Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of conventional metallic nanoparticles on male reproductive system – challenges and countermeasures

Abstract The application of nanotechnology in the present era has substantial impact on different industrial and medical fields. However, the advancement in nanotechnology for potential therapeutic and consumer benefits has been an anxious cause regarding the probable hazardous consequences of these molecules in biological systems and the environment. The toxic effects can perturb the physiologic system broadly and reproductive function and fertility specifically. Despite engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) having a wide range of applications, toxicological investigations of the probable ramifications of ENMs on the reproductive systems of mammals and fertility remains in its nascence. Complication in the male reproductive system is quite a pertinent issue in today’s world which comprises of benign prostatic enlargement, prostate cancer, and unhealthy sperm production. The therapeutic drugs should not only be active in minimum dose but also site-specific in action, criteria being met by nanomedicines. Nanomedicine therapy is promising but encompasses the chances of adverse effects of being cytotoxic and generating oxidative stress. These hurdles can be overcome by creating coated nanoparticles with organic substances, modification of shape and size, and synthesizing biocompatible green nanoparticles. This review attempts to look into the applications of most widely used metals like zinc, titanium, silver, and gold nanoparticles in the therapy of the male reproductive system, their prospective harmful effects, and the way out to create a safe therapeutic system by specific modifications of these metal and metal oxide nanoparticles. Graphical Abstract
Caesalpinia palmeri: First Report on the Phenolic Compounds Profile, Antioxidant and Cytotoxicity Effect

This study aimed to determine the phenolic compounds profile, antioxidant potential and cytotoxicity of extracts and fractions of Caesalpinia palmeri. Methanolic extracts were generated from C. palmeri berries, stems and flowers. The latter was subjected to liquid‐liquid partition, obtaining hexane, ethyl acetate and residues fractions. Results showed that the flower extract and ethyl acetate fraction had a larger concentration of phenolic compounds (148.9 and 307.9 mg GAE/g, respectively), being ellagic acid (6233.57 and 19550.08 μg/g, respectively), quercetin‐3‐β‐glycoside (3023.85 and 8952.55 μg/g, respectively) and gallic acid (2212.98 and 8422.34 μg/g, respectively) the most abundant compounds. Flower extract and ethyl acetate fraction also presented the highest antioxidant capacity on all tested methods (DPPH, ABTS, ORAC and FRAP) and low cytotoxicity against ARPE‐19 cells (IC50 >170 μg/mL). C. palmeri possessed high antioxidant potential, associated with the presence of phenolic compounds and low cytotoxicity, suggesting that they could represent an option to counter oxidative stress.
Syntomic regulators of Asai--Flach classes

This short note is intended as a companion to the paper 'Euler systems for Hilbert modular surfaces' (arXiv:1607.07813) by Antonio Lei and the first and third authors. The main result of the earlier paper is the construction of a collection of global cohomology classes -- the Asai--Flach classes -- associated to a Hilbert modular form over a quadratic field (building on earlier work of Kings). In this note, we give a criterion for the non-triviality of these Asai--Flach classes, by computing their images in syntomic cohomology.
Cocycles in categories of fibrant objects

We establish that a category of fibrant objects (in the sense of Brown) admits a Dwyer-Kan homotopical calculus of right fractions. This is done using a homotopical calculus of cocycles, which is an auxiliary structure that can be defined on every category of fibrant objects. As an application, we deduce some non-abelian versions of the Verdier hypercovering theorem.
Transmission of Dirac Electrons Through Graphene Multilayers with Gaussian Profile

In this work, we use the T-matrix method to study the tunneling of Dirac electrons through graphene multilayers. A graphene sheet is deposited on top of slabs of SiO2-SiC substrates, of which we applied a Gaussian distribution in the size width of the SiC substrate. We calculate the transmittance as a function of energy for different incident angles and different number of layers of the Gaussian distribution. We obtain different stop-band regions. These regions are wider when the width of the barrier is increased. Furthermore, it is possible to tune the width and the position of stop-band with the angle of incidence, the σ value of the Gaussian distribution, and the difference between the maximum-minimum sizes of the barrier.
Immobilization of Arg‐Gly‐Asp peptides on silk fibroin via Gly‐Ala‐Gly‐Ala‐Gly‐Ser sequences

A simple method by which the functional peptide of Gly‐Arg‐Gly‐Asp‐Ser (GRGDS) is immobilized on the surface of silk fibroin (SF) films via Gly‐Ala‐Gly‐Ala‐Gly‐Ser (GAGAGS) sequences is proposed. GAGAGS, a repeating amino acid sequence in the crystal region of Bombyx mori SF, performs a key role in interacting with and immobilizing SF molecules. Immobilization by this proposed method involves no chemical reaction, thereby preserving the original properties of the SF molecule. The density of GRGDS peptides existing on SF film was found to be higher in the GAGAGS‐bound type than in the non‐GAGAGS‐bound type. Furthermore, results showed that the amount of immobilized (GAGAGS)GRGDS peptide increased as the β‐sheet crystallization was promoted in the SF film. Fibroblasts, which adhered to the surface of the SF film, showed more extensibility because of the (GAGAGS)GRGDS immobilization, which suggests that the cell adhesion activity of RGD is functioning effectively.
Flowfield characteristics of an aerodynamic acoustic levitator

A droplet held in a single-axis ultrasonic levitator will principally sustain a certain external blowing along the levitation axis, which introduces the possibility of investigating heat and/or mass transfer from the droplet under conditions which are not too remote from those in spray systems. The focus of the present work is on the influence of the acoustic field on the external flow. More specifically, an axisymmetric submerged gas jet in an axial standing acoustic wave is examined, both in the absence and presence of a liquid droplet. Flow visualization is first presented to illustrate the global flow effects and the operating windows of jet velocities and acoustic powers which are suitable for further study. An analytic and numeric solution, based on the parabolic boundary layer equations are then given for the case of no levitated droplet, providing quantitative estimates of the acoustic field/flow interaction. Detailed velocity measurements using a laser Doppler anemometer verify the analytic resul.
The Relationship of Uremic Toxin Indoxyl Sulfate and Intestinal Elimination Mechanisms in Hemodialysis Patients

Introduction: High indoxyl sulfate (IS) concentration is a serious problem for patients with CKD increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and CKD progression. Thus, the methods of decreasing the toxin concentrations are highly desired. The study aimed to discover the role of selected intestine-related factors on IS concentration. Methods: We evaluated the impact of ABCG2 and ABCC2 polymorphisms influencing activity and protein intake by normalized protein catabolic rate. Additionally, we examined the relation of IS and uric acid (UA) that can share common elimination transporters. A monocentric, prospective, open cohort pilot study was performed on 108 patients undergoing dialysis treatment. Results: The positive effect of residual diuresis on the reduction of IS levels was confirmed (p = 0.005). Also, an increase in IS depending on the dietary protein intake was confirmed (p = 0.040). No significant correlation between ABC gene polymorphisms was observed either, suggesting the negligible role of ABCG2 and ABCC2 in the elimination of IS in small bowel. The significant difference was observed for UA where ABCG2 421C>A (rs72552713) gene polymorphism was higher (505.3 μmol/L) in comparison with a wild-type genotype (360.5 μmol/L). Conclusion: No evidence of bowel elimination pathway via ABCC2 and ABCG2 transporters was found in renal replacement therapy patients.
First-order weak balanced schemes for bilinear stochastic differential equations

We use the linear scalar SDE as a test problem to show that it is possible to construct almost sure stable first-order weak balanced schemes based on the addition of stabilizing functions to the drift terms. Then, we design balanced schemes for multidimensional bilinear SDEs achieving the first order of weak convergence, which do not involve multiple stochastic integrals. To this end, we follow two methodologies to find appropriate stabilizing weights; through an optimization procedure or based on a closed heuristic formula. Numerical experiments show a promising performance of the new numerical schemes.
Doubly labelled water‐calibrated energy intake associations with mortality risk among older adults

The body mass index (BMI) is closely related to mortality risk, and energy intake (EI) is essential for maintaining energy balance in weight control. However, self‐reported EI has been shown to lead to a systematic underestimation. Total energy expenditure measured using the doubly labelled water (DLW) method is considered an objective biomarker of EI and the gold standard for its estimation in individuals with stable body weight. We aimed to examine the association between DLW‐calibrated EI and BMI on overall mortality risk in older adults.
Existence of generic cubic homoclinic tangencies for Hénon maps

Abstract In this paper, we show that the Hénon map $\varphi _{a,b}$ has a generically unfolding cubic tangency for some $(a,b)$ arbitrarily close to $(-2,0)$ by applying results of Gonchenko, Shilnikov and Turaev [On models with non-rough Poincaré homoclinic curves. Physica D 62(1–4) (1993), 1–14; Dynamical phenomena in systems with structurally unstable Poincaré homoclinic orbits. Chaos 6(1) (1996), 15–31; On Newhouse domains of two-dimensional diffeomorphisms which are close to a diffeomorphism with a structurally unstable heteroclinic cycle. Proc. Steklov Inst. Math.216 (1997), 70–118; Homoclinic tangencies of an arbitrary order in Newhouse domains. Itogi Nauki Tekh. Ser. Sovrem. Mat. Prilozh. 67 (1999), 69–128, translation in J. Math. Sci. 105 (2001), 1738–1778; Homoclinic tangencies of arbitrarily high orders in conservative and dissipative two-dimensional maps. Nonlinearity 20 (2007), 241–275]. Combining this fact with theorems in Kiriki and Soma [Persistent antimonotonic bifurcations and strange attractors for cubic homoclinic tangencies. Nonlinearity 21(5) (2008), 1105–1140], one can observe the new phenomena in the Hénon family, appearance of persistent antimonotonic tangencies and cubic polynomial-like strange attractors.
Coloring Random Non-Uniform Bipartite Hypergraphs

Let $H_{n,(p_m)_{m=2,\ldots,M}}$ be a random non-uniform hypergraph of dimension $M$ on $2n$ vertices, where the vertices are split into two disjoint sets of size $n$, and colored by two distinct colors. Each non-monochromatic edge of size $m=2,\ldots,M$ is independently added with probability $p_m$. We show that if $p_2,\ldots,p_M$ are such that the expected number of edges in the hypergraph is at least $dn\ln n$, for some $d>0$ sufficiently large, then with probability $(1-o(1))$, one can find a proper 2-coloring of $H_{n,(p_m)_{m=2,\ldots,M}}$ in polynomial time. We present a polynomial time algorithm for hypergraph 2-coloring, and provide discussions on extension of the approach for $k$-coloring of non-uniform hypergraphs.
calmodulin- dependent protein kinase II and mixed lineage kinase domain- like protein mediate intracerebral hemorrhage- induced neuronal necroptosis

Guiqiang Yuan and Cheng Cao contributed equally to this work. Abbreviations: BBB, blood– brain barrier; CaMK II, Ca2+/calmodulindependent protein kinase II; COIP, Coimmunoprecipitation; ELISA, enzymelinked immunosorbent assay; FITC, fluorescein isothiocyanate; ICH, immunofluorescence; IF, intracerebral hemorrhage; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; MLKL, mixed lineage kinase domainlike protein; NeuN, neuronal nuclei; ns, nonsignificant; NSA, necrosulfonamide; PI, propidium iodide; RIP1, receptorinteracting protein 1; RIP3, receptorinteracting protein 3; ROS, Reactive oxygen species; SBI, secondary brain injury; TNFα, tumor necrosis factor; WB, western blotting. Department of Neurosurgery & Brain and Nerve Research Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
The Fault Diagnosis Method Based on Wavelet Packet Characteristic Entropy and Relevance Vector Machine

The sensor fault diagnosis method based on wavelet packet characteristic entropy and relevance vector machine are researched, which is used on engine test bed . In detail, the wavelet packet characteristic entropy is applied for feature extraction to get the feature matrix which denote all kinds of known working status of sensor, and the feature matrix are encoded; The feature matrix as inputs and feature codes as outputs are proposed for training the relevance vector machine classifier to get the optimum parameters. In the fault diagnosis unit, it uses the wavelet packet characteristic entropy to acquire the on-line feature matrix of sensor. The on-line feature matrix is supplied to the trained relevance vector machine classifier as inputs to validate the working status of sensor. An application of the method in engine test bed system is introduced. Finally, the applicability and effectiveness of the method is illustrated by experiments
Continuous Bimanual Trajectory Decoding of Coordinated Movement From EEG Signals

While many voluntary movements involve bimanual coordination, few attempts have been made to simultaneously decode the trajectory of bimanual movements from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. In this study, we proposed a novel bimanual brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigm to reconstruct the continuous trajectory of both hands during coordinated movements from EEG. The protocol required human subjects to complete a bimanual reaching task to the left, middle, or right target while EEG data were collected. A multi-task deep learning model combining the EEGNet and long short-term memory network (LSTM) was proposed to decode bimanual trajectories, including position and velocity. Decoding performance was evaluated in terms of the correlation coefficient (CC) and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) between decoded and real trajectories. Experimental results from 13 human subjects showed that the grand-averaged combined CC values achieved 0.54 and 0.42 for position and velocity decoding, respectively. The corresponding combined NRMSE values were 0.22 and 0.23. Both CC and NRMSE were significantly superior to the chance level (p<0.05). Comparative experiments also indicated that the proposed model significantly outperformed some other commonly-used methods in terms of CC and NRMSE for continuous trajectory decoding. These findings demonstrated the feasibility of simultaneously decoding bimanual trajectory from EEG, indicating the potential of bimanual control for coordinated tasks.
HIGHER KOSZUL DUALITY FOR ASSOCIATIVE ALGEBRAS

Abstract We present a unifying framework for the key concepts and results of higher Koszul duality theory for N-homogeneous algebras: the Koszul complex, the candidate for the space of syzygies and the higher operations on the Yoneda algebra. We give a universal description of the Koszul dual algebra under a new algebraic structure. For that we introduce a general notion: Gröbner bases for algebras over non-symmetric operads.
IT and the Quality and Efficiency of Mental Health Care in a Time of COVID-19: Case Study of Mental Health Providers in England

Background In England, COVID-19 has significantly affected mental health care and tested the resilience of health care providers. In many areas, the increased use of IT has enabled traditional modes of service delivery to be supported or even replaced by remote forms of provision. Objective This study aimed to assess the use and impact of IT, in remote service provision, on the quality and efficiency of mental health care during the pandemic. We drew on sociotechnical systems theory as a conceptual framework to help structure the gathering, analysis, and interpretation of data. Methods We conducted a national scoping survey that involved documentary analysis and semistructured interviews with 6 national stakeholders and case studies of 4 purposefully selected mental health providers in England involving interviews with 53 staff members. Results Following the outbreak of COVID-19, mental health providers rapidly adjusted their traditional forms of service delivery, switching to digital and telephone consultations for most services. The informants provided nuanced perspectives on the impact on the quality and efficiency of remote service delivery during the pandemic. Notably, it has allowed providers to attend to as many patients as possible in the face of COVID-19 restrictions, to the convenience of both patients and staff. Among its negative effects are concerns about the unsuitability of remote consultation for some people with mental health conditions and the potential to widen the digital divide and exacerbate existing inequalities. Sociotechnical systems theory was found to be a suitable framework for understanding the range of systemic and sociotechnical factors that influence the use of technology in mental health care delivery in times of crisis and normalcy. Conclusions Although the use of IT has boosted mental health care delivery during the pandemic, it has had mixed effects on quality and efficiency. In general, patients have benefited from the convenience of remote consultation when face-to-face contact was impossible. In contrast, patient choice was often compromised, and patient experience and outcomes might have been affected for some people with mental health conditions for which remote consultation is less suitable. However, the full impact of IT on the quality and efficiency of mental health care provision along with the systemic and sociotechnical determinants requires more sustained and longitudinal research.
Well‐posedness and exact controllability of the mass balance equations for an extrusion process

In this paper, we study the well‐posedness and exact controllability of a physical model for an extrusion process in the isothermal case. The model expresses the mass balance in the extruder chamber and consists of a hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE) and a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) whose dynamics describes the evolution of a moving interface. By suitable change of coordinates and fixed point arguments, we prove the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of the solution and finally, the exact controllability of the coupled system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nontorus link from topological vertex

The recently suggested tangle calculus for knot polynomials is intimately related to topological string considerations and can help to build the HOMFLY-PT invariants from the topological vertices. We discuss this interplay in the simplest example of the Hopf link and link $L_{8n8}$. It turns out that the resolved conifold with four different representations on the four external legs, on the topological string side, is described by a special projection of the four-component link $L_{8n8}$, which reduces to the Hopf link colored with two composite representations. Thus, this provides the first explicit example of non-torus link description through the topological vertex. It is not a real breakthrough, because $L_{8n8}$ is just a cable of the Hopf link, still, it can help to intensify the development of the formalism towards more interesting examples.
Activation of small conductance Ca2+‐activated K+ channels suppresses Ca2+ transient and action potential alternans in ventricular myocytes

At the cellular level, cardiac alternans is observed as beat‐to‐beat alternations in contraction strength, action potential (AP) morphology and Ca2+ transient (CaT) amplitude, and is a risk factor for cardiac arrhythmia. The (patho)physiological roles of small conductance Ca2+‐activated K+ (SK) channels in ventricles are poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that in single rabbit ventricular myocytes pharmacological modulation of SK channels plays a causative role for the development of pacing‐induced CaT and AP duration (APD) alternans. SK channel blockers (apamin, UCL1684) had only a minor effect on AP repolarization. However, SK channel activation by NS309 resulted in significant APD shortening, demonstrating that functional SK channels are well expressed in ventricular myocytes. The effects of NS309 were prevented or reversed by apamin and UCL1684, indicating that NS309 acted on SK channels. SK channel activation abolished or reduced the degree of pacing‐induced CaT and APD alternans. Inhibition of KV7.1 (with HMR1556) and KV11.1 (with E4031) channels was used to mimic conditions of long QT syndromes type‐1 and type‐2, respectively. Both HMR1556 and E4031 enhanced CaT alternans that was prevented by SK channel activation. In AP voltage‐clamped cells the SK channel activator had no effect on CaT alternans, confirming that suppression of CaT alternans was caused by APD shortening. APD shortening contributed to protection from alternans by lowering sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ content and curtailing Ca2+ release. The data suggest that SK activation could be a potential intervention to avert development of alternans with important ramifications for arrhythmia prevention and therapy for patients with long QT syndrome.
Penalized logistic regression with prior information for microarray gene expression classification

Abstract Cancer classification and gene selection are important applications in DNA microarray gene expression data analysis. Since DNA microarray data suffers from the high-dimensionality problem, automatic gene selection methods are used to enhance the classification performance of expert classifier systems. In this paper, a new penalized logistic regression method that performs simultaneous gene coefficient estimation and variable selection in DNA microarray data is discussed. The method employs prior information about the gene coefficients to improve the classification accuracy of the underlying model. The coordinate descent algorithm with screening rules is given to obtain the gene coefficient estimates of the proposed method efficiently. The performance of the method is examined on five high-dimensional cancer classification datasets using the area under the curve, the number of selected genes, misclassification rate and F-score measures. The real data analysis results indicate that the proposed method achieves a good cancer classification performance with a small misclassification rate, large area under the curve and F-score by trading off some sparsity level of the underlying model. Hence, the proposed method can be seen as a reliable penalized logistic regression method in the scope of high-dimensional cancer classification.
Percentage brain volume change in multiple sclerosis mainly reflects white matter and cortical volume

Brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis (MS), as measured by percentage brain volume change (PBVC) from brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has been established as an outcome parameter in clinical trials. It is unknown to what extent volume changes within different brain tissue compartments contribute to PBVC. We analyzed pairs of MRI scans (at least 6 months apart) in 600 patients with relapsing–remitting MS. Multiple regression revealed that PBVC mainly reflects volume loss of white and cortical gray matter, while deep gray matter and white matter lesions were less represented. Our findings aid the interpretation of PBVC changes in MS.