Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal Smoking History Enhances the Expression of Placental Growth Factor in Invasive Trophoblasts at Early Gestation Despite Cessation of Smoking

Maternal smoking during early pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk for preeclampsia even after smoking cessation during pregnancy. Although the pathophysiology of preeclampsia has not been established, placental growth factor (PlGF) is believed to be a key factor. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of maternal smoking on the PlGF expression in invasive trophoblasts at early gestation. We collected villous tissues from women requesting surgical termination due to non-medical reasons at 7-8 weeks of gestation. The maternal smoking status was evaluated by measuring the serum cotinine level and patients were divided into two groups: active smokers and non-smokers. After separating invasive trophoblasts from villous tissues cultured initially under 2% O2 for 24 hours, the separated invasive trophoblasts were cultured under 2% or 8% O2 for 48 hours. The expression levels of the PlGF gene in villous tissue specimens and in invasive trophoblasts cultured after the conditions were quantified using qRT-PCR. The levels of PlGF protein in the medium were quantified using an ELISA. The gene expression level of PlGF in the villi in the active-smokers was significantly higher than that of the non-smokers. In comparison of the invasive trophoblasts under normoxia and oxygenated conditions, the ratio of PlGF gene expression and protein expression under oxygenation (2% O2+8% O2 / 2% O2+2% O2) in the active-smokers were both significantly higher than in the non-smokers. Maternal smoking history appears to stimulate PlGF expression in invasive trophoblasts under oxygenated conditions. This may be one of several causes leading to the protective effect of maternal smoking on preeclampsia.
Characterisation of Syncytiotrophoblast Vesicles in Normal Pregnancy and Pre-Eclampsia: Expression of Flt-1 and Endoglin

Background The placental syncytiotrophoblast releases micro and nanovesicles (STBM), into the maternal circulation in normal pregnancy and in increased amounts in pre-eclampsia (PE), which have proinflammatory and antiangiogenic activity and are implicated in PE pathophysiology. Better characterisation of STBM is essential to understand their role in PE. Methods and Results STBM prepared by placental lobe dual perfusion (pSTBM) and mechanical disruption (mSTBM) were analysed by four colour flow cytometry (4CFC), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and Western blotting to determine vesicle size, purity and Flt-1 and endoglin (Eng) expression. Biological activity of STBM associated Flt-1 and endoglin was assessed by the ability of VEGF, PlGF and TGFβ to bind to mSTBM and inhibit mSTBM induced endothelial monolayer disruption. STBM content was consistently high (∼87–95%) across the different preparations. However, surface antigen intensities differed, with significantly lower placental alkaline phosphatase (P<0.05) and Eng (P<0.05) expression on mSTBM, and Flt-1 (P<0.05) expression on pSTBM. For PE placenta derived preparations, pSTBM contained lower Eng positive STBM (P<0.05) and mSTBM Eng expression was increased (P<0.05). Western blotting revealed increased Flt-1/sFlt-1 (P<0.02) and decreased placental alkaline phosphatase (P = 0.0002) content of PE placenta pSTBM. Using NTA, perfused PE placentas released significantly larger MV (P<0.001). Finally, VEGF, PlGF and TGFβ bound to mSTBM at physiologically relevant concentrations and inhibited mSTBM induced endothelial disruption (P<0.05-P<0.001). Conclusions This study has found differences in physical and antigenic characteristics of normal and PE placenta STBM preparations produced by placental perfusion or mechanical disruption. We have also demonstrated that large quantities of biologically active STBM associated endoglin and Flt-1/sFlt-1 could contribute to the increased circulating levels measured in PE patients and add to the perturbation of the maternal vascular endothelium, normally attributed to non-membrane bound sFlt-1 and sEndoglin.
Conceptual and Biofunctional Embodiment: A Long Story on the Transience of the Enduring Mind

We examine how embodiment in biological activity is different from conceptual embodiment as reflected in classic, modern, and postmodern perspectives on tacit knowledge. The central theme of the essay is how understanding is embodied conceptually and biofunctionally. We focus (a) on how biofunctional understanding (BU) is different from conceptual understanding (CU) and (b) on how the overall differences between these two types of embodied understanding are complementary. We show here from a conceptual perspective that embodiment theories have diverged on the meaning of embodiment; but convergence may be more likely across future perspectives if we first redefine the construct of tacit knowledge as tacit understanding and then define (explicit) CU as being directly grounded in tacit understanding, for the purpose of comparison with BU defined as being grounded in biological activity. We illustrate the complementary differences between conceptual and biofunctional embodiment of understanding first in the absence of language and then using a particular statement format and the implicit analogy of biofunctional embodiment in other bodily systems. We conclude with a suggestion about the directly uncovered but highly related embodiment of language in a section on future research.
Coordinated Two-Tier Heterogeneous Cellular Networks with Leakage Based Beamforming

In this paper we demonstrate the rate gains achieved by two-tier heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets) with varying degrees of coordination between macrocell and microcell base stations (BSs). We show that without the presence of coordination, network densification does not provide any gain in the sum rate and rapidly decreases the mean per-user signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR). Our results show that coordination reduces the rate of SINR decay with increasing numbers of microcell BSs in the system. Validity of the analytically approximated mean per-user SINR over a wide range of signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) is demonstrated via comparison with the simulated results.
Evolutionary Psychological Foundations of Civil Wars

I propose an evolutionary psychological perspective on wars and suggest that the ultimate cause of intergroup conflict may be the relative availability of reproductive women. Polygyny, which allows some men to monopolize all reproductive opportunities and exclude others, may increase the prevalence of civil wars, but not interstate wars, which did not exist in the ancestral environment. The analysis of the Correlates of War data support both hypotheses; polygyny increases civil wars but not interstate wars. Polygyny explains a greater proportion of the variance in civil war experience than democracy does in interstate war experience. If the democratic peace is the first law of international relations (interstate wars), then polygyny may be the first law of intergroup conflict (civil wars).
IWO with Increased Deviation and Stochastic Selection (IWO-ID-SS) for global optimization of noisy fitness functions

Invasive weed optimization (IWO) has been found to be a simple but powerful algorithm for function optimization over continuous spaces. It has reportedly outperformed many types of evolutionary algorithms and other search heuristics when tested over both benchmark and real-world problems. However the performance of most search heuristics deteriorates severely when applied to the task of optimization of noisy landscapes. This paper presents an improved IWO algorithm to effectively find the global optima of noisy functions. This is achieved by using an increased value of standard deviation, changing the manner of its reduction to linear and by employing a novel selection strategy which varies from the one use in the standard IWO. An extensive performance comparison of the newly proposed scheme, the original DE (DE/Rand/1/Exp), the canonical PSO, standard real-coded EA, and DE-RSF-TS has been presented using well-known benchmarks corrupted by zero-mean Gaussian noise. It has been found that the proposed method outperforms the others in a statistically significant way.
Transformation of redundant representations of linear genetic programming into canonical forms for efficient extraction of image features

Recently, evolutionary computation (EC) has been adopted to search for effective feature extraction programs for given image recognition problems. For this approach, feature extraction programs are constructed from a set of primitive operations (POs), which are usually general image processing and pattern recognition operations. In this paper, we focus on an approach based on a variation of linear genetic programming (LGP). We describe the causes of redundancies in LGP based representation, and propose a transformation that converts the redundant LGP representation into a canonical form, in which all redundancies are removed. Based on this transformation, we present a way to reduce computation time, i.e., the evolutionary search that avoids executions of redundant individuals. Experimental results demonstrate a success in computation time reduction; around 7-62% of total computation time can be reduced. Also, we have experimented with an evolutionary search that prohibits existence of redundant individuals. When selection pressure is high enough, its search performance is better than that of conventional evolutionary search.
Selective Small Molecule Induced Degradation of the BET Bromodomain Protein BRD4

The Bromo- and Extra-Terminal (BET) proteins BRD2, BRD3, and BRD4 play important roles in transcriptional regulation, epigenetics, and cancer and are the targets of pan-BET selective bromodomain inhibitor JQ1. However, the lack of intra-BET selectivity limits the scope of current inhibitors as probes for target validation and could lead to unwanted side effects or toxicity in a therapeutic setting. We designed Proteolysis Targeted Chimeras (PROTACs) that tether JQ1 to a ligand for the E3 ubiquitin ligase VHL, aimed at triggering the intracellular destruction of BET proteins. Compound MZ1 potently and rapidly induces reversible, long-lasting, and unexpectedly selective removal of BRD4 over BRD2 and BRD3. The activity of MZ1 is dependent on binding to VHL but is achieved at a sufficiently low concentration not to induce stabilization of HIF-1α. Gene expression profiles of selected cancer-related genes responsive to JQ1 reveal distinct and more limited transcriptional responses induced by MZ1, consistent with selective suppression of BRD4. Our discovery opens up new opportunities to elucidate the cellular phenotypes and therapeutic implications associated with selective targeting of BRD4.
Chronic fatigue syndrome and related disorders in UK veterans of the Gulf War 1990–1991: results from a two-phase cohort study

Background The aim was to determine the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia in UK military personnel after the Gulf War 1990–1991. Method A two-phase cohort study was used. Three randomly selected subsamples identified from a population-based cross-sectional postal survey of over 10 000 current and ex-service UK military personnel (Gulf veterans were those deployed to the Gulf War 1990–1991; non-Gulf veterans were Bosnia peacekeepers 1992–1997 and those on active duty during the Gulf War 1990–1991 but not deployed) were recruited. Their disability status was assessed using the Short Form 36 physical functioning scale; Gulf veterans who reported physical disability (n=111) were compared with non-Gulf (n=133) veterans who reported similar levels of physical disability. Screening for known medical and psychiatric conditions was conducted to exclude medical explanations for disability and symptomatic distress. Standardised criteria for CFS, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia were used. Results Disabled Gulf veterans were more likely to be overweight, have elevated γ-glutamyl transferase levels and screen positive for hypertension. There were no other clinically significant differences in clinical markers for medically explainable conditions. Disabled Gulf veterans were more likely than similarly disabled Bosnia and Era veterans (adjusted odds ratio 7.8, 95% confidence interval 2.5–24.5) to meet the criteria for CFS. Rates for other medically unexplained conditions were not significantly increased. Conclusions Symptoms in keeping with CFS account for a significant part of the symptomatic distress in Gulf veterans.
A Multienzyme Complex Channels Substrates and Electrons through Acetyl-CoA and Methane Biosynthesis Pathways in Methanosarcina

Multienzyme complexes catalyze important metabolic reactions in many organisms, but little is known about the complexes involved in biological methane production (methanogenesis). A crosslinking-mass spectrometry (XL-MS) strategy was employed to identify proteins associated with coenzyme M-coenzyme B heterodisulfide reductase (Hdr), an essential enzyme in all methane-producing archaea (methanogens). In Methanosarcina acetivorans, Hdr forms a multienzyme complex with acetyl-CoA decarbonylase synthase (ACDS), and F420-dependent methylene-H4MPT reductase (Mer). ACDS is essential for production of acetyl-CoA during growth on methanol, or for methanogenesis from acetate, whereas Mer is essential for methanogenesis from all substrates. Existence of a Hdr:ACDS:Mer complex is consistent with growth phenotypes of ACDS and Mer mutant strains in which the complex samples the redox status of electron carriers and directs carbon flux to acetyl-CoA or methanogenesis. We propose the Hdr:ACDS:Mer complex comprises a special class of multienzyme redox complex which functions as a “biological router” that physically links methanogenesis and acetyl-CoA biosynthesis pathways.
Self-securing storage: protecting data in compromised systems

Self-securing storage prevents intruders from undetectably tampering with or permanently deleting stored data. To accomplish this, self-securing storage devices internally audit all requests and keep old versions of data for a window of time, regardless of the commands received from potentially compromised host operating systems. Within the window, system administrators have this valuable information for intrusion diagnosis and recovery. Our implementation, called S4, combines log-structuring with journal-based metadata to minimize the performance costs of comprehensive versioning. Experiments show that self-securing storage devices can deliver performance that is comparable with conventional storage systems. In addition, analyses indicate that several weeks worth of all versions can reasonably be kept on state-of-the-art disks, especially when differencing and compression technologies are employed.
Effects of the Aqueous Extract of Anethum graveolens Leaves on Seizure Induced by Pentylenetetrazole in Mice.

BACKGROUND In this study, the aqueous extract of Anethum graveolens (dill) leaves was studied for its effects on treating convulsions and epilepsy, by using a pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) kindling model. The evaluated plant has a traditional medical reputation for profound anticonvulsant activities, additionally, dill has been claimed to exhibit anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. METHODS For the PTZ kindling induction, mice were given a dose of PTZ (37 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) every other day, and seizure stages were precisely recorded. During and after kindling, the effects of the non-toxic doses of the aqueous extracts (100, 250, and 400 mg/kg) on seizure latency in stage 2 (S2L), seizure latency in stage 4 (S4L), and seizure duration in stage 5 (S5D) were measured. RESULTS The aqueous extract of dill leaves had a noticeable anticonvulsant effect. The 400 mg/kg dose of the extract sample decreased with S5D (P < 0.05), and increased with S2L and S4L significantly (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION The obtained data shows that the aqueous extract possesses anticonvulsant activity against seizure induced by PTZ. The presence of anticonvulsant compounds in this medicinal herb suggests further activity and guided fractionation studies in order to introduce this plant as a valuable source of anticonvulsant agents.
Pulse of Nitric Oxide Release in Response to Activation of N-Methyl-d-aspartate Receptors in the Rat Striatum: Rapid Desensitization, Inhibition by Receptor Antagonists, and Potentiation by Glycine

Increased activity of glutamate N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors is the dominant mechanism by which nitric oxide (NO·) is generated. By using a selective direct-current amperometry method, we characterized real time NO· release in vivo in response to chemical stimulation of NMDA receptors in the rat striatum. The application of NMDA caused the appearance of a sharp and transient oxidation signal. Concentration-response studies (10–500 μM) indicated an EC50 of 48 μM. The NMDA-induced amperometric signal was suppressed by focal application of the nitric-oxide synthase inhibitor l-nitro-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME, 100 μM) or d-(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (AP-5, 100 μM) or by systemic injection of dizocilpine (1 mg/kg i.p.), drugs that, when given alone, had no effect on baseline oxidation current. Repeated injections of NMDA at short intervals (∼80 s) resulted in a progressive reduction of the amperometric signal with a decay half-life of 1.36 min. Sixty min after the last NMDA application the amperometric response was restored to initial levels. Finally, the coapplication of glycine (50 or 100 μM), which, when given alone had no effect, potentiated the NMDA-induced response. Thus, NMDA receptor-mediated activation of striatal NO· system shuts off quickly and undergoes rapid desensitization, suggesting a feedback inhibition of NMDA receptor function. To the extent of NO· release can represent a correlate of NMDA receptor activity, its amperometric detection could be useful to assess in vivo the state of excitatory transmission under physiological, pharmacological, or pathological conditions.
Oral Polio Vaccine Influences the Immune Response to BCG Vaccination. A Natural Experiment

Background Oral polio vaccine (OPV) is recommended to be given at birth together with BCG vaccine. While we were conducting two trials including low-birth-weight (LBW) and normal-birth-weight (NBW) infants in Guinea-Bissau, OPV was not available during some periods and therefore some infants did not receive OPV at birth, but only BCG. We investigated the effect of OPV given simultaneously with BCG at birth on the immune response to BCG vaccine. Methods and Findings We compared the in vitro and the in vivo response to PPD in the infants who received OPV and BCG with that of infants who received BCG only. At age 6 weeks, the in vitro cytokine response to purified protein derivate (PPD) of M. Tuberculosis was reduced in LBW and NBW infants who had received OPV with BCG. In a pooled analysis receiving OPV with BCG at birth was associated with significantly lower IL-13 (p = 0.041) and IFN-γ (p = 0.004) and a tendency for lower IL-10 (p = 0.054) in response to PPD. Furthermore, OPV was associated with reduced in vivo response to PPD at age 2 months, the prevalence ratio (PR) of having a PPD reaction being 0.75 (0.58–0.98), p = 0.033, and with a tendency for reduced likelihood of having a BCG scar (0.95 (0.91–1.00), p = 0.057)). Among children with a scar, OPV was associated with reduced scar size, the regression coefficient being −0.24 (−0.43—0.05), p = 0.012. Conclusions This study is the first to address the consequences for the immune response to BCG of simultaneous administration with OPV. Worryingly, the results indicate that the common practice in low-income countries of administering OPV together with BCG at birth may down-regulate the response to BCG vaccine.
Traumatismes et traces : données expérimentales Traumatisms and traces : Experimental data

Si l'influence de l'environnement et en particulier des traumatismes précoces, sur le développement de l'enfant et la survenue de psychopathologies est connue depuis les premières études épidémiologiques de la discipline, les 20 dernières années ont été marquées par des avancées importantes dans le champ des neurosciences, permettant de comprendre comment les traumatismes font trace au cours du développement de l'enfant. À partir d'exemples paradigmatiques, comme ceux des séparations précoces par abandon ou deuil, je propose d'étudier ces traces laissées : (1) au plan épigénétique dans l'étude de certains modèles animaux ; (2) dans quelques psychopathologies comme les troubles externalisés ; (3) mais aussi dans les systèmes biologiques fonctionnels ou anatomiques au cours du développement. À partir de données expérimentales issues de notre équipe, j'essaierai également de montrer comment ces traces peuvent rester inscrites à des niveaux non conscients, mais accessibles soit au travers d'une écoute spécifique soit au travers de l'expérience des interactions précoces mère–bébé quel que soit le sens de la dynamique d'interaction considérée (mère vers bébé ou bébé vers mère). Abstract Backgrounds. – Whether traumatic events and history enhance the risk of later psychopathology is no longer controversial since early description of posttraumatic stress disorder by psychoanalysts after World War I. However, whether the best model is the so-called vulnerability one (meaning genetically predetermined development) or the probabilistic epigenetic one (meaning that trauma can impact biological levels in a permanent manner as well) is still debated. Objective. – To critically review the literature to explore supporting data on how " trauma gets under the skin " leaving measurable consequences at a biological and/or psychological level. Methods. – I critically reviewed the literature and selected studies investigating impact of early trauma (e.g. severe deprivation, maltreatment and/or abuse) at biological and/or psychological levels. I will also summarize experimental data from recent work of the Salpétrière group focusing on the impact of traumatic experience on early interaction or psychoanalytic listening. Results. – There is now a consistent amount of data supporting the probabilistic epigenetic model of development. We found studies showing how traumatic experience can impact development from: (1) animal models of early separation; (2) human longitudinal studies controlling for confounding variables such as genetic ones; (3) human studies with different neurobiological correlates (e.g. neuro-imaging data; electro-encephalographic parameters; epigenetic markers). Furthermore, we were able to show in three different experiments that: (1) psychoanalysts are able to identify, without explicit knowledge and …
Surface Modification of 304 Steel Using Triple-Step Shot Peening

This paper reports the influences of triple-step shot peening (SP) on the microstructure and residual stress evolution for the 304 stainless steel. The microstructure and residual stress were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis methodology. After triple-step SP, the domain sizes decreased while the dislocation density and compressive residual stress increased as a result of the austenite and martensite in the peening deformed layer. With an increase in depth, the micro-strain for austenite decreased gradually while the micro-strain for martensite increased first, and then decreased.
CHIMP: A Tool for Assertion-Based Dynamic Verification of SystemC Models

CHIMP is a tool for assertion-based dynamic verification of SystemC models. The various features of CHIMP include automatic generation of monitors from temporal assertions, automatic instrumentation of the model-under-verification (MUV), and three-way communication among the MUV, the generated monitors, and the SystemC simulation kernel during the monitored execution of the instrumented MUV. Empirical results show that CHIMP puts minimal runtime overhead on the monitored execution of the MUV. A newly added path in CHIMP results in a significant (over 75%) reduction of average monitor generation and compilation time. The average size of the monitors is reduced by over 60%, without increasing runtime overhead.