Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New immunosuppressive cyclomyrsinol diterpenes from Euphorbia kopetdaghi Prokh

Aceton : chloroform (1 : 2) extracts of the aerial parts of Euphorbia kopetdaghi Prokh. (Euphorbiaceae) were investigated for its diterpenoids and afforded three new five-membered ring, pentacyclic myrisinane polyester comprised of 3,5,10-O-triacetyl-8-O-isobutanoyl-14-O-benzoylcyclomyrsinol (1), 3,5,10,14-O-tetraacetyl-8-O-(2′-methyl butanoyl)-cyclomyrsinol (2) and 3,5,10,14-O-tetracetyl-8-O-isobutanoylcyclomyrsinol (3). The structures were elucidated based on 13C- and 1H-NMR as well as 2D-NMR, IR and different MS spectra and the immunomodulation activity for compound 1 was evaluated through lymphocyte proliferation assay, IL-2 assay, oxidative burst of phagocytic leukocytes and through their cytotoxicity on two cell lines. Compound 1 showed significant suppressive activity against phytohemagglutinin-activated T-cell proliferation with an IC50 of 1.83 µg mL−1, IL-2 suppressive activity with an IC50 of 19.0 µg mL−1 and oxidative burst suppressive activity with an IC50 of 1.6 µg mL−1 and ignorable cytotoxic effect on the CC-1 rat hepatocyte and 3T3-L1 mouse fibroblast cell-lines.
Modeling Average Daily Traffic Volume using Neural Network- Wavelet Hybrid Method

Forecasting traffic volume accurately and in a timely manner plays an important role to providing real-time traffic information, reducing congestion in pathways, and improving traffic safety. A combination of multi-layer back-propagation neural networks (BPNN) and wavelet transform is used for forecasting average daily traffic volume. Real data used in modeling are taken from the Qom-Tehran road during 2006-2008. Given the proposed method (WBPNN), the traffic volume data were initially preprocessed using wavelet transform. The input signal (the daily traffic volume time series) is decomposed into low- and high-frequency components up to 5 levels using the mother wavelet function Haar, so that more complete information would be obtained regarding the problem dynamics. The processed data are then fed to the neural network as training and test data. The trained network is validated considering evaluation functions such as MAE, MAPE, and VAPE. The results indicate that the proposed method predicts daily traffic volume with great precision and puts forward a model using native parameters, in addition to increased prediction accuracy.
Using Iris Recognition Algorithm, Detecting Cholesterol Presence

The objective of this paper is to use existing iris recognition methods as an alternative method to detect the presence of cholesterol in blood vessel. This research adopts John Dugan's and Libor Mask's iris recognition methods and alternative medicine, iridology. Based on the iris recognition methods and iridology chart, a MATLAB program has been created to detect the present of cholesterol in human body.
Psychometric properties of the Trauma and Distress Scale, TADS, in an adult community sample in Finland

Background There is increasing evidence that a history of childhood abuse and neglect is not uncommon among individuals who experience mental disorder and that childhood trauma experiences are associated with adult psychopathology. Although several interview and self-report instruments for retrospective trauma assessment have been developed, many focus on sexual abuse (SexAb) rather than on multiple types of trauma or adversity. Methods Within the European Prediction of Psychosis Study, the Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS) was developed as a new self-report assessment of multiple types of childhood trauma and distressing experiences. The TADS includes 43 items and, following previous measures including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, focuses on five core domains: emotional neglect (EmoNeg), emotional abuse (EmoAb), physical neglect (PhyNeg), physical abuse (PhyAb), and SexAb. This study explores the psychometric properties of the TADS (internal consistency and concurrent validity) in 692 participants drawn from the general population who completed a mailed questionnaire, including the TADS, a depression self-report and questions on help-seeking for mental health problems. Inter-method reliability was examined in a random sample of 100 responders who were reassessed in telephone interviews. Results After minor revisions of PhyNeg and PhyAb, internal consistencies were good for TADS totals and the domain raw score sums. Intra-class coefficients for TADS total score and the five revised core domains were all good to excellent when compared to the interviewed TADS as a gold standard. In the concurrent validity analyses, the total TADS and its all core domains were significantly associated with depression and help-seeking for mental problems as proxy measures for traumatisation. In addition, robust cutoffs for the total TADS and its domains were calculated. Conclusions Our results suggest the TADS as a valid, reliable, and clinically useful instrument for assessing retrospectively reported childhood traumatisation.
Topological interference management with multiple antennas

The topological interference management problem refers to the study of the DoF of partially connected wireless communication networks with no channel state information at the transmitters (no CSIT) beyond the network topology, i.e., a knowledge of which channel coefficients are non-zero. While the problem is originally studied with single input sources and single output destinations (SISO), in this work we explore the implications of multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO), highlighting fundamental differences and new phenomena.
Biologic discontinuation studies: a systematic review of methods

Objectives We conducted a systematic review to assess the design and ‘failure definition’ in studies of biologic discontinuation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods We found 403 studies on PubMed, and included nine published papers and five abstracts from scientific meetings. We used a structured extraction form to collect information regarding study design and outcome (failure) definition. Results Three types of studies were found: randomised controlled trials, long-term extension studies of clinical trials and prospective discontinuation studies. The largest study had 196 subjects in the discontinuation arm. Most studies allowed concomitant use of non-biologic drugs at biologic discontinuation. Heterogeneity was also found in the failure definition. Although all studies used measures of disease activity, the threshold for failure and the time point of assessment differed among studies. Few studies incorporated changing use of non-biologic drugs or glucocorticoids into the failure definition. Conclusions Although many studies have examined the outcome of biologic discontinuation, they have all been relatively small. Typical practice studies from registries may add important information but will likely need to rely on a broader failure definition.
Re-thinking cell cycle regulators: the cross-talk with metabolism

Analysis of genetically engineered mice deficient in cell cycle regulators, including E2F1, cdk4, and pRB, showed that the major phenotypes are metabolic perturbations. These key cell cycle regulators contribute to lipid synthesis, glucose production, insulin secretion, and glycolytic metabolism. It has been shown that deregulation of these pathways can lead to metabolic perturbations and related metabolic diseases, such as obesity and type II diabetes. The cyclin–cdk–Rb–E2F1 pathway regulates adipogenesis in addition to its well-described roles in cell cycle regulation and cancer. It was also shown that E2F1 directly participates in the regulation of pancreatic growth and function. Similarly, cyclin D3, cdk4, and cdk9 are also adipogenic factors with strong effects on whole organism metabolism. These examples support the emerging notion that cell cycle regulatory proteins also modulate metabolic processes. These cell cycle regulators are activated by insulin and glucose, even in non-proliferating cells. Most importantly, these cell cycle regulators trigger the adaptive metabolic switch that normal and cancer cells require in order to proliferate. These changes include increased lipid synthesis, decreased oxidative metabolism, and increased glycolytic metabolism. In summary, these factors are essential regulators of anabolic biosynthetic processes, blocking at the same time oxidative and catabolic pathways, which is reminiscent of cancer cell metabolism.
The Determination of the Surface Impedance of a Partially Coated Obstacle from Far Field Data

A variational method is given for determining the essential supremum of the surface impedance of a partiallycoated perfect conductor from a knowledge of the far field pattern of the time-harmonic electric field at fixed frequency. It is assumed that the shape of the scatterer has been determined (e.g., bysolving the far field equation and using the linear sampling method). Numerical examples are given for the scalar case with constant surface impedance.
Assessment of cardiologic systole and diastole duration in exercise stress tests with a transcutaneous accelerometer sensor

A system for non-invasive and automatic assessment of systolic and diastolic duration is presented. The method is based on a accelerometer sensor which was positioned in the mid-sternal precordial region. The acceleration signal, together with an ECG signal, was recorded by a laptop PC and systole and diastole durations were computed for each cardiac beat. The system was tested in 103 patients who performed semi-supine bicycle exercise (71M/32F, age 57plusmn14 years, 17 healthy people 86 patients with cardiovascular diseases). A consistent signal was obtained in 98% patients and systolic/diastolic time ratio as a function of the heart rate was computed. At higher heart rates (for example 100 bpm), this ratio was lower in the 17 control subjects (0.74plusmn0.12) than in the patients with systemic hypertension (0.94plusmn0.12), coronary (0.88plusmn0.11), valvular (0.93plusmn0.14) or dilated heart (0.86plusmn0.10) disease.
Iterative Thresholding Algorithm for Sparse Inverse Covariance Estimation

The L1-regularized maximum likelihood estimation problem has recently become a topic of great interest within the machine learning, statistics, and optimization communities as a method for producing sparse inverse covariance estimators. In this paper, a proximal gradient method (G-ISTA) for performing L1-regularized covariance matrix estimation is presented. Although numerous algorithms have been proposed for solving this problem, this simple proximal gradient method is found to have attractive theoretical and numerical properties. G-ISTA has a linear rate of convergence, resulting in an O(log e) iteration complexity to reach a tolerance of e. This paper gives eigenvalue bounds for the G-ISTA iterates, providing a closed-form linear convergence rate. The rate is shown to be closely related to the condition number of the optimal point. Numerical convergence results and timing comparisons for the proposed method are presented. G-ISTA is shown to perform very well, especially when the optimal point is well-conditioned.
Elemental abundances in the Blanco 1 open cluster

High-resolution spectroscopy is used to determine the detailed chemical abundances of a group of eight F- and G-type stars in the young open cluster Blanco 1. An average [Fe/H] of +0.04 ± 0.02 (internal error) ± 0.04 (external error) is found, considerably lower than a previous spectroscopic estimate for this cluster. The difference is due mainly to our adoption of significantly cooler temperatures that are consistent with both photometric and spectroscopic constraints. Blanco 1 exhibits subsolar [Ni/Fe] (−0.18 ± 0.01 ± 0.01), [Si/Fe] (−0.09 ± 0.02 ± 0.03), [Mg/Fe] (−0.14 ± 0.02 ± 0.03) and [Ca/Fe] (−0.09 ± 0.03 ± 0.03); ratios that are not observed among nearby field stars. The material from which Blanco 1 formed may not have been well mixed with interstellar matter in the galactic disc, which tallies with its current location about 240 pc below the galactic plane. A simultaneous deficit of Ni and alpha elements with respect to Fe is hard to reconcile with most published models of yields from supernovae of types Ia and II. The revised abundances for Blanco 1 indicate that overall radiative opacities in its stars, and hence convective zone properties at a given mass, are similar to those in the Pleiades at approximately the same age. This can explain a previous observation that the Li-depletion patterns of G- and K-type stars in the two clusters are indistinguishable. The lower overall metallicity of Blanco 1 now makes it less attractive as a target for discovering transiting, short-period exoplanets. Ke yw ords: stars: abundances ‐ stars: late-type ‐ open clusters and associations: individual: Blanco 1.
Solution-processed graphene conductors

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Suppressive Effects on the Immune Response and Protective Immunity to a JEV DNA Vaccine by Co-administration of a GM-CSF-Expressing Plasmid in Mice

As a potential cytokine adjuvant of DNA vaccines, granulocyte-macrophage colony–stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has received considerable attention due to its essential role in the recruitment of antigen-presenting cells, differentiation and maturation of dendritic cells. However, in our recent study of a Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) DNA vaccine, co-inoculation of a GM-CSF plasmid dramatically suppressed the specific IgG response and resulted in decreased protection against JEV challenge. It is known that GM-CSF has been used in clinic to treat neutropenia for repopulating myeloid cells, and as an adjuvant in vaccine studies; it has shown various effects on the immune response. Therefore, in this study, we characterized the suppressive effects on the immune response to a JEV DNA vaccine by the co-administration of the GM-CSF-expressing plasmid and clarified the underlying mechanisms of the suppression in mice. Our results demonstrated that co-immunization with GM-CSF caused a substantial dampening of the vaccine-induced antibody responses. The suppressive effect was dose- and timing-dependent and likely related to the immunogenicity of the antigen. The suppression was associated with the induction of immature dendritic cells and the expansion of regulatory T cells but not myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Collectively, our findings not only provide valuable information for the application of GM-CSF in clinic and using as a vaccine adjuvant but also offer further insight into the understanding of the complex roles of GM-CSF.
Loss of Function of the Mouse Sharpin Gene Results in Peyer’s Patch Regression

Peyer’s patches (PP) are an important component in the immune response against intestinal pathogens. Two independent, spontaneous mutations in the mouse Sharpin gene (Sharpincpdm and Sharpincpdm-Dem) result in the absence of PP and disrupted splenic white pulp in adult mice, although a full complement of lymph nodes is present. Here we report that rudimentary PP begin to develop in Sharpincpdm mice during embryogenesis, but lack the organizational patterns that are typical of this tissue. In the present study, small intestines examined at weekly intervals from birth to maturity showed spontaneous regression of PP in mutant mice with concurrent infiltration of granulocytes. At 5 to 6 weeks of age, only indistinct remnants of granulocytic accumulations remain. Transplantation of normal bone marrow into Sharpincpdm mice at 7 days of age did not prevent regression of PP in bone marrow chimeras examined at 7 to 8 weeks of age. These findings indicate that SHARPIN expression is required for the normal development and maintenance, but not initiation, of PP.
Prevention of Acute Malnutrition: Distribution of Special Nutritious Foods and Cash, and Addressing Underlying Causes—What to Recommend When, Where, for Whom, and How

Acute malnutrition is associated with increased morbidity and mortality risk. When episodes are prolonged or frequent, acute malnutrition is also associated with poor growth and development, which contributes to stunting. Nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive strategies to prevent undernutrition during the first 1,000 days from conception to 24 months of age can reduce the risks of wasting, stunting, and micronutrient deficiencies. Under circumstances that exacerbate the underlying causes of undernutrition and increase the incidence of wasting, such as food insecurity related to lean seasons or emergencies, or increased incidence of illness, such as diarrhea or measles, additional efforts are required to prevent and treat wasting. Special nutritious foods directly meet the increased nutrient requirements of children at risk for wasting; assistance to vulnerable households, in the form of cash or food, enables households to better meet the food, health, and other needs of household members and may increase resilience; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and health interventions help prevent and address illness and hence reduce wasting risk. The contributions of specific interventions to reducing the incidence of wasting are difficult to assess under emergency conditions, due to ethical constraints and to the fact that multiple strategies are implemented at the same time. However, pragmatic studies under real-life circumstances, using different designs, e.g., including a group receiving “best possible” treatment, can provide evidence about what works, to what extent, at what cost, and under which circumstances. Programs should address the most important causes in given contexts, be feasible to implement at scale, and assess implementation, coverage, and outcomes.
Distribution and dynamics of epidemic and pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus virulence factors

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, autochthonous to estuarine, marine, and coastal environments throughout the world, is the causative agent of food-borne gastroenteritis. More than 80 serotypes have been described worldwide, based on antigenic properties of the somatic (O) and capsular (K) antigens. Serovar O3:K6 emerged in India in 1996 and subsequently was isolated worldwide, leading to the conclusion that the first V. parahaemolyticus pandemic had taken place. Most strains of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from the environment or seafood, in contrast to clinical strains, do not produce a thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) and/or a TDH-related hemolysin (TRH). Type 3 secretion systems (T3SSs), needle-like apparatuses able to deliver bacterial effectors into host cytoplasm, were identified as triggering cytotoxicity and enterotoxicity. Type 6 secretion systems (T6SS) predicted to be involved in intracellular trafficking and vesicular transport appear to play a role in V. parahaemolyticus virulence. Recent advances in V. parahaemolyticus genomics identified several pathogenicity islands (VpaIs) located on either chromosome in both epidemic and pandemic strains and comprising additional colonization factors, such as restriction-modification complexes, chemotaxis proteins, classical bacterial surface virulence factors, and putative colicins. Furthermore, studies indicate strains lacking toxins and genomic regions associated with pathogenicity may also be pathogenic, suggesting other important virulence factors remain to be identified. The unique repertoire of virulence factors identified to date, their occurrence and distribution in both epidemic and pandemic strains worldwide are described, with the aim of highlighting the complexity of V. parahaemolyticus pathogenicity as well as its dynamic genome.
Neuronal Correlates of Cross-Modal Transfer in the Cerebellum and Pontine Nuclei

Cross-modal transfer occurs when learning established with a stimulus from one sensory modality facilitates subsequent learning with a new stimulus from a different sensory modality. The current study examined neuronal correlates of cross-modal transfer of pavlovian eyeblink conditioning in rats. Neuronal activity was recorded from tetrodes within the anterior interpositus nucleus (IPN) of the cerebellum and basilar pontine nucleus (PN) during different phases of training. After stimulus preexposure and unpaired training sessions with a tone conditioned stimulus (CS), light CS, and periorbital stimulation unconditioned stimulus (US), rats received associative training with one of the CSs and the US (CS1–US). Training then continued on the same day with the other CS to assess cross-modal transfer (CS2–US). The final training session included associative training with both CSs on separate trials to establish stronger cross-modal transfer (CS1/CS2). Neurons in the IPN and PN showed primarily unimodal responses during pretraining sessions. Learning-related facilitation of activity correlated with the conditioned response (CR) developed in the IPN and PN during CS1–US training. Subsequent CS2–US training resulted in acquisition of CRs and learning-related neuronal activity in the IPN but substantially less little learning-related activity in the PN. Additional CS1/CS2 training increased CRs and learning-related activity in the IPN and PN during CS2–US trials. The findings suggest that cross-modal neuronal plasticity in the PN is driven by excitatory feedback from the IPN to the PN. Interacting plasticity mechanisms in the IPN and PN may underlie behavioral cross-modal transfer in eyeblink conditioning.
Early Behavioural Alterations in Mouse Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Step Forward Towards the Discovery of New Therapeutic Approaches

Historically, research in non-human beings, primarily rodents, has played a fundamental role in understanding neural dysfunctions underlying pathological conditions and how they can be treated. To date, several animal models have been proposed to recapitulate autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We can never fully recapitulate human neuropsychiatric symptomatology in non-human beings; some symptoms, such as low self-esteem and suicidal ideation, are impossible to model in mice. Moreover, brain anatomy between humans and mice is considerably different (i.e. the cerebral cortex is highly elaborated in humans). However, the brains of vertebrates have a common structural organization in which the cerebral cortex is intimately interconnected with subcortical structures that are well conserved across mammals (Tecott, 2003). Furthermore, many fundamental physiological and behavioural responses have been evolutionarily conserved between species. The study of these responses in lower species can therefore provide a better understanding of the neural circuits and the genetic factors subserving them and, through inference, of human behaviour and disease. One of the criteria that are commonly used to validate an animal model (McKinney, 1984) is based on a conceptual analogy of the proposed model to the causes of the human disease (construct validity). Mutant mice with a targeted mutation in a gene implicated in a given neuropsychiatric disorder, neuroanatomical lesions, prenatal drug exposures, and environmental toxins offer examples of putative causes of human diseases that can be replicated in animal models. The etiopathogenesis of autism however has not been clearly elucidated so far and diagnosis of ASD is mainly based on presentation of three core symptoms: profound alterations in social interaction, communication deficits and stereotyped behaviours (i.e. repetitive behaviours and restricted interests). Different approaches have therefore been adopted to model these pathologies in rodents. Table 1 provides a schematic view of currently available mouse models of ASD-like symptomatology.