Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Myoblast mitochondrial respiration is decreased in chronic binge alcohol administered simian immunodeficiency virus‐infected antiretroviral‐treated rhesus macaques

Work from our group demonstrated that chronic binge alcohol (CBA)‐induces mitochondrial gene dysregulation at end‐stage disease of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection in antiretroviral therapy (ART) naïve rhesus macaques. Alterations in gene expression can disrupt mitochondrial homeostasis and in turn contribute to the risk of metabolic comorbidities characterized by loss of skeletal muscle (SKM) functional mass that are associated with CBA, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and prolonged ART. The aim of this study was to examine the interaction of CBA and ART on SKM fiber oxidative capacity and myoblast mitochondrial respiration in asymptomatic SIV‐infected macaques. SKM biopsies were obtained and myoblasts isolated at baseline and 11 months post‐SIV infection from CBA/SIV/ART+ and from sucrose (SUC)‐treated SIV‐infected (SUC/SIV/ART+) macaques. CBA and ART decreased succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity in type 1 and type 2b fibers as determined by immunohistochemistry. Myoblasts isolated from CBA/SIV/ART+ macaques showed decreased maximal oxygen consumption rate (OCR) compared to myoblasts from control macaques. Maximal OCR was significantly increased in control myoblasts following incubation with formoterol, a beta adrenergic agonist, and this was associated with increased PGC‐1α expression and mtDNA quantity. Additionally, formoterol treatment of myoblasts isolated from CBA/SIV/ART+ macaques partially restored maximal OCR to levels not significantly different from control. These results show that CBA in combination with ART impairs myoblast mitochondrial homeostasis in SIV‐infected macaques. Moreover, our findings suggest that adrenergic agonists can potentially ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction. Future studies will elucidate whether physical exercise in HIV patients with alcohol use disorder can improve mitochondrial health.
Properties of Mode-Locked Optical Pulses in a Dispersion-Managed Fiber-Ring Laser Using Semiconductor Optical Amplifier as Active Device

A hybrid model is proposed in order to exploit the idea of compensating semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) nonlinearity by adjusting cavity dispersion in a SOA-fiber ring mode-locked laser. The model is checked by analytical as well as experimental results. Excellent agreement is obtained in both cases. It is predicted that, once the cavity dispersion is correctly adjusted, the mode-locked pulses of 10 ps width will become distortion-free Gaussians, with their time-bandwidth product (TB) very close to the fundamental Gaussian limit (TB=1/2) using root-mean-square definition. We will show evidence and explain why other waveforms, notably soliton, are highly unlikely in such a system. Some interesting effects related to band-pass filter are revealed as well. Our results highlight the ambiguity of TB using full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) definition. As a consequence, the widely adopted notion of transform-limited pulse in its FWHM version might be misleading.
Effects of tcpB Mutations on Biogenesis and Function of the Toxin-Coregulated Pilus, the Type IVb Pilus of Vibrio cholerae

ABSTRACT Vibrio cholerae is the etiological agent of the acute intestinal disorder cholera. The toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP), a type IVb pilus, is an essential virulence factor of V. cholerae. Recent work has shown that TcpB is a large minor pilin encoded within the tcp operon. TcpB contributes to efficient pilus formation and is essential for all TCP functions. Here, we have initiated a detailed targeted mutagenesis approach to further characterize this salient TCP component. We have identified (thus far) 20 residues of TcpB which affect either the steady-state level of TcpB or alter one or more TCP functions. This study provides a solid framework for further understanding of the complex role of TcpB and will be of use upon determination of the crystal structure of TcpB or related minor pilin orthologs of type IVb pilus systems. IMPORTANCE Type IV pili, such as the toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) in V. cholerae, are bacterial appendages that often act as essential virulence factors. Minor pilins, like TcpB, of these pili systems often play integral roles in pilus assembly and function. In this study, we have generated mutations in tcpB to determine residues of importance for TCP stability and function. Combined with a predicted tertiary structure, characterization of these mutants allows us to better understand critical residues in TcpB and the role they may play in the mechanisms underlying minor pilin functions.
Monoterpenes are the largest source of summertime organic aerosol in the southeastern United States

Significance Atmospheric fine organic aerosol impacts air quality, climate, and human health. Speciating and quantifying the sources of organic aerosol on the molecular level improves understanding of their formation chemistry and hence the resulting impacts. Such study, however, has not been possible due to the chemical complexity of atmospheric organic aerosol. Here, we provide comprehensive molecular characterization of atmospheric organic aerosol samples from the southeastern United States by combining state-of-the-art high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques. We find that monoterpene secondary organic aerosol accounts for approximately half of total fine organic aerosol. More importantly, the monoterpene secondary organic aerosol mass increases with enhanced nitrogen oxide processing, indicating anthropogenic influence on biogenic secondary organic aerosol formation. The chemical complexity of atmospheric organic aerosol (OA) has caused substantial uncertainties in understanding its origins and environmental impacts. Here, we provide constraints on OA origins through compositional characterization with molecular-level details. Our results suggest that secondary OA (SOA) from monoterpene oxidation accounts for approximately half of summertime fine OA in Centreville, AL, a forested area in the southeastern United States influenced by anthropogenic pollution. We find that different chemical processes involving nitrogen oxides, during days and nights, play a central role in determining the mass of monoterpene SOA produced. These findings elucidate the strong anthropogenic–biogenic interaction affecting ambient aerosol in the southeastern United States and point out the importance of reducing anthropogenic emissions, especially under a changing climate, where biogenic emissions will likely keep increasing.
Drug-Bearing Supramolecular Filament Hydrogels as Anti-Inflammatory Agents

We report here on the covalent conversion of the anti-inflammatory agent ketoprofen into self-assembling prodrugs that enable the effective purification of ketoprofen enantiomers, the improved selectivity and potency of ketoprofen, as well as the formation of one-component drug-bearing supramolecular hydrogels. We found that the ketoprofen hydrogelator could exhibit much-enhanced selectivity for cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) over COX-1, reduce the concentration of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 and TNFα), and induce apoptosis in fibroblast-like synoviocytes while maintaining biocompatibility with healthy chondrocytes. In addition, these anti-inflammatory agent-containing hydrogels demonstrated the ability to retain the therapeutic within a joint cavity after intra-articular injection, exhibiting a slow, steady release into the plasma. We believe that upon further optimization these drug-based injectable supramolecular hydrogels could provide the basis for a local treatment strategy for rheumatoid arthritis and similar conditions.
Joint channel estimation and data recovery of communication systems with sub-Nyquist receiver

Consider a multicarrier communication scenario where both the information (data) and channel have sparse structure. To exploit such sparse structure, we propose to use a receiver working at sampling rate much lower than Nyquist rate (sub-Nyquist sampling) to acquire the data corrupted by noise as well as multipath channel. With the sub-Nyquist rate samples, the joint channel estimation and data recovery is formulated as a sparse maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) problem which maximizes the associated non-concave likelihood function under the sparsity constraints on channel and data. This Sparse MLE framework is proved to provide solutions with bounded error w.r. t. the true value of channel and data under certain restricted isometry property (RIP) conditions. We propose an alternating sparse matching pursuit (ASMP) algorithm to solve the non-convex Sparse MLE problem. We also establish the sufficient conditions for ASMP to converge to solution with bounded error under certain restricted isometry property (RIP) conditions. Simulations show that when sparse structure is exploited, a low rate sub-Nyquist receiver using ASMP performs nearly as well as a Nyquist rate receiver.
Void Formation and Their Effect on Reliability of Lead-Free Solder Joints on MID and PCB Substrates

Since the introduction of lead-free solder alloys, the impact of voids in solder joints has rapidly gained in importance. Particularly in power electronics, voids in solder joints can reduce their reliability due to less heat dissipation and a significant reduction of the cross-sectional area. While void formation in the printed circuit board (PCB) technology has been the focus of many research projects, the increasing application of molded interconnect devices (MIDs) demands a vivid understanding of void formation and its impact on reliability. This report will show that those processes specific to MID technology do not significantly influence the void formation in SAC305 solder deposits. The processed different roughness levels on Vectra, Vestamid, and FR4 substrate materials show no significant impact on void formation. The surface finish metallization was detected as the most important factor. Especially, the chemical-Sn (iSn) surface finish is inclined to having more voids compared to a nickel–phosphor–gold (NiP-Au) finish. Furthermore, three solder processes were investigated: convection, condensation, and vacuum-condensation soldering. The vacuum-condensation processes significantly reduced the voids in the Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu (simplified as SAC305) solder joints of CR0805, MLF20, and switches on all the investigated substrates. An accelerated thermal cycling test of these components according to JESD22-A104D demonstrates no significant effect of the void content of <19% on the solder joints’ reliability. Finally, the result of accelerated thermal cycling shows the possibility to achieve an equivalent lifetime of the solder joints on Vectra in comparison to the FR4 substrate.
Reduced skeletal muscle phosphocreatine concentration in type 2 diabetic patients: a quantitative image-based phosphorus-31 MR spectroscopy study.

Mitochondrial function has been examined in insulin-resistant (IR) states including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Previous studies using phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) in T2DM reported results as relative concentrations of metabolite ratios, which could obscure differences in phosphocreatine ([PCr]) and adenosine triphosphate concentrations ([ATP]) between T2DM and normal glucose tolerance (NGT) individuals. We used an image-guided 31P-MRS method to quantitate [PCr], inorganic phosphate [Pi], phosphodiester [PDE], and [ATP] in vastus lateralis (VL) muscle in 11 T2DM and 14 NGT subjects. Subjects also received oral glucose tolerance test, euglycemic insulin clamp, 1H-MRS to measure intramyocellular lipids [IMCL], and VL muscle biopsy to evaluate mitochondrial density. T2DM subjects had lower absolute [PCr] and [ATP] than NGT subjects (PCr 28.6 ± 3.2 vs. 24.6 ± 2.4, P < 0.002, and ATP 7.18 ± 0.6 vs. 6.37 ± 1.1, P < 0.02) while [PDE] was higher, but not significantly. [PCr], obtained using the traditional ratio method, showed no significant difference between groups. [PCr] was negatively correlated with HbA1c ( r = -0.63, P < 0.01) and fasting plasma glucose ( r = -0.51, P = 0.01). [PDE] was negatively correlated with Matsuda index ( r = -0.43, P = 0.03) and M/I ( r = -0.46, P = 0.04), but was positively correlated with [IMCL] ( r = 0.64, P < 0.005), HbA1c, and FPG ( r = 0.60, P = 0.001). To summarize, using a modified, in vivo quantitative 31P-MRS method, skeletal muscle [PCr] and [ATP] are reduced in T2DM, while this difference was not observed with the traditional ratio method. The strong inverse correlation between [PCr] vs. HbA1c, FPG, and insulin sensitivity supports the concept that lower baseline skeletal muscle [PCr] is related to key determinants of glucose homeostasis.
Attention lapses in children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

ABSTRACT Attentional lapses are usually defined as temporary and often brief shifts of attention away from some primary task to unrelated internal information processing. This study addressed the incidence of attention lapses and differences in attentional functioning in 30 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 26 healthy children, and 29 children with spina bifida myelomeningocele and hydrocephalus (SBH). Assessments were conducted using computerized tonic and phasic attention tests, the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), and the Trail Making Test Form B (TMT–B). The group with SBH differed from normal controls on cognitive measures of attention and executive functions. The ADHD group obtained lower scores than the SBH group and healthy children. ANOVA results showed that there was an effect of shunt revisions and shunt-related infections on neuropsychological performance. Lapses of attention together with reaction time may thus represent important factors for the understanding of cognitive deficits in SBH.
Real-Life Impact of Executive Function Impairments in Adults Who Were Born Very Preterm

Abstract Objectives: Children and adolescents who were born very preterm (≤32 weeks’ gestation) are vulnerable to experiencing cognitive problems, including in executive function. However, it remains to be established whether cognitive deficits are evident in adulthood and whether these exert a significant effect on an individual’s real-lifeachievement. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, we tested a range of neurocognitive abilities, with a focus on executive function, in a sample of 122 very preterm individuals and 89 term-born controls born between 1979 and 1984. Associations between executive function and a range of achievement measures, indicative of a successful transition to adulthood, were examined. Results: Very preterm adults performed worse compared to controls on measures of intellectual ability and executive function with moderate to large effect sizes. They also demonstrated significantly lower achievement levels in terms of years spent in education, employment status, and on a measure of functioning in work and social domains. Results of regression analysis indicated a stronger positive association between executive function and real-life achievement in the very preterm group compared to controls. Conclusions: Very preterm born adults demonstrate executive function impairments compared to full-term controls, and these are associated with lower achievement in several real-life domains. (JINS, 2017, 23, 381–389)
Granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells maintain feto-maternal tolerance by inducing Foxp3 expression in CD4+CD25-T cells by activation of the TGF-β/β-catenin pathway.

STUDY HYPOTHESIS The transforming growth factor (TGF)-β/β-catenin pathway is involved in granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cell (G-MDSCs)-induced Foxp3 expression in CD4(+)CD25(-)T cells, which plays an essential role in maintaining feto-maternal tolerance. STUDY FINDING Decidual G-MDSCs play an important role in promoting Foxp3 induction in CD4(+)CD25(-)T cells, which is dependent on TGF-β/β-catenin pathway. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY MDSCs contribute to the observed increase in regulatory T cells in animal cancer models. The TGF-β/β-catenin pathway is required for T cell development and survival. STUDY DESIGN, SAMPLES/MATERIALS, METHODS MDSC levels in deciduas from patients undergoing elective termination of pregnancy or spontaneous abortion were assessed by flow-cytometric analysis. The best characterized markers of G-MDSCs cells were examined by immunocytochemistry and flow-cytometric analysis. In vivo, fetus resorption and proportion of decidual immune cells were evaluated after depletion of G-MDSCs. In vitro, we established an antigen-non-specific (CD3/CD28) CD4(+)CD25(-)T and G-MDSC co-culture system and added TGF-β, anti-TGFβ, TGF-β plus anti-TGFβ or β-catenin inhibitor ICG001 to the system. Protein levels were measured by western blot. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE G-MDSCs showed a significant decrease in spontaneous abortion compared with elective abortion in women with normal pregnancy (P < 0.01), whereas the numbers of monocytic MDSCs remained unchanged. The dynamics of G-MDSCs in mice revealed that few G-MDSCs were present in non-pregnant uteri. G-MDSCs expanded rapidly in CBA/J×BALB/c mice with normal pregnancy and decreased in CBA/J×DBA/2 mice with abortion-prone pregnancy. G-MDSCs were characterized by the expression of CD115, CD117, CD135, CD62L, CCR2, MHCII, CD80, Arginase I and iNOS, and a lack of F4/80 or CD11c expression. Specifically, depletion of G-MDSCs-induced severe embryo resorption and decreased the percentage of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)T cells. In vitro, G-MDSCs had an important role in promoting Foxp3 induction in CD4(+)CD25(-)T cells, dependent on TGF-β/β-catenin pathway. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION It is not sufficient to examine the role of G-MDSCs in the maintenance of maternal-fetal tolerance by depleting G-MDSCs using neutralizing antibody. Further studies are needed to establish an animal model of G-MDSCs in order to elucidate their exact role at the maternal-fetal tolerance. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Our findings provide novel insights into a new function and mechanism of action for G-MDSCs in mediating feto-maternal immune tolerance. LARGE-SCALE DATA Not applicable. STUDY FUNDING AND COMPETING INTERESTS This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81270715; 91442113). The authors have nothing to disclose.
Redox Proteomics Applied to the Thiol Secretome.

SIGNIFICANCE Secreted proteins are important both as signaling molecules and potential biomarkers. Recent Advances: Protein can undergo different types of oxidation, both in physiological conditions or under oxidative stress. Several redox proteomics techniques have been successfully applied to the identification of glutathionylated proteins, an oxidative post-translational modification consisting in the formation of a mixed disulfide between a protein cysteine and glutathione. Redox proteomics has also been used to study other forms of protein oxidation. CRITICAL ISSUES Because of the highest proportion of free cysteines in the cytosol, redox proteomics of protein thiols has focused, so far, on intracellular proteins. However, plasma proteins, such as transthyretin and albumin, have been described as glutathionylated or cysteinylated. The present review discusses the redox state of protein cysteines in relation to their cellular distribution. We describe the various approaches used to detect secreted glutathionylated proteins, the only thiol modification studied so far in secreted proteins, and the specific problems presented in the study of the secretome. FUTURE DIRECTIONS This review focusses on glutathionylated proteins secreted under inflammatory conditions and that may act as soluble mediators (cytokines). Future studies on the redox secretome (including other forms of oxidation) might identify new soluble mediators and biomarkers of oxidative stress. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 26, 299-312.
Activation of hypothalamic astrocytes suppresses feeding without altering emotional states

Emerging evidence shows that hypothalamic astrocytes react to and counteract energy surfeit produced by high‐fat diet (HFD) feeding. However, the functional role of astrocytes in the control of energy states and the underlying molecular mechanism(s) during physiological conditions remain largely underexplored. In the present study, by taking advantage of spatiotemporally precise optogenetic approaches, real‐time measurements of extracellular adenosine, and behavioral assays, we find that optogenetic stimulation of astrocytes localized in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) suppresses food intake in a frequency dependent manner with high frequency, but not low frequency, stimulation of astrocytes reducing food intake. Furthermore, stimulation of MBH astrocytes diminishes orexigenic ghrelin or fasting‐induced hyperphagia without effecting anxiety‐related behavior. Consistent with a frequency dependent role for MBH astrocytes in feeding behavior, optogenetic stimulation of MBH astrocytes increases extracellular levels of adenosine in a frequency dependent manner. Collectively, our results provide new insights into the role of astrocytes in physiological functions during naturally occurring behaviors, such as feeding. GLIA 2016;64:2263–2273
Sintering Effects on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of CoCrMo Alloy

Cobalt chromium molybdenum (CoCrMo) alloy is widely used in artificial hip and knee joints because of their excellence corrosion and wear resistance, as well as good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. This study investigates the effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of CoCrMo using powder metallurgy technique. CoCrMo powder was mixed with zinc stearate and then put into the shaker mixer at 65 rpm for 3 hours. The powder was then compacted at a pressure of 18T using an automated hydraulic press and sintered at a temperature in the range of 1200 – 1400 °C under 95 Vol% N2/ 5 Vol% H2 atmosphere. The microstructure, physical and mechanical properties of the samples are analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Vickers’s microhardness tester and transverse rupture strength (TRS). The study reveals that the density, hardness and strength of CoCrMo samples increase as sintering temperature increases.