Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noradrenergic signaling controls Alzheimer’s disease pathology via activation of microglial β2 adrenergic receptors

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology, plaque and tangle accumulation trigger an inflammatory response that mounts positive feed-back loops between inflammation and protein aggregation, aggravating neurite damage and neuronal death. One of the earliest brain regions to undergo neurodegeneration is the locus coeruleus (LC), the predominant site of norepinephrine (NE) production in the central nervous system (CNS). In animal models of AD, dampening the impact of noradrenergic signaling pathways, either through administration of beta blockers or pharmacological ablation of the LC, heightened neuroinflammation through increased levels of pro-inflammatory mediators. Since microglia are the resident immune cells of the CNS, it is reasonable to postulate that they are responsible for translating the loss of NE tone into exacerbated disease pathology. Recent findings from our lab demonstrated that noradrenergic signaling inhibits microglia dynamics via β2 adrenergic receptors (β2ARs), suggesting a potential anti-inflammatory role for microglial β2AR signaling. Thus, we hypothesize that microglial β2 adrenergic signaling is progressively impaired during AD progression, which leads to the chronic immune vigilant state of microglia that worsens disease pathology. First, we characterized changes in microglial β2AR signaling as a function of amyloid pathology. We found that LC neurons and their projections degenerate early and progressively in the 5xFAD mouse model of AD; accompanied by mild decrease in the levels of norepinephrine and its metabolite normetanephrine. Interestingly, while 5xFAD microglia, especially plaque-associated microglia, significant downregulated β2AR gene expression early in amyloid pathology, they did not lose their responsiveness to β2AR stimulation. Most importantly, we demonstrated that specific microglial β2AR deletion worsened disease pathology while chronic β2AR stimulation resulted in attenuation of amyloid pathology and associated neuritic damage, suggesting microglial β2AR might be used as potential therapeutic target to modify AD pathology.
Self-Adaptive Ant System with Hierarchical Clustering for the Thief Orienteering Problem

Thief Orienteering Problem (ThOP) is a multi-component problem with two interdependent sub-problems Knapsack Problem and Orienteering Problem. ACO++, a state-of-the-art metaheuristic for ThOP, combines the MAX-MIN Ant System (MMAS) algorithm for route construction, a randomized heuristic for packing plan creation, and the 2-opt method for local search. The excellent reported performance of ACO++, however, is obtained using different sets of parameter values that have been extensively fine-tuned for each specific group of problem instances. In this paper, we present a novel self-adaptive variant of ACO++. Without requiring a cumbersome tuning process, our approach employs adaptive mechanisms to adjust the parameters to each particular problem instance during the algorithm runtime. We also use a lazy evaporation technique and a hierarchical clustering procedure to improve the efficiency of ants exploring the search space. Among the 432 benchmark instances, our proposed Self-Adaptive Ant System with Hierarchical Clustering (SAAS-HC) produces superior results compared to previous state-of-the-art approaches. The source code is available at https://github.com/ELO-Lab/SAAS-HC.
Age-related changes in human skeletal muscle transcriptome and proteome are more affected by chronic inflammation and physical inactivity than primary aging

Evaluation of the influence of primary and secondary aging on the manifestation of molecular and cellular hallmarks of aging is a challenging and currently unresolved issue. Our study represents the first demonstration of the distinct role of primary aging and chronic inflammation/physical inactivity – the most important drivers of secondary aging, in the regulation of transcriptomic and proteomic profiles in human skeletal muscle. To achieve this purpose, young healthy people (n=15), young (n=8) and older (n=37) patients with knee/hip osteoarthritis, a model to study the effect of long-term inactivity and chronic inflammation on the vastus lateralis muscle, were included in the study. It was revealed that widespread and substantial age-related changes in gene expression in older patients relative to young healthy people (∼4,000 genes regulating mitochondrial function, proteostasis, cell membrane, secretory and immune response) were related to the long-term physical inactivity and chronic inflammation rather than primary aging. Primary aging contributed mainly to the regulation of genes (∼200) encoding nuclear proteins (regulators of DNA repair, RNA processing, and transcription), mitochondrial proteins (genes encoding respiratory enzymes, mitochondrial complex assembly factors, regulators of cristae formation and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production), as well as regulators of proteostasis. It was found that proteins associated with aging were regulated mainly at the post-transcriptional level. The set of putative primary aging genes and their potential transcriptional regulators can be used as a resource for further targeted studies investigating the role of individual genes and related transcription factors in the emergence of a senescent cell phenotype.
Biovolúmenes de zooplancton, distribución y abundancia de ictioplancton, eufáusidos y paralarvas de cefalópodos en primavera 2019

En la primavera 2019, en el mar peruano los biovolúmenes de zooplancton oscilaron entre 3x10-3 y 10,8 mL.m-3 con media de 0,54 mL.m-3 y mediana de 0,3 mL.m-3. Los mayores biovolúmenes (>1 mL.m-3) se encontraron en los dos extremos del litoral marítimo peruano, al norte frente a Punta Sal hasta Malabrigo, y al sur desde bahía Independencia hasta Atico. En el área central predominaron valores menores a 0,5 mL.m-3, con un pequeño foco (>0,5 mL.m-3) frente a Callao. La especie de ictioplancton más frecuente fue E. ringens “anchoveta” con 41,5 % y 47 % de estaciones con presencia de huevos y larvas, respectivamente, así como con medianas de densidad de 252 huevos.m-2 y 15 larvas.m-2. La distribución de huevos fue continua, los mayores núcleos (> 4000 huevos.m-2) estuvieron en la zona costera frente a Malabrigo, Salaverry, Casma, Chancay y Cerro Azul; mientras que, las larvas se registraron con distribución más homogénea, con mayor densidad (<500 larvas.m-2) en la zona norte-centro (Punta La Negra hasta Chimbote). Los eufáusidos más frecuentes fueron juveniles de Euphausia sp. (39 %), adultos (26,1 %) y juveniles (25,44 %) de E. mucronata y furcilias de Stylocheiron sp. (12,2 %). Sin embargo, los estadios larvales (caliptopis y furcilia) de especies no determinadas fueron más abundantes, con medianas de densidad de 45 ind.m-2 (caliptopis) y 240 ind. m-2 (furcilia). En cuanto a las paralarvas de cefalópodos, la especie más frecuente (19,5 %) fue Argonauta spp. con abundancias de hasta 69 ind.m-2.
Study on interlaminar fracture toughness of unidirectional composites

Carbon fiber composite is widely used in the nuclear industry and other fields due to their lightweight and high strength. There are various forms of failure in composite, including resin cracking, fiber fracture, and resin fiber interface debonding. At the initial stage of damage, they all exhibit the form of microcracks. As cracks propagate and fuse, they ultimately lead to macroscopic fracture of composite components. For safety reasons, it is necessary to study the fracture toughness of composite. This article uses a combination of winding method and double cantilever beam method to study the interlayer fracture toughness characteristics of high-strength (or high modulus) fiber epoxy resin composite under type I load. Choose a more suitable propagation GIC as a measurement metric. The results indicate that under the same resin matrix, the interlayer fracture toughness of high-strength fiber composite is much higher than that of high modulus fibers, which is related to the high surface chemical activity of high-strength fiber monofilament. Finally, combined with finite element analysis, its application in laminated structures was briefly analyzed.
Statistical assessment of a paired-site approach for verification of carbon and nitrogen sequestration on Wisconsin Conservation Reserve Program land

The threat of global climate change has provoked policy-makers to consider plausible strategies to slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases—especially carbon dioxide (CO2)—in the atmosphere. One such idea involves the sequestration of atmospheric carbon (C) in degraded agricultural soils as part of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). While the potential for significant C sequestration in CRP grassland ecosystems has been demonstrated, the paired-site sampling approach traditionally used to quantify soil C changes has not been evaluated with robust statistical analysis. In this study, 14 paired CRP (> 8 years old) and cropland sites in Dane County, Wisconsin, were used to assess whether a paired-site sampling design could detect statistically significant differences (ANOVA) in mean soil organic C and total nitrogen (N) storage. We compared 0 to 10 cm (0 to 3.9 in) bulk density and sampled soils (0 to 5 cm, 5 to 10 cm, and 10 to 25 cm (0 to 2 in, 2 to 3.9 in, and 3.9 to 9.8 in) ) for textural differences and chemical analysis of organic matter (OM), soil organic C (SOC), total N, and pH. The CRP contributed to reducing soil bulk density by 13% (p 20%), only a 23% to 29% change in existing total organic C and N pools could be reliably detected. While C and N sequestration (247 kg C ha -1 yr-1 and 17 kg N ha -1 yr -1 (220 lb C ac -1 and 15 lb N ac -1 ) ) may be occurring and confined to the surface 5 cm (2 in) as part of the Wisconsin CRP, our sampling design did not statistically support the desired 80% confidence level. We conclude that usage of statistical power analysis is essential to insure a high level of confidence in soil C and N sequestration rates that are quantified using paired plots.
Bridging the divide: The effect of individuating information on attitudes toward political outgroup members

Liberals and conservatives in the United States exhibit intergroup bias toward those on the other side. In three preregistered experiments (N = 1,389), we examined the bias-reducing benefits of individuating members of the political outgroup by providing people with individuating information—information that provides knowledge about them beyond their group membership, such as their social roles, emotions, and personality. Studies 1 and 2 extended work on individuating information into this domain by testing its impact on a novel political outgroup member. Study 3 broke new ground by testing whether the benefits of learning individuating information can extend to additional members of the outgroup. Each methodology revealed that, compared to those who read non-individuating controls, participants who learned individuating information about a political outgroup member were less hostile and more empathic toward that outgroup member. The current studies thus identify a promising avenue for reducing interparty hostility.
A benchmarked comparison of software packages for time-lapse image processing of monolayer bacterial population dynamics

Time-lapse microscopy offers a powerful approach for analysing cellular activity. In particular, this technique is valuable for assessing the behaviour of bacterial populations, which can exhibit growth and intercellular interactions in monolayer. Such time-lapse imaging typically generates large quantities of data, limiting the options for manual investigation. Several of image processing software packages have been developed to facilitate analysis. It can thus be a challenge to identify the software package best suited to a particular research goal. Here, we compare four software packages that support analysis of 2D time-lapse images of cellular populations: CellProfiler, SuperSegger-Omnipose, DeLTA, and FAST. We compare their performance against benchmarked results on time-lapse observations of E. coli populations. Performance varies across the packages, with each of the four out-performing the others in at least one aspect of the analysis. Not surprisingly, the packages that have been in development for longer showed the strongest performance. We found that deep-learning based approaches to object segmentation outperformed traditional approaches, but the opposite was true for frame-to-frame object tracking. We offer these comparisons, together with insight on usability, computational efficiency, and feature availability, as a guide to researchers seeking image processing solutions. Significance Statement Time-lapse microscopy provides a detailed window into the world of bacterial behavior. However, the vast amount of data produced by these techniques is difficult to analyze manually. We have analysed four software tools designed to process such data and compared their performance, using populations of commonly studied bacterial species as our test subjects. Our findings offer a roadmap to scientists, helping them choose the right tool for their research. This comparison bridges a gap between microbiology and computational analysis, streamlining research efforts.
Multi-objective optimization of reservoir flood dispatch based on multi-objective differential evolution algorithm

A multi-objective differential evolution algorithm based on the adaptive Cauchy mutation(MODE-ACM) is proposed for optimization calculation of reservoir flood control.The adaptive Cauchy mutation strategy of this algorithm can effectively prevent from premature convergence and improve the convergence precision.The operators of differential evolution are modified according to the characteristics of multi-objective optimization.By using the archiving technique,the convergence rate of the proposed method can be obviously accelerated.The algorithm is applied to optimize the dispatch of the reservoir in Three Gorges Project for typical floods occurred in history.The result indicates that a lot of non-dominated dispatch schemes for decision-maker can be generated in a short time,these schemes distributed widely and uniformly on every optimized objective.This proposed algorithm provides a new way to generate feasible multi-objective flood control operation.
Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-Based Pattern Recognition Approach Illustrates a Biphasic Behavioral Effect of Ethanol in Zebrafish: A High-Throughput Method for Animal Locomotor Analysis

Variations in stress responses between individuals are linked to factors ranging from stress coping styles to the sensitivity of neurotransmitter systems. Many anxiolytic compounds can increase stressor engagement through the modulation of neurotransmitter systems and are used to investigate stress response mechanisms. The effect of such modulation may vary in time depending on concentration or environment, but those effects are hard to dissect because of the slow transition. We investigated the temporal effect of ethanol and found that ethanol-treated individual zebrafish larvae showed altered behavior that is different between drug concentrations and decreases with time. We used an artificial neural network approach with a time-dependent method for analyzing long (90 min) experiments on zebrafish larvae and found that individuals from the 0.5% group begin to show locomotor activity corresponding to the control group starting from the 60th minute. The locomotor activity of individuals from the 2% group after the 80th minute is classified as the activity of individuals from the 1.5% group. Our method shows three clusters of different concentrations in comparison with two clusters, which were obtained with the usage of a statistical approach for analyzing just the speed of fish movements. In addition, we show that such changes are not explained by basic behavior statistics such as speed and are caused by shifts in locomotion patterns.
EngagedScholarship@CSU EngagedScholarship@CSU

To further elucidate the mechanism and dynamics of bacteriophage T4 holoenzyme formation, a mutant polymerase in which the last six carboxyl-terminal amino acids are deleted, was constructed, overexpressed, and purified to homogeneity. The mutant polymerase, designated (cid:68) C6 exo (cid:50) , is identical to wild-type exo (cid:50) polymerase with respect to k cat , k pol , and dissociation constants for nucleotide and DNA substrate. However, unlike wild-type exo (cid:50) polymerase, the (cid:68) C6 exo (cid:50) polymerase is unable to interact with the 45 protein to form the stable holoenzyme. A synthetic polypeptide corresponding to the carboxyl terminus of the wild-type exo (cid:50) polymerase was tested as an in vitro inhibitor of bacteriophage T4 DNA replication. Surprisingly, the peptide does not directly inhibit holoenzyme complex formation by disrupting the interaction of the polymerase with the 45 protein. On the contrary, the peptide appears to disrupt the interaction of the 44 (cid:121) 62 protein with the 45 protein, suggesting that the 44 (cid:121) 62 protein and the polymerase use the same site on the 45 protein for functional interactions. Data presented are discussed in terms of a model correlating the functionality of the carboxyl terminus of the polymerase for productive interactions with the 45 protein as well as in terms of the 45 protein concomitantly interacting with the 44 (cid:121) 62 protein and polymerase. The bacteriophage T4 holoenzyme is a complex of the T4 DNA polymerase and 45 protein, assembled onto duplex DNA in an ATP-dependent process by the 44 (cid:121) 62 protein (reviewed in refs. 1 and 2). Although intimately involved in the assembly process, the 44 (cid:121)
The transcription factor HNF-4 (cid:1) : a key factor of the intestinal uptake of fatty acids in mouse

J, J. The transcription factor HNF-4 (cid:1) : a key factor of the intestinal uptake of fatty acids in mouse. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol G1253–G1263, 2012. an excessive postprandial accumulation of intestine-derived, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins being a risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, it is essential to characterize the mechanisms controlling the intestinal absorption of dietary lipids. Our aim was to investigate the role of the transcription factor hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-4 (cid:1) in this process. We used transgenic mice with a speciﬁc and inducible intestinal knockout of Hnf-4 (cid:1) gene. One hour after a lipid bolus, in the presence of the lipase inhibitor tyloxapol, lower amounts of triglycerides were found in both plasma and intestinal epithelium of the intestine-speciﬁc Hnf-4 (cid:1) knockout (Hnf-4 (cid:1) int (cid:2) ) mice compared with the Hnf-4 (cid:1) loxP/loxP control mice. These discrepancies were due to a net decrease of the intestinal uptake of fatty acid in Hnf-4 (cid:1) int (cid:2) mice compared with Hnf-4 (cid:1) loxP/loxP mice, as assessed by the amount of radioactivity that was recovered in intestine and plasma after gavage with labeled triolein or oleic acid, or in intestinal epithelial cells isolated from jejunum after a supply of labeled oleic acid-containing micelles. This decreased fatty acid uptake was associated with signiﬁcant lower levels of the fatty acid transport protein-4 mRNA and protein along the intestinal tract and with a lower acyl-CoA synthetase activity in Hnf-4 (cid:1) int (cid:2) mice compared with the control mice. We conclude that the transcription factor HNF-4 (cid:1) is a key factor of the intestinal absorption of dietary lipids, which controls this process as early as in the initial step of fatty acid uptake by enterocytes.
Cloud Removal With SAR-Optical Data Fusion Using a Unified Spatial–Spectral Residual Network

Cloud contamination greatly limits the potential utilization of optical images for geoscience applications. An effective alternative is to extract data from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to remove clouds due to the strong penetration ability of microwaves. In this article, we propose a novel unified spatial–spectral residual network that utilizes SAR images as auxiliary data to remove clouds from optical images. The method can better establish the relationship between SAR and optical images and be divided into two modules: feature extraction and fusion module and reconstruction module. In the feature extraction and fusion module, a gated convolutional layer is introduced to discriminate cloud pixels from clean pixels, which makes up for the lack of distinguishing ability of vanilla convolutional layers and avoids the error of cloud areas in feature extraction. In the reconstruction module, spatial and channel attention mechanisms are introduced to obtain global spatial and spectral information. The network is tested on three datasets with different spatial resolutions and compositions of land covers to verify the effectiveness and applicability of the method. The results show that the method outperforms other mainstream algorithms that simultaneously use SAR images as auxiliary data with a gain of about 2.3 dB in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio PSNR on the SEN12MS-CR dataset.
Rayleigh wave azimuthally anisotropic phase velocity maps beneath western Canada

The lithospheric evolution of western Laurentia spans several billion years of Earth history and provides an exceptional opportunity for investigating continental deformation during Archean and Proterozoic assembly of the craton and subsequent Phanerozoic orogenic processes along its western margin. In this study we present fundamental‐mode Rayleigh wave azimuthal anisotropy in the period range 20–150 s for western Laurentia and the southern Canadian Cordillera. The surface wave phase velocity maps offer new constraints on the depth distribution of seismic anisotropy in this region. At short periods (20–25 s), strong anisotropy with an orogen‐parallel fast direction is evident in the Cordillera and neighboring foreland belt, suggesting pervasive ductile deformation in the lower crust during Laramide orogenesis. At periods of 70 s and higher, a zone of low‐to‐null azimuthal anisotropy is evident in the southern part of the Cordillera. This apparent null region is interpreted to reflect complex asthenospheric flow due to the combined effects of the Juan de Fuca slab window, lithospheric delamination, and small‐scale edge‐driven convection. Depth‐variant azimuthal anisotropy is evident beneath the cratonic part of the study region. The dominant direction of fast wave propagation in the southeastern part of the craton changes from N‐S at periods of <120 s to NE‐SW at 150 s period. This depth dependence is inferred to arise from different origins of the observed anisotropy, with “frozen” anisotropy within cratonic lithosphere underlain by flow‐driven anisotropy in the asthenosphere. The frozen N‐S trending fabrics in the middle to lower cratonic lithosphere most likely reflect processes of Paleoproterozoic assembly of western Laurentia.