Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibitory Effects of Loganin on Adipogenesis In Vitro and In Vivo

Obesity is characterized by the excessive accumulation of mature adipocytes that store surplus energy in the form of lipids. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of loganin on adipogenesis in mouse preadipocyte 3T3-L1 cells and primary cultured adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in vitro and in mice with ovariectomy (OVX)- and high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity in vivo. For an in vitro study, loganin was co-incubated during adipogenesis in both 3T3-L1 cells and ADSCs, lipid droplets were evaluated by oil red O staining, and adipogenesis-related factors were assessed by qRT-PCR. For in vivo studies, mouse models of OVX- and HFD-induced obesity were orally administered with loganin, body weight was measured, and hepatic steatosis and development of excessive fat were evaluated by histological analysis. Loganin treatment reduced adipocyte differentiation by accumulating lipid droplets through the downregulation of adipogenesis-related factors, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (Pparg), CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (Cebpa), perilipin 2 (Plin2), fatty acid synthase (Fasn), and sterol regulatory element binding transcription protein 1 (Srebp1). Loganin administration prevented weight gain in mouse models of obesity induced by OVX and HFD. Further, loganin inhibited metabolic abnormalities, such as hepatic steatosis and adipocyte enlargement, and increased the serum levels of leptin and insulin in both OVX- and HFD-induced obesity models. These results suggest that loganin is a potential candidate for preventing and treating obesity.
ON FRACTIONAL RELAXATION

Generalized fractional relaxation equations based on generalized Riemann-Liouville derivatives are combined with a simple short time regularization and solved exactly. The solution involves generalized Mittag-Leffler functions. The associated frequency dependent susceptibilities are related to symmetrically broadened Cole-Cole susceptibilities occurring as Johari Goldstein β-relaxation in many glass formers. The generalized susceptibilities exhibit a high frequency wing and strong minimum enhancement.
Mating still disrupted: Future elevated CO2 concentrations are likely to not interfere with Lobesia botrana and Eupoecilia ambiguella mating disruption in vineyards in the near future

The successful, area-wide application of the mating disruption (MD) technique, an insect sex pheromone-based biotechnological pest control method, against the European grapevine moth Lobesia botrana and the European grape berry moth Eupoecilia ambiguella, has led to drastic reductions in insecticide application in vineyards. However, since insect pheromone perception and emission can be affected by abiotic conditions, the future success of MD may be affected by climate change. At the same time, politics and society are calling for drastic and sustainable reductions in pesticide application, making highly specific, efficient, and environmentally friendly pest control techniques like MD more important than ever. To anticipate whether climate change factors will interfere with the MD of L. botrana and E. ambiguella in vineyards, we conducted field experiments in the Geisenheim VineyardFACE (Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment) facility. The insects were raised at ambient or elevated temperatures in the lab and male moths were released in cages installed in the VineyardFACE facility. Trap recapture rates obtained by pheromone lures or female moths under elevated or ambient CO2 in areas with and without MD were evaluated. Our results did not indicate a reduced efficacy ofL. botrana or E. ambiguella MD at elevated CO2 concentrations, irrespective of the temperature the moths were raised under. From a practical point of view—and especially from an ecological one—our results are good news. They indicate that MD will not be negatively affected by future elevated CO2 concentrations.
A Novel Vaccine Strategy to Prevent Cytauxzoonosis in Domestic Cats

Cytauxzoonosis is caused by Cytauxzoon felis (C. felis), a tick-borne parasite that causes severe disease in domestic cats in the United States. Currently, there is no vaccine to prevent this fatal disease, as traditional vaccine development strategies have been limited by the inability to culture this parasite in vitro. Here, we used a replication-defective human adenoviral vector (AdHu5) to deliver C. felis-specific immunogenic antigens and induce a cell-mediated and humoral immune response in cats. Cats (n = 6 per group) received either the vaccine or placebo in two doses, 4 weeks apart, followed by experimental challenge with C. felis at 5 weeks post-second dose. While the vaccine induced significant cell-mediated and humoral immune responses in immunized cats, it did not ultimately prevent infection with C. felis. However, immunization significantly delayed the onset of clinical signs and reduced febrility during C. felis infection. This AdHu5 vaccine platform shows promising results as a vaccination strategy against cytauxzoonosis.
Spectral modulation of single plasmonic nanostructures

We discuss in this paper the feasibility of dynamically modulating both resonance wavelength and spectral width of single nanostructures exhibiting plasmonic effects by cycling through a metal-insulator transition (MIT) in vanadium dioxide (VO2). Using full-field 3D finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulation method with nonuniform mesh techniques, we study the effects of this modulation by varying the lateral dimensions of these nanostructures from 40 nm to 120 nm radially and changing its configuration as well, that is VO2 nanodisk on gold one and vice-versa. As an initial step towards fabricating those single composite nanostructures showing the greatest modulating effect, we start by making single NPs of VO2 and single gold NPs embedded between two 60 nm layers of VO2. The samples are fabricated on 130 μm thin glass substrates by electron-beam lithography, pulsed laser deposition of VO2 and electron-beam evaporation of gold. Using confocal extinction spectroscopy, we hereafter provide for the first time experimental observations of spectral tuning in these lithographically prepared single nanostructures. However, we discussed the variability in spectra obtained. Indeed, as the gold NP size decreases, it becomes comparable to the domain sizes of the embedding VO2 and this prevent the correct acquisition of the flat field. Hence the study of the tunability of gold particle plasmon resonance is imparted. However, we conclude that this study will be feasible for truly hybridized NP, that is gold nanodisk stacked on VO2 nanodisk and vice-versa. As hinted by our simulation studies and preliminary experimental results, these hybridized composite NPs could potentially be used in the dynamic spectral tuning of plasmonic waveguides.
Uso de realidad virtual en Geometría para el desarrollo de habilidades espaciales

En el siglo xxi, surge la necesidad de un cambio en el paradigma educativo, siendo las TIC un medio vehicular que puede hacer posible esta consecución. En este artículo se exponen un conjunto de actividades sobre poliedros en 3. º de la ESO (estudiantes entre 14 y 16 años) para fomentar la adquisición y mejora de habilidades espaciales. Partiendo de los errores geométricos detectados en una evaluación inicial, se diseñan actividades sustentadas en las ventajas que ofrecen los entornos inmersivos de realidad virtual para el desarrollo de dichas habilidades, además de actividades realizadas con materiales manipulativos. Se analizan las resoluciones de los estudiantes mostrando y comparando las estrategias utilizadas en ambos casos. El análisis de dichos resultados muestra evidencias en el desarrollo de habilidades espaciales y mejora en cuanto a la subsanación de errores cometidos.
Random fractional partial differential equations and solutions for water movement in soils: Theory and applications

This paper analyses a set of random fractional partial differential equations (rfPDEs) for water movement in soils. The rfPDEs for both rigid and swelling soils are solved for both a random flux boundary condition (BC), and random concentration BC. Solutions from a random flux BC are presented for the large‐time and small‐time situations with the large‐time solution as a very simple method for determining the flux through the surface of the soil. The equation of cumulative infiltration is presented with random parameters of the rfPDE subject to a random concentration BC. The simulations using the results of the rfPDE for the two types of BCs yielded encouraging and stable results based on two sets of field data: the first set of the data was measurements at a single site while the second set was from 26 measurements in a small catchment. The results suggest that the presented procedures are very useful methods for the interpolation, extrapolation, and prediction of hydrological variables and parameters such as water content, hydraulic conductivity or the flux through the surface of the soil. The methodologies presented in this paper are able to reveal and reproduce the realistic hydrological processes in nature which are often stochastic and random.
Globular cluster formation - The fossil record

Properties of globular clusters which have remained unchanged since their formation are used to infer the internal pressures, cooling times, and dynamical times of the protocluster clouds immediately prior to the onset of star formation. For all globular clusters examined, it is found that the cooling times are much less than the dynamical times, implying that the protoclusters must have been maintained in thermal equilibrium by external heat sources, with fluxes consistent with those found in previous work, and giving the observed p-T relation. Self-gravitating clouds cannot be stably heated, so that the Jeans mass forms an upper limit to the cluster masses
Alleviating Effects of Long-QT Syndrome Type 2 by Allele-Specific Inhibition of the KCNH2 Mutant Allele

It has recently been demonstrated that the effects of long-QT syndrome type l can be alleviated by allele-specific 40-60% inhibition of the mutant KCNQ1 gene. We investigated whether the effects of long-QT syndrome type 2 (LQTS2) can similarly be alleviated by downregulation of the mutant KCNH2 allele, using the O'Hara-Rudy human ventricular cardiomyocyte model, updated with the rapid delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) Markov model from Li et al. (2017; PMID: 28202629). If wild-type and mutant KCNH2 proteins are equally expressed and co-assemble randomly, only 6.25% of the tetrameric IKr channels will completely consist of wild-type subunits. Inhibition of the mutant KCNH2 allele by 60% decreases the overall number of IKr channels by 30%. However, if only IKr channels entirely built of wild-type subunits are conductive, as in severe LQTS2 mutations, the amount of conductive IKr channels increases almost three-fold, reducing the mutation-induced prolongation of the APD90 at 1 Hz stimulation from 357 ms (+135%) to 236 ms (+89%). An even higher effect is obtained if the mutant KCNH2 allele can be inhibited by as much as 80%. We conclude that allele-specific inhibition of the KCNH2 mutant allele in case of LQTS2 reduces the mutation-induced action potential prolongation and thus may alleviate the disease.
Multi-Task Prediction of Murmur and Outcome from Heart Sound Recordings

As part of the George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge 2022, our team, prna, developed a novel approach to automatically detect the presence of heart murmurs and predict abornomal clinical outcomes from the heart sound recordings. To train the model, each heart sound recording is first divided into multiple 3-second segments. Then each segment is transformed into a time-domain embedding vector through a convolutional neural network (CNN). In parallel, the Mel-frequency cepstrum (MFCC) representation of the segment is transformed into a frequency-domain embedding vector using CNN. These embedding vectors and the demographic variables are concatenated and then used as input to two separate networks built to predict the presence of heart murmurs and clinical outcomes respectively. The network parameters are optimized to jointly predict both targets using multi-task learning. Our murmur detection classifier received a weighted accuracy score of 0.694 (ranked 20th out of 40 teams) and Challenge cost score of 11,403 (ranked 2nd out of 39 teams) on the hidden test set.
Mechanically Based Nonlocal Euler-Bernoulli Beam Model

AbstractThis paper presents a nonlocal Euler-Bernoulli beam model. It is assumed that the equilibrium of a beam segment is attained because of the classical local stress resultants, along with long-range volume forces and moments exchanged by the beam segment with all the nonadjacent beam segments. Elastic long-range volume forces/moments are considered, built as linearly depending on the product of the volumes of the interacting beam segments and on generalized measures of their relative motion, based on the pure deformation modes of the beam. Attenuation functions governing the space decay of the nonlocal effects are introduced. The motion equations are derived in an integro-differential form by applying Hamilton’s principle. Numerical results are presented for a variety of nonlocal parameters. A comparison with experimental data is also provided.
Differences in transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of metabolites of shoots on tea plants of different ages and relevant regulatory network

To investigate differences in fresh leaves of tea plants at different ages in gene expression, metabolism, and dried tea quality, and to provide references to a deep exploration on metabolite differential accumulation of fresh leaves of tea plants at different ages as well as the regulation mechanism, two groups of fresh leaves from tea plants at different ages (group JP: 20-, 200-, and 1,200-year tea plants; group YX: 50-, 100-, and 400-year tea plants) were chosen as materials, and their differences in gene expression, metabolites, and metabolic regulatory network were investigated by transcriptomics and metabolomics. A total of 12,706 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from the fresh tea leaves in the JP group, of which tea-20 vs. tea-200 had the largest number of DEGs, up to 9,041 (4,459 down-regulated genes, 4,582 up-regulated genes). A total of 644 common genes in the fresh leaves of three different ages of tea plants in the JP group were differentially expressed. A total of 8,971 DEGs were screened from the fresh leaf samples of tea plants in the YX group, of which the number of DEGs obtained in the tea-50 vs. tea-400 comparison combination was the largest with a total of 3,723 (1,722 up-regulated genes and 2,001 down-regulated genes). A total of 147 common genes were differentially expressed in the fresh leaves of three different tree ages in the YX group. The pathway enrichment analysis showed that most up-regulated DEGs and their related metabolic pathways were similar in the two groups, and that the metabolic pathways of common significant enrichment included flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropane biosynthesis, carbon metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, and plant pathogen interaction. The metabolomics results showed that 72 and 117 different metabolites were screened from the JP and YX groups, respectively. Most of the different metabolites in the two groups were flavonoids, phenolic acids, amino acids, and their derivatives. Among them, the number of down-regulated flavonoids in older tea plants is generally higher than the number of up-regulated flavonoids. Moreover, according to the sensory evaluation results of dried tea of fresh leaves from tea plants of different ages, tea-1200 and tea-400 showed the highest sensory evaluation scores in their groups. With increase in plant age, the fragrance of the tea was more elegant, and it changed from a dense scent to a faint scent; the tea tasted sweet and its freshness increased, while the sense of astringency was weakened and the concentration declined. Therefore, the quality difference of tea of different tree ages is mainly related to secondary metabolic pathways such as the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway. With increase in tea age, a large number of gene expression in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway is down-regulated, which reduces the content of bitter flavonoid substances in fresh leaves and makes tea soup more mellow.
Aggrecan governs intervertebral discs development by providing critical mechanical cues of the extracellular matrix

Aggrecan (ACAN) is localized in the intervertebral disc (IVD) in unique compartment-specific patterns where it contributes to the tissue structure and mechanical function together with collagens. The extracellular matrix (ECM) of the IVD undergoes degenerative changes during aging, misuse or trauma, which inevitably alter the biochemical and biomechanical properties of the tissue. A deeper understanding of these processes can be achieved in genetically engineered mouse models, taking into account the multifaceted aspects of IVD development. In this study, we generated aggrecan insertion mutant mice (Acan iE5/iE5 ) by interrupting exon 5 coding for the G1 domain of ACAN, and analyzed the morphological and mechanical properties of the different IVD compartments during embryonic development. Western blotting using an antibody against the total core protein failed to detect ACAN in cartilage extracts, whereas immunohistochemistry by a G1-specific antibody showed weak signals in vertebral tissues of Acan iE5/iE5 mice. Homozygous mutant mice are perinatally lethal and characterized by short snout, cleft palate and disproportionate dwarfism. Whole-mount skeletal staining and µ-CT analysis of Acan iE5/iE5 mice at embryonic day 18.5 revealed compressed vertebral bodies with accelerated mineralization compared to wild type controls. In Acan iE5/iE5 mice, histochemical staining revealed collapsed extracellular matrix with negligible sulfated glycosaminoglycan content accompanied by a high cellular density. Collagen type II deposition was not impaired in the IVD of Acan iE5/iE5 mice, as shown by immunohistochemistry. Mutant mice developed a severe IVD phenotype with deformed nucleus pulposus and thinned cartilaginous endplates accompanied by a disrupted growth plate structure in the vertebral body. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging demonstrated a denser collagen network with thinner fibrils in the mutant IVD zones compared to wild type. Nanoscale AFM indentation revealed bimodal stiffness distribution attributable to the softer proteoglycan moiety and harder collagenous fibrils of the wild type IVD ECM. In Acan iE5/iE5 mice, loss of aggrecan resulted in a marked shift of the Young’s modulus to higher values in all IVD zones. In conclusion, we demonstrated that aggrecan is pivotal for the determination and maintenance of the proper stiffness of IVD and vertebral tissues, which in turn could play an essential role in providing developmental biomechanical cues.
Numerical simulation of the flow field in the vicinity of an axial flow fan

The main purpose of the current investigation is the development and evaluation of a numerical model used to simulate the effect of an axial flow fan on the velocity field in the vicinity of the fan blades. The axial flow fan is modeled as an actuator disc, where the actuator disc forces are calculated using blade element theory. The calculated disc forces are expressed as sources/sinks of momentum in the Navier–Stokes equations solved by a commercially available computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code, Flo++. The model is used to determine the fan performance characteristics of an axial flow fan as well as the velocity fields directly up‐ and downstream of the fan blades. The results are compared with experimental data. In general, good agreement is obtained between the numerical results and experimental data, although the fan power consumption, as well as radial velocity downstream of the fan blades, is underpredicted by the fan model. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Impact of Mechanically-Induced Fibrosis on Atrial Electromechanical Function

Atrial fibrillation is accompanied by remodelling processes on the structural, electrophysiological, and contractile levels. These alterations result at least in part from mechanical overload. In order to investigate the effects of mechanical forces on atrial cell and tissue mechano-electric functions, we established two human invitro models, one at cell and the other at tissue level. The cellular model consists of functional atrial- and ventricular-like cardiomyocyte populations from human induced pluripotent stem cells, to characterize their electrical and mechanical functions in various mechanical environments. The tissue-based model consists of slices that are electrically and mechanically stimulated in biomimetic chambers for up to 7 days. We hypothesize that mechanical overload induces fibrosis, mimicking the condition of atrial tissue from patients having sustained atrial fibrillation. We aim to use this model for an in-depth characterization of the effects of mechanical. By compiling all data into a computational model, we propose to establish a digital slice model, in which parameters such as collagen distribution, tissue and extra-cellular matrix stiffness, as well as excitation can be changed independently to assess their contribution to passive and active mechanics and their effects on electro-physiological properties of atrial tissue slices over time.
The influence of SIFs managers’ characteristics on fund performance: an empirical study in China

ABSTRACT This paper adopts principal component analysis to assign weights to three fund performances obtained independently by the Sharpe index, Jensen index, and Treynor index. Therefore, a comprehensive model for the performance of Chinese securities investment funds (SIFs) is derived by combining these three indexes. The empirical study shows that the regression between SIFs managers’ characteristics and fund performance is better when using this comprehensive measurement model. Moreover, SIFs managers’ experience and tenure have negative and positive effects on fund performance, respectively. However, their gender, education level, professional qualification holdings, research experience, and abroad experience, do not significantly influence the fund performance.
Helping Adolescents with Trauma: Using Neuro-Informed Family Counseling

Trauma and trauma-informed care are crucial components for family counselors to know. Considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the counseling field is reinforced with this continued need to address trauma. This article will provide an overview of how trauma impacts the adolescent brain, how personality is shaped by trauma, and how integration of neuro-informed and trauma-informed family counseling can help young clients and their families. For practical purposes, this documentation will feature a hypothetical client with the pseudonym “Noah,” to further apply neuro-informed and trauma-informed family counseling for readers.