Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The crucial role of dietary n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in excessive adipose tissue development: relationship to childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity can be considered a non-infectious epidemic. According to the International Obesity Task Force’s childhood obesity working group ‘the epidemic of European Union childhood obesity appears to be accelerating out of control. Things are worse than our gloomiest predictions’. Consistent with this statement, cardiovascular risk factors are now becoming ‘routinely reported’ among children in many populations. Among the social trends favoring childhood obesity, increased energy intake and decreased energy expenditure have been substantiated. However the importance of qualitative changes (i.e. the fatty acid composition of fats) has been largely disregarded despite a dramatic alteration in the balance of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Since the 1960s, indiscriminate recommendations have been made to substitute vegetable oils, high in n-6 PUFAs and low in n-3 PUFAs, for saturated fats. Moreover significant changes in animal feed and in the food chain have been introduced. For example, the n-6/n-3 ratios in food commonly consumed in the American diet range from 17 to 41, largely above official recommendations. Among the consequences, these changes have led to a 4-fold increase in the supply of dietary arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4n-6) in the last 50 years [1]. Importantly, these changes are translated into changes in the lipid composition of cell tissues and secretions in humans. Equally important, the requirement for linoleic acid (LA; 18:2n-6) for growth and development has been significantly overestimated [2] whereas the recommendation to reduce n-6 PUFAs even as the n-3 PUFAs are increased has
New insights into the molecular characteristics behind the function of Renilla luciferase

Renilla Luciferase (RLuc) is a blue light emitter protein which can be applied as a valuable tool in medical diagnosis. But due to lack of the crystal structure of RLuc‐ligand complex, the functional motions and catalytic mechanism of this enzyme remain largely unknown. In the present study, the active site properties and the ligand‐receptor interactions of the native RLuc and its red‐shifted light emitting variant (Super RLuc 8) were investigated using molecular docking approach, molecular dynamics (MD) analysis, and MM‐PBSA method. The detailed analysis of the main clusters led to identifying a lid‐like structure and its functional motions. Furthermore, an induced‐fit mechanism is proposed where ligand‐binding induces conformational changes of the active site. Our findings give an insight into the deeper understanding of RLuc conformational changes during binding steps and ligand‐receptor pattern. Moreover, our work broaden our understanding of how active site geometry is adjusted to support the catalytic activity and red‐shifted light emission in Super RLuc 8.
Towards the Design of Metamaterials with Enhanced Damage Sensitivity: Second Gradient Porous Materials

Numerous computational and conceptual difficulties are often encountered when conceiving techniques which are effective in detecting damage intensity, localization, and onset. Actually, also when the semi-inverse or the material characterization problems (which are commonly formulated in this context) can be recognized to be well posed, the numerical and computational obstacles which need to be overcome can render useless the conceived methodology. In the present paper we propose to change the paradigm used up to now when addressing the problem of damage assessment in engineering materials. In fact, we propose to conceive a metamaterial the properties of which make more expedite and effective the detection of cracks onset and damage evolution via the study of reflection and transmission of waves. More particularly, porous materials with underlying heterogeneous micro-structure may magnify the effects of reflection and transmission of waves at damaged sites depending on the considered boundary conditions. Materials of this type would make easier the structural health monitoring via nondestructive evaluation of local damage and would permit to detect incipient structural failure in a more efficient way. By analyzing the characteristic patterns of the reflection and transmission properties of surfaces where damage is concentrated, we show that, in the considered metamaterials, slow incident waves can be used to detect the onset and evolution of first gradient macroscopic damage (δ e ), while fast incident waves can be used to reveal loss of contact at the microscopic level, i.e. to detect the onset of second gradient macroscopic damage (δ r ).
Pictorial structures revisited: People detection and articulated pose estimation

Non-rigid object detection and articulated pose estimation are two related and challenging problems in computer vision. Numerous models have been proposed over the years and often address different special cases, such as pedestrian detection or upper body pose estimation in TV footage. This paper shows that such specialization may not be necessary, and proposes a generic approach based on the pictorial structures framework. We show that the right selection of components for both appearance and spatial modeling is crucial for general applicability and overall performance of the model. The appearance of body parts is modeled using densely sampled shape context descriptors and discriminatively trained AdaBoost classifiers. Furthermore, we interpret the normalized margin of each classifier as likelihood in a generative model. Non-Gaussian relationships between parts are represented as Gaussians in the coordinate system of the joint between parts. The marginal posterior of each part is inferred using belief propagation. We demonstrate that such a model is equally suitable for both detection and pose estimation tasks, outperforming the state of the art on three recently proposed datasets.
Extracellular polysaccharide production by a strain of Pleurotus djamor isolated in the south of Brazil and antitumor activity on Sarcoma 180

Polysaccharides with medicinal properties can be obtained from fruiting bodies, mycelium and culture broth of several fungus species. This work was carried out in batch culture using a stirred tank reactor with two different initial glucose concentrations (40–50 g/L) and pH values (3.0–4.0) to enhance extracellular polysaccharides production by Pleurotus djamor UNIVILLE 001 and evaluate antitumor effect of intraperitonial administration of Pleurotus djamor extract on sarcoma 180 animal model. According to factorial design, the low pH value (pH 3.0) led to a gain of 1.6 g/L on the extracellular polysaccharide concentration, while glucose concentration in the tested range had no significant effect on the concentration of polysaccharide. With 40 g/L initial glucose concentration and pH 3.0, it was observed that yield factor of extracellular polysaccharide on substrate (YP/S = 0.072) and maximum extracellular polysaccharide productivity (QPmax = 11.26 mg/L.h) were about 188% and 321% respectively higher than those obtained in the experiment performed at pH 4.0. Under these conditions, the highest values of the yield factor of biomass on substrate (YX/S = 0.24) and maximal biomass productivity (QXmax = 32.2 mg/L.h) were also reached. In tumor response study, mean tumor volume on the 21th day was 35.3 cm3 in untreated group and 1.6 cm3 in treated group (p = 0.05) with a tumor inhibition rate of 94%. These impressive results suggests an inhibitory effect of P.djamor extract on cancer cells.
Ultrastructure of Human Umbilical Arteries Studies on Arteries from Newborn Children Delivered by Nonsmoking , White Group D , Diabetic Mothers

The effect of diabetic metabolism on the human vascular wall was studied, using the fetal cardiovascular system at birth as an experimental model. The ultrastructure of umbilical arteries from nine newborn children of nonsmoking diabetic mothers (White group D) was compared with that of 30 healthy nonsmokers. Intimal cushions, thickening of the basement membrane often with a multilaminal appearance, and glycogen accumulations, both in the cells of the intima and the media, were found. The cells of the intima were very rich in fibrillas, identical to the underlying media myocytes. Endothelial cell death with formation of a pseudoendothelium due to migrating myocytes might be the explanation. Circ Res 47: 620-626, 1980
Campaign Optimization Through Behavioral Modeling and Mobile Network Analysis

Optimizing the use of available resources is one of the key challenges in activities that consist of interactions with a large number of “target individuals,” with the ultimate goal of “winning” as many of them as possible, such as in marketing, service provision, political campaigns, or homeland security. Typically, the cost of interactions is monotonically increasing such that a method for maximizing the performance of these campaigns iPs required. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model to compute an optimized campaign by automatically determining the number of interacting units and their type, and how they should be allocated to different geographical regions in order to maximize the campaign's performance. We validate our proposed model using real world mobility data.
Sensory Substitution: The Spatial Updating of Auditory Scenes “Mimics” the Spatial Updating of Visual Scenes

Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution is used to convey visual information through audition, and it was initially created to compensate for blindness; it consists of software converting the visual images captured by a video-camera into the equivalent auditory images, or “soundscapes”. Here, it was used by blindfolded sighted participants to learn the spatial position of simple shapes depicted in images arranged on the floor. Very few studies have used sensory substitution to investigate spatial representation, while it has been widely used to investigate object recognition. Additionally, with sensory substitution we could study the performance of participants actively exploring the environment through audition, rather than passively localizing sound sources. Blindfolded participants egocentrically learnt the position of six images by using sensory substitution and then a judgment of relative direction task (JRD) was used to determine how this scene was represented. This task consists of imagining being in a given location, oriented in a given direction, and pointing towards the required image. Before performing the JRD task, participants explored a map that provided allocentric information about the scene. Although spatial exploration was egocentric, surprisingly we found that performance in the JRD task was better for allocentric perspectives. This suggests that the egocentric representation of the scene was updated. This result is in line with previous studies using visual and somatosensory scenes, thus supporting the notion that different sensory modalities produce equivalent spatial representation(s). Moreover, our results have practical implications to improve training methods with sensory substitution devices (SSD).
Curing the Megaplasmid pTT27 from Thermus thermophilus HB27 and Maintaining Exogenous Plasmids in the Plasmid-Free Strain

ABSTRACT Stepwise deletions in the only plasmid in Thermus thermophilus HB27, megaplasmid pTT27, showed that two distantly located loci were important for maintenance of the plasmid. One is a minimum replicon including one gene, repT, coding a replication initiator, and the other encodes subunits of class I ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) for deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) synthesis. Since the initiator protein, RepT, bound to direct repeats downstream from its own gene, it was speculated that a more-downstream A+T-rich region, which was critical for replication ability, could be unwound for replication initiation. On the other hand, the class I RNR is not necessarily essential for cell growth, as evidenced by the generation of the plasmid-free strain by the loss of pTT27. However, the plasmid-free strain culture has fewer viable cells than the wild-type culture, probably due to a dNTP pool imbalance in the cell. This is because of the introduction of the class I RNR genes or the supplementation of 5′-deoxyadenosylcobalamin, which stimulated class II RNR encoded in the chromosome, resolved the decrease in the number of viable cells in the plasmid-free strain. Likewise, these treatments dramatically enhanced the efficiency of transformation by exogenous plasmids and the stability of the plasmids in the strain. Therefore, the class I RNR would enable the stable maintenance of plasmids, including pTT27, as a result of genome replication normalized by reversing the dNTP pool imbalance. The generation of this plasmid-free strain with great natural competence and its analysis in regard to exogenous plasmid maintenance will expand the availability of HB27 for thermophilic cell factories.
Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Novel Gene,CORS26, Encoding a Putative Secretory Protein and Its Possible Involvement in Skeletal Development*

We cloned a novel mouse cDNA,CORS26 (collagenousrepeat-containing sequence of26-kDa protein), encoding a secretory protein by suppression subtractive hybridization between transforming growth factor-β1-treated and untreated C3H10T1/2 cells. The deduced amino acid sequence of CORS26 consists of 246 amino acids with a secretory signal peptide and contains a collagenous region (Gly-X-Y repeats) at the NH2terminus and a complement factor C1q globular domain at the COOH terminus. CORS26 is structurally similar to C1q and to adipocyte-specific protein Acrp30. Transfection analysis suggested that CORS26 is a secretory protein. Northern blot analysis revealed thatCORS26 mRNA was present at high levels in rib growth plate cartilage and at moderate levels in kidney of adult mice.CORS26 mRNA was not detected in NIH3T3 cells, BALB/3T3 cells, C3H10T1/2 cells, or osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis. In situ hybridization of mouse embryos between 13 and 15 days postcoitus revealed relatively high levels of CORS26mRNA in condensed prechondrocytic cells of cartilage primordia and developing cartilages. However, CORS26 mRNA were undetectable in mature chondrocytes. Furthermore, overexpression ofCORS26 enhanced the growth of C3H10T1/2 cells in vitro. The present findings suggest that the CORS26gene may play an important role in skeletal development.
Modulating Vesicle Priming Reveals that Vesicle Immobilization Is Necessary but not Sufficient for Fusion-Competence

In neurons and neuroendocrine cells, docked vesicles need to undergo priming to become fusion competent. Priming is a multi-step process that was shown to be associated with vesicle immobilization. However, it is not known whether vesicle immobilization is sufficient to acquire complete fusion competence. To extend our understanding of the physical manifestation of vesicle priming, we took advantage of tomosyn, a SNARE-related protein that specifically inhibits vesicle priming, and measured its effect on vesicle dynamics in live chromaffin cells using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. We show here that while in control cells vesicles undergo immobilization before fusion, vesicle immobilization is attenuated in tomosyn overexpressing cells. This in turn increases the turnover rate of vesicles near the membrane and attenuates the fusion of newcomer vesicles. Moreover, the release probability of immobile vesicles in tomosyn cells is significantly reduced, suggesting that immobilization is an early and necessary step in priming but is insufficient, as further molecular processes are needed to acquire complete fusion competence. Using tomosyn as a molecular tool we provide a mechanistic link between functional docking and priming and suggest that functional docking is the first step in vesicle priming, followed by molecular modifications that do not translate into changes in vesicle mobility.
Feasibility of single-isocenter, multi-arc non-coplanar volumetric modulated arc therapy for multiple brain tumors using a linear accelerator with a 160-leaf multileaf collimator: a phantom study

The feasibility of single isocenter, multi-arc non-coplanar volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for multiple brain tumors was studied using an Elekta Synergy linear accelerator with an Agility multileaf collimator and a Monaco treatment planning system. Two VMAT radiosurgery plans consisting of a full arc and three half arcs were created with a prescribed dose of 20 Gy in a single fraction. After dose delivery to a phantom, ionization chambers and radiochromic films were used for dose measurement. The first VMAT radiosurgery plan had nine targets inside the phantom, and the doses were measured by the chambers at two different points and by the films on three sagittal and three coronal planes. The differences between the calculated dose and the dose measured by a Farmer ionization chamber and a pinpoint ionization chamber were <1.00% and <2.30%, respectively, and the average pass rates of gamma indices among the six planes under each of 3%/3 mm and 2%/2 mm criteria were 98.6% and 92.6%, respectively. The second VMAT radiosurgery plan was based on a clinical 14 brain metastases. Differences between calculated and film-measured doses were evaluated on two sagittal planes. The average pass rates of the gamma indices on the planes under each of 3%/3 mm and 2%/2 mm criteria were 97.8% and 88.8%, respectively. It was confirmed that single-isocenter, non-coplanar multi-arc VMAT radiosurgery for multiple brain metastases was feasible using Elekta Synergy with Agility and Monaco treatment planning systems. It was further shown that film dosimetry was accurately performed for a dose of up to nearly 25 Gy.
Image-Based Coral Reef Classification and Thematic Mapping

This paper presents a novel image classification scheme for benthic coral reef images that can be applied to both single image and composite mosaic datasets. The proposed method can be configured to the characteristics (e.g., the size of the dataset, number of classes, resolution of the samples, color information availability, class types, etc.) of individual datasets. The proposed method uses completed local binary pattern (CLBP), grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), Gabor filter response, and opponent angle and hue channel color histograms as feature descriptors. For classification, either k- nearest neighbor (KNN), neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM) or probability density weighted mean distance (PDWMD) is used. The combination of features and classifiers that attains the best results is presented together with the guidelines for selection. The accuracy and efficiency of our proposed method are compared with other state-of-the-art techniques using three benthic and three texture datasets. The proposed method achieves the highest overall classification accuracy of any of the tested methods and has moderate execution time. Finally, the proposed classification scheme is applied to a large-scale image mosaic of the Red Sea to create a completely classified thematic map of the reef benthos.
A Role for the Cannabinoid 1 Receptor in Neuronal Differentiation of Adult Spinal Cord Progenitors in vitro is Revealed through Pharmacological Inhibition and Genetic Deletion

In contrast to the adult brain, the adult spinal cord is a non-neurogenic environment. Understanding how to manipulate the spinal cord environment to promote the formation of new neurons is an attractive therapeutic strategy for spinal cord injury and disease. The cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1R) has been implicated as a modulator of neural progenitor cell proliferation and fate specification in the brain; however, no evidence exists for modulation of adult spinal cord progenitor cells. Using adult rat spinal cord primary cultures, we demonstrated that CB1R antagonism with AM251 significantly decreased the number of Nestin(+) cells, and increased the number of βIII tubulin(+) and DCX(+) cells, indicative of neuronal differentiation. AM251’s effect was blocked by co-application of the CB1R agonists, WIN 55, 212-2, or ACEA. Consistent with our hypothesis, cultures, and spinal cord slices derived from CB1R knock-out (CB1−/−) mice had significantly higher levels of DCX(+) cells compared to those derived from wild type (CB1+/+) mice, indicative of enhanced neuronal differentiation in CB1−/− spinal cords. Moreover, AM251 promoted neuronal differentiation in CB1+/+, but not in CB1−/− cultures. Since CB1R modulates synaptic transmission, and synaptic transmission has been shown to influence progenitor cell fate, we evaluated whether AM251-induced neuronal differentiation was affected by chronic inactivity. Either the presence of the voltage-dependent sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin (TTX), or the removal of mature neurons, inhibited the AM251-induced increase in DCX(+) cells. In summary, antagonism or absence of CB1R promotes neuronal differentiation in adult spinal cords, and this action appears to require TTX-sensitive neuronal activity. Our data suggest that the previously detected elevated levels of endocannabinoids in the injured adult spinal cord could contribute to the non-neurogenic environment and CB1R antagonists could potentially be used to enhance replacement of damaged neurons.
Affect-Laden Imagery and Risk Taking: The Mediating Role of Stress and Risk Perception

This paper investigates how affect-laden imagery that evokes emotional stress influences risk perception and risk taking in real-life scenarios. In a series of three studies, we instructed participants to imagine the consequences of risky scenarios and then rate the intensity of the experienced stress, perceived risk and their willingness to engage in risky behavior. Study 1 showed that people spontaneously imagine negative rather than positive risk consequences, which are directly related to their lower willingness to take risk. Moreover, this relationship was mediated by feelings of stress and risk perception. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings by showing that imagining negative risk consequences evokes psychophysiological stress responses observed in elevated blood pressure. Finally, in Study 3, we once again demonstrated that a higher intensity of mental images of negative risk consequences, as measured by enhanced brain activity in the parieto-occipital lobes, leads to a lower propensity to take risk. Furthermore, individual differences in creating vivid and intense negative images of risk consequences moderated the strength of the relationship between risk perception and risk taking. Participants who created more vivid and intense images of negative risk consequences paid less attention to the assessments of riskiness in rating their likelihood to take risk. To summarize, we showed that feelings of emotional stress and perceived riskiness mediate the relationship between mental imagery and risk taking, whereas individual differences in abilities to create vivid mental images may influence the degree to which more cognitive risk assessments are used in the risk-taking process.
LSTM Neural Network-Based Speaker Segmentation Using Acoustic and Language Modelling

This paper presents a new speaker change detection system based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks using acoustic data and linguistic content. Language modelling is combined with two different Joint Factor Analysis (JFA) acoustic approaches: i-vectors and speaker factors. Both of them are compared with a baseline algorithm that uses cosine distance to detect speaker turn changes. LSTM neural networks with both linguistic and acoustic features have been able to produce a robust speaker segmentation. The experimental results show that our proposal clearly outperforms the baseline system.