Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impatto della sindrome metabolica sul danno d’organo subclinico nella donna ipertesa

Nel nostro studio abbiamo confrontato, in soggetti ipertesi di prima diagnosi, il diverso impatto, nei due sessi, della presenza di Sindrome Metabolica (SM) sulle alterazioni ecocardiografiche del ventricolo sinistro (VS) come espressione di danno d’organo subclinico. In 354 ipertesi di prima diagnosi (108 di sesso femminile e 246 di sesso maschile), mai trattati, abbiamo riscontrato uguale prevalenza di SM tra i due sessi, ma diversa prevalenza dei singoli fattori: glicemia e trigliceridi sono piu frequentemente elevati negli uomini, mentre la circonferenza addominale (CA) e piu frequentemente elevata nelle donne. Dal confronto fra donne e uomini senza SM emerge che i maschi, a parita di eta, hanno glicemia (p=0.001), uricemia (p=0.001) e creatininemia (p=0.001) piu elevati, invece valori di pressione arteriosa (PA) sostanzialmente sovrapponibili. Confrontando donne e uomini, entrambi con SM, emergono nei maschi valori piu elevati di PA diastolica (p<0.001), di uricemia (p=0.001) e di creatininemia (p=0.001). Soggetti con SM, sia maschi che femmine, non presentano parametri ecocardiografici diversi da quelli senza SM. La presenza di ipertrofia ventricolare sinistra (IVS) si correla significativamente in modo lineare con l’eta e la glicemia nelle donne e con i valori di pressione arteriosa negli uomini. La regressione logistica multivariata fra parametri della Sindrome Metabolica e presenza di Ipertrofia Ventricolare sinistra, rispettivamente nel gruppo dei maschi e nel gruppo delle femmine, evidenzia come il parametro che mantiene significativita statistica nell’analisi, e il valore della pressione sistolica (p=0.001 nei maschi, p=0.05 nelle femmine). In conclusione, non emerge dal nostro studio un’influenza esercitata dalla presenza di SM sulle caratteristiche ecocardiografiche del VS ed in particolare non emerge un maggior impatto prognostico negativo della presenza di SM nel sesso femminile rispetto a quello maschile.
Effect of age, GV transfer and modified nucleocytoplasmic ratio on PKCα in mouse oocytes and early embryos

Summary Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of Ser/Thr protein kinases that can be activated by Ca2+, phospholipid and diacylglycerol. There is evidence that PKC plays key roles in the meiotic maturation and activation of mammalian oocytes. The present study aimed to monitor the effect of age, germinal vesicle (GV) transfer and modified nucleoplasmic ratio on the subcellular distribution profile of PKCα, an important isozyme of PKC, in mouse oocytes undergoing meiotic maturation and following egg activation. Germinal vesicle oocytes were collected from 6–8-week-old and 12-month-old mice. Germinal vesicle-reconstructed oocytes and GV oocytes with one-half or one-third of the original oocyte volume were created using micromanipulation and electrofusion. The subcellular localization of PKCα was detected by immunocytochemistry and laser confocal microscopy. Our study showed that PKCα had a similar location pattern in oocytes and early embryos from young and old mice. PKCα was localized evenly in ooplasm, with weak staining in GV at the GV stage, and present in the entire meiosis II (MII) spindle at the MII stage. In pronuclear and 2-cell embryos, PKCα was concentrated in the nucleus except for the nucleolus. After the GV oocytes were reconstructed, the resultant MII oocytes and embryos showed a similar distribution of PKCα between reconstructed and unreconstructed controls. After one-half or two-thirds of the cytoplasm was removed from the GV oocytes, PKCα still had a similar location pattern in MII oocytes and early embryos from the GV oocytes with modified nucleoplasmic ratio. Our study showed that age, GV transfer and modified nucleocytoplasmic ratio does not affect distribution of PKCα during mouse oocyte maturation, activation, and early embryonic mitosis.
Transcriptional profiling of human neural precursors post alcohol exposure reveals impaired neurogenesis via dysregulation of ERK signaling and miR‐145

Gestational alcohol exposure causes a range of neuropsychological disorders by modulating neurodevelopmental genes and proteins. The extent of damage depends on the stage of the embryo as well as dosage, duration and frequency of exposure. Here, we investigated the neurotoxic effects of alcohol using human embryonic stem cells. Multiple read‐outs were engaged to assess the proliferation and differentiation capacity of neural precursor cells upon exposure to 100 mM ethanol for 48 h corresponding to the blood alcohol levels for binge drinkers. Whole‐genome analysis revealed a spatiotemporal dysregulation of neuronal‐ and glial‐specific gene expression that play critical roles in central nervous system (CNS) development. Alterations observed in the transcriptome may be attributed to epigenetic constitution witnessed by differential histone H3 Lys‐4/Lys‐27 modifications and acetylation status. In‐depth mRNA and protein expression studies revealed abrogated extracellular signal‐regulated kinases signaling in alcohol‐treated cells. Consistent with this finding, ingenuity pathway analysis and micro‐RNA profiling demonstrated up‐regulation of miR‐145 by targeting the neural specifier Sox‐2. We also show that the neurite branching complexity of tubulin, beta 3 class III+ neurons was greatly reduced in response to alcohol. Finally, in vivo studies using zebrafish embryos reconfirmed the in vitro findings. Employing molecular endpoints in a human model, this report indicates for the first time that acute alcohol exposure could lead to impaired brain development via perturbation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinases pathway and miR‐145. However, it still needs to be addressed whether these modulations sustain throughout development, compromising the ability of the individual during adulthood and aging.
Regionale Lohnunterschiede in Deutschland

Das durchschnittliche Lohnniveau in den einzelnen Regionen Deutschlands unterscheidet sich in teils betrachtlichem Mase. Dies gilt auch dann noch, wenn man regionale Preisniveauunterschiede berucksichtigt. Auffallig ist zudem, dass Ostdeutschland flachendeckend durch niedrigere Lohne gekennzeichnet ist. Es wird gezeigt, dass insbesondere die jeweilige Branchenstruktur und die Siedlungsstruktur wichtige Einflussfaktoren fur das regionale Lohnniveau darstellen; daruber hinaus spielt aber auch ein spezifischer „Ost-Einfluss“ eine wesentliche Rolle, der bislang ein starkeres Aufholen verhindert hat.
Estimation of Leaf Area and Some Components of Yield in Corn Cultivars Affected Urea Foliar Application

To understand the related based features of effective performance, according to the duration of grain filling importance, in the grain yield experiment took place in split plot as completely randomized blocks design with three replications in 2009, located at agricultural station of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz branch. Experimental treatments of this survey included cultivars in three levels: early maturing (SC. 307), average maturing (Jeeta), and late maturing (SC.704) and foliar application included in seven levels: control treatment (lack of foliar application use), teaseling appearance, earning appearance, beginning of grain filling, grain pasting, concurrent foliar application in teaseling appearance and beginning of grain filling stages and concurrent in teaseling appearance, earning appearance, beginning of grain filling and grain pasting. The results showed that urea foliar application had a meaningful significant on increasing grain performance as well' urea simultaneously foliar application in the levels of taselling, earning, early grain filling and pasting emergences with different cultivars increased the grain cultivar performance (Jeeta) about 23.5% rather than other observer nurturers; Also, foliar application has a significant effect on chlorophyll content index, leaf area index and leaf durability; therefore, based in these results it can be recommended to use foliar application as an effective method to maintain chlorophyll canopy and leaf area index for increasing the ultimate performance.
Multigrid Methods in Economics

I present a self-contained introduction to multigrid methods with an emphasis on techniques relevant to dynamic programming and related problems. A probabilistic interpretation of the numerical principles is highlighted. Multigrid solvers are shown to be naturally matched to the challenges posed by intractable structural dynamic models routinely encountered in applied economics. I argue that multigrid techniques have potential to substantially extend the scale and complexity of models under consideration. Multigrid also provides a unified computational framework to extend model solvers to perform sensitivity analysis, calibration, estimation, and counterfactual policy experiments.
Correction to "Energy Efficiency-Spectral Efficiency Trade-Off of Transmit Antenna Selection"

Presents corrections made to the paper, “Energy Efficiency-Spectral Efficiency Trade-Off of Transmit Antenna Selection” (Rayel, O.K., et al; IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 4293–4303, Dec. 2014).
MIT 9 . 520 / 6 . 860 Project : Feature selection for SVM

We consider sparse learning binary classification problems solved with linear support vector machines. We present two popular methods for variable selection: SVM-Recursive Feature algorithm and 1-norm SVM, and propose a third hybrid 1-norm RFE. Finally, we implement this three algorithms and compare their performances on synthetic and microarray datasets. 1-norm SVM gives the lowest test accuracy on synthetic datasets but selects more features. SVM-RFE is the most performant approach on real datasets. 1-norm RFE proves to obtain a good classification accuracy while selecting the smallest support on all kinds of datasets. 1 A brief review of SVM 1.1 Initial motivation of SVM We consider a set of n pairs of training data {(xi, yi)}ni=1, (xi, yi) ∈ R × {−1, 1}. Our goal is to learn a linear function to obtain a classification rule of our data: class(x) = sign(f(x) = wx+ β). When the data points is linearly separable (the two classes can be separated by an hyperplane), we aim at finding the optimal separating hyperplan that maximizes the margin M between the two classes. Consequently, we consider the following maximization problem: max w∈Rp,β∈R M subject to ∀i, yi(xi w + β) ≥M Using the scability of the solutions, we set ‖w ‖2 = 1 M and we obtain the equivalent problem: min w∈Rp,β∈R 1 2 ‖w ‖2 subject to ∀i, yi(xi w + β) ≥ 1 1.2 Primal and dual formulations When the data is not linearly separable, we still want to maximize M by allowing some points to be in the wrong size of the margin. Hence, we define the support vector machine primal problem: min w∈Rp,β∈R 1 2 ‖w‖2 + C n ∑ i=1 max ( 0, 1− yi(xi w + β) ) (1) C is a penalization parameter which controls the trade-off between the classification error and the norm of the estimator. We also consider the dual of the SVM problem: max α∈Rn ∑n i=1 αi − 1 2 ∑ 1≤i,j≤n αiαjyiyjx T i xj subject to { ∀i, 0 ≤ αi ≤ C ∑n i=1 αi = 0 (2) The representer theorem guarantees that the solution can be written as a linear combination of the traing data : w∗ = ∑n i=1 αiyixi We call support vectors the vectors such that αi 6= 0. MIT 9.520/6.860: Statistical Learning Theory and Applications (Fall 2016). 1.3 Motivation for feature selection In the past twenty years, the avaibility of high scale datasets with hundreds of thousands of variables -such as gene expression microarray or text categorization datasetshas stimulated the interest for research in feature selection and variable ranking algorithms. Guyon and al. (2003) point out in (2) the three advantages of such methods: they improve the speed and performances of the predictor, as well as the understanding of the underlying data. We now assume our data is in high-dimention: p n. The stucture of this paper is as follows. In Section 2 and 3, we present two common approaches for variable ranking using SVM. In Section 4, we propose our implementation of the two methods, as well as a third hybrid one. In Section 5, we compare the classification performances of the three algortihms on synthetic and real datasets.
META‐ANALYSIS OF GRAZER CONTROL OF PERIPHYTON BIOMASS ACROSS AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS 1

Grazer control of periphyton biomass has been addressed in numerous experimental studies in all kinds of aquatic habitats. In this meta‐analysis, the results of 865 experiments are quantitatively synthesized in order to address the following questions: (i) Do lotic, lentic, and marine ecosystems differ in their degree of grazer control of periphyton biomass? (ii) Which environmental variables affect the degree of grazer control? (iii) How much does the result of these experiments depend on facets of experimental design? Across all ecosystems, the grazers removed on average 59% of the periphyton biomass, with grazing being significantly stronger for laboratory (65%) than for field (56%) experiments. Neither field nor lab experiments showed a significant difference among lotic, lentic, and coastal habitats. Among different taxonomic consumer groups, crustaceans (amphipods and isopods) and trichopteran larvae removed the highest proportion of periphyton biomass. Grazer effects increased with increasing algal biomass, with decreasing resource availability and with increasing temperature, especially in field experiments. Grazer effects also increased with increasing total grazer biomass in field experiments but showed the opposite trend in lab experiments, indicating a tendency toward overcrowded lab experiments. Other aspects of experimental design, such as cage type, size, and duration of the study, strongly affected the outcome of the experiments, suggesting that much care has to be placed on the choice of experimental design.
Property and Antibacterial Spectrum of Partially Purified Enterocin Produced by Entrocinogenic Enterococcus faecalis Isolated from the Gut of Cockroach

Enterocins are small, heat stable and antimicrobial agents are directed against a broader spectrum of bacteria. Isolation, partial characterization and antibacterial activity of partially purified enterocin from Enterococcus faecalis form the aim of this study. The protein content of crude enterocin of the enterocin from highest producing strain was 16.6 mg/ml and its activity was 170 AU/ml. The antibacterial activity of crude enterocin produced by Enterococcus faecalis was tested on both Gram-positive bacteria which include Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus, while Gram-negative bacteria were Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhi. The effect was pronounced on Gram-negative than Gram-positive pathogens. The enterocin was stable at 40, 50, 60 and 70oC and over a pH range between 4.0 and 8.5. It has bactericidal effect and cause rapid inhibition of the growth of the sensitive strains. No change was observed in the enterocin bioactivity after treatment with sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, sodium dodecyl chloride, ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid and urea. In conclusion, since it can withstand a broad range of temperature and pH, it can be used as biocontrol of both pathogenic and spoilage organisms.
KITSS: A Knowledge-Based Translation System for Test Scenarios

Machine-assisted language translation systems for technical documents, guide humans through a process of selecting and composing variant partial translations. The constrained nature of technical sublanguages makes language processing aids cost-effective to build and use. Analogously, we have developed KITSS, a knowledge-based translation system for converting informal English scenarios of the desired behavior of complex reactive systems into formal, executable test scripts. A trainable parser and reference resolver capture domain-specific linguistic knowledge. A logic analyzer establishes coherence in the translation process in a role comparable to a "story understander". It checks the consistency of each step of a translated test script using a theorem prover, a planner, and logic-encoded background knowledge about the system under test. This helps correct common but serious specification errors, including underspecificity, omitted steps, and even some outright mis-statements. To evaluate how well such technology can scale, we have exercised our technology progressively on a graduated corpus of 100 behavior scenarios spanning 7 advanced calling features for a private telephone switch (PBX), successfully translating 70% into test scripts without any manual post-hoc editing. Our experience with KITSS has enabled us to identify many of the tradeoffs in accommodating informality in specification, versus demanding formality from a human agent.
Psycho-Neuroendocrine-Immune Interactions in COVID-19: Potential Impacts on Mental Health

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The impacts of the disease may be beyond the respiratory system, also affecting mental health. Several factors may be involved in the association between COVID-19 and psychiatric outcomes, such as fear inherent in the pandemic, adverse effects of treatments, as well as financial stress, and social isolation. Herein we discuss the growing evidence suggesting that the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and host may also trigger changes in brain and behavior. Based on the similarity of SARS-CoV-2 with other coronaviruses, it is conceivable that changes in endocrine and immune response in the periphery or in the central nervous system may be involved in the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and impaired mental health. This is likely to be further enhanced, since millions of people worldwide are isolated in quarantine to minimize the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and social isolation can also lead to neuroendocrine-immune changes. Accordingly, we highlight here the hypothesis that neuroendocrine-immune interactions may be involved in negative impacts of SARS-CoV-2 infection and social isolation on psychiatric issues.
Neumoconiosis ocupacional por óxido de estaño

Se presenta el caso de hombre de 34 anos con compromiso pulmonar secundario a exposicion cronica a soldadura con oxido de estano. El paciente consulto por tos seca de cuatro meses de evolucion asociada a disnea leve y sibilancias ocasionales sin mejoria a tratamiento broncodilatador y con aparicion de opacidades pulmonares en vidrio esmerilado hacia los lobulos superiores, en biopsia transbronquial pulmonar se encuentran zonas de antracosis con macrofagos pardos sin fibrosis, hallazgos compatibles con estanosis. Esta enfermedad es poco frecuente, se relaciona con un curso benigno y debe ser reconocida dentro del grupo de enfermedades ocupacionales para definir el pronostico del paciente
Lack of Vacuolar H+ -Pyrophosphatase and Cytosolic Pyrophosphatases Causes Fatal Developmental Defects in Arabidopsis thaliana

The cytosolic level of inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) is finely regulated, with PPi hydrolyzed primarily by the vacuolar H+-pyrophosphatase (H+-PPase, VHP1/FUGU5/AVP1) and secondarily by five cytosolic soluble pyrophosphatases (sPPases; PPa1–PPa5) in Arabidopsis thaliana. Loss-of-function mutants of H+-PPase (fugu5s) have been reported to show atrophic phenotypes in their rosette leaves when nitrate is the sole nitrogen source in the culture medium. For this phenotype, two questions remain unanswered: why does atrophy depend on physical contact between shoots and the medium, and how does ammonium prevent such atrophy. To understand the mechanism driving this phenotype, we analyzed the growth and phenotypes of mutants on ammonium-free medium in detail. fugu5-1 showed cuticle defects, cell swelling, reduced β-glucan levels, and vein malformation in the leaves, suggesting cell wall weakening and cell lethality. Based on the observation in the double mutants fugu5-1 ppa1 and fugu5-1 ppa4 of more severe atrophy compared to fugu5-1, the nitrogen-dependent phenotype might be linked to PPi metabolism. To elucidate the role of ammonium in this process, we examined the fluctuations of sPPase mRNA levels and the possibility of alternative PPi-removing factors, such as other types of pyrophosphatase. First, we found that both the protein and mRNA levels of sPPases were unaffected by the nitrogen source. Second, to assess the influence of other PPi-removing factors, we examined the phenotypes of triple knockout mutants of H+-PPase and two sPPases on ammonium-containing medium. Both fugu5 ppa1 ppa2 and fugu5 ppa1 ppa4 had nearly lethal embryonic phenotypes, with the survivors showing striking dwarfism and abnormal morphology. Moreover, fugu5 ppa1+/– ppa4 showed severe atrophy at the leaf margins. The other triple mutants, fugu5 ppa1 ppa5 and fugu5 ppa2 ppa4, exhibited death of root hairs and were nearly sterile due to deformed pistils, respectively, even when grown on standard medium. Together, these results suggest that H+-PPase and sPPases act in concert to maintain PPi homeostasis, that the existence of other PPi removers is unlikely, and that ammonium may suppress the production of PPi during nitrogen metabolism rather than stimulating PPi hydrolysis.
Visualizing uncertainty in flow diagrams: a case study in product costing

Business Intelligence applications often handle data sets that contain uncertain values. In this work we focus on product costing, which deals with the average costs of product components - that vary significantly based on many factors such as inflation, exchange rates, and commodity prices. After experts provide the uncertainty information for single items, decision makers need to quickly understand the cost uncertainties within the hierarchical data structure of the complete product. To provide this kind of quick overview, we propose a holistic visualization that contains both data and uncertainty. Since Flow diagrams are suitable to visualize tree data structures associated with value attributes, we focus on incorporating uncertainty information directly into these diagrams. Interviews with product costing experts led us to base our solution on Sankey diagrams. We chose three visualization techniques that are able to convey uncertainty information to the user: Color-code, Gradient, and Margin. We contribute a user study, which involved solving different product costing tasks using these three different visualizations. From the recorded error rates and subjective feedback, we designed an integrated approach that combines elements from all three distinct techniques.