Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Landau–Ginzburg theory of cortex dynamics: Scale-free avalanches emerge at the edge of synchronization

Significance The human cortex operates in a state of restless activity, the meaning and functionality of which are still not understood. A fascinating, though controversial, hypothesis, partially backed by empirical evidence, suggests that the cortex might work at the edge of a phase transition, from which important functional advantages stem. However, the nature of such a transition remains elusive. Here, we adopt ideas from the physics of phase transitions to construct a general (Landau–Ginzburg) theory of cortical networks, allowing us to analyze their possible collective phases and phase transitions. We conclude that the empirically reported scale-invariant avalanches can possibly come about if the cortex operated at the edge of a synchronization phase transition, at which neuronal avalanches and incipient oscillations coexist. Understanding the origin, nature, and functional significance of complex patterns of neural activity, as recorded by diverse electrophysiological and neuroimaging techniques, is a central challenge in neuroscience. Such patterns include collective oscillations emerging out of neural synchronization as well as highly heterogeneous outbursts of activity interspersed by periods of quiescence, called “neuronal avalanches. ” Much debate has been generated about the possible scale invariance or criticality of such avalanches and its relevance for brain function. Aimed at shedding light onto this, here we analyze the large-scale collective properties of the cortex by using a mesoscopic approach following the principle of parsimony of Landau–Ginzburg. Our model is similar to that of Wilson–Cowan for neural dynamics but crucially, includes stochasticity and space; synaptic plasticity and inhibition are considered as possible regulatory mechanisms. Detailed analyses uncover a phase diagram including down-state, synchronous, asynchronous, and up-state phases and reveal that empirical findings for neuronal avalanches are consistently reproduced by tuning our model to the edge of synchronization. This reveals that the putative criticality of cortical dynamics does not correspond to a quiescent-to-active phase transition as usually assumed in theoretical approaches but to a synchronization phase transition, at which incipient oscillations and scale-free avalanches coexist. Furthermore, our model also accounts for up and down states as they occur (e.g., during deep sleep). This approach constitutes a framework to rationalize the possible collective phases and phase transitions of cortical networks in simple terms, thus helping to shed light on basic aspects of brain functioning from a very broad perspective.
Reference interval for immature platelet fraction on Sysmex XN haematology analyser in adult population

Introduction The Sysmex XN-series haematology analyser has newly adopted a fluorescent channel to measure immature platelet fraction (IPF). To promote the clinical utility of this promising parameter, establishing a reliable reference interval is mandatory. According to previous studies, IPF values may be affected by the employed analyser and the ethnic background of the individual, but no differences seem to be found between individuals’ genders. Therefore, this study aimed to define the reference interval for IPF in a Spanish population following Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Materials and methods A total of 153 healthy Caucasian adults from Spain met the inclusion criteria. IPF measurement was performed by means of a Sysmex XN-2000 haematology analyser. A non-parametric percentile method was used to calculate the reference intervals in accordance with CLSI guidelines. Results The obtained reference interval for IPF on the Sysmex XN-2000 was 1.6–9.6% (90% confidence intervals (CIs) were 1.5–1.8 and 9.3–11.5, respectively). No significant gender difference in IPF reference intervals was observed (P = 0.101). Conclusions This study provides, for the first time, a reference interval for IPF using a Sysmex XN-2000 in a Spanish population, ranging from 1.6 to 9.6%. These data are needed to evaluate platelet production in several conditions such as thrombocytopenia, inflammatory states and cardiovascular diseases, as well as for future research.
Research and Development of Electrostatic Accelerometers for Space Science Missions at HUST

High-precision electrostatic accelerometers have achieved remarkable success in satellite Earth gravity field recovery missions. Ultralow-noise inertial sensors play important roles in space gravitational wave detection missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, and key technologies have been verified in the LISA Pathfinder mission. Meanwhile, at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST, China), a space accelerometer and inertial sensor based on capacitive sensors and the electrostatic control technique have also been studied and developed independently for more than 16 years. In this paper, we review the operational principle, application, and requirements of the electrostatic accelerometer and inertial sensor in different space missions. The development and progress of a space electrostatic accelerometer at HUST, including ground investigation and space verification are presented.
The analgesic and anti‐inflammatory effects of Salvinorin A analogue β‐tetrahydropyran Salvinorin B in mice

Drugs activating the mu opioid receptor are routinely used to treat severe acute and chronic pain. Unfortunately, side effects including nausea, constipation, respiratory depression, addiction and tolerance can limit clinical utility. In contrast, kappa opioid receptor (KOPr) agonists, such as Salvinorin A (SalA), have analgesic properties with little potential for abuse.
Increased survival of honeybees in the laboratory after simultaneous exposure to low doses of pesticides and bacteria

Recent studies of honeybees and bumblebees have examined combinatory effects of different stressors, as insect pollinators are naturally exposed to multiple stressors. At the same time the potential influences of simultaneously occurring agricultural agents on insect pollinator health remain largely unknown. Due to different farming methods, and the drift of applied agents and manure, pollinators are most probably exposed to insecticides but also bacteria from organic fertilizers at the same time. We orally exposed honeybee workers to sub-lethal doses of the insecticide thiacloprid and two strains of the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis, which can occur in manure from farming animals. Our results show that under laboratory conditions the bees simultaneously exposed to the a bacterium and the pesticide thiacloprid thiacloprid had significant higher survival rates 11 days post exposure than the controls, which surprisingly showed the lowest survival. Bees that were exposed to diet containing thiacloprid showed decreased food intake. General antibacterial activity is increased by the insecticide and the bacteria, resulting in a higher immune response observed in treated individuals compared to control individuals. We thus propose that caloric restriction through behavioural and physiological adaptations may have mediated an improved survival and stress resistance in our tests. However, the decreased food consumption could in long-term also result in possible negative effects at colony level. Our study does not show an additive negative impact of sub-lethal insecticide and bacteria doses, when tested under laboratory conditions. In contrast, we report seemingly beneficial effects of simultaneous exposure of bees to agricultural agents, which might demonstrate a surprising biological capacity for coping with stressors, possibly through hormetic regulation.
High levels of antibody to panton-valentine leukocidin are not associated with resistance to Staphylococcus aureus-associated skin and soft-tissue infection.

BACKGROUND Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) expressing Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) causes severe skin and soft-tissue infection (SSTI), necrotizing pneumonia, and other invasive infections. The PVL toxin has been implicated as a virulence factor, and antibody to a component of this toxin is under investigation as a vaccine candidate. The role of PVL in pathogenesis remains controversial, and it is unknown whether human serum antibody to PVL modulates infection. METHODS We determined antibody levels to PVL in serum samples from children aged 0-18 years presenting with polymerase chain reaction-confirmed, PVL-positive MRSA-associated SSTI (with or without prior MRSA infection or SSTI), PVL-positive MRSA invasive infection, and PVL-negative MRSA infection, as well as uninfected control subjects. We also measured antibody-mediated neutralization of PVL-induced lysis of human polymorphonuclear cells. RESULTS Antibody to PVL was present in healthy children reaching adult levels by 4-6 years, with a nadir at 3-11 months likely due to loss of maternal antibody. Children with a primary PVL-positive MRSA infection had moderate levels of antibody to PVL that increased after infection. Children with prior MRSA infection or SSTI had high levels of antibody to PVL after the onset of PVL-positive MRSA infection. There was no increase in antibody to PVL in this population's serum samples after the onset of infection. Serum samples from children with PVL-positive MRSA-associated SSTIs, particularly those with prior MRSA infection or SSTI, and convalescent-phase serum samples from children with invasive PVL-positive MRSA infection potently inhibited PVL-induced lysis of polymorphonuclear cells. CONCLUSIONS Neutralizing antibody to PVL does not protect children against primary or recurrent CA-MRSA-associated SSTI.
Colourings of Uniform Hypergraphs with Large Girth and Applications

This paper deals with a combinatorial problem concerning colourings of uniform hypergraphs with large girth. We prove that if H is an n-uniform non-r-colourable simple hypergraph then its maximum edge degree Δ(H) satisfies the inequality $$ \Delta(H)\geqslant c\cdot r^{n-1}\ffrac{n(\ln\ln n)^2}{\ln n} $$ for some absolute constant c > 0. As an application of our probabilistic technique we establish a lower bound for the classical van der Waerden number W(n, r), the minimum natural N such that in an arbitrary colouring of the set of integers {1,. ,N} with r colours there exists a monochromatic arithmetic progression of length n. We prove that $$ W(n,r)\geqslant c\cdot r^{n-1}\ffrac{(\ln\ln n)^2}{\ln n}. $$
A retinal image enhancement technique for blood vessel segmentation algorithm

The morphology of blood vessels in retinal fundus images is an important indicator of diseases like glaucoma, hypertension and diabetic retinopathy. The accuracy of retinal blood vessels segmentation affects the quality of retinal image analysis which is used in diagnosis methods in modern ophthalmology. Contrast enhancement is one of the crucial steps in any of retinal blood vessel segmentation approaches. The reliability of the segmentation depends on the consistency of the contrast over the image. This paper presents an assessment of the suitability of a recently invented spatially adaptive contrast enhancement technique for enhancing retinal fundus images for blood vessel segmentation. The enhancement technique was integrated with a variant of Tyler Coye algorithm, which has been improved with Hough line transformation based vessel reconstruction method. The proposed approach was evaluated on two public datasets STARE and DRIVE. The assessment was done by comparing the segmentation performance with five widely used contrast enhancement techniques based on wavelet transform, contrast limited histogram equalization, local normalization, linear un-sharp masking and contourlet transform. The results revealed that the assessed enhancement technique is well suited for the application and also outperforms all compared techniques.
Direct Observation of Protein Solvation and Discrete Disorder with Experimental Crystallographic Phases

A complete and accurate set of experimental crystallographic phases to a resolution of 1.8 angstroms was obtained for a 230-residue dimeric fragment of rat mannose-binding protein A with the use of multiwavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) phasing. An accurate image of the crystal structure could thus be obtained without resort to phases calculated from a model. Partially reduced disulfide bonds, local disorder, and differences in the mobility of chemically equivalent molecules are apparent in the experimental electron density map. A solvation layer is visible that includes well-ordered sites of hydration around polar and charged protein atoms, as well as diffuse, partially disordered solvent shells around exposed hydrophobic groups. Because the experimental phases and the resulting electron density map are free from the influence of a model, they provide a stringent test of theoretical models of macromolecular solvation, motion, and conformational heterogeneity.
Sensitivity of Calibrated Parameters and Water Resource Estimates on Different Objective Functions and Optimization Algorithms

The successful application of hydrological models relies on careful calibration and uncertainty analysis. However, there are many different calibration/uncertainty analysis algorithms, and each could be run with different objective functions. In this paper, we highlight the fact that each combination of optimization algorithm-objective functions may lead to a different set of optimum parameters, while having the same performance; this makes the interpretation of dominant hydrological processes in a watershed highly uncertain. We used three different optimization algorithms (SUFI-2, GLUE, and PSO), and eight different objective functions (R2, bR2, NSE, MNS, RSR, SSQR, KGE, and PBIAS) in a SWAT model to calibrate the monthly discharges in two watersheds in Iran. The results show that all three algorithms, using the same objective function, produced acceptable calibration results; however, with significantly different parameter ranges. Similarly, an algorithm using different objective functions also produced acceptable calibration results, but with different parameter ranges. The different calibrated parameter ranges consequently resulted in significantly different water resource estimates. Hence, the parameters and the outputs that they produce in a calibrated model are “conditioned” on the choices of the optimization algorithm and objective function. This adds another level of non-negligible uncertainty to watershed models, calling for more attention and investigation in this area.
Senescence of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells is accompanied by activation of p53/p21 pathway in myelodysplastic syndromes

The contribution of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMMSCs) to the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) has created controversies. In this study, we confirmed that BMMSCs from MDS patients showed prominent features of senescence, which were characterized by increased cell size, decreased proliferation and colony‐forming potential, alteration of cytoskeleton, and increased senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐Gal) activity. Interestingly, the apoptosis assay results showed that the percentage of apoptosis cells was very low and the difference was not significant between MDS patients and normal controls. Moreover, the osteogenic differentiation potential of BMMSCs from lower risk but not higher risk MDS was impaired, indicated by cytochemical stainings and reduced expressions of RUNX2. In addition, BMMSCs from MDS patients had impaired hematopoietic supporting function. Furthermore, the expression of p53 and p21 which played an important role in regulating the senescence progress of BMMSCs was significantly increased, whereas levels of p16 and pRb expression were not changed in the BMMSCs from MDS patients. Taken together, our comprehensive analysis shows that BMMSCs from MDS patients exhibited senescent behavior and activation of p53/p21 pathway probably played an important role in the senescence process.
The Canadian C-spine rule for radiography in alert and stable trauma patients.

CONTEXT High levels of variation and inefficiency exist in current clinical practice regarding use of cervical spine (C-spine) radiography in alert and stable trauma patients. OBJECTIVE To derive a clinical decision rule that is highly sensitive for detecting acute C-spine injury and will allow emergency department (ED) physicians to be more selective in use of radiography in alert and stable trauma patients. DESIGN Prospective cohort study conducted from October 1996 to April 1999, in which physicians evaluated patients for 20 standardized clinical findings prior to radiography. In some cases, a second physician performed independent interobserver assessments. SETTING Ten EDs in large Canadian community and university hospitals. PATIENTS Convenience sample of 8924 adults (mean age, 37 years) who presented to the ED with blunt trauma to the head/neck, stable vital signs, and a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 15. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Clinically important C-spine injury, evaluated by plain radiography, computed tomography, and a structured follow-up telephone interview. The clinical decision rule was derived using the kappa coefficient, logistic regression analysis, and chi(2) recursive partitioning techniques. RESULTS Among the study sample, 151 (1.7%) had important C-spine injury. The resultant model and final Canadian C-Spine Rule comprises 3 main questions: (1) is there any high-risk factor present that mandates radiography (ie, age >/=65 years, dangerous mechanism, or paresthesias in extremities)? (2) is there any low-risk factor present that allows safe assessment of range of motion (ie, simple rear-end motor vehicle collision, sitting position in ED, ambulatory at any time since injury, delayed onset of neck pain, or absence of midline C-spine tenderness)? and (3) is the patient able to actively rotate neck 45 degrees to the left and right? By cross-validation, this rule had 100% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [CI], 98%-100%) and 42.5% specificity (95% CI, 40%-44%) for identifying 151 clinically important C-spine injuries. The potential radiography ordering rate would be 58.2%. CONCLUSION We have derived the Canadian C-Spine Rule, a highly sensitive decision rule for use of C-spine radiography in alert and stable trauma patients. If prospectively validated in other cohorts, this rule has the potential to significantly reduce practice variation and inefficiency in ED use of C-spine radiography.
More for less: Insights into convolutional nets for 3D point cloud recognition

With the recent breakthrough in commodity 3D imaging solutions such as depth sensing, photogrammetry, stereoscopic vision and structured light, 3D shape recognition is becoming an increasingly important problem. A longstanding question is what should be the format of the 3D shape (such as voxel, mesh, point-cloud etc.) and what could be a good generic feature representation for shape recognition. This question is particularly important in the context of convolutional neural network (CNN) whose efficacy and complexity depends upon the choice of input shape format and the design of network. It has been seen that both 3D voxel representation as well as collection of rendered views on 2D images have produced competing results. Similarly, it have been seen that networks with few million parameters and networks with several hundred million parameters have similar performance. In this work we compare these solutions and provide an analysis on the factors resulting in increase in the parameters without significantly improving accuracy. On the basis of the above analysis we propose a representation method (point cloud to 2D grid) and architecture that results in much less parameters for the CNN but has competing accuracy.
mRNA levels of low-density lipoprotein receptors are overexpressed in the foci of deep bowel endometriosis

STUDY QUESTION Is mRNA expression of LDL receptors altered in deep bowel endometriotic foci? SUMMARY ANSWER mRNA expression of LDL receptors is up-regulated in deep bowel endometriotic foci of patients with endometriosis. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Several studies have demonstrated the overexpression of low-density lipoprotein receptors in various tumour cell lines and endometriosis has similar aspects to cancer, mainly concerning the pathogenesis of both diseases. This is the first study we know of to investigate lipoprotein receptors expression in deep endometriosis with bowel involvement. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION During 2014–2015, an exploratory case-control study was conducted with 39 patients, including 20 women with a histological diagnosis of deep endometriosis compromising the bowel and 19 women without endometriosis who underwent laparoscopic tubal ligation. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Peripheral blood samples were collected on the day of surgery for lipid profile analysis, and samples of endometrial tissue and of bowel endometriotic lesions were also collected. The tissue samples were sent for histopathological analysis and for LDL-R and LRP-1 gene expression screening using quantitative real-time PCR. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Patients with deep endometriosis had lower LDL-cholesterol than patients without the disease (119 ± 23 versus 156 ± 35; P = 0.001). Gene expression analysis of LDL receptors revealed that LDL-R was more highly expressed in endometriotic lesions when compared to the endometrium of the same patient but not more than in the endometrium of women without endometriosis (0.027 ± 0.022 versus 0.012 ± 0.009 versus 0.019 ± 0.01, respectively; P < 0.001). LRP-1 was more highly expressed in endometriotic lesions, both when compared with the endometrium of the same patient and when compared with the endometrium of patients without the disease (0.307 ± 0.207 versus 0.089 ± 0.076 and versus 0.126 ± 0.072, respectively; P < 0.001). The study also showed that LDL-R gene expression in the endometrium of women with endometriosis was higher during the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle (P = 0.001). LRP-1 gene expression was increased during the secretory phase in the endometrium of women without the disease (P = 0.008). LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION In the endometriotic lesions, the presence of fibrosis is substantial, restricting access to the stromal and glandular components of the lesion. Despite that, we found that LDL receptor mRNA was overexpressed. Future studies may perform laser microdissection to isolate the area of interest in the target tissue, excluding fibrosis contamination. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS This study supports the feasibility of LDL-R targeted therapy in the treatment of deep endometriosis. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP #2011/17245-0). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.