Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recommendations for Reducing the USE of Fish and Amphibians in Endocrine‐Disruption Testing of Biocides and Plant Protection Products in Europe

Intent. The intent of Learned Discourses is to provide a forum for open discussion. These articles refl ect the professional opinions of the authors regarding scientifi c issues. They do not represent SETAC positions or policies. And, although they are subject to editorial review for clarity, consistency, and brevity, these articles are not peer reviewed. The Learned Discourses date from 1996 in the North America SETAC News and, when that publication was replaced by the SETAC Globe, continued there through 2005. The continued success of Learned Discourses depends on our contributors. We encourage timely submissions that inform and stimulate discussion. We expect that many of the articles will address controversial topics and promise to give dissenting opinions a chance to be heard. This section is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Peter M Chapman, who founded Learned Discourses and served as Editor until he passed away in 2017. Rules. All submissions must be succinct: no longer than 1000 words, no more than 6 references, and at most 1 table or fi gure. Reference format must follow the journal requirement found at www.setacjournals. org. Topics must fall within IEAM’s sphere of interest. Submissions. All manuscripts should be sent via email as Word attachments to the IEAM Editorial Offi ce (learned_ discourses@setac.org). Recommendations for reducing the use of fi sh and amphibians in endocrine-disruption testing of biocides and plant protection products in Europe by Lagadic et al. With the goal of reducing animal testing of endocrine disruptors, in vivo embryo assays offer an ethical alternative to corroborate mammalian toxicity results and address environmental protection goals for aquatic vertebrates Timely Scientifi c Opinions In a Nutshell. Learned Discourses: Timely Scientifi c Opinions 659
An ‘eFP‐Seq Browser’ for visualizing and exploring RNA sequencing data

Summary Improvements in next‐generation sequencing technologies have resulted in dramatically reduced sequencing costs. This has led to an explosion of ‘‐seq’‐based methods, of which RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) for generating transcriptomic data is the most popular. By analysing global patterns of gene expression in organs/tissues/cells of interest or in response to chemical or environmental perturbations, researchers can better understand an organism's biology. Tools designed to work with large RNA‐seq data sets enable analyses and visualizations to help generate hypotheses about a gene's function. We present here a user‐friendly RNA‐seq data exploration tool, called the ‘eFP‐Seq Browser’, that shows the read map coverage of a gene of interest in each of the samples along with ‘electronic fluorescent pictographic’ (eFP) images that serve as visual representations of expression levels. The tool also summarizes the details of each RNA‐seq experiment, providing links to archival databases and publications. It automatically computes the reads per kilobase per million reads mapped expression‐level summaries and point biserial correlation scores to sort the samples based on a gene's expression level or by how dissimilar the read map profile is from a gene splice variant, to quickly identify samples with the strongest expression level or where alternative splicing might be occurring. Links to the Integrated Genome Browser desktop visualization tool allow researchers to visualize and explore the details of RNA‐seq alignments summarized in eFP‐Seq Browser as coverage graphs. We present four cases of use of the eFP‐Seq Browser for ABI3,SR34,SR45a and U2AF65B, where we examine expression levels and identify alternative splicing. The URL for the browser is https://bar.utoronto. ca/eFP-Seq_Browser/. Open research badges This article has earned an Open Data Badge for making publicly available the digitally‐shareable data necessary to reproduce the reported results. Tool is at http://sps:urlprefix::https; RNA‐seq data at http://sps:urlprefix::https and http://sps:urlprefix::https. Code is available at http://sps:urlprefix::https
Wavefront printing technique with overlapping approach toward high definition holographic image reconstruction

A hologram recording technique, generally called as “wavefront printer”, has been proposed by several research groups for static three-dimensional (3D) image printing. Because the pixel number of current spatial light modulators (SLMs) is not enough to reconstruct the entire wavefront in recording process, typically, hologram data is divided into a set of subhologram data and each wavefront is recorded sequentially as a small sub-hologram cell in tiling manner by using X-Y motorized stage. However since previous works of wavefront printer do not optimize the cell size, the reconstructed images were degraded by obtrusive split line due to visible cell size caused by too large cell size for human eyesight, or by diffraction effect due to discontinuity of phase distribution caused by too small cell size. In this paper, we introduce overlapping recording approach of sub-holograms to achieve both conditions: enough smallness of apparent cell size to make cells invisible and enough largeness of recording cell size to suppress diffraction effect by keeping the phase continuity of reconstructed wavefront. By considering observing condition and optimization of the amount of overlapping and cell size, in the experiment, the proposed approach showed higher quality 3D image reconstruction while the conventional approach suffered visible split lines and cells.
Craterostigma plantagineum cell wall composition is remodelled during desiccation and the glycine-rich protein CpGRP1 interacts with pectins through clustered arginines.

Craterostigma plantagineum belongs to the desiccation tolerant angiosperm plants. Upon dehydration leaves fold and the cells shrink which is reversed during rehydration. To understand this process changes in cell-wall pectin composition, and the role of the apoplastic glycine-rich protein 1 (CpGRP1) were analysed. Cellular microstructural changes in hydrated, desiccated and rehydrated leaf sections were analysed using scanning electron microscopy. Pectin composition in different cell wall fractions was analysed with monoclonal antibodies against homogalacturonan, rhamnogalacturonan-I, rhamnogalacturonan-II and hemicellulose epitopes. Our data demonstrate changes in pectin composition during dehydration/rehydration which is suggested to affect cell wall properties. Homogalacturonan was less methylesterified upon desiccation and changes were also demonstrated in the detection of rhamnogalacturonan-I, rhamnogalacturonan-II and hemicelluloses. CpGRP1 seems to have a central role in cell adaptations to water deficit, as it interacts with pectin through a cluster of arginine residues and de-methylesterified pectin presents more binding sites for the protein-pectin interaction than to pectin from hydrated leaves. CpGRP1 can also bind phosphatidic acid and cardiolipin. The binding of CpGRP1 to pectin appears to be dependent on the pectin methylesterification status and it has a higher affinity to pectin than its binding partner CpWAK1. It is hypothesised that changes in pectin composition are sensed by the CpGRP1-CpWAK1 complex thus leading to the activation of dehydration-related responses and leaf folding. Phosphatidic acid might participate in the modulation of CpGRP1 activity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
CDFT-Based Reactivity Descriptors as a Useful MEDT Chemoinformatics Tool for the Study of the Virotoxin Family of Fungal Peptides

Virotoxins are monocyclic peptides formed by at least five different compounds: alaviroidin, viroisin, deoxoviroisin, viroidin and deoxovirodin. These are toxic peptides singularly found in Amanita virosa mushrooms. Here we perform computational studies on the structural and electronic conformations of these peptides using the MN12SX/Def2TZVP/H2O chemistry model to investigate their chemical reactivity. CDFT-based descriptors (for Conceptual Density Functional Theory) (e.g., Parr functions and Nucleophilicity) are also considered. At the same time, other properties (e.g., pKas) will be determined and used to study virotoxins solubility and to inform decisions about repurposing these agents in medicinal chemistry.
Optimal Pricing and Load Balancing Approach for Computational Grid

— Grid computing is the federation of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The main challenging task of grid is managing resources and cleverly pricing them on computing systems. Resource sharing insists careful load balancing for an efficient and effective deployment of resources in the system when it is needed. The main goal of this paper is to integrate load balancing and optimal pricing for improving the resource utilization rate and user satisfaction. The system assumes heterogeneous resources with dynamically varying prices to determine load balancing and the load is balanced among the resources with their minimal price. It provides optimum solution so that it reduces the response time and overall cost charged for job execution. Through simulations the performance of the proposed system is evaluated.
Cardiac rehabilitation after acute myocardial infarction in Sweden – evaluation of programme characteristics and adherence to European guidelines: The Perfect Cardiac Rehabilitation (Perfect-CR) study

Background While patient performance after participating in cardiac rehabilitation programmes after acute myocardial infarction is regularly reported through registry and survey data, information on cardiac rehabilitation programme characteristics is less well described. Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate Swedish cardiac rehabilitation programme characteristics and adherence to European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. Method Cardiac rehabilitation programme characteristics at all 78 cardiac rehabilitation centres in Sweden in 2016 were surveyed using a web-based questionnaire (100% response rate). The questions were based on core components of cardiac rehabilitation as recommended by European Guidelines. Results There was a wide variation in programme duration (2–14 months). All programmes reported offering an individual post-discharge visit with a nurse, and 90% (n = 70) did so within three weeks from discharge. Most programmes offered centre-based exercise training (n = 76, 97%) and group educational sessions (n = 61, 78%). All programmes reported to the national audit, SWEDEHEART, and 60% (n = 47) reported that performance was regularly assessed using audit data, to improve quality of care. Ninety-six per cent (n = 75) had a core team consisting of a cardiologist, a physiotherapist and a nurse and 76% (n = 59) reported having a medical director. Having other allied healthcare professionals included in the cardiac rehabilitation team varied. Forty per cent (n = 31) reported having regular team meetings where nurses, physiotherapists and cardiologist could discuss patient cases. Conclusion The overall quality of cardiac rehabilitation programmes provided in Sweden is high. Still, there are several areas of potential improvement. Monitoring programme characteristics as well as patient outcomes might improve programme quality and patient outcomes both at a local and a national level.
Determination of Deoxynivalenol Biomarkers in Italian Urine Samples

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin mainly produced by Fusarium graminearum that can contaminate cereals and cereal-based foodstuff. Urinary DON levels can be used as biomarker for exposure assessment purposes. This study assessed urinary DON concentrations in Italian volunteers recruited by age group, namely children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. In addition, vulnerable groups, namely vegetarians and pregnant women, were included in the study. To determine the urinary DON, its glucuronide and de-epoxydated (DOM-1) forms, an indirect analytical approach was used, measuring free DON and total DON (as sum of free and glucuronides forms), before and after enzymatic treatment, respectively. Morning urine samples were collected on two consecutive days, from six different population groups, namely children, adolescent, adults, elderly, vegetarians and pregnant women. Total DON was measured in the 76% of the collected samples with the maximum incidences in children and adolescent age group. Urine samples from children and adolescent also showed the highest total DON levels, up to 17.0 ng/mgcreat. Pregnant women had the lowest positive samples per category (40% for day 1 and 43% for day 2, respectively), low mean levels of total DON (down to 2.84 ng/mgcreat) and median equal to 0 ng/mgcreat. Estimation of DON dietary intake reveals that 7.5% of the total population exceeds the TDI of 1 μg/kg bw/day set for DON, with children showing 40% of individuals surpassing this value (male, day 2).
The Mediating Effects of Affect on Associations between Impulsivity or Resilience and Internet Gaming Disorder

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a new disease proposed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition (DSM-5), and has been studied extensively in relation to depression and impulsivity. The relationship between resilience and disease has been found in a variety of addictive disorders, but studies on IGD are lacking. In this study, 71 IGD patients and 78 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Impulsivity, resilience, affects, and the degree of internet game addiction were measured using formal tools. The measured values were analyzed by mediation analysis to evaluate the mediating role of affects on resilience and impulsivity related to IGD symptoms. The IGD group showed higher impulsivity, lower resilience, lower positive affect, and higher negative affect than the HC group. The mediation analysis showed that a positive affect was a mediator between impulsivity and the severity of addiction in both groups. Negative affect mediated impulsivity/resilience and the severity of addiction only in the IGD group. Although the results of this study are based on a narrow category of subjects, who are young male adults around 25 years of age, the results suggest that positive affect can be strengthened to prevent the IGD illness, and that illness symptoms may be alleviated by reducing negative affect.
Design and Implementation of High-Availability Architecture for IoT-Cloud Services

For many vertical Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the high availability is very important. In traditional cloud systems, services are usually implemented with the same level of availability in which the fault detection and fault recovery mechanisms are not aware of service characteristics. In IoT-cloud, various services are provided with different service characteristics and availability requirements. Therefore, the existing cloud system is inefficient to optimize the availability method and resources to meet service requirements. To address this issue, this paper proposes a high availability architecture that is capable of dynamically optimizing the availability method based on service characteristics. The proposed architecture was verified through an implementation system based on OpenStack, and it was demonstrated that the system was able to achieve the target availability while optimizing resources, in contrast with existing architectures that use predefined availability methods.
Applied Network Science for Relational Chronic Disease Surveillance

Chronic diseases and conditions are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. The number of people living with two or more chronic conditions has increased in the last decades and is expected to continue to rise over the upcoming years. Yet, traditional chronic disease surveillance practices have been specialized for a specific symptom or a single health condition. To better understand the complication and complexity of multimorbidity in chronic diseases, this paper suggests the use of network science for multimorbidity network surveillance (MNS). We discuss why the relational perspective in surveillance is critical and how network science can help and be integrated into surveillance and public health practice.
Decreased Level of Blood MicroRNA-133b in Men with Opioid Use Disorder on Methadone Maintenance Therapy

Although previous animal studies have indicated that certain micro ribonucleic acids (microRNAs) play a part in the pathway of opioid addiction, whether such findings extend to human models is yet unknown. This study aims to investigate the important microRNA expressions in patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) on methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) compared to healthy controls and analyze the correlation between microRNAs and opioid characteristics among the patients. We recruited 50 patients and 25 controls, and both groups were matched regarding gender, age, and body mass index. Serum microRNAs (miR-133b, miR-23b, miR-190, miR-206, miR-210, and miR-21) were measured. The age of OUD onset, duration of MMT participation, and recent daily methadone dosage were considered the opioid characteristics. We adopted the t-test to compare the difference between patients and controls and Pearson’s correlation to evaluate the association between microRNAs and opioid profiles. Only the level of miR-133b in OUD patients on MMT was significantly lower than that in healthy controls. We did not detect differences of any other microRNA expressions between the two groups. Furthermore, we found no evidence to support the association between microRNAs and opioid characteristics. This study indicates that miR-133b values may be decreased in OUD patients on MMT.
Expression of the LRRC52 g subunit (g2) may provide Ca2+‐independent activation of BK currents in mouse inner hair cells

Mammalian inner hair cells (IHCs) transduce sound into depolarization and transmitter release. Big conductance and voltage‐ and Ca2+‐activated K+ (BK) channels are responsible for fast membrane repolarization and small time constants of mature IHCs. For unknown reasons, they activate at around ‐75 mV with a voltage of half‐maximum activation (Vhalf) of ‐50 mV although being largely insensitive to Ca2+ influx. Ca2+‐independent activation of BK channels was observed by others in heterologous expression systems if γ subunits leucine‐rich repeat‐containing protein (LRRC)26 (γ1) and LRRC52 (γ2) were coexpressed with the pore‐forming BKα subunit, which shifted Vhalf by ‐140 and ‐100 mV, respectively. Using nested PCR, we consistently detected transcripts for LRRC52 but not for LRRC26 in IHCs of 3‐wk‐old mice. Confocal immunohistochemistry showed synchronous up‐regulation of LRRC52 protein with BKα at the onset of hearing. Colocalization of LRRC52 protein and BKα at the IHC neck within ≤40 nm was specified using an in situ proximity ligation assay. Mice deficient for the voltage‐gated Cav1.3 Ca2+ channel encoded by Cacna1d do not express BKα protein. LRRC52 protein was neither expressed in IHCs of BKα nor in IHCs of Cav1.3 knockout mice. Together, LRRC52 is a γ2 subunit of BK channel complexes and is a strong candidate for causing the Ca2+‐independent activation of BK currents at negative membrane potentials in mouse IHCs. —Lang, I. , Jung, M. , Niemeyer, B. A. , Ruth, P., Engel, J. Expression of the LRRC52 γ subunit (γ2) may provide Ca2+‐independent activation of BK currents in mouse inner hair cells. FASEB J. 33, 11721‐11734 (2019). www.fasebj. org
Radiosensitivity Differences between EGFR Mutant and Wild-Type Lung Cancer Cells are Larger at Lower Doses

In the era of precision medicine, radiotherapy strategies should be determined based on genetic profiles that predict tumor radiosensitivity. Accordingly, pre-clinical research aimed at discovering clinically applicable genetic profiles is needed. However, how a given genetic profile affects cancer cell radiosensitivity is unclear. To address this issue, we performed a pilot in vitro study by utilizing EGFR mutational status as a model for genetic profile. Clonogenic assays of EGFR mutant (n = 6) and wild-type (n = 9) non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cell lines were performed independently by two oncologists. Clonogenic survival parameters SF2, SF4, SF6, SF8, mean inactivation dose (MID), D10, D50, α, and β were obtained using the linear quadratic model. The differences in the clonogenic survival parameters between the EGFR mutant and wild-type cell lines were assessed using the Mann–Whitney U test. As a result, for both datasets, the p values for SF2, SF4, D50, α, and α/β were below 0.05, and those for SF2 were lowest. These data indicate that a genetic profile of NSCLC cell lines might be predictive for their radiation response; i.e., EGFR mutant cell lines might be more sensitive to low dose- and low fraction sized-irradiation.
A stress testing web-based framework for automated malware analysis

Abstract Polymorphic malware pose a serious threat to cyber security especially if it is a zeroday. They are self-mutating and change their signatures at every run. Due to their dynamic behavior at execution time, antivirus solutions may not be able to detect them. Thus, it is utmost important to detect and analyze these malware samples. To address it, we created a polymorphic malware, analyzed it in a sandbox (a web-based framework to perform live code analysis in a controlled/isolated environment) and finally tested the framework. The framework analyzes files, registry keys, network traffic and behavior of PE (Portable Executable) file and helps to detect if it is packed or not. We used stress testing technique to test the framework for efficiency in successfully analyzing N malware samples in first attempt.
CDK2 regulates the NRF1/Ehmt1 axis during meiotic prophase I

Palmer et al. identify NRF1 as a novel CDK2 interactor and substrate. This interaction was found to be important for the DNA-binding activity of NRF1. Their findings demonstrate that the loss of CDK2 expression impairs the regulation of NRF1 transcriptional activity, leading to inappropriate transcription during meiotic division.
Modeling and Flight Experiments for Swarms of High Dynamic UAVs: A Stochastic Configuration Control System with Multiplicative Noises

UAV Swarm with high dynamic configuration at a large scale requires a high-precision mathematical model to fully exploit its boundary performance. In order to instruct the engineering application with high confidence, uncertainties induced from either systematic measurement or the environment cannot be ignored. This paper investigates the Ito^ stochastic model of the UAV Swarm system with multiplicative noises. By combining the cooperative kinematic model with a simplified individual dynamic model of fixed-wing-aircraft for the first time, the configuration control model is derived. Considering the uncertainties in actual flight, multiplicative noises are introduced to complete the Ito^ stochastic model. Following that, the estimator and controller are designed to control the formation. The mean-square uniform boundedness condition of the proposed stochastic system is presented for the closed-loop system. In the simulation, the stochastic robustness analysis and design (SRAD) method is used to optimize the properties of the formation. More importantly, the effectiveness of the proposed model is also verified using real data of five unmanned aircrafts collected in outfield formation flight experiments.