Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fetal cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine responses to acute hypoxaemia during and following maternal treatment with dexamethasone in sheep

In sheep, direct fetal treatment with dexamethasone alters basal cardiovascular function and the cardiovascular response to acute hypoxaemia. However, in human clinical practice, dexamethasone is administered to the mother, not to the fetus. Hence, this study investigated physiological responses to acute hypoxaemia in fetal sheep during and following maternal treatment with dexamethasone in doses and at dose intervals used in human clinical practice. Under anaesthesia, 18 fetal sheep were instrumented with vascular and amniotic catheters, a carotid flow probe and a femoral flow probe at 118 days gestation (term ca 145 days). Following 6 days recovery at 124 days gestation, 10 ewes received dexamethasone (2 × 12 mg daily i.m. injections in saline). The remaining animals were saline‐injected as age‐matched controls. Two episodes of hypoxaemia (H) were induced in all animals by reducing the maternal FIO2for 1 h (H1, 8 h after the second injection; H2, 3 days after the second injection). In fetuses whose mothers received saline, hypoxaemia induced significant increases in fetal arterial blood pressure, carotid blood flow and carotid vascular conductance and femoral vascular resistance, significant falls in femoral blood flow and femoral vascular conductance and transient bradycardia. These cardiovascular responses were accompanied by a fall in arterial pH, increases in blood glucose and blood lactate concentrations and increased plasma concentrations of catecholamines. In fetuses whose mothers were treated with dexamethasone, bradycardia persisted throughout hypoxaemia, the magnitude of the femoral vasoconstriction, the glycaemic, lactacidaemic and acidaemic responses and the plasma concentration of neuropeptide Y (NPY) were all enhanced during H1. However, during H2, all of these physiological responses were similar to saline controls. In dexamethasone fetuses, the increase in plasma adrenaline was attenuated during H1 and the increase in carotid vascular conductance during hypoxaemia failed to reach statistical significance both during H1 and during H2. These data show that maternal treatment with dexamethasone in doses and intervals used in human obstetric practice modified the fetal cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine defence responses to acute hypoxaemia. Furthermore, dexamethasone‐induced alterations to these defences depended on whether the hypoxaemic challenge occurred during or following maternal dexamethasone treatment.
The CFAR Detection of Ground Moving Targets Based on a Joint Metric of SAR Interferogram's Magnitude and Phase

By analyzing the backscattering difference between moving targets and stationary clutter contained in the interferogram, a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detecting method based on a joint metric of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferogram's magnitude and phase (IMP) for ground moving targets has been proposed in this paper. First, utilizing the exclusive mapping relationship between interferometric phase and the module of corresponding vector, and combining interferometric magnitude, a new joint metric, called IMP metric, has been constructed. Second, under the frame of multiplicative model, based on the complex Wishart-distribution, the IMP metric's statistical model, simply denoted as S0 distribution, has been derived. Meanwhile, the parametric estimators of the S0 distribution have also been presented based on the Mellin transform. Finally, the CFAR threshold of ground moving target detection using the S0 distribution has been given analytically. The experiments performed on measured dual-SAR images not only show the effectiveness of the IMP metric's statistical models and the parametric estimators, but also prove the good performance of the proposed CFAR detecting method.
Spatiotemporal Signatures of Large-Scale Synfire Chains for Speech Processing as Revealed by MEG

We report a new brain signature of memory trace activation in the human brain revealed by magnetoencephalography and distributed source localization. Spatiotemporal patterns of cortical activation can be picked up in the time course of source images underlying magnetic brain responses to speech and noise stimuli, especially the generators of the magnetic mismatch negativity. We found that acoustic signals perceived as speech elicited a well-defined spatiotemporal pattern of sequential activation of superior–temporal and inferior–frontal cortex, whereas the same identical stimuli, when perceived as noise, did not elicit temporally structured activation. Strength of local sources constituting large-scale spatiotemporal patterns reflected additional lexical and syntactic features of speech. Morphological processing of the critical sound as verb inflection led to particularly pronounced early left inferior–frontal activation, whereas the same sound functioning as inflectional affix of a noun activated superior–temporal cortex more strongly. We conclude that precisely timed spatiotemporal patterns involving specific cortical areas may represent a brain code of memory circuit activation. These spatiotemporal patterns are best explained in terms of synfire mechanisms linking neuronal populations in different cortical areas. The large-scale synfire chains appear to reflect the processing of stimuli together with the context-dependent perceptual and cognitive information bound to them.
Bayesian actor-critic algorithms

We present a new actor-critic learning model in which a Bayesian class of non-parametric critics, using Gaussian process temporal difference learning is used. Such critics model the state-action value function as a Gaussian process, allowing Bayes' rule to be used in computing the posterior distribution over state-action value functions, conditioned on the observed data. Appropriate choices of the prior covariance (kernel) between state-action values and of the parametrization of the policy allow us to obtain closed-form expressions for the posterior distribution of the gradient of the average discounted return with respect to the policy parameters. The posterior mean, which serves as our estimate of the policy gradient, is used to update the policy, while the posterior covariance allows us to gauge the reliability of the update.
TagRec: Leveraging Tagging Wisdom for Recommendation

Due to the exponential growth of information on the Web, Recommender Systems have been developed to generate suggestions to help users overcome information overload and sift through huge amounts of information efficiently. Many existing approaches to recommender systems can neither handle very large datasets nor easily deal with users who have made very few ratings. Moreover, traditional recommender systems consider only the rating information, resulting in the loss of flexibility. Tagging has recently emerged as a popular way for users to annotate, organize and share resources on the Web. Several research tasks have shown that tags can represent users’ judgments about Web contents quite accurately. In the light of the facts that both the rating activity and tagging activity can reflect users’ opinions, this paper proposes a factor analysis approach called TagRec based on a unified probabilistic matrix factorization by utilizing both users’ tagging information and rating information. The complexity analysis indicates that our approach can be applied to very large datasets. Furthermore, experimental results on MovieLens data set show that our method performs better than the state-of-the-art approaches.
Angiotensin II type 1 and 2 receptors and lymphatic vessels modulate lung remodeling and fibrosis in systemic sclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

OBJECTIVE: To validate the importance of the angiotensin II receptor isotypes and the lymphatic vessels in systemic sclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. METHODS: We examined angiotensin II type 1 and 2 receptors and lymphatic vessels in the pulmonary tissues obtained from open lung biopsies of 30 patients with systemic sclerosis and 28 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Their histologic patterns included cellular and fibrotic non-specific interstitial pneumonia for systemic sclerosis and usual interstitial pneumonia for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We used immunohistochemistry and histomorphometry to evaluate the number of cells in the alveolar septae and the vessels stained by these markers. Survival curves were also used. RESULTS: We found a significantly increased percentage of septal and vessel cells immunostained for the angiotensin type 1 and 2 receptors in the systemic sclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients compared with the controls. A similar percentage of angiotensin 2 receptor positive vessel cells was observed in fibrotic non-specific interstitial pneumonia and usual interstitial pneumonia. A significantly increased percentage of lymphatic vessels was present in the usual interstitial pneumonia group compared with the non-specific interstitial pneumonia and control groups. A Cox regression analysis showed a high risk of death for the patients with usual interstitial pneumonia and a high percentage of vessel cells immunostained for the angiotensin 2 receptor in the lymphatic vessels. CONCLUSION: We concluded that angiotensin II receptor expression in the lung parenchyma can potentially control organ remodeling and fibrosis, which suggests that strategies aimed at preventing high angiotensin 2 receptor expression may be used as potential therapeutic target in patients with pulmonary systemic sclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
T-REX: a web server for inferring, validating and visualizing phylogenetic trees and networks

T-REX (Tree and reticulogram REConstruction) is a web server dedicated to the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees, reticulation networks and to the inference of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events. T-REX includes several popular bioinformatics applications such as MUSCLE, MAFFT, Neighbor Joining, NINJA, BioNJ, PhyML, RAxML, random phylogenetic tree generator and some well-known sequence-to-distance transformation models. It also comprises fast and effective methods for inferring phylogenetic trees from complete and incomplete distance matrices as well as for reconstructing reticulograms and HGT networks, including the detection and validation of complete and partial gene transfers, inference of consensus HGT scenarios and interactive HGT identification, developed by the authors. The included methods allows for validating and visualizing phylogenetic trees and networks which can be built from distance or sequence data. The web server is available at: www.trex. uqam.ca.
Periodic leg movements are part of the B‐wave rhythm and the cyclic alternating pattern

Periodic leg movements (PLM) in sleep are supposed to constitute a frequent cause of insomnia. There is some controversy whether PLM are the cause of insomnia by provoking microarousals or whether they are simply an epiphenomenon not causally related to the insomnia. We examined four patients with PLM by overnight polysomnography and concomitant transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) monitoring, 13 patients with suspected normal pressure hydrocephalus by concomitant overnight polysomnography and intracranial pressure recording, and 10 healthy volunteers by concomitant overnight polysomnography and TCD monitoring. EEG arousals occurred more frequently before than after the PLM. PLM were associated with increase in heart rate, breathing amplitude, and cerebral blood flow velocity assessed by TCD. PLM occurred with a mean wavelength of 40.5 s. This mean wavelength corresponded to similar values calculated for intracranial pressure B‐waves (43.3 s) in 13 patients with suspected normal‐pressure hydrocephalus, TCD B‐wave equivalents (42.2 s) in 10 healthy young adults and the frequency of the cyclic alternating pattern in EEg recordings (40 s). Our data suggest that these cyclic variations with a wavelength of about 40 s are part of a common endogenous rhythm. PLM seem to be an epiphenomenon of this rhythm and not the cause of insomnia.
Hankel model reduction for descriptor systems

This paper focuses on model reduction of dynamical systems described by differential-algebraic equations. After transforming the system to the Weierstrass canonical form, the system is decomposed as a slow subsystem and a fast subsystem, which are then combined in parallel interconnection. Based on the solutions of these two subsystems, a new definition of the Hankel operator is given. Then, the conventional Hankel norm model reduction method is applied to the slow subsystem. Furthermore, we develop a new realization method to minimize the order of the fast subsystem while the DAE index is preserved. A numerical example is tested to show the approximation accuracy.
Oculomotor atypicalities in Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) fail to acquire adequate motor skill, yet surprisingly little is known about the oculomotor system in DCD. Successful completion of motor tasks is supported by accurate visual feedback. The purpose of this study was to determine whether any oculomotor differences can distinguish between children with and without a motor impairment. Using eye tracking technology, visual fixation, smooth pursuit, and pro‐ and anti‐saccade performance were assessed in 77 children that formed three groups: children with DCD (aged 7–10), chronologically age (CA) matched peers, and a motor‐match (MM) group (aged 4–7). Pursuit gain and response preparation in the pro‐ and anti‐saccade tasks were comparable across groups. Compared to age controls, children with DCD had deficits in maintaining engagement in the fixation and pursuit tasks, and made more anti‐saccade errors. The two typically developing groups performed similarly, except on the fast speed smooth pursuit and antisaccade tasks, where the CA group outperformed the younger MM group. The findings suggest that children with DCD have problems with saccadic inhibition and maintaining attention on a visual target. Developmental patterns were evident in the typically developing groups, suggesting that the pursuit system and cognitive control develop with age. This study adds to the literature by being the first to systematically identify specific oculomotor differences between children with and without a motor impairment. Further examination of oculomotor control may help to identify underlying processes contributing to DCD. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/NinXa2KlB4M. [Correction added on 27 January 2017, after first online publication: The video abstract link was added. ]
Vibration of Tube Bundles in Two-Phase Cross-Flow: Part 3—Turbulence-Induced Excitation

An extensive experimental program was carried out to study the vibration behavior of tube bundles subjected to two-phase cross-flow. Turbulence-induced excitation is discussed in Part 3 of this series of three papers. Random vibration response to turbulence-induced excitation is a significant vibration mechanism in heat exchanger tube bundles subjected to two-phase cross-flow. The vibration responses of centrally located tubes in four tube bundle configurations subjected to air-water cross-flow was measured. The results are presented in the form of a normalized forced-excitation spectrum which can be used as a design guideline over a void fraction range from 25 percent to 99 percent and over a practical range of flow rates. The data are further analyzed to determine the dependence of the vibration response on Reynolds number, void fraction and frequency. Measurements taken on a single tube, a row of tubes and on tubes having varying end conditions were used to assist in interpreting the bundle data.
Circulating and renal vein levels of microRNAs in patients with renal artery stenosis.

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRs) are small non-coding RNAs that are important regulators of gene expression and have been implicated in atherosclerosis. Kidney injury distal to atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) is aggravated by atherosclerosis. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that renal miR expression would be altered in patients with ARAS. METHODS Patients with essential hypertension (EH; n = 13) or ARAS (n = 13) underwent a 3-day protocol study under controlled conditions. For miR levels, blood samples were collected from EH and ARAS renal vein (RV) and inferior vena cava or peripheral vein of matched normotensive healthy volunteers (HV; n = 13) and patients with coronary atherosclerosis (CA; n = 11). Single-renal blood flow was measured in EH and ARAS using computer tomography to calculate renal gradients and release of miRs. RESULTS Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was lower in ARAS compared with the other groups. Systemic levels of most miRs were elevated in CA. RV miR levels were lower than systemic levels in both ARAS and EH. GFR-adjusted RV levels of miR-21, 155 and 210 were reduced only in ARAS patients compared with systemic levels in HV, although cross-kidney gradients were not different from EH. RV levels of miR-21, 126, 155 and 210 correlated with GFR. CONCLUSIONS Levels of atherosclerosis-related miR-21, 126, 155 and 210 are decreased in the stenotic-kidney vein of ARAS compared with EH patients, likely due to decreased GFR. Yet, these miRs might be implicated in modulating renal injury in ARAS, and their RV level may be a marker reflecting their renal expression.
Subunit Dependencies of N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) Receptor-Induced α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic Acid (AMPA) Receptor Internalization

N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (NMDAR) activity regulates the net number of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors (AMPAR) at the cell surface by modulating the balance between AMPAR membrane insertion and endocytosis. In this study, we addressed the role of NMDAR subtypes and of NMDAR-mediated Ca2+ influx in the NMDAR-induced endocytosis of GluR2-containing AMPARs in primary murine hippocampal neurons. We found that NMDAR activation enhanced the endocytosis of AMPARs containing the GluR2 splice variants with short, but not long, cytoplasmic tails. NMDA-induced GluR2 endocytosis was completely inhibited by pharmacological block of NR2B-containing NMDARs. In turn, preferential block of NR2A-containing NMDARs did not affect NMDA-induced AMPAR endocytosis, indicating that AMPAR internalization is controlled by a restricted set of NMDARs. The NMDA-induced GluR2 internalization was also observed in the absence of extracellular Na+ ions, suggesting that membrane depolarization is not a prerequisite for this effect. Furthermore, the activation of Ca2+-impermeable NMDARs containing the mutant NR1(N598R) subunit failed to enhance AMPAR endocytosis, indicating a requirement of Ca2+ influx directly through the NMDAR channels. In summary, our findings suggest that the NMDAR-induced selective internalization of short C-terminal GluR2-containing AMPARs requires a Ca2+ signal that originates from NMDAR channels and is processed in an NMDAR subtype-restricted manner.
A Regenerative Antioxidant Protocol of Vitamin E and α-Lipoic Acid Ameliorates Cardiovascular and Metabolic Changes in Fructose-Fed Rats

Type 2 diabetes is a major cause of cardiovascular disease. We have determined whether the metabolic and cardiovascular changes induced by a diet high in fructose in young adult male Wistar rats could be prevented or reversed by chronic intervention with natural antioxidants. We administered a regenerative antioxidant protocol using two natural compounds: α-lipoic acid together with vitamin E (α-tocopherol alone or a tocotrienol-rich fraction), given as either a prevention or reversal protocol in the food. These rats developed glucose intolerance, hypertension, and increased collagen deposition in the heart together with an increased ventricular stiffness. Treatment with a fixed combination of vitamin E (either α-tocopherol or tocotrienol-rich fraction, 0.84 g/kg food) and α-lipoic acid (1.6 g/kg food) normalized glucose tolerance, blood pressure, cardiac collagen deposition, and ventricular stiffness in both prevention and reversal protocols in these fructose-fed rats. These results suggest that adequate antioxidant therapy can both prevent and reverse the metabolic and cardiovascular damage in type 2 diabetes.
Generation and Characterisation of a Reference Transcriptome for Phalaris (Phalaris aquatica L.)

Phalaris aquatica is a cool-season perennial grass species that is extensively cultivated in Australia, with additional usage in other areas of the world. Phalaris displays a number of desirable agronomic characteristics, although unfavourable traits include excessive seed shattering, sensitivity to aluminium toxicity, and several toxicosis syndromes. Varietal development has to date been based on traditional selection methods, but would benefit from the application of genomics-based approaches, which require the development of large-scale sequence resources. Due to a large nuclear DNA content, methods that target the expressed component of the genome and reduce the complexity of analysis are most amenable to current sequencing technologies. A reference unigene set has been developed by transcriptome sequencing of multiple tissues from a single plant belonging to the variety Landmaster. Comparisons have been made to gene complements from related species, as well as reference protein databases, and patterns of gene expression in different tissues have been evaluated. A number of candidate genes relevant to removal of undesirable attributes have been identified. The reference unigene set will provide the basis for detailed studies of differential gene expression and identification of candidate genes for potential transgenic deployment, as well as a critical resource for genotypic analysis to support future genomics-assisted breeding activities for phalaris improvement.
A Comparison of the Predictive Power of Anthropometric Indices for Hypertension and Hypotension Risk

Background and Aims It is commonly accepted that body fat distribution is associated with hypertension, but the strongest anthropometric indicator of the risk of hypertension is still controversial. Furthermore, no studies on the association of hypotension with anthropometric indices have been reported. The objectives of the present study were to determine the best predictors of hypertension and hypotension among various anthropometric indices and to assess the use of combined indices as a method of improving the predictive power in adult Korean women and men. Methods For 12789 subjects 21–85 years of age, we assessed 41 anthropometric indices using statistical analyses and data mining techniques to determine their ability to discriminate between hypertension and normotension as well as between hypotension and normotension. We evaluated the predictive power of combined indices using two machine learning algorithms and two variable subset selection techniques. Results The best indicator for predicting hypertension was rib circumference in both women (p = <0.0001; OR = 1.813; AUC = 0.669) and men (p = <0.0001; OR = 1.601; AUC = 0.627); for hypotension, the strongest predictor was chest circumference in women (p = <0.0001; OR = 0.541; AUC = 0.657) and neck circumference in men (p = <0.0001; OR = 0.522; AUC = 0.672). In experiments using combined indices, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for the prediction of hypertension risk in women and men were 0.721 and 0.652, respectively, according to the logistic regression with wrapper-based variable selection; for hypotension, the corresponding values were 0.675 in women and 0.737 in men, according to the naïve Bayes with wrapper-based variable selection. Conclusions The best indicators of the risk of hypertension and the risk of hypotension may differ. The use of combined indices seems to slightly improve the predictive power for both hypertension and hypotension.