Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous Achilles tendon tenotomy in clubfoot patients with a 22 gauge needle in a low-resource setting

Ponseti treatment has been well-established as the gold standard for the treatment of idiopathic clubfoot in high-income countries and middle- and low-income countries (LMICs). The tenotomy is usually performed in the clinic using a scalpel blade under local anesthesia. However, we believe that by adapting the technique from Minkowitz et al. to a low-resource setting, we can help address some of the known barriers to Ponseti care. Using a needle instead of a blade makes the procedure less cumbersome easier to learn and easier to understand for the provider, family and the patient. We were able show that the needle tenotomy technique can be implemented in a low-resource setting like Pakistan, and can be performed using only one assistant and materials that are locally and readily available for the same cost This paper and its attached educational videos can help spread the technique among providers in low-resource settings.
Recent results for concentrator photovoltaics in Japan

We summarize the Europe–Japan Collaborative Research Project on Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV); NGCPV Project (a New Generation of Concentrator PhotoVoltaic cells, modules and systems). The aim of this project was to accelerate the move to very high efficiency and lower cost CPV technologies and to enhance the widespread deployment of CPV systems. Seven European partners and nine Japanese partners have contributed to this international collaboration. The following objectives have been reached: 1) a CPV cell with InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs three-junction world-record efficiency of 44.4% has been developed by Sharp, 2) 50 kW and 15 kW CPV plant operations with an average DC efficiency of 27.8% have been demonstrated in Spain (since mid-2012), 3) a new “Intrepid” CPV module with 31.3% efficiency has been developed by Daido Steel, 4) standard measurement of CPV cells has been established by FhG-ISE and AIST, and 46.0% efficiency has been confirmed for the direct-bonded GaInP/GaAs/GaInAsP/GaInAs four-junction solar cell under this project, 5) the fundamental research on novel materials and structures for CPV has also been conducted.
Polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

A resurgence of interest in polarization mode dispersion (PMD) phenomena has accompanied proposals for commercial systems at 40 Gb/s and beyond. PMD is caused by optical birefringence. A signal propagating through a fiber with PMD experiences polarization-dependent group delay and pulse distortion, resulting in system penalties that depend on environmental changes including temperature and stress and thus vary with time and wavelength. PMD is commonly characterized by two specific orthogonal states of polarization called the principal states of polarization (PSP) and the differential group delay (DGD) between them.
Weak antagonistic fitness effects can maintain an inversion polymorphism

The study of chromosomal inversion polymorphisms has received much recent attention, particularly in cases where inversions have drastic effects on phenotypes and fitness (e.g. lethality of homozygotes). Less attention has been paid to the question of the maintenance of inversion polymorphisms that show only weak effects. Here, we study the maintenance of such an inversion polymorphism that links 250 genes on chromosome Tgu11 in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Based on data from over 6000 captive birds, we estimated the effects of this inversion on a wide range of fitness‐related traits. We found that, compared with the ancestral allele A, the inverted allele D had small additive beneficial effects on male siring success and on female fecundity. These fitness‐enhancing effects may explain the initial spread of the derived D allele (allele frequency 53%). However, individuals that were homozygous for D had a slightly lower survival rate, which may explain why the D allele has not spread to fixation. We used individual‐based simulations to examine how an inversion polymorphism with such antagonistic fitness effects behaves over time. Our results indicate that polymorphisms become stabilized at an intermediate allele frequency if the inversion links an additively beneficial allele of small effect size to a recessive weakly deleterious mutation, overall resulting in weak net heterosis. Importantly, this conclusion remains valid over a wide range of selection coefficients against the homozygous DD (up to lethality), suggesting that the conditions needed to maintain the polymorphism may frequently be met. However, the simulations also suggest that in our zebra finch populations, the estimated recessive deleterious effect of the D allele (on survival in captivity) is not quite large enough to prevent fixation of the D allele in the long run. Estimates of fitness effects from free‐living populations are needed to validate these results.
Sex-Biased Expression Is Associated With Chromatin State in Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans

Abstract In Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans head tissue, 60% of orthologous genes show evidence of sex-biased expression in at least one species. Of these, ∼39% (2,192) are conserved in direction. We hypothesize enrichment of open chromatin in the sex where we see expression bias and closed chromatin in the opposite sex. Male-biased orthologs are significantly enriched for H3K4me3 marks in males of both species (∼89% of male-biased orthologs vs. ∼76% of unbiased orthologs). Similarly, female-biased orthologs are significantly enriched for H3K4me3 marks in females of both species (∼90% of female-biased orthologs vs. ∼73% of unbiased orthologs). The sex-bias ratio in female-biased orthologs was similar in magnitude between the two species, regardless of the closed chromatin (H3K27me2me3) marks in males. However, in male-biased orthologs, the presence of H3K27me2me3 in both species significantly reduced the correlation between D. melanogaster sex-bias ratio and the D. simulans sex-bias ratio. Male-biased orthologs are enriched for evidence of positive selection in the D. melanogaster group. There are more male-biased genes than female-biased genes in both species. For orthologs with gains/losses of sex-bias between the two species, there is an excess of male-bias compared to female-bias, but there is no consistent pattern in the relationship between H3K4me3 or H3K27me2me3 chromatin marks and expression. These data suggest chromatin state is a component of the maintenance of sex-biased expression and divergence of sex-bias between species is reflected in the complexity of the chromatin status.
Layered Zeolite for Assembly of Two-Dimensional Separation Membranes for Hydrogen Purification.

Membrane separation is an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly process. Two-dimensional (2D) molecular sieving membranes featuring unique nanopores and low transport resistance have the potential to achieve highly permeable and selective mixture separation with low energy consumption. High-aspect-ratio zeolite nanosheets with intrinsic molecular-sieving pores perpendicular to the layers are desirable building blocks for fabricating high-performance 2D zeolite membrane. However, a wider application of 2D zeolitic membranes is restricted by the limited number of recognized zeolite nanosheets. Herein, we report a swollen layered zeolite, ECNU-28, with SZR topology and eight-member ring (8-MR, 3.0 Å × 4.8 Å) pores normal to the nanosheets. It can be easily exfoliated to construct 2D membrane, which shows a high hydrogen selectivity up to 130 from natural gas and is promising for hydrogen purification and greenhouse gas capture.
Bayesian Nonparametric Reconstruction and Prediction of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems with Geometric Stick Breaking Noise

We propose a Bayesian nonparametric mixture model for the full dynamical equation reconstruction, from observed time series data, of discrete time one dimensional nonlinear random dynamical systems, based on the Geometric Stick Breaking process introduced by Fuentes-Garc\'ia et al. (2010). We provide a comparison study with models using Dirichlet process based mixtures. We demonstrate the inference procedure when the functional form of the deterministic part of the reconstruction equation is a polynomial and the nonparametric component is applied to additive errors. Our contention is that for dynamical reconstruction and prediction purposes, Geometric Stick Breaking process mixture priors are sufficient. Finally, we give evidence that it is possible to estimate the quasi-invariant measure of a noisy chaotic dynamical system using a relatively small data set. Simulations and a real US GNP data example are presented.
A miniaturized and low-energy subcutaneous optical telemetry module for neurotechnology

Objective. This study presents a proof-of-concept optical telemetry module that leverages a single light-emitting diode (LED) to transmit data at a high bit rate while consuming low power and occupying a small area. Our experiments showed that we could achieve 108 Mbit s−1 and 54 Mbit s−1 back telemetry data rates for tissue thicknesses of 3 mm and 8 mm, respectively. Approach. The proposed module is designed to be powered by near-field coupling and achieve bidirectional communication by low-speed downlink from near-field communication. It aims to minimize the size of the implant while providing reliable transmission that meets the requirements of high-speed wireless communication from a multi-electrode array neurotechnology implant outside the body. Results. The power consumption of the module is 1.57 mW, including the power consumption of related circuits, resulting in an efficiency of 14.5 pJ bit−1, at a tissue thickness of 3 mm and a data rate of 108 Mbit. The use of an optical lens, combined with tissue scattering effect and optimized emission angle, makes the module robust to misalignments of up to ±5 mm and ±15° between the implantable and external units. The LED in the implantable unit is only 0.98 × 0.98 × 0.6 mm3, and the testing module is composed of discrete components and laboratory instruments. Significance. This work aims to show how it is possible to strike a balance between a small, reliable, and high-bit-rate data uplink between a neural implant and its proximal, wirelessly connected external unit. This optical telemetry module has the potential to be integrated into a significantly miniaturized system through an application-specific integrated circuit and can support up to 1000 channels of neural recordings, each sampled at 9 kSps with a 12-bit readout resolution.
What is... a G2-manifold?

A G2-manifold is a Riemannian manifold whose holonomy group is contained in the exceptional Lie group G2. In addition to explaining this definition and describing some of the basic properties of G2-manifolds, we will discuss their similarities and differences to Kahler manifolds in general and to Calabi-Yau manifolds in particular. The holonomy group of a Riemannian manifold is a compact Lie group which in some sense provides a global measure of the local curvature of the manifold. If we assume certain nice conditions on the manifold and its metric, then, of the five exceptional Lie groups, only G2 can arise as such a holonomy group. Berger’s classification in the 1950’s could not rule them out, but it was generally believed that such metrics could not exist. Then in 1987 Robert Bryant successfully demonstrated the existence of local examples. Two years later, Bryant and Simon Salamon found the first complete, non-compact examples of such metrics, on total spaces of certain vector bundles, using symmetry methods. Since then physicists have found many examples of non-compact holonomy G2 metrics with symmetry. Finally, in 1994 Dominic Joyce caused great surprise by proving the existence of hundreds of compact examples. His proof is non-constructive, using hard analysis involving the existence and uniqueness of solutions of a nonlinear elliptic equation, much as Yau’s solution of the Calabi conjecture gives a non-constructive proof of the existence and uniqueness of Calabi-Yau metrics (holonomy SU(m) metrics) on Kahler manifolds satisfying certain conditions. In 2000 Alexei Kovalev found a different construction of compact manifolds with G2 holonomy that produced several hundred more non-explicit examples. These two are the only known compact constructions to date. An excellent survey of G2 geometry and some of the compact examples is [3]. In terms of Riemannian holonomy, the aspect of the group G2 that is important is not that it is one of the five exceptional Lie groups, but rather that it is the automorphism group of the octonions O, an 8dimensional non-associative real division algebra. The octonions come equipped with a positive definite inner product, and the span of the identity element 1 is called the real octonions while its orthogonal complement is called the imaginary octonions Im(O) ∼= R. This is entirely analogous to the quaternions H, except that the non-associativity introduces some complications. This analogy allows us to define a cross product on R as follows. Let u, v ∈ R ∼= Im(O) and define u× v = Im(uv), where uv denotes the octonion product. (In fact the real part of uv is equal to −〈u, v〉, just as it is for quaternions, where 〈·, ·〉 denotes the Euclidean inner product.) This cross product satisfies the following relations:
Asymptotics of the Karhunen-Loeve expansion for the fractional Brownian motion

We find the precise eigenvalues and eigenfunctions asymptotics for the covariance operator of the fractional Brownian motion (fBm). Our results improve upon the previously known eigenvalues approximation up to the second order term and reveal a detailed asymptotic structure of the eigenfunctions. The obtained formulas are applied to the problem of computing the exact $L^2$-small ball probabilities and the filtering problem in linear models involving fBm.
Targeted Violence as a Risk Factor for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Cisgender Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who have Sex with Men in the United States

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in the United States (US) are disproportionately exposed to interpersonal violence, which carries a high conditional risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and which is often motivated by sexual prejudice. We determined PTSD prevalence by violence attribution (motivated by sexual prejudice or not) and measured PTSD–attribution associations. Using a 2020 nationwide cross-sectional survey of 2,886 GBMSM who reported ever experiencing interpersonal violence, we performed multivariable modified Poisson regressions with robust variance estimators to examine differences in prevalence of current PTSD by how participants attributed the violence (occurring due to one’s same-sex practices, not occurring due to one’s same-sex practices, or being unsure if it occurred due to one’s same-sex practices). Model results are reported as adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Median age was 27 years; 78.8% of participants identified as gay, and 62.2% were non-Hispanic White. Violence was attributed to same-sex practices by 45.8% of participants; 46.3% did not make this attribution, and 7.0% were unsure (0.9% preferred not to answer). Overall, 23.0% screened positive for PTSD, and PTSD prevalence was greater for those who attributed violence to same-sex practices (25.9% [342/1,321]; aPR = 1.55, 95% CI [1.34, 1.79]) and those who were unsure (33.5% [68/203]; aPR = 1.80, 95% CI [1.44, 2.25]) compared to those who did not make the attribution (18.1% [242/1,335]). Age modified this association, with participants 15 to 19 years old who made the attribution being significantly more likely to have PTSD relative to 20+ participants who also made the attribution. In addition to violence-prevention and stigma-mitigation efforts, interventions targeting attribution styles may be useful for violence-exposed GBMSM, especially teenagers.
Role of Human Resource Professionals in Implementation of CSR Projects: Some Observations

Human resource professionals have a major role to play to help a company achieve its corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives. They have the tools and the opportunity to leverage employee commitment to, and engagement in, the firm’s CSR strategy. Although HRM oversees employee-related aspects, CSR helped to develop socially responsible practices. CSR inspired HRM, key HR aspects, namely health–well-being, gender equality–diversity, work–life balance and training–development can be addressed from the CSR perspective. CSR can contribute to long term, sustainable HR solutions. Integrating CSR and HRM promotes responsible people practices. There is emerging evidence that if effectively implemented, CSR can have considerable impact in motivating, developing and retaining staff. People prefer to work for companies that make a difference; corporate values, infused with CSR, generate conscience. A strong employer brand aligned with employee values and concerns is becoming recognised as one of the best ways of retaining talent with employees proud to work for a business that is highly regarded. As management plays an important role in understanding and delivering on key CSR objectives, it is vital to make CSR an integral part of management training programmes. As CSR increasingly becomes part of the business agenda in future, it will become a natural agenda for the HR practitioner.
Evaluating possible maternal effect lethality and genetic background effects in Naa10 knockout mice

Amino-terminal (Nt-) acetylation (NTA) is a common protein modification, affecting approximately 80% of all human proteins. The human essential X-linked gene, NAA10, encodes for the enzyme NAA10, which is the catalytic subunit in the N-terminal acetyltransferase A (NatA) complex. There is extensive genetic variation in humans with missense, splice-site, and C-terminal frameshift variants in NAA10. In mice, Naa10 is not an essential gene, as there exists a paralogous gene, Naa12, that substantially rescues Naa10 knockout mice from embryonic lethality, whereas double knockouts (Naa10−/Y Naa12−/−) are embryonic lethal. However, the phenotypic variability in the mice is nonetheless quite extensive, including piebaldism, skeletal defects, small size, hydrocephaly, hydronephrosis, and neonatal lethality. Here we replicate these phenotypes with new genetic alleles in mice, but we demonstrate their modulation by genetic background and environmental effects. We cannot replicate a prior report of “maternal effect lethality” for heterozygous Naa10−/X female mice, but we do observe a small amount of embryonic lethality in the Naa10−/ymale mice on the inbred genetic background in this different animal facility.
Deconstructing the brain bases of emotion regulation: A systems-identification approach using Bayes factors

Cognitive reappraisal is fundamental to cognitive therapies and everyday emotion regulation. Analyses using Bayes factors and an axiomatic systems-identification approach identified four reappraisal-related components encompassing distributed neural activity patterns across two independent fMRI studies (n=182 and n=176): (1) An anterior prefrontal system selectively involved in cognitive reappraisal; (2) A fronto-parietal-insular system engaged by both reappraisal and emotion generation, demonstrating a general role in appraisal; (3) A largely subcortical system activated during negative emotion generation but unaffected by reappraisal, including amygdala, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray; and (4) a posterior cortical system of negative emotion-related regions down-regulated by reappraisal. These systems covaried with individual differences in reappraisal success and were differentially related to neurotransmitter binding maps, implicating cannabinoid and serotonin systems in reappraisal. These findings challenge ‘limbic’-centric models of reappraisal and provide new systems-level targets for assessing and enhancing emotion regulation.
The Crystal Structure of the Hsp90-LA1011 Complex and the Mechanism by Which LA1011 May Improve the Prognosis of Alzheimer’s Disease

Chaperone systems play a major role in the decline of cognition and contribute to neurological pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While such a decline may occur naturally with age or with stress or trauma, the mechanisms involved have remained elusive. The current models suggest that amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque formation leads to the hyperphosphorylation of tau by a Hsp90 dependent process that triggers tau neurofibrillary tangle formation and neurotoxicity. Several co-chaperones of Hsp90 can influence the phosphorylation of tau, including FKBP51, FKBP52 and PP5. In particular elevated levels of FKBP51 occur with age and stress and are further elevated in AD. Recently, the dihydropyridine, LA1011 was shown to reduce tau pathology and amyloid plaque formation in transgenic AD mice, probably through its interaction with Hsp90 although the precise mode of action is currently unknown. Here, we present a co-crystal structure of LA1011 in complex with a fragment of Hsp90. We show that LA1011 can disrupt binding of FKBP51, which might help to rebalance the Hsp90-FKBP51 chaperone machinery and provide a favourable prognosis towards AD. Clinically, this is highly significant, as AD is generally a disease affecting older patients, where slowing of disease progression could result in AD no longer being life limiting.
Endothelial structure contributes to heterogeneity in brain capillary diameter

The high metabolic demand of brain tissue is supported by a constant supply of blood through dense microvascular networks. Capillaries are the smallest class of vessels and vary in diameter between ∼2 to 5 μm in the brain. This diameter range plays a significant role in the optimization of blood flow resistance, blood cell distribution, and oxygen extraction. The control of capillary diameter has largely been ascribed to pericyte contractility, but it remains unclear if endothelial wall architecture also contributes to capillary diameter heterogeneity. Here, we use public, large-scale volume electron microscopy data from mouse cortex (MICrONS Explorer, Cortical MM^3) to examine how endothelial cell number, endothelial cell thickness, and pericyte coverage relates to microvascular lumen size. We find that transitional vessels near the penetrating arteriole and ascending venule are composed of 2 to 5 interlocked endothelial cells, while the numerous capillary segments intervening these zones are composed of either 1 or 2 endothelial cells, with roughly equal proportions. The luminal area and diameter is on average slightly larger with capillary segments composed of 2 interlocked endothelial cells versus 1 endothelial cell. However, this difference is insufficient to explain the full range of capillary diameters seen in vivo. This suggests that both endothelial structure and other influences, such as pericyte tone, contribute to the basal diameter and optimized perfusion of brain capillaries.