Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual-Specificity Phosphatase 10 Controls Brown Adipocyte Differentiation by Modulating the Phosphorylation of P38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase

Background Brown adipocytes play an important role in regulating the balance of energy, and as such, there is a strong correlation between obesity and the amount of brown adipose tissue. Although the molecular mechanism underlying white adipocyte differentiation has been well characterized, brown adipocyte differentiation has not been studied extensively. Here, we investigate the potential role of dual-specificity phosphatase 10 (DUSP10) in brown adipocyte differentiation using primary brown preadipocytes. Methods and Results The expression of DUSP10 increased continuously after the brown adipocyte differentiation of mouse primary brown preadipocytes, whereas the phosphorylation of p38 was significantly upregulated at an early stage of differentiation followed by steep downregulation. The overexpression of DUSP10 induced a decrease in the level of p38 phosphorylation, resulting in lower lipid accumulation than that in cells overexpressing the inactive mutant DUSP10. The expression levels of several brown adipocyte markers such as PGC-1α, UCP1, and PRDM16 were also significantly reduced upon the ectopic expression of DUSP10. Furthermore, decreased mitochondrial DNA content was detected in cells expressing DUSP10. The results obtained upon treatment with the p38 inhibitor, SB203580, clearly indicated that the phosphorylation of p38 at an early stage is important in brown adipocyte differentiation. The effect of the p38 inhibitor was partially recovered by DUSP10 knockdown using RNAi. Conclusions These results suggest that p38 phosphorylation is controlled by DUSP10 expression. Furthermore, p38 phosphorylation at an early stage is critical in brown adipocyte differentiation. Thus, the regulation of DUSP10 activity affects the efficiency of brown adipogenesis. Consequently, DUSP10 can be used as a novel target protein for the regulation of obesity.
Full-duplex distributed switch-and-stay energy harvesting selection relaying networks with imperfect CSI: Design and outage analysis

We analyze the effect of distributed switch and stay combining (DSSC) technique and imperfect channel state information (CSI) in the scenario, where the communication between the source and the destination is conducted through either the direct transmission or with the help of the best relay among K full-duplex energy harvesting relays by using partial relay selection. To activate such communication, at the destination, we apply DSSC technique, which is considered as an effective method to achieve spatial diversity in a distributed manner with low processing complexity and compatibility to resource-constrained wireless networks. Considering two popular relaying protocols, i.e., decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF), the performance analysis in terms of outage probability (OP) is carried out. Numerical results show that imperfect CSI has a negative impact on system performance. Besides that, our DSSC-full duplex selection relaying (FDSSCSR) system achieves a better performance in terms of outage probability than that of the DSSC-half duplex selection relaying (HDSSCSR) and the full duplex/half duplex dual hop relaying with partial relay selection (FD/HDDRPRS) systems. Simulation results are conducted to verify the correctness of our analysis.
Neural Mechanisms by Which Attention Modulates the Comparison of Remembered and Perceptual Representations

Attention is important for effectively comparing incoming perceptual information with the contents of visual short-term memory (VSTM), such that any differences can be detected. However, how attentional mechanisms operate upon these comparison processes remains largely unknown. Here we investigate the underlying neural mechanisms by which attention modulates the comparisons between VSTM and perceptual representations using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants performed a cued change detection task. Spatial cues were presented to orient their attention either to the location of an item in VSTM prior to its comparison (retro-cues), or simultaneously (simultaneous-cues) with the probe array. A no-cue condition was also included. When attention cannot be effectively deployed in advance (i.e. following the simultaneous-cues), we observed a distributed and extensive activation pattern in the prefrontal and parietal cortices in support of successful change detection. This was not the case when participants can deploy their attention in advance (i.e. following the retro-cues). The region-of-interest analyses confirmed that neural responses for successful change detection versus correct rejection in the visual and parietal regions were significantly different for simultaneous-cues compared to retro-cues. Importantly, we found enhanced functional connectivity between prefrontal and parietal cortices when detecting changes on the simultaneous-cue trials. Moreover, we demonstrated a close relationship between this functional connectivity and d′ scores. Together, our findings elucidate the attentional and neural mechanisms by which items held in VSTM are compared with incoming perceptual information.
A Community Perspective on the Inclusion of Pregnant Women in Tuberculosis Drug Trials

Affecting both mother and the existing pregnancy, tuberculosis (TB) increases the likelihood of poor birth outcomes. Despite substantial clinical need for TB prevention and treatment, pregnant women remain neglected by research initiatives. As members of 3 community advisory boards that provide input into TB drug trials, we offer a community perspective on the inclusion of pregnant women in TB drug research and discuss (1) our perspective on the risk/benefit tradeoff of including pregnant women in research to address different forms of TB; (2) recent examples of progress in this area; (3) lessons learned from the human immunodeficiency virus research field, where pregnant women have enjoyed better-although imperfect-representation in research; and (4) recommendations for different stakeholders, including researchers, regulatory authorities, ethics committees, and policymakers.
DC–DC Converter Based Photovoltaic Simulator With a Double Current Mode Controller

This paper explores the performance of a dc–dc converter, which emulates the output characteristics of a real photovoltaic (PV) module. The PV simulator uses a double current mode controller to ensure fast and accurate reproduction of a module's current-voltage (IV) characteristics. A portable PV simulator prototype of 85 W is examined in terms of its steady state IV curve matching capacity and the convergence time corresponding to step changes in current source load, voltage source load, and insolation levels. The IV characteristics of the PV module are implemented as a look-up-table, which determines the reference output current from measured output voltage. The Thevenin equivalent circuit of the PV module is used to model its small-signal (linearized) characteristics for stability analysis. Extensive simulation and experimental results, with loads that have current-source, voltage-source, and resistive characteristics, validate the converter's suitability for replacing a PV module in most laboratory situations. Modularity and compatibility with a maximum power point tracker have also been validated.
Solution Processed High Efficiency Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode With Inorganic Charge Transport Layers

High efficiency all-inorganic quantum dot light emitting diodes are fabricated with metal oxide charge transport layers. Alloyed CdSe/ZnS quantum dots are used as the active layer with nickel oxide thin film hole transport layer and zinc oxide nanoparticle electron transport layer. The turn on voltage of the device is 5 V and the emission peak is at 555 nm. The current efficiency reached a maximum of 144 cd/A with a luminance of 116,000 cd/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{m}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 10 V bias voltage. The peak external quantum efficiency of 11.4% is achieved at a current density of 80 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>, and it starts to decrease at higher current densities. The superior device performance can be attributed to enhanced charge transport from the adjacent transport layers into the active quantum dot emissive layer.
Rapid maxillary expansion in therapy-resistant enuretic children: An orthodontic perspective.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether rapid maxillary expansion (RME) could reduce the frequency of nocturnal enuresis (NE) in children and whether a placebo effect could be ruled out. METHODS Thirty-four subjects, 29 boys and five girls with mean age of 10.7 ± 1.8 years suffering from primary NE, were recruited. All subjects were nonresponders to the first-line antienuretic treatment and therefore were classified as "therapy resistant. " To rule out a placebo effect of the RME appliance, all children were first treated with a passive appliance for 4 weeks. Rhinomanometry (RM), acoustic rhinometry (AR), polysomnographic registration, and study casts were made at different time points. RESULTS One child experienced severe discomfort from the RME appliance and immediately withdrew from the study. Following RME, the long-term cure rate after 1 year was 60%. The RM and AR measurements at baseline and directly after RME showed a significant increase in nasal volume and nasal airflow, and there was a statistically significant correlation between reduction in enuresis and increase in nasal volume. Six months postretention, a 100% relapse of the dental overexpansion could be noted. CONCLUSIONS RME has a curative effect in some children with NE, which could be connected to the positive influence of RME on the sleep architecture. Normal transverse occlusion does not seem to be a contraindication for moderate maxillary expansion in attempts to cure NE in children.
Population Heterogeneity and Individual Differences in an Assortative Agent-Based Marriage and Divorce Model (MADAM) Using Search with Relaxing Expectations

While many models have investigated the role of competitive mate selection processes in human marriage, few have addressed the potential for assortative processes to explain the observed demographics, as well as simultaneously investigating divorce. To explore the possibility that assortative mate selection processes may explain patterns of both marriage and divorce, we developed an agent-based model, MADAM (Marriage and Divorce Annealing Model), based on homophilic trait matching, in which individuals search for mates similar to themselves, but relax these expectations as they age. MADAM assumes individuals live in a world with N mate-relevant traits, where each individual chooses a set of k traits from those N to represent his or her identity. Individuals seek marriage partners with some number of identical traits, but over time relax their expectations for this desired threshold number of matching traits. Divorce is allowed when individuals find a partner who shares more traits with them than their current partner. With this implementation, we explored how population heterogeneity and individual differences affect population-level demographic trends, finding that increasing population heterogeneity and a reduction in the rate of relaxing expectations can both increase the mean age at first marriage. MADAM also accurately predicts demographic marriage and divorce data across cultures, with quantitatively accurate predictions for length of first marriage, likelihood of first marriage ending in divorce, and percent of population married by the end of the lifespan.
3D‐Printing Strong High‐Resolution Antioxidant Bioresorbable Vascular Stents

Dr. R. van Lith, Dr. J. Yang, Dr. G. Ameer Biomedical Engineering Department Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208, USA E-mail: g-ameer@northwestern.edu Dr. E. Baker, H. Ware, A. C. Farsheed, Dr. C. Sun Mechanical Engineering Department Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208, USA E-mail: c-sun@northwestern.edu Dr. G. Ameer Department of Surgery Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL 60611, USA Dr. G. Ameer Chemistry of Life Processes Institute Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208, USA Dr. G. Ameer Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology Northwestern University Chicago, IL 60611, USA
Cepstrum analysis applied on event detection in NILM

Event detection plays an important role in non-intrusive load monitoring to accurately detect the switching of appliances in a residential environment. Improving the detection ratios of those methods while keeping the computational cost under control is important. This paper presents a new event detection mechanism that works in the frequency domain and uses Cepstrum smoothing to eliminate noise. We explore the potential of our method by comparing with the χ GOF method on the BLUED dataset. The results indicate that our method is competitive with the state-of-the-art having as advantage that the same feature can also be used for appliance detection.
Effects of miniplate anchored and conventional Forsus Fatigue Resistant Devices in the treatment of Class II malocclusion.

OBJECTIVE To compare the skeletal, dentoalveolar, and soft tissue effects of the miniplate anchored Forsus Fatigue Resistant Device (FRD) and the conventional Forsus FRD in the treatment of Class II malocclusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out with 30 patients (10 girls, 20 boys). In the MA-Forsus group, 15 patients (2 girls, 13 boys) were treated with a miniplate anchored Forsus FRD for 9.40 ± 2.25 months. In the C-Forsus group, 15 patients (8 girls, 7 boys) were treated with a conventional Forsus FRD for 9.46 ± 0.81 months. A total of 16 measurements were calculated and statistically analyzed to find intragroup and intergroup differences. RESULTS Statistically significant differences were found between the groups in IMPA, SN/Occ, SN/GoGn, overjet, overbite, and Li-S measurements (P < .05). In the C-Forsus group, a substantial amount of lower incisor protrusion was observed, whereas retrusion was found in the MA-Forsus group (P < .001). The mandible rotated backward in the MA-Forsus group, whereas it remained unchanged in the C-Forsus group (P < .05). Reductions in overjet (P < .001) and overbite were greater in the C-Forsus group (P < .05). CONCLUSION Stimulation of mandibular growth and inhibition of maxillary growth were achieved in both treatment groups. In the C-Forsus group, a substantial amount of lower incisor protrusion was observed, whereas retrusion of lower incisors was found in the MA-Forsus group. The MA-Forsus group was found to be more advantageous as it had no dentoalveolar side effects on mandibular dentition.
Genotype-by-Environment Interactions for Female Mate Choice of Male Cuticular Hydrocarbons in Drosophila simulans

Recent research has highlighted the potential importance of environmental and genotype-by-environment (G×E) variation in sexual selection, but most studies have focussed on the expression of male sexual traits. Consequently, our understanding of genetic variation for plasticity in female mate choice is extremely poor. In this study we examine the genetics of female mate choice in Drosophila simulans using isolines reared across two post-eclosion temperatures. There was evidence for G×Es in female choosiness and preference, which suggests that the evolution of female mate choice behaviour could differ across environments. However, the ranked order of preferred males was consistent across females and environments, so the same males are favoured by mate choice in spite of G×Es. Our study highlights the importance of taking cross-environment perspectives in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the operation of sexual selection.
A comparison of platelet function tests and thromboxane metabolites to evaluate aspirin response in healthy individuals and patients with coronary artery disease

Summary Individualised antiplatelet therapy and platelet function testing have attracted considerable clinical interest, but several aspects of test performance have not been thoroughly evaluated. We investigated repeatability and concordance of light transmission aggregometry (LTA) induced with arachidonic acid (AA) 1.0 mM, PFA-100® induced with collagen/epinephrine, multiple electrode aggregometry (MEA) induced with AA 0.5 or 0.75 mM and VerifyNow® Aspirin. Patients with stable coronary artery disease (n=43) and healthy individuals (n=21) were included. All tests were performed in duplicate at baseline in healthy individuals and in duplicate for four days in all study participants during aspirin treatment. Serum and urinary thromboxane metabolites were measured several times to evaluate cyclooxygenase-1 inhibition by aspirin. MEA was most sensitive for aspirin as treatment induced a 12-fold difference in AA-induced platelet aggregation. Coefficients of variation for duplicate measurements at baseline (0.4–12%), during aspirin treatment (3–46%) and for day-to-day variability (3–37%) differed markedly between tests and were lowest for VerifyNow®. The prevalence of aspirin low-responsiveness also differed between tests (0–9%) and the agreement was low: kappa≤0.21 for all tests compared with AA-induced LTA (reference test), which correlated best with VerifyNow® (r=0.43, p<0.001). Urinary thromboxane metabolites did not correlate with any platelet function test, whereas serum thromboxane correlated with VerifyNow® Aspirin (r=0.41, p=0.001). Overall, repeatability was moderate and the correlation between tests was low. VerifyNow® Aspirin proved most reproducible, and this was the only assay showing a significant positive correlation with serum thromboxane. This study demonstrated that conclusions based on platelet function testing strongly depend on the assay used.
Vector addition system reachability problem: a short self-contained proof

The reachability problem for Vector Addition Systems (VASs) is a central problem of net theory. The general problem is known decidable by algorithms exclusively based on the classical Kosaraju-Lambert-Mayr-Sacerdote-Tenney decomposition (KLMTS decomposition). Recently from this decomposition, we deduced that a final configuration is not reachable from an initial one if and only if there exists a Presburger inductive invariant that contains the initial configuration but not the final one. Since we can decide if a Preburger formula denotes an inductive invariant, we deduce from this result that there exist checkable certificates of non-reachability in the Presburger arithmetic. In particular, there exists a simple algorithm for deciding the general VAS reachability problem based on two semi-algorithms. A first one that tries to prove the reachability by enumerating finite sequences of actions and a second one that tries to prove the non-reachability by enumerating Presburger formulas. In this paper we provide the first proof of the VAS reachability problem that is not based on the KLMST decomposition. The proof is based on the notion of production relations inspired from Hauschildt that directly provides the existence of Presburger inductive invariants.
Racial disparities in chronic kidney diseases in the United States; a pressing public health challenge with social, behavioral and medical causes

Compared to White Americans, Black Americans are at higher risk of morbidity and mortality associated with chronic kidney diseases (1,2). Blacks are at 3-4 times higher risk of developing kidney failure compared to Whites. While only one in eight Americans is Black, one-third of kidney failures happen among Blacks (1). These figures make inequality in morbidity and mortality attributed to kidney failure a major component of racial health disparities in the United States (3,4). This problem becomes even more tragic and challenging given lower access of Blacks with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to treatment of choice of ESRD, being renal transplantation (5). Similar to other aspects of health disparities, Black-White inequalities in chronic kidney diseases has complex and interwoven social, behavioral, and medical causes (1,2,4). Most proximal to the problem are disparities in chronic medical conditions that are proven risk factors for chronic kidney diseases (6,7). These include hypertension (8), diabetes (9), and obesity (10) that increase risk of end stage renal disease and are more known common among Blacks (11-14). To better understand different aspects of Black-White inequalities in chronic kidney diseases in the United States, we recently conducted three studies. For all these studies, we borrowed Americans’ Changing Lives study (ACL) data, a nationally representative prospective cohort conducted from 1986 to 2011. The study included 3361 Black (n = 1156) or White (n = 2205) adults 25 and older who were followed for up to 25 years. Data was collected on race (as main predictor or moderator), baseline socio-economics, chronic medical disease (diabetes, hypertension, obesity), and health behaviors (smoking, drinking, and exercise) [as predictors, confounders, or mediators], and death due to renal disease over 25 years as the main outcome. Causes of death were extracted from death certificates or national death index, and were coded based on ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes, depending on the year of death. As the study has enrolled nationally representative sample, the results are generalizable to the US populations (15,16). In the first study, in age and gender adjusted models, race was associated with risk of death due to renal disease over the follow up period. In separate models, socio-economics 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA 2Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Epidemic algorithms for reliable content-based publish-subscribe: an evaluation

Distributed content-based publish-subscribe middleware is emerging as a promising answer to the demands of modern distributed computing. Nevertheless, currently available systems usually do not provide reliability guarantees. This hampers their use in dynamic and unreliable scenarios, notably including mobile ones. We evaluate the effectiveness of an approach based on epidemic algorithms. Three algorithms we originally proposed in [P. Costa et al., (2003)] are thoroughly compared and evaluated through simulation in challenging unreliable settings. The results show that our use of epidemic algorithms improves significantly event delivery, is scalable, and introduces only limited overhead.
Kinetics Of Dislocation Emission From Crack Tips And The Brittle To Ductile Transition Of Cleavage Fracture.

Several activation configurations of dislocation embryos emanating from cleavage crack tips at the verge of propagating have been analyzed in detail by the variational boundary integral method, as central elements of the rate controlling process of nucleation governed fracture transitions from brittle cleavage to tough forms, as in the case for BCC transition metals. The configurations include those on inclined planes, oblique planes and crack tip cleavage ledges. Surface ledge production resistance is found to have a very strong embrittling effect. Only nucleation on oblique planes near a free surface and at crack tip cleavage ledges are found to be energetically feasible to explain brittle-to-ductile transition temperatures in the experimentally observed ranges.