Ball: An R package for detecting distribution difference and association in metric spaces

The rapid development of modern technology facilitates the appearance of numerous unprecedented complex data which do not satisfy the axioms of Euclidean geometry, while most of the statistical hypothesis tests are available in Euclidean or Hilbert spaces. To properly analyze the data of more complicated structures, efforts have been made to solve the fundamental test problems in more general spaces. In this paper, a publicly available R package Ball is provided to implement Ball statistical test procedures for K-sample distribution comparison and test of mutual independence in metric spaces, which extend the test procedures for two sample distribution comparison and test of independence. The tailormade algorithms as well as engineering techniques are employed on the Ball package to speed up computation to the best of our ability. Two real data analyses and several numerical studies have been performed and the results certify the powerfulness of Ball package in analyzing complex data, e.g., spherical data and symmetric positive matrix data

Exact Solutions for the Wick-Type Stochastic Schamel-Korteweg-de Vries Equation

We consider the Wick-type stochastic Schamel-Korteweg-de Vries equation with variable coefficients in this paper. With the aid of symbolic computation and Hermite transformation, by employing the (G′/G,1/G)-expansion method, we derive the new exact travelling wave solutions, which include hyperbolic and trigonometric solutions for the considered equations

BeSS: An R Package for Best Subset Selection in Linear, Logistic and Cox Proportional Hazards Models

We introduce a new R package, BeSS, for solving the best subset selection problem in linear, logistic and Cox's proportional hazard (CoxPH) models. It utilizes a highly efficient active set algorithm based on primal and dual variables, and supports sequential and golden search strategies for best subset selection. We provide a C++ implementation of the algorithm using an Rcpp interface. We demonstrate through numerical experiments based on enormous simulation and real datasets that the new BeSS package has competitive performance compared to other R packages for best subset selection purposes

Involvement of TIP60 acetyltransferase in intracellular Salmonella replication

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Salmonella </it>enterica is a facultative intracellular pathogen that replicates within a membrane-bound compartment termed <it>Salmonella </it>containing vacuole (SCV). The biogenesis of SCV requires <it>Salmonella </it>type III protein secretion/translocation system and their effector proteins which are translocated into host cells to exploit the vesicle trafficking pathways. SseF is one of these effectors required for SCV formation and Intracellular <it>Salmonella </it>replication through unknown mechanisms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In an attempt to identify host proteins that interact with SseF, we conduct a yeast two-hybrid screening of human cell cDNA library using SseF as the bait. We identified that TIP60, an acetyltransferase, interacts with SseF. We showed that the TIP60 acetylation activity was increased in the presence of SseF, and TIP60 was upregulated upon <it>Salmonella </it>infection. In addition, TIP60 is required for efficient intracellular <it>Salmonella </it>replication in macrophages.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, our data suggest that <it>Salmonella </it>may use SseF to exploit the host TIP60 acetyltransferase activity to promote efficient <it>Salmonella </it>replication inside host cells.</p

Tryptophan-kynurenine pathway as a novel link between gut microbiota and schizophrenia: A review

Gut microbiota and its metabolite tryptophan play an important role in regulating neurotransmission, immune homeostasis and oxidative stress which are critical for brain development. The kynurenine pathway is the main route of tryptophan catabolism. Kynurenine metabolites regulate many biological processes including host-microbiome communication, immunity and oxidative stress, as well as neuronal excitability. The accumulation of metabolites produced by kynurenine pathway in brain results in the activation of the immune system (increase in the levels of inflammatory factors) and oxidative stress (production of reactive oxygen species, ROS), which are associated with mental disorders, for example schizophrenia. Thus, it was hypothesized that perturbations in kynurenine pathway could cause activation of immunity, and that oxidative stress may be involved in the etiology of schizophrenia. The present work is a review of the latest studies on the possible role of kynurenine pathway in schizophrenia, and mechanism(s) involved