Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of intrinsic muscle properties on simulated reaching performance

Abstract Musculoskeletal modelling is used widely for studying limb motion and its control, but simulation outcomes may depend heavily on the underlying muscle model used. The aim of this study was to investigate how intrinsic muscle properties affect reaching movements in a simple upper limb model. The simulations suggest that more realistic, higher-order activation dynamics requires longer prediction from a forward model and gives rise to a higher level of unplanned co-contraction than simple activation models. Consistent with prior work, muscle force-length-velocity properties stabilised and smoothed limb movements and furthermore helped promote accurate reaching performance with the high-order activation model.
Withaferin A mediated changes of miRNA expression in breast cancer‐derived mammospheres

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease consisting of atypical cell populations that share stem cell‐like characteristics associated with therapeutic resistance, disease relapse, and poor clinical outcome. MicroRNAs (miRNA), and small noncoding RNA, are pivotal in the regulation of self‐renewal, stemness, and cellular differentiation. Withaferin A (WA), a steroidal lactone, is a major bioactive constituent of Withania somnifera (Solanaceae) known for its anticancer properties. In this study, the effect of WA on modulation of miRNA expression in breast cancer‐derived mammosphere was assessed utilizing small RNA sequencing. Treatment with WA inhibited MCF‐7 and T47D cells derived mammosphere formation with a significant decrease in CD44, EpCAM, Nanog, OCT4, and SOX2 as markers of self‐renewal and stemness. Small RNA sequencing demonstrated a total of 395 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) including 194 upregulated and 201 downregulated miRNAs in WA‐treated MCF‐7 mammospheres. Bioinformatics analysis utilizing the KEGG pathway, Gene Ontology enrichment, protein−protein, and miRNA‐mRNA interaction network identified altered expression in a few hub genes viz. AKT1, PTEN, MYC, CCND1, VEGFA, NOTCH1, and IGFR1 associated with DEMs in WA‐treated mammospheres. Further quantitative RT‐PCR analysis validated the expression of DEMs including miR‐549a‐5p, miR‐1247‐5p, miR‐124‐5p, miR‐137‐5p, miR‐34a‐5p, miR‐146a‐5p, miR‐99a‐5p, miR‐181a‐5p, let‐7c‐5p, and let‐7a‐5p. In particular, let‐7c‐5p is designated as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer. An increase in miR‐let‐7c‐5p expression was noted after WA treatment, with a simultaneous decrease in CCND1 and c‐MYC at mRNA and protein levels. Taken together, our study demonstrated WA‐mediated miRNA expression, in particular, upregulation of miR‐let‐7c‐5p, leads to the inhibition of breast cancer cells derived mammospheres.
The effect of the approach based on the Neuman Systems Model on stress and coping in women receiving intrauterine insemination treatment: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract This randomized controlled study was conducted to determine the effect of the approach based on the Neuman Systems Model (NSM) on stress and coping in women receiving intrauterine insemination (IUI) treatment. The study participants consisted of 62 women. Data was collected using a personal information form, the COMPI Fertility Problem Stress Scale, and the COMPI Coping Strategy Scale. Women in the intervention group had lower stress levels in their personal and marital domain post-test median scores than those in the control group. Women in the intervention group also had lower active-avoidance coping method and higher meaning-based coping method post-test mean scores. The NSM-based approach is beneficial in decreasing stress and positively affects women to cope with stress. Both infertility and its treatments are stressful. Health care professionals have important responsibilities for reducing the stress of infertile women and strengthening infertile women’s ability to cope. The NSM-based approach is considered to have positive effects on stress and the ability of women to cope who receive IUI treatments. In addition, IUI is a widely applied method which is used before switching to assisted reproductive techniques. If this treatment fails, the stress coping techniques learned during this treatment can be used in later treatment processes. We conducted this study to investigate the effects of the NSM-based approach on stress and coping strategies in women receiving IUI treatment.
Band structure and Fermi surface of URu 2 Si 2 studied by high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

We have performed a high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on single-crystal ${\mathrm{URu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ to study the band structure and the Fermi surface in the paramagnetic phase. The valence-band structure consisting of the Ru $4d$ and Si $3p$ states shows a qualitatively good agreement between the ARPES experiment and the band-structure calculation. In the vicinity of the Fermi level ${(E}_{F}),$ we observed a less dispersive band, which crosses ${E}_{F}$ midway between the Z and X points in the Brillouin zone. Comparison with the band calculation as well as with the de Haas\char21{}van Alphen (dHvA) result suggests that the experimental band near ${E}_{F}$ is assigned to the largest hole pocket centered at the Z point, which has a strong U $5f\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{Ru}4d$ hybridized character. The observed remarkable narrowing of the near-${E}_{F}$ band compared with the band-structure calculation suggests a strong renormalization effect due to the electron correlation of U $5f$ electrons.
Patient experience and healthcare utilization for a COVID-19 telemedicine home monitoring program offered in English and Spanish

Background Telemedicine is a vital component of the healthcare system’s response to COVID-19. In March of 2020, Providence health system rapidly implemented a telemedicine home monitoring program (HMP) for COVID-19 patients that included use of at-home pulse oximeters and thermometers and text-based surveys to monitor symptoms. By June 2020, Providence updated the HMP to be offered in Spanish. This program was implemented before COVID-19 testing was readily available and therefore was offered to all patients suspected of having COVID-19. This study examines engagement, experience, and utilization patterns for English and Spanish-speaking patients engaged in the COVID-19 HMP. Methods A retrospective review of program data was used to understand HMP patient engagement (responsiveness to three daily text to monitor symptoms), satisfaction with the program (likelihood to recommend the program) as well as comfort using home monitoring devices and comfort recovering from home. To understand impact on care for COVID-19 confirmed cases, we used electronic health records to measure patterns in healthcare use for COVID-19 positive HMP participants and non-HMP propensity weighted controls. All patients enrolled in the COVID-19 HMP from March–October 2020 were included in the study. Patients tested for COVID-19 during the time window and not enrolled in HMP were included in the propensity-weighted comparison group. Descriptive and regression analyses were performed overall and stratified by English and Spanish speakers. Results Of the 4,358 HMP participants, 75.5% identified as English speakers and 18.2% identified as Spanish speakers. There was high level of responsiveness to three daily text-based surveys monitoring symptoms engagement (>80%) and a high level of comfort using the home monitoring devices (thermometers and pulse oximeters) for English- and Spanish-speaking participants (97.3% and 99.6%, respectively). The majority of English (95.7%) and Spanish-speaking (100%) patients felt safe monitoring their condition from home and had high satisfaction with the HMP (76.5% and 83.6%, respectively). English and Spanish-speaking COVID-19 positive HMP participants had more outpatient and emergency departments (ED) encounters than non-participants 7 and 30 days after their positive test. Conclusion This widely implemented HMP provided participants with a sense of safety and satisfaction and its use was associated with more outpatient care and ED encounters. These outcomes were comparable across English and Spanish-speakers, highlighting the importance and potential impact of language-concordant telemedicine.
Topological analysis as a tool for detection of abnormalities in protein–protein interaction data

Abstract Motivation Protein–protein interaction datasets, which can be modeled as networks, constitute an essential layer in multi-omics approach to biomedical knowledge. This representation gives insight into molecular pathways, help to uncover novel potential drug targets or predict a therapy outcome. Nevertheless, the data that constitute such systems are frequently incomplete, error-prone and biased by scientific trends. Implementation of methods for detection of such shortcomings could improve protein–protein interaction data analysis. Results We performed topological analysis of three protein–protein interaction networks (PPINs) from IntAct Molecular Database, regarding cancer, Parkinson’s disease (two most common subjects in PPINs analysis) and Human Reference Interactome. The data collections were shown to be often biased by scientific interests, which highly impact the networks structure. This may obscure correct systematic biological interpretation of the protein–protein interactions and limit their application potential. As a solution to this problem, we propose a set of topological methods for the bias detection, which performed in the first step provides more objective biological conclusions regarding protein–protein interactions and their multi-omics consequences. Availability and implementation A user-friendly tool Extensive Tool for Network Analysis (ETNA) is available on https://github.com/AlicjaNowakowska/ETNA. The software includes a graphical Colab notebook: https://githubtocolab.com/AlicjaNowakowska/ETNA/blob/main/ETNAColab.ipynb. Contact alicja.nowakowska@pwr.edu. pl or malgorzata.kotulska@pwr.edu. pl Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Disposable Paper-Based Biosensors: Optimizing the Electrochemical Properties of Laser-Induced Graphene

Laser-induced graphene (LIG) on paper substrates is a desirable material for single-use point-of-care sensing with its high-quality electrical properties, low fabrication cost, and ease of disposal. While a prior study has shown how the repeated lasing of substrates enables the synthesis of high-quality porous graphitic films, however, the process–property correlation of lasing process on the surface microstructure and electrochemical behavior, including charge-transfer kinetics, is missing. The current study presents a systematic in-depth study on LIG synthesis to elucidate the complex relationship between the surface microstructure and the resulting electroanalytical properties. The observed improvements were then applied to develop high-quality LIG-based electrochemical biosensors for uric acid detection. We show that the optimal paper LIG produced via a dual pass (defocused followed by focused lasing) produces high-quality graphene in terms of crystallinity, sp2 content, and electrochemical surface area. The highest quality LIG electrodes achieved a high rate constant k0 of 1.5 × 10–2 cm s–1 and a significant reduction in charge-transfer resistance (818 Ω compared with 1320 Ω for a commercial glassy carbon electrode). By employing square wave anodic stripping voltammetry and chronoamperometry on a disposable two-electrode paper LIG-based device, the improved charge-transfer kinetics led to enhanced performance for sensing of uric acid with a sensitivity of 24.35 ± 1.55 μA μM–1 and a limit of detection of 41 nM. This study shows how high-quality, sensitive LIG electrodes can be integrated into electrochemical paper analytical devices.
Contributions of Multimethod Personality Assessment in Indirect Evaluation

Abstract Indirect assessment is a useful tool in forensic evaluation, especially in cases of threat assessment. To this end, we illustrated the ability to conceptualize a complicated case (i.e., Theodore John Kaczynski) using an indirect approach, with a particular emphasis upon dimensional frameworks of personality. Raters who were unrelated to Mr. Kaczynski’s case and with expertise in relevant domains were asked to study information available in the public domain about Mr. Kaczynski and provide ratings using several assessment instruments. Our aim was not to provide a professional clinical opinion, but rather engage in scholarly discourse about the utility of instruments. Mr. Kaczynski was rated to demonstrate characteristics associated with lone actor terrorists. He showed an elevation on a measure of psychosis, and raters conceptualized trauma as an important aspect of his functioning. He demonstrated impairments in detachment and psychoticism (Criterion B of the AMPD) and interpersonal functioning (Criterion A of the AMPD). Clinical conceptualizations for Mr. Kaczynski emphasized schizotypal and paranoid personality disorders. This analysis of an infamous case about which considerable data are publicly available demonstrates the ease with which indirect and multimethod assessment can be applied and integrated in forensic assessment, using modern conceptualizations of personality pathology.
Speed robust design of switched reluctance motor for electric vehicle system

The strong nonlinear and uncertain parameters of the switched reluctance motor make the traditional controllers difficult to ensure a good performances and stable operation under diverse operating conditions. This work focuses on developing of a new robust design control for switched reluctance motor drives for electrical vehicle to attenuate the effect of disturbances and parameter uncertainties. For this, we have adopted the cascade control architecture (velocity–torque) using two different H ∞ syntheses (standard and fixed H ∞ approaches). The first controller of velocity in the outer control loop products the total torque of switched reluctance motor. Hence, a linear equivalent mechanical dynamic is obtained. In the inner control loop, the phase reference current is determined using the torque–angle–current ( T − θ − i ) characteristics stored in lookup table, and the torque is regulated indirectly through the second controller of current. For each control loop, two H ∞ synthesis approaches are used and compared by μ analysis. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed robust controllers and confirm the ability of the proposed strategies.
Fixed-Time Stability of Nonlinear Impulsive Systems and its Application to Inertial Neural Networks

This article is concerned with the fixed-time stability (FTS) problem of nonlinear impulsive systems (NISs). By means of the impulsive control mechanism and Lyapunov functions theory, several sufficient conditions are established to ensure the FTS of general NISs. Meanwhile, some novel impulse-dependent settling-time estimation schemes are developed, which fully considers the influence of stabilizing impulses and destabilizing impulses on the convergence rate of the system states. The proposed schemes establish a quantitative relationship between the upper bound of the settling time and impulse effects. It shows that stabilizing impulses can accelerate the convergence rate of the system states and leads to the upper bound of the settling time being smaller. Conversely, destabilizing impulses can reduce it and make the upper bound of the settling time larger. Then, the theoretical results are applied to delayed inertial neural networks (DINNs), where two kinds of controllers are designed to realize fixed-time synchronization of the considered systems in the impulse sense. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed theoretical results.
Chemical Composition and Androgenic Effect of Bee Drone Larvae (Apilarnil) for Goat Male Kids

Present study aimed to establish the stimulatory effects of bee drone larvae (BDL) on the androgenic effects and growth performance of goat male kids (GMK). The effects of BDL on growth and testosterone hormone levels were investigated in Saanen male kids. A total of 26 Saanen male kids (13 heads control, 13 heads treatment groups) were used for determining the effects of BDL 60 days after the weaning period. BDL was obtained from “good beekeeping practices” hives. Hormone levels, growth trials, testes characteristics, and body measurements were determined every 14 days on the days 75, 90, 105, 120, and 135 of the trial. The increasing level of testosterone hormone in the treatment group on 135 days strengthened the hypothesis that the BDL could have greater effects in the case of more application that is expensive and considering the time of maturity of Saanen GMK. The lipid composition of BDL was identified by GC/MS. Oleic acid (64.75 %) and palmitic acid (26.08 %) were the dominant lipid compounds of BDL. Additionally, the phenolic/organic acid profile investigated by HPLC‐DAD revealed that trans‐aconitic acid (11.20±0.32 μg/g) and fumaric acid (5.03±0.41 μg/g) were found as major compounds in BDL.
Operational challenges and considerations for COVID-19 research in humanitarian settings: A qualitative study of a project in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, much research has been conducted globally, but relatively few studies have been carried out in complex emergency settings that pose numerous operational challenges. We conducted a qualitative study to explore the barriers and enablers of a COVID-19 cohort study conducted in South Sudan and Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, to inform future research on COVID-19 and infectious diseases in humanitarian settings. We used a case study design embedded within the original prospective cohort study. Qualitative data was collected through four health facility assessments, 28 key informant interviews, and a focus group discussion. Data were analyzed using a manual thematic analysis approach and summarized against four primary themes: testing challenges and enablers, perceptions and attitudes towards COVID-19, national health system considerations, and study management considerations. Findings suggest most of the challenges affecting the cohort study were not specific to COVID-19 research but have been a feature of previous infectious disease research carried out in complex emergencies. However, the pandemic has exacerbated certain problems. The high proportion of travellers enrolled due to testing mandates, stigmatization of infected individuals linked to the heavy global focus on COVID-19, strained resources during waves of increasing infections, and remote management requirements all negatively impacted the cohort study. Factors that facilitated the research included proactive management, data quality oversight procedures, and strong collaboration with national health stakeholders. The global impact of COVID-19, its high public profile, and specific pandemic policies pose further operational challenges for research in already complex humanitarian settings. Future studies could plan mitigation measures that include flexibility in staffing and budgets, strategies to expand testing, and early partnerships with local organizations and health authorities.
MECP2-related pathways are dysregulated in a cortical organoid model of myotonic dystrophy

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a multisystem, autosomal-dominant inherited disorder caused by CTG microsatellite repeat expansions (MREs) in the 3′ untranslated region of the dystrophia myotonica-protein kinase (DMPK) gene. Despite its prominence as the most common adult-onset muscular dystrophy, patients with congenital to juvenile-onset forms of DM1 can present with debilitating neurocognitive symptoms along the autism spectrum, characteristic of possible in utero cortical defects. However, the molecular mechanism by which CTG MREs lead to these developmental central nervous system (CNS) manifestations is unknown. Here, we showed that CUG foci found early in the maturation of three-dimensional (3D) cortical organoids from DM1 patient–derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) cause hyperphosphorylation of CUGBP Elav-like family member 2 (CELF2) protein. Integrative single-cell RNA sequencing and enhanced cross-linking and immunoprecipitation (eCLIP) analysis revealed that reduced CELF2 protein–RNA substrate interactions results in misregulation of genes critical for excitatory synaptic signaling in glutamatergic neurons, including key components of the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) pathway. Comparisons to MECP2(y/−) cortical organoids revealed convergent molecular and cellular defects such as glutamate toxicity and neuronal loss. Our findings provide evidence suggesting that early-onset DM1 might involve neurodevelopmental disorder-associated pathways and identify N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) antagonists as potential treatment avenues for neuronal defects in DM1. Description Human cortical organoid model of early-onset DM1 exhibit aberrant neuronal excitability due to loss of CELF2-RNA interactions and MECP2 activation. Targeting cognition in muscular dystrophy Patients with early-onset forms of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) can present neurocognitive symptoms; the molecular mechanisms mediating the cognitive impairments in DM1 remain to be elucidated. Here, Morelli et al. used patient-derived cortical organoids prepared from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and showed that the presence of CTG microsatellite repeat expansions altered the transcription of genes of the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) pathway, critical for excitatory synaptic signaling in glutamatergic neurons. MECP2-depleted and DM1 organoids showed similar molecular and cellular defects that were rescued by antagonists of N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA), suggesting that targeting NMDA could reduce cognitive impairments in young patients with DM1.
Graphene oxide nanoflakes prevent reperfusion injury of Langendorff isolated rat heart providing antioxidative activity in situ

Abstract Carbon materials possess powerful antioxidant activity that might be promising for the development of new generation treatment of cardiovascular diseases, ischemic conditions, and reperfusion injury. The present study aimed to characterize the structure of nanosized graphene oxide (GrO) sample and evaluate the antioxidant efficacy of GrO in situ models of oxidative stress widely used in pre-clinical studies. The structure and surface chemistry of the initial samples were analyzed via LDS, RAMAN, LDI, TPD-MS, and FTIR methods. The GrO showed a strong ability to scavenge DPPH, hydroxyl, and superoxide anion free radicals and have a total antioxidant capacity. The DFT quantum-chemical calculation demonstrated the radical scavenging effect of GrO proceeding due to the physical adsorption of the free radical on the surface. For evaluation of the antioxidant effect of GrO in situ, we used the model of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) of Langendorff isolated rat heart. We revealed that intravenous pretreatment of Wistar male rats with GrO significantly increased resistance of myocardium to I/R, improved restoration of heart function, prevented non-effective oxygen utilization, and I/R-induced reactive oxygen species production in cardiac tissue. Thus, our data demonstrate the perspective of further use of GrO for the development of antiischemic therapy.