Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In locus analysis of patterning evolution of the BMP type II receptor Wishful thinking

ABSTRACT Proper tissue patterning is an essential step during organ formation. During this process, genes are expressed in distinct patterns, defining boundaries for future functional domains. The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway sets the anterior domain during eggshell patterning. Previously, the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of BMPR2, Wishful thinking (WIT), was shown to be required for BMP signaling and patterning during eggshell formation. Expressed in a conserved anterior pattern, the width of wit patterning in the follicular epithelium is evolutionarily divergent between Drosophila species. We used genome editing to demonstrate how the gene pattern divergence is controlled in cis within the wit locus of D. virilis. Furthermore, unlike direct targets of BMP signaling, we demonstrate how one transcription factor binding site shapes the pattern of WIT in D. melanogaster by negative regulation. However, changes in this site are not sufficient to explain the evolution of wit patterning, suggesting that a positive regulatory element that controls pattern divergence remains to be discovered. Summary: wit is regulated by alleviation of Brinker repression in two evolutionarily divergent Drosophila species, in which evolutionary changes in wit expression patterns have occurred in cis.
Fen, Teknoloji, Mühendislik ve Matematik (FeTeMM) Spotu Geliştirme Etkinliği

Bu calismada Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi Egitim Fakultesi’nde TUBITAK destekli gerceklestirilen “Genc Mucitler Gelecegi Tasarliyor: Fen, Teknoloji, Muhendislik ve Matematik (FeTeMM) Egitimleri” projesine katilan 6. sinif ogrencileri tarafindan gerceklestirilen FeTeMM spotu etkinligi hakkinda bilgi verilmektedir. FeTeMM spotu etkinligi internet baglantisi olan bilgisayar laboratuvarinda 160 dakika da Etkinlik kapsaminda ogrencilerden kendilerine verilen senaryoya gore muhendislik tasarim dongusunu kullanarak televizyon kanallarinda gosterilecek bir FeTeMM spotu tasarlamalari istenmistir. Ogrencilerden videolarini tasarlarken proje suresince yaptiklari etkinlikleri dikkate almalari istenilmistir. Ogrenciler ikiserli gruplar halinde hikâye tahtalari araciligiyla FeTeMM spotlarini tasarlamislar, daha sonra da ses kayit cihazi, fotograf makinesi ve PowToon programi kullanarak spotlarini gelistirmislerdir. Ogrencilerin FeTeMM spotu gelistirme surecleri projede gorevli egitmen ve rehberler yardimiyla izlenmistir. Ogrencilerin etkinlik degerlendirme formundaki acik uclu sorulara verdikleri yanitlar incelendiginde; FeTeMM spotu etkinliginin teknoloji ve bilgisayar konularindaki bilgi ve becerilerini gelistirdiklerini dusundukleri tespit edilmistir.
The time course of neural responses to social versus non-social unfairness in the ultimatum game

ABSTRACT The unfairness effects are always the hotspot within social psychology and cognitive neuroscience. However, people’s neural responses to social versus non-social unfairness remain under-researched, especially about temporal features. We engaged participants in the Ultimatum Game to respond to human and computer proposers (representing social and non-social contexts respectively) and recorded their event-related potentials. The interactions elicited three components of interest: medial frontal negativity (MFN), late positive potential (LPP) and response related negativity (RRN). First, unfair human offers elicited larger MFN than unfair computer offers did, suggesting a greater perception of unfairness in the social context. Second, rejected unfair human offers elicited smaller LPP than rejected unfair computer offers did. This finding implies that the rejection to social unfairness could down-regulate the unfairness-aversive emotions. These two mechanisms explained the stronger resistance to social unfairness in behavioural results. Last, the RRN for unfairness rejections were larger than for fairness acceptances, but showed no variance to the two types of proposers, signifying a similar degree of response conflict behind rejections to social and non-social unfairness. These results of our exploratory study will be helpful in revealing the sociality effect on the perceptual, emotional and reappraisal processing during the unfairness response.
Air Pollution Has a Significant Negative Impact on Intentional Efforts to Lose Weight: A Global Scale Analysis

Background Air pollution causes many diseases and deaths. It is important to see how air pollution affects obesity, which is common worldwide. Therefore, we analyzed data from a smartphone application for intentional weight loss, and then we validated them. Methods Our analysis was structured in two parts. We analyzed data from a cohort registered to a smartphone application in 10 large cities of the world and matched it with the annual pollution values. We validated these results using daily pollution data in United States and matching them with user information. Body mass index (BMI) variation between final and initial login time was considered as outcome in the first part, and daily BMI in the validation. We analyzed: daily calories intake, daily weight, daily physical activity, geographical coordinates, seasons, age, gender. Weather Underground application programming interface provided daily climatic values. Annual and daily values of particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5 were extracted. In the first part of the analysis, we used 2,608 users and then 995 users located in United States. Results Air pollution was highest in Seoul and lowest in Detroit. Users decreased BMI by 2.14 kg/m2 in average (95% confidence interval, −2.26 to −2.04). From a multilevel model, PM10 (β=0.04, P=0.002) and PM2.5 (β=0.08, P<0.001) had a significant negative effect on weight loss when collected per year. The results were confirmed with the validation (βAQI*time=1.5×10–5; P<0.001) by mixed effects model. Conclusion This is the first study that shows how air pollution affects intentional weight loss applied on wider area of the world.
Production and integration of the ATLAS Insertable B-Layer

During the shutdown of the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2013-2014, an additional pixel layer was installed between the existing Pixel detector of the ATLAS experiment and a new, smaller radius beam pipe. The motivation for this new pixel layer, the Insertable B-Layer (IBL), was to maintain or improve the robustness and performance of the ATLAS tracking system, given the higher instantaneous and integrated luminosities realised following the shutdown. Because of the extreme radiation and collision rate environment, several new radiation-tolerant sensor and electronic technologies were utilised for this layer. This paper reports on the IBL construction and integration prior to its operation in the ATLAS detector.
Glacial debris cover and melt water production for glaciers in the Altay, Russia

Abstract. Glaciers are important water storages on a seasonal and long-term time scale. Where high mountains are surrounded by arid lowlands, glacier runoff is an important source of water during the growing season. This situation can be found in the Altay mountains in Southern Siberia, where the recent glacierization of >700 km2 is subject to continuous mass loss, even though the shrinking is comparably slow. The glacier retreat is accompanied by an extension of supra-glacial moraine, which itself strongly influences ablation rates. To quantify these effects, the spatial evolution of debris cover since 1952 was analysed for three glaciers in the North Chuya Ridge using satellite and airborne imagery. In summer 2007, an ablation experiment was carried out on debris covered parts of Maliy Aktru glacier. Thermistors in different depths within the moraine provided data to calculate thermal resistance of the debris. A set of ablation stakes was installed at locations with differing debris thickness and observed regularly throughout the entire melt season. Air temperature from an AWS was used to calculate degree day factors in dependence of the debris thickness. To take into account the shading effect of surrounding walls and peaks, the potential solar radiation and its evolution throughout the summer was determined from a digital elevation model. This allows us to extrapolate our measurements from Maliy Aktru to the other two glaciers of the Aktru basin and to estimate basin melt rates. In addition accumulated ice melt was derived for 12 glaciers in the North Chuya Range. Changes in summer runoff from the 1960s are compared to the results from our melt model and the evolution of debris cover is analysed in respect to the melt activity.
The use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to improve structural impairment of rat testis induced by busulfan

Abstract Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has a potential effect on tissue repair through proliferation and differentiation of tissue progenitor cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of PRP on the testis structure and function in infertile rat model by stereological method. Thirty-two male rats were divided into four groups. Infertility was induced by the administration of busulfan (BUS) (10mg/kg, I.P., single dose). PRP (80μl, testis local injected, single dose) was administered for the subjects. After 48 days, semen analysis was performed and blood samples were taken from the heart to measure the testosterone. Then, the left testis was removed, fixed, embedded, sectioned, and stained by H&E; after that the testes were analyzed. The results showed that BUS can decrease the sperm count, motility, normal morphology, length of the spermatozoon tail, volume of the testis, seminiferous tubules, germinal epithelium height, and the number of spermatogenesis lineage cells in comparison with the control group (p < 0.01). PRP increased the number of spermatogenic stem cell, count, motility and tail length of the sperm and testosterone level in BUS-treated animal significantly, but it did not have any effect on the volume of the testis, germinal epithelium height, Sertoli and Leydig cells number, and seminiferous tubules length. It concluded that PRP can improve the structural and functional impairment of the testis in treatment by BUS.
Insulin Resistance and the Risk of Diabetes and Dysglycemia in Korean General Adult Population

Background Insulin resistance is a major pathogenic hallmark of impaired glucose metabolism. We assessed the accuracy of insulin resistance and cut-off values using homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) to classify type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and dysglycemia according to age and sex. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed 4,291 anti-diabetic drug-naïve adults (≥20 years) from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2015. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was defined by the modified National Cholesterol Education Program III guideline. Diagnosis of dysglycemia and T2DM were based on fasting glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels. The receiver operating characteristic curve and optimal cut-off values of HOMA-IR were assessed to identify T2DM/dysglycemia according to sex and were further analyzed by age. Results Sex differences were found in the association of MetS and the different MetS components with T2DM/dysglycemia. The overall optimal cut-off value of HOMA-IR for identifying dysglycemia was 1.6 in both sex. The cut-off values for T2DM were 2.87 in men and 2.36 in women. However, there are differences in diagnostic range of HOMA-IR to distinguish T2DM according to sex and age, and the accuracy of HOMA-IR in identifying T2DM gradually decreased with age especially in women. Conclusion Insulin resistance is closely associated with the risk for T2DM/dysglycemia. The accuracy of HOMA-IR levels is characterized by sex- and age-specific differences in identifying T2DM. In addition to insulin resistance index, insulin secretory function, and different MetS components should be considered in the detection of early T2DM, especially in elderly.
Molecular Characterization of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolates, Isolated from a Burn Hospital in Southwest Iran in 2006 and 2014

Objectives Incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is increasing every year, especially in burn patients with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Molecular and epidemiologic studies are useful practices for understanding the relatedness of isolates in a single patient or a hospital. This study aimed at determining molecular characterizations of isolates collected in 2006 and 2014 using S. aureus-specific staphylococcal protein A (Spa) typing and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) methods. Materials and Methods Totally, 71 MRSA isolates were collected during the last two studies (2006 and 2014) from burn patients at Taleghani Burn Centre. After confirmation, all isolates were analysed using MLST and Spa typing methods. Results We reported the emergence of Spa type t021, ST-30-IV MRSA isolates, which were PVL-positive in 14.6% of the cases and t12366, ST-8-IV isolates, which were PVL-negative in 9.8% of the cases. In 2014 study, Spa typing of MRSA isolates revealed five different spa types. Overall, in two studies, t037, ST-239, SCCmec III, and CC8 were predominant clones and they were reported in 63% of the cases. Conclusion The predominance of ST-239 in this region during the last eight years is a major concern. It also has a disturbing impact on the management of staphylococcal infections. Moreover, the SCCmec type IV strain is able to disseminate rapidly in hospital environments, demanding an improvement in infection-control policy.
Adenotonsillar microbiome: an update

Pathogenic bacteria associated with the adenoids and tonsils cause much morbidity in the paediatric population. Hyperplasia of the adenoids is associated with otitis media with effusion and hyperplasia of the palatine tonsils is associated with both recurrent tonsillitis and obstructive sleep apnoea. Most current knowledge of the microbiology of the upper airways has been derived from culture-based studies, which usually reflect only a small fraction of the bacteria present on the mucosal surface. Culture-independent molecular surveys based on 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing are now being employed to determine the microbiota on the surface and within the tissue of adenoids and palatine tonsils. This review describes the new techniques applied in determining the microbiome and summarises the results of studies employing these techniques.
Deciphering the Cultural Code : Cognition , Behavior , and the Interpersonal Transmission of Culture ∗

Why are some people more successful than others at cultural adjustment? Research on organizational culture has mostly focused on value congruence as the core dimension of cultural fit. We develop a novel and complementary conceptualization of cognitive fit—perceptual accuracy, or the degree to which a person can decipher the group’s cultural code. We demonstrate that the ability to read the cultural code, rather than identification with the code, matters for contemporaneous behavioral conformity. We further show that a person’s behavior and perceptual accuracy are both influenced by observations of others’ behavior, whereas value congruence is less susceptible to peer influence. Drawing on email and survey data from a mid-sized technology firm, we use the tools of computational linguistics and machine learning to develop longitudinal measures of cognitive and behavioral cultural fit. We also take advantage of a reorganization that produced quasi-exogenous shifts in employees’ interlocutors to identify the causal impact of peer influence. We discuss implications of these findings for research on cultural assimilation, the interplay of structure and culture, and the pairing of surveys with digital trace data. Keywords— Culture, Person-Culture Fit, Cognition, Behavior, Language
Ornithophily for the nonspecialist: Differential pollination efficiency of the Macaronesian island paleoendemic Navaea phoenicea (Malvaceae) by generalist passerines.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY A bird pollination syndrome exists in the Canary Islands archipelago across independent plant lineages despite the absence of specialist birds. The pollination efficiency of current floral visitors remains unknown for many plant species despite this being a fundamental factor in testing hypotheses about the origin of the syndrome. Here, we studied the components of pollination efficiency in the paleoendemic Navaea phoenicea, a species exhibiting conspicuous anatomical modifications associated with bird pollination. METHODS We measured the components of the pollination efficiency (PE) of species foraging on flowers. The measured quantitative components were visitation frequency patterns to plants and individual flowers. The qualitative components were the contributions to the fitness of male and female functions (pollen removal and deposition and fruit set). KEY RESULTS Pollination by warbler species was highly efficient, but visit frequency was low; conversely, Canarian chiffchaffs had high visit frequency and low efficiency. Overall PE was almost 0 for blue tits due to disruptive behavior. We also found insects acting as nectar robbers. CONCLUSIONS Pollination efficiency of three of the four bird species visiting flowers of Navaea phoenicea may be high enough to maintain selective pressure on floral traits of a relict pollination syndrome. The behavior of these birds plays a crucial role in their pollination efficiency. Perching, by generalist passerines when visiting N. phoenicea flowers, is the most efficient habit. The frequency and PE of insect visits calls into question their role as legitimate visitors.
Spatiotemporal dynamics in human visual cortex rapidly encode the emotional content of faces

Recognizing emotion in faces is important in human interaction and survival, yet existing studies do not paint a consistent picture of the neural representation supporting this task. To address this, we collected magnetoencephalography (MEG) data while participants passively viewed happy, angry and neutral faces. Using time‐resolved decoding of sensor‐level data, we show that responses to angry faces can be discriminated from happy and neutral faces as early as 90 ms after stimulus onset and only 10 ms later than faces can be discriminated from scrambled stimuli, even in the absence of differences in evoked responses. Time‐resolved relevance patterns in source space track expression‐related information from the visual cortex (100 ms) to higher‐level temporal and frontal areas (200–500 ms). Together, our results point to a system optimised for rapid processing of emotional faces and preferentially tuned to threat, consistent with the important evolutionary role that such a system must have played in the development of human social interactions.
Expansion of a Population of Large Monocytes (Atypical Monocytes) in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases

Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) is closely associated with airway inflammation including monocytes, lymphocytes, and neutrophils. Monocytes play an essential role in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To elucidate the association of circulating monocyte alteration with AECOPD, we analyzed monocyte subpopulation in the peripheral blood of 16 healthy volunteers and 22 AECOPD patients at the stages of admission and remission after clinical therapy. We found a dramatic increase of a previously unreported population of large size circulating atypical monocytes (A Mo) in AECOPD patients, characterized by higher forward scatter and lower side scatter values than the typical monocytes (T Mo) which were observed predominantly in healthy individuals. Further analysis showed that A Mo expressed higher levels of CD16, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and chemotactic protein-1 receptor-2 (CCR2) than T Mo. In contrast, the expression of class II antigen (HLA-DR) by A Mo was lower than T Mo. More importantly, we observed that the percentage of circulating A Mo among total monocytes correlated with the length of hospital stay (time to remission) and disease duration. The data suggest that circulating A Mo might have the potential to serve as a biomarker in the diagnosis and prognosis of AECOPD.
MRI of the Human Prostate in Vivo at 7 T

Introduction Without contrast agent administration, T1 contrast in the prostate is very small (except for hemorrhage after biopsies). Therefore the clinical workhorse of prostate MRI is an axial multi-slice T2-weighted (T2w) acquisition of the prostate and surrounding tissues. When moving to ultra-high field strengths, multiple spin echo imaging becomes a challenge because of the increased radiofrequency (RF) power demand and increased RF power deposition inside the body, possibly exceeding safety limits. Spin echo MRI of the body at 7T requires dedicated measurement set-ups. With constructive addition of B1 fields of multiple transmitter arrays flip angles of 180 degrees can be reached in deeper body regions such as the prostate. In order to calculate T2 values of the prostate and surrounding tissues at 7T to establish an estimate of the optimal echo time at this field strength for anatomical imaging, we implemented a multiple spin echo pulse sequence with prolonged RF pulses for use with a multi-transmit 8-channel array coil. In addition, we performed T1-weighted and mixed T1/T2-weighted MRI of the prostate and surrounding tissues to confirm the lack of contrast in T1-weighted images and to explore the possibilities of balanced gradient echo imaging of the prostate at 7T.
Overview of Calcium Phosphates used in Biomimetic Oral Care

Background: The use of biomimetic agents is an emerging field in modern oral care. Promising biomimetic substances for such applications are calcium phosphates, because their chemical composition is very similar to that of the mineral phase in human teeth, especially of natural enamel. Examples for their application include the remineralization of early caries lesions and repair of small enamel defects. Objective: This review provides an interdisciplinary view on calcium phosphates and their applications in biomimetic oral care. The aim of this work is to give an overview of in vivo and in situ studies comparing several calcium phosphates in preventive dentistry that can be used as a knowledge base for the development of innovative alternative oral care concepts. Methods: Books, reviews, and original research papers with a focus on in vivo and in situ studies were included. The databases PubMed® and SciFinder® were used for literature search. Calcium phosphates that are frequently utilized in oral care products are covered in this review and were used as search terms alone and together with the following key words: in vivo, in situ, caries, clinical study, and remineralization. From 13,470 studies found, 35 studies complied with the inclusion criteria and were used for this review. Results: Published in vivo and in situ studies demonstrate calcium phosphates’ potential in enamel remineralization. However, more studies are needed to further substantiate existing results and to extend and refine the application of calcium phosphates in modern oral care. Conclusion: Calcium phosphates represent an innovative biomimetic approach for daily oral care because of their high similarity to natural enamel that will broaden the range of future treatments in preventive dentistry.
Android Library for Recognition of Activities of Daily Living: Implementation Considerations, Challenges, and Solutions

This work was supported by FCT project UID/EEA/50008/2013 (Este trabalho foi suportado pelo projecto FCT UID/EEA/50008/2013). The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the COST Action IC1303 – AAPELE – Architectures, Algorithms and Protocols for Enhanced Living Environments.