Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Links between the IGF-1 signalling pathways and skeletal muscle hypertrophy in sheep

Meat yield and product quality are important to the Australian sheep industry particularly as the country faces increased competition from imported meats. The Callipyge genotype in sheep is a natural mutation of chromosome 18 that leads to significantly greater muscle yield (Cockett and Jackson, 1994). However the Callipyge phenotype is not expressed until 4 to 6 weeks of age (Jackson et al., 1997). The Carwell genotype of Poll Dorset sheep is another natural polymorphism that leads to greater meat yield, though neither the genetic polymorphism nor the biochemical mechanism is known. Whilst increase in muscle yield may be beneficial for the consumption market, the mechanism underlying hypertrophy in these genetic variants is not fully understood. Previous studies have shown that IGF-1 (insulin like growth factor) induces skeletal muscle hypertrophy by stimulating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-Akt-mTOR and Ras-Raf-MEKERK pathways (Glass, 2003). This induction is characterized by an increase in size of muscle fibres (hypertrophy) rather than number (hyperplasia), resulting in an enhanced rate of protein synthesis (Glass, 2003 and Foulstone and Huser, 2004). The literature suggests that IGF-1 is capable of inducing skeletal hypertrophy in human and mouse muscle in vivo. In vitro studies also suggest that IGF-1 might induce skeletal myocyte hypertrophy through the calcineurin-mediated signalling pathway via mechanisms involving GATA-2 and NF-ATc1. (Musaro et al., 1999). Thus it is essential to elucidate the link between the metabolic networks and the signalling pathways that influence skeletal muscle hypertrophy. The aim of this research is to use knowledge of muscle development in mouse and human to help understand development in sheep, particularly in the sheep muscle genetic variants Callipyge and Carwell. We will examine integral components of the IGF-1 signaling pathways to determine if they are associated with the hypertrophic growth observed in these genetic variants. Western blotting will be used to examine the activity, and phosphorylation status of PI3 kinase, Akt, mTOR, calcineurin and p70S6K. This study will develop in vitro models for hypertrophy based on primary sheep cultures derived from genetic variants associated with increased meat yield. This will lead to greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms and biochemistry governing increased muscle yield in these phenotypes. Moreover, we will learn about the link between hypertrophy and the toughness of these mutations in sheep. Our results show that IGF-1 treatment results in hypertrophy in vitro of C2C12 (mouse muscle line) and sheep primary myotubes. Hypertrophy in response to human recombinant IGF-1 was measured as an increase in number of DAPI-stained nuclei within desmin positive cells (4–5 per myotube); increased creatine kinase per unit cellular protein (2-fold) and increased expression of mTOR and p70S6K (2–3fold protein measured by densitometry).
An investigation of the resistance of Culex pipiens pollens to insecticides and study on the control measures in Shandong Province.

Objective To determine the status of resistance of Culex pipiens pollens to several commonly used insecticides in Shandong Province for controlling the occurrence and development of resistance. Method WHO standard bioassay was employed to calculate LC50 and resistance index. Results Resistance of Culex pipiens pollens collected from all fields increased in different degrees. The highest resistance index to Cypermethrin is 135.48,followed by those of against Deltamethrin,DDVP and DDT. Significant differences of resistance to applied insecticides in differrnt areas were observed and the resistance tends to be higher according to the results of the investigations lasted for several years. Conclusion Resistance should be monitored regularly. Integrated use of insecticides and other methods for control of Culex pipiens pallens should be carried out according to local conditions. The occurrence and development of resistance could be prevented and reduced by scientific and rational use of insecticides.
Interrogation of the perturbed gut microbiota in gouty arthritis patients through in silico metabolic modeling

Recent studies have shown perturbed gut microbiota associated with gouty arthritis, a metabolic disease characterized by an imbalance between uric acid production and excretion. To mechanistically investigate altered microbiota metabolism associated with gout disease, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence data from stool samples of gout patients and healthy controls were computationally analyzed through bacterial community metabolic models. Patient‐specific community models constructed with the metagenomics modeling pipeline, mgPipe, were used to perform k‐means clustering of samples according to their metabolic capabilities. The clustering analysis generated statistically significant partitioning of samples into a Bacteroides‐dominated, high gout cluster and a Faecalibacterium‐elevated, low gout cluster. The high gout cluster was predicted to allow elevated synthesis of the amino acids D‐alanine and L‐alanine and byproducts of branched‐chain amino acid catabolism, while the low gout cluster allowed higher production of butyrate, the sulfur‐containing amino acids L‐cysteine and L‐methionine, and the L‐cysteine catabolic product H2S. By expanding the capabilities of mgPipe to provide taxa‐level resolution of metabolite exchange rates, acetate, D‐lactate and succinate exchanged from Bacteroides to Faecalibacterium were predicted to enhance butyrate production in the low gout cluster. Model predictions suggested that sulfur‐containing amino acid metabolism generally and H2S more specifically could be novel gout disease markers.
Common abnormality of gray matter integrity in substance use disorder and obsessive‐compulsive disorder: A comparative voxel‐based meta‐analysis

The objective of the current study is to determine robust transdiagnostic brain structural markers for compulsivity by capitalizing on the increasing number of case‐control studies examining gray matter volume (GMV) alterations in substance use disorders (SUD) and obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). Voxel‐based meta‐analysis within the individual disorders and conjunction analysis were employed to reveal common GMV alterations between SUDs and OCD. Meta‐analytic coordinates and signed brain volumetric maps determining directed (reduced/increased) GMV alterations between the disorder groups and controls served as the primary outcome. The separate meta‐analysis demonstrated that SUD and OCD patients exhibited widespread GMV reductions in frontocortical regions including prefrontal, cingulate, and insular. Conjunction analysis revealed that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) consistently exhibited decreased GMV across all disorders. Functional characterization suggests that the IFG represents a core hub in the cognitive control network and exhibits bidirectional (Granger) causal interactions with the striatum. Only OCD showed increased GMV in the dorsal striatum with higher changes being associated with more severe OCD symptomatology. Together the findings demonstrate robustly decreased GMV across the disorders in the left IFG, suggesting a transdiagnostic brain structural marker. The functional characterization as a key hub in the cognitive control network and casual interactions with the striatum suggest that deficits in inhibitory control mechanisms may promote compulsivity and loss of control that characterize both disorders.
The Clinical Course of COVID-19 in the Outpatient Setting: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Outpatient COVID-19 has been insufficiently characterized. Objective: To determine the progression of disease and subsequent determinants of hospitalization. Design: A prospective outpatient cohort. Setting: Outpatients were recruited by phone between April 21 to June 23, 2020 after receiving outpatient or emergency department testing within a large health network in Maryland, USA. Participants: Outpatient adults with positive RT-PCR results for SARS-CoV-2. Measurements: Symptoms, portable pulse oximeter oxygen saturation (SaO2), heart rate, and temperature were collected by participants on days 0, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 after enrollment. Baseline demographics, comorbid conditions were evaluated for risk of subsequent hospitalization using negative binomial, logistic, and random effects logistic regression. Results: Among 118 SARS-CoV-2 infected outpatients, the median age was 56.0 years (IQR, 50.0 to 63.0) and 50 (42.4%) were male. Among those reporting active symptoms, the most common symptoms during the first week since symptom onset included weakness/fatigue (67.3%), cough (58.0%), headache (43.8%), and sore throat (34.8%). Participants returned to their usual health a median of 20 days (IQR, 13 to 38) from the symptom onset, and only 65.5% of respondents were at their usual health during the fourth week of illness. Over 28 days, 10.9% presented to the emergency department and 7.6% required hospitalization. Individuals at the same duration of illness had a 6.1 times increased adjusted odds of subsequent hospitalization per every percent decrease in home SaO2 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.41 to 31.23, p=0.02). Limitations: Severity and duration of illness may differ in a younger population. Conclusion: Symptoms often persisted but uncommonly progressed to hospitalization. Home SaO2 might be an important adjunctive tool to identify progression of COVID-19.
Could seasonal influenza vaccination influence COVID-19 risk?

Background: With possible resurgence of the SARS-CoV-2 and low seasonal influenza virus circulation next winter, reviewing evidence on a possible interaction between influenza vaccination and COVID-19 risk is important. Objective: To review studies on the effect of influenza vaccines on non-influenza respiratory disease (NIRD). Methods: Using different search strategies, 18 relevant studies were identified and their strength, limitations and significance were assessed. Results: Analysis of 4 RCT datasets did not suggest increased NIRD risk in recipients of live-attenuated vaccines (LAIV) and results of a cohort study suggested short-term protection consistent with the hypothesis of trained immunity. One RCT, four cohort studies and one test-negative case-control suggested increased NIRD risk in recipients of inactivated influenza vaccines (IIV), whereas five test-negative case-control studies did not show an increased risk associated with a specific viral pathogen. Cross-protection against COVID-19 was suggested in one cross-sectional study on IIV but major biases could not be excluded. Results of four recent ecological studies on COVID-19 were challenging to interpret. Conclusions: Available data on LAIV are reassuring but not all those on IIV. A drastic reorientation of 2020-2021 influenza campaigns is probably not warranted but studies aiming to test COVID-19 risk modification among recipients of seasonal influenza vaccines should be planned and funded.
Title: Revealing the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya based on serological and PCR-test data

: Policy makers in Africa need robust estimates of the current and future spread of SARS-CoV-2. Data suitable for this purpose are scant. We used national surveillance PCR test, serological survey and mobility data to develop and fit a county-specific transmission model for Kenya. We estimate that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic peaked before the end of July 2020 in the major urban counties, with 34 - 41% of residents infected, and will peak elsewhere in the country within 2-3 months. Despite this penetration, reported severe cases and deaths are low. Our analysis suggests the COVID-19 disease burden in Kenya may be far less than initially feared. A similar scenario across sub-Saharan Africa would have implications for balancing the consequences of restrictions with those of COVID-19.
An Investigation of Factors that Affect the Efficiency of Limiting Amino Acid Utilization by Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

An Investigation of Factors that Affect the Efficiency of Limiting Amino Acid Utilization by Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Afshin Gholami Advisor: University of Guelph, 2015 Professor DP Bureau Corn gluten meal (CGM) is a high protein ingredient commonly used in fish feeds. However, studies suggest that diets containing high levels of CGM elicit lower voluntary feed intake, growth and lower efficiency of utilization of limiting amino acid (AA) compared to other protein sources. It has been hypothesized that the AA profile of CGM (low lysine, excess leucine) could be responsible for these effects or protein from CGM could be digested faster than other protein sources, resulting in faster absorption and less efficient utilization of its AAs. A series of studies were conducted to examine the effect of feeding CGM on growth, efficiency of lysine utilization and the dynamics of protein digestion in rainbow trout. Results of growth trial indicated that weight gain, FE and nitrogen retention efficiency were significantly lower in fish fed CGM-based diets compared to those fed WGM based diets. Digestibility trial results revealed lower apparent digestibility of crude protein in CGM-based diets compared to that of WGM-based diets. The efficiency of digestible lysine utilization did not differ between the CGM and WGM-based diets. Serial digesta sampling of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of rainbow trout and blood sampling were carried out to estimate digesta transit time and plasma AA concentrations. Results indicate that CGM-based diets passed through the GI tract four times faster than WGM-based diets. The ratios of plasma leucine to branched-chain amino acids, and leucine to lysine, were generally higher, for fish fed CGM-based diets compared to those fed WGM-based diets. To examine the impact of the excess leucine on growth performance and efficiency of AA utilization, rainbow trout were pair-fed CGM or WGM-based diets formulated to be deficient in lysine and contain adequate and excess leucine levels. Results indicated that excess leucine did not affect growth and efficiency of lysine utilization. The results from this thesis suggest that the lower digestibility of protein and AAs of CGM may in part explain the lower performance of CGM-based diet compared to other protein sources in some studies. Differences in the dynamics of digestion and absorption of AAs and their appearance in the circulation are evident. Therefore, it should be examined further in future studies.
A Design Framework for Epsilon-Private Data Disclosure

In this paper, we study a stochastic disclosure control problem using information-theoretic methods. The useful data to be disclosed depend on private data that should be protected. Thus, we design a privacy mechanism to produce new data which maximizes the disclosed information about the useful data under a strong $\chi^2$-privacy criterion. For sufficiently small leakage, the privacy mechanism design problem can be geometrically studied in the space of probability distributions by a local approximation of the mutual information. By using methods from Euclidean information geometry, the original highly challenging optimization problem can be reduced to a problem of finding the principal right-singular vector of a matrix, which characterizes the optimal privacy mechanism. In two extensions we first consider a noisy disclosure channel and then we look for a mechanism which finds $U$ based on observing $X$, maximizing the mutual information between $U$ and $Y$ while satisfying the privacy criterion on $U$ and $Z$ under the Markov chain $(Z,Y)-X-U$.
Thermal Effects in Spin-Torque Switching of Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions at Cryogenic Temperatures

Temperature plays an important role in spin torque switching of magnetic tunnel junctions causing magnetization fluctuations that decrease the switching voltage but also introduce switching errors. Here we present a systematic study of the temperature dependence of the spin torque switching probability of state-of-the-art perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars (40 to 60 nm in diameter) from room temperature down to 4 K, sampling up to a million switching events. The junction temperature at the switching voltage---obtained from the thermally assisted spin torque switching model---saturates at temperatures below about 75 K, showing that junction heating is significant below this temperature and that spin torque switching remains highly stochastic down to 4 K. A model of heat flow in a nanopillar junction shows this effect is associated with the reduced thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the metals in the junction.
Violation of Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation by Stern-Gerlach measurements

Although Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is represented by a rigorously proven relation about intrinsic indeterminacy in quantum states, Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation (EDR) has been commonly believed as another aspect of the principle. However, recent developments of quantum measurement theory made Heisenberg's EDR testable to observe its violations. Here, we study the EDR for Stern-Gerlach measurements. In a previous report, it has been pointed out that their EDR is close to the theoretical optimal. The present letter reports that even the original Stern-Gerlach experiment in 1922, as the available experimental data show, violates Heisenberg's EDR. The results suggest that Heisenberg's EDR is more ubiquitously violated than it has long been supposed.
Exploring Artist Gender Bias in Music Recommendation

Music Recommender Systems (mRS) are designed to give personalised and meaningful recommendations of items (i.e. songs, playlists or artists) to a user base, thereby reflecting and further complementing individual users' specific music preferences. Whilst accuracy metrics have been widely applied to evaluate recommendations in mRS literature, evaluating a user's item utility from other impact-oriented perspectives, including their potential for discrimination, is still a novel evaluation practice in the music domain. In this work, we center our attention on a specific phenomenon for which we want to estimate if mRS may exacerbate its impact: gender bias. Our work presents an exploratory study, analyzing the extent to which commonly deployed state of the art Collaborative Filtering(CF) algorithms may act to further increase or decrease artist gender bias. To assess group biases introduced by CF, we deploy a recently proposed metric of bias disparity on two listening event datasets: the LFM-1b dataset, and the earlier constructed Celma's dataset. Our work traces the causes of disparity to variations in input gender distributions and user-item preferences, highlighting the effect such configurations can have on user's gender bias after recommendation generation.
MIPGAN - Generating Robust and High Quality Morph Attacks Using Identity Prior Driven GAN

Face morphing attacks target to circumvent Face Recognition Systems (FRS) by employing face images derived from multiple data subjects (e.g., accomplices and malicious actors). Morphed images can verify against contributing data subjects with a reasonable success rate, given they have a high degree of identity resemblance. The success of the morphing attacks is directly dependent on the quality of the generated morph images. We present a new approach for generating robust attacks extending our earlier framework for generating face morphs. We present a new approach using an Identity Prior Driven Generative Adversarial Network, which we refer to as \textit{MIPGAN (Morphing through Identity Prior driven GAN)}. The proposed MIPGAN is derived from the StyleGAN with a newly formulated loss function exploiting perceptual quality and identity factor to generate a high quality morphed face image with minimal artifacts and with higher resolution. We demonstrate the proposed approach's applicability to generate robust morph attacks by evaluating it against a commercial Face Recognition System (FRS) and demonstrate the success rate of attacks. Extensive experiments are carried out to assess the FRS's vulnerability against the proposed morphed face generation technique on three types of data such as digital images, re-digitized (printed and scanned) images, and compressed images after re-digitization from newly generated \textit{MIPGAN Face Morph Dataset}. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed approach of morph generation profoundly threatens the FRS.
Parker Solar Probe observations of suprathermal electron flux enhancements originating from Coronal Hole boundaries

Reconnection between pairs of solar magnetic flux elements, one open and the other a closed loop, is theorized to be a crucial process for both maintaining the structure of the corona and producing the solar wind. This ‘interchange reconnection’ is expected to be particularly active at the open-closed boundaries of coronal holes (CHs). Previous analysis of solar wind data at 1 au indicated that peaks in the flux of suprathermal electrons at slow–fast stream interfaces may arise from magnetic connection to the CH boundary, rather than dynamic effects such as compression. Further, offsets between the peak and stream interface locations are suggested to be the result of interchange reconnection at the source. As a preliminary test of these suggestions, we analyse two solar wind streams observed during the first Parker Solar Probe (PSP) perihelion encounter, each associated with equatorial CH boundaries (one leading and one trailing with respect to rotation). Each stream features a peak in suprathermal electron flux, the locations and associated plasma properties of which are indicative of a solar origin, in agreement with previous suggestions from 1 au observations. Discrepancies between locations of the flux peaks and other features suggest that these peaks may too be shifted by source region interchange reconnection. Our interpretation of each event is compatible with a global pattern of open flux transport, although random footpoint motions or other explanations remain feasible. These exploratory results highlight future opportunities for statistical studies regarding interchange reconnection and flux transport at CH boundaries with modern near-Sun missions.
Protective role of selenium on thyroid morphology in iodine-induced autoimmune thyroiditis in Wistar rats

Excess iodine may induce and exacerbate autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) in humans and animals. In order to assess the potential protective mechanisms of selenium (Se) in thyroid autoimmunity, the effects of inorganic Se (sodium selenite) administration on thyroid morphology and follicular cytology were investigated in adult Wistar rats with iodine-induced AIT. A total of 48 adult Wistar rats (24 females, 24 males) were allocated to one of four dietary regimens: C0, control; C1, only potassium iodine (KI); C2, concomitant KI and Se; C3, only KI initially, followed by Se administration. For AIT induction the rats were fed with 0.05% KI for 56 days. Se-treated rats received 0.3 mg/l sodium selenite in drinking water. Thyroid tissues were collected for pathologic diagnosis after 7 days in C0 group, 56 days in C1 and C2 groups, and 112 days in C3 group. In C1 group, moderate to severe thyroiditis was observed in 83% of males and 50% of female rats (P=0.223). In C3 group 16.7% of male rats developed moderate thyroiditis and none in C2 group, whereas no females were identified with moderate to severe thyroiditis in C2 or C3 group. Thus, the administration of Se was proven to have protective effects against thyroiditis cytology in both male and female Wistar rats.