pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
REST represses a subset of the pancreatic endocrine differentiation program

AbstractTo contribute to devise successful beta-cell differentiation strategies for the cure of Type 1 diabetes we sought to uncover barriers that restrict endocrine fate acquisition by studying the role of the transcriptional repressor REST in the developing pancreas. Rest expression is prevented in neurons and in endocrine cells, which is necessary for their normal function. During development, REST represses a subset of genes in the neuronal differentiation program and Rest is down-regulated as neurons differentiate. Here, we investigate the role of REST in the differentiation of pancreatic endocrine cells, which are molecularly close to neurons. We show that Rest is widely expressed in pancreas progenitors and that it is down-regulated in differentiated endocrine cells. Sustained expression of REST in Pdx1+ progenitors impairs the differentiation of endocrine-committed Neurog3+ progenitors, decreases beta and alpha cell mass by E18.5, and triggers diabetes in adulthood. Conditional inactivation of Rest in Pdx1+ progenitors is not sufficient to trigger endocrine differentiation but up-regulates a subset of differentiation genes. Our results show that the transcriptional repressor REST is active in pancreas progenitors where it gates the activation of part of the beta cell differentiation program
Forward–backward asymmetry of Drell–Yan lepton pairs in pp collisions at s=7 TeV

AbstractA measurement of the forward–backward asymmetry (AFB) of Drell–Yan lepton pairs in pp collisions at s=7 TeV is presented. The data sample, collected with the CMS detector, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb−1. The asymmetry is measured as a function of dilepton mass and rapidity in the dielectron and dimuon channels. Combined results from the two channels are presented, and are compared with the standard model predictions. The AFB measurement in the dimuon channel and the combination of the two channels are the first such results obtained at a hadron collider. The measured asymmetries are consistent with the standard model predictions
Study of resonant modes in a 700 nm pitch macroporous silicon photonic crystal

In this study the modes produced by a defect inserted in a macroporous silicon (MP) photonic crystal (PC) have been studied theoretical and experimentally. In particular, the transmitted and reflected spectra have been analyzed for variations in the defect’s length and width. The performed simulations show that the resonant frequency is more easily adjusted for the fabricated samples by length tuning rather than width. The optimum resonance peak results when centered in the PC bandgap. The changes in the defect geometry result in small variations of the optical response of the PC. The resonance frequency is most sensitive to length variations, while the mode linewidth shows greater change with the defect width variation. Several MPS photonic crystals were fabricated by the electrochemical etching (EE) process with optical response in the range of 5.8 µm to 6.5 µm. Results of the characterization are in good agreement with simulations. Further samples were fabricated consisting of ordered modulated pores with a pitch of 700 nm. This allowed to reduce the vertical periodicity and therefore to have the optical response in the range of 4.4 µm to 4.8 µm. To our knowledge, modes working in this range of wavelengths have not been previously reported in 3-d MPS structures. Experimental results match with simulations, showing a linear relationship between the defect’s length and working frequency inside the bandgap. We demonstrate the possibility of tailoring the resonance peak in both ranges of wavelengths, where the principal absorption lines of different gases in the mid infrared are placed. This makes these structures very promising for their application to compact gas sensors.Postprint (author's final draft
Investigation of influence of tab types on tensile strength of E-glass/epoxy fiber einforced composite materials

AbstractMechanical response of E-glass/epoxy fiber reinforced composite was investigated in tensile loading. Different types of tabs were considered in order to evaluate their effects on the tensile strength of material. Specifically, two types of molded tabs and five types of bonded tabs were considered in the study. The influence of different amount of gripping pressures on failure mode and on tensile strength of specimens was also considered in the analysis. The experimental results showed that the tabs configuration affected the tensile strength of the specimens. Starting from the experimental results, an appropriate testing methodology is proposed for E-glass/epoxy fiber reinforced composite specimens in order to reduce problems that may arise during the test and to optimize procedures for preparation of specimens
Perfect and Near-Perfect Adaptation in a Model of Bacterial Chemotaxis

ABSTRACTThe signaling apparatus mediating bacterial chemotaxis can adapt to a wide range of persistent external stimuli. In many cases, the bacterial activity returns to its prestimulus level exactly, and this perfect adaptability is robust against variations in various chemotaxis protein concentrations. We model the bacterial chemotaxis signaling pathway, from ligand binding to CheY phosphorylation. By solving the steady-state equations of the model analytically, we derive a full set of conditions for the system to achieve perfect adaptation. The conditions related to the phosphorylation part of the pathway are discovered for the first time, while other conditions are generalizations of the ones found in previous works. Sensitivity of the perfect adaptation is evaluated by perturbing these conditions. We find that, even in the absence of some of the perfect adaptation conditions, adaptation can be achieved with near-perfect precision as a result of the separation of scales in both chemotaxis protein concentrations and reaction rates, or specific properties of the receptor distribution in different methylation states. Since near-perfect adaptation can be found in much larger regions of the parameter space than that defined by the perfect adaptation conditions, their existence is essential to understand robustness in bacterial chemotaxis
Determination of the fundamental scale of gravity and the number of space–time dimensions from high energetic particle interactions

AbstractWithin the ADD-model, we elaborate an idea by Vacavant and Hinchliffe [J. Phys. G 27 (2001) 1839] and show quantitatively how to determine the fundamental scale of TeV-gravity and the number of compactified extra dimensions from data at LHC. We demonstrate that the ADD-model leads to strong correlations between the missing ET in gravitons at different center of mass energies. This correlation puts strong constraints on this model for extra dimensions, if probed at s=5.5 TeV and s=14 TeV at LHC
Unitarity of compactified five-dimensional Yang–Mills theory

AbstractCompactified five-dimensional Yang–Mills theory results in an effective four-dimensional theory with a Kaluza–Klein (KK) tower of massive vector bosons. We explicitly demonstrate that the scattering of the massive vector bosons is unitary at tree-level for low energies, and analyze the relationship between the unitarity violation scale in the KK theory and the nonrenormalizability scale in the five-dimensional gauge theory. In the compactified theory, low-energy unitarity is ensured through an interlacing cancellation among contributions from the relevant KK levels. Such cancellations can be understood using a Kaluza–Klein equivalence theorem which results from the geometric “Higgs” mechanism of compactification. In these theories, the unitarity violation is delayed to energy scales higher than the customary limit through the introduction of additional vector bosons rather than Higgs scalars
Central serous chorioretinopathy: Recent findings and new physiopathology hypothesis

AbstractCentral serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is a major cause of vision threat among middle-aged male individuals. Multimodal imaging led to the description of a wide range of CSCR manifestations, and highlighted the contribution of the choroid and pigment epithelium in CSCR pathogenesis. However, the exact molecular mechanisms of CSCR have remained uncertain. The aim of this review is to recapitulate the clinical understanding of CSCR, with an emphasis on the most recent findings on epidemiology, risk factors, clinical and imaging diagnosis, and treatments options. It also gives an overview of the novel mineralocorticoid pathway hypothesis, from animal data to clinical evidences of the biological efficacy of oral mineralocorticoid antagonists in acute and chronic CSCR patients. In rodents, activation of the mineralocorticoid pathway in ocular cells either by intravitreous injection of its specific ligand, aldosterone, or by over-expression of the receptor specifically in the vascular endothelium, induced ocular phenotypes carrying many features of acute CSCR. Molecular mechanisms include expression of the calcium-dependent potassium channel (KCa2.3) in the endothelium of choroidal vessels, inducing subsequent vasodilation. Inappropriate or over-activation of the mineralocorticoid receptor in ocular cells and other tissues (such as brain, vessels) could link CSCR with the known co-morbidities observed in CSCR patients, including hypertension, coronary disease and psychological stress
Towards (3+1) gravity through Drinfel'd doubles with cosmological constant

AbstractWe present the generalisation to (3+1) dimensions of a quantum deformation of the (2+1) (Anti)-de Sitter and Poincaré Lie algebras that is compatible with the conditions imposed by the Chern–Simons formulation of (2+1) gravity. Since such compatibility is automatically fulfilled by deformations coming from Drinfel'd double structures, we believe said structures are worth being analysed also in the (3+1) scenario as a possible guiding principle towards the description of (3+1) gravity. To this aim, a canonical classical r-matrix arising from a Drinfel'd double structure for the three (3+1) Lorentzian algebras is obtained. This r-matrix turns out to be a twisted version of the one corresponding to the (3+1) κ-deformation, and the main properties of its associated noncommutative spacetime are analysed. In particular, it is shown that this new quantum spacetime is not isomorphic to the κ-Minkowski one, and that the isotropy of the quantum space coordinates can be preserved through a suitable change of basis of the quantum algebra generators. Throughout the paper the cosmological constant appears as an explicit parameter, thus allowing the (flat) Poincaré limit to be straightforwardly obtained
Energy-efficient Checkpointing in High-throughput Cycle-stealing Distributed Systems

AbstractCheckpointing is a fault-tolerance mechanism commonly used in High Throughput Computing (HTC) environments to allow the execution of long-running computational tasks on compute resources subject to hardware or software failures as well as interruptions from resource owners and more important tasks. Until recently many researchers have focused on the performance gains achieved through checkpointing, but now with growing scrutiny of the energy consumption of IT infrastructures it is increasingly important to understand the energy impact of checkpointing within an HTC environment. In this paper we demonstrate through trace-driven simulation of real-world datasets that existing checkpointing strategies are inadequate at maintaining an acceptable level of energy consumption whilst maintaing the performance gains expected with checkpointing. Furthermore, we identify factors important in deciding whether to exploit checkpointing within an HTC environment, and propose novel strategies to curtail the energy consumption of checkpointing approaches whist maintaining the performance benefits
Classification of dark energy models in the (w0,wa) plane

AbstractWe classify dark energy models in a plane of observables that correspond to the common parameterization of a non-constant equation of state, w(a)=w0+wa(1−a), where a is the scale factor of the universe. The models fall into four classes and only two of these classes have a region of overlap in the observable plane. We perform a joint analysis of all Type Ia supernova (SNIa) data compiled by the High-Z SN Search Team (HZT) and the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) and find that no class of models is excluded by current SNIa data. However, an analysis of large scale structure, Lyα forest and bias constraints from SDSS, the Gold SNIa data and WMAP data indicates that non-phantom barotropic models with a positive sound speed are excluded at the 95% C.L
Super-No-Scale F-SU(5): A dynamic determination of M1/2 and tanβ

AbstractWe study the Higgs potential in No-Scale F-SU(5), a model built on the tripodal foundations of the F-lipped SU(5)×U(1)X Grand Unified Theory, extra F-theory derived TeV scale vector-like particle multiplets, and the high scale boundary conditions of no-scale supergravity. Vmin, the minimum of the potential following radiative electroweak symmetry breaking, is a function at fixed Z-boson mass of the universal gaugino boundary mass M1/2 and tanβ, the ratio of Higgs vacuum expectation values. The so-scale nullification of the bilinear Higgs soft term Bμ at the boundary reduces Vmin(M1/2) to a one-dimensional dependency, which may be secondarily minimized. This “Super-No-Scale” condition dynamically fixes tanβ and M1/2 at the local minimum minimorum of Vmin. Fantastically, the walls of this theoretically established secondary potential coalesce in descent to a striking concurrency with the previously phenomenologically favored “Golden Point” and “Golden Strip”
A Monte Carlo algorithm for probabilistic propagation in belief networks based on importance sampling and stratified simulation techniques

AbstractA class of Monte Carlo algorithms for probability propagation in belief networks is given. The simulation is based on a two steps procedure. The first one is a node deletion technique to calculate the ‘a posteriori’ distribution on a variable, with the particularity that when exact computations are too costly, they are carried out in an approximate way. In the second step, the computations done in the first one are used to obtain random configurations for the variables of interest. These configurations are weighted following importance sampling methodology. Different particular algorithms are obtained depending on the approximation procedure used in the first step and the way of obtaining the random configurations. In this last case, a stratified sampling technique is used, which has been adapted for application to very large networks without round-off error problems
Solar neutrinos as probes of neutrino–matter interactions

AbstractData from solar neutrino and KamLAND experiments have led to a discovery of nonzero neutrino masses. Here we investigate what these data can tell us about neutrino interactions with matter, including the poorly constrained flavor-changing νe–ντ interactions. We give examples of the interaction parameters that are excluded by the solar/KamLAND data and are beyond the reach of other experiments. We also demonstrate that flavor-changing interactions, at the allowed level, may profoundly modify the conversion probability for neutrinos of energy ≲6 MeV and the values of the mass parameter inferred from the data. The implications for future experiments are discussed
Towards a fully stringy computation of Yukawa couplings on non-factorized tori and non-abelian twist correlators (I): The classical solution and action

AbstractWe consider the simplest possible setting of non-abelian twist fields which corresponds to SU(2) monodromies. We first review the theory of hypergeometric function and of the solutions of the most general Fuchsian second order equation with three singularities. Then we solve the problem of writing the general solution with prescribed U(2) monodromies. We use this result to compute the classical string solution corresponding to three D2 branes in R4. Despite the fact that the configuration is supersymmetric the classical string solution is not holomorphic. Using the equation of motion and not the KLT approach we give a very simple expression for the classical action of the string. We find that the classical action is not proportional to the area of the triangle determined by the branes intersection points since the solution is not holomorphic. Phenomenologically this means that the Yukawa couplings for these supersymmetric configurations on non-factorized tori are suppressed with respect to the factorized case
Late Ebola virus relapse causing meningoencephalitis: a case report

SummaryBackgroundThere are thousands of survivors of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in west Africa. Ebola virus can persist in survivors for months in immune-privileged sites; however, viral relapse causing life-threatening and potentially transmissible disease has not been described. We report a case of late relapse in a patient who had been treated for severe Ebola virus disease with high viral load (peak cycle threshold value 13·2).MethodsA 39-year-old female nurse from Scotland, who had assisted the humanitarian effort in Sierra Leone, had received intensive supportive treatment and experimental antiviral therapies, and had been discharged with undetectable Ebola virus RNA in peripheral blood. The patient was readmitted to hospital 9 months after discharge with symptoms of acute meningitis, and was found to have Ebola virus in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). She was treated with supportive therapy and experimental antiviral drug GS-5734 (Gilead Sciences, San Francisco, Foster City, CA, USA). We monitored Ebola virus RNA in CSF and plasma, and sequenced the viral genome using an unbiased metagenomic approach.FindingsOn admission, reverse transcriptase PCR identified Ebola virus RNA at a higher level in CSF (cycle threshold value 23·7) than plasma (31·3); infectious virus was only recovered from CSF. The patient developed progressive meningoencephalitis with cranial neuropathies and radiculopathy. Clinical recovery was associated with addition of high-dose corticosteroids during GS-5734 treatment. CSF Ebola virus RNA slowly declined and was undetectable following 14 days of treatment with GS-5734. Sequencing of plasma and CSF viral genome revealed only two non-coding changes compared with the original infecting virus.InterpretationOur report shows that previously unanticipated, late, severe relapses of Ebola virus can occur, in this case in the CNS. This finding fundamentally redefines what is known about the natural history of Ebola virus infection. Vigilance should be maintained in the thousands of Ebola survivors for cases of relapsed infection. The potential for these cases to initiate new transmission chains is a serious public health concern.FundingRoyal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
A global spectral library to characterize the world's soil

AbstractSoil provides ecosystem services, supports human health and habitation, stores carbon and regulates emissions of greenhouse gases. Unprecedented pressures on soil from degradation and urbanization are threatening agro-ecological balances and food security. It is important that we learn more about soil to sustainably manage and preserve it for future generations. To this end, we developed and analyzed a global soil visible–near infrared (vis–NIR) spectral library. It is currently the largest and most diverse database of its kind. We show that the information encoded in the spectra can describe soil composition and be associated to land cover and its global geographic distribution, which acts as a surrogate for global climate variability. We also show the usefulness of the global spectra for predicting soil attributes such as soil organic and inorganic carbon, clay, silt, sand and iron contents, cation exchange capacity, and pH. Using wavelets to treat the spectra, which were recorded in different laboratories using different spectrometers and methods, helped to improve the spectroscopic modelling. We found that modelling a diverse set of spectra with a machine learning algorithm can find the local relationships in the data to produce accurate predictions of soil properties. The spectroscopic models that we derived are parsimonious and robust, and using them we derived a harmonized global soil attribute dataset, which might serve to facilitate research on soil at the global scale. This spectroscopic approach should help to deal with the shortage of data on soil to better understand it and to meet the growing demand for information to assess and monitor soil at scales ranging from regional to global. New contributions to the library are encouraged so that this work and our collaboration might progress to develop a dynamic and easily updatable database with better global coverage. We hope that this work will reinvigorate our community's discussion towards larger, more coordinated collaborations. We also hope that use of the database will deepen our understanding of soil so that we might sustainably manage it and extend the research outcomes of the soil, earth and environmental sciences towards applications that we have not yet dreamed of
The Influence of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction on the Effectiveness of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy MADIT-CRT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy)

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of left ventricular (LV) lead position on the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmia in patients undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).BackgroundLeft ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is a surrogate marker of heart failure (HF) status and associated risk. Data on the effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT-D) in patients with mild HF and better LVEF are limited.MethodsIn the MADIT-CRT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) study, the echocardiography core laboratory assessed baseline LVEF independent of the enrolling centers and identified a range of LVEFs, including those &gt;30% (i.e., beyond the eligibility criteria). Echocardiographic response with CRT, defined as percent change in left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), was analyzed in 3 prespecified LVEF groups: &gt;30%, 26% to 30%, and ≤25%. The primary endpoint was HF or death. Secondary endpoint included all-cause mortality.ResultsLVEF was evaluated in 1,809 study patients. There were 696 (38%) patients with LVEF &gt;30% (in the range of 30.1% to 45.3%); 914 patients (50.5%) with LVEF 26% to 30%; and 199 patients with LVEF ≤25% (11%). The mean reduction in LVEDV with CRT-D therapy at the 1-year follow-up was directly related to increasing LVEF (LVEF &gt;30%: 22.3%; LVEF 26% to 30%: 20.1%; and LVEF ≤25%: 18.7% reduction, respectively [p = 0.001]). CRT-D treatment similarly reduced the risk of HF/death in patients with LVEF &gt;30% (hazard ratio [HR]: = 0.56 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39 to 0.82], p = 0.003), LVEF 26% to 30% (HR: 0.67: [95% CI: 0.50 to 0.90], p = 0.007), and LVEF ≤25% (HR: 0.57 [95% CI: 0.35 to 0.95], p = 0.03; all p values for LVEF-by-treatment interactions &gt;0.1).ConclusionsIn MADIT-CRT, the clinical benefit of CRT was evident regardless of baseline LVEF, including those with LVEF &gt;30%, whereas the echocardiographic response was increased with increasing LVEF, indicating that CRT might benefit patients with better LVEF. (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy [MADIT-CRT]; NCT00180271