Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Emotion and Recall in COVID-19 Advertisements: A Neuroscientific Study

In this research, neuroscience techniques are applied to the field of marketing in the analysis of advertisements that include the COVID-19 pandemic in their stories. A study of emotion and memory in these audiovisual productions is carried out as two fundamental factors for the knowledge of consumer habits and decision making. By means of facial recognition biosensor systems (AFFDEX) and various tests, six informative and narrative, emotional and rational advertisements are presented to the subjects of the experiment to detect which emotions predominate; how they affect variables such as neuroticism, psychoticism or extroversion, among others; or what is remembered about the different works, brands and advertisers. Outstanding results are obtained in both emotional and cognitive analysis. Thus, in the field of public health, it is found that messages referring to COVID-19 included in advertisements are remembered more than other narratives or even the brands, products or services themselves. Likewise, joy is the predominant emotion, and its significance in such varied advertising stories stands out. Finally, it is clear that neuroscience research applied to marketing requires new methods and integrated applications to obtain satisfactory results in the advertising field.
Dielectrophoresis as a Tool to Reveal the Potential Role of Ion Channels and Early Electrophysiological Changes in Osteoarthritis

Diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) are commonly characterized at the molecular scale by gene expression and subsequent protein production; likewise, the effects of pharmaceutical interventions are typically characterized by the effects of molecular interactions. However, these phenomena are usually preceded by numerous precursor steps, many of which involve significant ion influx or efflux. As a consequence, rapid assessment of cell electrophysiology could play a significant role in unravelling the mechanisms underlying drug interactions and progression of diseases, such as OA. In this study, we used dielectrophoresis (DEP), a technique that allows rapid, label-free determination of the dielectric parameters to assess the role of potassium ions on the dielectric characteristics of chondrocytes, and to investigate the electrophysiological differences between healthy chondrocytes and those from an in vitro arthritic disease model. Our results showed that DEP was able to detect a significant decrease in membrane conductance (6191 ± 738 vs. 8571 ± 1010 S/m2), membrane capacitance (10.3 ± 1.47 vs. 14.5 ± 0.01 mF/m2), and whole cell capacitance (5.4 ± 0.7 vs. 7.5 ± 0.3 pF) following inhibition of potassium channels using 10 mM tetraethyl ammonium, compared to untreated healthy chondrocytes. Moreover, cells from the OA model had a different response to DEP force in comparison to healthy cells; this was seen in terms of both a decreased membrane conductivity (782 S/m2 vs. 1139 S/m2) and a higher whole cell capacitance (9.58 ± 3.4 vs. 3.7 ± 1.3 pF). The results show that DEP offers a high throughput method, capable of detecting changes in membrane electrophysiological properties and differences between disease states.
Genetic Variation in the ASTN2 Locus in Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Psychiatric Traits: Evidence for Pleiotropy Rather Than Shared Biology

Background: The link between cardiometabolic and psychiatric illness has long been attributed to human behaviour, however recent research highlights shared biological mechanisms. The ASTN2 locus has been previously implicated in psychiatric and cardiometabolic traits, therefore this study aimed to systematically investigate the genetic architecture of ASTN2 in relation to a wide range of relevant traits. Methods: Baseline questionnaire, assessment and genetic data of 402111 unrelated white British ancestry individuals from the UK Biobank was analysed. Genetic association analyses were conducted using PLINK 1.07, assuming an additive genetic model and adjusting for age, sex, genotyping chip, and population structure. Conditional analyses and linkage disequilibrium assessment were used to determine whether cardiometabolic and psychiatric signals were independent. Results: Associations between genetic variants in the ASTN2 locus and blood pressure, total and central obesity, neuroticism, anhedonia and mood instability were identified. All analyses support the independence of the cardiometabolic traits from the psychiatric traits. In silico analyses provide support for the central obesity signal acting through ASTN2, however most of the other signals are likely acting through other genes in the locus. Conclusions: Our systematic analysis demonstrates that ASTN2 has pleiotropic effects on cardiometabolic and psychiatric traits, rather than contributing to shared pathology.
Liquid Flow and Mass Transfer Behaviors in a Butterfly-Shaped Microreactor

Based on the split-and-recombine principle, a millimeter-scale butterfly-shaped microreactor was designed and fabricated through femtosecond laser micromachining. The velocity fields, streamlines and pressure fields of the single-phase flow in the microreactor were obtained by a computational fluid dynamics simulation, and the influence of flow rates on the homogeneous mixing efficiency was quantified by the mixing index. The flow behaviors in the microreactor were investigated using water and n-butanol, from which schematic diagrams of various flow patterns were given and a flow pattern map was established for regulating the flow behavior via controlling the flow rates of the two-phase flow. Furthermore, effects of the two-phase flow rates on the droplet flow behavior (droplet number, droplet size and standard deviation) in the microreactor were investigated. In addition, the interfacial mass transfer behaviors of liquid–liquid flow were evaluated using the standard low interfacial tension system of “n-butanol/succinic acid/water”, where the dependence between the flow pattern and mass transfer was discussed. The empirical relationship between the volumetric mass transfer coefficient and Reynold number was established with prediction error less than 20%.
Evaluation of Participant Success in Gamified Drone Training Simulator Using Brain Signals and Key Logs

The risk of accidents while operating a drone is quite high. The most important solution is training for drone pilots. Drone pilot training can be done in both physical and virtual environments, but the probability of an accident is higher for pilot trainees, so the first method is to train in a virtual environment. The purpose of this study is to develop a new system to collect data on students’ educational development performance of students during the use of Gamified Drone Training Simulator and objectively analyze students’ development. A multimodal recording system that can collect simulator, keystroke, and brain activity data has been developed to analyze the cognitive and physical activities of participants trained in the gamified drone simulator. It was found that as the number of trials increased, participants became accustomed to the cognitive load of visual/auditory tasks and therefore the power in the alpha and beta bands decreased. It was observed that participants’ meditation and attention scores increased with the number of repetitions of the educational game. It can be concluded that the number of repetitions lowers stress and anxiety levels, increases attention, and thus enhances game performance.
An Integrated Model including the ROX Index to Predict the Success of High-Flow Nasal Cannula Use after Planned Extubation: A Retrospective Observational Cohort Study

High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy is commonly used to prevent reintubation after planned extubation. In clinical practice, there are no appropriate tools to evaluate whether HFNC therapy was successful or failed after planned extubation. In this retrospective observational study, we investigated whether the use of the ROX index was appropriate to differentiate between HFNC success and failure within 72 h after extubation and to develop an integrated model including the ROX index to improve the prediction of HFNC success in patients receiving HFNC therapy after planned extubation. Of 276 patients, 50 patients (18.1%) were reintubated within 72 h of extubation. ROX index values of >8.7 at 2 h, >8.7 at 6 h, and >10.4 at 12 h after HFNC therapy were all meaningful predictors of HFNC success in extubated patients. In addition, the integrated model including the ROX index had a better predictive capability for HFNC success than the ROX index alone. In conclusion, the ROX index at 2, 6, and 12 h could be applied to extubated patients to predict HFNC success after planned extubation. To improve its predictive power, we should also consider an integrated model consisting of the ROX index, sex, body mass index, and the total duration of ventilator care.
Analysis of Morphological-Hemodynamic Risk Factors for Aneurysm Rupture Including a Newly Introduced Total Volume Ratio

The purpose of this study was to evaluate morphological and hemodynamic factors, including the newly developed total volume ratio (TVR), in evaluating rupture risk of cerebral aneurysms using ≥7 mm sized aneurysms. Twenty-three aneurysms (11 unruptured and 12 ruptured) ≥ 7 mm were analyzed from 3-dimensional rotational cerebral angiography and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Ten morphological and eleven hemodynamic factors of the aneurysms were qualitatively and quantitatively compared. Correlation analysis between morphological and hemodynamic factors was performed, and the relationship among the hemodynamic factors was analyzed. Morphological factors (ostium diameter, ostium area, aspect ratio, and bottleneck ratio) and hemodynamic factors (TVR, minimal wall shear stress of aneurysms, time-averaged wall shear stress of aneurysms, oscillatory shear index, relative residence time, low wall shear stress area, and ratio of low wall stress area) were statistically different between ruptured and unruptured aneurysms (p < 0.05). By simple regression analysis, the morphological factor aspect ratio and the hemodynamic factor TVR were significantly correlated (r2 = 0.602, p = 0.001). Ruptured aneurysms had complex and unstable flow. In ≥7 mm ruptured aneurysms, high aspect ratio, bottleneck ratio, complex flow, unstable flow, low TVR, wall shear stress at aneurysm, high oscillatory shear index, relative resistance time, low wall shear stress area, and ratio of low wall stress area were significant in determining the risk of aneurysm rupture.
Long-Chain Acyl-Carnitines Interfere with Mitochondrial ATP Production Leading to Cardiac Dysfunction in Zebrafish

In the human heart, the energy supplied by the production of ATP is predominately accomplished by ß-oxidation in mitochondria, using fatty acids (FAs) as the primary fuel. Long-chain acylcarnitines (LCACs) are intermediate forms of FA transport that are essential for FA delivery from the cytosol into mitochondria. Here, we analyzed the impact of the LCACs C18 and C18:1 on mitochondrial function and, subsequently, on heart functionality in the in vivo vertebrate model system of zebrafish (Danio rerio). Since LCACs are formed and metabolized in mitochondria, we assessed mitochondrial morphology, structure and density in C18- and C18:1-treated zebrafish and found no mitochondrial alterations compared to control-treated (short-chain acylcarnitine, C3) zebrafish embryos. However, mitochondrial function and subsequently ATP production was severely impaired in C18- and C18:1-treated zebrafish embryos. Furthermore, we found that C18 and C18:1 treatment of zebrafish embryos led to significantly impaired cardiac contractile function, accompanied by reduced heart rate and diminished atrial and ventricular fractional shortening, without interfering with cardiomyocyte differentiation, specification and growth. In summary, our findings provide insights into the direct role of long-chain acylcarnitines on vertebrate heart function by interfering with regular mitochondrial function and thereby energy allocation in cardiomyocytes.
Modelling the Human Placental Interface In Vitro—A Review

Acting as the primary link between mother and fetus, the placenta is involved in regulating nutrient, oxygen, and waste exchange; thus, healthy placental development is crucial for a successful pregnancy. In line with the increasing demands of the fetus, the placenta evolves throughout pregnancy, making it a particularly difficult organ to study. Research into placental development and dysfunction poses a unique scientific challenge due to ethical constraints and the differences in morphology and function that exist between species. Recently, there have been increased efforts towards generating in vitro models of the human placenta. Advancements in the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), microfluidics, and bioprinting have each contributed to the development of new models, which can be designed to closely match physiological in vivo conditions. By including relevant placental cell types and control over the microenvironment, these new in vitro models promise to reveal clues to the pathogenesis of placental dysfunction and facilitate drug testing across the maternal-fetal interface. In this minireview, we aim to highlight current in vitro placental models and their applications in the study of disease and discuss future avenues for these in vitro models.
Cross-lingual Evidence Improves Monolingual Fake News Detection

Misleading information spreads on the Internet at an incredible speed, which can lead to irreparable consequences in some cases. Therefore, it is becoming essential to develop fake news detection technologies. While substantial work has been done in this direction, one of the limitations of the current approaches is that these models are focused only on one language and do not use multilingual information. In this work, we propose a new technique based on cross-lingual evidence (CE) that can be used for fake news detection and improve existing approaches. The hypothesis of the usage of cross-lingual evidence as a feature for fake news detection is confirmed, firstly, by manual experiment based on a set of known true and fake news. Besides, we compared our fake news classification system based on the proposed feature with several strong baselines on two multi-domain datasets of general-topic news and one newly fake COVID-19 news dataset showing that combining cross-lingual evidence with strong baselines such as RoBERTa yields significant improvements in fake news detection.
VEGFR-Mediated Cytotoxic Activity of Pulicaria undulata Isolated Metabolites: A Biological Evaluation and In Silico Study

Natural products play a remarkable role not only in the synthesis, design, and discovery of new drugs but also as the most prominent source of drugs and bioactive substances. Adding to the search for new sources of safe innovative antitumor drugs, here we reported a phytochemical study on Pulicaria undulata which revealed promising antiangiogenic agents. Six compounds were isolated and identified as xanthoxyline (1), stigmasterol (2), oleanolic acid (3), salvigenin (4), rhamnetin (5) and dihydroquercetin-4′-methyl ether (6) using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic techniques. Compound 3 and 4 are first reported in Pulicaria genus. Both the extract and isolated compounds were evaluated for in vitro antiproliferative activity against breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). In vivo antiproliferative activity against Ehrlich’s ascites carcinoma (EAC) were also assessed. The P. undulata extract and isolates showed significant reduction in tumor weight, decreased both serum vascular endothelial growth factor B (VEGF-B) levels and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) expression significantly compared to the control EAC group, suggesting an antiangiogenic activity through the inhibition of VEGF signaling. Besides, they displayed reduction in CD34 expression, confirming their antiangiogenic effect. Moreover, the potential affinity of isolated compounds to human estrogen nuclear receptor-alpha (hER-α), the most recognized modulator of VEGFR-2 expression, was virtually estimated through molecular modeling studies. The most promising activity profiles were assigned to the investigated flavonoids, compounds 4–6, as well as the alkyl-phenylketone, compound 1. Additionally, these four top active compounds showed respective high to intermediate docking scores while possessing preferential binding with hER-α critical pocket residues. Based on the provided data, these isolated compounds illustrated promising inhibitors of VEGF-stimulated angiogenesis, which could be a possible mechanism for their anticancer activity.
Genetic Variants in PGE2 Receptors Modulate the Risk of Nephrosclerosis and Clinical Outcomes in These Patients

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a major actor mediating renal injury. We aimed to determine genetic variability in the genes coding for its receptors (PTGER1-4) and study associations with nephrosclerosis risk and clinical outcomes. We identified 96 tag-SNPs capturing global variability in PTGER1-4 and screened 1209 nephrosclerosis patients and controls. The effect of these variants was evaluated by multivariate regression analyses. Two PTGER3 SNPs, rs11209730 and rs10399704, remained significant in a backward elimination regression model with other non-genetic variables (OR = 1.45 (1.07–1.95), p = 0.016 and OR = 0.71 (0.51–0.99), p = 0.041, respectively). In the nephrosclerosis patients, a proximal region of PTGER3 was tagged as relevant for eGFR (p values for identified SNPs ranged from 0.0003 to 0.038). Two consecutive PTGER3 SNPs, rs2284362 and rs2284363, significantly decreased systolic (p = 0.005 and p = 0.0005), diastolic (p = 0.039 and p = 0.005), and pulse pressure values (p = 0.038 and 0.014). Patients were followed for a median of 47 months (7–54) to evaluate cardiovascular (CV) risk. Cox regression analysis showed that carriers of the PTGER1rs2241360 T variant had better CV event-free survival than wild-type individuals (p = 0.029). In addition, PTGER3rs7533733 GG carriers had lower event-free survival than AA/AG patients (p = 0.011). Our results indicate that genetic variability in PGE2 receptors, particularly EP3, may be clinically relevant for nephrosclerosis and its associated CV risk.
CCL20/TNF/VEGFA Cytokine Secretory Phenotype of Tumor-Associated Macrophages Is a Negative Prognostic Factor in Cutaneous Melanoma

Simple Summary Cutaneous melanoma is characterized by its heterogeneous metastatic behavior and robust biomarkers are still needed to identify those patients with increased risk for distant metastasis, to guide new adjuvant treatments. We aimed to assess the prognostic role of different features of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) using multicolor immunofluorescence microscopy and single-cell analysis. Rather than the number, size, or location of TAM, quantitative assessment of CCL20, TNF, and VEGFA cytokine content was associated with strong prognostic significance in primary melanoma. This novel TAM cytokine signature serves as a readout of TAM prometastatic activation and provides independent information to traditional TNM melanoma staging. In addition, we show that this particular cytokine profile is coregulated by p53 and NF-κB, suggesting that therapies targeting both pathways may modulate the prometastatic deviation of TAMs in melanoma. Abstract TAMs constitute a large fraction of infiltrating immune cells in melanoma tissues, but their significance for clinical outcomes remains unclear. We explored diverse TAM parameters in clinically relevant primary cutaneous melanoma samples, including density, location, size, and polarization marker expression; in addition, because cytokine production is a hallmark of macrophages function, we measured CCL20, TNF, and VEGFA intracellular cytokines by single-cell multiparametric confocal microscopy. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to analyze correlation with melanoma-specific disease-free survival and overall survival. No significant correlations with clinical parameters were observed for TAM density, morphology, or location. Significantly, higher contents of the intracellular cytokines CCL20, TNF, and VEGFA were quantified in TAMs infiltrating metastasizing compared to non-metastasizing skin primary melanomas (p < 0.001). To mechanistically explore cytokine up-regulation, we performed in vitro studies with melanoma-conditioned macrophages, using RNA-seq to explore involved pathways and specific inhibitors. We show that p53 and NF-κB coregulate CCL20, TNF, and VEGFA in melanoma-conditioned macrophages. These results delineate a clinically relevant pro-oncogenic cytokine profile of TAMs with prognostic significance in primary melanomas and point to the combined therapeutic targeting of NF-kB/p53 pathways to control the deviation of TAMs in melanoma.
Rapid Evolutionary Adaptation in Response to Selection on Quantitative Traits

Evolutionary adaptation after sudden environmental changes can occur very rapidly. The mechanisms facilitating rapid adaptation range from strong positive directional selection leading to large shifts in the allele frequencies at a few loci (selective sweeps) to polygenic selection causing small changes in allele frequencies at many loci. In addition, combinations of these two extreme mechanisms may also result in fast evolution. In recent years, following reports of new case studies of rapid adaptation, population genetic models have been proposed to explain these observations. In these models, the role of the major selective forces (positive directional and stabilizing selection) is highlighted as well as the genetic architecture of quantitative traits. Furthermore, the factors limiting the speed of adaptation are analyzed, in particular, the effects of random genetic drift and demography due to finite population size.
Comparative Study of the Mechanical Properties of All-Polymer and Fullerene–Polymer Solar Cells: The Importance of Polymer Acceptors for High Fracture Resistance

High fracture resistance of polymer solar cells (PSCs) is of great importance to ensure long-term mechanical reliability, especially considering their potential in roll-to-roll printing processes and flexible devices. In this paper, we compare mechanical properties, such as the cohesive fracture energy, elastic modulus, and crack-onset strain, of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) and fullerene-based solar cells (PCBM–PSCs) based on the same, representative low-bandgap polymer donor (PTB7-Th) as a function of acceptor content. The all-PSCs exhibit higher fracture energy (2.45 J m–2) than PCBM–PSCs (0.29 J m–2) at optimized device conditions. Additionally, a 15-fold higher crack-onset strain is observed in all-PSCs than in PCBM–PSCs. Dramatically different mechanical compliances observed for all-PSCs and PCBM–PSCs are investigated in detail by analysis of the blend morphologies as a function of acceptor content (either P(NDI2HD-T) or PCBM acceptors). The superior fracture resistance of all-PSCs is attribut.
A Novel Target Tracking System for the Amphibious Robot based on Improved Camshift Algorithm

In the past, there are some problems in target tracking, such as poor effect and easy loss. This paper propose a target recognition system based on improved Camshift algorithm, which is mainly used in marine rescue, marine garbage search, aquaculture surface target tracking and other fields. To the flexible application of amphibious robot in sea, land and other fields, RGB-D camera was equipped on the amphibious robot for target recognition and tracking. We have done the research of target recognition in the early stage. In this paper, CAMSHIFT and Kalman filter were used together. Kalman filter predicted the moving position of the target in the next frame and fed it back to the previous frame. Because the judgment of the edge node can greatly shorten the communication time with the terminal, so as to improve the efficiency of target tracking. Experiments show that the amphibious robot can accurately identify and track the target, and the delay is controlled within one second