Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bradykinin protects cardiac c‐kit positive cells from high‐glucose‐induced senescence through B2 receptor signaling pathway

Cardiac c‐kit positive cells are cardiac‐derived cells that exist within the heart and have a great many protective effects. The senescence of cardiac c‐kit positive cells probably leads to cell dysfunction. Bradykinin plays a key role in cell protection. However, whether bradykinin prevents cardiac c‐kit positive cells from high‐glucose‐induced senescence is unknown. Here, we found that glucose treatment causes the premature senescence of cardiac c‐kit positive cells. Bradykinin B2 receptor (B2R) expression was declined by glucose‐induced senescence. Bradykinin treatment inhibited senescence and reduced intracellular oxygen radicals according to senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase staining and 2′,7′‐dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate staining. Moreover, the mitochondrial membrane potential was damaged, as measured by JC‐1 staining. The mitochondrial membrane potential was preserved under bradykinin treatment. The concentration of superoxide was decreased, and the concentration of intracellular adenosine triphosphate was increased after bradykinin treatment. Western blot showed that bradykinin leads to AKT and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) phosphorylation and decreased levels of P53 and P16 when compared with glucose treatment alone. Antagonists of B2R, phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K), mTOR, and B2R small interfering RNA prevented the protective effect of bradykinin. P53 antagonist also inhibited the glucose‐induced senescence of cardiac c‐kit positive cells. In conclusion, bradykinin prevents the glucose‐induced premature senescence of cardiac c‐kit positive cells through the B2R/PI3K/AKT/mTOR/P53 signal pathways.
Species delimitation of the Dermacentor ticks based on phylogenetic clustering and niche modeling

Three species belonging to the genus Dermacentor (Acari: Ixodidae), D. marginatus, D. nuttalli and D. silvarum are well known as vectors for a great variety of infection pathogens. All three of them are host ticks, which are very similar in morphology characteristics, life cycle, seasonal variation and ecological conditions, making it difficult to distinguish the three species. In the present study, these three species were delimitated based on molecular data and ecological niche. The molecular analysis showed that the three species can be distinguished by COI and ITS2 sequences. We created future potential distribution maps for the three species under climate changes with MaxEnt, which highlighted the different levels of the suitable habitats for each tick species. In addition, niche comparisons among the three species in Dermacentor were conducted, and the analysis suggested that niche overlap was relatively high with D. nuttalli and D. silvarum compared to the other species pairs, which was consistent with the molecular data. Niche equivalency and similarity test confirmed that these Dermacentor species were closely related but distinct species. In conclusion, delimitation of these three species within Dermacentor was supported by molecular phylogeny and quantitative ecological space. This study will provide deep insights into the biology, ecology, and diversification processes within Dermacentor species, and for the development of effective control for ticks.
The hidden cause of chronic finger pain: Glomus Tumor – A Case Report

Glomus tumors are frequently associated with pain, tenderness and cold sensitivity. We report the diagnosis and successful surgical management of a case of a classic glomus tumor in a young woman. The clinical diagnosis was made on the basis of medical history and MRI findings. The lesion was excised via a dorsolateral subungual approach, leading to the complete resolution of symptoms. Histology confirmed the lesion to be a glomus tumor. Glomus tumors are painful subungual lesions. They produce a throbbing or lancinating local discomfort, cold-sensitivity, and severe pain following minor trauma. The diagnosis is confirmed by histology, but the clinical diagnosis is highly suggestive. Complete excision will usually relieve pain. Recurrence is common following incomplete resection.
Masticatory function parameters in patients with removable dental prosthesis

This study aimed to assess the masticatory efficiency in patients with a removable dental prosthesis, presenting different systemic, oral and prosthetic states while chewing different foods. The study was conducted on a convenient sample of patients aged 45 and above, with removable prostheses in at least one jaw. Patients were asked to chew samples of digestive biscuits, apple, and carrot, until the sensation of swallowing. The recorded masticatory function parameters were: chewing time, the number of mastication cycles, mean masticatory cycle duration, and chewing frequency. We found out that the masticatory functional parameters registered statistically significant differences according to the chewed food (e.g., generally the highest values were recorded for carrot and lowest for apple), most likely this being in relation to food’s consistency, wetting, and adherence. High positive correlations were found between the chewing time and the number of mastication cycles for all three foods taken into consideration. Higher values for chewing time and number of mastication cycles were found for all foods in patients with complete dentures and overdentures, and while chewing carrot in patients with altered general status and of advanced age. Therefore, it that it takes a different time and number of mastication cycles to complete chewing, in relation to individual and food characteristics, to the systemic, oral and prosthetic patient’s status. The residual teeth number and the type of prosthetic rehabilitation favor the adaptation and improvement of masticatory parameters and can have marker value for masticatory efficiency.
Membrane Vesicles Released by a hypervesiculating Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 tolR Mutant Are Highly Heterogeneous and Show Reduced Capacity for Epithelial Cell Interaction and Entry

Membrane vesicles (MVs) produced by Gram-negative bacteria are being explored for novel clinical applications due to their ability to deliver active molecules to distant host cells, where they can exert immunomodulatory properties. MVs released by the probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) are good candidates for testing such applications. However, a drawback for such studies is the low level of MV isolation from in vitro culture supernatants, which may be overcome by the use of mutants in cell envelope proteins that yield a hypervesiculation phenotype. Here, we confirm that a tolR mutation in EcN increases MV production, as determined by protein, LPS and fluorescent lipid measurements. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of negatively stained MVs did not reveal significant differences with wild type EcN MVs. Conversely, TEM observation after high-pressure freezing followed by freeze substitution of bacterial samples, together with cryo-TEM observation of plunge-frozen hydrated isolated MVs showed considerable structural heterogeneity in the EcN tolR samples. In addition to common one-bilayer vesicles (OMVs) and the recently described double-bilayer vesicles (O-IMVs), other types of MVs were observed. Time-course experiments of MV uptake in Caco-2 cells using rhodamine- and DiO-labelled MVs evidenced that EcN tolR MVs displayed reduced internalization levels compared to the wild-type MVs. The low number of intracellular MVs was due to a lower cell binding capacity of the tolR-derived MVs, rather than a different entry pathway or mechanism. These findings indicate that heterogeneity of MVs from tolR mutants may have a major impact on vesicle functionality, and point to the need for conducting a detailed structural analysis when MVs from hypervesiculating mutants are to be used for biotechnological applications.
Using trails to improve map generation for virtual agents in large scale, online environments

This thesis looks at improving the generation of maps for intelligent virtual agents in large scale environments. Virtual environments are growing larger in size and becoming more complex. There is a major challenge in providing agents that are able to autonomously generate their own map representations of the environment for use in navigation. Currently, map generation for agents in large scale virtual environments is performed either by hand or requires a lengthy pre-processing step where the map is built online. We are interested in environments where this process is not possible, such as those that encourage user generated content. We look at improving map generation in these environments by using trails. Trails are a set of observations of how a user navigates an environment over time. By observing trails an agent is able to identify free space in an environment and how to navigate between points without needing to perform any collision checking. We found that trails in a virtual environments are a useful source of information for an agent's map building process. Trails can be used to improve rapidly exploring randomised tree and probabilistic roadmap generation, as well as being used as a source of information for segmenting maps in very large scale environments.
A Simple Imaging Guide for Endovascular Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke: From Time Window to Perfusion Mismatch and Beyond

In 2015, 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) independently demonstrated the safety and efficacy of EVT for AIS from large vessel occlusion (LVO) in the anterior circulation within 6-12 hours of symptom onset, a result later confirmed by 3 other trials. In early 2018, 2 additional RCTs extended the time window to 16-24 hours. However, there were great variabilities in the use of imaging tools for patient selection in the RCTs. The goal of this review is to appraise the imaging modalities used in the landmark studies and to propose a simple and efficient imaging protocol for patient selection in the real-world practice. Non-contrast computed tomography (CT) and CT angiography (CTA) were used for patient selection in 8 of the 10 recent RCTs. Initial infarct volume was assessed using Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) on non-contrast CT. LVO and collaterals were screened with CTA. In contrast, advanced imaging modalities, including CT perfusion and diffusion/perfusion MR imaging, were used to evaluate infarct core and ischemic penumbra in EXTEND-IA, SWIFT PRIME, DAWN and DEFUSE 3 trials. These landmark studies demonstrated the best treatment effect and extended time window for EVT. However, they only selected patients with small infarct core per perfusion/diffusion imaging and have excluded patients who could benefit from EVT. In addition, advanced imaging tools are not widely available in developing regions and the time spent on acquiring and processing the perfusion/diffusion imaging may cause delay in reperfusion therapy. The perfusion/diffusion imaging can also overestimate the infarct core. Recent studies reported that a significant proportion of DAWN- and DEDUSE 3- ineligible patients can benefit from EVT. Among the 10 RCTs, 8 used ASPECTS score for patient selection and independently demonstrated the benefit of EVT. As confirmed by DAWN trial, a mismatch between clinical deficit and infarct is the key indication for EVT. A simple imaging protocol to identify clinical-imaging mismatch from LVO appears to be the best guide for EVT in clinical practice. Perfusion imaging should be considered in patients without clinical-imaging mismatch.
Location Prediction for Tweets

Geographic information provides an important insight into many data mining and social media systems. However, users are reluctant to provide such information due to various concerns, such as inconvenience, privacy, etc. In this paper, we aim to develop a deep learning based solution to predict geographic information for tweets. The current approaches bear two major limitations, including (a) hard to model the long term information and (b) hard to explain to the end users what the model learns. To address these issues, our proposed model embraces three key ideas. First, we introduce a multi-head self-attention model for text representation. Second, to further improve the result on informal language, we treat subword as a feature in our model. Lastly, the model is trained jointly with the city and country to incorporate the information coming from different labels. The experiment performed on W-NUT 2016 Geo-tagging shared task shows our proposed model is competitive with the state-of-the-art systems when using accuracy measurement, and in the meanwhile, leading to a better distance measure over the existing approaches.
Mild Hypobaric Hypoxia Enhances Post-exercise Vascular Responses in Young Male Runners

It has been reported that sustained post-exercise vasodilation may be linked to exercise-induced angiogenesis. The present study aimed to evaluate whether mild hypobaric hypoxia enhances the post-exercise reduction in systemic vascular resistance in young male runners. Seven male intercollegiate runners (aged 19–21 years) performed maximal incremental treadmill running under conditions of hypobaric hypoxia (corresponding to 2,200 m above sea level, hereinafter referred to as HH) and normobaric normoxia (corresponding to sea level, hereinafter referred to as NN). A third exercise test was performed under NN conditions, consisting of submaximal exercise with the same absolute exercise volume as was achieved during HH (submaximal exercise under NN conditions, hereinafter referred to as NNsubmax). Blood pressure and cardiac output (CO) were measured before and at 15, 30, and 60 (p60) minutes after exercise. Compared with NN, exercise time was shorter in HH and NNsubmax conditions (p < 0.05). Systolic blood pressure and mean blood pressure (MBP) were lower after exercise in HH conditions (p < 0.05). No condition-related differences were found in CO. Total peripheral resistance (TPR, defined as the ratio of MBP to CO) was significantly lower after exercise compared to baseline for all conditions (p < 0.05). However, the decrease in TPR was maintained longer after exercise in HH compared with NN and NNsubmax conditions (p < 0.05). At p60, TPR was lower than baseline for HH conditions (p < 0.05), whereas after exercise in NN, and NNsubmax conditions, TPR recovered to baseline by p60. Decreases in systemic vascular resistance after exercise were maintained longer under mild HH conditions compared with NN despite the lower exercise volume of the former.
Assessing Mathematical School Readiness

Early math skills matter for later formal mathematical performances, academic and professional success. Accordingly, it is important to accurately assess mathematical school readiness (MSR) at the beginning of elementary school. This would help identifying children who are at risk of encountering difficulties in math and then stimulate their acquisition of mathematical skills as soon as possible. In the present study, we present a new test that allows professionals working with children (e.g., teachers, school psychologists, speech therapists, and school doctors) to assess children’s MSR when they enter formal schooling in a simple, rapid and efficient manner. 346 children were assessed at the beginning of 1st Grade (6-to-7-year-olds) with a collective test assessing early mathematical abilities (T1). In addition, children’s math skills were evaluated with classical curriculum math tests at T1 and a year later, in 2nd Grade (T2, 7-to-8-year-olds). After assessing internal consistency, three tasks were retained for the final version of the MSR test. Test performance confirmed to be essentially unidimensional and systematically related to the scores children obtained in classical tests in 1st and 2nd Grade. By using the present MSR test, it is possible to identify pupils at risk of developing low math skills right from the start of formal schooling in 1st Grade. Such a tool is needed, as children’s level in math at school beginning (or school readiness) is known to be foundational for their future academic and professional carrier.
Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Exhibit Deficits in Consummatory but Not Anticipatory Pleasure

Background: Reward dysfunctions have been reported in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which implicates a high possibility of anhedonia for this disease. However, several components of anhedonia, such as consummatory and anticipatory pleasure, has not been substantially studied in OCD patients. Methods: The Chinese version of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (CV-TEPS) was used to evaluate both the consummatory and anticipatory pleasure in 130 OCD patients, 89 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, and 95 healthy controls (HCs). The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were scored for assessing the severity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms and depressive symptoms, respectively. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to compare the differences of anhedonia among the three groups with the severity of depression controlled. Regression analyses were also used to analyze the relationship between consummatory and anticipatory pleasure and clinical variables in OCD patients. Results: After controlling for the effect of depression, there were significant differences in TEPS scores among the three groups (p < 0.05). Compared with HCs, OCD patients had lower scores on the consummatory subscale, but not the anticipatory subscale, of the TEPS. MDD patients had lower scores on both the consummatory and anticipatory subscales than HCs. Conclusion: OCD patients exhibit deficits in consummatory but not anticipatory pleasure, which is distinct from MDD patients.
Evolutionary Conservation of Thyroid Hormone Receptor and Deiodinase Expression Dynamics in ovo in a Direct-Developing Frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui

Direct development is a reproductive mode in amphibians that has evolved independently from the ancestral biphasic life history in at least a dozen anuran lineages. Most direct-developing frogs, including the Puerto Rican coquí, Eleutherodactylus coqui, lack a free-living aquatic larva and instead hatch from terrestrial eggs as miniature adults. Their embryonic development includes the transient formation of many larval-specific features and the formation of adult-specific features that typically form postembryonically—during metamorphosis—in indirect-developing frogs. We found that pre-hatching developmental patterns of thyroid hormone receptors alpha (thra) and beta (thrb) and deiodinases type II (dio2) and type III (dio3) mRNAs in E. coqui limb and tail are conserved relative to those seen during metamorphosis in indirect-developing frogs. Additionally, thra, thrb, and dio2 mRNAs are expressed in the limb before formation of the embryonic thyroid gland. Liquid-chromatography mass-spectrometry revealed that maternally derived thyroid hormone is present throughout early embryogenesis, including stages of digit formation that occur prior to the increase in embryonically produced thyroid hormone. Eleutherodactylus coqui embryos take up much less 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine (T3) from the environment compared with X. tropicalis tadpoles. However, E. coqui tissue explants mount robust and direct gene expression responses to exogenous T3 similar to those seen in metamorphosing species. The presence of key components of the thyroid axis in the limb and the ability of limb tissue to respond to T3 suggest that thyroid hormone-mediated limb development may begin prior to thyroid gland formation. Thyroid hormone-dependent limb development and tail resorption characteristic of metamorphosis in indirect-developing anurans are evolutionarily conserved, but they occur instead in ovo in E. coqui.
The Role of Monocytes and Macrophages in Autoimmune Diseases: A Comprehensive Review

Monocytes (Mo) and macrophages (Mϕ) are key components of the innate immune system and are involved in regulation of the initiation, development, and resolution of many inflammatory disorders. In addition, these cells also play important immunoregulatory and tissue-repairing roles to decrease immune reactions and promote tissue regeneration. Several lines of evidence have suggested a causal link between the presence or activation of these cells and the development of autoimmune diseases. In addition, Mo or Mϕ infiltration in diseased tissues is a hallmark of several autoimmune diseases. However, the detailed contributions of these cells, whether they actually initiate disease or perpetuate disease progression, and whether their phenotype and functional alteration are merely epiphenomena are still unclear in many autoimmune diseases. Additionally, little is known about their heterogeneous populations in different autoimmune diseases. Elucidating the relevance of Mo and Mϕ in autoimmune diseases and the associated mechanisms could lead to the identification of more effective therapeutic strategies in the future.
Comparative Analysis of the TRB Locus in the Camelus Genus

T cells can be separated into two major subsets based on the heterodimer that forms their T cell receptors. αβ T cells have receptors consisting of α and β chains, while γδ T cells are composed of γ and δ chains. αβ T cells play an essential role within the adaptive immune responses against pathogens. The recent genomic characterization of the Camelus dromedarius T cell receptor β (TRB) locus has allowed us to infer the structure of this locus from the draft genome sequences of its wild and domestic Bactrian congeners, Camelus ferus and Camelus bactrianus. The general structural organization of the wild and domestic Bactrian TRB locus is similar to that of the dromedary, with a pool of TRBV genes positioned at the 5′ end of D-J-C clusters, followed by a single TRBV gene located at the 3′ end with an inverted transcriptional orientation. Despite the fragmented nature of the assemblies, comparative genomics reveals the existence of a perfect co-linearity between the three Old World camel TRB genomic sequences, which enables the transfer of information from one sequence to another and the filling of gaps in the genomic sequences. A virtual camelid TRB locus is hypothesized with the presence of 33 TRBV genes distributed in 26 subgroups. Likewise, in the artiodactyl species, three in-tandem D-J-C clusters, each composed of one TRBD gene, six or seven TRBJ genes, and one TRBC gene, are placed at the 3′ end of the locus. As reported in the ruminant species, a group of four functional TRY genes at the 5′ end and only one gene at the 3′ end, complete the camelid TRB locus. Although the gene content is similar, differences are observed in the TRBV functional repertoire, and genes that are functional in one species are pseudogenes in the other species. Hence, variations in the functional repertoire between dromedary, wild and domestic Bactrian camels, rather than differences in the gene content, may represent the molecular basis explaining the disparity in the TRB repertoire between the Camelus species. Finally, our data contribute to the knowledge about the evolutionary history of Old World camelids.