Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estrogen Promotes Germ Cell and Seminiferous Tubule Development in the Baboon Fetal Testis1

Abstract The foundation for development of the male reproduction system occurs in utero, but relatively little is known about the regulation of primate fetal testis maturation. Our laboratories have shown that estrogen regulates key aspects of the physiology of pregnancy and fetal development. Therefore, in the present study, we characterized and quantified germ cells and Sertoli cells in the fetal baboon testis in late normal gestation (i.e., Day 165; term is 184 days) and in baboons administered the aromatase inhibitor letrozole throughout the second half of gestation to assess the impact of endogenous estrogen on fetal testis development. In untreated baboons, the seminiferous cords were comprised of undifferentiated (i.e., type A) spermatogonia classified by their morphology as dark (Ad) or pale (Ap), gonocytes (precursors of type A spermatogonia), unidentified cells (UI), and Sertoli cells. In letrozole-treated baboons, serum estradiol levels were decreased by 95%. The number per milligram of fetal testis (×104) of Ad spermatogonia (0.42 ± 0.11) was 45% lower (P = 0.03), and that of gonocytes (0.58 ± 0.06) and UI (0.45 ± 0.12) was twofold greater (P < 0.01 and P = 0.06, respectively), than in untreated baboons. Moreover, in the seminiferous cords of estrogen-deprived baboons, the basement membrane appeared fragmented, the germ cells and Sertoli cells appeared disorganized, and vacuoles were present. We conclude that endogenous estrogen promotes fetal testis development and that the changes in the germ cell population in the estrogen-deprived baboon fetus may impair spermatogenesis and fertility in adulthood.
Terahertz Corrugated and Bull's-Eye Antennas

The radiation and temporal properties of one-dimensional and two-dimensional (Bull's-eye) corrugated antennas are investigated numerically and experimentally at terahertz. The thickness of the antenna is miniaturized, within the fabrication limits, by using the transverse slot resonance rather than the longitudinal resonance. Square and triangular corrugations are discussed. The comparison between these two profiles shows that, in terms of return loss and gain, the antenna is robust to the corrugation shape, which alleviates the fabrication complexity. The temporal analysis of the Bull's eye antenna is also shown to demonstrate the contributions coming from the leakage of the surface wave at each groove. This insight allows us to engineer the temporal shape of the output pulse by varying independently the depth of each groove. The antennas presented here hold promise for manipulating with very low profiles pulse- and beam-shapes of THz radiation.
A Multimethod Evaluation of Online Trust and Its Interaction with Metacognitive Awareness: An Emotional Design Perspective

Despite the rapidly increasing numbers of informational websites and learners using the World Wide Web to research topics, empirical evidence on the relationships between website design elements and website trustworthiness is scarce. This study used self-reported and behavioral screen-capture data to investigate the impact of Don Norman's (2003) emotional design levels and metacognitive awareness on website trustworthiness during an information search learning task. The results suggest that the interaction effects of website visual appeal (visceral level) and website usability (behavioral level) can override the effects of the quality or relevance of the information (reflective level) on website evaluation. In addition, in the context of limited time to find the answers, these effects on the evaluation of website trustworthiness are not moderated by users’ metacognitive awareness.
A parallel implementation of One-Sided Jacobi SVD for non-symmetric squared matrices on a high-performance GPU

Success of modern technology enterprises in a highly-competitive and fast-changing market relies on the efficient prototyping of high-performance and low-consumption digital devices. GPUs have become the key for reducing the time-to-market of these digital devices by providing a highly-reconfigurable parallel processing platform for implementing computationally expensive DSP algorithms. This paper exposes the benefits of using a GPU for accelerating DSP algorithms used in big data analysis and scientific computing. Particularly, a parallel-structured implementation of the One-Sided Jacobi algorithm for the SV decomposition is analyzed. Two contributions are highlighted, first, the highest reported speedup for the One-Sided SVD algorithm is achieved and, second, a mixed formal/intuitive analysis technique is applied to cyclic algorithms with the aim of adequate them to GPU platforms.
Granzyme B Induces Bid-Mediated Cytochrome C Release and Mitochondrial Permeability Transition

INTRODUCTION. Granzyme B (GrB) is an aspartyl serine protease located in the granules of cytotoxic T cells (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cells that induce apoptosis. Recent work suggests that mitochondria play a key role in the regulation of cell death in mammalian cells through the release of cytochrome c (CC), as well as the loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψm). GrB has been shown to induce mitochondria to release CC that interacts with Apaf-1 and caspase 9 resulting in the activation of effector caspases and the subsequent apoptotic biochemical and morphological cellular changes (2,3). However, the exact mechanism of cytochrome c release remains controversial and unresolved.
Relative Precision of Minimum Chi-square and Maximum Likelihood Estimates of Regression Coefficients

Professor Doob [5], in the charming introduction to his paper delivered at the last Berkeley Symposium, remarked that physicists write like physicists, while mathematicians write like mathematicians and only for posterity. I have been given to wonder at times, for whom it is that mathematical statisticians write, and specifically whether it is for statisticians. The mathematician, we know from a witty and authoritative essay by Bertrand Russell [10], never knows what he is talking about-that is, he deals with generalities, not specificities-and he never knows whether what he is saying is true-that is, he is concerned with logical consistency, not physical facts. This ineffable disinterestedness in the tawdry realities of the physical world, mathematics shares with the sonata, abstract nonrepresentational sculpture, and the classic ballet. It does not share it with statistics. Statistics, however you define it, is very much earthbound and deals with real observable data; what is statistically true must be literally verifiably true for such data. These remarks are prompted by an experience, which I shall presently describe, with a problem that comes to the laboratory quite frequently, and for which I presented a particular solution [1]. Specifically, in respect to any relevant consideration, so far as I could find, this solution was easier and more satisfactory than the standard one advanced by most mathematical statisticians, but it met a stone wall of opposition in the form of general theorems quoted by these mathematicians. Specifically, it appeared, the method might be fine, but generally speaking, it vwas no good at all. These theorems, I found when I examined the matter, stated that certain things had been proved for "large samples. " Further examination disclosed, however, that if these theorems were valid for large samples, they must refer to infinitely large samples, which is to say, samples so large that no statistician ever gets them, at least not on this unpleasant earth. The problem I refer to is that of bioassay, in which the potency of a drug is estimated from an experiment in which a number of animals are exposed to a series of increasing concentrations of the drug, the fraction of animals succumbing at each dose is noted, and to these fractions a regression function is fitted. The fraction affected, plotted against the dosage, the latter measured logarithmically, in certain instances follows a sigmoidal shaped curve and, as is well known, a widely used method is to fit the integrated normal curve to the data by maximum likelihood,
Learning and inference in hierarchical models with singularities

When we infer the underlying rule which generates a large amount of data, we assume a family of hierarchical statistical models and estimate an appropriate model and its parameters. In this case, the parameter space of the model usually includes singularities, and interesting phenomena, different from those appearing in conventional inference theory, are observed. In this paper, we review the studies of singular models in learning and inference which are being extensively developed in Japan, and elucidate the mechanisms of strange behavior by using simple models. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 34(7): 34–42, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.10353
The Effect of Public Social Context on Self-Control

The present study explores the role of personality in moderating the effect of public social context on self-control. The authors predicted that in public settings neuroticism would be associated with ego-depletion effects and individual differences in impression management (IM) would be associated with restoration effects. Three experiments supported the hypothesis. In Study 1 neuroticism was associated with impaired self-control and IM was associated with enhanced self-control following an initial phase of working on a simple task in public (vs. in private). Study 2 replicated and extended these results to other domains of self-control. Study 3 explored whether public social context can cancel out early depletion effects. In this study, depleted participants engaged in a task that required self-control either alone or in public. As expected, the public settings were associated with restored self-control resources mostly among high IM individuals. Implications for self-control, neuroticism, and IM are discussed.
Numbers of Olfactory Receptor Cells and Fine Structure of Olfactory Nerves in Various Birds

Abstract The numbers of olfactory receptor cells from electron micrographs in various species of birds were counted and the fine structure of their olfactory nerves was observed using electron micrographs. The birds were domestic ducks, a slay-backed gull, quails, budgerigars and bengalees. Data from pigeons obtained from a previous study were also included for comparison. The approximate numbers of olfactory cells on each side were 5,800,000 in the duck, 2,700,000 in the gull, 570,000 in the quail, 130,000 in the budgerigar, and 110,000 in the bengalee. From a cross section of an olfactory nerve, the nerve was observed to be divided roughly into several fascicles by perineurium. Each fascicle was composed of many small bundles which were surrounded by endoneurium. Each small bundle was separated into several divisions by mesaxon which originated from Schwann cells. In the anterior part of the nerve, the number of axons surrounded by mesaxon ranged between one and several dozen. The number in the middle part was much larger than in the anterior part. In the posterior part the number decreased again. The diameter of an axon was 0.21–0.26 μm on average. The axon contained neurotubules, neurofilaments, mitochondria and axonal smooth ER. The fine structure of the olfactory nerve and the numbers of olfactory cells in these birds are discussed and compared with those of other vertebrates.
Profiles of acute cytokine and antibody responses in patients infected with avian influenza A H 7 N 9 Authors

The influenza A H7N9 virus outbreak in Eastern China in the spring of 2013 represented a novel, emerging avian influenza transmission to humans. While clinical and microbiological features of H7N9 infection have been reported in the literature, the current study investigated acute cytokine and antibody responses in acute H7N9 infection. Between March 27, 2013 and April 23, 2013, six patients with confirmed H7N9 influenza infection were admitted to Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China. Acute phase serum cytokine profiles were determined using a high-throughput multiplex assay. Daily H7 hemagglutinin (HA)-specific IgG, IgM, and IgA responses were monitored by ELISA. Neutralizing antibodies specific for H7N9 viruses were determined against a pseudotyped virus expressing the novel H7 subtype HA antigen. Five cytokines (IL-6, IP-10, IL-10, IFNc, and TNFa) were significantly elevated in H7N9-infected patients when compared to healthy volunteers. Serum H7 HAspecific IgG, as well as IgM and IgA responses, were detected within 8 days of disease onset and increased in a similar pattern during acute infection. Neutralizing antibodies developed shortly after the appearance of binding antibody responses and showed similar kinetics as a fraction of the total H7 HA-specific IgG responses. H7N9 infection resulted in hallmark serum cytokine increases, which correlated with fever and disease persistence. The novel finding of simultaneous development of IgG, IgM, and IgA responses in acute H7N9 infection points to the potential for live influenza viruses to elicit fast and potent protective antibodies to limit the infection. Citation: Huang R, Zhang L, Gu Q, Zhou Y-H, Hao Y, et al. (2014) Profiles of Acute Cytokine and Antibody Responses in Patients Infected with Avian Influenza A H7N9. PLoS ONE 9(7): e101788. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0101788 Editor: Stefan Pöhlmann, German Primate Center, Germany Received March 25, 2014; Accepted June 10, 2014; Published July 8, 2014 Copyright: 2014 Huang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [5U01AI078073-04] to [SL], Jiangsu Province’s Outstanding Medical Academic Leader Program [LJ201154] to [CW], and a Special Grant from Jiangsu Science and Technology Department [BL2012034] to [CW]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * Email: shan.lu@umassmed.edu (SL); wuchao1962@163.com (CW) . These authors contributed equally to this work.
Noise annoyance with regard to neurophysiological sensitivity, subjective noise sensitivity and personality variables

Synopsis To evaluate the relation between annoyance to environmental noise, general neurophysiological sensitivity, subjective noise sensitivity and other individual characteristics, experiments were undertaken in which 93 subjects assessed their subjective annoyance after exposure to noise under laboratory conditions. Evaluations were made of the discomfort threshold for pulsating sound, the light discomfort, and heat and cold discomfort. The heart rate and discomfort after exposure to a series of impulse noises was also determined. Subjective noise sensitivity, attitudes to noise, mood and personality characteristics of the subjects were evaluated using questionnaires. The results show that the annoyance after exposure to noise was not closely related to the general neurophysiological sensitivity, measured as discomfort threshold for noise, heat, cold and light; or to the heart rate reaction or discomfort after exposure to impulse noise. The annoyance was highly correlated with subjectively reported noise sensitivity and with the attitude to noise. There was also a relationship with neuroticism, measured with the EPI scale. It is suggested that the subjective noise sensitivity, attitude and neuroticism for the definition of noise sensitivity be defined in future studies of long term effects of noise exposure.
Expression of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in patients with myeloperoxidase anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated glomerulonephritis.

AIM AND METHODS To investigate the relationship between macrophage migration inhibitory factor and clinical or pathological findings in patients with myeloperoxidase anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody MPO-ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis characterized by idiopathic necrotizing crescentic glomerulonephritis, renal biopsy specimens from 16 patients with MPO-ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis and 15 controls were stained using an enzyme antibody method to detect macrophage migration inhibitory factor and macrophages infiltrating the glomeruli. The relationship of this factor with various clinical parameters and with cellular crescents was determined. RESULTS Macrophage migration inhibitory factor was detected in 11 out of 16 patients with MPO-ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis, but was not found in any of the controls. In the positive patients, the blood MPO-ANCA level was significantly higher than in the negative patients. Both cellular crescents and the number of macrophages infiltrating the glomeruli were significantly increased in the patients positive for macrophage migration inhibitory factor. CONCLUSION Thus, macrophage migration inhibitory factor may be closely related to cellular crescent formation and disease activity in patients with MPO-ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis.
Parallel Patterns of Host-Specific Morphology and Genetic Admixture in Sister Lineages of a Commensal Barnacle

Symbiotic relationships are often species specific, allowing symbionts to adapt to their host environments. Host generalists, on the other hand, have to cope with diverse environments. One coping strategy is phenotypic plasticity, defined by the presence of host-specific phenotypes in the absence of genetic differentiation. Recent work indicates that such host-specific phenotypic plasticity is present in the West Pacific lineage of the commensal barnacle Chelonibia testudinaria (Linnaeus, 1758). We investigated genetic and morphological host-specific structure in the genetically distinct Atlantic sister lineage of C. testudinaria. We collected adult C. testudinaria from loggerhead sea turtles, horseshoe crabs, and blue crabs along the eastern U.S. coast between Delaware and Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico off Mississippi. We find that shell morphology, especially shell thickness, is host specific and comparable in similar host species between the Atlantic and West Pacific lineages. We did not detect significant genetic differentiation related to host species when analyzing data from 11 nuclear microsatellite loci and mitochondrial sequence data, which is comparable to findings for the Pacific lineage. The most parsimonious explanation for these parallel patterns between distinct lineages of C. testudinaria is that C. testudinaria maintained phenotypic plasticity since the lineages diverged 4–5 mya.
High Standards Enhance Inequality in Idealized Labor Markets

We built a simple model of an idealized labor market, in which there is no objective difference in average quality between groups and hiring decisions are not biased in favor of any particular group. Our results show that inequality in employment emerges necessarily also in such idealized situations due to the limited supply of high quality individuals and asymmetric information. Inequalities are exacerbated when employers have high standards and keep only the best workers in house. We found that ambitious workers get higher quality jobs even if ambition does not correlate or even negatively correlates with internal quality. Our findings help to corroborate empirical findings on higher employment discrepancies in high rather than low status jobs.
Localization of the adenovirus early region 1B 55-kilodalton protein during lytic infection: association with nuclear viral inclusions requires the early region 4 34-kilodalton protein

The distribution of the adenovirus early region 1B 55-kDa protein (E1B-55kDa) in lytically infected HeLa cells was determined. At the time of infection, when the E1B-55kDa protein facilitates the cytoplasmic accumulation of viral mRNA while simultaneously restricting the accumulation of most cellular mRNA, five distinct intracellular localizations of the protein were observed. Only one of these was disrupted when cells were infected with a mutant virus that fails to produce a second viral protein encoded by early region 4 (E4-34kDa). This protein normally forms a complex with the E1B-55kDa polypeptide, enabling it to influence RNA metabolism. This key localization of the E1B protein was within and about the periphery of nuclear viral inclusion bodies believed to be the site of viral DNA replication and transcription. In the absence of the E4-34kDa protein, the coincidence of E1B-55kDa-specific immunofluorescence and phase-dense viral inclusions was reduced compared with that in a wild-type infection. Similarly, by immunoelectron microscopy, the relative number of E1B-55kDa-specific immunogold particles associated with the clear fibrillar inclusion bodies was reduced. However, the E4-34kDa protein was not required for the close association of the early region 2A DNA binding protein with the viral inclusions. We propose that the viral 55-kDa-34-kDa protein complex interacts with a cellular factor required for cytoplasmic accumulation of mRNAs and directs it to the periphery of the transcriptionally active viral inclusion bodies. This model provides an explanation for the ability of these viral proteins to simultaneously enhance accumulation of viral mRNAs and inhibit accumulation of cellular mRNAs.
Revisiting the Link Between Economic Distress, Race, and Domestic Violence

Male unemployment may decrease the incidence of domestic violence, due to loss of economic power in the relationship, or increase the incidence of domestic violence, due to emotional outbursts fueled by increased stress. We hypothesize that Black men may face a greater loss of expected future earnings after an unemployment shock due to a more unfavorable labor market relative to White men. Consequently, we would expect that Black men would, on net, exhibit a greater reduction (or a smaller increase) in incidences of domestic violence following an employment shock. This study uses mass layoff events reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) at the county level (N = 3,377) for the years 2003-2008. Mass layoff events occur when a firm lays off at least 50 workers and are uncorrelated with individual-level characteristics (N = 28,939 events, affecting N = 5,337,481 individuals). Domestic violence data are taken from the National Archive of Criminal Justice and defined as occurring when an accused perpetrator is charged, but not necessarily convicted. We use a multivariate regression model to estimate how differences in the change in reported incidences of domestic violence by race correlate with changes in mass layoffs by race. We control for the poverty rate, real per capita income, percent Black, percent women, and percent of females laid off. The standard errors are clustered at the county level and include county and time dummies to account for regional and time specific trends. We observe that an increase in the number of Blacks subject to a mass layoff event do exert a negative associated influence on domestic violence while layoffs of White men exert a positive influence. Our results shed light on how the influence of economic uncertainty on incidences of domestic violence has been found to be positive in some previous research but negative in other research.