Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sympatric elasmobranchs and fecal samples provide insight into the trophic ecology of the smalltooth sawfish

Growing concerns about the conservation of elasmobranchs have prompted a surge in research, because scientific studies that can support management actions are needed. Sawfishes are among the most threatened fishes worldwide and epitomize the challenge of conserving widely distributed, large-bodied marine fishes. We used a comparative approach to provide data on the trophic ecology of the smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata in the western Atlantic coastal waters of southwest Florida, USA. Specifically, we applied (1) stable isotope techniques to fin tissues of smalltooth sawfish and 2 sympatric elasmobranch species that have well-documented diets (i.e. bull shark Carcharhinus leucas and cownose ray Rhinoptera bonasus), and muscle tissue from a variety of known and potential prey species; and (2) an 18S rRNA gene sequencing technique to identify prey taxa in sawfish fecal samples. These analyses provided evidence that the smalltooth sawfish feeds primarily on teleost and elasmobranch fishes at all life stages even though sawfish move from estuarine to coastal habitats during their ontogeny. Although both sawfish and bull sharks occupy estuarine waters as juveniles and are piscivorous, the results also indicate that these species partition habitat. The cownose ray has been thought of as migratory throughout its range, but these data indicate that non-migratory, estuarine populations exist at lower latitudes. Collectively, these results will aid in the development of management decisions regarding these species and in improving long-term recovery planning for the smalltooth sawfish.
A two-phase response of endothelial cells to hydrostatic pressure

ABSTRACT The vascular endothelium is exposed to three types of mechanical forces: blood flow-mediated shear stress, vessel diameter-dependent wall tension and hydrostatic pressure. Despite considerable variations of blood pressure during normal and pathological physiology, little is known about the acute molecular and cellular effects of hydrostatic pressure on endothelial cells. Here, we used a combination of quantitative fluorescence microscopy, atomic force microscopy and molecular perturbations to characterize the specific response of endothelial cells to application of pressure. We identified a two-phase response of endothelial cells with an initial response to acute (1 h) application of pressure (100 mmHg) followed by a different response to chronic (24 h) application. While both regimes induce cortical stiffening, the acute response is linked to Ca2+-mediated myosin activation, whereas the chronic cell response is dominated by increased cortical actin density and a loss in endothelial barrier function. GsMTx-4 and amiloride inhibit the acute pressure response, which suggests that the ENaC Na+ channel is a key player in endothelial pressure sensing. The described two-phase pressure response may participate in the differential effects of transient changes in blood pressure and hypertension. Summary: Endothelial cells react to acute changes in hydrostatic pressure through Ca2+-mediated myosin activation and subsequent stiffening, without losing barrier integrity.
Detection of suicide-related posts in Twitter data streams

Suicidal ideation detection in online social networks is an emerging research area with major challenges. Recent research has shown that the publicly available information, spread across social media platforms, holds valuable indicators for effectively detecting individuals with suicidal intentions. The key challenge of suicide prevention is understanding and detecting the complex risk factors and warning signs that may precipitate the event. In this paper, we present a new approach that uses the social media platform Twitter to quantify suicide warning signs for individuals and to detect posts containing suicide-related content. The main originality of this approach is the automatic identification of sudden changes in a user's online behavior. To detect such changes, we combine natural language processing techniques to aggregate behavioral and textual features and pass these features through a martingale framework, which is widely used for change detection in data streams. Experiments show that our text-scoring approach effectively captures warning signs in text compared to traditional machine learning classifiers. Additionally, the application of the martingale framework highlights changes in online behavior and shows promise for detecting behavioral changes in at-risk individuals.
Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Technology and Cardiomyocyte Generation: Progress and Clinical Applications

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are reprogrammed cells that have hallmarks similar to embryonic stem cells including the capacity of self-renewal and differentiation into cardiac myocytes. The improvements in reprogramming and differentiating methods achieved in the past 10 years widened the use of hiPSCs, especially in cardiac research. hiPSC-derived cardiac myocytes (CMs) recapitulate phenotypic differences caused by genetic variations, making them attractive human disease models and useful tools for drug discovery and toxicology testing. In addition, hiPSCs can be used as sources of cells for cardiac regeneration in animal models. Here, we review the advances in the genetic and epigenetic control of cardiomyogenesis that underlies the significant improvement of the induced reprogramming of somatic cells to CMs; the methods used to improve scalability of throughput assays for functional screening and drug testing in vitro; the phenotypic characteristics of hiPSCs-derived CMs and their ability to rescue injured CMs through paracrine effects; we also cover the novel approaches in tissue engineering for hiPSC-derived cardiac tissue generation, and finally, their immunological features and the potential use in biomedical applications.
Leveraging Hardware Transactional Memory for Cache Side-Channel Defenses

A program's use of CPU caches may reveal its memory access pattern and thus leak sensitive information when the program performs secret-dependent memory accesses. In recent studies, it has been demonstrated that cache side-channel attacks that extract secrets by observing the victim program's cache uses can be conducted under a variety of scenarios, among which the most concerning are cross-VM attacks and those against SGX enclaves. In this paper, we propose a mechanism that leverages hardware transactional memory (HTM) to enable software programs to defend themselves against various cache side-channel attacks. We observe that when the HTM is implemented by retrofitting cache coherence protocols, as is the case of Intel's Transactional Synchronization Extensions, the cache interference that is necessary in cache side-channel attacks will inevitably terminate hardware transactions. We provide a systematic analysis of the security requirements that a software-only solution must meet to defeat cache attacks, propose a software design that leverages HTM to satisfy these requirements and devise several optimization techniques in our implementation to reduce performance impact caused by transaction aborts. The empirical evaluation suggests that the performance overhead caused by the HTM-based solution is low.
Introduced and native Phlebobranch and Stolidobranch solitary ascidians (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) around Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The Port of Salvador (12°58'S, 38°30'W) receives cargo ships from different regions such as southeast Asia, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Africa, North and South America. Thus, the presence of this port enhances the probability of new species arriving and establishing in Todos os Santos Bay (TSB), in which the port is located. Ascidians are sessile filter-feeding invertebrates with short lived larvae and thus are good indicators of bioinvasion. We surveyed the ascidian fauna on three different occasions: August 1999, June 2004 and December 2007. Nineteen species were identified belonging to the following families: Ascidiidae (Phallusia nigra, Ascidia cf. multitentaculata, A. nordestina, A. papillata, A. scalariforme, A. cf. tapuni, A. tenue), Corellidae (Rhodosoma turcicum), Pyuridae (Microcosmus anchylodeirus, M. exasperatus, M. helleri, Pyura vittata, Herdmania pallida), and Styelidae (Polycarpa cf. reviviscens, P. spongiabilis, P. tumida, Polycarpa sp., Styela canopus, Cnemidocarpa irene). Only A. nordestina, A. papillata, A. scalariforme and P. spongiabilis are possibly native to this region, while P. tumida and C. irene were classified as introduced. Microcosmus anchylodeirus, H. pallida, P. vittata, M. exasperatus, M. helleri, S. canopus, A. cf. multitentaculata, A. tenue and P. nigra were classified as cryptogenic. Most are widely distributed in all oceans and their native geographic distribution is unknown, while A. cf. multitentaculata and A. tenue occur only in the Atlantic, with disjunct distributions. Polycarpa cf. reviviscens, P. tumida and M. anchylodeirus are registered for the first time on the coast of Brazil. Colonial ascidians from this collection are still being studied. The large number of cryptogenic and introduced species indicates the necessity of monitoring TSB for expansion of these populations and the need for the establishment of control programs.
Photoprotective Properties of Isothiocyanate and Nitrile Glucosinolate Derivatives From Meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba) Against UVB Irradiation in Human Skin Equivalent

Exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation of the skin leads to numerous dermatological concerns including skin cancer and accelerated aging. Natural product glucosinolate derivatives, like sulforaphane, have been shown to exhibit chemopreventive and photoprotective properties. In this study, we examined meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba) glucosinolate derivatives, 3-methoxybenzyl isothiocyanate (MBITC) and 3-methoxyphenyl acetonitrile (MPACN), for their activity in protecting against the consequences of UV exposure. To that end, we have exposed human primary epidermal keratinocytes (HPEKs) and 3D human skin reconstructed in vitro (EpiDermTM FT-400) to UVB insult and investigated whether MBITC and MPACN treatment ameliorated the harmful effects of UVB damage. Activity was determined by the compounds’ efficacy in counteracting UVB-induced DNA damage, matrix-metalloproteinase (MMP) expression, and proliferation. We found that in monolayer cultures of HPEK, MBITC and MPACN did not protect against a UVB-induced loss in proliferation and MBITC itself inhibited cell proliferation. However, in human reconstructed skin-equivalents, MBITC and MPACN decrease epidermal cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and significantly reduce total phosphorylated γH2A. X levels. Both MBITC and MPACN inhibit UVB-induced MMP-1 and MMP-3 expression indicating their role to prevent photoaging. Both compounds, and MPACN in particular, showed activity against UVB-induced proliferation as indicated by fewer epidermal PCNA+ cells and prevented UVB-induced hyperplasia as determined by a reduction in reconstructed skin epidermal thickness (ET). These data demonstrate that MBITC and MPACN exhibit promising anti-photocarcinogenic and anti-photoaging properties in the skin microenvironment and could be used for therapeutic interventions.
Cascading collapse of a large-scale mixed source microgrid caused by fast-acting inverter-based distributed energy resources

Power electronics-based distributed energy resources (DERs) are being increasingly deployed for achieving high energy efficiency, power quality, and flexibility of power system operation and controls. They facilitate access to various kinds of energy sources including renewables, fuel cells, microturbines, variable speed engine-generator sets, etc. However, recent tests carried out at the Consortium of Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) Microgrid have indicated that their deployment in the mixed source microgrid can cause a cascading collapse during extreme events. Simulation models of two types of DERs are developed in PSCAD/EMTDC software and validated with the experimental test results. The validated models are used to study a cascading collapse problem in a large-scale mixed source microgrid on the benchmark IEEE 33-bus test system. This paper evaluates three alternative techniques to prevent the cascading collapse in the large-scale microgrid caused by fast-acting power electronics-based DERs.
Warp-speed adaptation to novel hosts after 300 generations of enforced dietary specialisation in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae)

Thank you to Paul Eady for providing C. maculatus to initiate our laboratory population and advice on rearing them. The study was funded by the University of Aberdeen core teaching funds (honours project budget to TP), and by a doctoral training grant to AL from the BBSRC-EastBio doctoral training partnership
Contractile force measurement of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac cell sheet-tissue

We have developed our original tissue engineering technology “cell sheet engineering” utilizing temperature-responsive culture dishes. The cells are confluently grown on a temperature-responsive culture dish and can be harvested as a cell sheet by lowering temperature without enzymatic digestion. Cell sheets are high-cell-density tissues similar to actual living tissues, maintaining their structure and function. Based on this “cell sheet engineering”, we are trying to create functional cardiac tissues from human induced pluripotent stem cells, for regenerative therapy and in vitro drug testing. Toward this purpose, it is necessary to evaluate the contractility of engineered cardiac cell sheets. Therefore, in the present study, we developed a contractile force measurement system and evaluated the contractility of human iPSC-derived cardiac cell sheet-tissues. By attaching the cardiac cell sheets on fibrin gel sheets, we created dynamically beating cardiac cell sheet-tissues. They were mounted to the force measurement system and the contractile force was measured stably and clearly. The absolute values of contractile force were around 1 mN, and the mean force value per cross-sectional area was 3.3 mN/mm2. These values are equivalent to or larger than many previously reported values, indicating the functionality of our engineered cardiac cell sheets. We also confirmed that both the contractile force and beating rate were significantly increased by the administration of adrenaline, which are the physiologically relevant responses for cardiac tissues. In conclusion, the force measurement system developed in the present study is valuable for the evaluation of engineered cardiac cell sheet-tissues, and for in vitro drug testing as well.
A Novel Regulator Modulates Glucan Production, Cell Aggregation and Biofilm Formation in Streptococcus sanguinis SK36

Streptococcus sanguinis is an early colonizer of tooth surfaces and a key player in plaque biofilm development. However, the mechanism of biofilm formation of S. sanguinis is still unclear. Here, we showed that deletion of a transcription factor, brpL, promotes cell aggregation and biofilm formation in S. sanguinis SK36. Glucan, a polysaccharide synthesized from sucrose, was over-produced and aggregated in the biofilm of ΔbrpL, which was necessary for better biofilm formation ability of ΔbrpL. Quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that gtfP was significantly up-regulated in ΔbrpL, which increased the productions of water-insoluble and water-soluble glucans. The ΔbrpLΔgtfP double mutant decreased biofilm formation ability of ΔbrpL to a level similar like that of ΔgtfP. Interestingly, the biofilm of ΔbrpL had an increased tolerance to ampicillin treatment, which might be due to better biofilm formation ability through the mechanisms of cellular and glucan aggregation. RNA sequencing and quantitative RT-PCR revealed the modulation of a group of genes in ΔbrpL was mediated by activating the expression of ciaR, another gtfP-related biofilm formation regulator. Double deletion of brpL and ciaR decreased biofilm formation ability to the phenotype of a ΔciaR mutant. Additionally, RNA sequencing elucidated a broad range of genes, related to carbohydrate metabolism and uptake, were activated in ΔbrpL. SSA_0222, a gene involved in the phosphotransferase system, was dramatically up-regulated in ΔbrpL and essential for S. sanguinis survival under our experimental conditions. In summary, brpL modulates glucan production, cell aggregation and biofilm formation by regulating the expression of ciaR in S. sanguinis SK36.
Overexpression of Golgi Phosphoprotein 2 Is Associated With Poor Prognosis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objectives The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between Golgi phosphoprotein 2 (GOLPH2) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and explore the clinical significance of GOLPH2 in OSCC. Methods Tissue microarrays from human OSCC samples were stained for GOLPH2 expression and clinicopathologic features. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare the survival of patients with high GOLPH2 expression and patients with low GOLPH2 expression. Results We found GOLPH2 is highly expressed in OSCC tissue, and the GOLPH2 expression in metastatic lymph nodes is higher than in tumor tissue. Our data indicate that patients with higher GOLPH2 expression have poor overall survival compared with those with lower GOLPH2 expression. This study demonstrated that GOLPH2 was associated with CD44, SOX2, Slug, B7-H3, B7-H4, TIM3, and VISTA. Conclusions These findings suggest GOLPH2 is a potential marker for estimating the patient's prognosis and may be a target for molecular-targeted therapy against OSCC.
FGFR1 and HER1 or HER2 co-amplification in breast cancer indicate poor prognosis

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 1 or 2 (HER1/2), and fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) signaling serve critical roles in the progression of breast cancer; however, cross-talk between HER1/2 and FGFR1 signaling has not been extensively studied. In the present study, the copy number variation status of FGFR1 and HER1/2, and the clinical implications and prognostic relevance of this, were evaluated in invasive ductal breast cancer (IDC) tissue samples. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridization were used to assess gene copy number variation in IDC samples, and the clinical characteristics and survival curves of patients with IDC were analyzed. The amplification of FGFR1 was identified in 16.0% of the samples (12 of 75), of HER1 in 26.7% (20 of 75), of HER2 in 37.3% (28 of 75), and of FGFR1 and HER1/2 simultaneously in 8.0% (6 of 75). FGFR1 and HER1/2 co-amplification were significantly correlated with distant metastasis (P=0.035), recurrence (P=0.026) and decreased disease-free survival time (P=0.042). This was the case for patients undergoing endocrine therapy (P=0.002) and chemotherapy (P=0.044). Taken together, the results indicate that patients with FGFR1 and HER1/2 co-amplification may exhibit a less favorable prognosis compared with patients with either FGFR1, HER1/2 amplification or without amplification.
Recent advances in functional nanostructures as cancer photothermal therapy

Being a non-invasive and relatively safe technique, photothermal therapy has attracted a lot of interest in the cancer treatment field. Recently, nanostructure technology has entered the forefront of cancer therapy owing to its ability to absorb near-infrared radiation as well as efficient light to heat conversion. In this study, key nanostructures for cancer therapy including gold nanoparticles, magnetite iron oxide nanoparticles, organic nanomaterials, and novel two-dimensional nanoagents such as MXenes are discussed. Furthermore, we briefly discuss the characteristics of the nanostructures of these photothermal nanomaterial agents, while focusing on how nanostructures hold potential as cancer therapies. Finally, this review offers promising insight into new cancer therapy approaches, particularly in vivo and in vitro cancer treatments.
Phase-detection measurements in free-surface turbulent shear flows

High-velocity self-aerated flows are described as 'white waters' because of the entrained air bubbles. The air entrainment induces a drastic change in the multiphase flow structure of the water column and this leads to significant bubble-turbulence interactions, turbulence modulation and associated mixing processes impacting on the bulk flow properties. In these high-velocity free-surface turbulent flows, the phase-detection needle probe is a most reliable instrumentation. The signal processing of a phase-detection probe is re-visited herein. It is shown that the processing may be performed on the raw probe signal as well as the thresholded data. The latter yields the time-averaged void fraction, the bubble count rate, the particle chord time distributions and the particle clustering properties within the particulate flow regions. The raw probe signal analysis gives further the auto-correlation time scale and the power spectrum density function. Finally dimensional considerations are developed with a focus on the physical modelling of free-surface flows in hydraulic structures. It is argued that the notion of scale effects must be defined in terms of some specific set of air–water flow properties within well-defined testing conditions, while a number of free-surface flow characteristics are more prone to scale effects than others, even in large-size physical facilities.
EFFECT OF CITRIC ACID ADDITION UPON THE PRECIPITATION PROCESS ON THE NANOSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ZnO NANOPARTICLES

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have been investigated in depth, due to their potential as a semiconductor material in dye sensitized solar cell applications. In this current research, ZnO nanostructure was synthesized using a simple precipitation technique with the addition of citric acid (C6H8O7) as the capping agent. Various ratios of ZnO and citric acid were prepared, i.e. 1:1, 2:1, 4:1 and calcination temperatures of 150 and 400°C were used to investigate the effect of those parameters on the ZnO nanostructure and its crystallinity. The nanostructure characteristics, i.e. nanocrystallite size, crystallinity, and optical properties were determined by using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultra-violet visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, respectively. The investigation results showed that ZnO nanostructure was formed as spherical shapes and rods in the range of 19.8–30.8 nm with the lowest band gap energy (Eg) of 3.15 eV obtained under conditions of a 4:1 ratio and calcined at 400°C. Considering nanostructural characteristics, the ZnO nanostructures in this study would be suitable for application as a semiconductor oxide layer in a dye sensitized solar cell.
Halofuginone Prevents the Progression of Osteoarthritis

7 Introduction and Review of Literatures. 9 I. Osteoarthritis a. Overview. 9 b. Pathogenesis. 10 c. Etiology and risk factors. 23 d. Current treatments. 24 e. Osteoarthritis in Temporomandibular joint. 26 f. Osteoarthritis animal models. 28 II. Halofuginone . 32 Hypothesis and Specific Aims . 37 Significance and Innovation. 38 Materials and Methods . 39 Results. 52 Discussion. 59 Conclusions. 64 References. 65
Estimating Individual Behaviour from Massive Social Data for an Urban Agent-Based Model

This paper presents the most recent developments in an on-going programme of work towards a realistic agent-based model of urban dynamics. The focus of the paper is on the development of a framework for calibrating an agent-based model of urban dynamics using novel data from the Twitter social media service. In particular, we discuss initial attempts to elucidate information about peoples' daily spatio-temporal behaviour and how such insight can be used for the benefit of agent-based models. The ultimate aim of the modelling work is to better understand the spatio- temporal movement patterns within the city.