Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suppression of Luminance Contrast Sensitivity by Weak Color Presentation

The results of psychophysical studies suggest that color in a visual scene affects luminance contrast perception. In our brain imaging studies we have found evidence of an effect of chromatic information on luminance information. The dependency of saturation on brain activity in the visual cortices was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while the subjects were observing visual stimuli consisting of colored patches of various hues manipulated in saturation (Chroma value in the Munsell color system) on an achromatic background. The results indicate that the patches suppressed luminance driven brain activity. Furthermore, the suppression was stronger rather than weaker for patches with lower saturation colors, although suppression was absent when gray patches were presented instead of colored patches. We also measured brain activity while the subjects observed only the patches (on a uniformly black background) and confirmed that the colored patches alone did not give rise to differences in brain activity for different Chroma values. The chromatic information affects the luminance information in V1, since the effect was observed in early visual cortices (V2 and V3) and the ventral pathway (hV4), as well as in the dorsal pathway (V3A/B). In addition, we conducted a psychophysical experiment in which the ability to discriminate luminance contrast on a grating was measured. Discrimination was worse when weak (less saturated) colored patches were attached to the grating than when strong (saturated) colored patches or achromatic patches were attached. The results of both the fMRI and psychophysical experiments were consistent in that the effects of color were greater in the conditions with low saturation colors.
The Study on the Mechanism of Hugan Tablets in Treating Drug-Induced Liver Injury Induced by Atorvastatin

Atorvastatin is a widely used lipid-lowering drug in the clinic. Research shows that taking long-term atorvastatin has the risk of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in most patients. Hugan tablets, a commonly used drug for liver disease, can effectively lower transaminase and protect the liver. However, the underlying mechanism of Hugan tablets alleviating atorvastatin-induced DILI remains unclear. To address this problem, comprehensive chemical profiling and network pharmacology methods were used in the study. First, the strategy of “compound−single herb−TCM prescription” was applied to characterize the ingredients of Hugan tablets. Then, active ingredients and potential targets of Hugan tablets in DILI treatment were screened using network pharmacology, molecular docking, and literature research. In the end, the mechanism of Hugan tablets in treating atorvastatin-induced DILI was elucidated. The results showed that Hugan tablets can effectively alleviate DILI induced by atorvastatin in model rats, and 71 compounds were characterized from Hugan tablets. Based on these compounds, 271 potential targets for the treatment of DILI were predicted, and 10 key targets were chosen by characterizing protein–protein interactions. Then, 30 potential active ingredients were screened through the molecular docking with these 10 key targets, and their biological activity was explained based on literature research. Finally, the major 19 active ingredients of Hugan tablets were discovered. In addition, further enrichment analysis of 271 targets indicated that the PI3K-Akt, TNF, HIF-1, Rap1, and FoxO signaling pathways may be the primary pathways regulated by Hugan tablets in treating DILI. This study proved that Hugan tablets could alleviate atorvastatin-induced DILI through multiple components, targets, and pathways.
Key Role for CRB2 in the Maintenance of Apicobasal Polarity in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells

Apicobasal polarity is essential for epithelial cell function, yet the roles of different proteins in its completion is not fully understood. Here, we have studied the role of the polarity protein, CRB2, in human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells during polarization in vitro, and in mature murine RPE cells in vivo. After establishing a simplified protocol for the culture of human fetal RPE cells, we studied the temporal sequence of the expression and localization of polarity and cell junction proteins during polarization in these epithelial cells. We found that CRB2 plays a key role in tight junction maintenance as well as in cell cycle arrest. In addition, our studies in vivo show that the knockdown of CRB2 in the RPE affects to the distribution of different apical polarity proteins and results in perturbed retinal homeostasis, manifested by the invasion of activated microglial cells into the subretinal space. Together our results demonstrate that CRB2 is a key protein for the development and maintenance of a polarized epithelium.
Substance Use, Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, and Liver Enzymes: Evidence From a Cross-Sectional Study of HIV-Infected Adult Patients Without Comorbidities on HAART in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital

This study applied a structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the role of substance use (alcohol, smoking, and trado-medicine use) to changes in the liver enzymes (AST, ALT, and ALP) levels in HIV-infected adult patients on a highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) for not <1 year. The study was a cross-sectional, part of a randomized comparative trial (Ref: UPH/CEREMAD/REC/19), involving 129 (46 males and 83 females) HIV-infected adult patients. Liver enzyme levels were determined from analyzed blood samples using the Clinical Chemistry Analyser (VS10) manufactured by Vitro Scient, while the study determined substance use using a reliable (Cronbach alpha = 0.805) rapid-exploratory survey questionnaire. Liver enzyme values were further categorized into: normal or abnormal using normal reference ranges (ALT = 7–55 U/L, AST = 8–48 U/L, and ALP = 40–129 U/L). STATGRAPHICS V16.1. 11 (StatPoint Tech., Inc.) and SPSS (IBM® Amos V21.0.0, USA) were used to analyze the data. Among the HIV-HAART patients, 27.9% were alcohol users, 20.9% smokers, and 20.1% trado-medicine users. In addition, ALP (71.3%) abnormality was higher than ALT (34.9%) and AST (28.7%). The result from the SEM provided only a partial support for our hypotheses of direct substance use effects on the liver enzyme levels and abnormalities; with a direct association of alcohol with an elevated AST (b = 0.170, p = 0.05) and smoking with a higher AST (b = 0.484, p < 0.01) and ALT (b = 0.423, p < 0.01) values. Trado-medicine use was not directly associated with enzyme elevation and abnormality. In conclusion, ALP abnormality was the most common, and there is a close association between an elevated ALT and AST, with or without an elevated ALP. The study found that HIV-HAART patients who drink or smoke will have at least one or more abnormal transaminases. The possible explanation to the increased risk among HIV-HAART patients could be associated with the metabolic pressures and supra-additive effects on the livers.
Bee Pollen Polysaccharide From Rosa rugosa Thunb. (Rosaceae) Promotes Pancreatic β-Cell Proliferation and Insulin Secretion

Insufficient pancreatic β-cell or insulin-producing β-cell are implicated in all types of diabetes mellitus. Our previous studies showed bee pollen polysaccharide RBPP-P improves insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic mice by inhibiting liver fat deposition. However, its potential of regulating β-cell function and integrity is not fully known. Herein, we observed that β-cell proliferation (n = 10), insulin synthesis (n = 5, p = 0.01684) and insulin incretion (n = 5, p = 0.02115) were intensely activated in MIN6 cells when treatment with RBPP-P. In alloxan-induced diabetic mice, oral administration of RBPP-P (n = 10) effectively decreased the blood glucose (p = 0.0326), drink intake (p < 0.001) and urine (p < 0.001). It directly stimulated phosphorylation of p38 (p = 0.00439), ERK (p = 0.02951) and AKT (p = 0.0072) to maintain the islet function and mass. Thus, our data suggest that RBPP-P is a natural compound to regulate β-cell proliferation and function, indicating it might have therapeutic potential against type 1 diabetes.
Unpacking the Emotional Dimension of Doctoral Supervision: Supervisors' Emotions and Emotion Regulation Strategies

Successful completion of a PhD is challenging for both the candidate and the supervisor. While doctoral students' emotional burdens received much attention, their supervisors' emotional experiences remain under-explored. Moreover, while teacher education research stressed the importance of teacher emotion regulation, empirical studies on doctoral supervisors' emotion regulation barely exist. The current qualitative study explored 17 computer science supervisors' emotions unfolding in doctoral supervision and their emotion regulation strategies. Semi-structured interviews revealed the supervisors' wide-ranging emotions, with their negative emotions more diverse and common than positive ones. The supervisors also regulated their emotions through multiple strategies within antecedent-focused and response-focused approaches. As one of the initial studies on doctoral supervisors' emotion and emotion regulation in their own right, the current study not only uncovers the complexity of the emotion-laden dimension of supervision, but also highlights the need for all stakeholders to attend to supervisors' psychological well-being in tandem with their students'.
Melatonin Improves Cotton Salt Tolerance by Regulating ROS Scavenging System and Ca2 + Signal Transduction

As one of the cash crops, cotton is facing the threat of abiotic stress during its growth and development. It has been reported that melatonin is involved in plant defense against salt stress, but whether melatonin can improve cotton salt tolerance and its molecular mechanism remain unclear. We investigated the role of melatonin in cotton salt tolerance by silencing melatonin synthesis gene and exogenous melatonin application in upland cotton. In this study, applicating of melatonin can improve salt tolerance of cotton seedlings. The content of endogenous melatonin was different in cotton varieties with different salt tolerance. The inhibition of melatonin biosynthesis related genes and endogenous melatonin content in cotton resulted in the decrease of antioxidant enzyme activity, Ca2+ content and salt tolerance of cotton. To explore the protective mechanism of exogenous melatonin against salt stress by RNA-seq analysis. Melatonin played an important role in the resistance of cotton to salt stress, improved the salt tolerance of cotton by regulating antioxidant enzymes, transcription factors, plant hormones, signal molecules and Ca2+ signal transduction. This study proposed a regulatory network for melatonin to regulate cotton’s response to salt stress, which provided a theoretical basis for improving cotton’s salt tolerance.
Classification of Power Quality Disturbance Based on S-Transform and Convolution Neural Network

The accurate classification of power quality disturbance (PQD) signals is of great significance for the establishment of a real-time monitoring system of modern power grids, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power system and ensuring the electricity safety of users. Traditional power quality disturbance signal classification methods are susceptible to noise interference, feature selection, etc. In order to further improve the accuracy of power quality disturbance signal classification methods, this paper proposes a power quality disturbance classification method based on S-transform and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Firstly, S-transform is used to extract disturbance signals to obtain the time-frequency matrix with characteristics of the disturbance signals. As an extension of wavelet transform and Fourier transform, S-transform can avoid the disadvantages of difficult window function selection and fixed window width. At the same time, the feature extracted by S-transform has better noise immunity. Secondly, CNN is used to perform secondary feature extraction on the obtained high-dimensional time-frequency modulus matrix to reduce data dimensions and obtain the main features of the disturbance signal, then the main features extracted are classified by using the SoftMax classifier. Finally, after a series of simulation experiments, the results show that the proposed algorithm can accurately classify single disturbance signals with different signal-to-noise ratios and composite disturbance signals composed of single disturbance signals, and it also has good noise immunity. Compared with other classification methods, the algorithm proposed in this paper has better timeliness and higher accuracy, and it is an efficient and feasible power quality disturbance signal classification method.
Identification of Gene Loci That Overlap Between Mental Disorders and Poor Prognosis of Cancers

Background: Co-morbid psychiatric disorders are common in patients with cancers, which make the treatment more difficult. Studying the connection between mental disease-related genes and the prognosis of cancers may potentially lead to novel therapeutic methods. Method: All mental disorders genes were selected from published articles. The correlations between the expression of these genes and the prognosis of different cancers were analyzed by starBase v2.0 and TIMER. The molecular functions, reactome pathways, and interactions among diverse genes were explored via the STRING tool. Results: 239 genes were identified for further survival analysis, 5 of which were overlapping genes across at least five cancer types, including RHEBL1, PDE4B, ANKRD55, EPHB2, and GIMAP7. 146 high-expression and 157 low-expression genes were found to be correlated with the unfavorable prognosis of diverse cancer types. Tight links existed among various mental disease genes. Besides, risk genes were mostly related to the dismal outcome of low-grade glioma (LGG) and kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) patients. Gene Ontology (GO) and reactome pathway analysis revealed that most genes involved in various critical molecular functions and primarily related to metabolism, signal transduction, and hemostasis. Conclusions: To explore co-expression genes between mental illnesses and cancers may aid in finding preventive strategies and therapeutic methods for high-risk populations and patients with one or more diseases.
Whole-Genome Methylation Study of Congenital Lung Malformations in Children

Background and Objectives The treatment of asymptomatic patients with congenital pulmonary malformations (CPMs) remains controversial, partially because the relationship between congenital lung malformations and malignancy is still undefined. Change in methylation pattern is a crucial event in human cancer, including lung cancer. We therefore studied all differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in a series of CPMs in an attempt to find methylation anomalies in genes already described in association with malignancy. Methods The DNA extracted from resected congenital lung malformations and control lung tissue was screened using Illumina MethylationEPIC arrays. Comparisons between the group of malformed samples or the malformed samples of same histology or each malformed sample and the controls and between a pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) and controls were performed. Moreover, each malformed sample was pairwise compared with its respective control. All differentially methylated regions (DMRs) with an adjusted p-value <0,05 were studied. Results Every comparison highlighted a number of DMRs closed to genes involved either in cell proliferation or in embryonic development or included in the Cancer Gene Census. Their abnormal methylation had been already described in lung tumors. Conclusions Methylation anomalies already described in lung tumors and also shared by the PPB were found in congenital lung malformations, regardless the histology. The presence of methylation abnormalities is suggestive of a correlation between congenital lung malformations and some step of malignant transformation.
Visualization and Analysis of Gene Expression in Stanford Type A Aortic Dissection Tissue Section by Spatial Transcriptomics

Background: Spatial transcriptomics enables gene expression events to be pinpointed to a specific location in biological tissues. We developed a molecular approach for low-cell and high-fiber Stanford type A aortic dissection and preliminarily explored and visualized the heterogeneity of ascending aortic types and mapping cell-type-specific gene expression to specific anatomical domains. Methods: We collected aortic samples from 15 patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection and a case of ascending aorta was randomly selected followed by 10x Genomics and spatial transcriptomics sequencing. In data processing of normalization, component analysis and dimensionality reduction analysis, different algorithms were compared to establish the pipeline suitable for human aortic tissue. Results: We identified 19,879 genes based on the count level of gene expression at different locations and they were divided into seven groups based on gene expression trends. Major cell that the population may contain are indicated, and we can find different main distribution of different cell types, among which the tearing sites were mainly macrophages and stem cells. The gene expression of these different locations and the cell types they may contain are correlated and discussed in terms of their involvement in immunity, regulation of oxygen homeostasis, regulation of cell structure and basic function. Conclusion: This approach provides a spatially resolved transcriptome− and tissue-wide perspective of the adult human aorta and will allow the application of human fibrous aortic tissues without any effect on genes in different layers with low RNA expression levels. Our findings will pave the way toward both a better understanding of Stanford type A aortic dissection pathogenesis and heterogeneity and the implementation of more effective personalized therapeutic approaches.
Effects of Supplementation With Antioxidant Agents on Sleep in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition, whose etiology remains poorly understood in most cases. Several genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors have been implicated in ASD pathogenesis and numerous studies have provided evidences for increased levels of oxidative stress and reduced antioxidant capacity in patients with ASD. Recent clinical trials explored supplementation with antioxidant agents as a potential therapeutic strategy for ASD, investigating the impact of this treatment on behavioral symptoms and on most common comorbidities of the disease, including sleep disturbances. Among all medical conditions associated to ASD, sleep problems are highly prevalent and are supposed to be positively related to the severity of the disease. Moreover, studies on animal models support the hypothesis of a relationship between oxidative stress and sleep deprivation. The aim of this review is to summarize the current state of the literature on the effect of antioxidant treatment on sleep disturbances in patients with ASD. Twenty-one articles were included in final synthesis. Of them, 15 studies involved Melatonin, 1 Tryptophan and 5 focused on supplementation with other antioxidant agents (namely Coenzyme Q10, L-Carnosine, Luteolin and Quercetin). Despite the high prevalence of comorbid sleep troubles in ASD, there is a paucity of data on the efficacy of antioxidant agents in those patients. Further research is needed to better define the role of antioxidants agents as adjunctive therapy in the management sleep disorders in children and adolescents affected with ASD.
Identification of Microbiological Activities in Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization Systems

Thermoelectric power generation from coal requires large amounts of water, much of which is used for wet flue gas desulfurization (wFGD) systems that minimize sulfur emissions, and consequently, acid rain. The microbial communities in wFGDs and throughout thermoelectric power plants can influence system performance, waste processing, and the long term stewardship of residual wastes. Any microorganisms that survive in wFGD slurries must tolerate high total dissolved solids concentrations (TDS) and temperatures (50–60°C), but the inocula for wFGDs are typically from fresh surface waters (e.g., lakes or rivers) of low TDS and temperatures, and whose activity might be limited under the physicochemically extreme conditions of the wFGD. To determine the extents of microbiological activities in wFGDs, we examined the microbial activities and communities associated with three wFGDs. O2 consumption rates of three wFGD slurries were optimal at 55°C, and living cells could be detected microscopically, indicating that living and active communities of organisms were present in the wFGD and could metabolize at the high temperature of the wFGD. A 16S rRNA gene-based survey revealed that the wFGD-associated microbial communities included taxa attributable to both thermophilic and mesophilic lineages. Metatranscriptomic analysis of one of the wFGDs indicated an abundance of active Burholderiaceae and several Gammaproteobacteria, and production of transcripts associated with carbohydrate metabolism, osmotic stress response, as well as phage, prophages, and transposable elements. These results illustrate that microbial activities can be sustained in physicochemically extreme wFGDs, and these activities may influence the performance and environmental impacts of thermoelectric power plants.
RNAi-Related Dicer and Argonaute Proteins Play Critical Roles for Meiocyte Formation, Chromosome-Axes Lengths and Crossover Patterning in the Fungus Sordaria macrospora

RNA interference (RNAi) is a cellular process involving small RNAs that target and regulate complementary RNA transcripts. This phenomenon has well-characterized roles in regulating gene and transposon expression. In addition, Dicer and Argonaute proteins, which are key players of RNAi, also have functions unrelated to gene repression. We show here that in the filamentous Ascomycete Sordaria macrospora, genes encoding the two Dicer (Dcl1 and Dcl2) and the two Argonaute (Sms2 and Qde2) proteins are dispensable for vegetative growth. However, we identified roles for all four proteins in the sexual cycle. Dcl1 and Sms2 are essential for timely and successful ascus/meiocyte formation. During meiosis per se, Dcl1, Dcl2, and Qde2 modulate, more or less severely, chromosome axis length and crossover numbers, patterning and interference. Additionally, Sms2 is necessary both for correct synaptonemal complex formation and loading of the pro-crossover E3 ligase-protein Hei10. Moreover, meiocyte formation, and thus meiotic induction, is completely blocked in the dcl1 dcl2 and dcl1 sms2 null double mutants. These results indicate complex roles of the RNAi machinery during major steps of the meiotic process with newly uncovered roles for chromosomes-axis length modulation and crossover patterning regulation.