Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
N-Acetylaspartate (NAA) and N-Acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG) Promote Growth and Inhibit Differentiation of Glioma Stem-like Cells*

Background: N-acetylaspartate (NAA), the primary source of brain acetate, and aspartoacylase (ASPA), the enzyme that catabolizes NAA, are decreased in glioma, thereby decreasing acetate bioavailability. Results: Treatment with NAA and NAAG promotes growth and inhibits differentiation of glioma stem-like cells (GSCs). Conclusion: This study links acetate bioavailability and GSC malignancy. Significance: Because NAA/NAAG-mediated acetate supplementation promoted GSC growth, an alternative acetate therapeutic is required. Metabolic reprogramming is a pathological feature of cancer and a driver of tumor cell transformation. N-Acetylaspartate (NAA) is one of the most abundant amino acid derivatives in the brain and serves as a source of metabolic acetate for oligodendrocyte myelination and protein/histone acetylation or a precursor for the synthesis of the neurotransmitter N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG). NAA and NAAG as well as aspartoacylase (ASPA), the enzyme responsible for NAA degradation, are significantly reduced in glioma tumors, suggesting a possible role for decreased acetate metabolism in tumorigenesis. This study sought to examine the effects of NAA and NAAG on primary tumor-derived glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) from oligodendroglioma as well as proneural and mesenchymal glioblastoma, relative to oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (Oli-Neu). Although the NAA dicarboxylate transporter NaDC3 is primarily thought to be expressed by astrocytes, all cell lines expressed NaDC3 and, thus, are capable of NAA up-take. Treatment with NAA or NAAG significantly increased GSC growth and suppressed differentiation of Oli-Neu cells and proneural GSCs. Interestingly, ASPA was expressed in both the cytosol and nuclei of GSCs and exhibited greatest nuclear immunoreactivity in differentiation-resistant GSCs. Both NAA and NAAG elicited the expression of a novel immunoreactive ASPA species in select GSC nuclei, suggesting differential ASPA regulation in response to these metabolites. Therefore, this study highlights a potential role for nuclear ASPA expression in GSC malignancy and suggests that the use of NAA or NAAG is not an appropriate therapeutic approach to increase acetate bioavailability in glioma. Thus, an alternative acetate source is required.
Byproducts of the aqueous chlorination of purines and pyrimidines.

The interaction of aqueous chlorine with purines and pyrimidines was investigated, with particular regard to the formation of stable byproducts of environmental concern. These reaction products were studied by a number of gas chromatographic methods employing ECD and NPD. All products were confirmed by GC-MS. It had been suspected that chlorination of pyrimidines, especially cytosine, might produce significant yields of haloacetonitriles, but only low yields of these compounds were produced in this study. However, numerous organic byproducts were produced including cyano compounds, haloaldehydes, and haloacetic acids
Deep RNA Sequencing Uncovers a Repertoire of Human Macrophage Long Intergenic Noncoding RNAs Modulated by Macrophage Activation and Associated With Cardiometabolic Diseases

Background Sustained and dysfunctional macrophage activation promotes inflammatory cardiometabolic disorders, but the role of long intergenic noncoding RNA (lincRNA) in human macrophage activation and cardiometabolic disorders is poorly defined. Through transcriptomics, bioinformatics, and selective functional studies, we sought to elucidate the lincRNA landscape of human macrophages. Methods and Results We used deep RNA sequencing to assemble the lincRNA transcriptome of human monocyte‐derived macrophages at rest and following stimulation with lipopolysaccharide and IFN‐γ (interferon γ) for M1 activation and IL‐4 (interleukin 4) for M2 activation. Through de novo assembly, we identified 2766 macrophage lincRNAs, including 861 that were previously unannotated. The majority (≈85%) was nonsyntenic or was syntenic but not annotated as expressed in mouse. Many macrophage lincRNAs demonstrated tissue‐enriched transcription patterns (21.5%) and enhancer‐like chromatin signatures (60.9%). Macrophage activation, particularly to the M1 phenotype, markedly altered the lincRNA expression profiles, revealing 96 lincRNAs differentially expressed, suggesting potential roles in regulating macrophage inflammatory functions. A subset of lincRNAs overlapped genomewide association study loci for cardiometabolic disorders. MacORIS (macrophage‐enriched obesity‐associated lincRNA serving as a repressor of IFN‐γ signaling), a macrophage‐enriched lincRNA not expressed in mouse macrophages, harbors variants associated with central obesity. Knockdown of MacORIS , which is located in the cytoplasm, enhanced IFN‐γ–induced JAK2 (Janus kinase 2) and STAT1 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 1) phosphorylation in THP‐1 macrophages, suggesting a potential role as a repressor of IFN‐γ signaling. Induced pluripotent stem cell–derived macrophages recapitulated the lincRNA transcriptome of human monocyte‐derived macrophages and provided a high‐fidelity model with which to study lincRNAs in human macrophage biology, particularly those not conserved in mouse. Conclusions High‐resolution transcriptomics identified lincRNAs that form part of the coordinated response during macrophage activation, including specific macrophage lincRNAs associated with human cardiometabolic disorders that modulate macrophage inflammatory functions.
Factors Limiting Device Efficiency in Organic Photovoltaics

The power conversion efficiency of the most efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells has recently increased to over 10%. To enable further increases, the factors limiting the device efficiency in OPV must be identified. In this review, the operational mechanism of OPV cells is explained and the detailed balance limit to photovoltaic energy conversion, as developed by Shockley and Queisser, is outlined. The various approaches that have been developed to estimate the maximum practically achievable efficiency in OPV are then discussed, based on empirical knowledge of organic semiconductor materials. Subsequently, approaches made to adapt the detailed balance theory to incorporate some of the fundamentally different processes in organic solar cells that originate from using a combination of two complementary, donor and acceptor, organic semiconductors using thermodynamic and kinetic approaches are described. The more empirical formulations to the efficiency limits provide estimates of 10–12%, but the more fundamental descriptions suggest limits of 20–24% to be reachable in single junctions, similar to the highest efficiencies obtained for crystalline silicon p‐n junction solar cells. Closing this gap sets the stage for future materials research and development of OPV.
Complications after Ankle Fracture in Elderly Patients

Background: Controversy exists regarding the risks and benefits of ankle fracture treatment in elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to use the United States Medicare database to determine the complication rate for ankle fractures in elderly patients treated operatively and to compare it to fractures treated nonoperatively. Methods: We used the National Medicare Claims History System to study all enrollees who sustained ankle fractures between 1998 and 2001. A total of 33,704 patients were identified and their outcomes at numerous time points were evaluated. These outcomes included mortality, rate of repeat hospitalization, rate of medical and operative complications, and the rate of additional surgery. The predictor variables were either nonoperative or operative intervention. Covariates included patient age, gender, race, medical comorbidity status, and fracture type. Results: Patients treated nonoperatively had significantly higher mortality (p < 0.05) than those treated operatively at all time periods except for 30 days. However, patients treated operatively had significantly higher rehospitalization rates (p < 0.05) at all time periods studied. The medical and operative complication rates at all time periods were less than or equal to 2% for patients who had either operative or nonoperative treatment. In the group that had operative management, a relatively small number of patients had additional procedures. Eleven percent had removal of hardware. Less than 1% of all patients had revision of the internal fixation, arthroplasty, arthrodesis, or amputation. Conclusion: In properly selected cases, the complication rates of both operatively and nonoperatively treated elderly patients are low.
What forms the chunks in a subject's performance? Lessons from the CHREST computational model of learning

Computational models of learning provide an alternative technique for identifying the number and type of chunks used by a subject in a specific task. Results from applying CHREST to chess expertise support the theoretical framework of Cowan and a limit in visual short-term memory capacity of 3–4 looms. An application to learning from diagrams illustrates different identifiable forms of chunk.
Influence of route of administration/drug formulation and other factors on adherence to treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (pain related) and dyslipidemia (non-pain related)

Abstract Objectives: A comprehensive review was performed to investigate the effect of route of administration on medication adherence and persistence in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to compare adherence/persistence with oral medications between RA and a non-painful disease (dyslipidemia). Research design and methods: Comprehensive database searches were performed to identify studies investigating medication adherence and/or persistence in adults with RA receiving conventional synthetic or biologic agents. Similar searches were performed for studies of patients with dyslipidemia receiving statins. Studies had to be published after 1998 in English and involve ≥6 months’ follow up. Main outcome measures: Adherence and persistence were compared between the different routes of drug administration in RA, and between the two diseases for oral medications. Results: A total of 35 and 28 papers underwent data extraction for RA and dyslipidemia, respectively. Within the constraints of the analysis, adherence and persistence rates appeared broadly similar for the different routes of drug administration in RA. Adherence to oral medications was also broadly similar across the two diseases, but persistence was lower in dyslipidemia. Poor adherence has clinical consequences in both diseases: greater disease activity and risk of flare in RA, and increased serum cholesterol levels and risk of heart and cerebrovascular disease in dyslipidemia. Over 1–3 years, poor adherence to biologic RA medications led to increased resource use and medical costs but lower total direct costs due to reduced biologic drug costs. Conversely, poor adherence to dyslipidemia medications resulted in increased total direct costs. In both diseases, adherence improved with patient education/support. Conclusions: The route of drug administration and the symptomatic (pain) nature of the disease do not appear to be dominant factors for drug adherence or persistence in RA. Limitation: The wide range of adherence and persistence values and definitions across studies made comparisons between drug formulations and diseases difficult.
Patients with urothelial carcinoma have poor renal outcome regardless of whether they receive nephrouretectomy

The association between urothelial carcinoma (UC) and subsequent ESRD incidence has not been confirmed. This was a population-based study using claims data from the Taiwan National Health Institutes from 1998 to 2010. The study cohort consisted of 26,017 patients with newly diagnosed UC and no history of ESRD, and the comparison cohort consisted of 208,136 matched enrollees without UC. The incidence of ESRD was ascertained through cross-referencing with a registry for catastrophic illnesses. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of ESRD associated with UC and UC subtype. A total of 979 patients (3.76%) from the UC group and 1,829 (0.88%) from the comparison group developed ESRD. Multivariable analysis indicated that compared with the comparison group, the hazard ratios (HRs) for ESRD were 7.75 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.84 to 8.78) and 3.12 (95% CI: 6.84 to 8.78) in the cohort with upper urinary tract UC (UT-UC) and bladder UC (B-UC), respectively. In addition, there were significantly increased risks for ESRD in UC patients receiving and not receiving nephrouretectomies or aristolochic acids (AA). Moreover, the UC patients receiving segmental ureterectomy and ureteral reimplantation had approximately 1.3-fold and 2.4-fold increased risk for ESRD after control for confounders, respectively. Thus, our data indicate that UT-UC and B-UC independently increased the risk for ESRD in patients after considering about nephrouretectomies or aristolochic acids (AA). In addition, UC patients receiving segmental ureterectomy and ureteral reimplantation had increased risk for ESRD.
DSAC — Differentiable RANSAC for Camera Localization

RANSAC is an important algorithm in robust optimization and a central building block for many computer vision applications. In recent years, traditionally hand-crafted pipelines have been replaced by deep learning pipelines, which can be trained in an end-to-end fashion. However, RANSAC has so far not been used as part of such deep learning pipelines, because its hypothesis selection procedure is non-differentiable. In this work, we present two different ways to overcome this limitation. The most promising approach is inspired by reinforcement learning, namely to replace the deterministic hypothesis selection by a probabilistic selection for which we can derive the expected loss w.r. t. to all learnable parameters. We call this approach DSAC, the differentiable counterpart of RANSAC. We apply DSAC to the problem of camera localization, where deep learning has so far failed to improve on traditional approaches. We demonstrate that by directly minimizing the expected loss of the output camera poses, robustly estimated by RANSAC, we achieve an increase in accuracy. In the future, any deep learning pipeline can use DSAC as a robust optimization component.
Estrogen-dependent effects of 5-hydroxytryptophan on cortical spreading depression in rat: Modelling the serotonin-ovarian hormone interaction in migraine aura

Background Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is the likely culprit of the migraine aura. Migraine is sexually dimorphic and thought to be a “low 5-HT” condition. We sought to decipher the interrelation between serotonin, ovarian hormones and cortical excitability in a model of migraine aura. Methods Occipital KCl-induced CSDs were recorded for one hour at parieto-occipital and frontal levels in adult male (n = 16) and female rats (n = 64) one hour after intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) or NaCl. Sixty-five oophorectomized females were treated with estradiol- (E2) or cholesterol- (Chol) filled capsules. Two weeks later we recorded CSDs after 5-HTP/NaCl injections before or 20 hours after capsule removal. Results 5-HTP had no effect in males, but decreased CSD frequency in cycling females, significantly so during estrus, at parieto-occipital (−3.5CSD/h, p < 0.001) and frontal levels (−2.5CSD/h, p = 0.014). In oophorectomized rats, CSD susceptibility increased during E2 treatment at both recording sites (+5CSD/h, p = 0.001 and +3CSD/h, p < 0.01), but decreased promptly after E2 withdrawal (−4.7CSD/h, p < 0.001 and −1.7CSD/h, p = 0.094). The CSD inhibitory effect of 5-HTP was significant only in E2-treated rats (−3.4CSD/h, p = 0.006 and −1.8CSD/h, p = 0.029). Neither the estrous cycle phase, nor E2 or 5-HTP treatments significantly modified CSD propagation velocity. Conclusion 5-HTP decreases CSD occurrence in the presence of ovarian hormones, suggesting its potential efficacy in migraine with aura prophylaxis in females. Elevated E2 levels increase CSD susceptibility, while estrogen withdrawal decreases CSD. In a translational perspective, these findings may explain why migraine auras can appear during pregnancy and why menstrual-related migraine attacks are rarely associated with an aura.
The reliability of adolescent thermoregulatory responses during a heat acclimation protocol.

This study investigated the between trial variation of thermoregulatory measures during a heat acclimation protocol. Eight 14-16 y old boys completed three bouts of 20-min cycling at 45 % peak VO2 in a hot environment (35.1 ± 1.2 °C and 46. 4 ± 1.0 % relative humidity) on two occasions separated by a minimum of 24 h. Reliability was assessed through analysis of within-subject variation, the change in the mean, and retest correlation for measurements of aural temperature (Tau), mean skin temperature (Tsk), heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake (VO2). Between trial differences were low for Tau, Tskbout1, Tskbout2and3 and HR with coefficients of variation 0.6 %, 1.5 %, 0.5 % and 4.0 %, respectively. The results demonstrate good reliability that will allow future investigators to precisely determine the extent of heat acclimation protocols in relation to the measurement error. Key pointsTo allow paediatric heat acclimation guidelines to be produced, the extent of heat acclimation needs to be established once biological and mechanical variation has been accounted for.The results of the present study indicate that between trial differences were low for aural temperature, mean skin temperature and heart rate with coefficient of variation values ranging from 0.6 - 4.0 %. Future investigators will be able to utilise the coefficient of variation values to establish the effectiveness of heat acclimation with precision alongside the selection of appropriate sample size.
Crash pulse recorders in rear impacts: real life data

AIS 1 neck injuries have become the most common injury in vehicle crashes, especially rear impacts. Research has shown that there are variations in rear impacts causing initial symptoms and residual disability to the neck. Therefore impacts in which the duration of symptoms differ need to be separated in analyses. Concerning AIS 1 neck injury, crash severity is usually measured as change of velocity. The correlation between injury risk and impact severity parameters based on acceleration levels is to a high extent unknown. In this study, the results from crash recordings of real life rear impacts are presented where the change of velocity and the crash pulse is measured. Out of 22 impacts, it was shown that most of the occupants that sustained symptoms the shape of the crash pulse varied considerably and the peak acceleration varied from 2.7g to 14.7g. In one impact the occupant had whiplash symptoms six months after the collision (peak acceleration 14.7g) and in another impact, two months after, when this article was written (peak acceleration 12.6g). Also, high change of velocity (greater than 20km/h) does not have to cause disability to the neck at least when the mean acceleration is less than 7g and no clear peaks exist. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD E102514.
Faecal microbiota transplantation: looking beyond clostridium difficile infection at inflammatory bowel disease

Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota are known to play paramount role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Innovative sequencing methods have radically expanded our ability to analyze the intestinal microbiome. However, alterations of the GI microbiome in IBD have not yet been fully evaluated. Irregular colonization of the gut has been implicated in chronic intestinal inflammation. Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a procedure which aims to restore microbial disturbances to the individual’s gut microbiome. The success of FMT in Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has inspired studies to explore transplantation in other conditions such as IBD. Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), the two principal manifestations of IBD, are emerging as a worldwide epidemic and are multifactorial in aetiology. There have been various case series in the past looking at the use of FMT in IBD, with a large number of them focusing on UC; however, two new randomized controlled trials shed up-to-date light on the complex interactions between the GI microbiome and patients. Regardless of these new studies, much more remains unknown about the efficacy and safety profile of FMT in IBD, ultimately casting a shadow over its use as a therapeutic intervention in conditions other than CDI. Further researches are necessary to fully evaluate the role of FMT as a management option in IBD. In this review, we discuss and summarize the functions of FMT in IBD, and the relationship between IBD and the GI microbial variations present.
Determination of some quality properties of “hamsi kaygana” prepared with different additives

Abstract This study was aimed to determine the changes of the local anchovy meal which is known as hamsi kaygana in Turkey during cold storage at +4°C ± 1°C. Physicochemical (pH, TVB‐N, TMA‐N, and TBA) shelf life analyses were carried out for hamsi kaygana samples. It was confirmed that the pH values obtained from research groups were within the limit values of the literature. No statistically significant difference was observed (p > .05) between control, stinging nettle, and rosemary groups that were within all created product groups on 12th day of storage, and the observed difference was only present in cumin group (p < .05). Upon examining TVB‐N (Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen) values on 12th day of storage, we saw the lowest TVB‐N value (17.01 ± 0.21 mg/100 g) was at stinging nettle group. However; it was found out that highest TVB‐N value belonged to cumin group with the value of 19.38 ± 0.42 mg/100 g. It was found that 12th day TBA (Thiobarbituric Acid) values of all other groups except control group did not exceed limit values. Among TMA‐N (Trimethylamine Nitrogen) values of all groups on 12th storage period, the lowest value belonged to cumin group samples. While the highest TMA‐N value was found as 14.70 ± 0.30 in control group samples. Therefore, the results showed us that using dried herb and spices in hamsi kaygana production and the storage of the products have an influence on shelf life.