Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Does the Neighborhood “Come through the Door?” Concentrated Disadvantage, Residential Instability, and the Home Environment for Preschoolers

Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with heightened risk for poor school readiness and health outcomes in early childhood, and the home environment is thought to be a primary mechanism by which neighborhood context impacts preschoolers. This study examined the effects of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and neighborhood residential instability on the home physical environment and home learning environment for preschoolers in economically disadvantaged families (N = 187). Using structural equation modeling, mothers' perceived neighborhood disorder and depressive symptoms were examined as mechanisms by which neighborhood context "comes through the door. " Mothers' neighborhood social embeddedness was also explored as a protective factor. Results showed that concentrated disadvantage was negatively associated with the quality of the home physical environment, and residential instability was negatively associated with the quality of the home learning environment. Concentrated disadvantage had an indirect effect on the home learning environment through mothers' perceived neighborhood disorder and depressive symptoms. The effects of concentrated disadvantage on the home environment were buffered by mothers' neighborhood social embeddedness. Study findings advance understanding of socioeconomic- and place-based disparities in developmental outcomes and identify potential targets for interventions aimed at lessening effects of neighborhood disadvantage on families with young children.
The role of intestinal endotoxemia in a rat model of aluminum neurotoxicity

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of intestinal endotoxemia (IETM) in a rat model of aluminum neurotoxicity established by D-galactose and aluminum trichloride (AlCl3). Adult Wistar rats were administered D-galactose and AlCl3 to create the aluminum neurotoxicity model. The learning and memory abilities of the rats were subsequently observed using a Morris water maze test and the serum levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1, diamine oxidase (DAO), glutamine (Gln) and glutaminase were measured. The expression of S-100β in the serum was detected using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression levels of the amyloid β-protein (Aβ) precursor (APP), presenilin 1 (PS1), β-site APP-cleaving enzyme (BACE), zona occludens protein (ZO)-1 and Aβ 1–40 in the brain of rats were detected via reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The levels of LPS, TNF-α, IL-1, DAO, Gln and S-100β in serum and the mRNA and protein expression levels of APP, PS1, BACE and Aβ1-40 in the brain were markedly increased in the model rats compared with controls. The level of glutaminase in the serum and the expression of ZO-1 in the brain were decreased in the model rats compared with controls. IETM was present in the rat model of aluminum neurotoxicity established by D-galactose and AlCl3 and may be important in the development of this neurotoxicity.
Improving identifier informativeness using part of speech information

Recent software development tools have exploited the mining of natural language information found within software and its supporting documentation. To make the most of this information, researchers have drawn upon the work of the natural language processing community for tools and techniques. One such tool provides part-of-speech information, which finds application in improving the searching of software repositories and extracting domain information found in identifiers. Unfortunately, the natural language found is software differs from that found in standard prose. This difference potentially limits the effectiveness of off-the-shelf tools. An empirical investigation finds that with minimal guidance an existing tagger was correct 88% of the time when tagging the words found in source code identifiers. The investigation then uses the improved part-of-speech information to tag a large corpus of over 145,000 structure-field names. From patterns in the tags several rules emerge that seek to understand past usage and to improve future naming.
A highly sensitive and ultra low‐power forward body biasing circuit to overcome severe process, voltage and temperature variations and extreme voltage scaling

Dynamic voltage scaling is one of the most popular methods used to reduce energy consumption in today's digital electronic systems. However, addressing process, voltage and temperature variations at subthreshold voltages has become an inevitable procedure. Using a variation‐sensitive and ultra low‐power design, this paper proposed a novel technique capable of sensing and responding to process, voltage and temperature variations as well as dynamic voltage scaling by providing an appropriate forward body bias so that energy‐delay product of the whole system was improved. Theoretical analysis for process variation probability, confirmed by post‐layout HSPICE (Synopsys, Inc., Mountain View, CA) simulations for an 8‐bit pipelined Kogge–Stone adder, showed that the circuit performance was enhanced in severe variations and extreme voltage scaling situation. For this adder, for example, assuming a voltage scaling from 0.8 to 0.3 V and temperature changes of −15 to 75 °C, the proposed technique brought about a seven times less delay variation, whereas energy‐delay product improved by 23% compared with a zero body biased adder. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Correlation analyses of CpG island methylation of cluster of differentiation 4 protein with gene expression and T lymphocyte subpopulation traits

Objective Cluster of differentiation 4 protein (CD4) gene is an important immune related gene which plays a significant role in T cell development and host resistance during viral infection. Methods In order to unravel the relationship of CpG island methylation level of CD4 gene with its gene expression and T lymphocyte subpopulation traits, we used one typical Chinese indigenous breed (Dapulian, DP) and one commercial breed (Landrace), then predicted the CpG island of CD4 gene, determined the methylation status of CpG sites by bisulfite sequencing polymerase chain reaction (BSP), and carried out the correlation analyses of methylation frequencies of CpG sites with mRNA expression and T lymphocyte subpopulation traits. Results There was one CpG island predicted in the upstream −2 kb region and exon one of porcine CD4 gene, which located 333 bp upstream from the start site of gene and contained nine CpG sites. The correlation analysis results indicated that the methylation frequency of CpG_2 significantly correlated with CD4 mRNA expression in the DP and Landrace combined population, though it did not reach significance level in DP and Landrace separately. Additionally, 15 potential binding transcription factors (TFs) were predicted within the CpG island, and one of them (Jumonji) contained CpG_2 site, suggesting that it may influence the CD4 gene expression through the potential binding TFs. We also found methylation frequency of CpG_2 negatively correlated with T lymphocyte subpopulation traits CD4+CD8−CD3−, CD4−CD8+CD3− and CD4+/CD8+, and positively correlated with CD4−CD8+CD3+ and CD4+CD8+CD3+ (for all correlation, p<0.01) in DP and Landrace combined population. Thus, the CpG_2 was a critical methylation site for porcine CD4 gene expression and T lymphocyte subpopulation traits. Conclusion We speculated that increased methylation frequency of CpG_2 may lead to the decreased expression of CD4, which may have some kind of influence on T lymphocyte subpopulation traits and the immunity of DP population.
Integrating NLP with Reasoning about Actions for Autonomous Agents Communicating with Humans

We present a first effort to integrate NLP with ASP for autonomous agents, especially service robots, communicating with humans. We implemented a prototype system and tested it in a simple home environment, which demonstrated the feasibility of our approach under current settings and the possibility that our approach will benefit from future advancement of research on NLP, ASP, and related areas.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Too Far to Care ? Measuring Public Attention and Fear for Ebola Using Twitter

Background: In 2014, the world was startled by a sudden outbreak of Ebola. Although Ebola infections and deaths occurred almost exclusively in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, few potential Western cases, in particular, caused a great stir among the public in Western countries. Objective: This study builds on the construal level theory to examine the relationship between psychological distance to an epidemic and public attention and sentiment expressed on Twitter. Whereas previous research has shown the potential of social media to assess real-time public opinion and sentiment, generalizable insights that further the theory development lack. Methods: Epidemiological data (number of Ebola infections and fatalities) and media data (tweet volume and key events reported in the media) were collected for the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and Twitter content from the Netherlands was coded for (1) expressions of fear for self or fear for others and (2) psychological distance of the outbreak to the tweet source. Longitudinal relations were compared using vector error correction model (VECM) methodology. Results: Analyses based on 4500 tweets revealed that increases in public attention to Ebola co-occurred with severe world events related to the epidemic, but not all severe events evoked fear. As hypothesized, Web-based public attention and expressions of fear responded mainly to the psychological distance of the epidemic. A chi-square test showed a significant positive relation between proximity and fear: χ2=103.2 (P<.001). Public attention and fear for self in the Netherlands showed peaks when Ebola became spatially closer by crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Fear for others was mostly predicted by the social distance to the affected parties. Conclusions: Spatial and social distance are important predictors of public attention to worldwide crisis such as epidemics. These factors need to be taken into account when communicating about human tragedies. (J Med Internet Res 2017;19(6):e193) doi:10.2196/jmir.7219
The irreversible ERBB1/2/4 inhibitor neratinib interacts with the PARP1 inhibitor niraparib to kill ovarian cancer cells

ABSTRACT The irreversible ERBB1/2/4 inhibitor neratinib has been shown to rapidly down-regulate the expression of ERBB1/2/4 as well as the levels of c-MET, PDGFRα and mutant RAS proteins via autophagic degradation. Neratinib interacted in an additive to synergistic fashion with the approved PARP1 inhibitor niraparib to kill ovarian cancer cells. Neratinib and niraparib caused the ATM-dependent activation of AMPK which in turn was required to cause mTOR inactivation, ULK-1 activation and ATG13 phosphorylation. The drug combination initially increased autophagosome levels followed later by autolysosome levels. Preventing autophagosome formation by expressing activated mTOR or knocking down of Beclin1, or knock down of the autolysosome protein cathepsin B, reduced drug combination lethality. The drug combination caused an endoplasmic reticulum stress response as judged by enhanced eIF2α phosphorylation that was responsible for reducing MCL-1 and BCL-XL levels and increasing ATG5 and Beclin1 expression. Knock down of BIM, but not of BAX or BAK, reduced cell killing. Expression of activated MEK1 prevented the drug combination increasing BIM expression and reduced cell killing. Downstream of the mitochondrion, drug lethality was partially reduced by knock down of AIF, but expression of dominant negative caspase 9 was not protective. Our data demonstrate that neratinib and niraparib interact to kill ovarian cancer cells through convergent DNA damage and endoplasmic reticulum stress signaling. Cell killing required the induction of autophagy and was cathepsin B and AIF -dependent, and effector caspase independent.
A high-throughput gene knockout procedure for Neurospora reveals functions for multiple transcription factors

The low rate of homologous recombination exhibited by wild-type strains of filamentous fungi has hindered development of high-throughput gene knockout procedures for this group of organisms. In this study, we describe a method for rapidly creating knockout mutants in which we make use of yeast recombinational cloning, Neurospora mutant strains deficient in nonhomologous end-joining DNA repair, custom-written software tools, and robotics. To illustrate our approach, we have created strains bearing deletions of 103 Neurospora genes encoding transcription factors. Characterization of strains during growth and both asexual and sexual development revealed phenotypes for 43% of the deletion mutants, with more than half of these strains possessing multiple defects. Overall, the methodology, which achieves high-throughput gene disruption at an efficiency >90% in this filamentous fungus, promises to be applicable to other eukaryotic organisms that have a low frequency of homologous recombination.
Retinoic acid receptor alpha drives cell cycle progression and is associated with increased sensitivity to retinoids in T-cell lymphoma

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) are aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas with generally poor outcomes following standard therapy. Few candidate therapeutic targets have been identified to date. Retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARA) is a transcription factor that modulates cell growth and differentiation in response to retinoids. While retinoids have been used to treat some cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCLs), their mechanism of action and the role of RARA in CTCL and other mature T-cell lymphomas remain poorly understood. After identifying a PTCL with a RARAR394Q mutation, we sought to characterize the role of RARA in T-cell lymphoma cells. Overexpressing wild-type RARA or RARAR394Q significantly increased cell growth in RARAlow cell lines, while RARA knockdown induced G1 arrest and decreased expression of cyclin-dependent kinases CDK2/4/6 in RARAhigh cells. The retinoids, AM80 (tamibarotene) and all-trans retinoic acid, caused dose-dependent growth inhibition, G1 arrest, and CDK2/4/6 down-regulation. Genes down-regulated in transcriptome data were enriched for cell cycle and G1-S transition. Finally, RARA overexpression augmented chemosensitivity to retinoids. In conclusion, RARA drives cyclin-dependent kinase expression, G1-S transition, and cell growth in T-cell lymphoma. Synthetic retinoids inhibit these functions in a dose-dependent fashion and are most effective in cells with high RARA expression, indicating RARA may represent a therapeutic target in some PTCLs.
The impact of active layer nanomorphology on the efficiency of organic solar cells based on a squaraine dye electron donor

The possibilities were studied of improving the photovoltaic performance of solution processed BHJ solar cells by solvent vapor annealing (SVA) of the active layers, based on a squaraine dye Sq1 as a donor and the fullerene derivative PCBM as an acceptor. For this purpose, the optical properties were determined of as-deposited and of annealed with tetrahydrofuran (THF) vapors for different duration Sq1/PCMB layers, as well as the efficiency of cells built on their basis. A considerable change was established in the absorption spectra of treated for only a few seconds films and a twofold increase of the power conversion efficiency after 6 sec SVA. The results obtained are explained in terms of solvent vapor induced phase separation and formation of squaraine dye small aggregates in the blend nanostructure. The assumption made was confirmed by morphological investigation of as-deposited and of annealed Sq1/PCBM blended layers. On this basis, the impact of the active layer nanomorphology on the efficiency of solar cells based on squariane dye as electron donor is discussed.
Targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antigens to Dendritic Cells via the DC-Specific-ICAM3-Grabbing-Nonintegrin Receptor Induces Strong T-Helper 1 Immune Responses

Tuberculosis remains a major global health problem and efforts to develop a more effective vaccine have been unsuccessful so far. Targeting antigens (Ags) to dendritic cells (DCs) in vivo has emerged as a new promising vaccine strategy. In this approach, Ags are delivered directly to DCs via antibodies that bind to endocytic cell-surface receptors. Here, we explored DC-specific-ICAM3-grabbing-nonintegrin (DC-SIGN) targeting as a potential vaccine against tuberculosis. For this, we made use of the hSIGN mouse model that expresses human DC-SIGN under the control of the murine CD11c promoter. We show that in vitro and in vivo delivery of anti-DC-SIGN antibodies conjugated to Ag85B and peptide 25 of Ag85B in combination with anti-CD40, the fungal cell wall component zymosan, and the cholera toxin-derived fusion protein CTA1-DD induces strong Ag-specific CD4+ T-cell responses. Improved anti-mycobacterial immunity was accompanied by increased frequencies of Ag-specific IFN-γ+ IL-2+ TNF-α+ polyfunctional CD4+ T cells in vaccinated mice compared with controls. Taken together, in this study we provide the proof of concept that the human DC-SIGN receptor can be efficiently exploited for vaccine purposes to promote immunity against mycobacterial infections.
A power-scalable concurrent cascade 2-2-2 SC ΣΔ modulator for Software Defined Radio

This paper presents a flexible 1.2-V 90-nm CMOS cascade three-stage SC ΣΔ modulator with local resonation in the last two stages, unity signal transfer function and programmable (either 3 or 5 level) quantization in all stages. The chip reconfigures its loop filter order (2nd, 4th, 6th order), the clock frequency (from 40 to 240MHz) and scales the power consumption according to required specifications. These reconfiguration strategies are combined with the capability of concurrency in order to digitize up to three different wireless standards simultaneously. Experimental results demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed modulator, featuring a programmable noise shaping within a 100kHz-to-10MHz signal band, with adaptive power dissipation1.
Compliance with Opioid Therapy: Distinguishing Clinical Characteristics and Demographics Among Patients with Cancer Pain

Background Because an increase of patients who misuse opioids has been identified in our cancer clinical setting through urine drug testing (UDT) and the Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patient's with Pain-Short Form (SOAPP-SF), we conducted this retrospective cohort study to identify patient characteristics that are associated with UDT that indicates noncompliance. Methods Over a two-year period, 167 of 8,727 patients (2.4%) seen in the pain clinic and who underwent UDT were evaluated to determine compliance with prescribed opioid regimens. Descriptive clinical and demographic data were collected, and group differences based on compliance with opioid therapy were evaluated. Results Fifty-eight percent of the patients were noncompliant with their prescribed opioid therapy. Noncompliant patients were younger than compliant patients, with a median age of 46 vs 49 years (P = 0.0408). Noncompliant patients were more likely to have higher morphine equivalent daily doses; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Patients with a history of alcohol (ETOH) (P = 0.0332), illicit drug use (P = 0.1014), and smoking (P = 0.4184) were more likely noncompliant. Univariate regression analysis showed that a history of ETOH use (P = 0.034), a history of anxiety (P = 0.027), younger age (P = 0.07), and a SOAPP-SF score of 4 or higher (P = 0.05) were associated with an abnormal UDT. Conclusions History of ETOH use, anxiety, high SOAPP-SF score, and younger age were associated with UDT that indicates noncompliance. Given the very small percentage of UDT testing, it is quite likely that a significant number of patients who did not undergo UDT were also nonadherent with treatment recommendations.
Improving myocardial fractional flow reserve in coronary atherosclerosis via CX37 gene silence: a preclinical validation study in pigs.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of CX37 gene silence on myocardial fractional flow reserve (FFR). METHODS A total of 90 male pigs were randomly divided into saline, mock and 3 different doses (5, 10 and 20 µl) of CX37 viral suspension groups that could induce coronary plaque formation with high-fat diet. After performing myocardial FFR by intravascular ultrasound, different doses of CX37 viral suspension, saline and mock small interfering RNA (siRNA) were transfected into the related coronary. The FFR, the myocardial enzymes and the cardiac structures and functions of the pigs were detected at baseline, 4th, 8th and 12th week after transfection, respectively. RESULTS Repeated measures analysis of variance comparison showed that the difference in the FFR among the 5 groups was statistically significant (F = 27.0, P < 0.01). Post hoc analysis showed that FFR were highest in the siRNA CX37 group (20 µl), followed by the siRNA CX37 group (10 µl) and the siRNA CX37 group (5 µl), and lowest in the mock and saline groups. Left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was significantly smaller and ejection fraction was obviously higher in the 3 siRNA CX37 groups compared with the untreated groups. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed that FFR levels increased along with decreased doses of siRNA CX37 lentivirus, indicating that siRNA CX37 lentivirus may reduce the risk of coronary atherosclerosis and provide a potential approach to treat coronary heart disease.
Ago2 and Dicer1 are involved in METH‐induced locomotor sensitization in mice via biogenesis of miRNA

microRNA (miRNA) play important roles in drug addiction and act as a post‐transcriptional regulator of gene expression. We previously reported extensive downregulation of miRNAs in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of methamphetamine (METH)‐sensitized mice. However, the regulatory mechanism of this METH‐induced downregulation of miRNAs has yet to be elucidated. Thus, we examined METH‐induced changes in the expression of miRNAs and their precursors, as well as the expression levels of mRNA and the proteins involved in miRNA biogenesis such as Dicer1 and Ago2, in the nucleus accumbens of METH‐induced locomotor sensitized mice. miRNAs and Ago2 were significantly downregulated, while the expression of miRNA precursors remained unchanged or upregulated, which suggests that the downregulation of miRNAs was likely due to a reduction in Ago2‐mediated splicing but unlikely to be regulated at the transcription level. Interestingly, the expression level of Dicer1, which is a potential target of METH‐induced decreased miRNAs, such as miR‐124, miR‐212 and miR‐29b, was significantly increased. In conclusion, this study indicates that miRNA biogenesis (such as Ago2 and Dicer1) and their miRNA products may have a role in the development of METH addiction.