Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mannan induces ROS-regulated, IL-17A–dependent psoriasis arthritis-like disease in mice

Significance We identified a previously undescribed disease mechanism for psoriasis (Ps) and psoriasis arthritis (PsA)-like disease by developing a new mouse model having characteristic features similar to those of Ps and PsA in human patients. Mannan-induced activation of tissue macrophages triggers IL-17A secretion from γδ T cells, causing Ps-like inflammation. Such inflammation was significantly increased under a reduced oxidative environment. Increased frequency of monocytes/macrophages, depletion experiments, and the disease suppressor function of macrophage-derived reactive oxygen species clearly argue in favor of a role for monocytes/macrophages in this disease model, which is in accordance with the findings in patients with the psoriatic form of skin lesions and arthritis. This novel PsA model could be immensely useful to test new therapeutics for patients with Ps and PsA. Psoriasis (Ps) and psoriasis arthritis (PsA) are poorly understood common diseases, induced by unknown environmental factors, affecting skin and articular joints. A single i.p. exposure to mannan from Saccharomyces cerevisiae induced an acute inflammation in inbred mouse strains resembling human Ps and PsA-like disease, whereas multiple injections induced a relapsing disease. Exacerbation of disease severity was observed in mice deficient for generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, restoration of ROS production, specifically in macrophages, ameliorated both skin and joint disease. Neutralization of IL-17A, mainly produced by γδ T cells, completely blocked disease symptoms. Furthermore, mice depleted of granulocytes were resistant to disease development. In contrast, certain acute inflammatory mediators (C5, Fcγ receptor III, mast cells, and histamine) and adaptive immune players (αβ T and B cells) were redundant in disease induction. Hence, we propose that mannan-induced activation of macrophages leads to TNF-α secretion and stimulation of local γδ T cells secreting IL-17A. The combined action of activated macrophages and IL-17A produced in situ drives neutrophil infiltration in the epidermis and dermis of the skin, leading to disease manifestations. Thus, our finding suggests a new mechanism triggered by exposure to exogenous microbial components, such as mannan, that can induce and exacerbate Ps and PsA.
Applying an Extended Model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Breast Self-examination

Few studies have examined the predictors of breast self-examination in younger women, where it is the primary method for the early detection of breast cancer. Female college students (N = 253, aged 17 to 50 years) completed items related to breast self-examination assessing theory of planned behaviour (TPB) constructs (intentions, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control), social influence variables of self-identity and group norm, and demographic characteristics. One month later, breast self-examination behaviour was assessed. Results supported this application of the TPB model and highlight the importance of group norms for strategies to increase breast self-examination in younger women.
Investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying myotonic dystrophy types 1 and 2 cataracts using microRNA-target gene networks

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the molecular mechanisms of myotonic dystrophy (DM) 1 and 2 cataracts using bioinformatics methods. A microarray dataset (E-MEXP-3365) downloaded from the Array Express database included lens epithelial samples of DM1 and DM2 cataract patients (n=3/group) and non-DM lens epithelial samples as a control (n=4). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between DM1 and control samples, and between DM2 and control samples. Pathway enrichment analyses were performed for the DEGs. Potential micro (mi)RNAs regulating these DEGs were predicted. An miRNA-target gene network was constructed for DM1 and DM2. The study identified 223 DEGs in DM1, and 303 DEGs in DM2. DM1 and DM2 shared 172 DEGs. The DEGs in DM1 were enriched with calcium, Wnt and axon guidance signaling pathways. The DEGs in DM2 were linked by adherens junction signaling pathways. miRNA (miR)-197, miR-29b and miR-29c were included in the network modules of DM1. miR-197, miR-29c and miR-29a were involved in the network modules of DM2. It is therefore hypothesized that these signaling pathways and miRNAs underlie DM1 and DM2 cataracts, and may represent potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of this disorder.
Catalase-deficient mutants in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.): perturbations in morpho-physiology, antioxidant redox and cytogenetic parameters.

Two catalase (CAT)-deficient mutants namely, catLc1 and catLc2 were isolated in EMS-induced (0.15% and 0.5%, 6 h) M2 population of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) var. VL 125. Leaf and root CAT activity was only about 22.53% and 9.16%, respectively, in catLc1, and was nearly 11.22% and 30.84% of mother variety in catLc2. Sharp differences were observed between the two mutants for morpho-physiological, antioxidant status and cytogenetic parameters. Compared to mother variety, root growth was affected in catLc1, while shoot growth was markedly reduced in catLc2 mutant. Significantly low redox status of ascorbate and glutathione under CAT-deficiency presumably crippled the H2O2scavenging capacity, resulting in abnormal accumulation of H2O2 and concomitantly, high rate of membrane lipid peroxidation and electrolyte leakage as the marks of oxidative stress in the two mutants with more severe effect in roots of catLc1 and leaves of catLc2. At controlled pot experiment under a range of irradiance (100-400 μmol m -2 s -1 ), CATdeficiency coupled with membrane damage increased in catLc2 plants, while catLc1 mutant was largely unaffected. Under CAT-deficiency, mitotic disruptions were severe in catLc1 roots while meiotic anomalies were very high in catLc2. CATdeficiency in lentil originated as recessive mutations by the action of two different non-allelic loci.
Capacitive Sensing of Electrocardiographic Potential Through Cloth From the Dorsal Surface of the Body in a Supine Position: A Preliminary Study

A method for obtaining electrocardiographic potential through thin cloth inserted between the measuring electrodes and the skin of a subject's dorsal surface when lying supine has been proposed. The method is based on capacitive coupling involving the electrode, the cloth, and the skin. Examination of a pilot device which employed the method revealed the following: 1) In spite of the gain attenuation in the high frequency region, the proposed method was considered useful for monitoring electrocardiogram (ECG) for nondiagnostic purpose. 2) The method was able to yield a stable ECG from a subject at rest for at least 7 h, and there was no significant adverse effect of long-term measurement on the quality of the signal obtained. 3) Electrode area was the factor that had most influence on the signal, compared with other factors such as cloth thickness and coupling pressure, but could be reduced to 10 cm2 for heart rate detection. 4) Input capacitance of the device was assumed to be the dominant factor for the gain attenuation in the high frequency region, and should be reduced with a view to diagnostic use. Although there is still room for improvement in terms of practical use, the proposed method appears promising for application to bedding as a noninvasive and awareness-free method for ECG monitoring
Meta‐analyses of agreement between diagnoses made from clinical evaluations and standardized diagnostic interviews

Standardized diagnostic interviews (SDIs) have become de facto gold standards for clinical research. However, because clinical practitioners seldom use SDIs, it is essential to determine how well SDIs agree with clinical diagnoses. In meta‐analyses of 38 articles published from 1995 to 2006 (N = 15,967 probands), mean kappas (z‐transformed) between diagnoses from clinical evaluations versus SDIs were 0.27 for a broad category of all disorders, 0.29 for externalizing disorders, and 0.28 for internalizing disorders. Kappas for specific disorders ranged from 0.19 for generalized anxiety disorder to 0.86 for anorexia nervosa (median = 0.48). For diagnostic clusters (e.g. psychotic disorders), kappas ranged from 0.14 for affective disorders (including bipolar) to 0.70 for eating disorders (median = 0.43). Kappas were significantly higher for outpatients than inpatients and for children than adults. However, these effects were not significant in meta‐regressions. Conclusions: Diagnostic agreement between SDIs and clinical evaluations varied widely by disorder and was low to moderate for most disorders. Thus, findings from SDIs may not fully apply to diagnoses based on clinical evaluations of the sort used in the published studies. Rather than implying that SDIs or clinical evaluations are inferior, characteristics of both may limit agreement and generalizability from SDI findings to clinical practice. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Goodness of Fit of Social Network Models

We present a systematic examination of a real network data set using maximum likelihood estimation for exponential random graph models as well as new procedures to evaluate how well the models fit the observed networks. These procedures compare structural statistics of the observed network with the corresponding statistics on networks simulated from the fitted model. We apply this approach to the study of friendship relations among high school students from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth). We focus primarily on one particular network of 205 nodes, although we also demonstrate that this method may be applied to the largest network in the AddHealth study, with 2,209 nodes. We argue that several well-studied models in the networks literature do not fit these data well and demonstrate that the fit improves dramatically when the models include the recently developed geometrically weighted edgewise shared partner, geometrically weighted dyadic shared partner, and geometrically weighted degree network statistics. We conclude that these models capture aspects of the social structure of adolescent friendship relations not represented by previous models.
The Effect of Plasmakinetic Cautery on Wound Healing and Complications in Mastectomy

Purpose Surgical equipment used in breast cancer surgery that affects wound healing and minimizes complications seems to be a popular investigation topic. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of plasmakinetic cautery on wound healing in patients receiving mastectomy. Methods Forty-six consecutive breast cancer patients receiving modified radical mastectomy were evaluated prospectively. Plasmakinetic cautery was used in 24 operations and electrocautery was used in 22 operations in random order to manage skin flaps and excise breast tissue. In the postoperative period, vacuum drainage amount and duration time as well as the start time of arm exercises were recorded. Complications like seroma, surgical site infection, hematoma, and flap necrosis were determined. Results Age, body mass index, breast volume and flap area parameters were similar in each group. Mean drainage duration was found to be 5.5 days in the plasmacautery group and 7.9 days in the electrocautery group (p=0.020). In the plasmacautery and electrocautery groups, mean drainage volume was 707 and 1,093 mL, respectively (p=0.025). There was no statistical significance between the groups when operation duration, amount of blood loss, time to start arm exercises, seroma, hematoma, surgical site infection, and flap necrosis were considered. Conclusion Plasmakinetic cautery is a promising new surgical instrument that provides atraumatic, scalpel-like cutting precision and electrosurgical-like hemostasis, resulting in minimal tissue injury. So, plasmacautery shortens the drainage amount and duration time compared to electrocautery without elongating operation duration or increasing the amount of blood loss.
Stability of soil nailed slope using strength reduction method

This paper describes the influence of soil nail reinforcement on the stability of slopes through a numerical analysis that uses the strength reduction method. The stability of nailed slopes is evaluated in terms of factor of safety and potential slip surface. In this paper, the dual-spring structure element in the commercial package (FLAC3D) based on an explicit finite difference formulation is adopted to simulate the characteristics of the nails. A 3D slope model is built to simulate the excavations of the slope and the reinforcement of soil nails. The effects of nail length, orientation, installation location and horizontal spacing on the factor of safety and potential slip surface of the slope, as well as on the nails’ mechanical responses, are numerically investigated.
Tropical secant graphs of monomial curves Marı́a

We construct and study an embedded weighted balanced graph in R parameterized by a strictly increasing sequence of n coprime numbers {i1, . , in}, called the tropical secant surface graph. We identify it with the tropicalization of a surface in C parameterized by binomials. Using this graph, we construct the tropicalization of the first secant variety of a monomial projective curve with exponent vector (0, i1, . . . , in), which can be described by a balanced graph called the tropical secant graph. The combinatorics involved in computing the degree of this classical secant variety is non-trivial. One earlier approach to this is due to K. Ranestad. Using techniques from tropical geometry, we give algorithms to effectively compute this degree (as well as its multidegree) and the Newton polytope of the first secant variety of any given monomial curve in P. Résumé. On construit et on étude un graphe plongé dans R paramétrisé par une suite strictement croissante de n nombres entiers {i1, . , in}, premiers entre eux. Ce graphe s’appelle graphe tropical surface sécante. On montre que ce graphe est la tropicalisation d’une surface dans C paramétrisé par des binômes. On utilise ce graphe pour construire la tropicalisation de la première sécante d’une courbe monomiale ayant comme vecteur d’exponents (0, i1, . . . , in). On répresent ce variété tropical pour un graphe balancé (le graphe tropical sécante). La combinatoire qu’on utilise pour le calcul du degré de ces variétés sécantes classiques n’est pas triviale, et a été developé par K. Ranestad. En utilisant des techniques de la géométrie tropicale, on donne des algorithmes qui calculent le degré (même le multidegré) et le polytope de Newton de la première sécante d’une courbe monomiale de P.
ROLE OF THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL ENVIRONMENT IN LUNG DEVELOPMENT

1 Mechanical forces, exerted on lung tissue via alterations in lung expansion are a major determinant of fetal lung development, having a potent effect on the rate of cellular proliferation, the differentiated state of alveolar epithelial cells and the three‐dimensional tissue structure. As a result, much research is currently focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved. 2 Although it is likely that mechanical forces exert similar influences on lung development after birth, the types of forces applied to the air‐filled lung are very different and more complex. For example, lung aeration causes surface tension to form, which greatly increases lung recoil, leading to a reduction in interstitial tissue and pleural pressures, as well as lung expansion. 3 Because of the loss of the distending influence of lung liquid, the chest wall assumes the role of maintaining resting lung volumes after birth by acting as an external brace that opposes lung recoil. As a result, the distribution of force throughout lung tissue changes markedly. 4 Little is known of how changing the mechanical environment of the lung influences its development after birth, but this has important implications for understanding the impact of assisted ventilation on patients, particularly very preterm infants, who are often ventilated using high positive pressures. 5 Although the application of positive internal distending pressures may, in part, duplicate the fetal environment, the effect of gas versus liquid is unknown and high positive airway pressures are known to adversely affect cardiopulmonary physiology. Understanding the role of mechanical forces in regulating lung development as well as pulmonary physiology in the fetus and newborn is central to improving the care and management of infants suffering respiratory failure.
Practical Asynchronous Neighbor Discovery in Ad Hoc Networks With Directional Antennas

Neighbor discovery is a crucial step in the initialization of wireless ad hoc networks. When directional antennas are used, this process becomes more challenging since two neighboring nodes must be in transmit and receive states, respectively, pointing their antennas to each other simultaneously. Most of the proposed neighbor discovery algorithms only consider the synchronous system and cannot work efficiently in the asynchronous environment. However, asynchronous neighbor discovery algorithms are more practical and offer many potential advantages. In this paper, we first analyze a one-way handshake-based asynchronous neighbor discovery algorithm by introducing a mathematical model named “Problem of Coloring Balls. ” Then, we extend it to a hybrid asynchronous algorithm that leads to a 24.4% decrease in the expected time of neighbor discovery. Compared with the synchronous algorithms, the asynchronous algorithms require approximately twice the time to complete the neighbor discovery process. Our proposed hybrid asynchronous algorithm performs better than both the two-way synchronous algorithm and the two-way asynchronous algorithm. We validate the practicality of our proposed asynchronous algorithms by OPNET simulations.
Isolation and characterization of dibenzofuran-degrading bacteria.

Two bacterial strains capable of utilizing dibenzofuran (DF) as a sole carbon source were isolated from soil samples of reclaimed land. The strains designated HL1 and HL7 were identified as Klebsiella sp. and Sphingomonas sp. , respectively, on the basis of biochemical characteristics and the sequences of the 16S ribosomal DNA. Sphingomonas sp. strain HL7 degraded non-, mono- and also dichlorinated DF and dibenzo-p-dioxin (DD). Klebsiella sp. strain HL1 was able to degrade non- and monochlorinated DFs and DDs, but not dichlorinated ones. The metabolites formed from DF by strains HL1 and HL7 were similar to those by dioxin-degrading bacteria Sphingomonas sp. strain RW1 except for salicylic acid and catechol. Strain HL7 had a gene homologous to that encoding the dioxin dioxygenase alpha-subunit (dxnA1) gene of Sphingomonas sp. strain RW1. However, Southern hybridization analysis showed that the size of an EcoRV-digested genomic fragment involving the dioxin dioxygenase gene of strain HL7 was smaller than that of strain RW1, and that strain HL1 did not have the homologous gene. Strains HL1 and HL7 provided useful information regarding the dioxygenase genes.
Microarray Analysis of Cell Cycle Gene Expression in Adult Human Corneal Endothelial Cells

Corneal endothelial cells (ECs) form a monolayer that controls the hydration of the cornea and thus its transparency. Their almost nil proliferative status in humans is responsible, in several frequent diseases, for cell pool attrition that leads to irreversible corneal clouding. To screen for candidate genes involved in cell cycle arrest, we studied human ECs subjected to various environments thought to induce different proliferative profiles compared to ECs in vivo. Donor corneas (a few hours after death), organ-cultured (OC) corneas, in vitro confluent and non-confluent primary cultures, and an immortalized EC line were compared to healthy ECs retrieved in the first minutes of corneal grafts. Transcriptional profiles were compared using a cDNA array of 112 key genes of the cell cycle and analysed using Gene Ontology classification; cluster analysis and gene map presentation of the cell cycle regulation pathway were performed by GenMAPP. Results were validated using qRT-PCR on 11 selected genes. We found several transcripts of proteins implicated in cell cycle arrest and not previously reported in human ECs. Early G1-phase arrest effectors and multiple DNA damage-induced cell cycle arrest-associated transcripts were found in vivo and over-represented in OC and in vitro ECs. Though highly proliferative, immortalized ECs also exhibited overexpression of transcripts implicated in cell cycle arrest. These new effectors likely explain the stress-induced premature senescence that characterizes human adult ECs. They are potential targets for triggering and controlling EC proliferation with a view to increasing the cell pool of stored corneas or facilitating mass EC culture for bioengineered endothelial grafts.
Is a 4-Bit Synaptic Weight Resolution Enough? – Constraints on Enabling Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity in Neuromorphic Hardware

Large-scale neuromorphic hardware systems typically bear the trade-off between detail level and required chip resources. Especially when implementing spike-timing dependent plasticity, reduction in resources leads to limitations as compared to floating point precision. By design, a natural modification that saves resources would be reducing synaptic weight resolution. In this study, we give an estimate for the impact of synaptic weight discretization on different levels, ranging from random walks of individual weights to computer simulations of spiking neural networks. The FACETS wafer-scale hardware system offers a 4-bit resolution of synaptic weights, which is shown to be sufficient within the scope of our network benchmark. Our findings indicate that increasing the resolution may not even be useful in light of further restrictions of customized mixed-signal synapses. In addition, variations due to production imperfections are investigated and shown to be uncritical in the context of the presented study. Our results represent a general framework for setting up and configuring hardware-constrained synapses. We suggest how weight discretization could be considered for other backends dedicated to large-scale simulations. Thus, our proposition of a good hardware verification practice may rise synergy effects between hardware developers and neuroscientists.
Single-DNA-molecule trapping with silicon nanotweezers using pulsed dielectrophoresis

DNA manipulation based on dielectrophoresis between microfabricated electrodes is one of the most efficient methods for the physical handling of molecules. Dielectrophoresis is routinely used for stretching and trapping DNA molecules between the opposing tips of silicon nanotweezers. However, the precise number of trapped molecules is difficult to predict, as a continuous application of ac voltage continually attracts the molecules while the electric-field-induced fluid flow prevents them from bridging the tips. To circumvent this difficulty, the dielectrophoresis signal is applied during very short intervals. In this pulsed mode, the electrohydrodynamic fluid flow is lessened and the molecule trapping success rate is greatly enhanced. A fluorescently labeled single λ-DNA molecule was successfully stretched and captured by the silicon nanotweezers with 50 ms pulses of a 1 MHz, 1 MV m−1 ac dielectrophoresis voltage. This single-molecule trapping between the tweezers' tips is monitored, in real time, under fluorescence imaging.