Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
KELT-20b: A Giant Planet with a Period of P ∼ 3.5 days Transiting the V ∼ 7.6 Early A Star HD 185603

We report the discovery of KELT-20b, a hot Jupiter transiting a early A star, HD 185603, with an orbital period of days. Archival and follow-up photometry, Gaia parallax, radial velocities, Doppler tomography, and AO imaging were used to confirm the planetary nature of KELT-20b and characterize the system. From global modeling we infer that KELT-20 is a rapidly rotating ( ) A2V star with an effective temperature of K, mass of , radius of , surface gravity of , and age of . The planetary companion has a radius of , a semimajor axis of au, and a linear ephemeris of . We place a upper limit of on the mass of the planet. Doppler tomographic measurements indicate that the planetary orbit normal is well aligned with the projected spin axis of the star ( ). The inclination of the star is constrained to , implying a three-dimensional spin–orbit alignment of . KELT-20b receives an insolation flux of , implying an equilibrium temperature of of ∼2250 K, assuming zero albedo and complete heat redistribution. Due to the high stellar , KELT-20b also receives an ultraviolet (wavelength nm) insolation flux of , possibly indicating significant atmospheric ablation. Together with WASP-33, Kepler-13 A, HAT-P-57, KELT-17, and KELT-9, KELT-20 is the sixth A star host of a transiting giant planet, and the third-brightest host (in V) of a transiting planet.
Antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis B with lamivudine in pediatric renal transplantation

Abstract: Renal transplantation in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is known to be associated with an increased risk for exacerbation of liver dysfunction. Lamivudine has been proven to be a potent inhibitor of hepatitis B virus replication in adults after kidney transplantation. Little is known about its efficacy and safety in pediatric renal transplant recipients. Three cases serve for the discussion to demonstrate the complexity of the clinical course and effective treatment of chronic hepatitis B in pediatric patients awaiting renal transplantation. Two patients on dialysis with a high HBV replication rate were treated with lamivudine before transplantation. After the viral load had decreased below the detection limit, they underwent transplantation successfully. Despite intensified immunosuppression to treat a rejection episode in one and a relapse of the nephrotic syndrome in the other patient, the viral load remained <2.5 pg/mL. Both patients developed a mutation in the YMDD motif of the HBV genome associated with an increase in the HBV replication rate >10 000 pg/mL without deterioration of the liver function.
Social cheating in Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing

In a process termed quorum sensing, bacteria use diffusible chemical signals to coordinate cell density-dependent gene expression. In the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, quorum sensing controls hundreds of genes, many of which encode extracellular virulence factors. Quorum sensing is required for P. aeruginosa virulence in animal models. Curiously, quorum sensing-deficient variants, most of which carry a mutation in the gene encoding the central quorum sensing regulator lasR, are frequently isolated from acute and chronic infections. The mechanism for their emergence is not known. Here we provide experimental evidence suggesting that these lasR mutants are social cheaters that cease production of quorum-controlled factors and take advantage of their production by the group. We detected an emerging subpopulation of lasR mutants after ≈100 generations of in vitro evolution of the P. aeruginosa wild-type strain under culture conditions that require quorum sensing for growth. Under such conditions, quorum sensing appears to impose a metabolic burden on the proliferating bacterial cell, because quorum-controlled genes not normally induced until cessation of growth were highly expressed early in growth, and a defined lasR mutant showed a growth advantage when cocultured with the parent strain. The emergence of quorum-sensing-deficient variants in certain environments is therefore an indicator of high quorum sensing activity of the bacterial population as a whole. It does not necessarily indicate that quorum sensing is insignificant, as has previously been suggested. Thus, novel antivirulence strategies aimed at disrupting bacterial communication may be particularly effective in such clinical settings.
Diet Change in East and Southern Africa : Projecting Food Demand through 2040

of the paper The economic conditions of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have dramatically improved since the late 1990s. Developing SSA has outpaced the world’s per capita average income growth by 25% and trailed only the income growth of East and Southern Asia during this time period. Together with continued rapid urbanization, this income growth will drive profound changes within the food system of SSA. This paper analyses current consumption patterns in East and Southern Africa and projects them to 2040. Projections are based on budget shares and expenditure elasticities estimated from Living Standard Measurement Survey data, and on United Nations rural and urban population projections. A key innovation in the analysis is the grouping of all food consumption items by level of processing, which allows food demand projections to be tied to projections regarding the evolving structure of the food system; a second grouping is based on 27 different food categories – far more than typically found in these analyses. All results are reported across nine growth scenarios and rural/urban areas. Results suggest a considerable diet shift away from raw staple grains and towards processed foods, paired with a dramatic increase in the total demand of marketed goods.
Response of Diabetic Basement Membrane—Producing Cells to Glucose and Insulin

The effect of insulin and glucose on the synthesis of basement membrane components was studied in organ cultures of a basement membrane-producing tumor grown in diabetic and normal mice. Tumor tissue grown in diabetic mice produced more protein and basement membrane-specific proteoglycan in response to insulin than tissue grown in normal mice. Addition of high levels of glucose to the culture medium did not alter insulin-stimulated protein synthesis by diabetic or normal tissue but dampened insulin-stimulated production of proteoglycan. These data suggest that basement membrane-producing cells in diabetic hosts may be hypersensitive to insulin and that stimulation of protein production by insulin may play some role in the in situ hypertrophy of basement membranes.
Antiquity and Function of CASTOR and POLLUX, the Twin Ion Channel-Encoding Genes Key to the Evolution of Root Symbioses in Plants1[W][OA]

Root symbioses with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobial bacteria share a common signaling pathway in legumes. Among the common symbiosis genes are CASTOR and POLLUX, the twin homologous genes in Lotus japonicus that encode putative ion channel proteins. Here, we show that the orthologs of CASTOR and POLLUX are ubiquitously present and highly conserved in both legumes and nonlegumes. Using rice (Oryza sativa) as a study system, we employ reverse genetic tools (knockout mutants and RNA interference) to demonstrate that Os-CASTOR and Os-POLLUX are indispensable for mycorrhizal symbiosis in rice. Furthermore, a cross-species complementation test indicates that Os-POLLUX can restore nodulation, but not rhizobial infection, to a Medicago truncatula dmi1 mutant.
The guidance receptor neogenin promotes pulmonary inflammation during lung injury

Lung injury is marked by a persistent self‐propagating inflammation within the pulmonary tissue that is initiated by the migration of leukocytes into the alveolar space. Recent work has demonstrated that neuronal guidance proteins are involved into the orchestration of leukocyte migration. Neogenin is a crucial guidance receptor for axonal migration, yet its role during leukocyte migration and acute inflammation is to date unknown. Here, we report that neogenin influences neutrophil migration across endothelial HMEC‐1 and alveolar A549 monolayers in vitro. In vivo, Neo1‐/‐ mice demonstrated 59% reduced cell count, 41% reduced TNF‐α, and 76% reduced IL‐6 levels within the alveolar space during lung injury. In studies employing chimeric animals, the presence of Neo1‐/ bone marrow was associated with a 42% reduction of cell count and reduced inflammatory changes within pulmonary tissue during lung injury. The functional inhibition of neogenin through antibody injection confirmed these results and the role of neogenin for the inflammatory changes within the alveolar space. Previously unappreciated, the guidance receptor neogenin has a significant effect on the orchestration of leukocyte migration and the control of acute inflammation. —Mirakaj, V. , Jennewein, C. , König, K. , Granja, T. , Rosenberger, P. The guidance receptor neogenin promotes pulmonary inflammation during lung injury. FASEB J. 26, 1549‐1558 (2012). www.fasebj. org
ASYMMETRIC FUNCTION OF THE THALAMUS IN MAN *

The suggestion that the right and left human thalamus may not be functionally equivalent is largely the result of observations of language deficits associated with left, and not right, thalamic lesions. These observations have been made both with spontaneous thalamic lesions, particularly hemorrhages,l, 2 and with surgical lesions.3. 5 These language deficits can occur with lesions confined only t o left thalamus, indeed just t o ventrolateral n u ~ l e u s . ~ ? ~ On the other hand, language disturbances d o not invariably follow either spontaneous or surgical lesions of the left thalamus.63 And when language deficits appear acutely, they generally clear with time. Only in a n occasional case does the deficit persist for long period^. ^? 8, The nature of this language deficit after left thalamic lesions, when present, does not seem t o be identical with any of the described language deficits after cortical lesions of the language-dominant hemisphere. There is generally a fluent dysnomia with frequent per~evera t ion . ~ The ability to repeat from dictation and comprehension are usually intact. Language function may fluctuate widely, f rom nearly normal, t o a silence resembling sleep, depending on the degree of environmental stimulation.2 Other functions have also been identified that are altered differentially by lesions of the right or left human thalamus. Deficits in short-term verbal memory appear after left, but not right, thalamic lesions.9,10~ 11 Deficits in face-matching have been described following right and not left ventrolateral thalamic surgical lesions,l2 and deficits in Porteus-maze performance have occurred following right subthalamic lesions and not left.13 Electrical stimulation of the thalamus at the time of stereotaxic operations for the treatment of dyskinesias provides another opportunity for investigating asymmetrical thalamic functions. We have utilized this technique t o study changes in autonomic function,14 language performance as measured by objectnaming,15-18 short-term verbal mernory,17-21 mental arithmetic,21 and shortterm memory for figures that have few verbal associations (nonverbal information). 18>22 This paper discusses the asymmetrical effects of thalamic stimulation reported in these studies, and in some of my more recent and 'not previously published material.
Comments on "Iterative procedures for reduction of blocking effects in transform image coding"

In the above-titled paper (see ibid., vol. 2, p. 91-5, Mar. 1992), R. Rosenholtz and A. Zakhor proposed an effective method for reducing blocking in transform coded images. Their method uses two projection operators and the theory of projection onto convex sets (POCS) to guarantee convergence of the iteration. One projection operator is defined from the known quantization levels used to code the transform coefficients. The other projection is based on the set of bandlimited images with a given cutoff frequency. The algorithm they actually implemented is only tenuously related to the theory of POCS. A different basis for justifying their algorithm is offered, one that provides an exact formal basis for establishing convergence and a more flexible theory for elucidating the possibilities of the algorithm. >
Age-related differences in efficiency of visual and vibrotactile biofeedback for balance improvement

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of visual (VF) and vibrotactile (TF) biofeedback obtained from the lower trunk (L5) tilts signal and their combination (VF+TF) in reducing postural sway in young and elderly people. METHODS: Twenty healthy elderly subjects (8 males, mean age 74 years) and 20 healthy young subjects (7 males, mean age 27 years) were tested in biofeedback conditions (VF, TF and VF+TF) and in control conditions (eyes open) during the stance on firm and foam surface. RESULTS: Young adults significantly reduced their postural sway (RMS – root mean square of CoP and L5 tilts) in all biofeedback conditions. Elderly people reduced their postural sway in conditions when the visual biofeedback was presented (VF and VF+TF) mostly during stance on foam surface. During TF conditions, an increase of velocity in anteriorposterior direction occurred. CONCLUSION: Similar effectiveness of visual and combined biofeedback points out stronger influence of visual biofeedback because vibrotactile biofeedback alone had minimal effect in reducing postural sway in elderly. Used method of vibrotactile biofeedback was probably not enough intuitive for the body position control of elderly. An increase of velocity in anterior-posterior direction during TF conditions indicates higher voluntary activation of balance control in order to minimize amplitudes of postural sway.
Pre-exercise carbohydrate and fat ingestion: effects on metabolism and performance

A key goal of pre-exercise nutritional strategies is to maximize carbohydrate stores, thereby minimizing the ergolytic effects of carbohydrate depletion. Increased dietary carbohydrate intake in the days before competition increases muscle glycogen levels and enhances exercise performance in endurance events lasting 90 min or more. Ingestion of carbohydrate 3–4 h before exercise increases liver and muscle glycogen and enhances subsequent endurance exercise performance. The effects of carbohydrate ingestion on blood glucose and free fatty acid concentrations and carbohydrate oxidation during exercise persist for at least 6 h. Although an increase in plasma insulin following carbohydrate ingestion in the hour before exercise inhibits lipolysis and liver glucose output, and can lead to transient hypoglycaemia during subsequent exercise in susceptible individuals, there is no convincing evidence that this is always associated with impaired exercise performance. However, individual experience should inform individual practice. Interventions to increase fat availability before exercise have been shown to reduce carbohydrate utilization during exercise, but do not appear to have ergogenic benefits.
Specific Visual Transfer in Word Identification

Prior presentation of a word can serve to enhance its later perceptual identification. A series of three experiments was designed to determine if this effect of prior experience depends on preserving the visual details of a word between its prior presentation and test. A first experiment revealed evidence of specific visual transfer only for words that were tested in lowercase. Words tested in lowercase that had been previously presented in lowercase were more readily identified than were those that had been previously presented in uppercase. Later experiments used more extreme manipulations of the visual details of a word in an attempt to maximize specific visual transfer. Results of the experiments are discussed in terms of the role of memory for visual details in word identification along with the possibility that perception can rely on memory for prior episodes.
An Energy-Based Method for Signal Compression and Reconstruction with Wavelets.

Abstract : Wavelets and wavelet transforms have recently emerged as a promising alternative to traditional Fourier based spectral decompositions in a variety of signal processing applications. With the expected exponential increase in data traffic volume and the consequent overloading of storage capacity and transmission channels, the need for improved signal compression is essential. A new energy based method for selection of wavelet coefficients for signal compression is proposed. The number of coefficients selected from a particular level of the wavelet decomposition tree is proportional to the mean energy contained in the coefficients at that level. In experimental tests, this method provided significantly improved performance over conventional global thresholding based wavelet selection techniques. The performance index used is the signal to error ratio, which is a measure of the quality of the reconstructed signal from its compressed representation compared to the original. For highly nonstationary signals, a crossover effect is observed; that is, the energy based selection is out performed by the conventional method at higher percent retention levels. In such a situation, a segmentation strategy is proposed wherein the signal is decomposed into segments of similar characteristics prior to compression.
The Pathway Regulating MDM 2 Protein Degradation Can Be Altered in Human Leukemic Cells 1

The MDM2 protein regulates the functional activity of the p53 tumor suppressor through direct physical association. Signals that control MDM2 expression are poorly understood but are likely to play an important role in the regulation of p53 activity. We show here that the half-life of MDM2 protein is shorter in proliferating than in quiescent peripheral blood mononuclear cells. We also demonstrate that MDM2 protein halflife is extended in some, but not all, p53 mutant human leukemic cell lines. In at least one of these p53 mutant lines, increased MDM2 protein stability is associated with higher amounts of MDM2 protein. Moreover, we demonstrate that MDM2 protein accumulates to a much greater extent in proteasome inhibitor-treated cells containing unstable MDM2 than in cells possessing stable MDM2. These results demonstrate that MDM2 expression is regulated by events that control the stability of the protein and suggest that the normal regulation of MDM2 turnover can be altered in tumor cell lines.
Anti-inflammatory properties of enamel matrix derivative in human blood.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Enamel matrix derivative (EMD), extracted from porcine tooth buds, has been shown to promote periodontal healing in patients with severe periodontitis. This involves modulation of the inflammatory response followed by the onset of periodontal regeneration. Based on these observations, we examined the ability of EMD to modulate the release of a pro-inflammatory cytokine [tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha], an anti-inflammatory cytokine (interleukin-10) and a chemokine (interleukin- 8) in whole human blood challenged by bacterial cell wall components. MATERIAL AND METHODS Whole blood from healthy donors was challenged by lipopolysaccharide or peptidoglycan and incubated with different concentrations of EMD or a cAMP analogue 8-(4-chlorophenyl)thio-cAMP (8-CPT-cAMP). TNF-alpha, interleukin-8 and interleukin-10 were analysed from plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) while cAMP levels of peripheral blood mononuclear cell lysates were analysed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). RESULTS We found that EMD attenuated the release of TNF-alpha and interleukin-8 in whole blood from healthy donors challenged by lipopolysaccharide or peptidoglycan, while the release of interleukin-10 was unchanged. Enamel matrix derivative also produced a four-fold increase in the cAMP levels of peripheral blood mononuclear cell lysates. Like EMD, 8-CPT-cAMP attenuated the formation of TNF-alpha, but not of interleukin-10, in blood challenged by lipopolysaccharide. CONCLUSION Enamel matrix derivative limits the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by lipopolysaccharide or peptidoglycan in human blood, suggesting that it has anti-inflammatory properties. We propose that this effect of EMD is, at least partly, secondary to an increase in the intracellular levels of cAMP in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
Microfluidic fabrication of monodisperse microcapsules for glucose-response at physiological temperature

Hydrogel-based hollow microcapsules with good monodispersity and repeated glucose-response under physiological temperature and glucose concentration conditions have been fabricated by a simple emulsion-template approach. Double emulsions from microfluidic devices are used as templates to synthesize the monodisperse glucose-responsive microcapsules. In the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-3-aminophenylboronic acid-co-acrylic acid) (P(NIPAM-co-AAPBA-co-AAc)) hydrogel shell of the microcapsules, the thermo-responsive PNIPAM network and the glucose-responsive AAPBA moiety are respectively used for actuation and glucose response, and the AAc moiety is used for adjusting the volume phase transition temperature of the shell. Glucose-responsive microcapsules prepared with 2.4 mol% AAc exhibit reversible and repeated swelling/shrinking response to glucose concentration changes within the physiological blood glucose concentration range (0.4–4.5 g L−1) at 37 °C. Rhodamine B and fluorescein-isothiocyanate-labeled insulin are used as model molecules and model drugs to demonstrate the potential application of the microcapsules for glucose-responsive controlled release. The microcapsules provide a promising and feasible model for developing glucose-responsive sensors and self-regulated delivery systems for diabetes and cancer therapy. Moreover, the microfluidic fabrication approach and research results presented here provide valuable guidance for the design and fabrication of monodisperse glucose-responsive microcapsules.
Neural Network-Based Kinematic Inversion of Industrial Redundant Robots Using Cooperative Fuzzy Hint for the Joint Limits Avoidance

In this paper, a neural network (NN)-based inverse kinematics problem of redundant manipulators subject to joint limits is presented. The Widrow-Hoff NN with an adaptive learning algorithm derived by applying Lyapunov stability theory is introduced. Since the inverse kinematics has an infinite number of joint angle vectors, a fuzzy neural network (FNN) is designed to provide an approximate value for that vector. This vector is fed into the NN as a hint input vector to guide the output of the NN within the self motion. This FNN is designed on the basis of cooperatively controlling each joint angle in the sense that it stops the motion on the critical axis at its limit at the expense of greater compensation from the most relaxed joint to accomplish the task. Physical constraints such as the joint velocity limits as well as the joint angle limits are incorporated into the method. Experiments are conducted for the PA-10 redundant manipulator to show the effectiveness of the proposed control system. A comparative study is carried out with the gradient projection method
Complications from treatment for prostate carcinoma among men in the Detroit area

Aggressive treatment of early stage prostate carcinoma (PC) is limited primarily to two modalities: radical prostatectomy (RP) and external beam radiation therapy (RT). The authors conducted a population‐based study of Detroit area men with localized PC to determine the outcome of bowel, urinary, and sexual function after aggressive treatment.