Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An α-hemoglobin-derived peptide (m)VD-hemopressin (α) promotes NREM sleep via the CB1 cannabinoid receptor

Hemopressin and related peptides have shown to function as the endogenous ligands or the regulator of cannabinoid receptors. The previous studies demonstrated that the endocannabinoid system played important roles in modulating several physiological functions such as sleep, olfaction, emotion, learning and memory, and reward behaviors. Mouse VD-hemopressin (α) [(m)VD-HPα], an 11-residue peptide derived from the α1 chain of hemoglobin, was recently presumed as a selective agonist of the CB1 receptor. The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of (m)VD-HPα on the sleep–wake cycle and power spectrum of cortical EEG in freely moving rats and the potential neurons in the brain activated by (m)VD-HPα. The results showed that 20.1 nmol of (m)VD-HPα i.c. v. administration increased non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in the first 2 h section accompanied by an increase in EEG delta (0.5–4 Hz) activity. The (m)VD-HPα-induced NREM sleep enhancement was due to extended episode duration instead of the episode number. In addition, the effect of (m)VD-HPα (20.1 nmol) on sleep–wake states was significantly attenuated by an antagonist of the CB1 receptor, AM251 (20 nmol, i.c.v.) but not by the CB2 receptor antagonist, AM630 (20 nmol, i.c.v.). In comparison with vehicle, (m)VD-HPα increased Fos-immunoreactive (-ir) neurons in the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), but reduced Fos-ir neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH), tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN), and locus coeruleus (LC). These findings suggest that (m)VD-HPα promotes NREM sleep via the CB1 cannabinoid receptor to probably activate VLPO GABAergic neurons, but inactivates the LH orexinergic, LC noradrenergic, and TMN histaminergic neurons.
Comparative genomic analysis of Campylobacter hepaticus genomes associated with spotty liver disease, Georgia, United States

Campylobacter hepaticus has re-emerged as an important cause of disease in egg laying birds worldwide, resulting in morbidity, mortality, and significant losses in eggs for the breeding and table egg laying industries. Although birds may appear asymptomatic, the disease is characterized by spots on the liver of birds and histopathological analysis reveals multifocal fibrogranulocytic necrotizing hepatitis microscopically. The re-emergence of C. hepaticus may be linked with housing practices as the disease appears more prevalent in pasture raised birds with outside exposure. Here we describe, the whole genome sequences and comparative analysis of four C. hepaticus genomes associated with an outbreak on pasture raised breeders from a farm in Georgia, United States. All four genomes were relatively similar in size and virulence genes harbored. Using these genomes, comparison with current C. hepaticus genomes available in NCBI and other databases and other members of the Campylobacter species was carried out. Using current tools available, virulence gene factor content was compared, and it was found that different tools lead to different numbers of factors identified. The four genomes from this study were relatively similar to C. hepaticus HV10 the type strain from Australia but differed from the other sequenced US strains from Iowa and Florida. C. hepaticus was found to have an overall lower gene content for genes associated with virulence and iron acquisition compared to other Campylobacter genomes and appears to cluster differently than UK genomes on phylogenetic analysis, suggesting the emergence of two lineages of C. hepaticus. This analysis provides valuable insight into the emerging pathogen C. hepaticus, its virulence factors and traits associated with disease in poultry production in the US, potentially providing insight into targets for its control and treatment for laying birds. Our analysis also confirms genes associated with iron acquisition are limited and the presence of the multidrug efflux pump CmeABC in C. hepaticus which may promote survival and persistence in the host niche – the chicken liver/bile. One unique aspect of this study was the finding of a close genetic relationship between C. hepaticus and Campylobacter fetus species and evidence of genome reduction in relation to host niche specificity.
Case report: Treatment of joint supplement toxicity resulting in acidemia, hyperglycemia, electrolyte derangements, and multiple organ dysfunction

Objective This case report describes a successful outcome in the treatment of a patient with joint supplement toxicity, which resulted in seizures, severe acidemia, hyperglycemia, hypernatremia, and multiple organ dysfunction. Previous case reports have been published, but this patient presented with different clinical signs and had additional biochemical abnormalities. Treatment modalities varied in this case report, and the patient was discharged sooner than those mentioned in previous reports. Case summary A 9-year-old spayed female Maltese mix was presented to a specialty hospital for joint supplement toxicity. Presenting clinical signs were vomiting and seizures. Primary biochemical abnormalities consisted of hypernatremia, hyperglycemia, acidemia, azotemia, and elevated liver enzymes. Treatment involved lowering the sodium quickly given the neurologic signs on presentation. Other treatment modalities consisted of sodium bicarbonate, insulin, and liver protectants. The patient responded quickly and was discharged after 3 days in the hospital. New or unique information provided This case report is different in that the patient was having seizures and was also hyperglycemic, in addition to the expected abnormalities of hypernatremia, acidemia, and multiple organ dysfunction. It also differs from prior reports in that the treatment of hypernatremia was managed as an acute process. This case report describes differing clinical signs, biochemical abnormalities, and treatment modalities that may have led to the discharge from the hospital in a shorter time.
Atrial natriuretic peptide and leptin interactions in healthy men

Introduction Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a hormone secreted from the heart, controls cardiovascular and renal functions including arterial blood pressure and natriuresis. ANP also exerts metabolic effects in adipose tissue, liver and skeletal muscle, and interacts with the secretion of adipokines. We tested the hypothesis that ANP lowers concentrations of the anorexigenic adipokine leptin in healthy humans in vivo. Methods Human ANP or matching placebo was infused intravenously (iv) into healthy men in a controlled clinical trial. Results Within 135 minutes of iv ANP infusion, we observed an acute decrease in plasma leptin levels compared to controls. Free fatty acids markedly increased with ANP infusion in vivo, indicating activated lipolysis. In human SGBS adipocytes, ANP suppressed leptin release. Discussion The study shows that the cardiac hormone ANP reduces the levels of the anorexigenic adipokine leptin in healthy humans, providing further support for ANP as a cardiomyokine in a heart - adipose tissue axis. (registered in the German Clinical Trials Register and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform was granted under DRKS00024559)
Polyetheretherketone development in bone tissue engineering and orthopedic surgery

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been widely used in the medical field as an implant material, especially in bone tissue engineering and orthopedic surgery, in recent years. This material exhibits superior stability at high temperatures and is biosecured without harmful reactions. However, the chemical and biological inertness of PEEK still limits its applications. Recently, many approaches have been applied to improve its performance, including the modulation of physical morphology, chemical composition and antimicrobial agents, which advanced the osteointegration as well as antibacterial properties of PEEK materials. Based on the evolution of PEEK biomedical devices, many studies on the use of PEEK implants in spine surgery, joint surgery and trauma repair have been performed in the past few years, in most of which PEEK implants show better outcomes than traditional metal implants. This paper summarizes recent studies on the modification and application of biomedical PEEK materials, which provides further research directions for PEEK implants.
Changes in white matter functional networks across late adulthood

Introduction The aging brain is characterized by decreases in not only neuronal density but also reductions in myelinated white matter (WM) fibers that provide the essential foundation for communication between cortical regions. Age-related degeneration of WM has been previously characterized by histopathology as well as T2 FLAIR and diffusion MRI. Recent studies have consistently shown that BOLD (blood oxygenation level dependent) effects in WM are robustly detectable, are modulated by neural activities, and thus represent a complementary window into the functional organization of the brain. However, there have been no previous systematic studies of whether or how WM BOLD signals vary with normal aging. We therefore performed a comprehensive quantification of WM BOLD signals across scales to evaluate their potential as indicators of functional changes that arise with aging. Methods By using spatial independent component analysis (ICA) of BOLD signals acquired in a resting state, WM voxels were grouped into spatially distinct functional units. The functional connectivities (FCs) within and among those units were measured and their relationships with aging were assessed. On a larger spatial scale, a graph was reconstructed based on the pair-wise connectivities among units, modeling the WM as a complex network and producing a set of graph-theoretical metrics. Results The spectral powers that reflect the intensities of BOLD signals were found to be significantly affected by aging across more than half of the WM units. The functional connectivities (FCs) within and among those units were found to decrease significantly with aging. We observed a widespread reduction of graph-theoretical metrics, suggesting a decrease in the ability to exchange information between remote WM regions with aging. Discussion Our findings converge to support the notion that WM BOLD signals in specific regions, and their interactions with other regions, have the potential to serve as imaging markers of aging.
Experimental renal transplantation in rats improves cardiac dysfunction caused by chronic kidney disease while LVH persists

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) causes congestive heart failure (CHF) with systolic dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), which is a major contributor to increased mortality in CKD patients. It remains unclear whether cardiovascular changes that occur during the course of CKD can be reversed when renal function is restored by transplantation. Methods To investigate this, chronic kidney disease was established in F344 rats by subtotal nephrectomy (SNx) for 8 weeks, followed by transplantation of a functional kidney from an isogenic F344 donor. SNx rats without transplantation and sham-operated animals served as controls. Renal function was assessed before and throughout the experiment. In addition, cardiac ultrasound was performed at weeks 0, 8, 12 and 16. At the end of the experiment, intra-arterial blood pressure was measured and kidneys and hearts were histologically and molecularly examined. Results Eight weeks after SNx, rats developed marked renal dysfunction associated with significant glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis, but also an increase in left ventricular mass. After transplantation, renal function normalized but relative heart weight and ventricular mass as assessed by ultrasound scans showed no reduction compared with SNx controls. However, left ventricular wall thickness, fractional shortening and ejection fraction was normalized by renal transplantation. At 8 weeks after kidney transplantation, cardiac expression of BNP and FGF23 was also at levels comparable to healthy controls, whereas these factors were significantly increased in SNx rats. Cardiac fibrosis, as measured by fibronectin mRNA expression, was completely normalized, whereas cardiac fibronectin protein was still slightly but not significantly increased in transplanted animals compared to controls. In addition, the myofibroblast marker collagen 1, as assessed by immunohistochemistry, was significantly increased in SNx rats and also normalized by renal transplantation. Interestingly, CD68+ macrophages were significantly reduced in the hearts of SNx rats and in transplanted animals at slightly higher levels compared to controls. Conclusion Restoration of renal function by kidney transplantation normalized early cardiac changes at most functional and molecular levels, but did not completely reverse LVH. However, further studies are needed to determine whether restoration of renal function can also reverse LVH at a later time point.
Feature learning in deep classifiers through Intermediate Neural Collapse

In this paper, we conduct an empirical study of the feature learning process in deep classifiers. Recent research has identified a training phenomenon called Neural Collapse (NC), in which the top-layer feature embeddings of samples from the same class tend to concentrate around their means, and the top layer’s weights align with those features. Our study aims to investigate if these properties extend to intermediate layers. We empirically study the evolution of the covariance and mean of representations across different layers and show that as we move deeper into a trained neural network, the within-class covariance decreases relative to the between-class covariance. Additionally, we find that in the top layers, where the between-class covariance is dominant, the sub-space spanned by the class means aligns with the subspace spanned by the most significant singular vector components of the weight matrix in the corresponding layer. Finally, we discuss the relationship between NC and Associative Memo-ries (Willshaw et al., 1969).
Anaphor Binding and Narrative Point of View: English Reflexive Pronouns in Sentence and Discourse

This paper offers a detailed survey of occurrences of English reflexive pronouns which are marked with respect to the binding theory of Chomskyan generative grammar. Through a large corpus of attested examples found in contemporary nonlinguistic prose, English reflexive pronouns are shown to violate Chomsky's Binding Principle A in a productive way. The proposed grammar of these violations draws a clear-cut line between syntax and discourse, and shows Chomsky's Binding Principle A to be (a) essentially correct for English if it is clearly defined as a theory of sentence-internal, discourseindependent anaphora; but also (b) crucially incomplete, since it ignores a whole component of the grammar of reflexives and thus fails to account for an open set of data. *
Improved frequentist prediction intervals for ARMA models by simulation

All material supplied via JYX is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication or sale of all or part of any of the repository collections is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your research use or educational purposes in electronic or print form. You must obtain permission for any other use. Electronic or print copies may not be offered, whether for sale or otherwise to anyone who is not an authorised user. Improved frequentist prediction intervals for ARMA models by simulation Helske, Jouni; Nyblom, Jukka
A curious binary lattice process

A rigorous treatment is given for a construction via Markov chains of a binary (0–1) stationary homogeneous Markov random field on Z × Z. The resulting process possesses rather interesting properties. For example, its correlation structure is geometric and it may be easily simulated. Some of the results are rather unintuitive — indeed counter-intuitive — but their demonstration is straightforward involving only the most elementary properties of Markov chains.
Cone-Traced Supersampling for Signed Distance Field Rendering

While Signed Distance Fields (SDFs) in theory offer infinite level of detail, they are typically rendered using the sphere tracing algorithm at finite resolutions, which causes the common rasterized image synthesis problem of aliasing. Most existing optimized antialiasing solutions rely on polygon mesh representations; SDF-based geometry can only be directly antialiased with the computationally expensive supersampling or with post-processing filters that often lead to undesirable blurriness and ghosting. In this work, we present cone-traced supersampling (CTSS), an efficient and robust spatial antialiasing solution that naturally complements the sphere tracing algorithm, does not require casting additional rays per pixel or offline pre-filtering, and can be easily implemented in existing real-time SDF renderers. CTSS performs supersampling along the traced ray near surfaces with partial visibility identified by evaluating cone intersections within a pixel’s view frustum. We further devise a specialized sampling strategy to minimize the number of shading computations and aggregate the collected samples based on their correlated visibility. Depending on configuration, CTSS incurs roughly 15-30% added computational cost and significantly outperforms conventional supersampling approaches while offering comparative antialiasing and visual image quality for most geometric edges. *e-mail: andrei.chubarau@mail.mcgill. ca †e-mail: yangyang.zhao2@huawei.com ‡e-mail: ruby.rao@huawei.com §e-mail: kry@cs.mcgill. ca ¶e-mail: derek@cim.mcgill. ca
Multi-Source Knowledge-Based Hybrid Neural Framework for Time Series Representation Learning

Accurately predicting the behavior of complex dynamical systems, characterized by high-dimensional multivariate time series(MTS) in interconnected sensor networks, is crucial for informed decision-making in various applications to minimize risk. While graph forecasting networks(GFNs) are ideal for forecasting MTS data that exhibit spatio-temporal dependencies, prior works rely solely on the domain-specific knowledge of time-series variables inter-relationships to model the nonlinear dynamics, neglecting inherent relational-structural dependencies among the variables within the MTS data. In contrast, contemporary works infer relational structures from MTS data but neglect domain-specific knowledge. The proposed hybrid architecture addresses these limitations by combining both domain-specific knowledge and implicit knowledge of the relational structure underlying the MTS data using Knowledge-Based Compositional Generalization. The hybrid architecture shows promising results on multiple benchmark datasets, outperforming state-of-the-art forecasting methods. Additionally, the architecture models the time-varying uncertainty of multi-horizon forecasts.
INTEGRATING COGNITIVE CONTENTS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASSES: EFFECTS ON COGNITIVE VARIABLES AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The aim was to analyse the effect of a 4-week programme integrating cognitive contents in Physical Education (CogniPE) on cognitive performance (CP) and emotional intelligence (EI) of adolescents. A randomised controlled trial was conducted with a control group (CG, n=58), which performed physical exercises at low intensity (i.e., stretching or pilates), an experimental group 1, which performed small-sided games of team sports (EG1, n=62), and experimental group 2, which performed CogniPE (EG2, n=60). Intensity of exercises and scores were registered after each station to classify and motivate the teams. Selective attention and concentration increased by 11.9% and 9.2% in EG1, and by 18.2% and 14.4% in EG2, respectively, compared to CG. Mathematical calculation improved by 15.9% and 18.7% in EG1 and EG2, compared to CG. In EI, well-being improved by 10.9% in EG1, sociability improved by 12.8% in EG1 and 15.9% in EG2 compared to CG. It is concluded to use CogniPE in school context.
The Relationship between Cognition and Asymmetric Dimethyl Arginine, Symmetric Dimethyl Arginine, Nitric Oxide Levels and Total Antioxidant Capacity in Euthymic Bipolar Disorder Patients

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between serum nitric oxide, asymmetrical dimethylarginine and symmetrical dimethylarginine levels and Total Antioxidant Capacity, and cognitive function in patients with bipolar disorder. Method: The study included 42 bipolar patients, diagnosed and assessed according to the DSM-V criteria, and 30 healthy controls. The Sociodemographic Questionnaire was used for the collection of data, and a bivariate Pearson correlation analysis was carried out. Results: The patient scores from a Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), Auditory Consonant Trigram (ACT), Digit Span Test (DST), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Trail Making-B (TMT-B) and Stroop Tests (ST) were found to be impaired in patients with BD when compared to the healthy controls. The SDMA level of the patient group was significantly higher in the control group, while the ADMA level was lower. The SDMA value was found to be positively correlated with ST-1,2,5 duration; and the NO value was positively correlated with ST-3 duration. Conclusions: The presence of neurobiological markers may serve to predict the severity of neurocognitive deficits, and can provide information about the progress of the disease. Ferreira IMS / Arch Clin Psychiatry. 2021;48(4): 195-202
Plate bending earthquakes and the strength distribution of the lithosphere

This study investigates the dynamics and constitutive behaviour of the oceanic lithosphere as it bends and yields during subduction. Two main observational constraints are considered: the maximum bending moment that can be supported by the lithosphere, and the inferred neutral plane depth in bending. We particularly focus on regions of old lithosphere where the ‘apparent’ neutral plane depth is about 30 km. We use subduction modelling approaches to investigate these flexural characteristics. We reassess bending moment estimates from a range of previous studies, and show a significant convergence towards what we call the ‘intermediate’ range of lithosphere strength: weaker than some classical models predict, but stronger than recent inferences at seamounts. We consider the non-uniqueness that arises due to the trade-offs in strength as well background (tectonic) stress state. We outline this problem with several end-member models, which differ in regard to relative strength in the brittle and ductile regimes. We evaluate the consistency of these models in terms of a range of constraints, primarily the seismic expression of the outer rise. We show that a 30 km neutral plane depth implies that net slab pull is not greater than about 2 TN m−1. In contrast, models with low brittle strength imply that regions with a 30 km neutral plane depth are under moderate net axial compression. Under these conditions, reverse faulting is predicted beneath the neutral plane at depths >30 km. We show that moderate variations in background stress have a large impact on the predicted anelastic dissipation. We suggest brittle reverse faulting is a marginal phenomenon which may be inhibited by moderate changes in background stress.