bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Degradation of the Plant Defense Signal Salicylic Acid Protects Ralstonia solanacearum from Toxicity and Enhances Virulence on Tobacco
Authors: Lowe-Power Tiffany M. , Jacobs Jonathan M. , Ailloud Florent , Fochs Brianna , Prior Philippe , Allen Caitilyn 
Published: June 2016

ABSTRACT

Plants use the signaling molecule salicylic acid (SA) to trigger defenses against diverse pathogens, including the bacterial wilt pathogen
Ralstonia solanacearum
. SA can also inhibit microbial growth. Most sequenced strains of the heterogeneous
R. solanacearum
species complex can degrade SA via gentisic acid to pyruvate and fumarate.
R. solanacearum
strain GMI1000 expresses this SA degradation pathway during tomato pathogenesis. Transcriptional analysis revealed that subinhibitory SA levels induced expression of the SA degradation pathway, toxin efflux pumps, and some general stress responses. Interestingly, SA treatment repressed expression of virulence factors, including the type III secretion system, suggesting that this pathogen may suppress virulence functions when stressed. A GMI1000 mutant lacking SA degradation activity was much more susceptible to SA toxicity but retained the wild-type colonization ability and virulence on tomato. This may be because SA is less important than gentisic acid in tomato defense signaling. However, another host, tobacco, responds strongly to SA. To test the hypothesis that SA degradation contributes to virulence on tobacco, we measured the effect of adding this pathway to the tobacco-pathogenic
R. solanacearum
strain K60, which lacks SA degradation genes. Ectopic addition of the GMI1000 SA degradation locus, including adjacent genes encoding two porins and a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, significantly increased the virulence of strain K60 on tobacco. Together, these results suggest that
R. solanacearum
degrades plant SA to protect itself from inhibitory levels of this compound and also to enhance its virulence on plant hosts like tobacco that use SA as a defense signal molecule.

IMPORTANCE
Plant pathogens such as the bacterial wilt agent
Ralstonia solanacearum
threaten food and economic security by causing significant losses for small- and large-scale growers of tomato, tobacco, banana, potato, and ornamentals. Like most plants, these crop hosts use salicylic acid (SA) both indirectly as a signal to activate defenses and directly as an antimicrobial chemical. We found that SA inhibits growth of
R. solanacearum
and induces a general stress response that includes repression of multiple bacterial wilt virulence factors. The ability to degrade SA reduces the pathogen’s sensitivity to SA toxicity and increases its virulence on tobacco.
Physical activity prescription: a critical opportunity to address a modifiable risk factor for the prevention and management of chronic disease: a position statement by the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine
Authors: Thornton Jane S , Frémont Pierre , Khan Karim , Poirier Paul , Fowles Jonathon , Wells Greg D , Frankovich Renata J 
Published: June 2016

Non-communicable disease is a leading threat to global health. Physical inactivity is a large contributor to this problem; in fact, the WHO ranks it as the fourth leading risk factor for overall morbidity and mortality worldwide. In Canada, at least 4 of 5 adults do not meet the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines of 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week. Physicians play an important role in the dissemination of physical activity (PA) recommendations to a broad segment of the population, as over 80% of Canadians visit their doctors every year and prefer to get health information directly from them. Unfortunately, most physicians do not regularly assess or prescribe PA as part of routine care, and even when discussed, few provide specific recommendations. PA prescription has the potential to be an important therapeutic agent for all ages in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of chronic disease. Sport and exercise medicine (SEM) physicians are particularly well suited for this role and should collaborate with their primary care colleagues for optimal patient care. The purpose of this Canadian Academy and Sport and Exercise Medicine position statement is to provide an evidence-based, best practices summary to better equip SEM and primary care physicians to prescribe PA and exercise, specifically for the prevention and management of non-communicable disease. This will be achieved by addressing common questions and perceived barriers in the field.Author noteThis position statement has been endorsed by the following nine sport medicine societies: Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP), American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), British Association of Sports and Exercise Medicine (BASEM), European College of Sport & Exercise Physicians (ECOSEP), Norsk forening for idrettsmedisin og fysisk aktivite (NIMF), South African Sports Medicine Association (SASMA), Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Sportmedizin/Swiss Society of Sports Medicine (SGSM/SSSM), Sport Doctors Australia (SDrA), Swedish Society of Exercise and Sports Medicine (SFAIM), and CASEM.
Impact of sex and age on the performance of FINDRISC: the HUNT Study in Norway
Authors: Jølle Anne , Midthjell Kristian , Holmen Jostein , Tuomilehto Jaakko , Carlsen Sven M , Shaw Jonathan , Åsvold Bjørn O 
Published: June 2016

ObjectiveThe Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) is recommended as a screening tool for diabetes risk. However, there is a lack of well-powered studies examining the performance of FINDRISC by sex and age. We aim to estimate, by sex and age, the prevalence of elevated FINDRISC and positive predictive value (PPV) of FINDRISC for identifying impaired glucose metabolism (IGM) in a general Norwegian population.Research design and methodsWe estimated the prevalence of elevated FINDRISC (≥15) among 47 694 adults in the third survey of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT3, 2006–08). Among 2559 participants who participated in oral glucose tolerance testing, we estimated the PPV of elevated FINDRISC for identifying unknown prevalent diabetes and other forms of IGM.ResultsThe prevalence of elevated FINDRISC was 12.1% in women, 9.6% in men, and increased from 1.5% at age 20–39 to 25.1% at age 70–79 years. The PPVs of elevated FINDRISC were 9.8% for diabetes, 16.9% for impaired glucose tolerance, 8.2% for impaired fasting glucose, and 34.9% for any form of IGM. The PPV for IGM was lower in women (31.2%) than in men (40.4%), and increased from 19.1% at age 20–39 to 55.5% at age ≥80 years.ConclusionsFINDRISC identified more women than men as high-risk individuals for diabetes. FINDRISC had a high PPV for detecting prevalent IGM, and the PPV was higher in men than in women and in the older individuals. Our data indicate that the impact of sex and age on diabetes risk is not fully captured by FINDRISC, and that refinements to it might improve diabetes prediction.
B4
Authors: Jain Sushant , Kumar Alok , Mandal Subhasree , Ong Joon , Poutievski Leon , Singh Arjun , Venkata Subbaiah , Wanderer Jim , Zhou Junlan , Zhu Min , Zolla Jon , Hölzle Urs , Stuart Stephen , Vahdat Amin 
Published: June 2016

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of B4, a private WAN connecting Google's data centers across the planet. B4 has a number of unique characteristics: i) massive bandwidth requirements deployed to a modest number of sites, ii) elastic traffic demand that seeks to maximize average bandwidth, and iii) full control over the edge servers and network, which enables rate limiting and demand measurement at the edge.
These characteristics led to a Software Defined Networking architecture using OpenFlow to control relatively simple switches built from merchant silicon. B4's centralized traffic engineering service drives links to near 100% utilization, while splitting application flows among multiple paths to balance capacity against application priority/demands. We describe experience with three years of B4 production deployment, lessons learned, and areas for future work.
TCP ex machina
Authors: Winstein Keith , Balakrishnan Hari 
Published: June 2016

This paper describes a new approach to end-to-end congestion control on a multi-user network. Rather than manually formulate each endpoint's reaction to congestion signals, as in traditional protocols, we developed a program called Remy that generates congestion-control algorithms to run at the endpoints.
In this approach, the protocol designer specifies their prior knowledge or assumptions about the network and an objective that the algorithm will try to achieve, e.g., high throughput and low queueing delay. Remy then produces a distributed algorithm---the control rules for the independent endpoints---that tries to achieve this objective.
In simulations with ns-2, Remy-generated algorithms outperformed human-designed end-to-end techniques, including TCP Cubic, Compound, and Vegas. In many cases, Remy's algorithms also outperformed methods that require intrusive in-network changes, including XCP and Cubic-over-sfqCoDel (stochastic fair queueing with CoDel for active queue management).

Remy can generate algorithms both for networks where some parameters are known tightly a
priori
, e.g. datacenters, and for networks where prior knowledge is less precise, such as cellular networks. We characterize the sensitivity of the resulting performance to the specificity of the prior knowledge, and the consequences when real-world conditions contradict the assumptions supplied at design-time.
ElasticSwitch
Authors: Popa Lucian , Yalagandula Praveen , Banerjee Sujata , Mogul Jeffrey C. , Turner Yoshio , Santos Jose Renato 
Published: June 2016

While cloud computing providers offer guaranteed allocations for resources such as CPU and memory, they do not offer any guarantees for network resources. The lack of network guarantees prevents tenants from predicting lower bounds on the performance of their applications. The research community has recognized this limitation but, unfortunately, prior solutions have significant limitations: either they are inefficient, because they are not work-conserving, or they are impractical, because they require expensive switch support or congestion-free network cores.
In this paper, we propose ElasticSwitch, an efficient and practical approach for providing bandwidth guarantees. ElasticSwitch is efficient because it utilizes the spare bandwidth from unreserved capacity or underutilized reservations. ElasticSwitch is practical because it can be fully implemented in hypervisors, without requiring a specific topology or any support from switches. Because hypervisors operate mostly independently, there is no need for complex coordination between them or with a central controller. Our experiments, with a prototype implementation on a 100-server testbed, demonstrate that ElasticSwitch provides bandwidth guarantees and is work-conserving, even in challenging situations.
AutoEmbed
Authors: Dietrich David , Rizk Amr , Papadimitriou Panagiotis 
Published: June 2016

We present AutoEmbed, a fully-automated framework for VN embedding across multiple substrate networks. To automate VN embedding, AutoEmbed deploys functions over three layers: (i) Service Providers, (ii) VN Providers, and (iii) Infrastructure Providers (InPs). AutoEmbed enables VN Providers to partition VN requests among multiple substrate networks based on resource and network topology information that is not treated as confidential by InPs.
Subsequently, each VN segment is mapped by the corresponding InP onto its substrate network. AutoEmbed enables the evaluation of various aspects of multi-provider VN embedding, such as the efficiency and scalability of embedding algorithms, the impact of different levels of information disclosure on VN embedding efficiency, and the suitability of VN request specifications.
TerraNNI
Authors: Agarwal Pankaj K. , Beutel Alex , Mølhave Thomas 
Published: June 2016

With modern focus on remote sensing technology, such as LiDAR, the amount of spatial data, in the form of massive point clouds, has increased dramatically. Furthermore, repeated surveys of the same areas are becoming more common. This trend will only increase as topographic changes prompt surveys over already scanned areas, in which case we obtain large spatiotemporal datasets.
An initial step in the analysis of such spatial data is to create a digital elevation model representing the terrain, possibly over time. In the case of spatial (spatiotemporal, respectively) datasets, these models often represent elevation on a 2D (3D, respectively) grid. This involves interpolating the elevation of LiDAR points on these grid points.
In this article, we show how to efficiently perform natural neighbor interpolation over a 2D and 3D grid. Using a graphics processing unit (GPU), we describe different algorithms to attain speed and GPU-memory tradeoffs. Our experimental results demonstrate that our algorithms not only are significantly faster than earlier ones but also scale to much bigger datasets that previous algorithms were unable to handle.
TMEM2 Is a SOX4-Regulated Gene That Mediates Metastatic Migration and Invasion in Breast Cancer
Authors: Lee Hyeseung , Goodarzi Hani , Tavazoie Sohail F. , Alarcón Claudio R. 
Published: June 2016

Abstract
The developmental transcription factor SOX4 contributes to the metastatic spread of multiple solid cancer types, but its direct target genes that mediate cancer progression are not well defined. Using a systematic molecular and genomic approach, we identified the TMEM2 transmembrane protein gene as a direct transcriptional target of SOX4. TMEM2 was transcriptionally activated by SOX4 in breast cancer cells where, like SOX4, TMEM2 was found to mediate proinvasive and promigratory effects. Similarly, TMEM2 was sufficient to promote metastatic colonization of breast cancer cells and its expression in primary breast tumors associated with a higher likelihood of metastatic relapse. Given earlier evidence that genetic inactivation of SOX4 or TMEM2 yield similar defects in cardiac development, our findings lead us to propose that TMEM2 may not only mediate the pathologic effects of SOX4 on cancer progression but also potentially its contributions to embryonic development. Cancer Res; 76(17); 4994–5005. ©2016 AACR.
Differential Effects of IL6 and Activin A in the Development of Cancer-Associated Cachexia
Authors: Chen Justin L. , Walton Kelly L. , Qian Hongwei , Colgan Timothy D. , Hagg Adam , Watt Matthew J. , Harrison Craig A. , Gregorevic Paul 
Published: June 2016

Abstract
Cachexia is a life-threatening wasting syndrome lacking effective treatment, which arises in many cancer patients. Although ostensibly induced by multiple tumor-produced cytokines (tumorkines), their functional contribution to initiation and progression of this syndrome has proven difficult to determine. In this study, we used adeno-associated viral vectors to elevate circulating levels of the tumorkines IL6 and/or activin A in animals in the absence of tumors as a tactic to evaluate hypothesized roles in cachexia development. Mice with elevated levels of IL6 exhibited 8.1% weight loss after 9 weeks, whereas mice with elevated levels of activin A lost 11% of their body weight. Co-elevation of both tumorkines to levels approximating those observed in cancer cachexia models induced a more rapid and profound body weight loss of 15.4%. Analysis of body composition revealed that activin A primarily triggered loss of lean mass, whereas IL6 was a major mediator of fat loss. Histologic and transcriptional analysis of affected organs/tissues (skeletal muscle, fat, and liver) identified interactions between the activin A and IL6 signaling pathways. For example, IL6 exacerbated the detrimental effects of activin A in skeletal muscle, whereas activin A curbed the IL6-induced acute-phase response in liver. This study presents a useful model to deconstruct cachexia, opening a pathway to determining which tumorkines are best targeted to slow/reverse this devastating condition in cancer patients. Cancer Res; 76(18); 5372–82. ©2016 AACR.
Mutation Analysis of Cell-Free DNA and Single Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients with High Circulating Tumor Cell Counts
Authors: Shaw Jacqueline A. , Guttery David S. , Hills Allison , Fernandez-Garcia Daniel , Page Karen , Rosales Brenda M. , Goddard Kate S. , Hastings Robert K. , Luo Jinli , Ogle Olivia , Woodley Laura , Ali Simak , Stebbing Justin , Coombes R. Charles 
Published: June 2016

Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to directly compare mutation profiles in multiple single circulating tumor cells (CTC) and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) isolated from the same blood samples taken from patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We aimed to determine whether cfDNA would reflect the heterogeneity observed in 40 single CTCs.
Experimental Design: CTCs were enumerated by CELLSEARCH. CTC count was compared with the quantity of matched cfDNA and serum CA15-3 and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in 112 patients with MBC. In 5 patients with ≥100 CTCs, multiple individual EpCAM-positive CTCs were isolated by DEPArray and compared with matched cfDNA and primary tumor tissue by targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) of about 2,200 mutations in 50 cancer genes.
Results: In the whole cohort, total cfDNA levels and cell counts (≥5 CTCs) were both significantly associated with overall survival, unlike CA15-3 and ALP. NGS analysis of 40 individual EpCAM-positive CTCs from 5 patients with MBC revealed mutational heterogeneity in PIK3CA, TP53, ESR1, and KRAS genes between individual CTCs. In all 5 patients, cfDNA profiles provided an accurate reflection of mutations seen in individual CTCs. ESR1 and KRAS gene mutations were absent from primary tumor tissue and therefore likely either reflect a minor subclonal mutation or were acquired with disease progression.
Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that cfDNA reflects persisting EpCAM-positive CTCs in patients with high CTC counts and therefore may enable monitoring of the metastatic burden for clinical decision-making. Clin Cancer Res; 23(1); 88–96. ©2016 AACR.
Immunotherapy of Cancer Visualized by Live Microscopy: Seeing Is Believing
Authors: Teijeira Alvaro , Etxeberria Iñaki , Ponz-Sarvise Mariano , Melero Ignacio 
Published: June 2016

Abstract
The success of immunotherapy of cancer depends on several cellular events in the tumors that can be visualized by live microscopy strategies in experimental models. Taking advantage of advanced microscopy techniques, Lehmann and colleagues explore in this issue of CCR the mechanism of action of a novel bispecific mAb (TCB-CEA) that targets membrane-bound CEA and CD3ϵ. Clin Cancer Res; 22(17); 4277–9. ©2016 AACR.
See related article by Lehmann et al., p. 4417
Donor Troponin and Survival After Cardiac Transplantation
Authors: Madan Shivank , Saeed Omar , Shin Jooyoung , Sims Daniel , Goldstein Daniel , Piña Ileana , Jorde Ulrich , Patel Snehal R. 
Published: June 2016

Background—
Despite a limited supply of organs, only 1 in 3 potential donor hearts is accepted for transplantation. Elevated donor troponin levels have generally been considered a contraindication to heart transplantation; however, the data supporting this practice are limited.

Methods and Results—

We identified 10 943 adult (≥18 years) heart transplant recipients in the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) database with preserved donor left ventricular ejection fraction (≥50%) and where peak donor troponin I values were available. When analyzed as a continuous variable, there was no association between peak donor troponin levels and recipient mortality up to 1 year follow-up in unadjusted (hazards ratio, 0.999; 95% confidence interval, 0.997–1.002;
P
=0.856) and adjusted Cox models (hazards ratio, 1.000; 95% confidence interval, 0.997–1.002;
P
=0.950). Next, we divided the entire cohort into 3 groups based on donor troponin I values: <1 ng/mL (n=7812), 1 to 10 ng/mL (n=2770), and >10 ng/mL (n=361). Using unadjusted and adjusted Cox models and Kaplan–Meier analysis, there was no significant difference in recipient mortality at 30 days, 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years between the 3 groups. Similarly, cardiac allograft vasculopathy up to 5 years and primary graft failure up to 30 days of follow-up post transplant did not differ between the 3 donor troponin groups. The median length of hospital stay post transplant was also similar across groups.

Conclusions—
Elevated donor troponin I levels in the setting of preserved left ventricular ejection fraction were not associated with intermediate-term mortality, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, or primary graft failure rates in hearts accepted for transplantation. This finding could help expand the donor pool.
A world key to Cryptothecia and Myriostigma (Arthoniaceae), with new species and new records from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
Authors: RAM T. A. M. JAGADEESH , SINHA G. P. 
Published: June 2016

A world key to the genera Cryptothecia and Myriostigma is presented. Four species of Cryptothecia: C. albomaculans, C. elata, C. elongata and C. superphyllinica, and a Myriostigma: M. nicobaricum are described as new to science from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Cryptothecia albomaculans has a heteromerous thallus, whitish ascigerous areas not elevated above the thallus, ellipsoid, 9–11 × 3–5 septate ascospores of 47–57 × 24–30 µm and produces 2’-O-methylperlatolic acid. Cryptothecia elata has a homoiomerous thallus with distinctly raised ascomata, ascospores of (72–)84–122 × (25–)36–62(–72) µm and contains 2’-O-methylmicrophyllinic acid. Cryptothecia elongata has a heteromerous thallus, raised, irregular, 1–4 mm wide ascigerous areas covered by a photobiont layer, narrowly ellipsoid-oblong, 16–24 × 2–6 septate ascospores of 90–114 × 21–30 µm, and produces gyrophoric and lecanoric acids. Cryptothecia superphyllinica has a homoiomerous thallus, whitish, raised, rounded to linear ascigerous areas 0.5–1.5 mm in diam., broadly ovoid to ellipsoid, 9–15 × 3–6 septate ascospores of (45–)58–76(–80) × (22–)24–33(–38) µm and 2’-O-methylsuperphyllinic acid. Myriostigma nicobaricum has a homoiomerous thallus, whitish, raised, rounded, ascigerous areas 0.3–0.8 mm in diam., broadly ellipsoid to ovoid, 8–11 × 2–4 septate, 34–48 × 16–22 µm ascospores and confluentic acid. Cryptothecia aleurodes, C. eungellae and C. striata are new additions to the lichen biota of India. Ascospores of Cryptothecia eungellae are described for the first time and illustrated.
Symptom endorsement in men versus women with a diagnosis of depression: A differential item functioning approach
Authors: Cavanagh Anna , Wilson Coralie J , Caputi Peter , Kavanagh David J 
Published: June 2016

Background: There is some evidence that, in contrast to depressed women, depressed men tend to report alternative symptoms that are not listed as standard diagnostic criteria. This may possibly lead to an under- or misdiagnosis of depression in men. Aims: This study aims to clarify whether depressed men and women report different symptoms. Methods: This study used data from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing that was collected using the World Health Organization’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Participants with a diagnosis of a depressive disorder with 12-month symptoms ( n = 663) were identified and included in this study. Differential item functioning (DIF) was used to test whether depressed men and women endorse different features associated with their condition. Results: Gender-related DIF was present for three symptoms associated with depression. Depressed women were more likely to report ‘appetite/weight disturbance’, whereas depressed men were more likely to report ‘alcohol misuse’ and ‘substance misuse’. Conclusion: While the results may reflect a greater risk of co-occurring alcohol and substance misuse in men, inclusion of these features in assessments may improve the detection of depression in men, especially if standard depressive symptoms are under-reported.