Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of heart-specific disruption of the circadian clock on systemic glucose metabolism in mice

ABSTRACT The daily rhythm of glucose metabolism is governed by the circadian clock, which consists of cell-autonomous clock machineries residing in nearly every tissue in the body. Disruption of these clock machineries either environmentally or genetically induces the dysregulation of glucose metabolism. Although the roles of clock machineries in the regulation of glucose metabolism have been uncovered in major metabolic tissues, such as the pancreas, liver, and skeletal muscle, it remains unknown whether clock function in non-major metabolic tissues also affects systemic glucose metabolism. Here, we tested the hypothesis that disruption of the clock machinery in the heart might also affect systemic glucose metabolism, because heart function is known to be associated with glucose tolerance. We examined glucose and insulin tolerance as well as heart phenotypes in mice with heart-specific deletion of Bmal1, a core clock gene. Bmal1 deletion in the heart not only decreased heart function but also led to systemic insulin resistance. Moreover, hyperglycemia was induced with age. Furthermore, heart-specific Bmal1-deficient mice exhibited decreased insulin-induced phosphorylation of Akt in the liver, thus indicating that Bmal1 deletion in the heart causes hepatic insulin resistance. Our findings revealed an unexpected effect of the function of clock machinery in a non-major metabolic tissue, the heart, on systemic glucose metabolism in mammals.
Follow‐up Assessment of Cognitive Remediation Therapy in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVE Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) is a specialized treatment approach targeting cognitive weaknesses in anorexia nervosa (AN). Regarding follow-up effects of CRT, there are only few studies available; for adolescents, there are no data. METHODS Forty-eight adolescents with AN were assigned to receive either CRT and treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU alone. Assessments were performed at baseline (n = 48) and compared with assessments at a 6-month follow-up (n = 33). Outcome measures were set-shifting, central coherence, eating disorder and general psychopathology. RESULTS The completion rate was higher in CRT compared with TAU. There were no significant differences in neuropsychological and clinical variables. Changes in body mass index percentile showed a trend towards significance for CRT. Dropout analyses revealed no significant predictors. CONCLUSIONS Results provide a first insight into follow-up-assessments of CRT in adolescent AN. More randomized controlled studies are needed to clarify the long-term effects of CRT. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
The knowledge-building process of public administration research: a comparative perspective between Brazil and North American contexts

Assessments of public administration research in the Global South are relatively scarce, although they are relevant in moving beyond a North–South dichotomy in understanding the knowledge-building process of public administration. In this article, we apply a content analysis to 592 Brazilian publications in order to assess the subjects of the studies, their cognitive orientations, their methodological strategies, and their institutional aspects, and compare these results with previous evaluations of North American publications. Our findings indicate that a “North American way of doing research” is gaining ground as the legitimate way of doing public administration research in Brazil, despite a research agenda that reflects subjects of practical relevance to the Brazilian public sector. Such intellectual mimesis, associated with the existence of a weak and unequal institutional network for academic research, may influence the “parochialism” of public administration research. Points for practitioners The research reveals that the subjects of public administration publications also reflect the dynamics of public administration as a field of practice, reflected in topics of empirical interest to the Brazilian public sector that are cognitively and, partly, methodologically discussed from a North American perspective. The similar trends in the cognitive dimensions that both regions share may also recursively reflect the diffusion of public sector reforms from developed to developing countries, particularly as a consequence of New Public Management, which has also taken place in countries like Brazil.
Schizotypal personality traits in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

Objectives – Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a chronic tic disorder associated with comorbid psychopathology, including obsessionality, affective instability and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder. Evidence linking GTS with schizophrenia‐like symptoms is limited and equivocal, despite a common putative substrate involving dopaminergic dysfunction within frontostriatal circuits. The aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence of schizotypal traits in GTS and to detail the relationship between schizotypy and comorbid psychopathology.
MFG-E8 Regulates the Immunogenic Potential of Dendritic Cells Primed with Necrotic Cell-Mediated Inflammatory Signals

Dendritic cells (DC) manipulate tissue homeostasis by recognizing dying cells and controlling immune functions. However, the precise mechanisms by which DC recognize different types of dying cells and devise distinct immunologic consequences remain largely obscure. Herein, we demonstrate that Milk-fat globule-EGF VIII (MFG-E8) is a critical mediator controlling DC immunogenicity in inflammatory microenvironments. MFG-E8 restrains DC-mediated uptake and recognition of necrotic cells. The MFG-E8-mediated suppression of necrotic cell uptake by DC resulted in the decreased proinflammatory cytokines production and activated signal components such as STAT3 and A20, which are critical to maintain tolerogenic properties of DC. Furthermore, the DC-derived MFG-E8 negatively regulates the cross-priming and effector functions of antigen-specific T cells upon recognition of necrotic cells. MFG-E8 deficiency enhances an ability of necrotic cell-primed DC to stimulate antitumor immune responses against established tumors. Our findings define what we believe to a novel mechanism whereby MFG-E8 regulates the immunogenicity of DC by modulating the modes of recognition of dying cells. Manipulating MFG-E8 levels in DC may serve as a useful strategy for controlling inflammatory microenvironments caused by various pathological conditions including cancer and autoimmunity.
A comprehensive excitatory input map of the striatum reveals novel functional organization

The striatum integrates excitatory inputs from the cortex and the thalamus to control diverse functions. Although the striatum is thought to consist of sensorimotor, associative and limbic domains, their precise demarcations and whether additional functional subdivisions exist remain unclear. How striatal inputs are differentially segregated into each domain is also poorly understood. This study presents a comprehensive map of the excitatory inputs to the mouse striatum. The input patterns reveal boundaries between the known striatal domains. The most posterior striatum likely represents the 4th functional subdivision, and the dorsomedial striatum integrates highly heterogeneous, multimodal inputs. The complete thalamo-cortico-striatal loop is also presented, which reveals that the thalamic subregions innervated by the basal ganglia preferentially interconnect with motor-related cortical areas. Optogenetic experiments show the subregion-specific heterogeneity in the synaptic properties of striatal inputs from both the cortex and the thalamus. This projectome will guide functional studies investigating diverse striatal functions. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.19103. 001
Autonomous science during large‐scale robotic survey

Today's planetary exploration robots rarely travel beyond the yesterday imagery. However, advances in autonomous mobility will soon permit single‐command site surveys of multiple kilometers. Here scientists cannot see the terrain in advance, and explorer robots must navigate and collect data autonomously. Onboard science data understanding can improve these surveys with image analysis, pattern recognition, learned classification, and information‐theoretic planning. We report on field experiments near Amboy Crater, California, that demonstrate fundamental capabilities for autonomous surficial mapping of geologic phenomena with a visible near‐infrared spectrometer. We develop an approach to “science on the fly'' that adapts the robot's exploration using collected instrument data. We demonstrate feature detection and visual servoing to acquire spectra from dozens of targets without human intervention. The rover interprets spectra onboard, learning spatial models of science phenomena that guide it toward informative areas. It discovers spatial structure (correlations between neighboring regions) and cross‐sensor structure (correlations between different scales). The rover uses surface observations to reinterpret satellite imagery and improve exploration efficiency. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Phosphorylation-Dependent Regulation of T-Cell Activation by PAG/Cbp, a Lipid Raft-Associated Transmembrane Adaptor

ABSTRACT PAG/Cbp (hereafter named PAG) is a transmembrane adaptor molecule found in lipid rafts. In resting human T cells, PAG is tyrosine phosphorylated and associated with Csk, an inhibitor of Src-related protein tyrosine kinases. These modifications are rapidly lost in response to T-cell receptor (TCR) stimulation. Overexpression of PAG was reported to inhibit TCR-mediated responses in Jurkat T cells. Herein, we have examined the physiological relevance and the mechanism of PAG-mediated inhibition in T cells. Our studies showed that PAG tyrosine phosphorylation and association with Csk are suppressed in response to activation of normal mouse T cells. By expressing wild-type and phosphorylation-defective (dominant-negative) PAG polypeptides in these cells, we found that the inhibitory effect of PAG is dependent on its capacity to be tyrosine phosphorylated and to associate with Csk. PAG-mediated inhibition was accompanied by a repression of proximal TCR signaling and was rescued by expression of a constitutively activated Src-related kinase, implying that it is due to an inactivation of Src kinases by PAG-associated Csk. We also attempted to identify the protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) responsible for dephosphorylating PAG in T cells. Through cell fractionation studies and analyses of genetically modified mice, we established that PTPs such as PEP and SHP-1 are unlikely to be involved in the dephosphorylation of PAG in T cells. However, the transmembrane PTP CD45 seems to play an important role in this process. Taken together, these data provide firm evidence that PAG is a bona fide negative regulator of T-cell activation as a result of its capacity to recruit Csk. They also suggest that the inhibitory function of PAG in T cells is suppressed by CD45. Lastly, they support the idea that dephosphorylation of proteins on tyrosine residues is critical for the initiation of T-cell activation.
Etiology and pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease

The past 25 years have seen a major expansion of knowledge concerning the cause of Parkinson's disease provided by an understanding of environmental and genetic factors that underlie the loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons. Based on the actions of toxins, postmortem investigations, and gene defects responsible for familial Parkinson's disease, there is now a general consensus about the mechanisms of cell death that contribute to neuronal loss in Parkinson's disease. Mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, altered protein handling, and inflammatory change are considered to lead to cell dysfunction and death by apoptosis or autophagy. Ageing is the single most important risk factor for Parkinson's disease, and the biochemical changes that are a consequence of aging amplify these abnormalities in Parkinson's disease brain. What remains to be determined is the combination and sequence of events leading to cell death and whether this is identical in all brain regions where pathology occurs and in all individuals with Parkinson's disease. Focusing on those events that characterize Parkinson's disease, namely, mitochondrial dysfunction and Lewy body formation, may be the key to further advancing the understanding of pathogenesis and to taking these mechanisms forward as a means of defining targets for neuroprotection. © 2011 Movement Disorder Society
On torque ripple reduction in current-fed switched reluctance motors

This paper addresses a basic control issue in switched reluctance motor (SRM) drives-the production of a ripple-free torque. Simple and largely model-independent conventional supply waveforms are not able to satisfy this requirement. The goal of this paper is to improve SRM dynamical performance by compensating for motor nonlinearities, while maintaining the robustness of conventional methods. The method is based on a complete parameterization of position-dependent voltage and current profiles in ripple-free operation, and on a waveform optimization to minimize power supply requirements. Furthermore, model uncertainties are included to show that the proposed strategy consistently outperforms the conventional policy. Experimental data verifying the analytical approach are included.
Privacy Capsules: Preventing Information Leaks by Mobile Apps

Preventing the leakage of user information via untrusted third-party apps is a key challenge in mobile privacy. We propose and evaluate privacy capsules (PCs), a platform execution model for mobile apps that prevents the flow of private information to untrusted parties by design. With PCs, apps execute in two sequential phases. In the unsealed phase, the app has no access to sensitive input but full access to untrusted network resources. In the sealed state, the untrusted app has access to sensitive input, but can no longer communicate with untrusted resources. Privacy capsules are implemented by the mobile platform, are language independent, and require few changes to apps. Using a prototype PC implementation in Android, we show that PCs have low performance and energy overhead, and are suitable for a large class of apps.
Concurrent Probabilistic Planning in the Graphplan Framework

We consider the problem of planning optimally in potentially concurrent probabilistic domains: actions have probabilistic effects and may execute in parallel under certain conditions; we seek a contingency plan that maximises the probability of reaching the goal. The Graphplan framework has proven to be highly successful at solving classical planning problems, but has not previously been applied to probabilistic planning in its entirety. We present an extension of the full framework to probabilistic domains that demonstrates a method of efficiently finding optimal contingency plans using a goal regression search. Paragraph, the resulting planner, is competitive with the state of the art, producing acyclic or cyclic plans that optionally exploit a problem's potential for concurrency.
Disrupted resting-state brain network properties in obesity: decreased global and putaminal cortico-striatal network efficiency

Background The efficient organization and communication of brain networks underlie cognitive processing and their disruption can lead to pathological behaviours. Few studies have focused on whole-brain networks in obesity and binge eating disorder (BED). Here we used multi-echo resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) along with a data-driven graph theory approach to assess brain network characteristics in obesity and BED. Method Multi-echo rsfMRI scans were collected from 40 obese subjects (including 20 BED patients) and 40 healthy controls and denoised using multi-echo independent component analysis (ME-ICA). We constructed a whole-brain functional connectivity matrix with normalized correlation coefficients between regional mean blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals from 90 brain regions in the Automated Anatomical Labeling atlas. We computed global and regional network properties in the binarized connectivity matrices with an edge density of 5%–25%. We also verified our findings using a separate parcellation, the Harvard–Oxford atlas parcellated into 470 regions. Results Obese subjects exhibited significantly reduced global and local network efficiency as well as decreased modularity compared with healthy controls, showing disruption in small-world and modular network structures. In regional metrics, the putamen, pallidum and thalamus exhibited significantly decreased nodal degree and efficiency in obese subjects. Obese subjects also showed decreased connectivity of cortico-striatal/cortico-thalamic networks associated with putaminal and cortical motor regions. These findings were significant with ME-ICA with limited group differences observed with conventional denoising or single-echo analysis. Conclusions Using this data-driven analysis of multi-echo rsfMRI data, we found disruption in global network properties and motor cortico-striatal networks in obesity consistent with habit formation theories. Our findings highlight the role of network properties in pathological food misuse as possible biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
Automated extraction and classification of RNA tertiary structure cyclic motifs

A minimum cycle basis of the tertiary structure of a large ribosomal subunit (LSU) X-ray crystal structure was analyzed. Most cycles are small, as they are composed of 3- to 5 nt, and repeated across the LSU tertiary structure. We used hierarchical clustering to quantify and classify the 4 nt cycles. One class is defined by the GNRA tetraloop motif. The inspection of the GNRA class revealed peculiar instances in sequence. First is the presence of UA, CA, UC and CC base pairs that substitute the usual sheared GA base pair. Second is the revelation of GNR(Xn)A tetraloops, where Xn is bulged out of the classical GNRA structure, and of GN/RA formed by the two strands of interior-loops. We were able to unambiguously characterize the cycle classes using base stacking and base pairing annotations. The cycles identified correspond to small and cyclic motifs that compose most of the LSU RNA tertiary structure and contribute to its thermodynamic stability. Consequently, the RNA minimum cycles could well be used as the basic elements of RNA tertiary structure prediction methods.
Receding Water Line and Interspecific Competition Determines Plant Community Composition and Diversity in Wetlands in Beijing

Climate and human-induced wetland degradation has accelerated in recent years, not only resulting in reduced ecosystem services but also greatly affecting the composition and diversity of wetland plant communities. To date, the knowledge of the differences in community parameters and their successional trends in degraded wetlands remains scarce. Here based on remote sensing images, geographic information system technology, and statistical methods, we produced a successional gradient map of the Yeyahu Wetland Nature Reserve in Beijing, which has experienced a steady decline in water level in recent decades. In addition, we analyzed community composition and diversity along with each identified gradient. The results showed that community diversity decreases while dominance increases with the progress of succession, with the highest diversity occurring during the early stage of succession. Moreover, the community demonstrates greater similarity among subareas during later successional stages, and the similarity coefficients calculated from the important value (IV) of each species are more accurate. Correlation analysis showed that the impact of soil factors on diversity was not significant at a subarea scale, although these nutrients showed an increasing trend with the community succession. Furthermore, the IVs of the dominant species had a particularly significant impact on diversity, showing a significantly negative correlation with diversity indices and a significantly positive correlation with dominance indices. Further analysis showed that the retreat of water level resulted from sustained drought and local human activities was a major extrinsic driving force resulting in observed differences in the community successional stages, which resulted in differences in community composition and diversity. On the other hand, interspecific competition was the main intrinsic mechanism, which significantly influenced the IVs of the dominant species and community diversity. The results of this study could aid in improving the understanding of community composition, diversity, and its successional trends in degraded wetlands.
Partial Parse Selection for Robust Deep Processing

This paper presents an approach to partial parse selection for robust deep processing. The work is based on a bottom-up chart parser for HPSG parsing. Following the definition of partial parses in (Kasper et al., 1999), different partial parse selection methods are presented and evaluated on the basis of multiple metrics, from both the syntactic and semantic viewpoints. The application of the partial parsing in spontaneous speech texts processing shows promising competence of the method.
Preparation and characterization of alginate/chitosan formulations for ciprofloxacin-controlled delivery

In this work, alginate beads loaded with ciprofloxacin (AL_CP) and alginate beads loaded with ciprofloxacin and covered by chitosan (AL_CP_CS) were prepared by emulsification technique in combination with internal gelation method. Physicochemical characterization of the resulting formulations revealed the hydrodynamic diameter and Zeta potential ca. 160 nm and ca. −32 mV in the case of AL_CP and ca. 240 nm and ca. +14 mV in the case of AL_CP_CS (pH = 6.0), respectively. Kinetics of ciprofloxacin release from alginate/chitosan formulations was studied in different media (pH = 1.2, 6.8, and 7.4). Covering alginate core with a polycation such as chitosan moderates the drug release, resulting in a pH-sensitive hybrid controlled-release system. Herein, alginate beads with encapsulated ciprofloxacin covered with chitosan are proposed as an effective oral delivery system since the drug release from alginate core is limited in low pH solution (gastric conditions).