and with sleep duration in females, and DCRF was positively correlated with VSWMC in females. Our finding of sex-related differences in the effects of sleep habits on WMC has not been reported previously. The associations between WMC and sleep habits differed according to sex because of differences in the underlying neural correlates of VWM and VSWM, and effectiveness of the sleep habits in males and females.
The onset of allergic rhinitis in Japanese atopic children: A preliminary prospective study

Abstract Conclusion: This preliminary prospective study suggests that background factors may differ among allergic diseases. The beneficial interventions for reducing development of allergic rhinitis (AR) are also effective for the prevention of subsequent onset of bronchial asthma (BA). Objective: To determine the risk factors associated with onset of AR in atopic children in a prospective study. Methods: All patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) or food allergy with or without BA who visited the Pediatric Unit of Chiba University Hospital from 2005 to 2006 were enrolled in the study and received allergy examinations every 3–6 months. Results: A total of 100 patients were followed up for more than 2 years. Among the 60 patients without BA at entry to the study, 12 developed BA during the follow-up period. Development of AR preceded BA in 10 of the 12 patients (83.3%). In the background factors at the entry, positive sensitization to house dust mite (HDM) was significantly related to development of BA. Among the 48 patients without AR, 20 developed AR. High titers of serum HDM-specific IgE and high eosinophil counts in blood, and detection of eosinophils in nasal smears at the entry were significantly related to development of AR.