Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breakdown of local information processing may underlie isoflurane anesthesia effects

The disruption of coupling between brain areas has been suggested as the mechanism underlying loss of consciousness in anesthesia. This hypothesis has been tested previously by measuring the information transfer between brain areas, and by taking reduced information transfer as a proxy for decoupling. Yet, information transfer is a function of the amount of information available in the information source—such that transfer decreases even for unchanged coupling when less source information is available. Therefore, we reconsidered past interpretations of reduced information transfer as a sign of decoupling, and asked whether impaired local information processing leads to a loss of information transfer. An important prediction of this alternative hypothesis is that changes in locally available information (signal entropy) should be at least as pronounced as changes in information transfer. We tested this prediction by recording local field potentials in two ferrets after administration of isoflurane in concentrations of 0.0%, 0.5%, and 1.0%. We found strong decreases in the source entropy under isoflurane in area V1 and the prefrontal cortex (PFC)—as predicted by our alternative hypothesis. The decrease in source entropy was stronger in PFC compared to V1. Information transfer between V1 and PFC was reduced bidirectionally, but with a stronger decrease from PFC to V1. This links the stronger decrease in information transfer to the stronger decrease in source entropy—suggesting reduced source entropy reduces information transfer. This conclusion fits the observation that the synaptic targets of isoflurane are located in local cortical circuits rather than on the synapses formed by interareal axonal projections. Thus, changes in information transfer under isoflurane seem to be a consequence of changes in local processing more than of decoupling between brain areas. We suggest that source entropy changes must be considered whenever interpreting changes in information transfer as decoupling.
Krüppel homologue 1 acts as a repressor and an activator in the transcriptional response to juvenile hormone in adult mosquitoes

Krüppel homologue 1 (Kr‐h1) is a zinc finger transcription factor that is upregulated in insects by juvenile hormone (JH) in metamorphosis and adult reproduction. The molecular function of Kr‐h1 in reproduction remains largely unknown. Here we report that AaKr‐h1 functions as an important transcription regulator in adult female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The amount of AaKr‐h1 protein increases with rising JH levels after adult emergence, reaches its peak at 48 h after eclosion, then decreases gradually and disappears after blood feeding. RNA interference (RNAi)‐mediated depletion of AaKr‐h1 substantially reduced egg production after blood feeding. Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation cloning approach, we identified in vivo AaKr‐h1 binding sites in previtellogenic female mosquitoes. Binding of AaKr‐h1 to the target genes correlated with its protein abundance. Interestingly, RNAi experiments indicated that AaKr‐h1 played distinct roles when it bound to individual target genes. For example, depletion of AaKr‐h1 led to substantial upregulation of AAEL005545 and AAEL004444, but also significantly decreased the expression of AAEL005957 and AAEL013177 when compared with the control mosquitoes. In summary, AaKr‐h1 directly binds to the regulatory regions of its target genes and acts as a transcriptional activator or a repressor in a promoter‐specific manner.
Mechanical and Spectroscopic Properties of Rice Husk Reinforced Polypropylene Composites: Effect of Sodium Hydroxide

Rice husk reinforced polypropylene-based composites were prepared by conventional compression molding. Composites contained 5-20% (by weight) of rice husk as the reinforcing agent. Then mechanical and spectroscopic properties of the composites were evaluated. Rice husk was also treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution (1% by weight) to investigate the effect of NaOH on the mechanical properties of the fabricated composites. Loading of rice husk revealed that mechanical properties of polypropylene based composites significantly improved. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the existence of hemicelluloses and lignin in the neat composite. Interfacial properties were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
Radiographic joint damage in early rheumatoid arthritis patients: comparing tocilizumab- and methotrexate-based treat-to-target strategies

Objective To evaluate the progression of erosions and joint space narrowing (JSN) in feet and hands in the U-Act-Early trial. Methods In this trial, 317 newly diagnosed DMARD-naïve RA patients initiated randomly tocilizumab, or step-up MTX or a combination of the two. Radiographs were scored at baseline and after 52 and 104 weeks using the Sharp-van der Heijde erosion and JSN score. Between the strategy arms, changes from baseline and the proportions of patients without radiographic progression (change from baseline ≤0) were compared. Results Mean changes from baseline in erosion and JSN scores for the whole study population were after 52 weeks 0.59 and 0.18 and after 104 weeks 0.70 and 0.50, respectively. For JSN, at both time points no differences in progression were found between strategies (P ⩾ 0.09). For erosions, the progression was significantly lower at week 104 in both tocilizumab arms when compared with the MTX arm ((p≤0.023). Less progression of erosions in the feet was found after 104 weeks in both tocilizumab arms (P ⩽ 0.046); this was not significant for the hands (P ⩾ 0.11). The proportion of patients without progression in erosions was higher in the tocilizumab arms at week 52 (tocilizumab plus MTX: 87%, P = 0.038; tocilizumab: 81%, P = 0.29) and 104 (tocilizumab plus MTX: 85%, P = 0.001; tocilizumab: 77%, P = 0.028), compared with the MTX arm (74 and 60%, respectively). Conclusion In DMARD-naïve early RA patients, initiating a tocilizumab-based treat-to-target strategy inhibits the progression of erosions, especially in the feet, more compared with initiation of a step-up MTX strategy. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01034137.
A New Circuit Topology for the Realization of Very Low Noise, High Stability Voltage Sources

A new topology for the realization of high-stability very low noise voltage references is presented. The topology relies on a self-biasing circuit configuration based on a low-noise operational amplifier (OA). The series connection of a number of forward-biased low-noise diodes is used as an internal reference for generating any desired output voltage. The circuit may include a temperature stabilization system for obtaining very high stability coupled to very low noise. As an example, a 5-V reference with an output power spectral density of as low as 22 nV√Hz at 100 mHz, 7 nV√Hz at 1 Hz, and less than 6 nV√Hz for frequencies larger than 10 Hz can be obtained with a temperature stability better than 15 V/°C (less than 3 ppm/°C).
Mood Dimensions Show Distinct Within-Subject Associations With Non-exercise Activity in Adolescents: An Ambulatory Assessment Study

Physical activity is known to preserve both physical and mental health. However, the physical activity levels of a large proportion of adolescents are insufficient. This is critical, since physical activity levels in youth have been shown to translate into adulthood. Whereas in adult populations, mood has been supposed to be one important psychological factor that drives physical activity in everyday life, this issue has been poorly studied in adolescent populations. Ambulatory Assessment is the state-of-the-art approach to investigate how mood and non-exercise activity fluctuate within persons in everyday life. Through assessments in real time and real life, this method provides ecological validity, bypassing several limitations of traditional assessment methods (e.g., recall biases). To investigate whether mood is associated with non-exercise activity in adolescents, we equipped a community-based sample comprising 113 participants, aged 12–17 years, with GPS-triggered e-diaries querying for valence, energetic arousal, and calmness, and with accelerometers continuously measuring physical activity in their everyday lives for 1 week. We excluded all acceleration data due to participants' exercise activities and thereafter we parameterized non-exercise activity as the mean value across 10-min intervals of movement acceleration intensity following each e-diary prompt. We used multilevel analyses to compute the effects of the mood dimensions on non-exercise activity within 10-min intervals directly following each e-diary prompt. Additionally, we conducted explorative analyses of the time course of the effects, i.e., on different timeframes of non-exercise activity up to 300 min following the mood assessment. The results showed that valence (p < 0.001) and energetic arousal (p < 0.001) were positively associated with non-exercise activity within the 10 min interval, whereas calmness (p < 0.001) was negatively associated with non-exercise activity. Specifically, adolescents who felt more content, full of energy, or less calm were more physically active in subsequent timeframes. Overall, our results demonstrate significant associations of mood with non-exercise activity in younger ages and converge with the previously observed association between mood and physical activity in adults. This knowledge on distinct associations of mood-dimensions with non-exercise activity may help to foster physical activity levels in adolescents.
RNAi mediated gene silencing of ITPA using a targeted nanocarrier: Apoptosis induction in SKBR3 cancer cells

A pure nucleotide pool is required for high‐fidelity DNA replication and prevention of carcinogenesis in living cells. Human inosine triphosphatase (ITPase), encoded by the ITPA gene, plays a critical role in maintaining the purity of the cellular nucleotide pool by excluding nucleotides that enhance mutagenesis. ITPase is a nucleoside triphosphate pyrophosphatase that hydrolyzes the non‐canonical nucleotides inosine triphosphate (ITP) and xanthine triphosphate (XTP). The monophosphate products of ITPase reactions are subsequently excluded from the nucleotide pool and the improper substitution of ITP and XTP into DNA and RNA is prevented. Previous studies show that deficiency in ITPA can suppress cellular growth and enhance DNA instability. In this study, we evaluated the influence of effective ITPA down‐regulation on the induction of apoptosis in a human cancer cell line using folate‐single wall nanotubes (SWNT) as a targeted nanocarrier. We assessed whether SWNT enhances IPTA‐siRNA transfection efficiency in cancer cells using folate as a homing device. Since folate receptor is considerably overexpressed in cancer cells, conjugation of SWNTs to folate could enhance their cancer‐specific penetrance. We found that nanocarrier mediated ITPA‐siRNA transfection into SKBR3 cells caused significant reduction of ITPA mRNA expression level and complete down‐regulation of the ITPase protein product. The silencing of ITPA led to promotion of apoptosis in SWNT‐treated SKBR3 cancer cells.
Full title 3 4 A mutation in Tpst 2 encoding tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase causes dwarfism 5 associated with hypothyroidism 6 7 Abbreviated title : Tpst 2 mutation causes hypothyroidism 8 9

Title A mutation in Tpst2 encoding tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase causes dwarfism associated with hypothyroidism. Author(s) Sasaki, Nobuya; Hosoda, Yayoi; Nagata, Aogu; Ding, Ming; Cheng, Ji-Ming; Miyamoto, Tomomi; Okano, Shinya; Asano, Atsushi; Miyoshi, Ichiro; Agui, Takashi Citation Molecular Endocrinology, 21(7): 1713-1721 Issue Date 2007-07 Doc URL http://hdl.handle. net/2115/26433 Type article (author version)
Development and validation of HPLC methods for analysis of chlorantraniliprole insecticide in technical and commercial formulations

ABSTRACT Effective, selective, precise and accurate liquid chromatographic analytical methods for the analysis of a novel chlorantraniliprole insecticide in technical and formulation (coragen, 20% SC) have been optimized and validated. Eight methods were designed based on different mobile phases, temperature and two HPLC columns. The mobile phase consists of two mixtures (acetonitrile:water, 70:30 and methanol:water, 70:30) with 25 or 40ºC. HPLC analysis of chlorantraniliprole was carried out at a wavelength of 260 nm, with a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The calibration curves showed a good linear relationship (R2 ˃ 0.99) in the injected quantities ranged from 0.0125 to 1.00 μg. Limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 3.94 to 14.56 ng and from 5.95 to 12.93 ng using the analytical methods I to IV by MicroPack CN-10 and V-VIII by ZORBAX Eclips Plus C18 columns, respectively, based on SDslope values. ZORBAX Eclips Plus C18 column with method VI was the best one (R2 = 1.00 and RSD = 0.30), short retention time (4.936 min), high theoretical plates per column (65457.15) compared to others and LOD = 6.49 ng. The accuracy of the best method was demonstrated by recovery rates of 83.04% to 98.50% for grape samples supplemented with 5, 10 and 50 mg chlorantraniliprole/kg.
Differentiated Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia-like and Lichen Sclerosus-like Lesions in HPV-associated Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Vulva

Most human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated vulvar squamous cell carcinomas (VSCCs) originate from high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, also named usual type vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia. However, growing evidence suggests that morphologic studies have limitations in predicting HPV status in vulvar lesions. We aimed to evaluate adjacent intraepithelial lesions in a series of DNA HPV-positive VSCCs, focusing on unusual histologic patterns mimicking differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (dVIN) or lichen sclerosus (LS). We identified 326 DNA HPV-positive VSCC with at least 1 cm of skin adjacent to the invasive tumor and analyzed HPV typing, HPV E6*I mRNA, and p16 immunohistochemistry in all cases. A careful histologic evaluation was conducted. A conclusive association with HPV was based on a positive p16 or HPV E6*I mRNA result or both in addition to the HPV DNA, whereas cases negative for both markers were classified as nonconclusively associated with HPV. One hundred twenty-one tumors (37.1%) had normal adjacent skin, 191 (58.6%) had only high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, also named usual type vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia, and unusual intraepithelial lesions were identified in 14 (4.3%) tumors. Seven cases showed dVIN-like features, 5 showed adjacent LS-like lesion, and in 2 cases dVIN-like and LS-like lesions were identified simultaneously. Six of them were conclusively associated with HPV (3 dVIN-like, 2 LS-like, 1 with combined dVIN/LS-like features). All 6 tumors were associated with HPV16 and were positive for both p16 and HPV mRNA, and p16 was also positive in the dVIN-like and LS-like lesions. In summary, a small subset of VSCCs conclusively associated with HPV may arise on intraepithelial lesions, mimicking precursors of HPV-independent VSCC.
Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants

Children exposed to bilingual input typically learn 2 languages without obvious difficulties. However, it is unclear how preverbal infants cope with the inconsistent input and how bilingualism affects early development. In 3 eye-tracking studies we show that 7-month-old infants, raised with 2 languages from birth, display improved cognitive control abilities compared with matched monolinguals. Whereas both monolinguals and bilinguals learned to respond to a speech or visual cue to anticipate a reward on one side of a screen, only bilinguals succeeded in redirecting their anticipatory looks when the cue began signaling the reward on the opposite side. Bilingual infants rapidly suppressed their looks to the first location and learned the new response. These findings show that processing representations from 2 languages leads to a domain-general enhancement of the cognitive control system well before the onset of speech.
Induced abortion and breast cancer

Abstract Different epidemiological studies have indicated conflicting information about the association of induced abortion (IA) with breast cancer risk. A recent meta-analysis with prospective evidences did not support the positive association between IA and breast cancer risk. Thus, we in our meta-analysis study have tried to analyze this specific association. We searched all relevant articles from an English-language literature using Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane databases, until December 10, 2016. All the statistical analyses were performed on case–control studies, using Review Manager Software 5.3 (Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK). Our meta-analysis results based on 25 studies, including 5 studies with Chinese patients, indicated that there was no association of IA with breast cancer (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 0.98–1.19, P = .1). However, significant heterogeneity was observed, and thus further subgroup analyses were conducted. The combined OR of subjects with only 1-time IA was 1.03, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.18, P = . 63, while for subjects with 2 or more IAs, it was 1.06, 95% CI 0.86 to 1.30, P = . 58. In addition, the ORs of subjects, with 1st IA age either less than 30 or older than 30, were 1.05, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.26, P = . 59, and 1.18, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.49, P = . 17, respectively. These observations indicated that number of IAs and the age of 1st IA were not associated with breast cancer risk. Due to lack of dose–response relationships, it is difficult to say if number of IAs contributed into statistical heterogeneity. But after subgroup analysis, the age at the 1st IA appeared to impact the statistical heterogeneity. The different reproductive history appears to account for the high heterogeneity among individual studies. Also analysis of nulliparous women showed no significant difference in the association of IA and breast cancer (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 0.86–1.21, P = .85). However, parous women had higher IA rate in case group than control group (OR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.02–1.20, P = .01). Ethnicities might also result in high heterogeneity; thus, we conducted subgroup analyses on Chinese subjects, importantly, with 5 studies having Chinese patients, and did not observe any difference in the incidence of IA and its association with breast cancer between case and control groups (OR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.97–1.13, P = .21). After subgroup analysis, our study showed that IA might increase the risk of breast cancer in parous women, but in the nulliparous, IA was not significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
Value of magnetic resonance images in preoperative staging and resectability assessment of pancreatic cancer

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the clinical value of magnetic resonance images (MRI) in preoperative staging and resectability evaluation of pancreatic cancer. Materials and Methods: Thirty-one pancreatic cancer patients who received operation from January 2012 to May 2017 were included in this study. The upper abdominal MRI of 31 cases were analyzed retrospectively. The results of operation and pathology were compared to evaluate the correlation between MRI staging and postoperative pathological staging of pancreatic cancer. Results: According to pathological staging, there were 12 cases of Stage I, 13 cases of Stage II, 4 cases of Stage III, and 2 case of Stage IV. However, for preoperative MRI stage, there were 13 cases of Stage I, 14 cases of Stage II, 4 cases of Stage III. In addition, there was no significant difference in the distribution frequency of pathological staging and MRI staging (P > 0.05). This finding indicated that the results of MRI staging were consistent with that of postoperative pathological staging. The pathology I/II or III/IV stage of pancreatic cancer patients could be predicted with preoperative abdominal MRI detection, with the sensitivity of 1.00 and the specificity of 0.67. Conclusion: MRI was clinically significant in preoperative staging and resectability assessment of pancreatic carcinoma.
Performance Analysis of Quaternion-Valued Adaptive Filters in Nonstationary Environments

Quaternion adaptive filters have been widely used for the processing of three-dimensional (3-D) and 4-D phenomena, but complete analysis of their performance is still lacking, partly due to the cumbersomeness of multivariate quaternion analysis. This causes difficulties in both understanding their behavior and designing optimal filters. Based on a thorough exploration of the augmented statistics of quaternion random vectors, this paper extends an analysis framework for real-valued adaptive filters to the mean and mean square convergence analyses of general quaternion adaptive filters in nonstationary environments. The extension is nontrivial, considering the noncommutative quaternion algebra, only recently resolved issues with quaternion gradient, and the multidimensional augmented quaternion statistics. Also, for rigor, in order to model a nonstationary environment, the system weights are assumed to vary according to a first-order random-walk model. Transient and steady-state performance of a general class of quaternion adaptive filters is provided by exploiting the augmented quaternion statistics. An innovative quaternion decorrelation technique allows us to develop intuitive closed-form expressions for the performance of quaternion least mean square (QLMS) filters with Gaussian inputs, which provide new insights into the relationship between the filter behavior and the complete second-order statistics of the input signal, that is, quaternion noncircularity. The closed-form expressions for the performance of strictly linear, semiwidely linear, and widely linear QLMS filters are investigated in detail, while numerical simulations for the three classes of QLMS filters with correlated Gaussian inputs support the theoretical analysis.
When Coding Style Survives Compilation: De-anonymizing Programmers from Executable Binaries

The ability to identify authors of computer programs based on their coding style is a direct threat to the privacy and anonymity of programmers. While recent work found that source code can be attributed to authors with high accuracy, attribution of executable binaries appears to be much more difficult. Many distinguishing features present in source code, e.g. variable names, are removed in the compilation process, and compiler optimization may alter the structure of a program, further obscuring features that are known to be useful in determining authorship. We examine programmer de-anonymization from the standpoint of machine learning, using a novel set of features that include ones obtained by decompiling the executable binary to source code. We adapt a powerful set of techniques from the domain of source code authorship attribution along with stylistic representations embedded in assembly, resulting in successful de-anonymization of a large set of programmers. We evaluate our approach on data from the Google Code Jam, obtaining attribution accuracy of up to 96% with 100 and 83% with 600 candidate programmers. We present an executable binary authorship attribution approach, for the first time, that is robust to basic obfuscations, a range of compiler optimization settings, and binaries that have been stripped of their symbol tables. We perform programmer de-anonymization using both obfuscated binaries, and real-world code found "in the wild" in single-author GitHub repositories and the recently leaked Nulled.IO hacker forum. We show that programmers who would like to remain anonymous need to take extreme countermeasures to protect their privacy.