Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Racial Residential Segregation of Black Single Living Alone Households

While many studies have examined the intersection of race and class with residential segregation and residential preferences, little is known about the role played by household composition in shaping residential patterns. This article focuses on the residential patterns of a particular kind of household: those consisting of persons single and living alone (SALA). We compare the residential segregation of black SALA households—an important subset of nonfamily households and a rapidly growing segment of the population—from white SALA households and from both white and black married–couple households. We examine how group and metropolitan characteristics influence segregation levels for these household types. Using data from the 2000 census, we find that black SALA households are less segregated from white SALA households than from white married–couple households. Multivariate analyses show that smaller income differences across SALA households account for these segregation patterns, indicating the importance of economic resources in influencing residential patterns. Nevertheless, race continues to play an important role, as black SALA household segregation from both kinds of white households is high in absolute terms and in relation to their segregation from black married–couple households.
Components of the metabolic syndrome and risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in Beaver Dam.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether components of the metabolic syndrome precede the 5-year incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A population of individuals aged 43-84 years was evaluated from 1988 to 1990 and again 5 years later. Medical history, blood pressure, and laboratory measures were obtained at both examinations following the same protocols. Subjects without diabetes were classified according to level of glycemia, high blood pressure, high-risk lipid levels, high uric acid levels, and proteinuria at baseline. History of incident myocardial infarction, angina, stroke, and diabetes was obtained at follow-up. RESULTS Of the 4,423 subjects without diabetes, 6.9% had elevated levels of glycemia, 18.4% had high blood pressure, 82.7% had high-risk lipid levels (either high serum total cholesterol or low HDL cholesterol or high ratio of these two levels), 27% had elevated uric acid levels, 33.2% had high BMI, and 3.3% had proteinuria (> or =30 mg/dl). The risk of incident cardiovascular disease 5 years later increased with the number of the components present; 2.5% of those with one component developed cardiovascular disease, whereas 14.9% of those with four or more components developed cardiovascular disease. Of those with one component, diabetes developed in 1.1% 5 years later, whereas diabetes developed in 17.9% of those with four or more components. CONCLUSIONS Components of the metabolic syndrome are common and are associated with incident cardiovascular disease and diabetes after 5 years. Interventions to alter BMI, lipid levels, and blood pressure may decrease incident diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Detecting the H i power spectrum in the post-reionization universe with SKA-Low

We present a survey strategy to detect the neutral hydrogen (H i) power spectrum at 5 < z < 6 using the SKA-Low radio telescope in presence of foregrounds and instrumental effects. We simulate observations of the inherently weak HI signal post-reionization with varying levels of noise and contamination with foreground amplitudes equivalent to residuals after sky model subtraction. We find that blind signal separation methods on imaged data are required in order to recover the H i signal at large cosmological scales. Comparing different methods of foreground cleaning, we find that Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) performs better than Principle Component Analysis (PCA), with the key difference being that GPR uses smooth kernels for the total data covariance. The integration time of one field needs to be larger than ∼250 hours to provide large enough signal-to-noise ratio to accurately model the data covariance for foreground cleaning. Images within the primary beam field-of-view give measurements of the H i power spectrum at scales k ∼ 0.02 Mpc−1 − 0.3 Mpc−1 with signal-to-noise ratio ∼2 − 5 in Δ[log(k/Mpc−1)] = 0.25 bins assuming an integration time of 600 hours. Systematic effects, which introduce small-scale fluctuations across frequency channels, need to be ≲ 5 × 10−5 to enable unbiased measurements outside the foreground wedge. Our results provide an important validation towards using the SKA-Low array for measuring the H i power spectrum in the post-reionization Universe.
Physical methods of nucleic acid transfer: general concepts and applications

Physical methods of gene (and/or drug) transfer need to combine two effects to deliver the therapeutic material into cells. The physical methods must induce reversible alterations in the plasma membrane to allow the direct passage of the molecules of interest into the cell cytosol. They must also bring the nucleic acids in contact with the permeabilized plasma membrane or facilitate access to the inside of the cell. These two effects can be achieved in one or more steps, depending upon the methods employed. In this review, we describe and compare several physical methods: biolistics, jet injection, hydrodynamic injection, ultrasound, magnetic field and electric pulse mediated gene transfer. We describe the physical mechanisms underlying these approaches and discuss the advantages and limitations of each approach as well as its potential application in research or in preclinical and clinical trials. We also provide conclusions, comparisons, and projections for future developments. While some of these methods are already in use in man, some are still under development or are used only within clinical trials for gene transfer. The possibilities offered by these methods are, however, not restricted to the transfer of genes and the complementary uses of these technologies are also discussed. As these methods of gene transfer may bypass some of the side effects linked to viral or biochemical approaches, they may find their place in specific clinical applications in the future.
High sexual reproduction and limited contemporary dispersal in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Tricholoma scalpturatum: new insights from population genetics and spatial autocorrelation analysis

Dispersal and establishment are fundamental processes influencing the response of species to environmental changes, and the long‐term persistence of populations. A previous study on the symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungus Tricholoma scalpturatum revealed strong genetic differentiations between populations in Western Europe, suggesting restricted dispersal for this wind‐dispersed cosmopolitan fungus. Two distinct genetic groups (genetic groups 1 and 2), co‐occurring in some locations, were also identified and could correspond to cryptic species. In the present work, we examine the reproductive strategy and dispersal biology of the two T. scalpturatum's genetic groups. Variable molecular markers (intersimple sequence repeats and intergenic spacer 2–restriction fragment length polymorphisms) and spatial autocorrelation analyses were used to examine fine‐scale patterns (< 140 m) of genetic structure, in an effort to determine the physical scale at which genetic structure exists. A total of 473 fruit bodies were mapped and collected over 3 years from two plots located in the south of France, including 219 and 254 samples from group 1 and group 2, respectively. High genetic diversity and the presence of numerous small genets were observed in both groups. Autocorrelation analyses revealed significant positive spatial genetic structures of genets at close distances (up to few metres for both groups). Mantel tests confirmed this isolation‐by‐distance pattern. These results clearly demonstrate high sexual reproduction and spatial structuring of genets at very small geographical scales in this wind‐dispersed ectomycorrhizal fungal species, a pattern consistent with restricted contemporary dispersal of spores.
Inhibition of PDE2A, but not PDE9A, modulates presynaptic short‐term plasticity measured by paired‐pulse facilitation in the CA1 region of the hippocampus

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors are currently considered promising therapeutic targets for treatment of cognitive impairment in diseases such as Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. Inhibitors of PDE2A and PDE9A have emerged as potential candidates shown to improve synaptic plasticity and memory function in animals. However, the functional relevance of their putative different localization in the neuron is not understood. Thus, this study aims at elucidating potential presynaptic effects of PDE2A inhibition in comparison to the inhibition of PDE9A. For this purpose, we used paired‐pulse facilitation (PPF), a model of short‐term synaptic plasticity related to presynaptic function. First, we performed a series of experiments to validate the model in acute rat hippocampal slices using several reference substances including calcium channel blockers, glutamatergic receptor antagonists, and GPCR agonists. Second, we analysed the effect of PDE2A and PDE9A inhibition and their role regulating the influence that the second messengers cAMP and cGMP exert on basal transmission. Our results show that the interplay between the adenylyl cyclase activator forskolin, the soluble guanylyl cyclase activator BAY 41‐8543 and the PDE2A inhibitor PF‐999 reveals a primarily presynaptic mechanism of action of PDE2A inhibition. On the contrary, inhibition of PDE9A did not alter PPF under similar conditions. In conclusion, these data provide new evidence supporting a role of PDE2A modulating short‐term synaptic plasticity. Moreover, this function of PDE2A is suggested to rely on an active modulation of the cAMP hydrolysis as a response to changes in cGMP levels at the presynaptic level. Synapse 69:484–496, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Socioeconomic status, psychosocial health and health behaviours among Hungarian adolescents.

BACKGROUND While socioeconomic differences in health, morbidity, and disability are highest among middle-aged persons, there is a certain level of 'equalization' during adolescence and young adulthood. Despite this equalization, however, there still are differences in psychosocial variables or health-related behaviours, often very subtle and sometimes difficult to measure. METHODS Using data (n = 1114) on high school students (aged between 14 and 21 years) from the Southern Plain Region, Hungary, the present study looks at the role of multiple SES indicators (objective and subjective; occupation and education; family structure) in adolescents' psychosocial health (self-perceived health, psychosomatic, and depressive symptomatology) and health behaviour (substance use and sports activity). RESULTS Based on the results of multivariate logistic regression analyses, findings suggest the following: (i) SES self-assessment proved to be a significant predictor of adolescents' psychosocial health and health behaviours; (ii) family structure (that is, living in a non-intact family) also significantly influenced adolescents' psychosocial health and health behaviours; (iii) parents' employment status and schooling had a limited influence on their children's health outcomes; (iv) in a word, SES gradients in adolescents' psychosocial health and health behaviour were inconsistent and sometimes irregular (that is, inverse). The subjective SES measurement plays an important role (positive association), whereas certain types of parents' inactive status (in terms of labour market, that is, unemployment or retirement) seem to act in a predictable way (negative association). CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that despite certain level of equalization during adolescence, some important relationships between SES variables and health outcomes may occur.
Recent segmental duplications in the working draft assembly of the brown Norway rat.

We assessed the content, structure, and distribution of segmental duplications (> or =90% sequence identity, > or =5 kb length) within the published version of the Rattus norvegicus genome assembly (v.3.1). The overall fraction of duplicated sequence within the rat assembly (2.92%) is greater than that of the mouse (1%-1.2%) but significantly less than that of human ( approximately 5%). Duplications were nonuniformly distributed, occurring predominantly as tandem and tightly clustered intrachromosomal duplications. Regions containing extensive interchromosomal duplications were observed, particularly within subtelomeric and pericentromeric regions. We identified 41 discrete genomic regions greater than 1 Mb in size, termed "duplication blocks. " These appear to have been the target of extensive duplication over millions of years of evolution. Gene content within duplicated regions ( approximately 1%) was lower than expected based on the genome representation. Interestingly, sequence contigs lacking chromosome assignment ("the unplaced chromosome") showed a marked enrichment for segmental duplication (45% of 75.2 Mb), indicating that segmental duplications have been problematic for sequence and assembly of the rat genome. Further targeted efforts are required to resolve the organization and complexity of these regions.
Adenovirus-mediated Overexpression of Catalase in the Cytosolic or Mitochondrial Compartment Protects against Cytochrome P450 2E1-dependent Toxicity in HepG2 Cells*

Cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) is an effective producer of reactive oxygen species such as superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide, which may contribute to the development of alcohol liver disease or cytotoxicity. To investigate the protective role of catalase against CYP2E1-dependent cytotoxicity, E47 cells, a transfected HepG2 cell line overexpressing CYP2E1, were infected with adenoviral vectors containing human catalase cDNA (AdCat) and catalase cDNA with a mitochondrial leader sequence (AdmCat). Forty-eight hours after infection with AdCat or AdmCat at a multiplicity of infection of 100, intracellular catalase protein was increased >2-fold compared with uninfected E47 cells and E47 cells infected with empty adenoviral vector (AdNull) as determined by Western blotting and catalase activity measurements. Overexpression of catalase in the cytosol (AdCat) and in mitochondria (AdmCat) was confirmed by confocal microscopy. Cell death caused by arachidonic acid plus iron was considerably suppressed in both AdCat- and AdmCat-infected E47 cells as determined by assays of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide absorbance, lactate dehydrogenase release, and morphology changes. AdCat- and AdmCat-infected cells were also more resistant to the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and to the increase in lipid peroxidation induced by arachidonic acid and iron. This study indicates that catalase in the cytosol and catalase in mitochondria are capable of protecting HepG2 cells expressing CYP2E1 against cytotoxicity induced by oxidants that promote lipid peroxidation and suggests the possibility that such agents may be useful in protecting against the development of alcohol liver injury.
The influence of intraday seasonality on volatility transmission pattern

Using data on a five-minute interval basis, this article analyses the effects of intraday seasonality on volatility transmission between the spot and futures markets of the CAC40, DAX30 and FTSE100. Remarkable differences in the impulse response analysis and in the dynamic and directional measurement of volatility spillovers are encountered depending on whether the intraday periodic component is considered. Thus, the convenience of removing intraday seasonality seems to be critical to reduce the risk of spurious causality when employing high-frequency data in volatility transmission. Moreover, the impact of market microstructure noise seems negligible when using an optimal frequency of observations.
Bad Jobs and Low Inflation

In a dynamic general equilibrium model with a job ladder, inflation rises when most workers are employed in high-productivity jobs because in this case, poaching leads to wage increases that are not backed by changes in productivity. The model predicts that the post-Great Recession drop in the job-to-job flow rate has significantly slowed the pace at which the U.S. labor market turns low-productivity jobs into high-productivity ones. As a result, inflation has fallen below trend for an entire decade, despite the marked decline in the unemployment rate. The impaired process of reallocation over the job ladder accounts for a one-percentage-point reduction in U.S. labor productivity relative to trend, contributing to explain the stagnant productivity of the current economic recovery.
Support for aged care workers and quality care in Australia: A case of contract failure?

This paper is guided by Conservation of Resources theory and aims to investigate the impact of personal and organisational support on the quality of clinical care given to aged care residents in for‐profit (FP) and not‐for‐profit (NFP) facilities. Broadly, the paper addresses challenges faced by governments in designing contract specifications that ensure quality outcomes from aged care providers. The argument is that the present accreditation standards that are used to assess the status of aged care providers are too narrow to capture the complexity in delivering social services. Data were collected from 442 aged care workers from aged care facilities in NSW, QLD and WA. The results show that carer support (personal and organisational support) explained half of the variance in quality of clinical care in NFP facilities, and a third of the variance in FP facilities. In particular, the findings suggest support for carers is important for carer retention, and ultimately the clinical care of residents. The findings provide supporting evidence to widen the required contract specifications for aged care provider accreditation to include organisational and personal support for carers.
Regeneration of the ear after wounding in different mouse strains is dependent on the severity of wound trauma

The replacement and restoration of tissue mass after organ damage or injury in adult higher vertebrates is critical to the architecture and function of the organ. If replacement occurs with scar tissue, this often results in adverse effects on function and growth as well as an undesirable cosmetic appearance. However, certain mammals, such as the MRL/MpJ mouse, have shown a restricted capacity for regeneration, rather than scar tissue formation, after an excisional ear punch wound. To investigate the changes in tissue architecture leading to ear wound closure, initial ear wounding studies with a 2‐mm clinical biopsy punch were performed on MRL/MpJ mice, by using C57BL/6 mice as a nonregenerative control strain. In contrast to previously reported studies on mouse ear regeneration, we observed that C57BL/6 mice in fact showed a limited regenerative capacity. One explanation for this difference could be attributed to the method of wounding used; both previous studies on mouse ear regeneration used a thumb punch, whereas our approach was to use a clinical biopsy punch. This approach led us to further investigate whether the severity of trauma applied influenced the rate of wound healing. We, therefore, compared the effects of the sharp clinical biopsy punch with that of a cruder thumb punch, and introduced a third strain of mouse, Balb/c, known to be a slow‐healing strain. A new method to quantify ear punch hole closure was developed and a histologic investigation conducted up to 4 months after wounding. Image analysis data showed a reduction in original ear wound area of 85% in MRL/MpJ mice at 4 weeks and of 91.7% over 4 months by using a biopsy punch. In contrast, the crude thumb punch methodology resulted in an increase in wound area of up to 58% in Balb/c ears; thought to be due to increased necrosis of the wound site. All biopsy‐punched wound areas plateaued in healing between days 28 and 112. Only 5 of 80 MRL/MpJ mouse ears showed no residual holes macroscopically after 28 days. Histologically, all strains of mice healed their ear wounds in a similar manner involving re‐epithelialization, blastema‐like formation, dermal extension, blood vessel formation, chondrogenesis, folliculogenesis, and skeletal muscle and fat differentiation. However, all regenerative features were more pronounced and accelerated in MRL/MpJ mice when compared with C57BL/6 and Balb/c biopsy‐punched mouse ears. Developmental Dynamics 226:388–397, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Parental psychosocial predictors of secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe) for children with cancer

Children with cancer are at greater risk for the negative consequences of secondhand smoke exposure, making the identification of predictors of exposure critical. The current study investigated the impact of parents' psychosocial variables (perceived stress and vulnerability, self-efficacy), as well as health-related and demographic variables, on children’s current exposure levels. Data were from 135 families whose children (M = 8.6 years old) lived with a smoker and were being treated for cancer. Self-efficacy was the consistent significant psychosocial predictor of exposure and the time since a child’s diagnosis was indicative of lower exposure when limiting the sample to only smoking parents (n = 95). Both predictors of exposure have implications on motivation for behavioral change and may be suggestive of a teachable moment. Interventions may profit from tailoring programs to families based on these predictors of exposure, in particular for tobacco-based interventions for parents of medically compromised children, such as children with cancer.
Time Series Measurement of IEEE 802.11ad Signal Power Involving Human Blockage with HMM-Based State Estimation

This paper presents a measurement of time-varying attenuation of IEEE802.11ad wireless LAN (WLAN) signals in 60GHz band induced by human blockage. The present measurement is a novel approach to obtain the attenuation, where a commercially available IEEE802.11ad access point (AP) and station (STA) are employed and the measurement is conducted under intermittent packet transmission. This paper also presents a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based signal power estimation scheme so that the attenuation is estimated from data obtained with a microwave spectrum analyzer which cannot detect signals of IEEE 802.11ad WLAN in itself. In this scheme, whether 11ad WLAN signals exist or not at each sampling instant is estimated based on HMM. Before the application of HMM, the scheme detects the number of HMM states via Bayesian information criterion and, thereby, prevents model over-fitting and consequent invalid power estimation. Our experiment revealed that the IEEE802.11ad WLAN signal attenuates by 5dB in a duration of 51.5ms when a human moves across the path between the AP and the STA at a velocity of 0.5 m/s. This result is consistent with a previous report about an IEEE 802.11ad WLAN channel model.