Structure-function mapping of a heptameric module in the nuclear pore complex.

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a multiprotein assembly that serves as the sole mediator of nucleocytoplasmic exchange in eukaryotic cells. In this paper, we use an integrative approach to determine the structure of an essential component of the yeast NPC, the ~600-kD heptameric Nup84 complex, to a precision of ~1.5 nm. The configuration of the subunit structures was determined by satisfaction of spatial restraints derived from a diverse set of negative-stain electron microscopy and protein domain-mapping data. Phenotypic data were mapped onto the complex, allowing us to identify regions that stabilize the NPC's interaction with the nuclear envelope membrane and connect the complex to the rest of the NPC. Our data allow us to suggest how the Nup84 complex is assembled into the NPC and propose a scenario for the evolution of the Nup84 complex through a series of gene duplication and loss events. This work demonstrates that integrative approaches based on low-resolution data of sufficient quality can generate functionally informative structures at intermediate resolution

Pathways from Food Insecurity to Health Outcomes among California University Students

The prevalence of food insecurity (FI) among college students is alarmingly high, yet the impact on student health has not been well investigated. The aim of the current study was to examine the simultaneous relationships between food insecurity and health-related outcomes including body mass index (BMI) and overall health in a college student population. Randomly sampled students in the University of California 10 campus system were invited to participate in an online survey in spring 2015. The analytic sample size was 8705 graduate and undergraduate students. Data were collected on FI in the past year, daily servings of fruits and vegetables (FV), number of days in the past week of enough sleep and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA), height and weight, self-rated health, and student characteristics. Using path analysis, mediated pathways between FI, BMI, and poor health were examined through FV intake, number of days of MVPA and enough sleep. Analyses controlled for student characteristics. Mean BMI was 23.6 kg/m2 (SD, 5.0), and average self-rated health was good. FI was directly and indirectly related to higher BMI and poor health through three pathways. First, FI was related to fewer days of enough sleep, which in turn was related to increased BMI and poor health. Second, FI was related to fewer days of MVPA, which in turn was related to increased BMI and poor health. Third, FI was related to fewer daily servings of FV, which in turn was related to poor health. FI is associated with poor health behaviors among college students, which may contribute to higher weight status and poor health. These findings highlight the importance of food security for a healthy college experience.University of California (UC) Office of the President's Global Food InitiativeOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Optimization and Abstraction: A Synergistic Approach for Analyzing Neural Network Robustness

In recent years, the notion of local robustness (or robustness for short) has emerged as a desirable property of deep neural networks. Intuitively, robustness means that small perturbations to an input do not cause the network to perform misclassifications. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for verifying robustness properties of neural networks. Our method synergistically combines gradient-based optimization methods for counterexample search with abstraction-based proof search to obtain a sound and ({\delta}-)complete decision procedure. Our method also employs a data-driven approach to learn a verification policy that guides abstract interpretation during proof search. We have implemented the proposed approach in a tool called Charon and experimentally evaluated it on hundreds of benchmarks. Our experiments show that the proposed approach significantly outperforms three state-of-the-art tools, namely AI^2 , Reluplex, and Reluval

LightDepth: Single-View Depth Self-Supervision from Illumination Decline

Single-view depth estimation can be remarkably effective if there is enough ground-truth depth data for supervised training. However, there are scenarios, especially in medicine in the case of endoscopies, where such data cannot be obtained. In such cases, multi-view self-supervision and synthetic-to-real transfer serve as alternative approaches, however, with a considerable performance reduction in comparison to supervised case. Instead, we propose a single-view self-supervised method that achieves a performance similar to the supervised case. In some medical devices, such as endoscopes, the camera and light sources are co-located at a small distance from the target surfaces. Thus, we can exploit that, for any given albedo and surface orientation, pixel brightness is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the surface, providing a strong single-view self-supervisory signal. In our experiments, our self-supervised models deliver accuracies comparable to those of fully supervised ones, while being applicable without depth ground-truth data

Association of HIV-1 Infection and Antiretroviral Therapy With Type 2 Diabetes in the Hispanic Population of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, USA

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in South Texas has one of the highest prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the United States (US). We report for the first time the T2D prevalence in persons with HIV (PWH) in the RGV and the interrelationship between T2D, cardiometabolic risk factors, HIV-related indices, and antiretroviral therapies (ART). The PWH in this study received medical care at Valley AIDS Council (VAC) clinic sites located in Harlingen and McAllen, Texas. Henceforth, this cohort will be referred to as Valley AIDS Council Cohort (VACC). Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using retrospective data obtained from 1,827 registries. It included demographic and anthropometric variables, cardiometabolic traits, and HIV-related virological and immunological indices. For descriptive statistics, we used mean values of the quantitative variables from unbalanced visits across 20 months. Robust regression methods were used to determine the associations. For comparisons, we used cardiometabolic trait data obtained from HIV-uninfected San Antonio Mexican American Family Studies (SAMAFS; N = 2,498), and the Mexican American population in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES; N = 5,989). The prevalence of T2D in VACC was 51% compared to 27% in SAMAFS and 19% in HHANES, respectively. The PWH with T2D in VACC were younger (4.7 years) and had lower BMI (BMI 2.43 units less) when compared to SAMAFS individuals. In contrast, VACC individuals had increased blood pressure and dyslipidemia. The increased T2D prevalence in VACC was independent of BMI. Within the VACC, ART was associated with viral load and CD4+ T cell counts but not with metabolic dysfunction. Notably, we found that individuals with any INSTI combination had higher T2D risk: OR 2.08 (95%CI 1.67, 2.6; p \u3c 0.001). In summary, our results suggest that VACC individuals may develop T2D at younger ages independent of obesity. The high burden of T2D in these individuals necessitates rigorously designed longitudinal studies to draw potential causal inferences and develop better treatment regimens

Optical polarization observations of NGC 6231: evidence for a past SN fingerprint

We present the first linear multicolor polarization observations for a sample of 35 stars in the direction of the Galactic cluster NGC 6231. We have found a complex pattern in the angles of the polarimetric vectors. Near the core of this cluster the structure shows a semi-circular pattern that we have interpreted as a re-orientation of the dust particles, showing the morphology of the magnetic field. We propose that a supernova event has occurred some time ago and produced a shock on the local ISM. We discuss in this paper independent confirmations othis event, both from the studies on the diffuse interstellar absorptions Crawford (2001) and the results of the pre-main sequence stars (PMS) given by Sung et al. (1998). We also show that a supernova is supported by the evolutive status of the cluster.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, ApJ Accepte

Language Identification in Short Utterances Using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks

Zazo R, Lozano-Diez A, Gonzalez-Dominguez J, T. Toledano D, Gonzalez-Rodriguez J (2016) Language Identification in Short Utterances Using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks. PLoS ONE 11(1): e0146917. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146917Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have recently outperformed other state-of-the-art approaches, such as i-vector and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), in automatic Language Identification (LID), particularly when dealing with very short utterances (similar to 3s). In this contribution we present an open-source, end-to-end, LSTM RNN system running on limited computational resources (a single GPU) that outperforms a reference i-vector system on a subset of the NIST Language Recognition Evaluation (8 target languages, 3s task) by up to a 26%. This result is in line with previously published research using proprietary LSTM implementations and huge computational resources, which made these former results hardly reproducible. Further, we extend those previous experiments modeling unseen languages (out of set, OOS, modeling), which is crucial in real applications. Results show that a LSTM RNN with OOS modeling is able to detect these languages and generalizes robustly to unseen OOS languages. Finally, we also analyze the effect of even more limited test data (from 2.25s to 0.1s) proving that with as little as 0.5s an accuracy of over 50% can be achieved.This work has been supported by project CMC-V2: Caracterizacion, Modelado y Compensacion de Variabilidad en la Señal de Voz (TEC2012-37585-C02-01), funded by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain

Dietary Nitrate Ingestion Does Not Improve Neuromuscular Performance in Male Sport Climbers

Beetroot juice (BJ) is commonly used as an ergogenic aid in endurance and team sports, however, the effect of this supplement on climbing performance is barely studied. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of acute BJ ingestion on neuromuscular and biochemical variables in amateur male sport climbers. Ten physically active sport climbers (28.8 ± 3.7 years) underwent a battery of neuromuscular tests consisting of the half crimp test, the pull�up to failure test, the isometric handgrip strength test, the countermovement jump (CMJ) and the squat jump (SJ). Participants performed the neuromuscular test battery twice in a cross-over design separated by 10 days, 150 min after having consumed either 70-mL of BJ (6.4 mmol NO3-) or a 70-mL placebo (0.0034 mmol NO3-). In addition, nitrate (NO3-) and nitrite (NO2-) saliva concentrations were analysed, and a side effect questionnaire related to ingestion was administrated. No differences were reported in particular neuromuscular variables measured such as the CMJ (p = 0.960; ES = 0.03), the SJ (p = 0.581; ES = −0.25), isometric handgrip strength (dominant/non dominant) (p = 0.459–0.447; ES = 0.34–0.35), the pull-up failure test (p = 0.272; ES = 0.51) or the maximal isometric half crimp test (p = 0.521–0.824; ES = 0.10–0.28). Salivary NO3- and NO2- increased significantly post BJ supplementation compared to the placebo (p < 0.001), while no side effects associated to ingestion were reported (p = 0.330–1.000) between conditions (BJ/placebo ingestion). Acute dietary nitrate supplementation (70-mL) did not produce any statistically significant improvement in neuromuscular performance or side effects in amateur sport climbers

An updated protocol for a systematic review of implementation-related measures

Abstract Background Implementation science is the study of strategies used to integrate evidence-based practices into real-world settings (Eccles and Mittman, Implement Sci. 1(1):1, 2006). Central to the identification of replicable, feasible, and effective implementation strategies is the ability to assess the impact of contextual constructs and intervention characteristics that may influence implementation, but several measurement issues make this work quite difficult. For instance, it is unclear which constructs have no measures and which measures have any evidence of psychometric properties like reliability and validity. As part of a larger set of studies to advance implementation science measurement (Lewis et al., Implement Sci. 10:102, 2015), we will complete systematic reviews of measures that map onto the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (Damschroder et al., Implement Sci. 4:50, 2009) and the Implementation Outcomes Framework (Proctor et al., Adm Policy Ment Health. 38(2):65-76, 2011), the protocol for which is described in this manuscript. Methods Our primary databases will be PubMed and Embase. Our search strings will be comprised of five levels: (1) the outcome or construct term; (2) terms for measure; (3) terms for evidence-based practice; (4) terms for implementation; and (5) terms for mental health. Two trained research specialists will independently review all titles and abstracts followed by full-text review for inclusion. The research specialists will then conduct measure-forward searches using the “cited by” function to identify all published empirical studies using each measure. The measure and associated publications will be compiled in a packet for data extraction. Data relevant to our Psychometric and Pragmatic Evidence Rating Scale (PAPERS) will be independently extracted and then rated using a worst score counts methodology reflecting “poor” to “excellent” evidence. Discussion We will build a centralized, accessible, searchable repository through which researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders can identify psychometrically and pragmatically strong measures of implementation contexts, processes, and outcomes. By facilitating the employment of psychometrically and pragmatically strong measures identified through this systematic review, the repository would enhance the cumulativeness, reproducibility, and applicability of research findings in the rapidly growing field of implementation science

Indicadores de calidad edáfica en cultivos antecesores consociados y monocultivo de batata

Un experimento con batata cv Arapey, fue implantado en 2011 en Argiudoles evaluando diferentes tipos de manejo de suelos. Fueron comparados los manejos de mayor adopción como monocultivo y antecesor barbecho desnudo, con otras prácticas de manejo conservacionistas como antecesores de variedades de maíz (cv. Blanco Duro, cv. Caiano, cv Azteca), sorgo forrajero (cv. Talero), leguminosas subtropicales (Canavalia ensiformis, Mucuna cinza) y cultivo de batata (cv Arapey) de forma consociada en hileras con estos (cv Blanco Duro, Cv Caiano, Canavalia ensiformis). Fueron implementados 12 tratamientos y tres repeticiones, en diseño en bloques aleatorizados (DBCA) en un ensayo con objetivo de larga duración en la EEA San Pedro. Las batatas fueron trasplantadas, en 2011, 2012, 2013, siendo aquí comunicados los resultados de las primeras dos cosechas. En el primer año se cosecharon y registraron los rendimientos (ha) de los tratamientos de batata monocultivo, batata consociada con variedades maíz (cv Blanco Duro, cv. Caiano) y batata con leguminosas (Canavalia ensiformis). En el segundo año se cosecharon los tratamientos luego de los antecesores, barbecho desnudo, maíz (cv. Blanco Duro, cv. Caiano, cv Azteca), sorgo (cv. Talero) y leguminosas (Canavalia ensiformis). En cada situación fueron levantadas para la determinación las variables edáficas, físicas, químicas, biológicas: densidad aparente (DAP), infiltración básica (IB), porosidad total (PT), distribución de macroporos (MP), mesoporos (MSP), microporos (MCP), estabilidad de agregados (EA), pH, conductividad eléctrica (CE), carbono orgánico total (COT), nitrógeno total (NT), fósforo extractable (Pe), calcio (Ca), magnesio (Mg), potasio (K), sodio (Na), capacidad de intercambio catiónico (CIC), respiración (AB), carbono en la biomasa microbiana (CBM), coeficientes metabólicos (qCO2), fluoresceína difosfato (FDA) , fosfatasa ácida (Pasa), glomalinas (PROT) e hifas (H) arbúsculos (A) y vesículas (V) de micorrizas. El objetivo del trabajo fue conocer en qué medida el conjunto de variables-indicadores, permitían diferenciar las situaciones de manejo. En el análisis ANOVA, en el primer año 2012 los rendimientos de batata no difirieron significativamente, mientras que en el segundo 2013, la batata monocultivo, el antecesor barbecho desnudo, sorgo (cv. Talero) y leguminosa (Canavalia ensiformis), superaron significativamente a las batatas consociadas en hileras con variedades de maíz (cv Blanco Duro, Cv Caiano) y Canavalia ensiformis. El análisis de regresión múltiple (stepwise) en el primer año 2012, demostró un alta relación del rendimiento de batata con las variables biológicas, (CBM), (PROT), (qCO2) (R²= 0.65) y las físicas (MP), (MCP) (R²= 0.66). En el segundo año 2013, los rendimientos de batata presentaron una baja relación en sentido negativa con las variables biológicas (FDA) (Pasa), (PROT) (R²= 0.40), y las físicas (EA) (MSP) (R²= 0.26), pero una alta relación positiva con el Nt (R²= 0.85). El análisis de componentes principales separó mediante el CP1 (38,7% de la variación ocurrida), los tratamientos consociados del monocultivo, demostrando los consociados agruparse en un cuadrante junto a los rendimientos de batata 2012, la (FDA), (Pasa), (PROT), (MCP), (EA). Por el contrario, los de monocultivo se agruparon junto a los rendimientos de batata 2013, las variables químicas en su totalidad, las físicas (MP), (MSP) y micorrizas (H), (A), (V) en otro extremo.EEA San PedroFil: Ullé, Jorge Angel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Marti, Héctor Rubén.Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Faggioli, Valeria Soledad. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Marcos Juarez; ArgentinaFil: Darder, María Liliana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Dalpiaz, María Jimena. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Farroni, Abel Eduardo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Rimatori Fernando Miguel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Colombini, F. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Villalba, D. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Martinez, Fortunato. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región NEA; ArgentinaFil: Ortega y Villasana, Pilar. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región NEA; Argentin