Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Telomerase RNA Component Genetic Variants Interact With the Mediterranean Diet Modifying the Inflammatory Status and its Relationship With Aging: CORDIOPREV Study

Background Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) attrition has been associated with age-related diseases. Telomerase RNA Component (TERC) genetic variants have been associated with LTL; whereas fatty acids (FAs) can interact with genetic factors and influence in aging. We explore whether variability at the TERC gene locus interacts with FA profile and two healthy diets (low-fat diet vs Mediterranean diet [MedDiet]) modulating LTL, glucose metabolism, and inflammation status in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. Methods Inflammation status (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hsCRP], glucose metabolism-glucose, insulin, and glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c], and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR]), LTL, FAs, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TERC gene (rs12696304, rs16847897, and rs3772190) were determined in 1,002 patients from the CORDIOPREV study (NCT00924937). Results We report an interaction of the TERC rs12696304 SNP with monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) affecting LTL (p interaction = .01) and hsCRP (p interaction = .03). Among individuals with MUFA levels above the median, CC individuals showed higher LTL and lower hsCRP than G-allele carriers. Moreover, MedDiet interacted with TERC rs12696304 SNP (p interaction = .03). Specifically, CC individuals displayed a greater decrease in hsCRP than G-allele carriers. These results were not adjusted for multiple statistical testing and p less than . 05 was considered significant. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the TERC rs12696304 SNP interacts with MUFA improving inflammation status and telomere attrition related with CHD. Moreover, the MedDiet intervention improves the inflammatory profile in CC individuals compared with the G-allele carriers. These interactions could provide a right strategy for personalized nutrition in CHD patients.
MovStream: An efficient algorithm for monitoring clusters evolving in data streams

Monitoring cluster evolution in data streams is a major research topic in data streams mining. Previous clustering methods for evolving data streams focus on global clustering result. It may lose critical information about individual cluster. This paper introduces some basic movements of evolution of an individual cluster. Based on the measurement of the movements, a novel algorithm called MovStream is proposed to monitor clusterspsila evolving in data streams. The experimental results on real datasets show that our MovStream algorithm surpasses the well-known CluStream algorithm by 25-50% in accuracy and one order of magnitude in efficiency.
Synergistic Interaction Between Phage Therapy and Antibiotics Clears Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infection in Endocarditis and Reduces Virulence

Abstract Background. Increasing antibiotic resistance warrants therapeutic alternatives. Here we investigated the efficacy of bacteriophage-therapy (phage) alone or combined with antibiotics against experimental endocarditis (EE) due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an archetype of difficult-to-treat infection. Methods. In vitro fibrin clots and rats with aortic EE were treated with an antipseudomonas phage cocktail alone or combined with ciprofloxacin. Phage pharmacology, therapeutic efficacy, and resistance were determined. Results. In vitro, single-dose phage therapy killed 7 log colony-forming units (CFUs)/g of fibrin clots in 6 hours. Phage-resistant mutants regrew after 24 hours but were prevented by combination with ciprofloxacin (2.5 × minimum inhibitory concentration). In vivo, single-dose phage therapy killed 2.5 log CFUs/g of vegetations in 6 hours (P < .001 vs untreated controls) and was comparable with ciprofloxacin monotherapy. Moreover, phage/ciprofloxacin combinations were highly synergistic, killing >6 log CFUs/g of vegetations in 6 hours and successfully treating 64% (n = 7/11) of rats. Phage-resistant mutants emerged in vitro but not in vivo, most likely because resistant mutations affected bacterial surface determinants important for infectivity (eg, the pilT and galU genes involved in pilus motility and LPS formation). Conclusions. Single-dose phage therapy was active against P. aeruginosa EE and highly synergistic with ciprofloxacin. Phage-resistant mutants had impaired infectivity. Phage-therapy alone or combined with antibiotics merits further clinical consideration.
Viscoelastoplastic modeling of compressional behaviors of kapok fibrous assembly

Kapok fiber is a kind of cellulosic fiber harvested from the kapok fruit and has many unique properties and potential applications owing to its high degree of hollowness. It is important to understand the mechanical properties of the kapok fiber under transverse compression because its hollow structure can be squashed easily. In this research, kapok fibers were carded slightly to form a kapok fibrous assembly (KFA) in which the fibers were straightened and parallel. A KFA was considered as an approximately isotropic matrix material in the transverse direction. The fiber arrangement in a KFA was geometrically modeled with a pipe-piling structure. The viscoelastoplastic model and its constitutive equations were established to characterize the mechanical response of the KFA under transverse compression. Three compressional stages (A – the viscoelastic stage, from the initial point 0 to the yielding point 1; B – the viscoelastoplastic stage, from the yielding point 1 to the point 2; and C – the senior viscoelastic stage, from the yielding point 2 to the point at the maximum compressional load) were observed from the stress–strain curve, and four parameters were determined to describe the elastic, viscoelastic, and viscoplastic behaviors under each compression cycle performed on the Instron compression tester. The results indicate that the variable elasticity of the KFAs exists throughout the total compression, viscoelasticity appeared only in stage C, and the viscoplastic property was evident in stage B. The KFAs did not exhibit viscoelastic behavior in stages A and B because the viscoelastic element of the Kelvin model failed to work in these two stages. The influence of conditioning humidity on the parameters was also investigated.
Astrocytes are key but indirect contributors to the development of the symptomatology and pathophysiology of Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in which an early and selective vulnerability of striatal Spiny Projection Neurons is observed. However, several studies have highlighted the implication of glial cells, and in particular astrocytes, in the pathophysiological mechanisms of this disease. A better understanding of the respective contributions of neurons and astrocytes in HD is needed and would be important for the development of new therapeutic approaches. Today, no comparable in vivo models expressing the mutant HTT selectively in astrocytes or in neurons are available. In this study, we developed comparable cell‐type specific mouse models expressing a fragment of Huntingtin specifically in neurons, astrocytes, or in both cell populations of the adult mouse basal ganglia circuit. This approach allowed us to characterize behavioral alterations occurring as soon as 4 weeks postinjection. Interestingly, less severe but significant behavioral alterations were also observed in the two cell‐type specific models. We further showed that astrocytes are less affected by mHTT compared to neurons, in particular concerning mHTT aggregation. Additionally, a more indirect contribution of astrocytes compared to neurons was observed in several pathophysiological mechanisms such as astrogliosis and neuronal dysfunction. Finally, we showed that direct and indirect transcriptional alterations within the glial glutamatergic clearing system are caused by astrocytic and neuronal expression of mHTT, respectively. We anticipate that our study will help to better understand the contributions of astrocytes to HD and guide future therapeutic efforts. GLIA 2016;64:1841–1856
Upgrading of recycled plastics obtained from flexible packaging waste by adding nanosilicates

Currently, the growing consumption of polymer products creates large quantities of waste materials resulting in public concern in the environment and people life. The efficient treatment of polymer wastes is still a difficult challenge and the recycling process represents the best way to manage them. Recently, many researchers have tried to develop nanotechnology for polymer recycling. The products prepared through the addition of nanoparticles to post-used plastics could offer the combination of improved properties, low weight, easy of processing and low cost which is not easily and concurrently found by other methods of plastic recycling. In this study materials, obtained by the separation and mechanical recycling of post-consumer packaging films of small size (<A3, that is <297×420 mm×mm) were provided by COREPLA. The physical, chemical and rheological characterization of these recycled plastics (denoted as Recyclate A and Recyclate B) evidenced that they are mainly constituted of polyethylene (PE) and of a small fraction of polypropylene (PP). PE/PP incompatibility has been proved and explained in many studies reported in the literature and it represents the main reason for the unsatisfactory mechanical properties of these recycled plastics. The aim of this work was to improve the mechanical properties of these recycled polymeric mixtures by the addition of two different types of organo-modified silicates, also taking advantage of the function of nanofillers as potential blend compatibilizers. In particular, three organoclays (Dellite 67G, sepiolite PM15 and sepiolite UNISA1), differing for the morphology (lamellar or acicular) and/or the type of organic modifier, were melt compounded with the recycled materials in a twin-screw extruder. The morphological, thermal, rheological and mechanical properties of the prepared nanocomposites were extensively discussed.
Structure–activity relationships and cellular mechanism of action of small molecules that enhance the delivery of oligonucleotides

Abstract The pharmacological effects of antisense and siRNA oligonucleotides are hindered by the tendency of these molecules to become entrapped in endomembrane compartments thus failing to reach their targets in the cytosol or nucleus. We have previously used high throughput screening to identify small molecules that enhance the escape of oligonucleotides from intracellular membrane compartments and have termed such molecules OECs (oligonucleotide enhancing compounds). Here, we report on the structure–activity relationships of a family of OECs that are analogs of a hit that emerged from our original screen. These studies demonstrate key roles for the lipophilic aromatic groups, the tertiary nitrogen, and the carbamate moiety of the parent compound. We have also investigated the intracellular site of action of the OECs and have shown that activity is due to the release of oligonucleotides from intermediate endosomal compartments rather than from early endosomes or from highly acidic downstream compartments. At high concentrations of OECs toxicity occurs in a manner that is independent of caspases or of lysosomal cathepsins but instead involves increased plasma membrane permeability. Thus, in addition to describing specific characteristics of this family of OECs, the current study provides insights into basic mechanisms of oligonucleotide trafficking and their implications for oligonucleotide delivery.
Surveillance Study of Influenza Occurrence and Immunity in a Wisconsin Cohort During the 2009 Pandemic

Abstract Background Antibody and T-cell immunity to conserved influenza virus antigens can protect animals against infection with diverse influenza strains. Although immunity against conserved antigens occurs in humans, whether such responses provide cross-protection in humans and could be harnessed as the basis for universal influenza vaccines is controversial. The 2009 pandemic provided an opportunity to investigate whether pre-existing cross-reactive immunity affected susceptibility to infection. Methods In 2009, we banked sera and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from blood donors, then monitored them for pandemic influenza infection (pH1N1) by polymerase chain reaction or seroconversion. Antibodies to hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), nucleoprotein (NP), matrix 2 (M2), and HA-pseudotypes were measured in sera. T-cell inteferon-γ enzyme-linked immunospot responses were measured in PBMC. Results There were 13 infections in 117 evaluable donors. Pre-existing T-cell reactivity to pH1N1 was substantial (of 153 donors tested, 146 had >100 spot-forming cells/106 cells). Antibodies reactive with pH1N1 were common: anti-NP (all donors) and anti-M2 (44% of donors). Pseudotype-neutralizing antibodies to H1 were detected, but not to highly conserved HA epitopes. Unexpectedly, donors with symptomatic pH1N1 infection had sharp rises in HA pseudotype-neutralizing antibodies, not only pH1N1 but also against multiple seasonal H1s. In addition, an exploratory study of a T-cell marker (response to NP418-426) identified probable infection missed by standard criteria. Conclusions Although the number of infections was inadequate for conclusions about mechanisms of protection, this study documents the wide variety of pre-existing, cross-reactive, humoral and cellular immune responses to pandemic influenza virus antigens in humans. These responses can be compared with results of other studies and explored in universal influenza vaccine studies.
Ergodic secrecy sum rate maximization in downlink sparse code multiple access network

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) has been recognized as a promising candidate technique for fifth generation (5G) cellular network to improve spectral efficiency (SE). In this paper, physical layer security (PLS) in a downlink single-input single-output (SISO) SCMA system is investigated, which includes one base station (BS), multiple legitimate users and one eavesdropper. The aim of this paper is to maximize the ergodic secrecy sum rate (ESSR) of the SCMA system under the constraint of the transmit power of BS. A novel many-to-many two-side matching algorithm is then proposed. After a limited number of iterations, the algorithm converges to a pair-stable matching. Finally, simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the random scheme and the orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme.
Coronary artery disease and prognosis

Fredrik Calais (2018): Coronary artery disease and prognosis in relation to cardiovascular risk factors, interventional techniques and systemic atherosclerosis. Örebro Studies in Medicine 173. Aim: To evaluate the prognosis associated with location and severity of coronary and systemic atherosclerosis in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) in relation to risk factors and interventional techniques. Methods: The thesis comprised six longitudinal studies based on three patient cohorts: The Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty Registry, the Västmanland Myocardial Infarction Survey, and the Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Elevation myocardial infarction in Scandinavia study, to evaluate clinical outcome relative to coronary lesion location and severity, extracoronary artery disease (ECAD), intervention techniques, and leisuretime physical inactivity (LTPI). Results: Stent placement in the proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD) was more often associated with restenosis than was stenting in the other coronary arteries. The use of drug-eluting stents in the LAD was associated with a lower risk of restenosis and death compared to baremetal stents. Thrombus aspiration in in the LAD during acute ST elevation myocardial infarction (MI) did not improve clinical outcome, irrespective of adjunct intervention technique. Clinical, but not subclinical, ECAD was associated with poor prognosis in patients with MI. Longitudinal extent of CAD at the time of MI was a predictor of ECAD, and coexistence of extensive CAD and ECAD was associated with particularly poor prognosis following MI. Self-reported LTPI was associated with MI and all-cause mortality independent of ECAD. Conclusions: Drug-eluting stents, but not thrombus aspiration, improved prognosis following percutaneous coronary intervention in the proximal LAD. Selfreported LTPI, clinical ECAD, and systemic atherosclerosis defined groups with poor prognosis after MI.
Olfactory Bulbectomy Leads to the Development of Epilepsy in Mice

There is a clear link between epilepsy and depression. Clinical data demonstrate a 30–35% lifetime prevalence of depression in patients with epilepsy, and patients diagnosed with depression have a three to sevenfold higher risk of developing epilepsy. Traditional epilepsy models partially replicate the clinical observations, with the demonstration of depressive traits in epileptic animals. Studies assessing pro-epileptogenic changes in models of depression, however, are more limited. Here, we examined whether a traditional rodent depression model—bilateral olfactory bulbectomy—predisposes the animals towards the development of epilepsy. Past studies have demonstrated increased neuronal excitability after bulbectomy, but continuous seizure monitoring had not been conducted. For the present study, we monitored control and bulbectomized animals by video-EEG 24/7 for approximately two weeks following the surgery to determine whether they develop spontaneous seizures. All seven bulbectomized mice exhibited seizures during the monitoring period. Seizures began about one week after surgery, and occurred in clusters with severity increasing over the monitoring period. These results suggest that olfactory bulbectomy could be a useful model of TBI-induced epilepsy, with advantages of relatively rapid seizure onset and a high number of individuals developing the disease. The model may also be useful for investigating the mechanisms underlying the bidirectional relationship between epilepsy and depression.
PMPA: A patch-based multiscale products algorithm for image denoising

Patch-based algorithms for image denoising have been widely used in recent years. Most of patch-based methods just exploit patch redundancy in spatial or frequency domain without considering inter-scale dependencies. In this paper, we propose a novel patch-based multiscale products algorithm (PMPA) for image denoising. It is based on patch similarity in spatial domain and multiscale products in wavelet domain. PMPA is divided into two stages to process the smooth areas and non smooth areas (such as edges) individually. The first stage is in the wavelet domain, then a locally adaptive window-based denoising method (LAWML) based on multiscale products is applied to process those wavelet coefficients corresponding to the non smooth areas, then obtain one initial denoised image. The second stage is in the spatial domain, then a non local means algorithm is used to process those pixels in the smooth areas to obtain another initial denoised image. The final denoised image is obtained by a weighted averaging of all common pixels in both initial denoised images. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can have competitive performance compared with the state-of-the-art patch-based denoising algorithms for most of images.
Text to Move: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Text-Messaging Program to Improve Physical Activity Behaviors in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background Text messages are increasingly being used because of the low cost and the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones to engage patients in self-care behaviors. Self-care is particularly important in achieving treatment outcomes in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Objective This study examined the effect of personalized text messages on physical activity, as measured by a pedometer, and clinical outcomes in a diverse population of patients with T2DM. Methods Text to Move (TTM) incorporates physical activity monitoring and coaching to provide automated and personalized text messages to help patients with T2DM achieve their physical activity goals. A total of 126 English- or Spanish-speaking patients with glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) >7 were enrolled in-person to participate in the study for 6 months and were randomized into either the intervention arm that received the full complement of the intervention or a control arm that received only pedometers. The primary outcome was change in physical activity. We also assessed the effect of the intervention on HbA1c, weight, and participant engagement. Results All participants (intervention: n=64; control: n=62) were included in the analyses. The intervention group had significantly higher monthly step counts in the third (risk ratio [RR] 4.89, 95% CI 1.20 to 19.92, P=.03) and fourth (RR 6.88, 95% CI 1.21 to 39.00, P=.03) months of the study compared to the control group. However, over the 6-month follow-up period, monthly step counts did not differ statistically by group (intervention group: 9092 steps; control group: 3722 steps; RR 2.44, 95% CI 0.68 to 8.74, P=.17). HbA1c decreased by 0.07% (95% CI –0.47 to 0.34, P=.75) in the TTM group compared to the control group. Within groups, HbA1c decreased significantly from baseline in the TTM group by –0.43% (95% CI –0.75 to –0.12, P=.01), but nonsignificantly in the control group by –0.21% (95% CI –0.49 to 0.06, P=.13). Similar changes were observed for other secondary outcomes. Conclusion Personalized text messaging can be used to improve outcomes in patients with T2DM by employing optimal patient engagement measures.
ctree : Conditional Inference Trees

This vignette describes the new reimplementation of conditional inference trees (CTree) in the R package partykit . CTree is a non-parametric class of regression trees embedding tree-structured regression models into a well deﬁned theory of conditional inference procedures. It is applicable to all kinds of regression problems, including nominal, ordinal, numeric, censored as well as multivariate response variables and arbitrary measurement scales of the covariates. The vignette comprises a practical guide to exploiting the ﬂexi-ble and extensible computational tools in partykit for ﬁtting and visualizing conditional inference trees.
UFO: Predictive Concurrency Use-After-Free Detection

Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerabilities are caused by the program operating on a dangling pointer and can be exploited to compromise critical software systems. While there have been many tools to mitigate UAF vulnerabilities, UAF remains one of the most common attack vectors. UAF is particularly di cult to detect in concurrent programs, in which a UAF may only occur with rare thread schedules. In this paper, we present a novel technique, UFO, that can precisely predict UAFs based on a single observed execution trace with a provably higher detection capability than existing techniques with no false positives. The key technical advancement of UFO is an extended maximal thread causality model that captures the largest possible set of feasible traces that can be inferred from a given multithreaded execution trace. By formulating UAF detection as a constraint solving problem atop this model, we can explore a much larger thread scheduling space than classical happens-before based techniques. We have evaluated UFO on several real-world large complex C/C++ programs including Chromium and FireFox. UFO scales to real-world systems with hundreds of millions of events in their execution and has detected a large number of real concurrency UAFs.