Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross-border Ties as Sources of Risk and Resilience

Few studies have examined the associations between health and the cross-border ties that migrants maintain with their family members in communities of origin. We draw on theory related to social ties, ethnic identity, and mental health to examine cross-border ties as potential moderators of the association between migration-related stress and psychological distress among Latino migrants. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Survey, we find that remittance sending is associated with significantly lower levels of psychological distress for Cuban migrants, and difficulty visiting home is associated with significantly greater psychological distress for Puerto Rican migrants. There were significant associations between migration-related stressors and psychological distress, although these associations fell to nonsignificance after accounting for multiple testing. We found little evidence that cross-border ties either buffer or exacerbate the association between migration-related stressors and psychological distress. We consider the findings within the current political and historical context of cross-border ties and separation.
Molecular Fingerprinting of Cryptosporidium Oocysts Isolated during Water Monitoring

ABSTRACT We developed and validated a PCR-based method for identifying Cryptosporidium species and/or genotypes present on oocyst-positive microscope slides. The method involves removing coverslips and oocysts from previously examined slides followed by DNA extraction. We tested four loci, the 18S rRNA gene (N18SDIAG and N18SXIAO), the Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein (COWP) gene (STN-COWP), and the dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) gene (by multiplex allele-specific PCR), for amplifying DNA from low densities of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts experimentally seeded onto microscope slides. The N18SDIAG locus performed consistently better than the other three tested. Purified oocysts from humans infected with C. felis, C. hominis, and C. parvum and commercially purchased C. muris were used to determine the sensitivities of three loci (N18SDIAG, STN-COWP, and N18SXIAO) to detect low oocyst densities. The N18SDIAG primers provided the greatest number of positive results, followed by the N18SXIAO primers and then the STN-COWP primers. Some oocyst-positive slides failed to generate a PCR product at any of the loci tested, but the limit of sensitivity is not entirely based on oocyst number. Sixteen of 33 environmental water monitoring Cryptosporidium slides tested (oocyst numbers ranging from 1 to 130) contained mixed Cryptosporidium species. The species/genotypes most commonly found were C. muris or C. andersoni, C. hominis or C. parvum, and C. meleagridis or Cryptosporidium sp. cervine, ferret, and mouse genotypes. Oocysts on one slide contained Cryptosporidium muskrat genotype II DNA.
The alpha sequence of the cytomegalovirus genome functions as a cleavage/packaging signal for herpes simplex virus defective genomes

Although herpes simplex virus (HSV) 1 and human cytomegalovirus (CMV) differ remarkably in their biological characteristics and do not share nucleotide sequence homology, they have in common a genome structure that undergoes sequence isomerization of the long (L) and short (S) components. We have demonstrated that the similarity in their genome structures extends to the existence of an alpha sequence in the CMV genome as previously defined for the HSV genome. As such, the alpha sequence is predicted to participate as a cis-replication signal in four viral functions: (i) inversion, (ii) circularization, (iii) amplification, and (iv) cleavage and packaging of progeny viral DNA. We have constructed a chimeric HSV-CMV amplicon (herpesvirus cis replication functions carried on an Escherichia coli plasmid vector) substituting CMV DNA sequences for the HSV cleavage/packaging signal in a test of the ability of this CMV L-S junction sequence to provide the cis signal for cleavage/packaging in HSV 1-infected cells. We demonstrate that the alpha sequence of CMV DNA functions as a cleavage/packaging signal for HSV defective genomes. We show the structure of this sequence and provide a functional demonstration of cross complementation in replication signals which have been preserved over evolutionary time in these two widely divergent human herpesviruses.
Temperature Stress

Abstract: Acanthamoeba castellanii (A. castellanii) is a common soil‐ or water‐borne protozoon that feeds on bacteria by phagocytosis. A. castellanii can grow between 4 and 32°C and has to adapt quickly to chilling in order to survive. We have identified a Δ12‐fatty acid desaturase as key to low temperature adaptation. The activity of this enzyme is mainly increased through gene expression and new protein synthesis. Interestingly, the activity can also be altered independently by dissolved oxygen levels. In addition, we have identified a gene for the Δ12‐desaturase, which, when expressed in yeast, catalyses Δ15‐desaturation also. Moreover, it is also capable of producing very unusual n‐1 polyunsaturated products.
A new community detection algorithm based on adding and deleting links

With the deepening development of complex network, it is severe for detection requirement to know network structure gradually, which the community detection algorithm has been proposed and deeply improved. In view of the high space-time complexity of network divisive and agglomerative algorithms, and the uncertainty of clustering algorithms for many relative sparse networks, a non-overlapping algorithm based on link prediction to add and delete the network links automatically (ADL) is proposed in this paper. The problem of losing information in the network is supplemented by link prediction, and the network redundancy information is divided by deleting the link. The number of the community and the core node set are automatically obtained, and the label propagation is realized for the isolated nodes to the final network clustering after processing. Finally, compared with other algorithms on LFR datasets and four real data sets, this algorithm exhibits stable and efficient features.
Emotion-elicited gamma synchrony in patients with first-episode schizophrenia: a neural correlate of social cognition outcomes.

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia may be understood as a disorder of neural synchrony. There is also increasing evidence that emotional and social cognitive impairments are central to this disorder. In patients with first-episode schizophrenia, we examined whether emotion perception is associated with disruptions to high-frequency (40 Hz) gamma synchrony and whether these disruptions predict self-regulatory adaptive compensations reflected in social cognitive behaviours. METHODS We obtained electroencephalography recordings from 28 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and matched healthy controls during perception of facial emotion under both conscious and nonconscious conditions. We extracted gamma-band synchrony from the electroencephalogram. We also used behavioural measures of emotion identification, emotional intelligence, negativity bias and social function, along with ratings of first-episode schizophrenia symptoms. We analyzed group differences and predicted social cognition to assess the potential contribution of medication. RESULTS Within 200 ms poststimulus, patients with first-episode schizophrenia showed alterations in gamma synchrony during both conscious and nonconscious emotion perception. Stimulus-locked synchrony was reduced in patients, particularly over the temporal cortex, whereas complementary enhancements in absolute gamma synchrony (independent of stimuli) were more distributed over temporal and left parieto-occipital regions. This pattern of altered synchrony predicted poor performance on each measure of social cognition among these patients. Medication dosage did not correlate significantly with either gamma synchrony or behavioural measures in this group. LIMITATIONS Limitations to our study include the lack of comparison between medicated and unmedicated patients or between types of medication. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that disruptions in integrative processing of motivationally important stimuli show promise as a potential biological marker of social cognitive impairments, present from the first episode of schizophrenia, and their outcomes.
Community structure of the metabolically active rumen bacterial and archaeal communities of dairy cows over the transition period

Dairy cows experience dramatic changes in host physiology from gestation to lactation period and dietary switch from high-forage prepartum diet to high-concentrate postpartum diet over the transition period (parturition +/- three weeks). Understanding the community structure and activity of the rumen microbiota and its associative patterns over the transition period may provide insight for e.g. improving animal health and production. In the present study, rumen samples from ten primiparous Holstein dairy cows were collected over seven weeks spanning the transition period. Total RNA was extracted from the rumen samples and cDNA thereof was subsequently used for characterizing the metabolically active bacterial (16S rRNA transcript amplicon sequencing) and archaeal (qPCR, T-RFLP and mcrA and 16S rRNA transcript amplicon sequencing) communities. The metabolically active bacterial community was dominated by three phyla, showing significant changes in relative abundance range over the transition period: Firmicutes (from prepartum 57% to postpartum 35%), Bacteroidetes (from prepartum 22% to postpartum 18%) and Proteobacteria (from prepartum 7% to postpartum 32%). For the archaea, qPCR analysis of 16S rRNA transcript number, revealed a significant prepartum to postpartum increase in Methanobacteriales, in accordance with an observed increase (from prepartum 80% to postpartum 89%) in relative abundance of 16S rRNA transcript amplicons allocated to this order. On the other hand, a significant prepartum to postpartum decrease (from 15% to 2%) was observed in relative abundance of Methanomassiliicoccales 16S rRNA transcripts. In contrast to qPCR analysis of the 16S rRNA transcripts, quantification of mcrA transcripts revealed no change in total abundance of metabolically active methanogens over the transition period. According to T-RFLP analysis of the mcrA transcripts, two Methanobacteriales genera, Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera (represented by the T-RFs 39 and 267 bp), represented more than 70% of the metabolically active methanogens, showing no significant changes over the transition period; minor T-RFs, likely to represent members of the order Methanomassiliicoccales and with a relative abundance below 5% in total, decreased significantly over the transition period. In accordance with the T-RFLP analysis, the mcrA transcript amplicon sequencing revealed Methanobacteriales to cover 99% of the total reads, dominated by the genera Methanobrevibacter (75%) and Methanosphaera (24%), whereas the Methanomassiliicoccales order covered only 0.2% of the total reads. In conclusion, the present study showed that the structure of the metabolically active bacterial and archaeal rumen communities changed over the transition period, likely in response to the dramatic changes in physiology and nutritional factors like dry matter intake and feed composition. It should be noted however that for the methanogens, the observed community changes were influenced by the analyzed gene (mcrA or 16S rRNA).
High Affinity of the 5′-Upstream Region of a Winged Bean Chymotrypsin Inhibitor Gene for Nuclear Matrix

The 5-upstream region of a winged bean chymotrypsin inhibitor gene (JVCI-3b) was found to have a high affinity for nuclear matrix. The region, named WCI-3b MAR (matrix attachment region), is highly A + T-rich and contains multiple sites interacting with nuclear matrix. A MAR was also found in the corresponding region of the WCI-x gene, another active gene of the WCI family. Several MAR-binding proteins were detected in the wheat nuclear matrix.
Limits to Ludic Gaps: Gender & Identity in a Different Cultural Context

“Raising Men For Fun” is an on-line dating game that reverses traditional Chinese gender relationships. We explore how on-line gender representations are assembled and used to develop intimate relationships through self-disclosure and empathy. We describe the experiences of twenty men and women as they construct and manage on-line identity(ies) and explore the boundaries of „male‟ and „female‟ in authentic and inauthentic gender dyads. We find the Net offers only partial liberation from traditional Chinese culture. Our respondents re-construct Chinese culture in Cyberspace to authenticate on-line gender identities. Gender deceit reveals tensions in the inter-related self and limits intimate relationships online. [Anonymous] (Reid, 1994, p.32) Coupland
Improving Multimedia Content Delivery via Augmentation With Social Information: The Social Prefetcher Approach

A significantly large proportion of HTTP traffic results from bandwidth-intensive multimedia content circulating through online social networks (OSNs). With multimedia content providers, such as YouTube, often relying on content delivery network (CDN) infrastructures, the pursuit lies in exploiting the user activity extracted from OSNs to improve the content prefetching mechanism. Aiming to reduce bandwidth usage, we incorporated a dynamic mechanism to CDNsim, a stand-alone CDN traffic simulator. This mechanism is based on a dynamic policy that takes patterns of information transmission over OSNs into account. Herein, we demonstrate that the performance of CDNs can be improved, and the cost of copying to surrogate servers is taken into consideration.
Ice2p is important for the distribution and structure of the cortical ER network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is found along the cell periphery (cortical ER) and nucleus (perinuclear ER). In this study, we characterize a novel ER protein called Ice2p that localizes to the cortical and perinuclear ER. Ice2p is predicted to be a type-III transmembrane protein. Cells carrying a genomic disruption of ICE2 display defects in the distribution of cortical ER in mother and daughter cells. Furthermore, fluorescence imaging of ice2Δ cells reveals an abnormal cortical ER tubular network morphology in both the mother cell and the developing bud. Subcellular fractionation analysis using sucrose gradients corroborate the data from the fluorescence studies. Our findings indicate that Ice2p plays a role in forming and/or maintaining the cortical ER network in budding yeast.
Separate Cellular Localizations of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus 1 (HTLV-1) Env and Glucose Transporter Type 1 (GLUT1) Are Required for HTLV-1 Env-Mediated Fusion and Infection

ABSTRACT Interaction of the envelope glycoprotein (Env) of human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) with the glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) expressed in target cells is essential for viral entry. This study found that the expression level of GLUT1 in virus-producing 293T cells was inversely correlated with HTLV-1 Env-mediated fusion activity and infectivity. Chimeric studies between GLUT1 and GLUT3 indicated that the extracellular loop 6 (ECL6) of GLUT1 is important for the inhibition of cell-cell fusion mediated by Env. When GLUT1 was translocated into the plasma membrane from intracellular storage sites by bafilomycin A1 (BFLA1) treatment in 293T cells, HTLV-1 Env-mediated cell fusion and infection also were inhibited without the overexpression of GLUT1, indicating that the localization of GLUT1 in intracellular compartments rather than in the plasma membrane is crucial for the fusion activity of HTLV-1 Env. Immunoprecipitation and laser scanning confocal microscopic analyses indicated that under normal conditions, HTLV-1 Env and GLUT1 do not colocalize or interact. BFLA1 treatment induced this colocalization and interaction, indicating that GLUT1 normally accumulates in intracellular compartments separate from that of Env. Western blot analyses of FLAG-tagged HTLV-1 Env in virus-producing cells and the incorporation of HTLV-1 Env in virus-like particles (VLPs) indicate that the processing of Env is inhibited by either overexpression of GLUT1 or BFLA1 treatment in virus-producing 293T cells. This inhibition probably is due to the interaction of the Env with GLUT1 in intracellular compartments. Taken together, separate intracellular localizations of GLUT1 and HTLV-1 Env are required for the fusion activity and infectivity of HTLV-1 Env. IMPORTANCE The deltaretrovirus HTLV-1 is a causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Although HTLV-1 is a complex retrovirus that has accessory genes, no HTLV-1 gene product has yet been shown to regulate its receptor GLUT1 in virus-producing cells. In this study, we found that a large amount of GLUT1 or translocation of GLUT1 to the plasma membrane from intracellular compartments in virus-producing cells enhances the colocalization and interaction of GLUT1 with HTLV-1 Env, leading to the inhibition of cell fusion activity and infectivity. The results of our study suggest that GLUT1 normally accumulates in separate intracellular compartments from Env, which is indeed required for the proper processing of Env.
Absence of PS integrins or laminin A affects extracellular adhesion, but not intracellular assembly, of hemiadherens and neuromuscular junctions in Drosophila embryos.

We have examined the role of integrins in the formation of the cell junctions that connect muscles to epidermis (muscle attachments) and muscles to neurons (neuromuscular junctions). To this end we have analyzed muscle attachments and neuromuscular junctions ultrastructurally in single or double mutant Drosophila embryos lacking PS1 integrin (alphaPS1betaPS), PS2 integrin (alphaPS2betaPS), and/or their potential extracellular ligand laminin A. At the muscle attachments PS integrins are essential for the adhesion of hemiadherens junctions (HAJs) to extracellular matrix, but not for their intracellular link to the cytoskeleton. The PS2 integrin is only expressed in the muscles, but it is essential for the adhesion of muscle and epidermal HAJs to electron dense extracellular matrix. It is also required for adhesion of muscle HAJs to a less electron dense form of extracellular matrix, the basement membrane. The PS1 integrin is expressed in epidermal cells and can mediate adhesion of the epidermal HAJs to the basement membrane. The ligands involved in adhesion mediated by both PS integrins seem distinct because adhesion mediated by PS1 appears to require the extracellular matrix component laminin A, while adhesion mediated by PS2 integrin does not. At neuromuscular junctions the formation of functional synapses occurs normally in embryos lacking PS integrins and/or laminin A, but the extent of contact between neuronal and muscle surfaces is altered significantly. We suggest that neuromuscular contact in part requires basement membrane adhesion to the general muscle surface, and this form of adhesion is completely abolished in the absence of laminin A.
Discovering unusual behavior patterns from motion data

As there are more and more surveillance cameras installed in public places, a challenging problem is to discover unusual behavior patterns from a huge amount of video data. However, this task is currently only feasible for human beings because both object recognition and intention detection are still difficult for computer vision. Recently, the development of low-cost depth cameras significantly improves the efficiency and effectiveness of capturing motion data. We thus propose in this work an algorithmic scheme that extracts unusual behavior patterns from motion capture data. Specifically, feature extraction and data clustering techniques are applied in our scheme so as to detect such outlier patterns. Example applications of our scheme include public area surveillance and home healthcare.
Outcomes of Systematic Motivational Counseling for Substance Use Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract The effects of Systematic Motivational Counseling (SMC) on adults following traumatic brain injury (TBI) were assessed. The sample comprised 40 participants in the SMC Group who received 12 individual SMC sessions and 54 participants in the Comparison Group who received no motivational or substance-abuse treatment. Both groups received rehabilitation for their brain injuries. The SMC additionally focused on participants' personal goals and concerns in various areas of their lives, and helped them to formulate and execute concrete and realistic plans for resolving their concerns. To assess changes across time in the SMC Group, motivational structure, positive and negative affect, and substance use were measured at baseline, immediately after the intervention (mean of 10.2 months from baseline), and at a follow-up (mean of 9.1 months later). Because the comparison group had no SMC intervention, only two assessments were taken: at baseline and at a follow-up (mean of 12.8 months later). Across time, the SMC Group showed significant improvements in motivational structure and a significant reduction in negative affect and the use of substances of abuse. There were no corresponding changes in the Comparison Group. The results indicate that SMC improves motivational indices and may help to moderate substance use; hence they suggest a potential role for SMC in the rehabilitation of patients with TBI.
Optimization of Total Flavonoid Compound Extraction from Gynura medica Leaf Using Response Surface Methodology and Chemical Composition Analysis

Optimization of total flavonoid compound (TFC) extraction from Gynura medica leaf was investigated using response surface methodology (RSM) in this paper. The conditions investigated were 30–60% (v/v) ethanol concentration (X1), 85–95 °C extraction temperature (X2) and 30–50 (v/w) liquid-to-solid ratio (X3). Statistical analysis of the experiments indicated that temperature and liquid-to-solid ratio significantly affected TFC extraction (p < 0.01). The Box-Behnken experiment design showed that polynomial regression models were in good agreement with the experimental results, with the coefficients of determination of 0.9325 for TFC yield. The optimal conditions for maximum TFC yield were 55% ethanol, 92 °C and 50 (v/w) liquid-to-solid ratio with a 30 min extraction time. Extracts from these conditions showed a moderate antioxidant value of 54.78 μmol quercetin/g dry material (DM), 137.3 μmol trolox/g DM for 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 108.21 μmol quercetin/g DM, 242.31 μmol trolox/g DM for 2,2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS+), respectively. HPLC-DAD-MS analysis showed that kaempferol-3-O-glucoside was the principal flavonoid compound in Gynura medica leaf.
Pedestrian detection based on multi-vision features fusion

Detecting pedestrians in groups and cluttered scenes is one of the most important technology in computer vision. We observe that contour is often an important factor to distinguish pedestrian from others. The particular contour structure of pedestrian head, upper body and lower body becomes the key in pedestrian detection. Inspired by the connection of these three components of pedestrian, a pedestrian model is constructed to get the position connected among different parts of pedestrian, and the model is divided into fixed-size blocks as each block containing the contour structural characteristic of certain parts of the body. Based on it, we get multi-vision features descriptor by extracting the unique visibility relationships which are formed by contour structure and the congregated skin colors which are formed by head. To response the real-time requirement, saliency cues are captured to estimate the regions of interest. Experiments on INRIA dataset show that the proposed descriptor reduces significantly the dimension of feature, gets well with local deformation of pedestrian and structure expression. It achieves not only higher accuracy than HOG and Edgelet but also an acceptable efficiency which reduces significantly runtime.