Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic composition of anode community predicts electrical power in microbial fuel cells

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are a promising technology for organic waste treatment and sustainable bioelectricity production. Inoculated with natural communities, they present a complex microbial ecosystem with syntrophic interactions between microbes with different metabolic capabilities. From this point of view, they are similar to anaerobic digesters, however with methanogenesis replaced by anaerobic respiration with the anode as terminal electron acceptor. Bio-electrochemically they are similar to classical fuel cells where however the electrogenic redox reaction is part of the microbial metabolism rather than mediated by an inorganic catalyst. In this paper, we analyse how electric power production in MFCs depends on the composition of the anodic biofilm in terms of metabolic capabilities of identified sets of species. MFCs were started with a natural inoculum and continuously fed with sucrose, a fermentable carbohydrate. The composition of the community, power and other environmental data were sampled over a period of a few weeks during the maturation of the anodic biofilm, and the community composition was determined down to the species level including relevant metabolic capabilities. Our results support the hypothesis that an MFCs with natural inoculum and fermentable feedstock is essentially a two stage system with fermentation followed by anode-respiration. Our results also show that under identical starting and operating conditions, MFCs with comparable power output can develop different anodic communities with no particular species dominant across all replicas. It is only important for good power production that all cells contain a sufficient fraction of low-potential anaerobic respirators, that is respirators that can use terminal electron acceptors with a low redox potential. We conclude with a number of hypotheses and recommendations for the operation of MFCs to ensure good electric yield.
Different action on dopamine catabolic pathways of two endogenous 1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroisoquinolines with similar antidopaminergic properties

The effect of single and multiple 1‐methyl‐1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroisoquinoline (1MeTIQ) and 1‐benzyl‐1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroisoquinoline (1BnTIQ) administration on concentrations of dopamine and its metabolites: homovanillic acid (HVA) and 3,4‐dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and 3‐methoxytyramine (3MT) in three brain areas was studied HPLC with electrochemical detection in Wistar rats. The rate of dopamine catabolism in the striatum along the N‐oxidative and O‐methylation pathways was assessed by calculation of the ratio of appropriate metabolites to dopamine concentration. In addition, the spontaneous and apomorphine‐stimulated locomotor activity, and muscle rigidity was studied after acute administration of 1MeTIQ and 1BnTIQ. We have found that 1MeTIQ did not change the level of dopamine and HVA in all investigated structures both after a single and chronic administration. However, the levels of intermediary dopamine metabolites, DOPAC and 3MT, were distinctly affected. The level of DOPAC was strongly depressed (by 60–70%) while the level of extraneuronal matabolite 3MT was significantly elevated (by 170–200%). In contrast to 1MeTIQ, 1BnTIQ depressed the level of dopamine (by approximately 60%) and increased the level of total metabolite, HVA, (by 40%) especially in the striatum, but the levels of DOPAC and 3MT remained unchanged. The paper has shown that 1MeTIQ and 1BnTIQ produced different effects on dopamine catabolism. Potential neuroprotective compound 1MeTIQ did not change the rate of total dopamine catabolism, it strongly inhibited the monoamine oxidase (MAO)‐dependent catabolic pathway and significantly activated the catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT)‐dependent O‐methylation. In contrast 1BnTIQ, a compound with potential neurotoxic activity, produced the significant increase of the rate of dopamine metabolism with strong activation of the oxidative MAO‐dependent catabolic pathway. Interestingly, both compounds produced similar antidopaminergic functional effects: antagonism of apomorphine hyperactivity and induction of muscle rigidity. The results may explain the biochemical basis of the neuroprotective and of the neurotoxic properties endogenous brain tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives.
Differential entropy feature for EEG-based vigilance estimation

This paper proposes a novel feature called differential entropy for EEG-based vigilance estimation. By mathematical derivation, we find an interesting relationship between the proposed differential entropy and the existing logarithm energy spectrum. We present a physical interpretation of the logarithm energy spectrum which is widely used in EEG signal analysis. To evaluate the performance of the proposed differential entropy feature for vigilance estimation, we compare it with four existing features on an EEG data set of twenty-three subjects. All of the features are projected to the same dimension by principal component analysis algorithm. Experiment results show that differential entropy is the most accurate and stable EEG feature to reflect the vigilance changes.
Common Pitfalls Using the Normalized Compression Distance: What to Watch Out for in a Compressor

Using the mathematical background for algorithmic complexity developed by Kol- mogorov in the sixties, Cilibrasi and Vitanyi have designed a similarity distance named normalized compression distance applicable to the clustering of objects of any kind, such as music, texts or gene sequences. The normalized compression distance is a quasi-universal normalized admissible distance under certain conditions. This paper shows that the compressors used to compute the normalized compression distance are not idempotent in some cases, being strongly skewed with the size of the objects and window size, and therefore causing a deviation in the identity property of the distance if we don't take care that the objects to be compressed fit the windows. The relationship underlying the precision of the distance and the size of the objects has been analyzed for several well-known compressors, and specially in depth for three cases, bzip2, gzip and PPMZ which are examples of the three main types of compressors: block-sorting, Lempel-Ziv, and statistic. 1. Introduction. A natural measure of similarity assumes that two objects x and y are similar if the basic blocks of x are in y and vice versa. If this happens we can describe object x by making reference to the blocks belonging to y ,t hus the description of x will be very simple using the description of y. This is partially what a compressor does to code the catenated xy sequence: a search for information shared by both sequences in order to reduce the redundancy of the whole sequence. If the result is small, it means that a lot of information contained in x can be used to codey, following the similarity conditions described in the previous paragraph. This was formalized by Rudi Cilibrasi and Paul Vitanyi (2), giving rise to the concept of normalized compression distance (NCD), which is based on the use of compressors to provide a measure of the similarity between the objects. This distance may then be used to cluster those objects. This idea is very powerful, because it can be applied in the same way to all kind of objects, such as music, texts or gene sequences. There is no need to use specific features of the objects to cluster. The only thing needed to compute the distance from one object x to another object y, is to measure the ability of x to turn the description of y simple and vice versa. Cilibrasi and Vitanyi have perfected this idea in two ways, by stating the con- ditions that a compressor must hold to be useful in the computation of the NCD, and by giving formal expression to the quality of the distance in comparison with an ideal distance proposed by Vitanyi and others in (3). In this paper we show that the
Residual internal limiting membrane in epiretinal membrane surgery

Background/aim: To examine the degree of the residual internal limiting membrane (ILM) after epiretinal membrane (ERM) peeling. Methods: Sixty-one eyes of 59 patients with ERM were enrolled. After ERM peeling, residual ILM was visualised with Brilliant Blue G (BBG). The residual ILM pattern was divided into three groups: (1) residual type (ILM mostly remained), (2) half type (approximately half of ILM remaind), (3) no residual type (ILM mostly removed with ERM). If ILM remained, residual ILM was removed in all cases and histologically examined using the flat mount method in 10 cases. The correlation between the degree of ERM evaluated by preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and residual ILM pattern was also examined. Results: Twenty-eight eyes (45.9%) were of the residual type. Three eyes (4.9%) were of the half type, and 30 eyes (49.2%) were of no residual type. The mean preoperative BCVA showed no significant correlation with the residual ILM pattern. Flat mount immunohistochemistry revealed many remnant cells, both glial fibrillar acidic protein positive and negative, on residual ILMs in all specimens examined. No recurrence that needed surgical treatment was observed. Conclusion: Residual ILM with remnant cells seems to be frequent after ERM removal. Intraoperative staining with BBG may be helpful in determining the extent of ILM removal.
Modelling and analysis of plant image data for crop growth monitoring in horticulture

Plants can be characterised by a range of attributes, and measuring these attributes accurately and reliably is a major challenge for the horticulture industry. The measurement of those plant characteristics that are most relevant to a grower has previously been tackled almost exclusively by a combination of manual measurement and visual inspection. The purpose of this work is to propose an automated image analysis approach in order to provide an objective measure of plant attributes to remove subjective factors from assessment and to reduce labour requirements in the glasshouse. This thesis describes a stereopsis approach for estimating plant height, since height information cannot be easily determined from a single image. The stereopsis algorithm proposed in this thesis is efficient in terms of the running time, and is more accurate when compared with other algorithms. The estimated geometry, together with colour information from the image, are then used to build a statistical plant surface model, which represents all the information from the visible spectrum. A self-organising map approach can be adopted to model plant surface attributes, but the model can be improved by using a probabilistic model such as a mixture model formulated in a Bayesian framework. Details of both methods are discussed in this thesis. A Kalman filter is developed to track the plant model over time, extending the model to the time dimension, which enables smoothing of the noisy measurements to produce a development trend for a crop. The outcome of this work could lead to a number of potentially important applications in horticulture.
Fluoride adsorption studies of montmorillonite clay

Batch adsorption studies were conducted to determine the effects of contact time and temperature on fluoride removal by montmorillonite clay at neutral pH. The adsorption of fluoride was studied at four different temperatures, viz. 30, 40, 50 and 60°C. The kinetics of adsorption as well as adsorption isotherms at different temperatures were studied. Adsorption obeyed both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The percentage of fluoride removed increased with time and reached an optimum level at 50 t h min. The material with particle size of 75 microns registered maximum percentage of fluoride adsorption, compared to the other particle sizes. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption of fluoride by montmorillonite is an endothermic process, showing increase in sorption at higher temperature. The negative values of AG° indicate the spontaneity of the sorption process. Adsorption takes place on the surface as well as through intraparticle diffusion pattern of the adsorbent material. SEM studies revealed the morphological characteristics of the untreated sorbents as well as the changes in the treated sorbents. X-ray diffraction studies also confirmed the deposition of fluoride on the surface of the clay material. FTIR studies showed the involvement of hydroxyl group present on the surface in the adsorption interaction.
Elevated CD14++CD16− Monocytes Predict Cardiovascular Events

Background— Although monocytes in peripheral blood are no longer considered to be a homogeneous population, associations between distinct monocyte subsets and cardiovascular disease have not been highlighted in large epidemiological studies. Methods and Results— The study included 700 randomly selected subjects from the cardiovascular arm of the Malmö Diet and Cancer study. Among these, 123 subjects experienced ischemic cardiovascular events during the follow-up until December 2008. Mononuclear leukocytes frozen at the baseline investigation in 1991 to 1994 were thawed and analyzed with flow cytometry to enumerate monocyte subsets, based on CD14 and CD16 expression. The percentage and number of classical CD14++CD16− monocytes were increased in the cardiovascular-event group compared with the event-free subjects (median, 69% [interquartile range, 62% to 76%] versus 67% [59% to 72%], P=0.017; 344 [251 to 419] cells/&mgr;L versus 297 [212 to 384] cells/&mgr;L, P=0.003). The hazard ratio was 1.66 for suffering a cardiovascular event in the highest tertile of the number of CD14++CD16− monocytes compared with the lowest tertile, even after adjustment for common risk factors (HR, 1.66; 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.72). CD14++CD16− monocytes did not, however, associate with the extent of atherosclerosis at baseline. In contrast, the percentage of monocytes expressing CD16 was negatively associated to the extent of carotid atherosclerosis measured as intima-media thickness at baseline. The chemokine receptors CCR2, CX3CR1, and CCR5 were not differentially expressed between cases and controls on any of the monocyte subsets, but CCR5 expression on CD14+CD16++ monocytes was negatively associated to carotid intima-media thickness. Conclusions— This study shows that classical CD14++CD16− monocytes can predict future cardiovascular risk independently of other risk factors in a randomly selected population.
Measurement system of finger-tapping contact force for quantitative diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

The purpose of this study was to develop a measuring system of contact force in finger-tapping of Parkinson's disease patients and to show its effectiveness for quantitative diagnosis. This system was composed of a pair of 3-axis accelerometers, a touch sensor an analog to digital converter and a personal computer (PC). Firstly, a transfer function representing relation between the contact force and the accelerometer output during the finger contact phase of finger-tapping was determined. This means that the finger-tapping contact force could be estimated from the measured acceleration by using the determined transfer function. Secondly the developed system was applied to 27 normal subjects and 16 Parkinson's diseases subjects. Score of UPDRS finger tap test was evaluated for each subject by a neurologist. Finally, these sensors were attached to subject's index finger and thumb, and sensor signals were recorded and processed within the PC. The subjects were asked to execute continuous finger taps movement for 60 s. It was shown that the contact force was smaller as the subject was with the larger UPDRS score of tap test.
What Is Most Important for My Country Is Not Most Important for Me

Employing a public opinion survey and a content analysis of local media, this study sets out to examine of the agenda-setting effect in China. China is highlighted in this study because it is a collectivist, socialist nation whose mainstream media is largely controlled by the state. Data from this study reveal that (a) Chinese people make clear distinctions between issues of personal importance (their personal agenda) and issues of national importance (their social agenda) and (b) the agenda-setting function of Chinese media was only observed when considering one’s social agenda; the personal agenda was not related with the Chinese media agenda. These findings hold true when comparing across different demographic groups on variables such as age, education, news source, and one’s ability to critically analyze news. This article contributes to agenda-setting scholarship by providing empirical evidence of agenda-setting effects in a political and media structure substantially different from the Western structures usually examined in such research.
Spatial organization of NG2 glial cells and astrocytes in rat hippocampal CA1 region

Similar to astrocytes, NG2 glial cells are uniformly distributed in the central nervous system (CNS). However, little is known about the interspatial relationship, nor the functional interactions between these two star‐shaped glial subtypes. Confocal morphometric analysis showed that NG2 immunostained cells are spatially organized as domains in rat hippocampal CA1 region and that each NG2 glial domain occupies a spatial volume of ∼178, 364 μm3. The processes of NG2 glia and astrocytes overlap extensively; each NG2 glial domain interlaces with the processes deriving from 5.8 ± 0.4 neighboring astrocytes, while each astrocytic domain accommodates processes stemming from 4.5 ± 0.3 abutting NG2 glia. In CA1 stratum radiatum, the cell bodies of morphologically identified glial cells often appear to make direct somatic‐somata contact, termed as doublets. We used dual patch recording and postrecording NG2/GFAP double staining to determine the glial identities of these doublets. We show that among 44 doublets, 50% were NG2 glia–astrocyte pairs, while another 38.6% and 11.4% were astrocyte–astrocyte and NG2 glia–NG2 glia pairs, respectively. In dual patch recording, neither electrical coupling nor intercellular biocytin transfer was detected in astrocyte–NG2 glia or NG2 glia–NG2 glia doublets. Altogether, although NG2 glia and astrocytes are not gap junction coupled, their cell bodies and processes are interwoven extensively. The anatomical and physiological relationships revealed in this study should facilitate future studies to understand the metabolic coupling and functional communication between NG2 glia and astrocytes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Regulatory T Cells Modulate DNA Vaccine Immunogenicity at Early Time via Functional CD4+ T Cells and Antigen Duration

The development of an effective vaccine against HIV has proved to be difficult. Many factors including natural regulatory T cells (Treg cells) can dampen the CD8 T-cell immunogenicity. In this study, we aimed to understand how Treg cells control CD8+ T-cell immune responses during DNA prime-boost immunization. Animals were immunized with plasmid HIV IIIB gp120 DNA following elimination of Treg cells by administration of anti-CD25 neutralizing antibody. Results demonstrated that the pool size of CD4+ T cells producing both IL-2 and/or IFN-γ (CD4+/IL-2+/IFN-γ+) was increased solely during the priming phase. An increment of tetramer binding and intracellular cytokine IFN-γ expression, however, were elevated in both primary and secondary stages in CD8+ T cells. The speed of antigen clearance was also investigated by using DNA luciferase. Surprisingly, DNA luciferase expression was declined to basal level over the ensuing observation period when Treg cells were depleted. Importantly, we found for the first time that DNA expression pattern in Treg-depleted animals was similar to that of the regular memory phase. Moreover, in mice that were exposed to antigen over 5 days prior to Treg cell depletion, CD8+ T-cell memory response was not affected. Thus, in the present study, we propose a new concept and prove that the enhanced immune response following the depletion of Treg cells during the priming phase likely adds one more set of memory response to the immune system. Taken together, our findings support the notion that Treg cells control DNA vaccine immunogenicity at an early time via antigen duration and functional CD4+ T-cell responses.
Aging and KIBRA/WWC1 genotype affect spatial memory processes in a virtual navigation task

Spatial navigation relies on multiple mnemonic mechanisms and previous work in younger adults has described two separate types of spatial memory. One type uses directional as well as boundary‐related information for spatial memory and mainly implicates the hippocampal formation. The other type has been linked to directional and landmark‐related information and primarily involves the striatum. Using a virtual reality navigation paradigm, we studied the impacts of aging and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP rs17070145) of the KIBRA gene (official name: WWC1) on these memory forms. Our data showed that older adult's spatial learning was preferentially related to processing of landmark information, whereas processing of boundary information played a more prominent role in younger adults. Moreover, among older adults T‐allele carriers of the examined KIBRA polymorphism showed better spatial learning compared to C homozygotes. Together these findings provide the first evidence for an effect of the KIBRA rs17070145 polymorphism on spatial memory in humans and age differences in the reliance on landmark and boundary‐related spatial information. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Generalized quantifiers and pebble games on finite structures

Generalized quantifiers in the realm of finite structures are studied and combined with an infinitary logic L/sub infinity omega //sup omega / to obtain new logics that can be used to express polynomial-time properties that are not definable in the original logic. It is shown that equivalence of finite structures relative to the new logics can be characterized in terms of certain pebble games that are a variant of the Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse games. This time-theoretic characterization is combined with sophisticated combinatorial tools in order to investigate the scopes and limits of generalized quantifiers in finite model theory. <<ETX>>
Scale-Up of the Polyol Process for Nanomaterial Synthesis

Two classes of inorganic materials such as metallic nanowires and metal oxides nanorods were synthesized using the polyol process and scaled-up to produce macroscopic quantities. Scale-up strategy was successfully built by performing the synthesis in a 15 cm diameter, 4.5 litersvolume cylindrical tank using a straight paddle impeller and a Rushton turbine. The actual yield of the synthesis is ~45 grams per batch for zinc oxide nanorods and ~20 grams per batch for cobalt nickel nanowires. Under the same rotation speed, the aspect ratio of the produced nanowires and nanorods using the Rushton turbine impeller with radial flow patterns has shown a lower aspect ratio, nanoparticle size and polydispersity. This is attributed to the increase of the local dissipated energy as spatially calculated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) that is proposed to design, optimize and scale-up the polyol process.