Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transgenerational effects of nutrition are different for sons and daughters

Food shortage is an important selective factor shaping animal life‐history trajectories. Yet, despite its role, many aspects of the interaction between parental and offspring food environments remain unclear. In this study, we measured developmental plasticity in response to food availability over two generations and tested the relative contribution of paternal and maternal food availability to the performance of offspring reared under matched and mismatched food environments. We applied a cross‐generational split‐brood design using the springtail Orchesella cincta, which is found in the litter layer of temperate forests. The results show adverse effects of food limitation on several life‐history traits and reproductive performance of both parental sexes. Food conditions of both parents contributed to the offspring phenotypic variation, providing evidence for transgenerational effects of diet. Parental diet influenced sons’ age at maturity and daughters’ weight at maturity. Specifically, being born to food‐restricted parents allowed offspring to alleviate the adverse effects of food limitation, without reducing their performance under well‐fed conditions. Thus, parents raised on a poor diet primed their offspring for a more efficient resource use. However, a mismatch between maternal and offspring food environments generated sex‐specific adverse effects: female offspring born to well‐fed mothers showed a decreased flexibility to deal with low‐food conditions. Notably, these maternal effects of food availability were not observed in the sons. Finally, we found that the relationship between age and size at maturity differed between males and females and showed that offspring life‐history strategies in O. cincta are primed differently by the parents.
Improvement of neurocognitive function in responders to an antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C

Earlier studies have suggested neurocognitive impairment in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection even before liver cirrhosis has developed. Since these deficits might be reversible after successful antiviral therapy, we analyzed the long‐term course of neurocognitive parameters in HCV patients with and without successful virus elimination by an interferon‐based antiviral treatment. In a multicenter study including 168 HCV patients receiving antiviral therapy (peginterferon alpha‐2b and ribavirin) we performed a long‐term follow‐up of neurocognitive performance before and after treatment. Neurocognitive function was psychometrically assessed using the computer‐aided TAP (Test Battery of Attentional Performance). When tested at least 12 months after termination of antiviral treatment, patients with sustained virologic response (SVR) had improved significantly as compared to their pretreatment performance in three of five TAP subtasks (vigilance, P < 0.001; shared attention: optical task, P < 0.001; working memory, P < 0.001). Patients who failed to eradicate the virus, however, showed no significant long‐term changes in neurocognitive performance in all five subtasks assessed (0.194 < P < 0.804). In the posttreatment evaluation, neurocognitive function was significantly better in responders to the antiviral therapy as compared to nonresponders. Conclusion: Successful eradication of HCV leads to a significant improvement of relevant aspects of attentional and neurocognitive performance, indicating that the neurocognitive impairment caused by chronic HCV infection is potentially reversible. This therefore suggests an added therapeutic benefit of antiviral treatment in HCV infection. Improvement of neurocognitive function may be an additional treatment indication in patients with HCV. (HEPATOLOGY 2013;58:497–504)
Emergence of SCCmec Type IV and SCCmec Type V Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Containing the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Genes in a Large Academic Teaching Hospital in Central Switzerland: External Invaders or Persisting Circulators?

ABSTRACT The hospital epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has changed in the past few years due to the encroachment of community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) strains into health care settings. MRSA strains that were isolated during a 2-year period from patients of the Luzerner Kantonsspital were analyzed to elucidate their epidemiology. Moreover, extended surveillance of individuals who were contacts of those patients was carried out for 6 months to identify the routes of spread and to assess the quality of the infection control measures used in our setting. Patient data were collected to distinguish CA-MRSA strains from health care-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) strains by epidemiological criteria, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On the basis of the CDC definition, the majority of the strains were considered to be HA-MRSA. However, 87% of them belonged to staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) types IV and V, which are traditionally associated with CA-MRSA. Surprisingly, classical nosocomial SCCmec types I and II represented a minority, whereas SCCmec type III was completely absent. By PFGE analysis, four predominant clonal lineages and 21 highly variable sporadic genotypes were detected. Twenty-eight percent of the MRSA strains studied carried the genes encoding the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), of which 21% and 83% were associated with SCCmec types IV and V, respectively. Among 289 contact individuals screened for MRSA carriage throughout the extended surveillance, a single secondary patient was discovered. The possibility of nosocomial transmission could be excluded. The high proportions of SCCmec type IV and V strains as well as PVL-positive strains suggest strong infiltration of CA-MRSA into our institution. Moreover, the low endemic prevalence of MRSA demonstrates that current infection control measures are sufficient to limit its spreading and the emergence of large epidemic outbreaks.
A Voronoi neighborhood-based search heuristic for distance/capacity constrained very large vehicle routing problems

Local search heuristics for very large-scale vehicle routing problems (VRPs) have made remarkable advances in recent years. However, few local search heuristics have focused on the use of the spatial neighborhood in Voronoi diagrams to improve local searches. Based on the concept of a k-ring shaped Voronoi neighbor, we propose a Voronoi spatial neighborhood-based search heuristic and algorithm to solve very large-scale VRPs. In this algorithm, k-ring Voronoi neighbors of a customer are limited to building and updating local routings, and rearranging local routings with improper links. This algorithm was evaluated using four sets of benchmark tests for 200–8683 customers. Solutions were compared with specific examples in the literature, such as the one-depot VRP. This algorithm produced better solutions than some of the best-known benchmark VRP solutions and requires less computational time. The algorithm outperformed previous methods used to solve very large-scale, real-world distance constrained capacitated VRP.
Comparison of cell‐surface TFPIα and β

Summary. Background: Tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) is mainly produced by endothelial cells and alternative mRNA splicing generates two forms, TFPIα and TFPIβ. A portion of expressed TFPI remains associated with the cell surface through both direct (TFPIβ) and indirect (TFPIα) glycosylphosphatidyl‐inositol (GPT)‐mediated anchorage. Objective: Compare the structure and properties of TFPIα and TFPIβ. Methods: TFPIα and TFPIβ, with protein molecular masses of 36 and 28 kDa, respectively, migrate similarly (46 kDa) on SDS‐PAGE. Experiments using specific glycosidases were carried out to determine the different glycosylation pattern of the two forms. ECV304 cells, a cell line with some endothelial properties, were stimulated with IL‐lβ, LPS, and TNFα for up to 24 hrs and mRNA levels and protein synthesis were determined. Stable clones of ECV304 cells that express reduced levels of TFPIα, TFPIβ or both were produced using a plasmid‐based small‐interfering RNA technique. Surface TFPI activity was determined by a two‐stage chromogenic assay based on the ability of each form to inhibit FXa activation by FVIIa on cells with comparable amount of tissue factor (TF). Results and conclusions: The deglycosylation studies show that the difference in molecular masses is due to a greater degree of sialylation in O‐linked carbohydrate in TFPIβ. The mRNA and protein levels of neither form of TFPI were affected by stimulation of cells with inflammatory stimuli. Although TFPIα comprises 80% of the surface‐TFPI, TFPIβ was responsible for the bulk of the cellular FVIIa/TF inhibitory activity, suggesting a potential alternative role for cell surface TFPIα.
DRDO – IISc Programme on Advanced Research in Mathematical Engineering Guessing Revisited : A Large Deviations Approach ( TR-PME-2008-08 ) by Manjesh

The problem of guessing a random string is revisited. A close relation between guessing and compression is first established. Then it is shown that if the sequence of distributions of the information spectrum satisfies the large deviation property with a certain rate function, then the limiting guessing exponent exists and is a scalar multiple of the Legendre-Fenchel dual of the rate function. Other sufficient conditions related to certain continuity properties of the information spectrum are also studied. This approach highlights the importance of the information spectrum in determining the limiting guessing exponent. All known prior results are then re-derived as example applications of our unifying approach. Going beyond the known examples, the existence of the limiting guessing exponent for a source that models a general ferromagnet with summable interactions is also established.
Pulmonary and systemic bacterial co-infections in severe RSV bronchiolitis

In 127 infants admitted to intensive care for RSV bronchiolitis, concomitant bacterial sepsis was a rare event. However, in the subgroup of intubated patients the incidence of bacterial pneumonia was 43.9% (95% CI 31.0–56.8%), half community acquired and half nosocomial. As clinical signs are not helpful in identifying these patients, tracheal aspirates have to be investigated microbiologically on a routine basis in order to start antibiotics in time.
Controlled synthesis of core-shell Fe@Au faceted nanoparticles

Core-shell Fe@Au crystalline NPs, particularly suitable for biomedical applications, have been successfully synthesized by sequential deposition from two elemental targets in a ultrahigh vacuum sputtering device. The size of the NPs, in the 8–15 nm range, is controlled by the deposited Fe volume. The obtained NPs adopt an original polyhedral core-shell morphology in which a Fe nanocube core acts as a nanosubstrate for the epitaxial growth of gold islands with a truncated pyramid shape. The morphological, structural and chemical properties of the NCs are studied through advanced TEM based techniques (HREM, STEM-HAADF, EDX) down to the atomic scale.
The development and evolution of left‐right asymmetry in invertebrates: Lessons from Drosophila and snails

The unique nature of body handedness, which is distinct from the anteroposterior and dorsoventral polarities, has been attracting growing interest in diverse biological disciplines. Recent research progress on the left‐right asymmetry of animal development has focused new attention on the mechanisms underlying the development and evolution of invertebrate handedness. This exploratory review of currently available information illuminates the prospective value of Drosophila and pulmonate snails for innovative new research aimed at elucidating these mechanisms. For example, findings in Drosophila and snails suggest that an actin filament–dependent mechanism may be evolutionarily conserved in protostomes. The polarity conservation of primary asymmetry across most metazoan phyla, which visceral handedness represents, indicates developmental constraint and purifying selection as possible but unexplored mechanisms. Comparative studies using Drosophila and snails, which have the great advantages of using genetic and evolutionary approaches, will accelerate our understanding of the mechanisms governing the conservation and diversity of animal handedness. Developmental Dynamics 237:3497–3515, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On Strategy Stitching in Large Extensive Form Multiplayer Games

Computing a good strategy in a large extensive form game often demands an extraordinary amount of computer memory, necessitating the use of abstraction to reduce the game size. Typically, strategies from abstract games perform better in the real game as the granularity of abstraction is increased. This paper investigates two techniques for stitching abase strategy in a coarse abstraction of the full game tree, to expert strategies in fine abstractions of smaller subtrees. We provide a general framework for creating static experts, an approach that generalizes some previous strategy stitching efforts. In addition, we show that static experts can create strong agents for both 2-player and 3-player Leduc and Limit Texas Hold'em poker, and that a specific class of static experts can be preferred among a number of alternatives. Furthermore, we describe a poker agent that used static experts and won the 3 -player events of the 2010 Annual Computer Poker Competition.
Eliminating the Redundancy in MapReduce-Based Entity Resolution

Entity resolution is the basic operation of data quality management, and the key step to find the value of data. The parallel data processing framework based on MapReduce can deal with the challenge brought by big data. However, there exist two important issues, avoiding redundant pairs led by the multi-pass blocking method and optimizing candidate pairs based on the transitive relations of similarity. In this paper, we propose a multi-signature based parallel entity resolution method, called multi-sig-er, which supports unstructured data and structured data. Two redundancy elimination strategies are adopted to prune the candidate pairs and reduce the number of similarity computation without affecting the resolution accuracy. Experimental results on real-world datasets show that our method tends to handle large datasets and it is more suitable for complex similarity computation than simple object matching.
Screening Children for Family Violence: A Review of the Evidence for the US Preventive Services Task Force

BACKGROUND We wanted to evaluate the benefits and harms of screening children in primary health care settings for abuse and neglect resulting from family violence by examining the evidence on the performance of screening instruments and the effectiveness of interventions. METHODS We searched for relevant studies in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ERIC, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and reference lists. English language abstracts with original data about family violence against children focusing on screening and interventions initiated or based in health care settings were included. We extracted selected information about study design, patient populations and settings, methods of assessment or intervention, and outcome measures, and applied a set of criteria to evaluate study quality. RESULTS All instruments designed to screen for child abuse and neglect were directed to parents, particularly pregnant women. These instruments had fairly high sensitivity but low specificity when administered in high-risk study populations and have not been widely tested in other populations. Randomized controlled trials of frequent nurse home visitation programs beginning during pregnancy that address behavioral and psychological factors indicated improved abuse measures and outcomes. No studies were identified about interventions in older children or harms associated with screening and intervention. CONCLUSIONS No trials of the effectiveness of screening in a health care setting have been published. Clinician referrals to nurse home visitation during pregnancy and in early childhood may reduce abuse in selected populations. There are no studies about harms of screening and interventions.
A Gs protein couples P2-purinergic stimulation to cardiac Ca channels without cyclic AMP production

P2-purinergic stimulation of the L-type Ca current induced by the external application of 100 microM ATP gamma S was investigated in rat ventricular cardiomyocytes using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. The purinergic-induced increase in ICa was slow and monophasic and reached a steady state within 3 min. In contrast to beta-adrenergic stimulation, after a brief agonist application the current did not continue to increase on washout; recovery started immediately after agonist removal. The P2-purinergic increase in ICa was significantly less in the presence of GDP beta S, but it occurred much faster and was twice as large when a low dose of GTP gamma S (100 microM) was added to a GTP-containing internal medium. This suggests that the ICa increase was mediated by a G protein. Based on electrophoretic mobility and susceptibility to cholera toxin and anti-G alpha s serum, it is proposed that the G protein involved during purinergic-induced ICa stimulation is an isoform of Gs not coupled to the adenylyl cyclase, since the cyclic AMP level was unaffected. High intracellular GTP gamma S (1 mM) maximally activated ICa so that neither beta-adrenergic nor P2- purinergic agonists further increased ICa. In the absence of GTP and an ATP-regenerating system, GTP gamma S was much more potent in increasing basal ICa and supporting purinergic stimulation. This indicates that a nucleoside diphosphate kinase activity might replenish endogenous GTP; GTP exchange with GTP gamma S on the G protein was promoted by the P2- purinergic stimulation and led to a reversible and reproducible increase in ICa. In the presence of 3 mM internal ATP gamma S, the P2- purinergic stimulation was also reversible and reproducible. Moreover, under these conditions (ATP gamma S or GTP gamma S) the increase in ICa was not maintained during prolonged agonist application. Such an inhibition occurred slowly and irreversibly; it might be related to the threefold increase in cyclic GMP. In conclusion, we propose that extracellular ATP induces both a stimulatory and an inhibitory effect on ICa, probably mediated by subtypes of P2-purinergic receptors. An isoform of the Gs protein is likely to mediate the stimulation.
Poststroke Cognitive Decline is Independent of Longitudinal Changes in Cerebral Hemodynamics Parameters

Poststroke vascular cognitive impairment is highly prevalent with significant functional consequences. However, reliable biomarkers for early prediction of cognitive decline after acute ischemic stroke (AIS) are not well established. Although parenchymal imaging in patients with AIS and transient ischemic attack (TIA) may predict the resultant cognitive impairment, it may not explain the progressive deterioration after the index event. We postulated that longitudinal changes in cerebral hemodynamic parameters may influence the cognitive performance after a cerebrovascular event.
Topical Cyclosporine A in the management of postkeratoplasty glaucoma and corticosteroid-induced ocular hypertension (CIOH) and the penetration of topical 0.5% cyclosporine A into the cornea and anterior chamber.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effect on intraocular pressure (IOP) of substituting topical Cyclosporine A 0.5% for topical corticosteroids in patients with postkeratoplasty glaucoma and corticosteroid-induced ocular hypertension (CIOH). We also sought to determine the penetration of topical 0.5% Cyclosporine A into the cornea and anterior chamber. METHODS Topical Cyclosporine A 0.5% was prospectively substituted for topical corticosteroids in 47 patients (52 eyes) with postkeratoplasty glaucoma and CIOH in order to eliminate the IOP-elevating effect of topical corticosteroids, while maintaining protection against allograft rejection. Ten patients received 0.5% topical Cyclosporine before keratoplasty. Their corneal tissue and aqueous samples were evaluated by high pressure liquid chromatography for Cyclosporine levels. RESULTS Forty-eight of 52 eyes (92.3%) demonstrated a reduction of IOP at first followup (mean: -7.9 mmHg; range: -19 to +2). Mean followup was 10.3 months, ranging from 1 to 37 months. At last follow-up, mean IOP was -8.2 mm Hg. There were six allograft rejections, five of which were reversed with the reintroduction of topical corticosteroids. Graft clarity was maintained in 46 of 52 eyes (88%). The mean cornea Cyclosporine concentration was 3679 ng/gm (range: 1980 to 5520 ng/ gm) and aqueous humor mean concentration was 6.05 ng/mL (range: 0.4 to 15.5 ng/mL). CONCLUSIONS Topical Cyclosporine A 0.5% may be substituted for topical corticosteroids to aid in the management of postkeratoplasty glaucoma and CIOH. However, the use of Cyclosporine in place of corticosteroids may be associated with an increased risk of immune rejections. The corneal penetration of topical Cyclosporine is excellent while the penetration into the anterior chamber is poor.
Exploring how musical rhythm entrains brain activity with electroencephalogram frequency-tagging

The ability to perceive a regular beat in music and synchronize to this beat is a widespread human skill. Fundamental to musical behaviour, beat and meter refer to the perception of periodicities while listening to musical rhythms and often involve spontaneous entrainment to move on these periodicities. Here, we present a novel experimental approach inspired by the frequency-tagging approach to understand the perception and production of rhythmic inputs. This approach is illustrated here by recording the human electroencephalogram responses at beat and meter frequencies elicited in various contexts: mental imagery of meter, spontaneous induction of a beat from rhythmic patterns, multisensory integration and sensorimotor synchronization. Collectively, our observations support the view that entrainment and resonance phenomena subtend the processing of musical rhythms in the human brain. More generally, they highlight the potential of this approach to help us understand the link between the phenomenology of musical beat and meter and the bias towards periodicities arising under certain circumstances in the nervous system. Entrainment to music provides a highly valuable framework to explore general entrainment mechanisms as embodied in the human brain.
Reductive Dechlorination of Trichloroethylene and Tetrachloroethylene under Aerobic Conditions in a Sediment Column

Biodegradation of trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene under aerobic conditions was studied in a sediment column. Cumulative mass balances indicated 87 and 90% removal for trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, respectively. These studies suggest the potential for simultaneous aerobic and anaerobic biotransformation processes under bulk aerobic conditions.
A Comprehensive Focus on Global Spectrum of BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutations in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer of women all over the world. BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations comprise the most important genetic susceptibility of BC. Except for few common mutations, the spectrum of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations is heterogeneous in diverse populations. 185AGdel and 5382insC are the most important BRCA1 and BRCA2 alterations which have been encountered in most of the populations. After those Ashkenazi founder mutations, 300T>G also demonstrated sparse frequency in African American and European populations. This review affords quick access to the most frequent alterations among various populations which could be helpful in BRCA screening programs.