Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Not Oligomers but Amyloids are Cytotoxic in the Membrane‐Mediated Amyloidogenesis of Amyloid‐β Peptides

The formation of neurotoxic aggregates by amyloid‐β peptide (Aβ) is considered to be a key step in the onset of Alzheimer's disease. It is widely accepted that oligomers are more neurotoxic than amyloid fibrils in the aqueous‐phase aggregation of Aβ. Membrane‐mediated amyloidogenesis is also relevant to the pathology, although the relationship between the aggregate size and cytotoxicity has remained elusive. Here, aggregation processes of Aβ on living cells and cytotoxic events were monitored by fluorescence techniques. Aβ formed amyloids after forming oligomers composed of ≈10 Aβ molecules. The formation of amyloids was necessary to activate apoptotic caspase‐3 and reduce the ability of the cell to proliferate; this indicated that amyloid formation is a key event in Aβ‐induced cytotoxicity.
Toxic synergism between aflatoxin and T-2 toxin in broiler chickens.

The individual and combined effects of aflatoxin and T-2 toxin were studied in male broiler chicks (Hubbard X Hubbard). The experimental design was a 2 X 2 factorial design with dietary treatments of 0 and 2.5 micrograms/g aflatoxin and 0 and 4.0 micrograms/g T-2 toxin. The broilers were obtained at 1 day of age and housed in electrically heated batteries with feed and water available ad libitum until they reached 3 wk of age. Aflatoxicosis in this study was characterized by a significant (P less than .05) reduction in body weight, changes in red blood cell counts and serum levels of protein, albumin, glucose, cholesterol, and calcium, and magnesium, activity of the serum enzymes lactic dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase, and a significant (P less than .05) increase in relative weights of the liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas, proventriculus, and heart. Dietary T-2 toxin alone caused oral lesions, a significant (P less than .05) decrease in serum protein, albumin, potassium, and magnesium levels, and a significant (P less than .05) decrease in the activity of the serum enzymes lactic dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase. In the combination treatment of aflatoxin and T-2 toxin, significant (P less than .05) interactive effects were seen through a decrease in body weights, increase in the relative weights of the kidney, gizzard, and heart, and decrease in mean corpuscular volume and serum levels of potassium. These data indicate that aflatoxin and T-2 toxin can interact to produce synergistic toxicity. This synergism is a threat to poultry production due to the prevalence of these mycotoxins and severity of the interactive toxicity of these mycotoxins.
Nonparametric Model of Smooth Muscle Force Production During Electrical Stimulation

A nonparametric model of smooth muscle tension response to electrical stimulation was estimated using the Laguerre expansion technique of nonlinear system kernel estimation. The experimental data consisted of force responses of smooth muscle to energy-matched alternating single pulse and burst current stimuli. The burst stimuli led to at least a 10-fold increase in peak force in smooth muscle from Mytilus edulis, despite the constant energy constraint. A linear model did not fit the data. However, a second-order model fit the data accurately, so the higher-order models were not required to fit the data. Results showed that smooth muscle force response is not linearly related to the stimulation power.
Quantum Algorithms and Mathematical Representation of Bio-molecular Solutions for the Hitting-set Problem on a Quantum Computer

In this paper, it is demonstrated that quantum implementation of bio-molecular solutions to compute the number of elements in each hitting-set in an instance of the hitting-set problem could be considered as the oracle work in Grover’s algorithm, i.e., the target state labeling, preceding Grover’s searching steps. Finally, for testing our theory, a three-qub it nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiment of solving the simplest hitting-set problem is performed.
Strongly Cosserat Elastic Lattice and Foam Materials for Enhanced Toughness

Some foams exhibit size effects and other phenomena not describable by classical elasticity. These foams are describable by Cosserat elasticity, which is a continuum theory with more freedom than classical elasticity. Cosserat solids have a characteristic length which is greater than zero. Strongly Cosserat elastic materials are considered to be those materials for which the Cosserat characteristic length is substantially greater than the structure size and for which the coupling number is large. Such materials are predicted to exhibit superior toughness. A mechanically isotropic lattice model is presented for the study of foams. Ordinary open cell foams are shown to be weakly Cosserat elastic. If cell rib properties are modified, strongly Cosserat elastic effects can occur in the foam. Anisotropic laminate and fibrous materials can also be made to exhibit strongly Cosserat elastic effects.
Automatic Feature Selection for Sleep/Wake Classification with Small Data Sets

This paper describes an automatic feature selection algorithm integrated into a classification framework developed to discriminate between sleep and wake states during the night. The feature selection algorithm proposed in this paper uses the Mahalanobis distance and the Spearman’s ranked-order correlation as selection criteria to restrict search in a large feature space. The algorithm was tested using a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation procedure on 15 single-night PSG recordings of healthy sleepers and then compared to the results of a standard Sequential Forward Search (SFS) algorithm. It achieved comparable performance in terms of Cohen’s kappa (k = 0.62) and the Area under the Precision-Recall curve (AUCPR = 0.59), but gave a significant computational time improvement by a factor of nearly 10. The feature selection procedure, applied on each iteration of the cross-validation, was found to be stable, consistently selecting a similar list of features. It selected an average of 10.33 features per iteration, nearly half of the 21 features selected by SFS. In addition, learning curves show that the training and testing performances converge faster than for SFS and that the final training-testing performance difference is smaller, suggesting that the new algorithm is more adequate for data sets with a small number of subjects.
Toxic Encephalopathy

This article schematically reviews the clinical features, diagnostic approaches to, and toxicological implications of toxic encephalopathy. The review will focus on the most significant occupational causes of toxic encephalopathy. Chronic toxic encephalopathy, cerebellar syndrome, parkinsonism, and vascular encephalopathy are commonly encountered clinical syndromes of toxic encephalopathy. Few neurotoxins cause patients to present with pathognomonic neurological syndromes. The symptoms and signs of toxic encephalopathy may be mimicked by many psychiatric, metabolic, inflammatory, neoplastic, and degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Thus, the importance of good history-taking that considers exposure and a comprehensive neurological examination cannot be overemphasized in the diagnosis of toxic encephalopathy. Neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging typically play ancillary roles. The recognition of toxic encephalopathy is important because the correct diagnosis of occupational disease can prevent others (e.g., workers at the same worksite) from further harm by reducing their exposure to the toxin, and also often provides some indication of prognosis. Physicians must therefore be aware of the typical signs and symptoms of toxic encephalopathy, and close collaborations between neurologists and occupational physicians are needed to determine whether neurological disorders are related to occupational neurotoxin exposure.
Reduced quality of life in survivors of acute respiratory distress syndrome compared with critically ill control patients.

CONTEXT Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is reduced in patients who survive acute respiratory distress (ARDS), but whether this decline in HRQL is caused by ARDS or other aspects of the patient's illness or injury is unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine if there are differences in the HRQL of ARDS survivors and comparably ill or injured controls without ARDS. DESIGN Prospective, matched, parallel cohort study. SETTING A 411-bed municipal medical and regional level I trauma center. PATIENTS Seventy-three pairs of ARDS survivors and severity-matched controls with the clinical risk factors for ARDS of sepsis and trauma admitted between January 1, 1994, and July 30, 1996. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The HRQL of ARDS survivors and controls, assessed by generic and pulmonary disease-specific HRQL instruments (Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, Standard Form [SF-36] and St George's Respiratory Questionnaire [SGRQ], respectively). RESULTS Clinically meaningful and statistically significant reductions in HRQL scores of ARDS survivors (n = 73) were seen in 7 of 8 SF-36 domains and 3 of 3 SGRQ domains compared with matched controls (P<.001 for all reductions). The largest decrements in the HRQL were seen in physical function and pulmonary symptoms and limitations. Analysis of trauma-matched pairs (n = 46) revealed significant reductions in 7 of 8 SF-36 domains (P< or =.02) and 3 of 3 SGRQ domains (P< or =.003). Analysis of sepsis-matched pairs (n = 27) revealed significant reductions in 6 of 8 SF-36 domains (P< or =.05) and 3 of 3 SGRQ domains (P< or =.002). CONCLUSIONS Survivors of ARDS have a clinically significant reduction in HRQL that appears to be caused exclusively by ARDS and its sequelae. Reductions were primarily noted in physical functioning and pulmonary disease-specific domains.
Treatment of a traumatic atrophic depressed scar with hyaluronic acid fillers: a case report

Background Hyaluronic acid filler has been documented in the treatment of atrophic depressed acne scars relatively frequently in the literature but rarely in chronic depressed traumatic atrophic facial scars. Methods This case report discusses the use of hyaluronic acid fillers in the correction of a post-traumatic facial atrophic scar on the right cheek. Results The right cheek scar was substantially corrected with one session of two different hyaluronic acids injected in a deep and superficial plane. Conclusion Relatively accurate, simple and effective correction of this atrophic traumatic scar may suggest that fillers are a suitable alternative to surgery for such scars.
A physical unclonable function based on a 2‐transistor subthreshold voltage divider

In this paper, a compact circuit solution for silicon‐based static physical unclonable functions (PUFs) is presented. The proposed solution exploits the variability of a simple voltage divider, implemented by two identical series‐connected nMOSFETs in a commercial 65‐nm CMOS process, to generate a random and stable nanokey. Both the transistors are biased in the subthreshold regime to enhance the output voltage dispersion and consequently the variability of the PUF response. The bit key generation is obtained by comparing the analog outputs of a pair of voltage dividers. Monte Carlo simulations on 10,000 samples have been performed to deduce the design guidelines for transistor sizing aimed at ensuring a high robustness of the PUF response against noise, supply voltage, and temperature variations. When compared with some state‐of‐the‐art PUF designs, the proposed circuit solution proves to be a promising and competitive candidate for implementing analog and static PUFs featuring small area occupancy, low‐power features, and high reliability. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Comparative Myology and Evolution of Marsupials and Other Vertebrates, With Notes on Complexity, Bauplan, and “Scala Naturae”

Opossums are frequent subjects of developmental studies because marsupials share developmental features not seen in placentals and because Didelphimorpha is the sister‐group of other extant Marsupialia. But is the adult marsupial muscular system markedly different from that of placentals or is it, like the skeletal system, very similar? We provide, for the first time, a brief description of all head and limb muscles of Didelphis virginiana based on our dissections and using a unifying nomenclature by integrating the data gathered in our long‐term project on the development, homologies, and evolution of the muscles of all major vertebrate taxa. Our data indicate that there were many more muscle synapomorphic changes from the last common ancestor (LCA) of amniotes to the mammalian LCA (63) and from this LCA to the LCA of extant therians (48) than from this latter LCA to the LCA of extant placentals (10 or 11). Importantly, Didelphis is anatomically more plesiomorphic (only 14 changes from LCA of extant therians) than are rats (37 changes) and humans (63 changes), but its musculature is more complex (193 muscles) than that of humans (only 180 muscles). Of the 194 muscles of Didelphis, 172 (89%) are present in rats, meaning that their adult muscle anatomy is indeed very similar. This similarity supports the existence of a common, easy recognizable therian Bauplan, but one that is caused by developmental constraints and by evolutionary change driven by the needs of the embryos/neonates, rather than by a “goal” toward a specific adult plan/“archetype,” as the name Bauplan suggests. Anat Rec, 299:1224–1255, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A fast joining scheme based on channel quality for IEEE802.15.4e TSCH in severe interference environment

Time Slotted Channel Hopping is one of the access behavior technique defined in IEEE 802.15. 4e standard. In this paper, we focus on TSCH's network formation process in severe interference environment. In a congested environment, the time to join the network increases and this leads to energy consumption and delay control signal for real-time system. To overcome this issue, we suggest Fast Joining scheme based on Channel Quality estimation(FJCQ). FJCQ provides short joining time even in severe congestion situations. The scheme is implemented in real nodes and shows its performance by comparison with other approaches.
Matrigel Mattress: A Method for the Generation of Single Contracting Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

RATIONALE The lack of measurable single-cell contractility of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac myocytes (hiPSC-CMs) currently limits the utility of hiPSC-CMs for evaluating contractile performance for both basic research and drug discovery. OBJECTIVE To develop a culture method that rapidly generates contracting single hiPSC-CMs and allows quantification of cell shortening with standard equipment used for studying adult CMs. METHODS AND RESULTS Single hiPSC-CMs were cultured for 5 to 7 days on a 0.4- to 0.8-mm thick mattress of undiluted Matrigel (mattress hiPSC-CMs) and compared with hiPSC-CMs maintained on a control substrate (<0.1-mm thick 1:60 diluted Matrigel, control hiPSC-CMs). Compared with control hiPSC-CMs, mattress hiPSC-CMs had more rod-shape morphology and significantly increased sarcomere length. Contractile parameters of mattress hiPSC-CMs measured with video-based edge detection were comparable with those of freshly isolated adult rabbit ventricular CMs. Morphological and contractile properties of mattress hiPSC-CMs were consistent across cryopreserved hiPSC-CMs generated independently at another institution. Unlike control hiPSC-CMs, mattress hiPSC-CMs display robust contractile responses to positive inotropic agents, such as myofilament calcium sensitizers. Mattress hiPSC-CMs exhibit molecular changes that include increased expression of the maturation marker cardiac troponin I and significantly increased action potential upstroke velocity because of a 2-fold increase in sodium current (INa). CONCLUSIONS The Matrigel mattress method enables the rapid generation of robustly contracting hiPSC-CMs and enhances maturation. This new method allows quantification of contractile performance at the single-cell level, which should be valuable to disease modeling, drug discovery, and preclinical cardiotoxicity testing.
Evaluation of the prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in triple-negative breast cancers

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) may be associated with clinical outcome in triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs). However, lacking of standardized methodologies in TILs evaluation has hindered its application in clinical practice. To evaluate the prognostic role of TILs scored by methods recommended by International TILs Working Group 2014, we performed a retrospective study of TILs in 425 primary invasive TNBCs in a Chinese population with a median follow-up of 4 years. Intratumoral TILs (iTILs) and stromal TILs (sTILs) were scored respectively. The associations between TILs and disease-free survival (DFS), distant disease-free survival (DDFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated with COX models. ITILs were not associated with prognosis. Higher sTILs were associated with better prognosis; for every 10% increase in sTILs, a 5% reduction of risk of recurrence or death (P < 0.001), 5% reduction of risk of distant recurrence (P < 0.001), and 4% reduction of risk of death (P = 0.002) were observed. Multivariate analysis confirmed sTILs to be an independent prognostic marker. 3.5% of TNBCs had more than 50% lymphocytes (lymphocyte-predominant breast cancer, LPBC), and associations between LPBC status and prognosis were observed but did not reach statistical significance. TNBCs with more than 20% sTILs had a significantly better prognosis than the patients with no more than 20% sTILs. In conclusion, our study indicated that sTILs scored by methods recommended by International TILs Working Group 2014 were associated with the prognosis of TNBCs. STILs could be an independent prognostic biomarker in TNBCs, increasing sTILs predicting better prognosis.
Joint 3D Reconstruction of a Static Scene and Moving Objects

We present a technique for simultaneous 3D reconstruction of static regions and rigidly moving objects in a scene. An RGB-D frame is represented as a collection of features, which are points and planes. We classify the features into static and dynamic regions and grow separate maps, static and object maps, for each of them. To robustly classify the features in each frame, we fuse multiple RANSAC-based registration results obtained by registering different groups of the features to different maps, including (1) all the features to the static map, (2) all the features to each object map, and (3) subsets of the features, each forming a segment, to each object map. This multi-group registration approach is designed to overcome the following challenges: scenes can be dominated by static regions, making object tracking more difficult; and moving object might have larger pose variation between frames compared to the static regions. We show qualitative results from indoor scenes with objects in various shapes. The technique enables on-the-fly object model generation to be used for robotic manipulation.
Quality improvement initiative and its impact on the management of patients with acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND Wide variation exists in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) management, leading to differences in outcomes. OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of the quality improvement initiative on appropriate management of AMI. DESIGN Prospective patient identification, retrospective medical record review. PATIENTS All patients with AMI discharged alive (N = 497) from our institution between April 1, 1995, and February 28, 1997. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The effect of quality improvements directed at the patient, nurse, and physician on the adherence to key quality indicators. RESULTS The quality improvement initiative correlated with more frequent use of reperfusion therapy (98%), and with aspirin use in the emergency department (95%), in ideal eligible patients. Similarly, adherence to discharge quality indicators, including use of aspirin (97%), beta-blockers (94%), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (90%), and lipid-lowering agents (67%); avoidance of calcium channel blockers (93%); a low-fat diet (96%); smoking cessation counseling (94%); and outpatient rehabilitation referral (70%) was higher, including in the very old (those aged >/=80 years) and in women. The use of a patient education tool was associated with a higher adherence to most quality indicators compared with patients in whom this was not used: discharge aspirin (99% vs 96%; P =.02), beta-blocker (98% vs 91%; P =.002), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (95% vs 86%; P =.01), and lipid-lowering agent (71% vs 62%; P =.04) use; outpatient rehabilitation (82% vs 63%; P=.001); and documentation of smoking cessation counseling (98% vs 87%; P =. 001). CONCLUSIONS Implementation of a quality improvement program was associated with a high adherence to quality-of-care indicators for AMI. Patient-directed feedback before discharge improved adherence to key indicators for AMI beyond that achieved with tools only directed at caregivers.
Heritable aspects of biological motion perception and its covariation with autistic traits

Significance Impaired visual processing of biological motion (BM) is inextricably linked to compromised social cognitive abilities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Using behavioral genetic methodology, we demonstrate that genes contribute to interindividual variation in BM perception abilities and autistic traits. More importantly, the ability to process the local motion rather than the global configuration of BM is heritable, and the former is negatively correlated with autistic traits, with the covariance mainly attributable to shared genetic factors. These findings provide evidence that the ability to process BM and its close connection with social cognitive skills have a genetic basis and highlight the potential for treating the ability to process local BM information as a distinct hallmark of social cognition. The ability to detect biological motion (BM) and decipher the meaning therein is essential to human survival and social interaction. However, at the individual level, we are not equally equipped with this ability. In particular, impaired BM perception and abnormal neural responses to BM have been observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by devastating social deficits. Here, we examined the underlying sources of individual differences in two abilities fundamental to BM perception (i.e., the abilities to process local kinematic and global configurational information of BM) and explored whether BM perception shares a common genetic origin with autistic traits. Using the classical twin method, we found reliable genetic influences on BM perception and revealed a clear dissociation between its two components—whereas genes account for about 50% of the individual variation in local BM processing, global BM processing is largely shaped by environment. Critically, participants’ sensitivity to local BM cues was negatively correlated with their autistic traits through the dimension of social communication, with the covariation largely mediated by shared genetic effects. These findings demonstrate that the ability to process BM, especially with regard to its inherent kinetics, is heritable. They also advance our understanding of the sources of the linkage between autistic symptoms and BM perception deficits, opening up the possibility of treating the ability to process local BM information as a distinct hallmark of social cognition.