Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Heat Responsive Genes in Brassica napus Siliques at the Seed-Filling Stage through Transcriptional Profiling

High temperature stress results in yield loss and alterations to seed composition during seed filling in oilseed rape (Brassica napus). However, the mechanism underlying this heat response is poorly understood. In this study, global transcription profiles of 20 d-old siliques of B. napus were analyzed after heat stress using a Brassica 95k EST microarray. The up-regulated genes included many HSF/HSP transcripts and other heat-related marker genes, such as ROF2, DREB2a, MBF1c and Hsa32, reflecting the conservation of key heat resistance factors among plants. Other up-regulated genes were preferentially expressed in heat-stressed silique walls or seeds, including some transcription factors and potential developmental regulators. In contrast, down-regulated genes differed between the silique wall and seeds and were largely tied to the biological functions of each tissue, such as glucosinolate metabolism in the silique wall and flavonoid synthesis in seeds. Additionally, a large proportion (one-third) of these differentially expressed genes had unknown functions. Based on these gene expression profiles, Arabidopsis mutants for eight heat-induced Brassica homologous genes were treated with different heat stress methods, and thermotolerance varied with each mutation, heat stress regimen and plant development stage. At least two of the eight mutants exhibited sensitivity to the heat treatments, suggesting the importance of the respective genes in responding to heat stress. In summary, this study elucidated the molecular bases of the heat responses in siliques during later reproductive stages and provides valuable information and gene resources for the genetic improvement of heat tolerance in oilseed rape breeding.
Emotional Demands at Work and the Risk of Clinical Depression: A Longitudinal Study in the Danish Public Sector

Objective: This study is a 2-year follow-up study of different dimensions of work-related emotional demands as a predictor for clinical depression. Methods: In a two-wave study, 3224 (72%) public employees from 474 work-units participated twice by filling in questionnaires. Sixty-two cases of clinical depression were diagnosed. Emotional demands were examined as perceived and content-related emotional demands, individually reported and work-unit based. Support, meaningful work, and enrichment were considered as potential effect modifiers. Results: Individually reported perceived emotional demands predicted depression (odds ratio: 1.40; 95% confidence intervals: 1.02 to 1.92). The work-unit based odds ratio was in the same direction, though not significant. Content-related emotional demands did not predict depression. Support, meaningful work, and enrichment did not modify the results. Conclusions: The personal perception of emotional demands was a risk factor for clinical depression but specific emotionally demanding work tasks were not.
Heat Transfer Characteristic of Flat Trapezoid Grooved Micro Heat Pipes

To study the heat transfer performance of micro heat pipe, theoretical analysis of flat plate micro heat pipe with trapezoid cross section are presented in this paper. A one-dimensional stationary mathematical model for micro heat pipe grooved capillary flow using finite volume method (FVM) was established. The micro heat pipe had vapor space connect with each other and the influences of shear stress between vapor and fluid in the working process were described in the model which made the model more precisely. The axial variation of working fluid distribution in the heat pipe, pressure difference between vapor and liquid, and velocity of vapor and liquid were analyzed. In addition, the maximum heat transport capacity of micro heat pipe was calculated. The simulation results showed good agreement with the experiment results, and it could predict the heat transfer performance accurately, which was useful to micro heat pipe structural design.
Dysregulation of Norepinephrine Release in the Absence of Functional Synaptotagmin 7

Synaptotagmin 7 (Syt7) is expressed in cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals where norepinephrine (NE) is released in both Ca2+‐dependent exocytosis and Ca2+‐independent norepinephrine transporter (NET)‐mediated overflow. The role of Syt7 in the regulation of NE release from cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals is tested by employing a Syt7 knock‐in mouse line that expresses a non‐functional mutant form of Syt7. In cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals prepared from these Syt7 knock‐in mice, the Ca2+‐dependent component of NE release was diminished. However, these terminals displayed upregulated function of NET (∼130% of controls) and a significant increase in Ca2+‐independent NE overflow (∼140% of controls), which is greater than the Ca2+‐dependent component of NE exocytosis occurring in wild‐type controls. Consistent with a significant increase in NE overflow, the Syt7 knock‐in mice showed significantly higher blood pressures compared to those of littermate wild‐type and heterozygous mice. Our results indicate that the lack of functional Syt7 dysregulates NE release from cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 1446–1453, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Differential Requirement of Human Cytomegalovirus UL112-113 Protein Isoforms for Viral Replication

ABSTRACT The UL112-113 gene is one of the few alternatively spliced genes of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). It codes for four phosphoproteins, p34, p43, p50, and p84, all of which are expressed with early kinetics and accumulate at sites of viral DNA replication within the host cell nucleus. Although these proteins are known to play important, possibly essential, roles in the viral replication cycle, little is known about the contribution of individual UL112-113 protein products. Here we used splice site mutagenesis, intron deletion and substitution, and nonsense mutagenesis to prevent the individual expression of each UL112-113 protein isoform and to investigate the importance of each isoform for viral replication. We show that HCMV mutants lacking p34 or p50 expression replicated to high titers in human fibroblasts and endothelial cells, indicating that these proteins are nonessential for viral replication, while mutant viruses carrying a stop mutation within the p84 coding sequence were severely growth impaired. Viral replication could not be detected upon the inactivation of p43 expression, indicating that this UL112-113 protein is essential for viral replication. We also analyzed the ability of UL112-113 proteins to recruit other viral proteins to intranuclear prereplication compartments. While UL112-113 expression was sufficient to recruit the UL44-encoded viral DNA polymerase processivity factor, it was not sufficient for the recruitment of the viral UL84 and UL117 proteins. Remarkably, both the p43 and p84 isoforms were required for the efficient recruitment of pUL44, which is consistent with their critical role in the viral life cycle. IMPORTANCE Human cytomegalovirus requires gene products from 11 genetic loci for the lytic replication of its genome. One of these loci, UL112-113, encodes four proteins with common N termini by alternative splicing. In this study, we inactivated the expression of each of the four UL112-113 proteins individually and determined their requirement for HCMV replication. We found that two of the UL112-113 gene products were dispensable for viral replication in human fibroblasts and endothelial cells. In contrast, viral replication was severely reduced or absent when one of the other two gene products was inactivated, indicating that they are of crucial importance for the viral replication cycle. We further showed that the latter two gene products are involved in the recruitment of pUL44, an essential cofactor of the viral DNA polymerase, to specific sites within the cell nucleus that are thought to serve as starting points for viral DNA replication.
Associations Between Coherent Neural Activity in the Brain’s Value System During Antismoking Messages and Reductions in Smoking

Objective: Worldwide, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and illness. One common strategy for reducing the prevalence of cigarette smoking and other health risk behaviors is the use of graphic warning labels (GWLs). This has led to widespread interest from the perspective of health psychology in understanding the mechanisms of GWL effectiveness. Here we investigated differences in how the brain responds to negative, graphic warning label-inspired antismoking ads and neutral control ads, and we probed how this response related to future behavior. Method: A group of smokers (N = 45) viewed GWL-inspired and control antismoking ads while undergoing fMRI, and their smoking behavior was assessed before and one month after the scan. We examined neural coherence between two regions in the brain’s valuation network, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and ventral striatum (VS). Results: We found that greater neural coherence in the brain’s valuation network during GWL ads (relative to control ads) preceded later smoking reduction. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the integration of information about message value may be key for message influence. Understanding how the brain responds to health messaging and relates to future behavior could ultimately contribute to the design of effective messaging campaigns, as well as more broadly to theories of message effects and persuasion across domains.
Respiratory microbiota and lower respiratory tract disease

ABSTRACT Introduction: The respiratory airways harbor a complex succession of ecological niches with distinct but related bacterial communities. Particular challenges of respiratory microbiome research have led to limited scientific output compared to other human microbiomes. Areas covered: In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge of the bacterial respiratory microbiome, with a particular focus on associations between the respiratory microbiome and lower respiratory tract conditions. Expert commentary: There is growing evidence that the respiratory microbiome is associated with lower respiratory infectious diseases and related conditions. Most respiratory microbiome reports are metataxonomic cross-sectional or case-control studies with relatively small sample sizes. Large, prospective projects with metatranscriptomics or metabolomics approach are needed to unravel the effect of the respiratory microbiome on health-related conditions. Moreover, standardization in sampling, library preparation, sequencing techniques and data analysis should be encouraged.
Liver steatosis in children with chronic hepatitis B and C

Abstract Only scarce data on liver steatosis in children with chronic hepatitis B and C (CHB and CHC) are available. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, predictors, and impact of hepatic steatosis on children with CHB and CHC. A total of 78 patients aged 11.5 ± 3.4 years were included: 30 (38%) had CHB, and 48 (62%) had CHC. Steatosis was scored on a 5-point scale, as follows: absent; minimal (⩽5% hepatocytes affected), mild (6–33%), moderate (34–66%), and severe (>66%). Stepwise logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated with steatosis and moderate-to-severe steatosis. Steatosis was observed in 4/30 (13%) patients with CHB and 13/48 (27%) patients with CHC (P = 0.17). Moderate-to-severe steatosis was observed in 6/78 (8%) patients: 1/30 (3%) had CHB and 5/48 (10%) had CHC (P = 0.40). The body mass index (BMI) z-score was positively associated with the presence of steatosis in children with CHB (odds ratio [OR] = 3.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02–10.64). In CHC, steatosis occurred more frequently in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 3 compared with other genotypes (P = 0.002). In patients with non-3 genotype hepatitis C virus, steatosis was associated with the stage of fibrosis (OR = 3.35, 95% CI: 1.01–11.07) and inversely associated with the duration of infection (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.55–0.97). Moderate-to-severe steatosis was positively associated with the BMI z-score (OR = 3.62, 95% CI: 1.22–10.75) and stage of fibrosis (OR = 3.89, 95% CI: 1.05–14.47). Steatosis is a common finding in children with chronic viral hepatitis. It is associated with metabolic factors in CHB, whereas in patients with CHC, metabolic and viral factors may have a combined effect, leading to more advanced grades of steatosis in children with higher BMI z-scores. Moderate-to-severe steatosis is a predictor of advanced fibrosis in children with CHC.
Abnormal Responses to Local Esophageal Food Allergen Injections in Adult Patients With Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

Skin tests and measurement of serum levels of immunoglobulin E do not accurately identify foods for elimination from the diets of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). We investigated whether an esophageal prick test, in which the esophageal mucosa is challenged by local injection of allergen extracts, could identify individuals with esophageal sensitization. During endoscopy, 6 allergens were injected in the esophagus of 8 patients with EoE and 3 patients without EoE (controls). A second endoscopy was performed after 24 hours to evaluate delayed responses. Five of the 8 patients with EoE had evidence for an acute response (luminal obstruction and mucosal blanching); 2 other patients had a delayed wheal or flare reaction. No responses were observed in controls. We conclude that esophageal mucosal food allergen injections induce acute and/or delayed responses in patients with EoE but not controls. The esophageal prick test deserves further exploration because it may guide elimination diets.
Fruit and vegetable intake of US adults estimated by two methods: What We Eat In America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2012

Abstract Objective Estimates of fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption vary depending on intake definition, which may be determined by research purpose. Researchers have used two methods to evaluate intake: epidemiological and behavioural. The present study describes FV intake by adults using epidemiological v. behavioural approaches. Design One-day dietary intake data from What We Eat In America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2012 were used. Sample weights were used to produce nationally representative estimates. FV intake (in cup-equivalents (CE)) was estimated using the Food Patterns Equivalents Database. The epidemiological method considered all FV after disaggregating foods and beverages. The behavioural method included foods that provided at least 0·2 CE FV per 100 g, and excluded sources high in fat, added sugar and Na. Setting Nationally representative survey of the US population. Subjects Adults (n 10 563) aged ≥20 years. Results For epidemiological v. behavioural, fruit intake was 1·1 v. 1·0 CE for males and 1·0 v. 0·9 CE for females. Vegetable intake was 1·8 v. 1·1 CE for males and 1·5 v. 1·0 CE for females. Conclusions The definition of FV intake affects estimates of consumption by the population and is an important consideration when planning and comparing research studies. The method used should align with research goals to assure accurate interpretation and validity of results.
Noroviral P-Particles as an In Vitro Model to Assess the Interactions of Noroviruses with Probiotics

Noroviruses (NoVs) are the main etiologic agents of acute epidemic gastroenteritis and probiotic bacteria have been reported to exert a positive effect on viral diarrhea. The protruding (P) domain from NoVs VP1 capsid protein has the ability to assemble into the so-called P-particles, which retain the binding ability to host receptors. We purified the P-domains from NoVs genotypes GI.1 and GII.4 as 6X(His)-tagged proteins and determined that, similar to native domains, they were structured into P-particles that were functional in the recognition of the specific glycoconjugated receptors, as established by surface plasmon resonance experiments. We showed that several lactic acid bacteria (probiotic and non-probiotic) and a Gram-negative probiotic strain have the ability to bind P-particles on their surfaces irrespective of their probiotic status. The binding of P-particles (GI.1) to HT-29 cells in the presence of selected strains showed that bacteria can inhibit P-particle attachment in competitive exclusion experiments. However, pre-treatment of cells with bacteria or adding bacteria to cells with already attached P-particles enhanced the retention of the particles. Although direct viral binding and blocking of viral receptors have been postulated as mechanisms of protection against viral infection by probiotic bacteria, these results highlight the need for a careful evaluation of this hypothesis. The work presented here investigates for the first time the probiotic-NoVs-host interactions and points up the NoVs P-particles as useful tools to overcome the absence of in vitro cellular models to propagate these viruses.
Provably good mesh generation

Several versions of the problem of generating triangular meshes for finite-element methods are studied. It is shown how to triangulate a planar point set or a polygonally bounded domain with triangles of bounded aspect ratio, how to triangulate a planar point set with triangles having no obtuse angles, how to triangulate a point set in arbitrary dimension with simplices of bounded aspect ratio, and how to produce a linear-size Delaunay triangulation of a multidimensional point set by adding a linear number of extra points. All the triangulations have size within a constant factor of optimal and run in optimal time O(n log n+k) with input of size n and output of size k. No previous work on mesh generation simultaneously guarantees well-shaped elements and small total size. <<ETX>>
A VLT/FLAMES survey for massive binaries in Westerlund 1: I. first observations of luminous evolved stars ⋆

Aims. Multiwavelength observations of the young massive cluster Westerlund 1 have revealed evidence for a large number of OB supergiant and Wolf-Rayet binaries. However, in most cases these findings are based on the detection of secondary binary characteristics, such as hard X-ray emission and/or non-thermal radio spectra and hence provide little information on binary properties such as mass ratio and orbital period. To overcome this shortcoming we have initiated a long temporal baseline, multi-epoch radial velocity survey that will provide the first direct constraints on these parameters. Methods. VLT/FLAMES+GIRAFFE observations of Wd1 were made on seven epochs from late-June to early-September 2008, covering ∼35 confirmed members of Wd1 and ∼70 photometrically-selected candidate members. Each target was observed on a minimum of three epochs, with brighter cluster members observed on five (or, in a few cases, seven) occasions. Individual spectra cover the 8484–9001 A range, and strong Paschen-series absorption lines are used to measure radial velocity changes in order to identify candidate binary systems for follow-up study. Results. This study presents first-epoch results from twenty of the most luminous supergiant stars in Wd1. Four new OB supergiant members of Wd1 are identified, while statistically significant radial velocity changes are detected in ∼60% of the targets. W43a is identified as a short-period binary, while W234 and the newly-identified cluster member W3003 are probable binaries and W2a is a strong binary candidate. The cool hypergiants W243 and W265 display photospheric pulsations, while a number of early-mid B supergiants display significant radial velocity changes of ∼15–25 km s −1 that we cannot distinguish between orbital or photospheric motion in our initial short-baseline survey. When combined with existing observations, we find 30% of our sample to be binary (6/20) while additional candidate binaries support a binary fraction amongst Wd1 supergiants in excess of ∼40%, a figure that is likely to increase as further data become available.
Cognitive cooperative networks with decode-and-forward relay selection under interference constraints of multiple primary users

In this paper, we study the performance of cognitive cooperative radio networks under the peak interference power constraints of multiple primary users PUs. In particular, we consider a system model where the secondary user communication is assisted by multiple secondary relays SRs that operate in the decode-and-forward mode to relay the signal from a secondary transmitter to a secondary receiver. Moreover, we assume that the transmit powers of the secondary transmitter and the SRs are subject to the peak interference power constraints of multiple PUs that operate in their coverage range. Given this system setting, we first derive the cumulative distribution function of the instantaneous end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio. Then, we obtain a closed-form expression for the outage probability and an exact expression for the symbol error probability of the considered network. These tractable formulas enable us to examine the impact of the presence of multiple PUs on the performance of the considered spectrum sharing system. Furthermore, our numerical results show that system performance is improved significantly when the number of SRs increases or the channel mean power from the secondary user to the PUs is low. Also, any increase in the number of PUs in the coverage range of the secondary transmitter or the SRs leads to degradation in system performance. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are provided to verify the correctness of our analytical results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Cognitive Framework for Delegation to an Assistive User Agent

We present a BDI-based framework for a cognitive agent that acts as an assistant to a human user by performing tasks on her behalf. This framework accommodates: (1) user delegation of tasks to the agent, which may be inconsistent or infeasible or both, and (2) user-specified guidance and preferences on the execution and management of these tasks, which we call advice. Within this delegative BDI model, we propose a combined mechanism for the problems of goal adoption and commitment revision, with the aim of a well-founded, practical framework for an assistive agent with extended life-cycle.
Cuffless blood pressure estimation from the carotid pulse arrival time using continuous wave radar

Ambulatory blood pressure monitors based on pulse transit time are limited by the challenge of changing vascular tone. This study focuses on the use of the carotid artery as an alternative location for arterial pulse acquisition. We use continuous wave radio frequency (RF) radar coupled directly to the body to detect the pulse wave signal. We have shown that the blood pressure-pulse transit time calibration using the carotid pulse is as accurate as that of the radial arterial pulse. The results of this investigation may be useful in developing wearable sensors for long-term monitoring of the pulse wave signal at the carotid artery.
Optical Lattices

b Real crystal Why make an optical lattice? Imagine you are trying to understand a complex quantum-physical phenomenon such as high-temperature superconductivity, just one of many intriguing effects that occur in the ‘quantum gas’ of electrons that pervades a solid crystal. The crystal lattice of a solid has tiny dimensions — atoms are spaced about a tenth of a nanometre apart — and it would be great to have an enlarged version to enable us to look at its physics more closely. An optical lattice affords just that possibility: it is a crystal formed by interfering laser beams, with a typical dimension about 1,000 times larger than that of a conventional crystal. Ultracold atoms in the lattice play the part of electrons in the solid; they tunnel quantum-mechanically between lattice sites just as single or paired electrons (Cooper pairs) tunnel through the periodic potential wells created by positive ions in crystalline materials (Fig. 1).