Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AGN wind scaling relations and the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies

This work was supported by ASI/INAF contract I/009/10/0 and INAF PRIN 2011, 2012 and 2014. MB acknowledges support from the FP7 Career Integration Grant “eEASy” (CIG 321913). LZ acknowledges support from ASI/INAF grant I/037/12/0. CF acknowledges funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SklodowskaCurie grant agreement No 664931. CC acknowledges funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SklodowskaCurie grant agreement No 664931 and support from Swiss National Science Foundation Grants PP00P2 138979 and PP00P2 166159. RM acknowledges the ERC Advanced Grant 695671 QUENCH and support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Variation in the post‐mating fitness landscape in fruit flies

Sperm competition is pervasive and fundamental to determining a male's overall fitness. Sperm traits and seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) are key factors. However, studies of sperm competition may often exclude females that fail to remate during a defined period. Hence, the resulting data sets contain fewer data from the potentially fittest males that have most success in preventing female remating. It is also important to consider a male's reproductive success before entering sperm competition, which is a major contributor to fitness. The exclusion of these data can both hinder our understanding of the complete fitness landscapes of competing males and lessen our ability to assess the contribution of different determinants of reproductive success to male fitness. We addressed this here, using the Drosophila melanogaster model system, by (i) capturing a comprehensive range of intermating intervals that define the fitness of interacting wild‐type males and (ii) analysing outcomes of sperm competition using selection analyses. We conducted additional tests using males lacking the sex peptide (SP) ejaculate component vs. genetically matched (SP+) controls. This allowed us to assess the comprehensive fitness effects of this important Sfp on sperm competition. The results showed a signature of positive, linear selection in wild‐type and SP+ control males on the length of the intermating interval and on male sperm competition defence. However, the fitness surface for males lacking SP was distinct, with local fitness peaks depending on contrasting combinations of remating intervals and offspring numbers. The results suggest that there are alternative routes to success in sperm competition and provide an explanation for the maintenance of variation in sperm competition traits.
Suppression of Humoral Immunity Following Exposure to the Perfluorinated Insecticide Sulfluramid

Perfluorinated hydrocarbons have been manufactured for over 40 yr and have numerous applications in industry. This group of compounds has recently generated much interest, as some of these compounds such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluoroctanic acid (PFOA) are persistent in the environment and detectable in blood samples of both wildlife and humans. Studies show that these perfluorinated compounds induce peroxisomal proliferation, induce hepatomegaly, alter steroidogenesis, and decrease body weight, accompanied by a wasting syndrome; however, effects on immune function have not been addressed at length. This study examined sulfluramid, a perfluorinated pesticide that is currently available in the marketplace and is a representative member of this class of chemicals. Adult female B6C3F1 mice were exposed via gavage to either an oil carrier control or sulfluramid for 14 d (1, 3, 10, or 30 mg/kg/d) or 28 d (0.3, 1, 3, or 10 mg/kg/d). Although responses were normal in natural killer cell activity and lymphocyte proliferation, dose-responsive suppression was noted in the plaque forming cell (PFC) response at exposure levels as low as 3 mg/kg/d in the 14-d exposure and 0.3 mg/kg/d for 28 d. Dose-responsive increases in liver mass were observed following treatment with 1, 3, 10, or 30 mg/kg/d for 14 d and 0.3, 1, 3, or 10 mg/kg/d for 28 d. A significant reduction in body weight was observed at the highest dose level in each study. Novel findings in this study indicate that sulfluramid suppresses immunoglobulin (Ig) M production. Additional immunotoxicity studies are required to understand potential mechanisms of suppression and determine potential health risks associated with exposure to perfluorinated hydrocarbons.
Interpretable Numerical Descriptors of Amino Acid Space

Informative numerical representations of amino acid residues are essential for successful in silico modeling or establishing the structure-activity relationships of proteins. A straightforward approach is adopted here for representing more than 500 amino acid indices from the AAindex database by a set of uncorrelated scales, satisfying the varimax criterion. Different measures are considered in order to demonstrate the improved interpretability of the current scales as compared to previously published ones. Performance is also addressed in a classification problem of G-protein coupled receptors, and is found to be similar or higher than the performance achieved by six other scale sets. Finally, a unique correspondence between numerical indices and mutation matrices is derived and discussed in light of the evolutionary conservation of amino acid properties. Conclusions from this study highlight the discord between ease of interpretation of amino acid scales and their relevance to protein structure conservation, as well as general considerations for designing custom scale sets.
Periodontal disease in mothers indicates risk in their children.

INTRODUCTION It is well established that severe periodontitis clusters in families, but there are no data about the relationship between mothers with chronic periodontitis and their children's periodontal status. OBJECTIVE To evaluate a risk for periodontal diseases in children of periodontally diseased and healthy mothers. METHODS Four study groups were included: (I) 20 female patients with untreated generalized severe chronic periodontitis, (II) their children (34), (III) 13 periodontally healthy mothers and (IV) their children (13). Material was collected from years 2004-2006. The clinical examination included registration of visible plaque index, modified gingival index and, bleeding sites on probing. Periodontal microbiological samples were obtained from all study subjects and the isolates were identified according to morphology and biochemical profiles; similar interfamilial pathogens were compared by PCR-technique. RESULTS The children of diseased mothers more frequently had periodontal diseases, especially gingivitis. In addition, clinical parameters of gingival inflammation were more expressed and oral hygiene was worse in this group of children. VPI and VPI% of the diseased and healthy mothers differed significantly. The most common oral pathogens were P. intermedia/nigrescens and A. actinomycetemcomitans. The children of healthy mothers harboured pathogens less frequently than the children of diseased mothers. The sharing of P. intermedia/nigrescens was more frequent (5 families) than A. actinomycetemcomitans (2 families). CONCLUSION Maternal indicators, such as periodontitis, hygiene habits, and periodontal microflora are risk factors for childhood periodontal diseases, and might be predictive of future childhood and adolescent periodontitis.
MEDIA OPTIMIZATION FOR INORGANIC PHOSPHATE SOLUBILIZING BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM ANAND ARGICULTURE SOIL.

Phosphorus (P) is one of the essential macronutrients for plant growth and reproduction. Plants acquire P from the soil solution as phosphate anions. However, phosphate anions are extremely reactive and may be immobilized through precipitation with cations such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe3+ and Al3+, depending on the particular properties of the soil and as a result, the phosphate is highly insoluble and unavailable to plants.
Immune Response Testing of Electrospun Polymers: An Important Consideration in the Evaluation of Biomaterials

Due primarily to cell sourcing issues, many in the field of tissue engineering have opted to create scaffolds that promote in situ regeneration, using the body as both the bioreactor and the cell source for the remodeling of scaffolds, resulting in the formation of native tissue. This practice raises many concerns, with the body's immune response to such an implant often being neglected as a potential problem in preliminary design and biocompatibility testing. More importantly, what happens over time in terms of the immune responses as the biodegradable scaffold structures being utilized to promote in situ regeneration begin to degrade, forming structural fragments and degradation products? In summary, immune response evaluations are critical considerations that must be conducted when evaluating bioresorbable scaffolds. In addition, it is essential that these evaluations analyze materials for their potential dose-response and time-course effects on the various components of innate and acquired immunity.
Magnetic Field Overlying Solar Eruption Regions and Kink and Torus Instabilities

Using a Potential Field Source Surface model (PFSS), we study magnetic field overlying erupted filaments in solar active regions. The filaments studied here were reported to experience a kink instability or a torus instability. The torus instability leads to a full eruption, while the kink instability leads to a full eruption or a failed eruption. It is found that for full eruption the field decreases with height more quickly than that for failed eruption. A dividing line between full eruption and failed eruption is also found to be likely connected with the decay index n of the horizontal potential field due to sources external of the filament ( n = −d log(Bex)/d log(h), where h is height): the decay index of failed eruption tends to be smaller than that of full eruption. The difference of the decay indexes between full eruption and failed eruption is statistically significant. These are supportive of previous theoretical and numerical simulation results. Another significant difference is the field strength at low altitude: for failed eruption, the field strength is about a factor of 3 stronger than that for the full eruption. It suggests that the field strength at low altitude may be another factor in deciding whether or not a full eruption can take place. On the other hand, the decay index for the torus-instability full eruption events exhibits no trend to exceed the decay index for the kink-instability full eruption events on average, different from a suggestion derived from some MHD simulations. We discuss possible reasons that may cause this discrepancy. Subject headings: Sun: activity; Sun: coronal mass ejections (CMEs); Sun: magnetic fields
Histone Arginine Methylation by PRMT7 Controls Germinal Center Formation via Regulating Bcl6 Transcription

B cells are the center of humoral immunity and produce Abs to protect against foreign Ags. B cell defects lead to diseases such as leukemia and lymphomas. Histone arginine methylation is important for regulating gene activation and silencing in cells. Although the process commonly exists in mammalian cells, its roles in B cells are unknown. To explore the effects of aberrant histone arginine methylation on B cells, we generated mice with a B cell–specific knockout of PRMT7, a member of the methyltransferases that mediate arginine methylation of histones. In this article, we showed that the loss of PRMT7 led to decreased mature marginal zone B cells and increased follicular B cells and promoted germinal center formation after immunization. Furthermore, mice lacking PRMT7 expression in B cells secreted low levels of IgG1 and IgA. Abnormal expression of germinal center genes (i.e., Bcl6, Prdm1, and Irf4) was detected in conditional knockout mice. By overexpressing PRMT7 in the Raji and A20 cell lines derived from B cell lymphomas, we validated the fact that PRMT7 negatively regulated Bcl6 expression. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation–PCR, we found that PRMT7 could recruit H4R3me1 and symmetric H4R3me2 to the Bcl6 promoter. These results provide evidence for the important roles played by PRMT7 in germinal center formation.
Cigarette smoking as a risk factor in stroke.

To the Editor. — We were pleased to see that Wolf et al1have confirmed our work2showing that cigarette smoking is an independent risk factor for stroke, and somewhat surprised that they did not mention our 1984 article.2We reported that male cigarette smokers had a twofold and female cigarette smokers a 3.9-fold increased risk of stroke independent of other risk factors.
American Academy of Family Physicians patient education materials: can patients read them?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A large proportion of US adults struggle with limited literacy skills, which affect their ability to fully function in health care settings. This study evaluated the readability of English language American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) patient education materials. METHODS A random sample of 171 AAFP patient education materials was selected from a list of 518 health topics available via the Internet. The SMOG grade formula was used to measure readability of the written patient education materials. RESULTS The mean SMOG grade level of AAFP patient education materials was 9.43 +/- 1.31 (range=6-12). This is higher than the average reading skills of US adults. CONCLUSIONS Our results support and extend the findings of other readability studies across many medical specialties, all of which find that patient education materials are written at a difficulty level that is too high. The AAFP and individual family physicians should strive to improve communication with their patients by providing educational materials that are written at an appropriate reading level.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia: The clinicopathological spectrum

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia (ALS‐D) is a non‐Alzheimer‐type dementia characterized by both frontotemporal degeneration and motor neuron disease and marked by ubiquitin‐positive, tau‐ and α‐synuclein‐negative intraneuronal inclusions and dystrophic neurites. New neuropathological diagnostic criteria for ALS‐D are proposed on the basis of the present investigation of 28 autopsy cases. Clinical features included those of typical ALS‐D, primary lateral sclerosis, atypical ALS with frontotemporal atrophy and atypical Pick's disease without Pick's bodies. Macroscopically anterior frontotemporal atrophy was observed involving or not involving the precentral gyrus. Microscopically non‐specific neuronal loss and gliosis with spongiosis were seen, particularly in superficial layers II and III of the frontotemporal cortices. Diffuse fibrous gliosis was seen in the frontotemporal white matter. The substantia nigra and amygdala showed neuronal loss and gliosis. In all 28 cases, degeneration of both the lower and upper motor neuron systems, consistent with classic sporadic ALS, was present. The distribution and degree of degenerative frontotemporal lesions and motor neuron disturbance were of various patterns. Ubiquitin‐positive and tau‐ and α‐synuclein negative intraneuronal inclusions and dystrophic neurites in extramotor cortices were observed in all cases. Furthermore, ubiquitin‐positive inclusions in lower motor neurons were found in all cases. The distribution pattern and density differed between neuronal inclusions and dystrophic neurites and correlated with clinicopathological phenotypes. Therefore, the ALS‐D spectrum may be broader than that previously recognized, extending to primary lateral sclerosis, atypical ALS and to atypical Pick's disease without Pick bodies. Further investigation is needed to determine the characteristics of the ubiquitinated component in ALS‐D.
A model accounting for effects of vibratory amplitude on responses of cutaneous mechanoreceptors in macaque monkey

1. A mechanoreceptor model, developed in the preceding paper (Freeman & Johnson, 1982), was used to study the effects of vibratory intensity and frequency on the responses of slowly adapting, rapidly adapting and Pacinian afferents in monkey hairless skin. As in the previous paper almost all of the response properties studied here were accounted for by the equivalent circuit model; changes in membrane time constant and amplitude sensitivity accounted for the differences between the three mechanoreceptive fibre types.
The effects of glycosaminoglycans on thrombopoietin-induced megakaryocytopoiesis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The extracellular matrix plays an essential role in normal hematopoiesis. Proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans (GAG) are major components of the matrix. In this study, the effects of various GAG on the proliferation and differentiation of CD34+ megakaryocytic progenitor cells (CFU-Meg) were evaluated in vitro. DESIGN AND METHODS CD34+ cells were highly purified from steady-state human peripheral blood. The GAG tested were hyaluronic acid (from humans, pigs and roosters), keratan sulfate, heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate (from whale, shark or squid cartilage) and dermatan sulfate (DS). RESULTS When used alone, none of the GAG supported the clonal growth of CFU-Meg; however, in cultures stimulated by recombinant human thrombopoietin, human hyaluronic acid, whale chondroitin sulfate and DS significantly enhanced such growth. In particular, the addition of DS resulted in increases of about 1.3-fold, 1.6-fold and 2.0-fold in the numbers of total cells, megakaryocytes and CFU-Meg, respectively, compared with the control culture stimulated by thrombopoietin alone after 9-12 days of serum-free liquid culture. Furthermore, DS induced the generation of hyperploid megakaryocytes and promoted pro-platelet formation. Chemical fragmentation and desulfation of DS showed that a chain of at least 12 saccharides is required for colony-promoting activity and that the sulfate groups play an essential role. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS DS acts on an immature population of CD34+ cells, stimulates the proliferation of CFU-Meg, and enhances the terminal maturation of megakaryocytes and thrombopoiesis. These results suggest that DS has a wide spectrum of action in promoting megakaryocytopoiesis and thrombopoiesis.
Comparison of faecal Lactobacillus populations in experimental animals from different breeding facilities and possible consequences for probiotic studies

Aims: The effect of probiotic lactobacilli is likely dependent on the indigenous Lactobacillus strains in the intestinal tract. Since a substantial number of probiotic studies is performed in rodents, we compared the Lactobacillus strains of different rat and mouse populations in three animal facilities.
Clinical risk factors for loss of stent primary patency in patients with chronic legs ischemia.

BACKGROUND The outcome of endovascular therapy can be influenced by a number of factors, either demographic, biochemical, angiographic or procedural. Knowledge about these factors may help in the individualization of therapeutic methods, surveillance intensity, and should, ultimately, improve intervention efficacy. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of clinical and biochemical factors on the late outcome of lower limb artery stenting. MATERIAL AND METHODS The medical documentation of 91 patients with at least a 1 year follow-up after the stenting of a lower limb artery was retrospectively evaluated. Uniand multivariate analyses were performed. RESULTS Primary patency within an approximately 1.5-year follow-up amounted to 68.2%. The probability of freedom from target lesion revascularization was significantly greater in patients with dyslipidemia. According to the Cox proportional-hazards analysis, the risk of target extremity revascularization was significantly affected by the following (hazard ratio [HR], 95% confidence interval): Age (0.93, 0.88-0.99); dyslipidemia at inclusion (0.046, 0.01-0.23); LDL blood concentration (1.02; 1.01-1.04); hematocrit (1.2, 1.02-1.42); mean platelet volume (0.66, 0.44-0.99); INR (1.58, 1.13-2.21); and aPTT (1.18, 1.07-1.3). CONCLUSIONS Endovascular treatment with stenting in patients with atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease is effective, but the risk of primary patency loss was affected by the presence of dyslipidemia, age, and blood coagulation parameters. The effect of dyslipidemia on stent failure occurrence should be evaluated in further studies.
Inhibition of Rab 5 Activation During Insulin Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis

Activation of receptor tyrosine kinases is a key feature in receptor signaling and membrane trafficking processes. In this study, we found that the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase activity is required for fusion between early endosomes. AG1024, a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, blocked the in vitro endosome fusion in a concentration-dependent manner. We observed that Rab5: wild type partially rescued the fusion reaction, whereas Rab5: Q79L mutant fully rescued it. We also observed that treatment of cells with insulin receptor kinase inhibitor HNMPA-(AM)3 blocked the formation of Rab5-positive endosomes as well as the activation of Rab5 upon addition of insulin in intact cells. HNMPA-(AM)3 inhibitor also affected the endosomal co-localization of Rab5 and insulin receptor. However, the formation of Rab5: Q79L mutant-positive endosomes were not affected by the HNMPA-(AM)3 inhibitor. In addition, HNMPA-(AM)3 inhibitor affected the association of Rin1 to membrane upon insulin stimulation. Furthermore, Rin1 did not fully support endosome fusion in the presence of the AG1024 inhibitor. These results constitute the first evidence that, at least in part, the enzymatic activity of insulin receptor is required for the fusion events via the activation of Rab5.
Mannose Binding Lectin Polymorphisms are Associated With Early Age of Disease Onset and Autoimmunity in Common Variable Immunodeficiency

Mannose binding lectin (MBL) is an important component of the innate immune response. Low producing MBL alleles are associated with an increased risk of infection, especially when adaptive immunity is already compromized. We investigated the role of MBL polymorphism in common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), a disease of unknown aetiology characterized by defective humoral immunity, recurrent infections and highly variable clinical phenotype. Six biallelic single nucleotide polymorphisms in the MBL promoter and coding region (– 550, − 221, + 4, codons 52, 54 and 57) were haplotyped using a novel PCR‐SSP method in 163 CVID patients and 100 controls. Low producing coding alleles and promoter haplotypes were associated with early age of disease onset. The mean age of disease onset was 14.5 years in patients with low producing MBL coding alleles, compared with 25 years in patients with wild type coding regions (t‐test P = 0.002). Mean age of onset in patients with the low producing LXPA haplotype was 6.8 years, compared with 29.3 years for the HYPA haplotype (P = 0.003). The MBL + 4 Q allele was associated with autoimmune disease (P = 0.003, OR 4.4). These results suggest that MBL deficiency compounds the antibody deficiency in CVID, and reinforces the ostensible role of MBL in innate immunity. MBL deficiency may also facilitate the development of autoimmune disease in CVID.