Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of polyploidization on tree hydraulic functioning.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Recent research has highlighted the importance of living tissue in wood. Polyploidization can impact amounts and arrangements of living cells in wood, potentially leading to increased drought tolerance. Tetraploid variants were created from the apple cultivar Malus ×domestica 'Gala' (Gala-4x), and their vulnerability to drought-induced cavitation and their hydraulic capacitance were compared to those of their diploid predecessors (Gala-2x). Assuming a positive correlation between polyploidy and drought tolerance, we hypothesized lower vulnerability and higher capacitance for the tetraploid. METHODS Vulnerability to drought-induced cavitation and the hydraulic capacitance were quantified through acoustic emission and continuous weighing of shoots during a bench-top dehydration experiment. To underpin the hydraulic trait results, anatomical variables such as vessel area, conduit diameter, cell wall reinforcement, and ray and vessel-associated parenchyma were measured. KEY RESULTS Vulnerability to drought-induced cavitation was intrinsically equal for both ploidy variants, but Gala-4x proved to be more vulnerable than Gala-2x during the early phase of desiccation as was indicated by its significantly lower air entry value. Higher change in water content of the leafy shoot, higher amount of parenchyma, and larger vessel area and size resulted in a significantly higher hydraulic capacitance and efficiency for Gala-4x compared to Gala-2x. CONCLUSIONS Both ploidy variants were typified as highly sensitive to drought-induced cavitation, with no significant difference in their overall drought vulnerability. But, when water deficit is short and moderate, Gala-4x may delay a drought-induced decrease in performance by trading hydraulic safety for increased release of capacitively stored water from living tissue.
Submodular Object Recognition

We present a novel object recognition framework based on multiple figure-ground hypotheses with a large object spatial support, generated by bottom-up processes and mid-level cues in an unsupervised manner. We exploit the benefit of regression for discriminating segments' categories and qualities, where a regressor is trained to each category using the overlapping observations between each figure-ground segment hypothesis and the ground-truth of the target category in an image. Object recognition is achieved by maximizing a submodular objective function, which maximizes the similarities between the selected segments (i.e., facility locations) and their group elements (i.e., clients), penalizes the number of selected segments, and more importantly, encourages the consistency of object categories corresponding to maximum regression values from different category-specific regressors for the selected segments. The proposed framework achieves impressive recognition results on three benchmark datasets, including PASCAL VOC 2007, Caltech-101 and ETHZ-shape.
Stimulus processing and error monitoring in more‐able kindergarteners with autism spectrum disorder: a short review and a preliminary Event‐Related Potentials study

Deficits in executive functions (EF) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been identified. However, there is limited evidence about patterns of deficits in EF‐related skills, especially at the neurobiological level, in young children with ASD and little is known about how these skills are related to other domains of functioning and symptom severity. In this study, we provide a focused review of EF‐related Event‐Related Potentials (ERP) studies in children with ASD, accompanied by preliminary data for neurophysiological correlates of EF on a child‐friendly Go/No‐go task. We focus our preliminary investigation on ERPs associated with stimulus processing (N2, P3) and error monitoring [error/correct‐related negativity (ERN, CRN), error positivity (Pe)] in 5‐year‐old kindergarteners with ASD and typical controls matched on age, gender and task accuracy. Children with ASD showed significantly greater amplitudes of ERN/CRN compared to matched controls, suggesting heightened response monitoring. The ASD group also showed less distinct inhibitory P3 compared to the TD group, potentially suggesting atypical stimulus processing. In children with ASD, higher autism symptom severity was correlated with larger P3. Better behavioral performance on an EF‐related task was correlated with smaller CRN. Our study is the first investigation to demonstrate the presence of N2, P3, ERN/CRN and Pe in kindergartners with ASD. The potential links between ERP patterns and behavioral and clinical features in more‐able children with ASD highlight the need for further exploration into the functional mechanisms of these atypical neural activities and for more focused behavioral interventions targeting cognitive control and response monitoring.
Food for thought: obstacles to menu labelling in restaurants and cafeterias

Abstract Menu labelling is recommended as a policy intervention to reduce obesity and diet-related disease. The present commentary considers the many challenges the restaurant industry faces in providing nutrition information on its menus. Barriers include lack of nutrition expertise, time, cost, availability of nutrition information for exotic ingredients, ability to provide accurate nutrition information, libel risk, customer dissatisfaction, limited space on the menu, menu variations, loss of flexibility in changing the menu, staff training and resistance of employees to change current practice. Health promotion specialists and academics involved in fieldwork must help restaurateurs find solutions to these barriers for menu labelling interventions to be widely implemented and successful. Practical support for small independent restaurants such as free or subsidised nutrition analysis, nutrition training for staff and menu design may also be necessary to encourage voluntary participation.
Metabolic syndrome in schizophrenia - who is more to blame: FGA polypharmacy or clozapine monotherapy?

BACKGROUND To establish the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its parameters in group of patients with schizophrenia in polypharmacy - receiving first generation antipsychotics versus clozapine alone treated group. SUBJECTS AND METHODS 48 outpatients with schizophrenia divided into two groups: the first group of 21 patients in polypharmacy with first generation antipsychotics, and the second group of 27 patients treated with clozapine alone were assessed for the presence of metabolic syndrome. We used logistic regression models to assess the relationship between metabolic syndrome and antipsychotic therapy, gender and age. RESULTS Metabolic syndrome was found in 52.1% of all subjects. Compared to first generation antipsychotics polypharmacy, the monopharmacy with clozapine was associated with elevated rates of metabolic syndrome (28.6% vs. 70.4%, p=0.004). With regard to particular parameters of metabolic syndrome, the elevated plasma triglycerides were significantly more present in subjects within Clozapine group (p=0.03). Logistic regression analysis showed that female gender (p=0.004), and clozapine treatment (p=0.005) were significantly associated with metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSION Compared to polypharmacy with first generation antipsychotics, the higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome is found in patients treated with Clozapine alone. The most prevalent metabolic disorder is dyslipidemia.
Apheresis as novel treatment for refractory angina with raised lipoprotein(a): a randomized controlled cross-over trial

Aims To determine the clinical impact of lipoprotein apheresis in patients with refractory angina and raised lipoprotein(a) > 500 mg/L on the primary end point of quantitative myocardial perfusion, as well as secondary end points including atheroma burden, exercise capacity, symptoms, and quality of life. Methods We conducted a single-blinded randomized controlled trial in 20 patients with refractory angina and raised lipoprotein(a) > 500 mg/L, with 3 months of blinded weekly lipoprotein apheresis or sham, followed by crossover. The primary endpoint was change in quantitative myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Secondary endpoints included measures of atheroma burden, exercise capacity, symptoms and quality of life. Results The primary endpoint, namely MPR, increased following apheresis (0.47; 95% CI 0.31-0.63) compared with sham (-0.16; 95% CI - 0.33-0.02) yielding a net treatment increase of 0.63 (95% CI 0.37-0.89; P < 0.001 between groups). Improvements with apheresis compared with sham also occurred in atherosclerotic burden as assessed by total carotid wall volume (P < 0.001), exercise capacity by the 6 min walk test (P = 0.001), 4 of 5 domains of the Seattle angina questionnaire (all P < 0.02) and quality of life physical component summary by the short form 36 survey (P = 0.001). Conclusion Lipoprotein apheresis may represent an effective novel treatment for patients with refractory angina and raised lipoprotein(a) improving myocardial perfusion, atheroma burden, exercise capacity and symptoms.
CyTOF Mass Cytometry for Click Proliferation Assays

Novel cell analyzers, including polychromatic flow cytometers and isotopical cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF) mass cytometers, enable simultaneous measurement of virtually bondless characteristics at the single‐cell level. BrdU assays for quantifying cellular proliferation are common but have several limitations, including the need for a DNA denaturation step and inability to simultaneously resolve multiple parameters and phenotypic complexity. Click chemistry reactions have become popular in the past decade, as they can resolve these issues. This protocol introduces a novel assay able to bridge flow cytometry and CyTOF analysis for active S‐phase determination in cell cycle applications, combining well‐established click chemistry with a novel iodo‐deoxyuridine (IdU) azide derivative and a cross‐reactive anti‐IdU antibody for detecting incorporated EdU during DNA synthesis. This method is preferred over traditional BrdU‐based assays for complex and multiparametric experiments. It provides a feasible cost‐effective approach for detecting ethynyl‐labeled nucleotides, with the advantage of combining flow and mass cytometry analyses. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Developmental Changes in Ultradian Sleep Cycles across Early Childhood

Nocturnal human sleep is composed of cycles between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep. In adults, the structure of ultradian cycles between NREM and REM sleep is well characterized; however, less is known about the developmental trajectories of ultradian sleep cycles across early childhood. Cross-sectional studies indicate that the rapid ultradian cycling of active-quiet sleep in infancy shifts to a more adult-like pattern of NREM-REM sleep cycling by the school-age years, yet longitudinal studies elucidating the details of this transition are scarce. To address this gap, we examined ultradian cycling during nocturnal sleep following 13 h of prior wakefulness in 8 healthy children at 3 longitudinal points: 2Y (2.5-3.0 years of age), 3Y (3.5-4.0 years of age), and 5Y (5.5-6.0 years of age). We found that the length of ultradian cycles increased with age as a result of increased NREM sleep episode duration. In addition, we observed a significant decrease in the number of NREM sleep episodes as well as a nonsignificant trend for a decrease in the number of cycles with increasing age. Together, these findings suggest a concurrent change in which cycle duration increases and the number of cycles decreases across development. We also found that, consistent with data from adolescents and adults, the duration of NREM sleep episodes decreased with time since lights-off whereas the duration of REM sleep episodes increased over this time period. These results indicate the presence of circadian modulation of nocturnal sleep in preschool children. In addition to characterizing changes in ultradian cycling in healthy children ages 2 to 5 years, this work describes a developmental model that may provide insights into the emergence of normal adult REM sleep regulatory circuitry as well as potential trajectories of dysregulated ultradian cycles such as those associated with affective disorders.
Influence of sample thickness and concentration of Ce dopant on the optical properties of YAG:Ce ceramic phosphors for white LEDs

Translucent, polycrystalline YAG:Ce disks with 0.1, 0.5, and 1 mol% concentrations of cerium as well as different resulting thicknesses of 0.5 and 0.8 mm were prepared by reaction sintering of yttria, alumina, and cerium oxide under vacuum at a temperature of 1800 °C. The obtained samples displayed a microstructure with a Y_3Al_5O_12 main phase interrupted by an intended scattering phase of alumina. Furthermore, the total forward transmittance was between 75 and 78% with the typical absorption bands of cerium at wavelengths of 330 and 460 nm. Phosphor conversion light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with 0.88 W power dissipation have been prepared from these YAG:Ce ceramic disks as converters and blue 455 nm LED chips for excitation. Their color coordinates in the CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) diagram determined by spectral photometry depend on the concentration of the Ce dopant and the ceramic converter thickness. The highest luminous flux of 276 lm with an efficiency of 76.6 lm/W was measured for a converter with 0.5 mol% dopant concentration and 0.8 mm thickness emitting a yellowish white light.
Spatial Iterative Learning Control: Systems with input saturation

This paper proposes a novel Iterative Learning Control (ILC) framework for spatial tracking. Spatial tracking means that the temporal component is not fixed which violates the standing assumption on time intervals in traditional ILC. The proposed framework allows for the length of the time interval to change with each iteration. To relate the spatial information from the past to the present iteration, the concept of spatial projection is proposed. A class of nonlinear uncertain systems with input saturation is chosen for demonstration. An a appropriate ILC control law, exploiting the spatial projection idea, is proposed and the corresponding convergence analysis, based on the Composite Energy Function, is carried out. It is shown that spatial tracking is achieved under appropriate assumptions related to spatial projection and provided that the desired trajectory is realizable within the saturation bound. Finally, simulation results illustrate the predicted convergence.
Inhibition of germinal vesicle breakdown in Xenopus oocytes in vitro by a series of substituted glycol ethers

A 24 hour in vitro Xenopus oocyte maturation (germinal vesicle breakdown [GVBD]) assay developed by Pickford and Morris (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1999, 107, 285–292) was used to screen a series of substituted glycol ethers (GEs). Substituted GEs included: ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME); EG monoethyl ether (EGEE); EG monopropyl ether (EGPE); EG monobutyl ether (EGBE); EG monohexyl ether (EGHE); diethylene glycol monomethyl ether (DGME); triethylene glycol monomethyl ether (TGME); ethylene glycol monophenyl ether (EGPhE); EG monobenzyl ether (EGBeE); EG diphenyl ether (EGDPhE); and propylene glycol monophenyl ether (PGPhE). The GEs inhibited progesterone‐ or androstenedione‐induced GVBD with the following relative potency: EGPhE > PGPhE > EGME >> EGEE ≥ EGBeE > EGPE >> EGBE >EGHE > EGDPhE >> DGME ≥ TGME, or EGPhE >> PGPhE >> EGBeE > EGDPhE > EGEE > EGME > EGPE > EGBE, EGHE, DGME and TGME, respectively. Further, [3H]progesterone or [3H]androstenedione binding affinities to the oocyte plasma membrane progesterone receptor (OMPR) or classical androgen receptor (AR) were: EGME > EGPhE ≥ PGPhE ≥ EGEE > EGBeE >> EGPE >> EGBE ≥ EGHE > EGDPhE, TGME, and DGME, or EGPhE > PGPhE >> EGBeE > EGDPhE >> EGEE ≥ EGME >> EGPE, EGBE, and EGHE > DGME and TGME, respectively. Binary joint mixture studies with the GVBD model using flutamide (AR antagonist) and EGPhE indicated that flutamide/EGPhE mixture acted in a concentration additive manner. The effects of substituted GE series, however, may be mediated through the OMPR; the potency of EGPhE may be the result of bimodal inhibition of both the OMPR and AR pathways.
Rapid prediction of deoxynivalenol contamination in wheat bran by MOS-based electronic nose and characterization of the relevant pattern of volatile compounds.

BACKGROUND Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin, mainly produced by Fusarium sp. , most frequently occurring in cereals and cereal-based products. Wheat bran refers to the outer layers of the kernel, which has a high risk of damage due to chemical hazards, including mycotoxins. Rapid methods for DON detection in wheat bran are required. RESULTS A rapid screening method using an electronic nose (e-nose), based on metal oxide semiconductor sensors, has been developed to distinguish wheat bran samples with different levels of DON contamination. A total of 470 naturally contaminated wheat bran samples were analyzed by e-nose analysis. Wheat bran samples were divided in two contamination classes: class A ([DON] ≤ 400 µg kg-1 , 225 samples) and class B ([DON] > 400 µg kg-1 , 245 samples). Discriminant function analysis (DFA) classified wheat bran samples with good mean recognizability in terms of both calibration (92%) and validation (89%). A pattern of 17 volatile compounds of wheat bran samples that were associated (positively or negatively) with DON content was also characterized by HS-SPME/GC-MS. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that the e-nose method could be a useful tool for high-throughput screening of DON-contaminated wheat bran samples for their classification as acceptable / rejectable at contamination levels close to the EU maximum limit for DON, reducing the number of samples to be analyzed with a confirmatory method. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.
Considerations on accuracy, pattern and possible underlying factors of brain microbleed progression in older adults with absence or mild presence of vascular pathology

Objective To analyse brain microbleed (BMB) progression, its possible underlying factors, and the influence of inter-observer differences, in older individuals with none or mild vascular pathology. Methods This study analysed magnetic resonance images, cognitive, demographic and laboratory data from all individuals from the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Neuroimaging Initiative database who had the required sequences for identifying BMBs over three consecutive years at the time the database was accessed (January 2016). BMBs were assessed independently by two observers with similar levels of experience. Results A total of 291 patients were included in the study. The number of individuals with BMBs and the number of BMBs per individual slightly and nonsignificantly increased across three consecutive years (Y1: 55/291 [19%]; Y2: 61/291 [21%]; Y3: 66/291 [23%]) with 1–2 BMBs and (Y1: 11/291 [4%]; Y2: 12/291 [4%]; Y3: 14/291 [5%]) with ≥ 3 BMBs. Both observers identified a similar pattern of BMB prevalence and progression in each cognitive group (normal < early/late mild cognitive impairment (MCI) > AD patients) despite inter-observer differences (1.5 BMBs, 95% confidence interval –3.7, 6.2], κ=0.543), which were mainly in the cortex. Serum cholesterol was the main predictor of change in BMB count between time-points but did not predict overall progression. Conclusions Inter-observer differences are always present and it is difficult to ascertain their influence in the analysis of BMB progression, which was observed in cognitively normal and MCI individuals, but not in AD patients. This should be confirmed in further studies.
Going Places

Madhu, a one-time caddy at Eagleton still living in Banandur, is a Dalit, or former Untouchable. Though he never experienced caste bias in the golf club, he regularly encountered such bias in the village when he was a child. Fortunately, his father’s land, which is only increasing in value in this part of the state, and his caste background provide him an opening to improve himself and weigh the prospect of leaving not only caddy work but also the village. A beneficiary of India’s system of caste reservations, Madhu wins seats in quality high schools and colleges, and looks to build on these achievements with a career in business. Madhu’s more advantaged peers, however, in part because they are comfortable in their caste privileges, languish in dead-end factory jobs without the possibility of permanent employment and the long-term stability it would bring.
Comparison of closely related, uncultivated Coxiella tick endosymbiont population genomes reveals clues about the mechanisms of symbiosis

Understanding the symbiotic interaction between Coxiella-like endosymbionts (CLE) and their tick hosts is challenging due to lack of isolates and difficulties in tick functional assays. Here we sequenced the metagenome of a CLE population from wild Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks (CRs) and compared it to the previously published genome of its close relative, CLE of R. turanicus (CRt). The tick hosts are closely related sympatric species, and their two endosymbiont genomes are highly similar with only minor differences in gene content. Both genomes encode numerous pseudogenes, consistent with an ongoing genome reduction process. In silico flux balance metabolic analysis (FBA) revealed the excess production of L-proline for both genomes, indicating a possible proline transport from Coxiella to the tick. Additionally, both CR genomes encode multiple copies of the proline/betaine transporter, proP gene. Modelling additional Coxiellaceae members including other tick CLE, did not identify proline as an excreted metabolite. Although both CRs and CRt genomes encode intact B vitamin synthesis pathway genes, which are presumed to underlay the mechanism of CLE-tick symbiosis, the FBA analysis indicated no changes for their products. Therefore, this study provides new testable hypotheses for the symbiosis mechanism and a better understanding of CLE genome evolution and diversity.