Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3 Is Linked to VDAC1 Deubiquitination

Dysfunctional mitochondria are linked to several neurodegenerative diseases. Metabolic defects, a symptom which can result from dysfunctional mitochondria, are also present in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), also known as Machado–Joseph disease, the most frequent, dominantly inherited neurodegenerative ataxia worldwide. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been reported for several neurodegenerative disorders and ataxin-3 is known to deubiquitinylate parkin, a key protein required for canonical mitophagy. In this study, we analyzed mitochondrial function and mitophagy in a patient-derived SCA3 cell model. Human fibroblast lines isolated from SCA3 patients were immortalized and characterized. SCA3 patient fibroblasts revealed circular, ring-shaped mitochondria and featured reduced OXPHOS complexes, ATP production and cell viability. We show that wildtype ataxin-3 deubiquitinates VDAC1 (voltage-dependent anion channel 1), a member of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and a parkin substrate. In SCA3 patients, VDAC1 deubiquitination and parkin recruitment to the depolarized mitochondria is inhibited. Increased p62-linked mitophagy, autophagosome formation and autophagy is observed under disease conditions, which is in line with mitochondrial fission. SCA3 fibroblast lines demonstrated a mitochondrial phenotype and dysregulation of parkin-VDAC1-mediated mitophagy, thereby promoting mitochondrial quality control via alternative pathways.
Amentoflavone Promotes Cellular Uptake and Degradation of Amyloid-Beta in Neuronal Cells

Deposition of fibrillar forms of amyloid β-protein (Aβ) is commonly found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) associated with cognitive decline. Impaired clearance of Aβ species is thought to be a major cause of late-onset sporadic AD. Aβ secreted into the extracellular milieu can be cleared from the brain through multiple pathways, including cellular uptake in neuronal and non-neuronal cells. Recent studies have showed that the naturally-occurring polyphenol amentoflavone (AMF) exerts anti-amyloidogenic effects. However, its effects on metabolism and cellular clearance of Aβ remain to be tested. In the present study, we demonstrated that AMF significantly increased the cellular uptake of both Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42, but not inverted Aβ42-1 in mouse neuronal N2a cells. Though AMF promoted internalization of cytotoxic Aβ1-42, it significantly reduced cell death in our assay condition. Our data further revealed that the internalized Aβ is translocated to lysosomes and undergoes enzymatic degradation. The saturable kinetic of Aβ uptake and our pharmacologic experiments showed the involvement of receptor-mediated endocytosis, in part, through the class A scavenger receptors as a possible mechanism of action of AMF. Taken together, our findings indicate that AMF can lower the levels of extracellular Aβ by increasing their cellular uptake and clearance, suggesting the therapeutic potential of AMF for the treatment of AD.
Role of nanomaterials with special reference to pharmaceutical technology

Nanocarriers have emerged as a safe and effective method of medication administration and release during the past few years. When compared to their larger-scale counterparts, nanoparticles display amazing properties. The excellent biocompatibility of many of these carriers makes them more attractive, as does the fact that they provide better effectiveness, particularly in cancer therapies. Over the past half-century, nanocrystal, liposomal, and micelle nanocarriers for drug administration and release have been widely studied. As a result of these successful uses, the pharmaceutical industry now has a whole new product to choose from. An overview of recent works on nanocarrier materials and designs to improve the efficacy of medications for illness treatment is provided below. As organic and inorganic nanocarrier materials that are highly biocompatible and easy to manipulate get the most interest, specific emphasis is paid to the design and implementation of novel nanocarrier materials such as nanohydrogels, chitins, graphene oxides, and solid lipoprotein nanoparticles. Each summary shows how far the project has progressed. In order to give better therapy to patients, there is a pressing demand in pharmaceutical technology for improved knowledge of the current condition of these nanomaterials.
Exergy Analysis of Different Configurations of Multiple-effect Evaporators in Sugarcane Mills

Multiple-effect evaporators are the main consumers of backpressure steam in sugarcane mills. The purpose of these equipment is to concentrate juice extracted in the milling process into syrup. During this process, many types of steam can be produced and used as heat sources in other processes. In this sense, one could say that multiple-effect evaporators are responsible for the integration of the utilities plant and the process plant in sugarcane mills. Thus, any optimization procedure aiming to enhance power generation in sugarcane mills must take into account possible modifications in this process. This paper intends to analyze and compare, based on exergy concept, different configurations of these systems. These configurations have been proposed by different authors, but the analysis focused mainly in energy concepts. The methodology used has been successfully applied to a real multiple-effect evaporator of a Brazilian sugarcane mill.
Design of a very compact U‐HI‐LO low‐pass filter using meander technique and quasi horn inductors for L‐band and C‐band applications

In this article, a novel very compact low pass filters, using Hi‐Lo technique and meander method are proposed. The several proposed filters are designed using a modification along the microstrip line by addition of U form and a meander shape. The compact meander LPF consists of two thin microstrip lines, which are connected with 50‐Ω microstrip feed lines and thus with the both SMA connectors and a width microstrip patch placed in the middle of the structure. This meander Hi‐Lo topology has been placed on the RO4003 substrate with a relative dielectric constant εr = 3.38 and thicknesses h = 0.813 mm and a loss tangent of 0.0027. Additionally to a very good compactness, the structure exhibits simple design and fabrication, very low insertion loss in the passband of 1.5 dB, and it achieves a wide rejection bandwidth with overall 20 dB attenuation from 5.7 to 6.3 GHz. The compact low pass structure occupies an area of (0.337 λg × 0.253 λg) where λg = 60 mm is the wavelength at the cut‐off frequency 2.75 GHz. The simulated and measured results show good agreement and validate the proposed approach. Such compact filter structures are used in various microwave system applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2897–2901, 2016
Mapping the Brightness of Ganymede's Ultraviolet Aurora Using Hubble Space Telescope Observations

We analyze Hubble Space Telescope observations of Ganymede made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph between 1998 and 2017 to generate a brightness map of Ganymede's oxygen emission at 1,356 Å. Our Mercator projected map demonstrates that the brightness along Ganymede's northern and southern auroral ovals strongly varies with longitude. To quantify this variation around Ganymede, we investigate the brightness averaged over 36°‐wide longitude corridors centered around the sub‐Jovian (0° W), leading (90° W), anti‐Jovian (180° W), and trailing (270° W) central longitudes. In the northern hemisphere, the brightness of the auroral oval is 3.7 ± 0.4 times lower in the sub‐Jovian and anti‐Jovian corridors compared to the trailing and leading corridors. The southern oval is overall brighter than the northern oval, and only 2.5 ± 0.2 times fainter on the sub‐ and anti‐Jovian corridors compared to the trailing and leading corridors. This demonstrates that Ganymede's auroral ovals are strongly structured in auroral crescents on the leading side (plasma downstream side) and on the trailing side (plasma upstream side). We also find that the brightness is not symmetric with respect to the 270° meridian, but shifted by ∼20° towards the Jovian‐facing hemisphere. Our map will be useful for subsequent studies to understand the processes that generate the aurora in Ganymede's non‐rotationally driven, sub‐Alfvénic magnetosphere.
Self-supervised Learning in Symbolic Classification

: A new approach to modelling self-supervised learning for automated constructing and improving algorithms of inferring logical rules from examples is advanced. As a concrete model, we consider the process of inferring good maximally redundant classification tests or minimal formal concepts. The concepts of external and internal learning contexts are introduced. A model of an intelligent agent capable of improving its learning process is considered. It is shown that the same learning algorithm can be used in both external and internal learning contexts.
Mega-Dose Vitamin C Ameliorates Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in a Mouse Fast-Food Diet Model

In previous studies, the increasing clinical importance of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been recognized. However, the specific therapeutic strategies or drugs have not been discovered. Vitamin C is a water-soluble antioxidant and is a cofactor in many important biosynthesis pathways. Recently, many researchers have reported that the mega-dose vitamin C treatment had positive effects on various diseases. However, the precise relationship between mega-dose vitamin C and NAFLD has not been completely elucidated. This study has been designed to discover the effects of mega-dose vitamin C on the progression of NAFLD. Twelve-week-old wild-type C57BL6 mice were fed chow diets and high-fat and high-fructose diet (fast-food diet) ad libitum for 11 weeks with or without of vitamin C treatment. Vitamin C was administered in the drinking water (1.5 g/L). In this study, 11 weeks of the mega-dose vitamin C treatment significantly suppressed the development of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) independently of the catabolic process. Vitamin C supplements in fast-food diet fed mice significantly decreased diet ingestion and increased water intake. Histopathological analysis revealed that the mice fed a fast-food diet with vitamin C water had a mild renal injury suggesting osmotic nephrosis due to fructose-mediated purine derivatives. These data suggest that the mega-dose vitamin C treatment suppresses high-fructose-diet-mediated NAFLD progression by decreasing diet ingestion and increasing water intake.
Determination of Metal Content and Biological Activities of Radish Plant Consumed as Turnip by Public in Siirt Region

This study was carried out on turnip (avtitu) obtained from a radish ecotype grown in Eruh region of Siirt. Antioxidant capacities, total phenolic and flavonoid amounts of DPPH (free radical scavenging), Ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) analyses were performed in extracts obtained from radish with different solvents. In addition, the metal content of the samples and the elemental analysis of the soil samples taken in the area where they were collected were made. In this study, the content of total phenolic, total flavonoid, DPPH highest % inhibition values and the highest values of the ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were 71.97 ± 14.54 mg / mL Gallic acid equivalents, 298.17 ± 12.81 mg / mL routine equivalent, 66.88% and 3.29 ± 0.01 mg / mL FeSO4 equivalents were detected in the aboveground fractions methanol extract, respectively. Samples of the turnip beverage traditionally produced by the people from the Eruh region of Siirt were randomly obtained from eleven families. Some physicochemical tests such as pH, water activity, Oxidation-Reduction (O / R; Eh) Potential Value, colour analysis, dry matter content and % salt ratio and microbiological tests such as TMAB, yeast, mould, Staphylococcus species, Lactobacillus spp. , coliform group bacteria and E. coli were applied to these avtitu samples.
Identification of New Non-BBB Permeable Tryptophan Hydroxylase Inhibitors for Treating Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptophan) is a hormone that regulates emotions in the central nervous system. However, serotonin in the peripheral system is associated with obesity and fatty liver disease. Because serotonin cannot cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), we focused on identifying new tryptophan hydroxylase type I (TPH1) inhibitors that act only in peripheral tissues for treating obesity and fatty liver disease without affecting the central nervous system. Structural optimization inspired by para-chlorophenylalanine (pCPA) resulted in the identification of a series of oxyphenylalanine and heterocyclic phenylalanine derivatives as TPH1 inhibitors. Among these compounds, compound 18i with an IC50 value of 37 nM was the most active in vitro. Additionally, compound 18i showed good liver microsomal stability and did not significantly inhibit CYP and Herg. Furthermore, this TPH1 inhibitor was able to actively interact with the peripheral system without penetrating the BBB. Compound 18i and its prodrug reduced body weight gain in mammals and decreased in vivo fat accumulation.
Acute and Long-Term Consequences of COVID-19 on Arterial Stiffness—A Narrative Review

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the ongoing global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Although initially viewed as an acute respiratory illness, COVID-19 is clearly a complex multisystemic disease with extensive cardiovascular involvement. Emerging evidence shows that the endothelium plays multiple roles in COVID-19 physiopathology, as both a target organ that can be directly infected by SARS-CoV-2 and a mediator in the subsequent inflammatory and thrombotic cascades. Arterial stiffness is an established marker of cardiovascular disease. The scope of this review is to summarize available data on the acute and long-term consequences of COVID-19 on vascular function. COVID-19 causes early vascular aging and arterial stiffness. Fast, noninvasive bedside assessment of arterial stiffness could optimize risk stratification in acute COVID-19, allowing for early escalation of treatment. Vascular physiology remains impaired at least 12 months after infection with SARS-CoV-2, even in otherwise healthy adults. This raises concerns regarding the extent of arterial remodeling in patients with preexisting vascular disease and the potential development of a persistent, chronic COVID-19 vasculopathy. Long-term follow up on larger cohorts is required to investigate the reversibility of COVID-19-induced vascular changes and their associated prognostic implications.
Contingency analysis and adoption of STATCOM in highly renewable energy penetrated Western Grid of Bangladesh

Abstract All the countries are in needs of renewable energy (RE) penetration into their power system. As Bangladesh power system (BPS) depends on fossil fuel by 99% of its total generation capacity, it is very much focusing on having RE. In its Western grid, it has planned to install 55 MW wind turbine generator (WTG) and 100 MW solar photovoltaic generator (SPVG). It is expected that the system will be upset from stability perspective. To increase the power system security, contingency analysis is needed. But the power system operation parameters are always variable, with conventional load flow method, it is impossible to carry out contingency analysis according to such variations in parameters. So, this present work adopts machine learning (ML) to predict the contingency analysis by determining the performance indices (PI) with variable operating conditions in a quick time. Decision tree (DT), random forest (RF) and extra tree (ET) methods based supervised learning will be used to predict the result for the contingency analysis. Comparison among these methods will be carried out to get the most suitable one. Also, due to RE penetration, the system will be vulnerable to voltage due to reduction in reactive power. Adoption of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) will help to reduce the voltage stress of the system. Effective location of it is very essential, so that it can enhance the voltage stability. In this paper, modal analysis technique will be used to find out the optimal location for a STATCOM and to calculate the enhancement in stability.
Fault-tolerant Control Allocation for Multirotor Helicopters Using Parametric Programming

This paper addresses the issue of flight safety and reliability of unmanned multirotor helicopters. New applications involve the use of such flying platforms to perform inspection of industrial facilities, bridges, dam walls, etc. In this context, the multirotor helicopter is teleoperated by a distant human user. 1 The capability of fault-tolerance against rotor or motor is a major asset to guarantee the success of the mission and the safety of the surrounding environment. This paper contributes to fault-tolerant flight of multirotor helicopter with the following four points. First, given the configuration of the multirotor vehicle, this paper shows how to calculate the maximum torques that can be produced on each vehicle axis. Second, a method to investigate the static controllability of the vehicle in any arbitrary fault configuration is described. Third, a control allocator for multirotor systems is developed with performance going beyond performance obtained with classical methods, such as the pseudo-inverse method. The proposed control allocator is indeed capable of exploiting the whole attainable control set. Fourth, this control allocator is fault-tolerant, as it can efficiently cope with the loss of one or more actuators. The control allocation problem is formulated as a parametric program and solved for an explicit solution, which is stored in lookup tables. Therefore, the control allocator requires very low computational power and immediately provides an optimal solution to the torque commands issued by the flight controller. The performance of the control allocator is evaluated on a real six-rotor helicopter. Finally, based on the real experiments, the paper investigates 1) the impact of faults and 2) the influence of the reconfiguration delay on the flight stability. These experiments show that this control allocation strategy successfully increases flight performance and maintains stability of the vehicle in case of actuator(s) total failure.
PPAdroid: An Approach to Android Privacy Protocol Analysis

With the continuous growth of the number of mobile applications, users may provide personal information to applications consciously or unconsciously. Privacy protocol could help users understand the privacy behavior of applications. However, users usually ignore the content of the privacy protocol due to the length of their context. To solve such a problem, we conduct an empirical study on privacy protocols of Android applications and propose a method to detect sentences related to personal information operations in privacy protocol documents. In our proposed method, a verb list, a negation list, and a noun list related to user information operations are created and utilized to detect sentences related to user personal information by the Stanford CoreNLP technique. The experimental results show that our proposed method is better than state-of-art keyword-based methods. Furthermore, our proposed method can help users understand the contents of privacy protocol documents in a limited way.
Dual-coupled inductors-based high step-up DC/DC converter without input electrolytic capacitor for PV application

To alleviate the power losses caused by the fluctuation of the output current of the photovoltaic (PV) array, a DC/DC converter with high-voltage gain is proposed for PV generation systems. The input current ripples of the proposed converter can be greatly reduced by making use of coupled inductors. Then the electrolytic capacitor on the input side could be replaced by polypropylene capacitor with smaller capacity and size. In addition, the snubber and the energy recovery circuits constructed by diodes and storage capacitors can be operated to reduce the voltage spikes of the switch tubes and losses caused by the leakage inductance. Based on analysing the inherent five operating modes of the proposed converter, high-voltage gain and the zero input current ripples characteristics of the proposed converter is manifested. The theoretical analysis is then verified by a 150 W-rated experimental prototype, and the results show that the proposed converter can quickly and accurately trace the maximum power point of PV array based on the modified incremental conductance method with high-voltage gain and low current ripples.
Contact force control of an active pantograph for high speed trains

In this paper, a mathematical model of the pantograph with flexibility is developed based on experiments, and then an optimal controller together with a sliding observer is proposed to regulate the contact force in the presence of variation with respect to the equivalent stiffness of the catenary system. Furthermore, some physical interpretations of the closed-loop dynamics and pole-zero cancelations are given by analysis from a viewpoint of the output zeroing.
A method for shock train leading edge detection based on differential pressure

In order to make the shock train leading edge detection method more possible for operational application, a new detection method based on differential pressure signals is introduced in this paper. Firstly, three previous detection methods, including the pressure ratio method, the pressure increase method, and the standard deviation method, have been examined whether they are also applicable for shock train moving at different speeds. Accordingly, three experimental cases of back-pressure changing at different rates were conducted in this paper. The results show that the pressure ratio and the pressure increase method both have acceptable detection accuracy for shock train moving rapidly and slowly, and the standard deviation method is not applicable for rapid shock train movement due to its running time window. Considering the operational application, the differential pressure method is raised and tested in this paper. This detection method has sufficient temporal resolution for rapidly and slowly shock train moving, and can make a real-time detection. In the end, the improvements brought by the differential pressure method have been discussed.
Ambivalence about disability: Why people with mild learning difficulties who are looking for employment may not identify as disabled

UK government policies over several decades have sought to actively encourage disabled people to take up paid employment, most recently by focusing on the ‘gap’ between employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people. These policies implicitly assume a clear distinction between people who are and are not disabled, linked to medicallyoriented, hierarchical notions of deservingness. They also assume that people who need support will self-identify. This article explores factors that undermine those assumptions or expose their contradictory effects. It presents findings from qualitative research with people with mild learning difficulties, discussing their perceptions of disability and how they negotiated an ever-shifting balance of consequences of identifying as disabled or disclosing needs, linked to risks and experiences of prejudice, discrimination and exclusion.