On inverse probability-weighted estimators in the presence of interference.

We consider inference about the causal effect of a treatment or exposure in the presence of interference, i.e., when one individual's treatment affects the outcome of another individual.

Proteomic analysis reveals diverse proline hydroxylation-mediated oxygen-sensing cellular pathways in cancer cells.

Proline hydroxylation is a critical cellular mechanism regulating oxygen-response pathways in tumor initiation and progression. Yet, its substrate diversity and functions remain largely unknown. Here, we report a system-wide analysis to characterize proline hydroxylation substrates in cancer cells using an immunoaffinity-purification assisted proteomics strategy.

Note: Development of leg size sensors for fluid accumulation monitoring.

A number of diseases can lead to fluid accumulation and swelling in the lower leg. Early detection of leg swelling can be used to effectively predict potential health risks and allows for early intervention from medical providers. Hence this note develops a novel leg size sensor based on the use of magnetic field measurement.

The histone H3.3K36M mutation reprograms the epigenome of chondroblastomas.

More than 90% of chondroblastomas contain a heterozygous mutation replacing lysine-36 with methionine-36 (K36M) in the histone H3 variant H3.3. Here we show that H3K36 methylation is reduced globally in human chondroblastomas and in chondrocytes harboring the same genetic mutation, due to inhibition of at least two H3K36 methyltransferases, MMSET and SETD2, by the H3.

Data on mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle of old mice in response to different exercise intensity.

Endurance exercise is securely linked to muscle metabolic adaptations including enhanced mitochondrial function ("Effects of exercise on mitochondrial oxygen uptake and respiratory enzyme activity in skeletal muscle" [1], "Effects of exercise on mitochondrial content and function in aging human skeletal muscle" [2]). However, the link between exercise intensity and mitochondrial function in aging muscle has not been fully investigated. In order to understand how strenuous exercise affects mitochondrial function in aged mice, male C57BL/6 mice at age 24 months were randomly assigned to 3 groups: non-exercise (NE), low-intensity (LE) and high-intensity treadmill exercise group (HE).

Muscle immobilization activates mitophagy and disrupts mitochondrial dynamics in mice.

Aim: Skeletal muscle atrophy following prolonged immobilization (IM) is a catabolic state characterized by increased proteolysis and functional deterioration. Previous research indicates that discord of mitochondrial homoeostasis plays a critical role in muscle atrophy. We hypothesized that muscle IM would activate the ubiquitin-proteolysis, autophagy-lysosome (mitophagy) pathway, mitochondrial dynamics remodelling and apoptosis partially controlled by the FoxO signalling pathway.

Ecology of the Tick-Borne Phlebovirus Causing Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome in an Endemic Area of China.

Background: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is caused by SFTS virus (SFTSV), a tick-borne phlebovirus in family Bunyaviridae. Studies have found that humans, domestic and wildlife animals can be infected by SFTSV. However, the viral ecology, circulation, and transmission remain largely unknown.

Differential Regulation of TLR Signaling on the Induction of Antiviral Interferons in Human Intestinal Epithelial Cells Infected with Enterovirus 71.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) causes hand-foot-and-mouth disease, which can lead to fatal neurological complications in young children and infants. Few gastrointestinal symptoms are observed clinically, suggesting the presence of a unique immunity to EV71 in the gut. We reported a robust induction of interferons (IFNs) in human intestinal epithelial cells (HT-29), which was suppressed in other types such as RD and HeLa cells.

Site-Specific Identification of Lysine Acetylation Stoichiometries in Mammalian Cells.

Functional characterization of the lysine acetylation pathway requires quantitative measurement of the modification abundance at the stoichiometry level. Here, we developed a systematic workflow for global untargeted identification of site-specific Lys acetylation stoichiometries in mammalian cells. Our strategy includes an optimized protocol for in vitro chemical labeling of unmodified lysine with stable isotope-encoded acetyl-NHS ester, deep proteomic profiling with a high resolution mass spectrometer, and a new software tool for quantitative analysis and stoichiometry determination.

SHORT HYPOCOTYL UNDER BLUE1 or HAIKU2 mixepression alters canola and Arabidopsis seed development.

Canola (Brassica napus) is a widely cultivated species and provides important resources of edible vegetable oil, biodiesel production and animal feed. Seed development in Arabidopsis and canola shares a similar path: an early proliferation of endosperm to form a large seed cavity, followed by a second phase in which the embryo grows to replace the endosperm. In Arabidopsis, the seed reaches almost its final volume before the enlargement of the embryo.

Intrinsic apoptosis and proinflammatory cytokines regulated in human astrocytes infected with enterovirus 71.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) has emerged as a clinically important neurotropic virus following poliovirus eradication. However, the mechanism of EV71-induced neurological manifestation remains largely unclear. In this study, we showed that human astrocytes were susceptible to EV71 and viral RNA was first detected at 12 h post-infection (p.

PGC-1α overexpression by in vivo transfection attenuates mitochondrial deterioration of skeletal muscle caused by immobilization.

Prolonged immobilization (IM) causes skeletal muscle atrophy characterized by mitochondrial deterioration and proteolysis. Muscle remobilization (RM) increases reactive oxygen species generation, proinflammatory cytokine expression, and oxidative stress, preventing muscle from quick recovery. Thus, we hypothesized that overexpression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1-α (PGC-1α) via in vivo transfection would promote mitochondrial biogenesis and antioxidant defense, thus ameliorating the aforementioned deteriorations in a mouse model with 14-d IM followed by 5-d RM.

Attenuation of the influenza virus by microRNA response element in vivo and protective efficacy against 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus in mice.

Background: The 2009 influenza pandemics underscored the need for effective vaccines to block the spread of influenza virus infection. Most live attenuated vaccines utilize cold-adapted, temperature-sensitive virus. An alternative to live attenuated virus is presented here, based on microRNA-induced gene silencing.

Strenuous exercise induces mitochondrial damage in skeletal muscle of old mice.

Strenuous exercise is known to cause excessive ROS generation and inflammation. However, the mechanisms responsible for the regulation of mitochondrial integrity in the senescent muscle during high-intensity exercise (HE) are not well studied. Here, we show that HE suppresses up-regulation of mitochondrial function despite increase in mitochondrial copy number, following excessive ROS production, proinflammatory cytokines and NFκB activation.

Regulation of host responses and viral replication by the mitogen-activated protein kinases in intestinal epithelial cells infected with Enterovirus 71.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) has become an important neurotropic enterovirus in children since the eradication of the poliovirus. A cytokine storm with elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines is proposed as critical to the pathogenesis of EV71-induced brain stem encephalitis with pulmonary edema, often a fatal complication. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) are involved in cellular processes including immune responses and apoptosis.

Robust Feature Selection Technique using Rank Aggregation.

Although feature selection is a well-developed research area, there is an ongoing need to develop methods to make classifiers more efficient. One important challenge is the lack of a universal feature selection technique which produces similar outcomes with all types of classifiers. This is because all feature selection techniques have individual statistical biases while classifiers exploit different statistical properties of data for evaluation.

Does standard deviation matter? Using "standard deviation" to quantify security of multistage testing.

With the advent of web-based technology, online testing is becoming a mainstream mode in large-scale educational assessments. Most online tests are administered continuously in a testing window, which may post test security problems because examinees who take the test earlier may share information with those who take the test later. Researchers have proposed various statistical indices to assess the test security, and one most often used index is the average test-overlap rate, which was further generalized to the item pooling index (Chang & Zhang, 2002, 2003).

Exercise training attenuates aging-associated mitochondrial dysfunction in rat skeletal muscle: role of PGC-1α.

Aged skeletal muscle demonstrates declines in muscle mass and deterioration of mitochondrial content and function. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ co-activator 1α (PGC-1α) plays an important role in promoting muscle mitochondrial biogenesis in response to exercise training, but its role in senescent muscle is not clear. In the present study we hypothesize that a downregulation of the PGC-1α signaling pathway contributes to mitochondrial deterioration in aged muscle whereas endurance training ameliorates the deficits.

Muscle immobilization and remobilization downregulates PGC-1α signaling and the mitochondrial biogenesis pathway.

Prolonged immobilization (IM) results in skeletal muscle atrophy accompanied by increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, inflammation, and protein degradation. However, the biological consequence of remobilizing such muscle has been studied only sparsely. In this study, we examined the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α)-controlled mitochondrial biogenesis pathway and inflammatory response in mice subjected to 2 wk of hindlimb IM followed by 5 days of remobilization (RM).

A WRKY transcription factor recruits the SYG1-like protein SHB1 to activate gene expression and seed cavity enlargement.

Seed development in Arabidopsis and in many dicots involves an early proliferation of the endosperm to form a large embryo sac or seed cavity close to the size of the mature seed, followed by a second phase during which the embryo grows and replaces the endosperm. Short hypocotyl under BLUE1 (SHB1) is a member of the SYG1 protein family in fungi, Caenorhabditis elegans, flies, and mammals. SHB1 gain-of-function enhances endosperm proliferation, increases seed size, and up-regulates the expression of the WRKY transcription factor gene MINISEED3 (MINI3) and the LRR receptor kinase gene HAIKU2 (IKU2).

Performance of rapid influenza H1N1 diagnostic tests: a meta-analysis.

Background: Following the outbreaks of 2009 pandemic H1N1 infection, rapid influenza diagnostic tests have been used to detect H1N1 infection. However, no meta-analysis has been undertaken to assess the diagnostic accuracy when this manuscript was drafted.

Methods: The literature was systematically searched to identify studies that reported the performance of rapid tests.

Low-cost, transparent, and flexible single-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposite based ion-sensitive field-effect transistors for pH/glucose sensing.

Low-cost, transparent, and flexible ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) are presented as pH and glucose sensors. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and poly(diallyldimethyammonium chloride, PDDA) are deposited by layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly between two metallic electrodes patterned on a polyethylene terephthalate substrate. The pH ISFETs are characterized based on the fact that the electronic conductance of SWCNTs nanocomposite is determined by molecular protonation/deprotonation of carboxylic groups on SWCNTs and by the external Ag/AgCl reference gate voltage.

Evaluation of street sweeping effectiveness as a stormwater management practice using statistical power analysis.

Although street sweeping is commonly regarded as a cost-effective stormwater best management practice, there is little quantitative evidence that street sweeping directly improves runoff water quality. In this paper, several previous street sweeping studies were re-evaluated using statistical power analysis. Two-group, independent-sample one-sided t-test power analyses were performed using log-transformed event mean concentrations (EMCs) of total suspended solids, suspended sediment concentration or chemical oxygen demand.

HDR VolVis: high dynamic range volume visualization.

In this paper, we present an interactive high dynamic range volume visualization framework (HDR VolVis) for visualizing volumetric data with both high spatial and intensity resolutions. Volumes with high dynamic range values require high precision computing during the rendering process to preserve data precision. Furthermore, it is desirable to render high resolution volumes with low opacity values to reveal detailed internal structures, which also requires high precision compositing.

Convergent and discriminant validity of psychopathy factors assessed via self-report: a comparison of three instruments.

Psychopathy has been conceptualized as a personality disorder with distinctive interpersonal-affective and behavioral deviance features. The authors examine correlates of the factors of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), Self-Report Psychopathy-II (SRP-II) scale, and Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) to understand similarities and differences among the constructs embodied in these instruments. PPI Fearless Dominance and SRP-II Factor 1 were negatively related to most personality disorder symptoms and were both predicted by high Dominance and low Neuroticism.