Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Target acquired: Selective autophagy in cardiometabolic disease

Boosting the autophagic degradation of dysfunctional organelles could be used to treat various cardiometabolic diseases. GLOSS The accumulation of damaged or excess proteins and organelles is a defining feature of cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and heart failure. One way in which damaged components such as mitochondria, protein aggregates, or peroxisomes are degraded is through autophagy, a process in which a double-membrane vesicle encapsulates cargo and delivers it to the acidic lysosome for degradation. A diverse array of molecular mechanisms target the autophagic machinery specifically to damaged cargo and spare healthy components in a process called selective autophagy. Disruption of these processes leads to accumulation of unhealthy organelles, oxidative stress, inflammation, and disease progression. Conversely, stimulating the autophagy-lysosomal degradation system in disease states featuring overt accumulation of dysfunctional organelles provides an attractive avenue for therapies. In this Review, which contains 6 figures, 1 table, and 252 citations, we focus on emerging evidence and key questions about the role of selective autophagy in the cell biology and pathophysiology of cardiometabolic diseases. The accumulation of damaged or excess proteins and organelles is a defining feature of metabolic disease in nearly every tissue. Thus, a central challenge in maintaining metabolic homeostasis is the identification, sequestration, and degradation of these cellular components, including protein aggregates, mitochondria, peroxisomes, inflammasomes, and lipid droplets. A primary route through which this challenge is met is selective autophagy, the targeting of specific cellular cargo for autophagic compartmentalization and lysosomal degradation. In addition to its roles in degradation, selective autophagy is emerging as an integral component of inflammatory and metabolic signaling cascades. In this Review, we focus on emerging evidence and key questions about the role of selective autophagy in the cell biology and pathophysiology of metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and steatohepatitis. Essential players in these processes are the selective autophagy receptors, defined broadly as adapter proteins that both recognize cargo and target it to the autophagosome. Additional domains within these receptors may allow integration of information about autophagic flux with critical regulators of cellular metabolism and inflammation. Details regarding the precise receptors involved, such as p62 and NBR1, and their predominant interacting partners are just beginning to be defined. Overall, we anticipate that the continued study of selective autophagy will prove to be informative in understanding the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases and to provide previously unrecognized therapeutic targets.
Vitamin C Further Improves the Protective Effect of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 on Acute Hypoglycemia-Induced Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Endothelial Dysfunction in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that acute hypoglycemia induces endothelial dysfunction and inflammation through the generation of an oxidative stress. Moreover, to test if the antioxidant vitamin C can further improve the protective effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) on endothelial dysfunction and inflammation during hypoglycemia in type 1diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 20 type 1 diabetic patients underwent four experiments: a period of 2 h of acute hypoglycemia with or without infusion of GLP-1 or vitamin C or both. At baseline, after 1 and 2 h, glycemia, plasma nitrotyrosine, plasma 8-iso prostaglandin F2a (PGF2a), soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1a (sICAM-1a), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and flow-mediated vasodilation were measured. At 2 h of hypoglycemia, flow-mediated vasodilation significantly decreased, while sICAM-1, 8-iso-PGF2a, nitrotyrosine, and IL-6 significantly increased. The simultaneous infusion of GLP-1 or vitamin C significantly attenuated all of these phenomena. Vitamin C was more effective. When GLP-1 and vitamin C were infused simultaneously, the deleterious effect of hypoglycemia was almost completely counterbalanced. RESULTS At 2 h of hypoglycemia, flow-mediated vasodilation significantly decreased, while sICAM-1, 8-iso-PGF2a, nitrotyrosine, and IL-6 significantly increased. The simultaneous infusion of GLP-1 or vitamin C significantly attenuated all of these phenomena. Vitamin C was more effective. When GLP-1 and vitamin C were infused simultaneously, the deleterious effect of hypoglycemia was almost completely counterbalanced. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that vitamin C infusion, during induced acute hypoglycemia, reduces the generation of oxidative stress and inflammation, improving endothelial dysfunction, in type 1 diabetes. Furthermore, the data support a protective effect of GLP-1 during acute hypoglycemia, but also suggest the presence of an endothelial resistance to the action of GLP-1, reasonably mediated by oxidative stress.
Implicit Acquisition of User Personality for Augmenting Recommender Systems

In recent years, user personality has been increasingly recognized as a valuable resource being incorporated into the process of generating recommendations. However, the effort of explicitly acquiring users' personality traits via psychological questionnaire is unavoidably high, which may impede the application of personality-based recommenders in real life. My PhD research aims to investigate how to derive users' personality from their implicit behavior and further improve the existing recommender systems. For this purpose, we first identify significant features through experimental validation. We then build inference model to unify these features for determining users' Big-Five personality traits. We further develop personalized recommender systems by incorporating the inferred personality. Our study would indicate an effective solution to boost the applicability of personality-based recommender systems in the online environment.
A novel traffic congestion detection system with feature fusion based track initiation technique *

PHD filter is widely used in multi-target tracking nowadays. However PHD filter is insensitive to birth targets. In this paper, an improved detection-guided GM-PHD is proposed and applied in video based traffic congestion identification. The proposed image feature term enhances the track score as the birth target is true, while the proposed image feature term penalizes the track score as the birth target is spurious. The experimental results on real traffic scenes indicate that the proposed track initiation method can identify true birth targets, avoid spurious targets and give traffic congestion identification earlier than GM-PHD filter. Keywords—track initiation technique, Histogram of oriented gradients; track score; traffic congestion; object segmentation; perspective transformation
A cylindrical pin loaded rectangular DRA for wideband applications

In this paper coaxial probe fed rectangular Dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is presented. A cylindrical conductor pin in inserted in to DRA to bring the additional resonance. The impedance Bandwidth (<-10 dB) of 40% was achieved by optimizing the feed location and conductor pin length. And modes were are also identified for corresponding resonances. Probe monopole resonance, TM122 mode of DRA and loaded Pin resonances are made to couple to achieve the impedance matching over a wide bandwidth. The radiation characteristics of the antenna are also explained.
An Improved Scene Text Extraction Method Using Conditional Random Field and Optical Character Recognition

Over the past few years, research on scene text extraction has developed rapidly. Recently, condition random field (CRF) has been used to give connected components (CCs) 'text' or 'non-text' labels. However, a burning issue in CRF model comes from multiple text lines extraction. In this paper, we propose a two-step iterative CRF algorithm with a Belief Propagation inference and an OCR filtering stage. Two kinds of neighborhood relationship graph are used in the respective iterations for extracting multiple text lines. Furthermore, OCR confidence is used as an indicator for identifying the text regions, while a traditional OCR filter module only considered the recognition results. The first CRF iteration aims at finding certain text CCs, especially in multiple text lines, and sending uncertain CCs to the second iteration. The second iteration gives second chance for the uncertain CCs and filter false alarm CCs with the help of OCR. Experiments based on the public dataset of ICDAR 2005 prove that the proposed method is comparative with the existing algorithms.
Linear Systems Subject to Input Saturation and Time Delay: Global Asymptotic Stabilization

This note deals with the problem of global asymptotic stabilization of linear systems by bounded static feedbacks subject to time delay. Under standard necessary conditions, we provide two constructions of controllers of nested saturation type which extends to the general case partial results of previous papers for arbitrary small bound on the control and large (constant) delay. To validate the approach, a third-order integrator and oscillator with multiplicity two example is presented
Motivational Effects of Ethanol in DARPP-32 Knock-Out Mice

DARPP-32 (dopamine and adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate-regulated phosphoprotein, 32 kDa) is an important component of dopaminergic function in brain areas thought to be important for drug and alcohol addiction. The present experiments characterized the acquisition of ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion, ethanol-induced conditioned place preference, and ethanol self-administration in DARPP-32 knock-out (KO) mice compared to wild-type (WT) controls. For taste conditioning, KO and WT mice received access to 0.2 m NaCl solution followed immediately by intraperitoneal injection of 0–4 gm/kg ethanol. Ethanol produced dose-dependent conditioned taste aversion that was the same in both genotypes. For place conditioning, KO and WT mice received eight pairings of a tactile stimulus with ethanol (2 gm/kg, i.p.), and a different stimulus with saline. Ethanol produced increases in locomotor activity during conditioning, with KO mice showing higher activity levels after ethanol compared to WT mice. WT mice, but not KO mice, acquired conditioned preference for the ethanol-paired stimulus. In the self-administration procedure, KO and WT mice were trained to lever press for access to 10% v/v ethanol. Subsequently, the mice had 23 hr/d access to food, ethanol, and water. Response patterns were determined using 0–30% v/v ethanol concentrations. WT mice displayed concentration-dependent responding for ethanol. Responding on the ethanol lever by KO mice did not change as a function of ethanol concentration. Saccharin (0.2% w/v) was subsequently added to the ethanol mixture, and responding was examined at 0, 5, 10, and 20% ethanol concentrations. Ethanol responding increased in both genotypes, although WT mice showed higher rates at all concentrations.
Separable Gabor filter realization for fast fingerprint enhancement

Since 2-D Gabor filter can be separated into 1-D Gaussian band-pass filter and 1-D low-pass filter to the perpendicular, separable Gabor filter realization for any selected orientation is introduced for fast fingerprint enhancement. The experimental results showed that the separable Gabor enhancement significantly reduced computational complexity, approximately 1:2.8 times, faster than traditional Gabor enhancement, with comparable enhancement quality. Moreover, this separable Gabor filter is generalized for any desired orientation resulting in faster execution time (1:1.46), less memory space, and better quality enhancement comparing to the traditional Gabor filter with 8 orientations.
Different techniques to characterize EBG structures for MM wave applications

Different techniques are introduced for characterizing EBG structures to design EBG waveguides working in MM frequency band. Two different square and triangle lattices of holes are used to design the EBG waveguides. The width of rectangle lattice waveguide was optimized to increase its bandwidth. An EBG waveguide of 49.1 mm (equivalent to 19 EBG cells) was designed and fabricated. The performance of these EBG waveguides makes them viable alternatives as guiding structure of electromagnetic waves noting better than −10 dB return loss from 27 GHz to 31.5 GHz and insertion loss in the order of 2.5 over the same bandwidth
Neurochemostat: A Neural Interface SoC With Integrated Chemometrics for Closed-Loop Regulation of Brain Dopamine

This paper presents a 3.3×3.2 mm2 system-on-chip (SoC) fabricated in AMS 0.35 μm 2P/4M CMOS for closed-loop regulation of brain dopamine. The SoC uniquely integrates neurochemical sensing, on-the-fly chemometrics, and feedback-controlled electrical stimulation to realize a “neurochemostat” by maintaining brain levels of electrically evoked dopamine between two user-set thresholds. The SoC incorporates a 90 μW, custom-designed, digital signal processing (DSP) unit for real-time processing of neurochemical data obtained by 400 V/s fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) with a carbon-fiber microelectrode (CFM). Specifically, the DSP unit executes a chemometrics algorithm based upon principal component regression (PCR) to resolve in real time electrically evoked brain dopamine levels from pH change and CFM background-current drift, two common interferents encountered using FSCV with a CFM in vivo. Further, the DSP unit directly links the chemically resolved dopamine levels to the activation of the electrical microstimulator in on-off-keying (OOK) fashion. Measured results from benchtop testing, flow injection analysis (FIA), and biological experiments with an anesthetized rat are presented.
Hardness-randomness tradeoffs for bounded depth arithmetic circuits

In this paper we show that lower bounds for bounded depth arithmetic circuits imply derandomization of polynomial identity testing for bounded depth arithmetic circuits. More formally, if there exists an explicit polynomial f(x1,.,xm) that cannot be computed by a depth d arithmetic circuit of small size then there exists an efficient deterministic algorithm to test whether a given depth d-8 circuit is identically zero or not (assuming the individual degrees of the tested circuit are not too high). In particular, if we are guaranteed that the circuit computes a multilinear polynomial then we can perform the identity test efficiently. To the best of our knowledge this is the first hardness-randomness tradeoff for bounded depth arithmetic circuits. The above results are obtained using the arithmetic Nisan-Wigderson generator of Impagliazzo and Kabanets together with a new theorem on bounded depth circuits, which is the main technical contribution of our work. This theorem deals with polynomial equations of the form P(x1,.,xn,y) ≡ 0 and shows that if P has a circuit of depth d and size s and if the polynomial f(x1,.,xn) satisfies P(x1,.,xn,f(x1,.,xn))≡ 0 then f has a circuit of depth d+3 and size O(s • r + mr), where m is the degree of f and r is the highest degree of the variable y appearing in P. In the other direction we observe that the methods of Impagliazzo and Kabanets imply that if we can derandomize polynomial identity testing for bounded depth circuits then NEXP does not have bounded depth arithmetic circuits. That is, either NEXP ⊄ P/poly or the Permanent is not computable by polynomial size bounded depth arithmetic circuits.
A very compact KHN filter with multidecade tuning

A very compact implementation of a multifunction Kerwin Huelsman Newcomb (KHN) filter that can be frequency tuned almost seven decades, from 0.2 Hz to 1 Mhz, is presented. Tuning is achieved by means of high-value, programmable active resistors biased using the quasi floating gate (QFG) technique and linearisated through capacitive gate voltage averaging. The circuit, realized in a 0.5 mum standard CMOS technology using only four CMOS inverters, six small capacitors, six small resistors and two programmable active resistors, occupies a total area of 0.02 mm2, dissipates 3.45 mW and presents a dynamic range at 0.1 % THD of 55.86.
Two-Component System That Regulates Methanol and Formaldehyde Oxidation in Paracoccus denitrificans

ABSTRACT A chromosomal region encoding a two-component regulatory system, FlhRS, has been isolated from Paracoccus denitrificans. FlhRS-deficient mutants were unable to grow on methanol, methylamine, or choline as the carbon and energy source. Expression of the gene encoding glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase (fhlA) was undetectable in the mutant, and expression of the S-formylglutathione hydrolase gene (fghA) was reduced in the mutant background. In addition, methanol dehydrogenase was immunologically undetectable in cell extracts of FhlRS mutants. These results indicate that the FlhRS sensor-regulator pair is involved in the regulation of formaldehyde, methanol, and methylamine oxidation. The effect that the FlhRS proteins exert on the regulation of C1 metabolism might be essential to maintain the internal concentration of formaldehyde below toxic levels.
Circular RNAs are depleted of polymorphisms at microRNA binding sites

Motivation: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are an abundant class of highly stable RNAs that can affect gene regulation by binding and preventing microRNAs (miRNAs) from regulating their messenger RNA (mRNA) targets. Mammals have thousands of circRNAs with predicted miRNA binding sites, but only two circRNAs have been verified as being actual miRNA sponges. As it is unclear whether these thousands of predicted miRNA binding sites are functional, we investigated whether miRNA seed sites within human circRNAs are under selective pressure. Results: Using SNP data from the 1000 Genomes Project, we found a significant decrease in SNP density at miRNA seed sites compared with flanking sequences and random sites. This decrease was similar to that of miRNA seed sites in 3' untranslated regions, suggesting that many of the predicted miRNA binding sites in circRNAs are functional and under similar selective pressure as miRNA binding sites in mRNAs. Contact: pal.satrom@ntnu.no Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Differential Expression of the G-Protein–Coupled Formyl Peptide Receptor in Melanoma Associates With Aggressive Phenotype

Abstract:Melanoma, due to its metastatic rate, is among the most aggressive forms of skin cancer. Human formyl peptide receptor (FPR) and its variant FPR-like 1 (FPRL1) have been associated with cell migration and invasiveness in neoplasms. We have studied the in situ expression of these receptors in a large series of melanocytic lesions and correlated the expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis. Tissue microarray blocks of 141 cases including nevi (31 cases), primary (84 cases), and metastatic melanomas (26 cases) were semiquantitatively evaluated by immunohistochemistry for the expression of FPR and FPRL1 proteins. A significant association was observed regarding diagnosis and percentage of cells showing expression of FPR (P = 0.0311) and FPRL1 (P = 0.0053). A gain of FPR immunoreactivity was observed in the lesions having ulceration (P = 0.0194) and Breslow thickness (P = 0.044). Also, high FPRL1 cytoplasmic immunoreactivity was seen in lesions without tumor regression (P = 0.04). In addition, in patients with increased cytoplasmic staining for FPR, the probability of disease-specific survival was significantly lower (log rank test, P = 0.0089). Our findings reveal that FPR and FPRL1 are overexpressed in primary melanoma and correlate with aggressive tumor characteristics, underscoring them as potential therapeutic targets.
Periodontal disease severity is related to high levels of C-reactive protein in pre-eclampsia

Objective Recent studies have shown that pre-eclamptic women present a high prevalence of periodontitis, suggesting that active periodontal disease may play a role in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. The present study analysed the effect of periodontal disease in the concentrations of serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and its association with pre-eclampsia. Methods A case–control study was carried out in Cali-Colombia, comprised of 398 pregnant women (145 cases and 253 controls) who were believed to have periodontal disease, between 28 and 36 weeks of gestational age. Pre-eclampsia cases were defined as blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmHg and proteinuria ≥ 0.3 g/24 h. Controls were pregnant women with normal blood pressure, without proteinuria, matched by maternal age, gestational age and body mass index. Sociodemographic data, obstetric risk factors, periodontal state, subgingival microbial composition and hs-CRP levels were determined in both groups. Results The case and control groups were comparable for sociodemographic characteristics. In women with pre-eclampsia and confirmed periodontal disease (n = 138), hs-CRP levels increased according to the severity of the disease (gingivitis median 4.14 mg/dl; mild periodontitis median 4.70 mg/dl; moderate/severe periodontitis median 8.8 mg/dl; P = 0.01). A similar tendency was observed in controls with periodontal disease (n = 251), but it did not reach statistical significance (gingivitis median 5.10 mg/dl; mild periodontitis median 5.12 mg/dl; moderate/severe periodontitis median 6.90 mg/dl; P = 0.07). A significant difference in hs-CRP levels was observed in pre-eclamptic women with moderate/severe periodontitis compared to controls (P = 0.01). Conclusion These findings suggest that chronic periodontitis may increase hs-CRP levels in pregnant women and lead to complications such as pre-eclampsia.
SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE LONG-TERM OUTCOME AFTER A SEVERE THERMAL INJURY

We have recently shown that during the acute phase, postburn female pediatric burn patients had significantly increased levels of anabolic hormones with an associated decreased hypermetabolism leading to a significant shorter intensive care unit stay compared with male patients. The aim of the present study was to determine possible differences between girls and boys in body composition, hypermetabolism, and hormone pattern in the long term. Sixty-two children (1-16 years old) who sustained a severe thermal injury (≥40% total body surface area) were included into the study. Patients were further divided into girls (n = 22) and boys (n = 40). Patient demographics, nutritional support, and mortality were noted. Resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured by indirect calorimetry, body composition by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (Hologic Inc, Waltham, Mass) at discharge, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months after burn. In addition, blood was drawn at the same time points, and serum hormones were measured. There were no significant differences between girls and boys for demographics, nutritional intake, or concomitant injuries. Predicted REE was significantly decreased in girls at discharge, 6, 12, and 18 months postburn (P < 0.05). Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scan showed that girls had improved change in bone mineral content and percent fat compared with boys (P < 0.05). There were no differences in changes in height, body weight, lean body mass, and total fat between groups. Girls had significantly higher levels of insulinlike growth factor 1, insulinlike growth factor binding protein 3, free thyroxine index, T4, and insulin when compared with boys (P < 0.05). No differences were found for T3 uptake, osteocalcin, cortisol, growth hormone, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) between groups. Data indicate that girls have a reduced REE associated with changes in bone content and endogenous anabolic hormones.