Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sucrose modifies growth and physiology in axenically grown Myriophyllum spicatum with potential effects on the response to pollutants

Sucrose as a carbon source in axenic tests affects plant growth and physiology. The high sucrose concentration in Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) guideline 238 for the submerged growing aquatic plant Myriophyllum spicatum might modify pollutant effects, thus impairing environmental risk assessment. In a factorial design experiment with axenic M. spicatum exposed to 3 sucrose concentrations (no, low, and high) with or without cadmium, growth, dry matter content, content in pigments or phenolic compounds, and elemental stoichiometry of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) were measured. The results show that sucrose is crucial for growth but can be used at lower concentrations than currently considered. Sucrose‐treated plants had higher dry matter content and C content but lower contents of chlorophyll and N. Cadmium affected the content in chlorophyll, phenolic compounds, and elemental stoichiometry. Interactive effects were observed on length growth, C and N content, and the C:N and N:P molar ratios. Remarkably, cadmium led to increased shoot length at low, but not at high, sucrose concentration. This contrasting effect might result from differences in osmotic potential caused by sucrose. Overall, the results suggest a strong effect of sucrose concentration on the growth and physiology of M. spicatum and modifications of the response to cadmium. Further studies should establish the lowest sucrose level needed to account for realistic environmental risk assessment based on the axenic OECD 238. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:969–975. © 2016 SETAC.
Study on the mechanism of JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway-mediated inflammatory reaction after cerebral ischemia

The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism by which the Janus kinase (JAK)2/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3 signaling pathway mediates cerebral ischemia and the efficacy of pharmaceutical intervention. The rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) was established and confirmed via assessment of changes in the expression of phosphorylated (p)-JAK2, p-STAT3, high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), and inflammatory factors using ELISA and western blot analysis. The effects of JAK2/STAT3 inhibitor and curcumin on the expression of p-JAK2, p-STAT3, HMGB1, and inflammatory factors after cerebral ischemia were observed with ELISA, western blotting and immunohistochemical staining. The concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and HMGB1 in brain tissue homogenate of MCAO group were significantly higher than in the sham group (P<0.01). The concentration of p-JAK2/JAK2 and p-STAT3/STAT3 in the brain tissue homogenate of MCAO group was significantly higher than in the sham group (P<0.05). The concentrations of TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and HMGB1 in the group treated with STAT3 inhibitor (MCAO + rapamycin), JAK2 inhibitor (MCAO + AG490), and MCAO + curcumin were significantly lower than in the MCAO group (P<0.01), as well as the relative content of p-JAK2/JAK2 and p-STAT3/STAT3 (P<0.05). Inhibition of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway, such as curcumin can reduce the expression of HMGB1 in brain tissue after cerebral ischemia, which can significantly reduce the inflammatory response after cerebral ischemia.
Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles and Their Potential as Novel Immunomodulatory Therapeutic Agents

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), such as exosomes and microvesicles, have been identified as mediators of a newly-discovered intercellular communication system. They are essential signaling mediators in various physiological and pathophysiological processes. Depending on their origin, they fulfill different functions. EVs of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) have been found to promote comparable therapeutic activities as MSCs themselves. In a variety of in vivo models, it has been observed that they suppress pro-inflammatory processes and reduce oxidative stress and fibrosis. By switching pro-inflammatory into tolerogenic immune responses, MSC-EVs very likely promote tissue regeneration by creating a pro-regenerative environment allowing endogenous stem and progenitor cells to successfully repair affected tissues. Accordingly, MSC-EVs provide a novel, very promising therapeutic agent, which has already been successfully applied to humans. However, the MSC-EV production process has not been standardized, yet. Indeed, a collection of different protocols has been used for the MSC-EV production, characterization and application. By focusing on kidney, heart, liver and brain injuries, we have reviewed the major outcomes of published MSC-EV in vivo studies.
5-CT or DOI augments TRH analog-induced gastric acid secretion at the dorsal vagal complex.

Serotonin (5-HT) interacts with thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) at the dorsal vagal complex (DVC) to augment TRH-induced stimulation of gastric acid secretion. To investigate the 5-HT receptor family involved in the augmentation response, prototypical 5-HT receptor-selective agonists (146 pmol) were coinjected with the TRH analog RX-77368 (RX; 12 pmol) into the rat DVC in a 30-nl volume. The DVC coordinates were 0.2 mm anterior, 0.2 mm right, 0.6 mm ventral with respect to the calamus scriptorius. Coinjection of RX with the 5-HT agonists 5-carboxyamidotryptamine (5-CT) or (±)-1-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-aminopropane hydrochloride (DOI; 5-HT2 agonist) produced a 183 or 103% increase in gastric acid output compared with the RX injection alone. In contrast, coinjection of 2- methyl-5-HT (5-HT3 agonist) with RX produced no effect on RX-induced increase in gastric acid secretion. Moreover, coinjection of SC-53116 (5-HT4agonist) decreased the gastric acid output by 45% compared with the RX response itself. Examination of the RX/5-HT agonist coinjection response in more rostral regions of the DVC using the same doses (5-CT/RX or DOI/RX) revealed that only 5-CT was effective in producing the augmented response to TRH analog. The results suggest that activation of 5-CT- or DOI-sensitive receptors augments, and of 5-HT4 receptors inhibits, the gastric acid response to TRH analog injected into the DVC. Thus the integrated response to several serotonin receptor subtypes may mediate changes to the TRH response induced by 5-HT at the DVC.
Dietary Patterns and Their Relationship with Frailty in Functionally Independent Older Adults

The impact of dietary patterns rather than single foods or nutrients on health outcomes is increasingly recognized. This cross-sectional study examines the dietary patterns of 527 non-institutionalized functionally independent older people aged ≥70 years from Gipuzkoa (Spain). Sociodemographic characteristics, health status, anthropometric measures and dietary data are collected. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and cluster analysis are performed to identify dietary patterns and groups of individuals. Frequency of selected food items and compliance with food recommendations are included in the MCA. A high proportion of the sample population are overweight or obese, whereas only 3.3% are at risk of malnutrition (determined with the Mini Nutritional Assessment). Frail individuals (n = 130), measured with the Timed-Up and Go test are older, have a lower educational level, are more obese, present a poorer health status (more depressive symptoms, polypharmacy and falls, among others) and worse compliance with food recommendations than robust individuals (n = 392). Three groups of individuals are identified: cluster one (n = 285), cluster two (n = 194) and cluster three (n = 48). A gradient of increasing frailty and poorer health status is observed from cluster one to cluster three. The latter also shows the poorest dietary pattern, regarding dietary recommendations. The use of an easy-to-use tool to assess diet allows detection of differences among the three clusters. There is a need to increase awareness on the implementation of nutritional screening and a subsequent dietary assessment in primary care settings to provide nutritional care to elder, and moreover, frail individuals.
End-systolic stress-velocity and pressure-dimension relationships by transthoracic echocardiography in mice.

The purposes of this study were to assess load-independent, end-systolic relationships in mice and compare these relationships to ejection phase indexes in assessing contractility. In 13 mice, ejection phase indexes (shortening fraction and velocity of fiber shortening) and end-systolic relationships [pressure-dimension relationship (ESPDR) and stress-velocity relationship (ESSVR)] were determined using M-mode echocardiography and simultaneous left ventricular pressure. Load was altered with phenylephrine and nitroprusside. Contractility was increased with dobutamine and decreased by induction of hypothyroidism. Ejection phase indexes increased with dobutamine infusion but were not significantly decreased with hypothyroidism. However, end-systolic relationships changed significantly with both dobutamine ( y-intercepts: ESPDR from 22 to 48 mmHg, ESSVR from 3.7 to 6.6 circ/s, P < 0.05) and hypothyroidism ( y-intercepts: ESPDR from 22 to 11 mmHg, ESSVR from 3.7 to 3.2 circ/s, P< 0.05). We conclude that end-systolic indexes can be accurately measured in the intact mouse by echocardiography with simultaneous left ventricular pressure recording and appear to be more sensitive to inotropic state than ejection phase indexes.
Every Smile is Unique: Landmark-Guided Diverse Smile Generation

Each smile is unique: one person surely smiles in different ways (e.g. closing/opening the eyes or mouth). Given one input image of a neutral face, can we generate multiple smile videos with distinctive characteristics? To tackle this one-to-many video generation problem, we propose a novel deep learning architecture named Conditional Multi-Mode Network (CMM-Net). To better encode the dynamics of facial expressions, CMM-Net explicitly exploits facial landmarks for generating smile sequences. Specifically, a variational auto-encoder is used to learn a facial landmark embedding. This single embedding is then exploited by a conditional recurrent network which generates a landmark embedding sequence conditioned on a specific expression (e.g. spontaneous smile). Next, the generated landmark embeddings are fed into a multi-mode recurrent landmark generator, producing a set of landmark sequences still associated to the given smile class but clearly distinct from each other. Finally, these landmark sequences are translated into face videos. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our CMM-Net in generating realistic videos of multiple smile expressions.
Ultrasound and magnetic resonance molecular imaging of atherosclerotic neovasculature with perfluorocarbon magnetic nanocapsules targeted against vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 in rats

The aim of the present study was to investigate the feasibility of using ultrasonography (US) and magnetic resonance (MR) for bimodal molecular imaging of atherosclerotic neovasculature with liquid perfluorocarbon magnetic nanocapsules (NCs) targeted to vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). By incorporating perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) and superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) into polylactic acid, a SPIO-embedded PFOB NC was constructed; subsequently, a VEGFR-2-targeted NC (VTNC) containing dual detectable probes was created by covalently linking a VEGFR-2 antibody onto the surface of the SPIO-embedded PFOB NC. Target specificity was verified in vitro by incubating VTNC with VEGFR-2+ or VEGFR-2− endothelial cells. Rats with vulnerable plaques were assigned to receive either an injection of VTNC (Targeted group; n=8) or an injection of NC (Nontargeted group; n=8); control rats also received an injection of VTNC (Control group; n=8). US and MR imaging of the abdominal aorta were performed to detect VTNC by measuring of the ultrasonic grayscale intensity (GSI) and MR contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) prior to and at successive time points following VTNC and NC injections. The percent positive area (PPA) of CD31+ (PPACD31+) or VEGFR-2+ (PPAVEGFR-2+) expression was quantified by immunohistochemical staining. CD31 was used to verify the existence of endothelial cells as it is widely expressed on the surface of endothelial cells whether activated or not. The results demonstrated that VTNC was able to highly and selectively detect VEGFR-2+ endothelial cells, and GSI, CNR, PPACD31+ and PPAVEGFR-2+ were significantly increased in the targeted group compared with the nontargeted and control groups. In the control group, no atherosclerotic plaques or angiogenesis was identified, thus no expression of PPACD31+ and PPAVEGFR-2 (data not shown). There were strong correlations among GSI, CNR, PPACD31+ and PPAVEGFR-2+. In conclusion, two-probe VTNC is feasible for bimodal US and MR molecular imaging of atherosclerotic neovasculature, which may offer complementary information for the more reliable prediction of plaque vulnerability.
Cyclosporine before PCI in Acute Myocardial Infarction.

To the Editor: The Does Cyclosporine Improve Clinical Outcome in ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients (CIRCUS) trial reported by Cung et al. (Sept. 10 issue)1 does not confirm the expected cardioprotective effect of cyclosporine in reducing the severity of myocardial reperfusion injury. Necrosis and apoptosis both contribute to reperfusion injury. Most cardioprotective strategies (including the use of cyclosporine) prevent the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP), thereby reducing cardiomyocyte apoptosis.2 Increasing the duration of coronary occlusion increases the percentage of necrotic cardiomyocytes and conversely decreases the number of living cardiomyocytes that are able to sustain apoptosis,2 thus reducing the efficacy of such strategies. Exenatide, for example, has been shown to reduce myocardial reperfusion injury in humans,3 but only in patients whose coronary occlusions lasted less than 130 minutes.4 CIRCUS enrolled patients within 12 hours after the onset of symptoms; by that time, most cardiomyocytes are necrotic and there is not much living myocardium to salvage. Furthermore, only 12% of the patients received cyclosporine in the first 130 minutes after the onset of symptoms. Therefore, the longer coronary occlusions may explain the negative results of CIRCUS. These findings should not lead researchers to reject reperfusion injury as a therapeutic target, especially given the development of new promising treatments.
Free riding and participation in large scale, multi‐hospital kidney exchange

As multi-hospital kidney exchange has grown, the set of players has grown from patients and surgeons to include hospitals. Hospitals can choose to enroll only their hard-to-match patient-donor pairs, while conducting easily-arranged exchanges internally. This behavior has already been observed. We show that as the population of hospitals and patients grows the cost of making it individually rational for hospitals to participate fully becomes low in almost every large exchange pool (although the worst-case cost is very high), while the cost of failing to guarantee individual rationality is high, in lost transplants. We identify a mechanism that gives hospitals incentives to reveal all patient-donor pairs. We observe that if such a mechanism were to be implemented and hospitals enrolled all their pairs, the resulting patient pools would allow efficient matchings that could be implemented with two and three way exchanges.
Extended coset decoding scheme for multi-bit asymmetric errors in non-volatile memories

Non-volatile memories (NVMs), such as Magnetic RAM and Resistive RAM, have been considered as the potential working or storage memories in the next generation computer architectures, thanks to the various merits, such as non-volatility, low power and high speed etc. However, new technology brings simultaneously new challenges, e.g. reliability issue, before practical applications. Compared with conventional memories, the errors in NVMs are generally asymmetric, resulting in different failure rates for 0-1 and 1-0 bit flipping. Error correcting codes (ECCs) are common solutions for protecting memories from errors. The most widely used ECCs are the single error correction and double error detection (SEC-DED) codes. Unfortunately, they are primarily designed for correcting symmetric errors and their error correction capabilities are limited to only one bit. Regarding the failure characteristics (e.g., multi-bit and asymmetric) of NVMs, conventional SEC-DED codes are not efficiently applicable. This paper proposes an extended coset decoding scheme for NVMs. Our simulation results with a Hamming code (with Hamming distance of only three) as an example show the effectiveness of the proposed decoding scheme. The proposed decoding scheme can also be extended to other linear block codes and is rather suitable for scenarios with multi-bit asymmetric error features.
Endoscopic management of pancreatic fluid collections-revisited

The development of pancreatic fluid collections (PFC) is one of the most common complications of acute severe pancreatitis. Most of the acute pancreatic fluid collections resolve and do not require endoscopic drainage. However, a substantial proportion of acute necrotic collections get walled off and may require drainage. Endoscopic drainage of PFC is now the preferred mode of drainage due to reduced morbidity and mortality as compared to surgical or percutaneous drainage. With the introduction of new metal stents, the efficiency of endoscopic drainage has improved and the task of direct endoscopic necrosectomy has become easier. The requirement of re-intervention is less with new metal stents as compared to plastic stents. However, endoscopic drainage is not free of adverse events. Severe complications including bleeding, perforation, sepsis and embolism have been described with endoscopic approach to PFC. Therefore, the endoscopic management of PFC is a multidisciplinary affair and involves interventional radiologists as well as GI surgeons to deal with unplanned adverse events and failures. In this review we discuss the recent advances and controversies in the endoscopic management of PFC.
Complex Virus–Host Interactions Involved in the Regulation of Classical Swine Fever Virus Replication: A Minireview

Classical swine fever (CSF), caused by classical swine fever virus (CSFV), is one of the most devastating epizootic diseases of pigs in many countries. Viruses are small intracellular parasites and thus rely on the cellular factors for replication. Fundamental aspects of CSFV–host interactions have been well described, such as factors contributing to viral attachment, modulation of genomic replication and translation, antagonism of innate immunity, and inhibition of cell apoptosis. However, those host factors that participate in the viral entry, assembly, and release largely remain to be elucidated. In this review, we summarize recent progress in the virus–host interactions involved in the life cycle of CSFV and analyze the potential mechanisms of viral entry, assembly, and release. We conclude with future perspectives and highlight areas that require further understanding.
To Frontalize or Not To Frontalize: A Study of Face Pre-Processing Techniques and Their Impact on Recognition

Face recognition performance has improved remarkably in the last decade. Much of this success can be attributed to the development of deep learning techniques such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs). While CNNs have pushed the state-of-the-art forward, their training process requires a large amount of clean and correctly labelled training data. If a CNN is intended to tolerate facial pose, then we face an important question: should this training data be diverse in its pose distribution, or should face images be normalized to a single pose in a pre-processing step? To address this question, we evaluate a number of popular facial landmarking and pose correction algorithms to understand their effect on facial recognition performance. Additionally, we introduce a new, automatic, single-image frontalization scheme that exceeds the performance of current algorithms. CNNs trained using sets of different pre-processing methods are used to extract features from the Point and Shoot Challenge (PaSC) and CMU Multi-PIE datasets. We assert that the subsequent verification and recognition performance serves to quantify the effectiveness of each pose correction scheme.
QTL Mapping of Genome Regions Controlling Manganese Uptake in Lentil Seed

This study evaluated Mn concentration in the seeds of 120 RILs of lentil developed from the cross “CDC Redberry” × “ILL7502”. Micronutrient analysis using atomic absorption spectrometry indicated mean seed manganese (Mn) concentrations ranging from 8.5 to 26.8 mg/kg, based on replicated field trials grown at three locations in Turkey in 2012 and 2013. A linkage map of lentil was constructed and consisted of seven linkage groups with 5,385 DNA markers. The total map length was 973.1 cM, with an average distance between markers of 0.18 cM. A total of 6 QTL for Mn concentration were identified using composite interval mapping (CIM). All QTL were statistically significant and explained 15.3–24.1% of the phenotypic variation, with LOD scores ranging from 3.00 to 4.42. The high-density genetic map reported in this study will increase fundamental knowledge of the genome structure of lentil, and will be the basis for the development of micronutrient-enriched lentil genotypes to support biofortification efforts.
Reduced prostaglandin I2 signaling in Arid5b−/− primary skeletal muscle cells attenuates myogenesis

The AT‐rich interaction domain (ARID) family of proteins regulates gene expression, development, and differentiation. Although Arid5b has important functions in adipogenesis and chondrogenesis, theroleofArid5b in skeletal muscle myogenesis has not been investigated. Therefore, we isolated primary skeletal muscle cells from Arid5b+/+ and Arid5b−/− mice and characterized differentiation in these cells. We found that Arid5b−/− primary skeletal muscle cells showed differentiation defects and impaired sarcomeric assembly. Microarray analysis revealed down‐regulation of the prostanoid biosynthesis pathway in Arid5b−/− myoblasts, including the genes encoding cyclo‐oxygenase (COX)‐1 (Ptgsl) and prostaglandin (PG)I synthase (Ptgis). Down‐regulation of COX‐1 and PGI synthase was confirmed by real‐time PCR and Western blot analyses. Correspondingly, the production of PGI2, as measured by ELISA, was reduced in Arid5b−/− cells relative to Arid5b+/+ cells. Boyden chamber assays showed that migration was increased but chemotaxis was impaired in Arid5b−/− cells. Myoblast fusion was also inhibited in Arid5b−/− cells compared with Arid5b+/+ cells. Treatment with the PGI2 analog iloprost rescued the defects in myotube formation, migration, and fusion. These results demonstrate that Arid5b has a novel and essential role in skeletal muscle differentiation by regulating PGI2 production. — Murray, J., Whitson, R. H. , Itakura, K. Reduced prostaglandin I2 signaling in Arid5b−/− primary skeletal muscle cells attenuates myogenesis. FASEB J. 32, 1868–1879 (2018). www.fasebj. org