Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IDENTIFYING HIGH-METALLICITY M GIANTS AT INTRAGROUP DISTANCES WITH SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

Tidal stripping and three-body interactions with the central supermassive black hole may eject stars from the Milky Way. These stars would comprise a set of “intragroup” stars that trace the past history of interactions in our galactic neighborhood. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7, we identify candidate solar-metallicity red giant intragroup stars using color cuts that are designed to exclude nearby M and L dwarfs. We present 677 intragroup candidates that are selected between 300 kpc and 2 Mpc, and are either the reddest intragroup candidates (M7–M10) or are L dwarfs at larger distances than previously detected.
Suicide Attempts in Anorexia Nervosa

Objective: To explore prevalence and patterns of suicidal attempts in persons with anorexia nervosa (AN). Methods: Participants were the first 432 persons (22 male, 410 female) enrolled in the NIH funded Genetics of Anorexia Nervosa Collaborative Study. All participants had current or lifetime AN. The participants ranged in age from 16 to 76 (mean = 30.4, SD = 11.3). Suicidal behavior and intent was assessed via the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies. We compared frequency and severity of attempts across diagnostic subtypes and comorbidity, and personality features associated with the presence of suicide attempts in persons with AN. Results: About 16.9% of those with AN attempted suicide. Significantly fewer persons with the restricting subtype (7.4%) reported at least one attempt than those with purging AN (26.1%), AN with binge eating (29.3%), and a mixed picture of AN and bulimia nervosa (21.2%). After controlling for major depression, suicide attempts were associated with substance abuse, impulsive behaviors and traits, Cluster B personality disorders, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder as well as low self-directedness and eating disorder severity. Conclusions: Suicide attempts in AN are not uncommon, are frequently associated with the intention to die, occur less frequently in persons with the restricting subtype of the illness, and after controlling for depression are associated with a constellation of behaviors and traits associated with behavioral and affective dyscontrol. AN = anorexia nervosa; BN = bulimia nervosa; RAN = restricting anorexia nervosa; PAN = purging anorexia nervosa; AN(B) = binging anorexia nervosa; EDNOS = eating disorder not otherwise specified; ANBN = lifetime history of both AN and BN.
Fairness and Transparency in Crowdsourcing

Despite the success of crowdsourcing, the question of ethics has not yet been addressed in its entirety. Existing eﬀorts have studied fairness in worker compensation and in helping requesters detect malevolent workers. In this paper, we propose fairness axioms that generalize existing work and pave the way to studying fairness for task assignment, task completion, and worker compensation. Transparency on the other hand, has been addressed with the development of plug-ins and forums to track workers’ performance and rate requesters. Similarly to fairness, we deﬁne transparency axioms and advocate the need to address it in a holistic manner by providing declarative speciﬁcations. We also discuss how fairness and transparency could be enforced and evaluated in a crowdsourcing platform.
An Assessment of Open Communication between People with Terminal Cancer, Caring Relatives, and Others during Home Care

Since the 1960s the ethics, benefits, and stresses of open communication during a terminal illness have been widely discussed. After the pioneer work of Glaser and Strauss (1), various theoretical models have been suggested (2) and an increasing number of qualitative studies of, for example, family caregivers' perceptions of their communication with the dying person (3) have appeared. Many of these reports have been anecdotal, however. This report is taken from a prospective study of home care patients and their caring relatives to assess certain qualities of their lives throughout the terminal illness (4). As communication was considered an important component, its extent and progress were assessed regularly together with its possible benefits.
Selective Regulation of CD8 Effector T Cell Migration by the p110γ Isoform of Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase1

Chemokine-mediated T cell migration is essential to an optimal immune response. The p110γ isoform of PI3K is activated by G protein-coupled receptors and regulates neutrophil and macrophage chemotaxis. We used p110γ-deficient mice to examine the role of p110γ in CD8 T cell migration and activation in response to viral challenge. Naive CD8 T cell migration in response to CCL21 in vitro and trafficking into secondary lymphoid organs in vivo was unaffected by the loss of p110γ. Furthermore, loss of p110γ did not affect CD8 T cell proliferation and effector cell differentiation in vitro in response to anti-CD3 stimulation or in vivo in response to vaccinia virus (VV) challenge. However, there was reduced migration of p110γ knockout (p110γ−/−) CD8 effector T cells into the peritoneum following i.p. challenge with VV. The role of p110γ in CD8 effector T cell migration was intrinsic to T cells, as p110γ−/− CD8 effector T cells exhibited impaired migration into the inflamed peritoneum following secondary transfer into wild-type recipients. In addition, p110γ−/− CD8 effector T cells exhibited impaired migration in vitro in response to inflammatory chemoattractants. Although wild-type mice efficiently cleared VV at high viral doses, infection of p110γ knockout mice resulted in visible illness and death less than a week after infection. Thus, p110γ is dispensable for constitutive migration of naive CD8 T cells and subsequent activation and differentiation into effector CD8 T cells, but plays a central role in the migration of effector CD8 T cells into inflammatory sites.
Chiral platinum (II)-4-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)- formamide oxo-aporphine (FOA) complexes promote tumor cells apoptosis by directly targeting G-quadruplex DNA in vitro and in vivo

Three platinum(II) complexes, 4 (LC-004), 5 (LC-005), and 6 (LC-006), with the chiral FOA ligands R/S-(±)-FOA (1), R-(+)-FOA (2) and S-(–)-FOA (3), respectively, were synthesized and characterized. As potential anti-tumor agents, these complexes show higher cytotoxicity to BEL-7404 cells than the HL-7702 normal cells. They are potential telomerase inhibitors that target c-myc and human telomeric G-quadruplex DNA. Compared to complexes 4 and 5, 6 exhibited higher binding affinities towards telomeric, c-myc G-quadruplex DNA and caspase-3/9, thereby inducing senescence and apoptosis to a greater extent in tumor cells. Moreover, our in vivo studies showed that complex 6 can effectively inhibit tumor growth in the BEL-7404 and BEL-7402 xenograft mouse models and is less toxic than 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin. The effective inhibition of tumor growth is attributed to its interactions with 53BP1, TRF1, c-myc, TRF2, and hTERT. Thus, complex 6 can serve as a novel lead compound and a potential drug candidate for anticancer chemotherapy.
Large-Scale Similarity Joins With Guarantees (Invited Talk)

The ability to handle noisy or imprecise data is becoming increasingly important in computing. In the database community the notion of similarity join has been studied extensively, yet existing solutions have offered weak performance guarantees. Either they are based on deterministic filtering techniques that often, but not always, succeed in reducing computational costs, or they are based on randomized techniques that have improved guarantees on computational cost but come with a probability of not returning the correct result. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of randomized techniques for high-dimensional similarity search, and discuss recent advances towards making these techniques more widely applicable by eliminating probability of error and improving the locality of data access.
Phylogenetic relationships of the Hamamelidaceae inferred from sequences of internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA.

Intergeneric relationships in the Hamamelidaceae have long been controversial. In this study, sequences of the internal transcribed spacers of nuclear ribosomal DNA were used to reconstruct the phylogeny for the Hamamelidaceae. Three major clades were recognized in the ITS-based phylogenetic tree: (1) Mytilaria-Exbucklandia-Rhodoleia, (2) Disanthus, and (3) the Hamamelidoideae. Within the Hamamelidoideae there were three well-supported lineages: (1) Corylopsis-Loropetalum-Tetrathyrium-Maingaya-Matudaea, (2) Eustigmateae sensu Endress, plus Molinadendron-Dicoryphinae, and (3) Hamamelis-Fothergilleae sensu Endress, excluding Matudaea and Molinadendron. The Exbucklandioideae sensu Endress were not monophyletic, nor were the tribes in the Hamamelidoideae in their current circumscriptions except for the Corylopsideae. Strap-shaped petals, apetaly, and wind pollination have evolved three times independently in the Hamamelidaceae s.s. (Hamamelidaceae minus Altingioideae), suggesting that homoplasy should be considered in future classifications of the family.
Comapct and tunable metamaterial antenna for multi-band wireless communication applications

This paper presents a novel compact and tunable metamaterials antenna. A compact left handed transmission line resonator antenna implemented on ferrite substrate is designed to have tunable operation frequency from 5.25 GHz to 5.8 GHz. The antenna length is only 5.8 mm length which is only 45% compared to a conventional antenna operates at the same frequency. The operation frequency can be tuned by varying the applied DC magnetic bias applied to the ferrite substrate. The antenna structure has small demagnetization factor and hence requires small external DC magnetic bias.
The influence of sampling design on tree‐ring‐based quantification of forest growth

Tree‐rings offer one of the few possibilities to empirically quantify and reconstruct forest growth dynamics over years to millennia. Contemporaneously with the growing scientific community employing tree‐ring parameters, recent research has suggested that commonly applied sampling designs (i.e. how and which trees are selected for dendrochronological sampling) may introduce considerable biases in quantifications of forest responses to environmental change. To date, a systematic assessment of the consequences of sampling design on dendroecological and‐climatological conclusions has not yet been performed. Here, we investigate potential biases by sampling a large population of trees and replicating diverse sampling designs. This is achieved by retroactively subsetting the population and specifically testing for biases emerging for climate reconstruction, growth response to climate variability, long‐term growth trends, and quantification of forest productivity. We find that commonly applied sampling designs can impart systematic biases of varying magnitude to any type of tree‐ring‐based investigations, independent of the total number of samples considered. Quantifications of forest growth and productivity are particularly susceptible to biases, whereas growth responses to short‐term climate variability are less affected by the choice of sampling design. The world's most frequently applied sampling design, focusing on dominant trees only, can bias absolute growth rates by up to 459% and trends in excess of 200%. Our findings challenge paradigms, where a subset of samples is typically considered to be representative for the entire population. The only two sampling strategies meeting the requirements for all types of investigations are the (i) sampling of all individuals within a fixed area; and (ii) fully randomized selection of trees. This result advertises the consistent implementation of a widely applicable sampling design to simultaneously reduce uncertainties in tree‐ring‐based quantifications of forest growth and increase the comparability of datasets beyond individual studies, investigators, laboratories, and geographical boundaries.
Phylogenetic marker development for target enrichment from transcriptome and genome skim data: the pipeline and its application in southern African Oxalis (Oxalidaceae)

Phylogenetics benefits from using a large number of putatively independent nuclear loci and their combination with other sources of information, such as the plastid and mitochondrial genomes. To facilitate the selection of orthologous low‐copy nuclear (LCN) loci for phylogenetics in nonmodel organisms, we created an automated and interactive script to select hundreds of LCN loci by a comparison between transcriptome and genome skim data. We used our script to obtain LCN genes for southern African Oxalis (Oxalidaceae), a speciose plant lineage in the Greater Cape Floristic Region. This resulted in 1164 LCN genes greater than 600 bp. Using target enrichment combined with genome skimming (Hyb‐Seq), we obtained on average 1141 LCN loci, nearly the whole plastid genome and the nrDNA cistron from 23 southern African Oxalis species. Despite a wide range of gene trees, the phylogeny based on the LCN genes was very robust, as retrieved through various gene and species tree reconstruction methods as well as concatenation. Cytonuclear discordance was strong. This indicates that organellar phylogenies alone are unlikely to represent the species tree and stresses the utility of Hyb‐Seq in phylogenetics.
EXPRESSION, PURIFICATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COLD-ADAPTED INORGANIC PYROPHOSPHATASE FROM PSYCHROPHILIC Shewanella sp. AS-11

In the presence of divalent cations, inorganic pyrophosphatase is activated to hydrolyze inorganic pyrophosphate to inorganic phosphate. Here, we clone, express, purify, and characterize inorganic pyrophosphatase from the psychrophilic Shewanella sp. AS-11 (Sh-PPase). The recombinant Sh-PPase was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) at 20°C using pET16b as an expression vector and purified from the cell extracts by a combination of ammonium sulfate fractionation and anion-exchange chromatography. Sh-PPase was found to be a family II PPase with a subunit molecular mass of 34 kD that preferentially utilizes Mn2+ over Mg2+ ions for activity. The functional characteristics of Sh-PPase, such as activity, temperature dependency, and thermal inactivation, were greatly influenced by manganese ions. Manganese ion activation increased the enzyme's activity at low temperatures; therefore, it was required to gain the cold-adapted characteristics of Sh-PPase.
HybF, a Zinc-Containing Protein Involved in NiFe Hydrogenase Maturation

ABSTRACT HypA and HypB are maturation proteins required for incorporation of nickel into the hydrogenase large subunit. To examine the functions of these proteins in nickel insertion, the hybF gene, which is a homolog of hypA essential for maturation of hydrogenases 1 and 2 from Escherichia coli, was overexpressed, and the product was purified. This protein behaves like a monomer in gel filtration and contains stoichiometric amounts of zinc but insignificant or undetectable amounts of nickel and iron. In filter binding assays radioactively labeled nickel binds to HybF with a KD of 1.87 μM and in a stoichiometric ratio. To identify amino acid residues of HybF involved in nickel and/or zinc binding, variants in which conserved residues were replaced were studied. An H2Q replacement eliminated both in vivo activity and in vitro binding of nickel. The purified protein, however, contained zinc at the level characteristic of the wild-type protein. When E3 was replaced by Q, activity was retained, but an E3L exchange was detrimental. Replacement of each of the four conserved cysteine residues of a zinc finger motif reduced the cellular amount of HybF protein without a loss of in vivo activity, indicating that these residues play a purely structural role. A triple mutant deficient in the synthesis or activity of HypA, HybF, and HypB was constructed, and it exhibited the same responsiveness for phenotypic complementation by high nickel as mutants with a single lesion in one of the genes exhibited. The results are interpreted in terms of a concerted action of HypB and HybF in nickel insertion in which HybF (as well as its homolog, HypA) functions as a metallochaperone and HypB functions as a regulator that controls the interaction of HybF with the target protein.
Automatic detection of long term parked cars

The detection of illegal roadside parking is becoming more and more interesting in the field of intelligent transportation systems, since it may cause traffic congestion or accidents. In this paper we propose a method able to analyze videos acquired by traditional surveillance cameras and to automatically detect the vehicles stopped in a forbidden area. Two main contributions have been introduced: first, spatio temporal information related to the stopped vehicles are encoded by a heat map; second, the background is not updated by evaluating the movement of the vehicle in a single time instant, but instead the whole movement of the vehicles, encoded into the heat map, is taken into account. Two widely adopted datasets, namely the iLids and the PETS 2000, have been used to experimentally evaluate the proposed approach and the results achieved, compared with state of the art methodologies, confirm its effectiveness.
Fungal Growth Stimulation by CO2 and Root Exudates in Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis

Transformed roots of carrot were used to determine the effects of root metabolites on hyphal development from spores of the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Gigaspora margarita. Hyphal growth of this obligately biotrophic symbiont was greatly stimulated by a synergistic interaction between volatile and exudated factors produced by roots. Root volatiles alone provided little stimulation, and root exudates alone had no effect. For the first time, carbon dioxide was demonstrated to be a critical root volatile involved in the enhancement of hyphal growth. 14C-labeled root volatiles were fixed by the fungus and thus strongly suggested that CO2 served as an essential carbon source.
Bleomycin increases amikacin and streptomycin resistance in Escherichia coli harboring transposon Tn5

The antitumor antibiotic bleomycin acts as a transcriptional inducer of the neo-ble-str operon of the transposon Tn5, increasing the resistance level to streptomycin and amikacin in Tn5-containing Escherichia coli. The mechanism may involve a recA-independent induction mediated by DNA damage.
Chd7 Collaborates with Sox2 to Regulate Activation of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells after Spinal Cord Injury

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) act as a reservoir of new oligodendrocytes (OLs) in homeostatic and pathological conditions. OPCs are activated in response to injury to generate myelinating OLs, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we show that chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 7 (Chd7) regulates OPC activation after spinal cord injury (SCI). Chd7 is expressed in OPCs in the adult spinal cord and its expression is upregulated with a concomitant increase in Sox2 expression after SCI. OPC-specific ablation of Chd7 in injured mice leads to reduced OPC proliferation, the loss of OPC identity, and impaired OPC differentiation. Ablation of Chd7 or Sox2 in cultured OPCs shows similar phenotypes to those observed in Chd7 knock-out mice. Chd7 and Sox2 form a complex in OPCs and bind to the promoters or enhancers of the regulator of cell cycle (Rgcc) and protein kinase Cθ (PKCθ) genes, thereby inducing their expression. The expression of Rgcc and PKCθ is reduced in the OPCs of the injured Chd7 knock-out mice. In cultured OPCs, overexpression and knock-down of Rgcc or PKCθ promote and suppress OPC proliferation, respectively. Furthermore, overexpression of both Rgcc and PKCθ rescues the Chd7 deletion phenotypes. Chd7 is thus a key regulator of OPC activation, in which it cooperates with Sox2 and acts via direct induction of Rgcc and PKCθ expression. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to oligodendrocyte (OL) loss and demyelination, along with neuronal death, resulting in impairment of motor or sensory functions. Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) activated in response to injury are potential sources of OL replacement and are thought to contribute to remyelination and functional recovery after SCI. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying OPC activation, especially its epigenetic regulation, remain largely unclear. We demonstrate here that the chromatin remodeler chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 7 (Chd7) regulates the proliferation and identity of OPCs after SCI. We have further identified regulator of cell cycle (Rgcc) and protein kinase Cθ (PKCθ) as novel targets of Chd7 for OPC activation.
Auto‐Activation deficit: A basal ganglia related syndrome

We draw attention to a new syndrome related to basal ganglia pathology. It is characterized by a deficit in spontaneous activation of mental processing, observed in behavioral, cognitive, or affective domains, which can be totally reversed by external stimulation that activates normal patterns of response. In addition, patients with auto-activation deficit (AAD) typically express the feeling that their mind is empty when they are not stimulated, a symptom that is sometimes difficult to recognize. AAD, also designated “psychic akinesia,” 1 differs from the inertia or abulia observed in patients with frontal lesions in that behavioral, cognitive, and emotional abilities become normal under external stimulation. This is particularly striking for executive functions which are essentially preserved under test conditions. The dramatic effect of external stimulation on these patients may appear to resemble what has been called “kinesia paradoxica” on a motor point of view, 2 except that, in the present case, external stimulation always activates all aspects of behavior. The syndrome is mainly encountered following lesions of the basal ganglia and is thought to result from the disruption of passing fibers mediating the internal activation of mental processing. We believe that the concept may generate some new lines of research into the non-motor roles of the basal ganglia such as behavioral activation, cognitive processing, affectivity, and conscious awareness.
Dimethyl Fumarate Inhibits the Nuclear Factor κB Pathway in Breast Cancer Cells by Covalent Modification of p65 Protein*

In breast tumors, activation of the nuclear factor κB (NFκB) pathway promotes survival, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, stem cell-like properties, and resistance to therapy—all phenotypes of aggressive disease where therapy options remain limited. Adding an anti-inflammatory/anti-NFκB agent to breast cancer treatment would be beneficial, but no such drug is approved as either a monotherapy or adjuvant therapy. To address this need, we examined whether dimethyl fumarate (DMF), an anti-inflammatory drug already in clinical use for multiple sclerosis, can inhibit the NFκB pathway. We found that DMF effectively blocks NFκB activity in multiple breast cancer cell lines and abrogates NFκB-dependent mammosphere formation, indicating that DMF has anti-cancer stem cell properties. In addition, DMF inhibits cell proliferation and significantly impairs xenograft tumor growth. Mechanistically, DMF prevents p65 nuclear translocation and attenuates its DNA binding activity but has no effect on upstream proteins in the NFκB pathway. Dimethyl succinate, the inactive analog of DMF that lacks the electrophilic double bond of fumarate, is unable to inhibit NFκB activity. Also, the cell-permeable thiol N-acetyl l-cysteine, reverses DMF inhibition of the NFκB pathway, supporting the notion that the electrophile, DMF, acts via covalent modification. To determine whether DMF interacts directly with p65, we synthesized and used a novel chemical probe of DMF by incorporating an alkyne functionality and found that DMF covalently modifies p65, with cysteine 38 being essential for the activity of DMF. These results establish DMF as an NFκB inhibitor with anti-tumor activity that may add therapeutic value in the treatment of aggressive breast cancers.