Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ESCRT disruption provides evidence against signaling functions for synaptic exosomes

Exosomes are membrane-bound vesicles released by many cells including neurons, carrying cargoes involved in signaling and disease. It has been unclear whether exosomes promote intercellular signaling in vivo or serve primarily to dispose of unwanted cargo. This is because manipulations of exosome cargo expression or traffic often result in their depletion from the donor cell, making it difficult to distinguish whether these cargoes act cell-autonomously or through transcellular transfer. Exosomes arise when multivesicular endosomes fuse with the plasma membrane, releasing their intralumenal vesicles outside the cell. We show that loss of multivesicular endosome-generating ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport) machinery disrupts release of exosome cargoes from Drosophila motor neurons, without depleting them from the donor presynaptic terminal. Cargoes and autophagic vacuoles accumulate in presynaptic terminals, suggesting that compensatory autophagy follows endosome dysfunction. Surprisingly, exosome cargoes Synaptotagmin-4 (Syt4) and Evenness Interrupted (Evi) retain many of their signaling activities upon ESCRT depletion, despite being trapped in presynaptic terminals. Thus, these cargoes may not require intercellular transfer, and instead are likely to function cell autonomously in the motor neuron. Our results indicate that synaptic exosome release depends on ESCRT, and serves primarily as a proteostatic mechanism for at least some cargoes.
Resistance exercise acutely elevates dynamic cerebral autoregulation gain

Dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) describes the regulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in response to fluctuations in systemic blood pressure (BP). Heavy resistance exercise is known to induce large transient elevations in BP, which are translated into perturbations of CBF, and may alter dCA in the immediate aftermath. This study aimed to better quantify the time course of any acute alterations in dCA after resistance exercise. Following familiarisation to all procedures, 22 (14 male) healthy young adults (22 ± 2 years) completed an experimental trial and resting control trial, in a counterbalanced order. Repeated squat‐stand manoeuvres (SSM) at 0.05 and 0.10 Hz were used to quantify dCA before, and 10 and 45 min after four sets of ten repetition back squats at 70% of one repetition maximum, or time matched seated rest (control). Diastolic, mean and systolic dCA were quantified by transfer function analysis of BP (finger plethysmography) and middle cerebral artery blood velocity (transcranial Doppler ultrasound). Mean gain (p = 0.02; d = 0.36) systolic gain (p = 0.01; d = 0.55), mean normalised gain (p = 0.02; d = 0.28) and systolic normalised gain (p = 0.01; d = 0.67) were significantly elevated above baseline during 0.10 Hz SSM 10‐min post resistance exercise. This alteration was not present 45 min post‐exercise, and dCA indices were never altered during SSM at 0.05 Hz. dCA metrics were acutely altered 10 min post resistance exercise at the 0.10 Hz frequency only, which indicate changes in the sympathetic regulation of CBF. These alterations recovered 45 min post‐exercise.
A robotic finger driven by twisted and coiled polymer actuator

Previous studies reported that a twisted and coiled polymer actuator (TCA) generates strong force and large stroke by heating. Nylon 6,6 is known to be the most suitable polymer material for TCA because it has high thermal expansion ratio, high softening point and high toughness which is able to sustain gigantic twisting. In order to find the optimal structure of TCA fabricated with silver-coated nylon sewing threads, an equipment for twist-insertion (structuralization), composed of single DC motor, a slider fabricated by 3D printer and a body frame, is developed. It can measure the behaviors of TCAs as well as fabricate TCAs with desired characteristics by structuralizing fibers with controlled rotation per minutes (RPM) and turns. Comparing performances of diverse structures of TCAs, the optimal structure for TCA is found. For the verification of the availability of the optimal TCA, a TCA-driven biomimetic finger is developed. Finally, we successfully demonstrate the flexion/extension of the finger by using the actuation of TCAs.
DEEP ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ CLASSES

Abstract A set of infinite binary sequences ${\cal C} \subseteq 2$ℕ is negligible if there is no partial probabilistic algorithm that produces an element of this set with positive probability. The study of negligibility is of particular interest in the context of ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ classes. In this paper, we introduce the notion of depth for ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ classes, which is a stronger form of negligibility. Whereas a negligible ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ class ${\cal C}$ has the property that one cannot probabilistically compute a member of ${\cal C}$ with positive probability, a deep ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ class ${\cal C}$ has the property that one cannot probabilistically compute an initial segment of a member of ${\cal C}$ with high probability. That is, the probability of computing a length n initial segment of a deep ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ class converges to 0 effectively in n. We prove a number of basic results about depth, negligibility, and a variant of negligibility that we call tt-negligibility. We provide a number of examples of deep ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0 $ classes that occur naturally in computability theory and algorithmic randomness. We also study deep classes in the context of mass problems, examine the relationship between deep classes and certain lowness notions in algorithmic randomness, and establish a relationship between members of deep classes and the amount of mutual information with Chaitin’s Ω.
Identification of a new pharyngeal mucosal lymphoid organ in zebrafish and other teleosts: tonsils in fish?

The constant exposure of the fish branchial cavity to aquatic pathogens must have driven local mucosal immune responses to be extremely important for their survival. In this study, we used a universal marker for T lymphocytes/natural killer cells (ZAP70) and advanced imaging techniques to investigate the lymphoid architecture of the zebrafish branchial cavity. We identified a new lymphoid organ, which we tentatively named “Nemausean Lymphoid Organ” (NEMO), situated below the pharynx, and closely associated with gill lymphoid tissues. Besides T/NK cells, NEMO is enriched in plasma/B cells and antigen-presenting cells embedded in a network of reticulated epithelial cells. Presence of activated T cells and lymphocyte proliferation but not V(D)J recombination or hematopoiesis, suggests a function as secondary lymphoid organ. In response to infection, NEMO displays structural changes including the formation of T/NK cells clusters. NEMO and gill lymphoid aggregates form a cohesive unit within a lymphoid network that extends throughout the pharyngo-respiratory area. Collectively, our findings reveal a new mucosal lymphoid organ reminiscent of mammalian tonsils that evolved in fish. Importantly, NEMO could clearly be identified in multiple teleost fish families. One sentence summary A previously unreported lymphoid organ has been identified within the pharyngo-respiratory tract of the zebrafish, and other teleost fish, providing new insights into the immune system of teleost fish and the evolution of vertebrate immunology.
Segmenting Narrative Synopses on Event Reporting Mode based on Heuristics on Constituency Parses

A narrative of relative complexity will often include events beyond simple facts that happen in the story world–such as plans, orders, wishes of the characters– or references to events that happen in a di � erent story world–stories or anecdotes being told by the characters. These correspond to di � erent modes of reporting events. Identifying spans of text corresponding to di � erent modes of reporting is a signi � cant challenge. The present paper proposes a mechanism for segmenting the text of synopses of narrative plots into spans that correspond to di � erent views of the storyworld in terms of temporal, spatial or modal coordinates. This is achieved by considering syntactic structure to identify cues for the start of embedded discourses and continuity over features such as tense, voice or mode to identify the points where the embedded discourse ends. This process can handle embedded discourses that span over several sentences and recursive nesting of discourses. The solution is tested against a corpus of synopses hand-annotated for start and end of embedded discourses. Acceptable precision and recall metrics are reported.
Edge Labelling in Narrative Knowledge Graphs

Edge labelling represents one of the most challenging processes for knowledge graph creation in unsupervised domains. Abstracting the relations between the entities, extracted in the form of triplets, and assigning a single label to a cluster of relations might be quite difficult without supervision and tedious if based on manual annotations. This seems to be particularly the case for applications in literary text understanding, which is the focus of this paper. We present a simple but efficient way to label the edges between the character entities in the knowledge graph extracted from a novel or a short story using a two-level clustering based on BERT-embedding with supersenses and hypernyms. The lack of benchmark datasets in the literary domain poses significant challenges for evaluations. In this work-in-progress paper, we discuss preliminary results to understand the potential for further research.
End-to-End Temporal Relation Extraction in the Clinical Domain

Temporal relation extraction is an important task in the clinical domain, as it allows a better understanding of the temporal context of clinical events. In this paper, we present an end-to-end temporal relation extraction system for the clinical domain, using the i2b2 2012 Temporal Relation challenge as a benchmark. In our proposal, we fine-tune REBEL—a sequence-to-sequence model for general relation extraction— with temporal annotations and discharge summaries. Our proposal is then able to simultaneously extract relevant clinical entities, time expressions and the temporal relations between them. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, achieving reasonable performance on the End-To-End track of the i2b2 2012 Challenge.
A method for capturing dynamic spectral coupling in resting fMRI reveals domain-specific patterns in schizophrenia

Introduction Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is a powerful tool for assessing functional brain connectivity. Recent studies have focused on shorter-term connectivity and dynamics in the resting state. However, most of the prior work evaluates changes in time-series correlations. In this study, we propose a framework that focuses on time-resolved spectral coupling (assessed via the correlation between power spectra of the windowed time courses) among different brain circuits determined via independent component analysis (ICA). Methods Motivated by earlier work suggesting significant spectral differences in people with schizophrenia, we developed an approach to evaluate time-resolved spectral coupling (trSC). To do this, we first calculated the correlation between the power spectra of windowed time-courses pairs of brain components. Then, we subgrouped each correlation map into four subgroups based on the connectivity strength utilizing quartiles and clustering techniques. Lastly, we examined clinical group differences by regression analysis for each averaged count and average cluster size matrices in each quartile. We evaluated the method by applying it to resting-state data collected from 151 (114 males, 37 females) people with schizophrenia (SZ) and 163 (117 males, 46 females) healthy controls (HC). Results Our proposed approach enables us to observe the change of connectivity strength within each quartile for different subgroups. People with schizophrenia showed highly modularized and significant differences in multiple network domains, whereas males and females showed less modular differences. Both cell count and average cluster size analysis for subgroups indicate a higher connectivity rate in the fourth quartile for the visual network in the control group. This indicates increased trSC in visual networks in the controls. In other words, this shows that the visual networks in people with schizophrenia have less mutually consistent spectra. It is also the case that the visual networks are less spectrally correlated on short timescales with networks of all other functional domains. Conclusions The results of this study reveal significant differences in the degree to which spectral power profiles are coupled over time. Importantly, there are significant but distinct differences both between males and females and between people with schizophrenia and controls. We observed a more significant coupling rate in the visual network for the healthy controls and males in the upper quartile. Fluctuations over time are complex, and focusing on only time-resolved coupling among time-courses is likely to miss important information. Also, people with schizophrenia are known to have impairments in visual processing but the underlying reasons for the impairment are still unknown. Therefore, the trSC approach can be a useful tool to explore the reasons for the impairments.
Comparing fiber quality characteristics and staple length in Suri and Huacaya alpacas

Introduction The textile industry considers alpaca fiber to be a specialty fiber. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of color, breed, location, age, and sex of alpacas on fiber quality characteristics and staple length. Methods Fiber samples were taken from the mid-side of 118 Huacaya and Suri alpacas at two livestock shows (Pitumarca and Maranganí) and at CICAS La Raya (South American Camelid Research Center), which is located in the province of Canchis (Cusco, Peru). Results and discussion The fiber characteristics and staple length in black alpacas are similar to those of brown alpacas. Huacaya fiber is finer, having a lower mean fiber diameter (MFD), SD, and coefficient of variation of MFD than Suri fiber. Alpacas from the two livestock shows have higher-quality fiber than unselected alpacas raised in CICAS La Raya. Staple length is longer in Suri alpacas than in Huacaya alpacas. Likewise, the staple length is longer in alpacas from Pitumarca, followed by alpacas from Maranganí, and is shorter in alpacas from CICAS La Raya. Young alpacas have a shorter staple length than adults, and it is longer in females than in males. The mean fiber diameter and spinning fineness are strongly correlated with other fiber characteristics in colored alpacas. Conclusion These black and brown alpacas raised in small herds and judged in two livestock shows produce high-quality fiber at 22 µm for the textile industry.
Recent trends in the nanozeolites-based oxygen concentrators and their application in respiratory disorders

Medical-grade oxygen is the basic need for all medical complications, especially in respiratory-based discomforts. There was a drastic increase in the demand for medical-grade oxygen during the current pandemic. The non-availability of medical-grade oxygen led to several complications, including death. The oxygen concentrator was only the last hope for the patient during COVID-19 pandemic around the globe. The demands also are everlasting during other microbial respiratory infections. The yield of oxygen using conventional molecular zeolites in the traditional oxygen concentrator process is less than the yield noticed when its nano-form is used. Nanotechnology has enlightened hope for the efficient production of oxygen by such oxygen concentrators. Here in the current review work, the authors have highlighted the basic structural features of oxygen concentrators along with the current working principle. Besides, it has been tried to bridge the gap between conventional oxygen concentrators and advanced ones by using nanotechnology. Nanoparticles being usually within 100 nm in size have a high surface area to volume ratio, which makes them suitable adsorbents for oxygen. Here authors have suggested the use of nano zeolite in place of molecular zeolites in the oxygen concentrator for efficient delivery of oxygen by the oxygen concentrators.
Integrated analysis of the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network based on competing endogenous RNA in atrial fibrillation

Objective Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play pivotal roles in the transcriptional regulation of atrial fibrillation (AF) by acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). In the present study, the expression levels of lncRNAs of sinus rhythm (SR) patients and AF patients were investigated with transcriptomics technology, and the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network based on the ceRNA theory in AF was elaborated. Methods Left atrial appendage (LAA) tissues were obtained from patients with valvular heart disease during cardiac surgery, and they were divided into SR and AF groups. The expression characterizations of differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs in the two groups were revealed by high-throughput sequencing methods. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed, and the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA-mediated ceRNA network was constructed. Results A total of differentially expressed 82 lncRNAs, 18 miRNAs, and 495 mRNAs in human atrial appendage tissues were targeted. Compared to SR patients, the following changes were found in AF patients: 32 upregulated and 50 downregulated lncRNAs; 7 upregulated and 11 downregulated miRNAs; and 408 upregulated and 87 downregulated mRNAs. A lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed, which included 44 lncRNAs, 18 miRNAs, and 347 mRNAs. qRT-PCR was performed to verify these findings. GO and KEGG analyses suggested that inflammatory response, chemokine signaling pathway, and other biological processes play important roles in the pathogenesis of AF. Network analysis based on the ceRNA theory identified that lncRNA XR_001750763. 2 and Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) compete for binding to miR-302b-3p. In AF patients, lncRNA XR_001750763. 2 and TLR2 were upregulated, and miR-302b-3p was downregulated. Conclusion We identified a lncRNA XR_001750763. 2/miR-302b-3p/TLR2 network based on the ceRNA theory in AF. The present study shed light on the physiological functions of lncRNAs and provided information for exploring potential treatments for AF.
Legalizing illegalities? Land titling and land tenure security in informal settlements

This study investigated how land rights formalization had affected land tenure security among landowners in two informal settlements of Lusaka and Chongwe districts, Zambia. It explored how social norms on land inheritance, decision making over land, marital trust and land related conflicts had been affected by the changed nature of land rights. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of all the 302 households that had obtained title deeds at the time of the survey, two 3-in-1 focus group discussions and four key informant interviews. Results suggest that land tenure security is now a reality for residents that hitherto lived under constant threat of eviction. Landowners have benefitted from the formalization initiative through land laws and local norms that allow equitable access to land. Land rights formalization has curtailed land rights for secondary claimants such as extended family members, in preference for man, spouse and biological children. A sense of ownership undisputedly increased for men and women in the two study sites. About 50% of the respondents in both study sites indicated that formalization of land rights had not resulted in family conflicts. At least one-third from both sites reported an increase in love and trust between spouses after land rights formalization. About half of the respondents reported that no change in decision-making authority had occurred for men while 42% reported an increase. Formalizing land rights in informal settlements has entailed legalizing illegalities as regulations on plot boundaries are set aside by the state to achieve its aspirations of providing land tenure security to poor urbanites who would not otherwise have recourse to legal or regularized land. We recommend that caution be taken in promoting what is unarguably a pro-poor initiative to ensure that such initiatives should not incentivize future land encroachments.
Development of lung segmentation method in x-ray images of children based on TransResUNet

Background Chest x-ray (CXR) is widely applied for the detection and diagnosis of children's lung diseases. Lung field segmentation in digital CXR images is a key section of many computer-aided diagnosis systems. Objective In this study, we propose a method based on deep learning to improve the lung segmentation quality and accuracy of children's multi-center CXR images. Methods The novelty of the proposed method is the combination of merits of TransUNet and ResUNet. The former can provide a self-attention module improving the feature learning ability of the model, while the latter can avoid the problem of network degradation. Results Applied on the test set containing multi-center data, our model achieved a Dice score of 0.9822. Conclusions This novel lung segmentation method proposed in this work based on TransResUNet is better than other existing medical image segmentation networks.
Subdirectly irreducible modular lattices of width at most 4

In 1970, R. Freese proved that the variety M4 generated by modular lattices of width at most 4 has a finite basis. As an application, he obtained a complete description of all subdirectly irreducible members of this variety. We obtain an intuitive description of how congruences generated by a prime interval spread in a modular lattice of width at most 4, and apply the result to reprove Freese’s description of subdirectly irreducible lattices of width at most 4.