Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nutrient restriction in early ovine pregnancy stimulates C-type natriuretic peptide production.

C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), a paracrine growth factor promoting vasodilation and angiogenesis, is upregulated in human and ovine pregnancy in response to vascular stress or nutrient restriction (NR) in late gestation. Postulating that maternal plasma CNP products are increased by modest NR (50% of metabolisable energy requirement) early in pregnancy, and further enhanced by litter size, we studied serial changes of maternal plasma CNP in pregnant ewes receiving a normal (NC, n = 12) or restricted (NR, n = 13) diet from Day 30 to Day 93 or 94 of gestation. Liveweight of NR ewes was 10 kg less than that of NC ewes at slaughter. Plasma CNP products increased progressively after Day 40 and were higher in NR (P < 0.05) ewes after Day 60; they were also enhanced by litter size (P < 0.01) and were positively associated with increased placental efficiency. In contrast, whereas fetal and placental weight were reduced by NR, fetal plasma CNP products (Day 93/94) were not affected. We conclude that increases in CNP during rapid placental growth are further enhanced by both increasing nutrient demands and by reduced supply, presumably as part of an adaptive response benefitting placental-fetal exchange.
Why are there so many explanations for primate brain evolution?

The question as to why primates have evolved unusually large brains has received much attention, with many alternative proposals all supported by evidence. We review the main hypotheses, the assumptions they make and the evidence for and against them. Taking as our starting point the fact that every hypothesis has sound empirical evidence to support it, we argue that the hypotheses are best interpreted in terms of a framework of evolutionary causes (selection factors), consequences (evolutionary windows of opportunity) and constraints (usually physiological limitations requiring resolution if large brains are to evolve). Explanations for brain evolution in birds and mammals generally, and primates in particular, have to be seen against the backdrop of the challenges involved with the evolution of coordinated, cohesive, bonded social groups that require novel social behaviours for their resolution, together with the specialized cognition and neural substrates that underpin this. A crucial, but frequently overlooked, issue is that fact that the evolution of large brains required energetic, physiological and time budget constraints to be overcome. In some cases, this was reflected in the evolution of ‘smart foraging’ and technical intelligence, but in many cases required the evolution of behavioural competences (such as coalition formation) that required novel cognitive skills. These may all have been supported by a domain-general form of cognition that can be used in many different contexts. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’.
Profiling of differentially expressed genes in adipose tissues of multiple symmetric lipomatosis

Multiple symmetric lipomatosis (MSL) is a rare disorder characterized by aberrant multiple and symmetric subcutaneous adipose tissue accumulation in the face, neck, shoulders, back, chest and abdomen, severely affecting the quality of life of patients. At present, precise MSL etiology and pathogenesis remain to be elucidated. The present study first utilized a digital gene expression technique with a next-generation sequencing platform to profile differentially expressed genes in three cases of MSL vs. normal control tissue. cDNA libraries from these tissue specimens were constructed and DNA sequenced for identification of differentially expressed genes, which underwent bioinformatic analysis using the Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses. As a result, a total of 859 differentially expressed genes were identified, including 308 upregulated genes (C19orf80, Apelin, C21orf33, FAM166B and HSD11B2 were mostly upregulated 6.984-, 4.670-, 4.412-, 3.693- and 3.561-fold, respectively) and 551 downregulated genes [FosB proto-oncogene, AP-1 transcription factor subunit (FOSB), selectin (SEL) E, RAR related orphan receptor (ROR) B, salt inducible kinase (SIK)1 and epidermal growth factor-like protein (EGFL)6 were mostly downregulated −9.845, −8.243, −8.123, −7.702 and −7.664 fold, respectively). The GO functional enrichment analysis demonstrated these differentially expressed genes were predominantly involved in biological processes and cellular components, while the KEGG pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that ribosome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) infection and Alzheimer's disease pathways were altered in MSL. The PPI network data demonstrated ubiquitin C (UBC), translocator protein (TSPO), Jun Proto-Oncogene, AP-1 Transcription Factor (JUN) and FOS were among these differentially expressed genes that participated in regulation of adipocyte differentiation, although no previous study has linked them to MSL. In conclusion, the present study profiled differentially expressed genes in MSL and identified gene pathways that may be associated with MSL development and progression.
The Combination of Anatomy and Genioglossus Activity in Predicting the Outcomes of Velopharyngeal Surgery

Objective This study aims to evaluate the combination of genioglossus (GG) activity and anatomical characteristics in predicting outcomes of velopharyngeal surgery in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Study Design Case series with planned data collection. Setting Sleep medical center. Subjects and Methods Forty patients with OSA underwent overnight polysomnography with synchronous genioglossus electromyography (GGEMG) using intraoral electrodes. The upper airway anatomy was evaluated by 3-dimensional computed tomography in patients with OSA. All patients received the same type of velopharyngeal surgery, consisting of revised uvulopalatopharyngoplasty with uvula preservation and concurrent transpalatal advancement pharyngoplasty. We followed up all patients using polysomnography for at least 3 months postoperatively. Results Twenty-five patients (62.50%) were responders, and 15 patients (37.50%) were nonresponders. The decreased apnea-hypopnea index was significantly positively correlated to the sleep onset GGEMG (P = .006) but was negatively correlated to the change in GGEMG (P = .013) and tonic GGEMG (P = .018). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the minimal cross-sectional airway area at the velopharynx (VmCSA) (odds ratio [OR], 1.760; P = .019) and the sleep onset GGEMG (OR, 0.322; P = .043) were significant predictors for surgical outcomes. Combined the two predictors, the area under the ROC curve was 0.901 (OR, 0.789; P = .001) for surgical success, was more valuable than any one predictor. The area under the ROC curve with GGEMG was 0.843, VmCSA was 0.848. Conclusions The combination of sleep onset GGEMG and VmCSA can predict the outcome of velopharyngeal surgery in patients with OSA.
ar X iv : 1 80 1 . 01 59 4 v 2 [ cs . C R ] 2 5 M ar 2 01 8 Differentially Private Releasing via Deep Generative Model ( Technical Report )

Privacy-preserving releasing of complex data (e.g., image, text, audio) represents a long-standing challenge for the data mining research community. Due to rich semantics of the data and lack of a priori knowledge about the analysis task, excessive sanitization is often necessary to ensure privacy, leading to significant loss of the data utility. In this paper, we present dp-GAN, a general private releasing framework for semantic-rich data. Instead of sanitizing and then releasing the data, the data curator publishes a deep generative model which is trained using the original data in a differentially private manner; with the generative model, the analyst is able to produce an unlimited amount of synthetic data for arbitrary analysis tasks. In contrast of alternative solutions, dp-GAN highlights a set of key features: (i) it provides theoretical privacy guarantee via enforcing the differential privacy principle; (ii) it retains desirable utility in the released model, enabling a variety of otherwise impossible analyses; and (iii) most importantly, it achieves practical training scalability and stability by employing multi-fold optimization strategies. Through extensive empirical evaluation on benchmark datasets and analyses, we validate the efficacy of dp-GAN. (The source code and the data used in the paper is available at: https://github.com/alps-lab/dpgan)
Physical Activity, Sedentary Time, and Bone Strength From Childhood to Early Adulthood: A Mixed Longitudinal HR‐pQCT study

Bone strength is influenced by bone geometry, density, and bone microarchitecture, which adapt to increased mechanical loads during growth. Physical activity (PA) is essential for optimal bone strength accrual; however, less is known about how sedentary time influences bone strength and its determinants. Thus, our aim was to investigate the prospective associations between PA, sedentary time, and bone strength and its determinants during adolescence. We used HR‐pQCT at distal tibia (8% site) and radius (7% site) in 173 girls and 136 boys (aged 9 to 20 years at baseline). We conducted a maximum of four annual measurements at the tibia (n = 785 observations) and radius (n = 582 observations). We assessed moderate‐to‐vigorous PA (MVPA) and sedentary time with accelerometers (ActiGraph GT1M). We aligned participants on maturity (years from age at peak height velocity) and fit a mixed‐effects model adjusting for maturity, sex, ethnicity, leg muscle power, lean mass, limb length, dietary calcium, and MVPA in sedentary time models. MVPA was a positive independent predictor of bone strength (failure load [F.Load]) and bone volume fraction (BV/TV) at the tibia and radius, total area (Tt.Ar) and cortical porosity (Ct.Po) at the tibia, and negative predictor of load‐to‐strength ratio at the radius. Sedentary time was a negative independent predictor of Tt.Ar at both sites and Ct.Po at the tibia and a positive predictor of cortical thickness (Ct.Th), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), and cortical bone mineral density (Ct.BMD) at the tibia. Bone parameters demonstrated maturity‐specific associations with MVPA and sedentary time, whereby associations were strongest during early and mid‐puberty. Our findings support the importance of PA for bone strength accrual and its determinants across adolescent growth and provide new evidence of a detrimental association of sedentary time with bone geometry but positive associations with microarchitecture. This study highlights maturity‐specific relationships of bone strength and its determinants with loading and unloading. Future studies should evaluate the dose‐response relationship and whether associations persist into adulthood. © 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Generalized accelerated recurrence time model for multivariate recurrent event data with missing event type

Recurrent events data are frequently encountered in biomedical follow‐up studies. The generalized accelerated recurrence time (GART) model (Sun et al., 2016), which formulates covariate effects on the time scale of the mean function of recurrent events (i.e., time to expected frequency), has arisen as a useful secondary analysis tool to provide meaningful physical interpretations. In this article, we investigate the GART model in a multivariate recurrent events setting, where subjects may experience multiple types of recurrent events and some event types may be missing. We propose methods for the GART model that utilize the inverse probability weighting technique or the estimating equation projection strategy to handle event types that are missing at random. The new methods do not require imposing any parametric model for the missing mechanism, and thus are robust; moreover, they enjoy easy and stable implementation. We establish the uniform consistency and weak convergence of the resulting estimators and develop appropriate inferential procedures. Extensive simulation studies and an application to a dataset from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry (CFFPR) illustrate the validity and practical utility of the proposed methods.
Patrolling monocytes promote intravascular neutrophil activation and glomerular injury in the acutely inflamed glomerulus

Significance Nonclassical monocytes patrol the microvascular lumen in numerous organs in behavior thought to represent a form of immune surveillance. However, the mechanisms whereby they promote inflammatory responses are unclear. Here, we show using in vivo imaging that, in the unique microvasculature of the glomerulus in the kidney, monocytes constitutively undergo interactions with intravascular migratory neutrophils. Upon induction of glomerular inflammation, neutrophils that interact with monocytes show increased retention in glomerular capillaries and increased propensity to generate reactive oxygen species, leading to renal injury. These findings of immune cell interactions occurring within the glomerular microvasculature indicate that cell–cell contact between neutrophils and nonclassical monocytes is a previously unrecognized intravascular inflammatory mechanism underpinning glomerular injury. Nonclassical monocytes undergo intravascular patrolling in blood vessels, positioning them ideally to coordinate responses to inflammatory stimuli. Under some circumstances, the actions of monocytes have been shown to involve promotion of neutrophil recruitment. However, the mechanisms whereby patrolling monocytes control the actions of neutrophils in the circulation are unclear. Here, we examined the contributions of monocytes to antibody- and neutrophil-dependent inflammation in a model of in situ immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis. Multiphoton and spinning disk confocal intravital microscopy revealed that monocytes patrol both uninflamed and inflamed glomeruli using β2 and α4 integrins and CX3CR1. Monocyte depletion reduced glomerular injury, demonstrating that these cells promote inappropriate inflammation in this setting. Monocyte depletion also resulted in reductions in neutrophil recruitment and dwell time in glomerular capillaries and in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by neutrophils, suggesting a role for cross-talk between monocytes and neutrophils in induction of glomerulonephritis. Consistent with this hypothesis, patrolling monocytes and neutrophils underwent prolonged interactions in glomerular capillaries, with the duration of these interactions increasing during inflammation. Moreover, neutrophils that interacted with monocytes showed increased retention and a greater propensity for ROS generation in the glomerulus. Also, renal patrolling monocytes, but not neutrophils, produced TNF during inflammation, and TNF inhibition reduced neutrophil dwell time and ROS production, as well as renal injury. These findings show that monocytes and neutrophils undergo interactions within the glomerular microvasculature. Moreover, evidence indicates that, in response to an inflammatory stimulus, these interactions allow monocytes to promote neutrophil recruitment and activation within the glomerular microvasculature, leading to neutrophil-dependent tissue injury.
Beyond the real world: attention debates in auditory mismatch negativity

The aim of this study was to address the potential for the auditory mismatch negativity (aMMN) to be used in applied event-related potential (ERP) studies by determining whether the aMMN would be an attention-dependent ERP component and could be differently modulated across visual tasks or virtual reality (VR) stimuli with different visual properties and visual complexity levels. A total of 80 participants, aged 19–36 years, were assigned to either a reading-task (21 men and 19 women) or a VR-task (22 men and 18 women) group. Two visual-task groups of healthy young adults were matched in age, sex, and handedness. All participants were instructed to focus only on the given visual tasks and ignore auditory change detection. While participants in the reading-task group read text slides, those in the VR-task group viewed three 360° VR videos in a random order and rated how visually complex the given virtual environment was immediately after each VR video ended. Inconsistent with the finding of a partial significant difference in perceived visual complexity in terms of brightness of virtual environments, both visual properties of distance and brightness showed no significant differences in the modulation of aMMN amplitudes. A further analysis was carried out to compare elicited aMMN amplitudes of a typical MMN task and an applied VR task. No significant difference in the aMMN amplitudes was found across the two groups who completed visual tasks with different visual-task demands. In conclusion, the aMMN is a reliable ERP marker of preattentive cognitive processing for auditory deviance detection.
Preparation and characterization of EPDM/silica composites prepared through non-hydrolytic sol-gel method in the absence and presence of a coupling agent

Ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber composites containing in situ generated silica particles was prepared through a non-hydrolytic sol-gel (NHSG) method with silicon tetrachloride as precursor. The silica particles were homogenously dispersed in the EPDM matrix, but there were agglomerates at high silica contents. The swelling experiments showed a decrease in the crosslinking density of the vulcanized rubber due to the presence of the silica particles for both the composites prepared in the presence and absence of a coupling agent, bis-[-3-(triethoxysilyl)-propyl]-tetrasulfide (TESPT). Unlike the composites prepared through a hydrolytic sol-gel (HSG) method with TEOS as precursor, the TESPT did not seem to take part in the sol-gel reaction. The presence of TESPT influenced the interaction and dispersion of the silica particles in the EPDM matrix, which gave rise to increased thermal stability of the EPDM when compared to the composites prepared in the absence of TESPT. However, ethylene chloride and TESPT evaporated from the samples at temperatures below the EPDM decomposition range. The values of the Nielsen model parameters, that gave rise to a good agreement with the experimentally determined Young’s modulus values, indicated improved dispersion and reduced size of the silica aggregates in the EPDM matrix. There was also good agreement between the storage modulus and Young’s modulus values. The filler effectiveness (Factor C) indicated a mechanical stiffening effect and a thermal stability contribution by the filler, while the damping reduction (DR) values confirmed that the EPDM interacted strongly with the well dispersed silica particles and the polymer chain mobility was restricted. The tensile properties, however, were in some cases worse than those for the samples prepared through the HSG method in the presence of TEOS.
Species Recognition and Cryptic Species in the Tuber indicum Complex

Morphological delimitation of Asian black truffles, including Tuber himalayense, T. indicum, T. sinense, T. pseudohimalayense, T. formosanum and T. pseudoexcavatum, has remained problematic and even phylogenetic analyses have been controversial. In this study, we combined five years of field investigation in China with morphological study and DNA sequences analyses (ITS, LSU and β-tubulin) of 131 Tuber specimens to show that T. pseudohimalayense and T. pseudoexcavatum are the same species. T. formosanum is a separate species based on its host plants and geographic distribution, combined with minor morphological difference from T. indicum. T. sinense should be treated as a synonym of T. indicum. Our results demonstrate that the present T. indicum, a single described morphological species, should include at least two separate phylogenetic species. These findings are of high importance for truffle taxonomy and reveal and preserve the richness of truffle diversity.
Fast spatiotemporal image reconstruction based on low-rank matrix estimation for dynamic photoacoustic computed tomography

Abstract. In order to monitor dynamic physiological events in near-real time, a variety of photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) systems have been developed that can rapidly acquire data. Previously reported studies of dynamic PACT have employed conventional static methods to reconstruct a temporally ordered sequence of images on a frame-by-frame basis. Frame-by-frame image reconstruction (FBFIR) methods fail to exploit correlations between data frames and are known to be statistically and computationally suboptimal. In this study, a low-rank matrix estimation-based spatiotemporal image reconstruction (LRME-STIR) method is investigated for dynamic PACT applications. The LRME-STIR method is based on the observation that, in many PACT applications, the number of frames is much greater than the rank of the ideal noiseless data matrix. Using both computer-simulated and experimentally measured photoacoustic data, the performance of the LRME-STIR method is compared with that of conventional FBFIR method followed by image-domain filtering. The results demonstrate that the LRME-STIR method is not only computationally more efficient but also produces more accurate dynamic PACT images than a conventional FBFIR method followed by image-domain filtering.
A home for three : analysing ecological correlates of body traits in a triple contact zone of alpine vipers

The medium-sized vipers of the genus Vipera are mainly parapatric in Europe and only a few contact zones (syntopies) are known between two species. The partial syntopy of three viper species (V. ammodytes, V. aspis, and V. berus) is exceptional and has become known only from two neighbouring valleys in the southern Julian Pre-Alps along the Italian-Slovenian border (Valle Mea and Nadiza Valley). This unique situation puts forward questions concerning their co-existence, particularly when considering that natural hybrids are known among all three species. Our principal goals for this article were therefore to evaluate variation and integrity of key dorsal colour pattern and body size among V. berus, V. ammodytes, and V. aspis from Mount Stol, Nadiza Valley in Slovenia. We discuss these variations in the context of potential hybridization, interspecific competition, and local to regional synecological properties including diet, habitat, and climate. Despite the fact that a pre-study specimen showed intermediate colour pattern, suggesting a hybrid between V. ammodytes and V. aspis, no further intermediate specimens (n > 100) were detected based on external features. Comparison of body length and mass shows equal sizes between V. ammodytes and V. aspis, whereas V. berus is approximately 30% smaller. Furthermore, V. berus on Mount Stol is also much smaller and lacks melanism, unlike V. berus from a close population in Italy (< 15 km), where they are larger and melanism is relatively frequent. These local character expressions presumably are the result of environmental constraints at high elevations (>1200 m asl.), such as a harsh climate of open, non-forested habitat and possibly a regionally different predation pressure and diet composition. At mid-elevation <1200 m asl. , syntopic V. ammodytes and V. aspis may compete for food, yet, the previously evaluated microhabitat differences appear sufficient to maintain species integrity for these two viper populations.