Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Actuation Selection for Assistive Exoskeletons: Matching Capabilities to Task Requirements

Selecting actuators for assistive exoskeletons involves decisions in which designers usually face contrasting requirements. While certain choices may depend on the application context or design philosophy, it is generally desirable to avoid oversizing actuators in order to obtain more lightweight and transparent systems, ultimately promoting the adoption of a given device. In many cases, the torque and power requirements can be relaxed by exploiting the contribution of an elastic element acting in mechanical parallel. This contribution considers one such case and introduces a methodology for the evaluation of different actuator choices resulting from the combination of different motors, reduction gears, and parallel stiffness profiles, helping to match actuator capabilities to the task requirements. Such methodology is based on a graphical tool showing how different design choices affect the actuator as a whole. To illustrate the approach, a back-support exoskeleton for lifting tasks is considered as a case study.
Predicting Upcoming Glucose Levels in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes Using a Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity Modelling Approach

Continuous blood glucose monitoring systems (CGMS) capture interstitial glucose levels at frequent intervals over time, and are used by people with diabetes and their health care professionals to assess glycaemic variability. This information helps to adjust treatment to achieve optimum glycaemic control, as well as potentially providing early warning of imminent and dangerous hypoglycaemia. Although a number of studies has reported the possibilities of predicting hypoglycaemia in insulin dependent type 1 diabetes (T1DM) patients, the prediction paradigm is still unreliable, as glucose fluctuations in people with diabetes are highly volatile and depend on many factors. Studies have proposed the use of linear auto-regressive (AR) and state space time series models to analyse the glucose profiles for predicting upcoming glucose levels. However, these modelling approaches have not adequately addressed the inherent dependencies and volatility aspects in the glucose profiles. We have investigated the utility of generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models to explore glucose time-series trends and volatility, and possibility of reliable short-term forecasting of glucose levels. GARCH models were explored using CGMS profiles of young children (4 to <10 years) with T1DM. The prediction performances of GARCH approach were compared with other contemporary modelling approaches such as lower and higher order AR, and the state space models. The GARCH approach appears to be successful in both realizing the volatility in glucose profiles and offering potentially more reliable forecasting of upcoming glucose levels.
Host plant effects on the genetic variation and correlations in the individual performance of the Gypsy Moth

1. Quantitative genetic analysis of variation in host-use ability was performed in an extremely polyphagous species – the Gypsy Moth. Various life-history traits were investigated by applying a split-family two-environment experimental design, where 30 full-sibling families were reared on oak and Locust Tree leaves. 2. Feeding on Locust Tree leaves decreased preadult viability, prolonged development time, decreased pupal mass both in males and females, and decreased reproductive effort in females. 3. The majority of broad-sense heritabilities did not change across host plants. 4. Significant expression of genetic variation in diet breadth was observed for development time and pupal mass both in males and females, but not for female reproductive effort traits. The heritabilities of plasticities were, on average, lower than heritabilities of the traits themselves. 5. The majority of genetic correlations between the host plants were significantly positive. The only trade-off was found between reciprocal value of reproductive index and the average mass of a fertilized egg within oak. This means that selection for the decrease in relative reproductive investment (under starvation during gradation) will be followed by laying larger eggs. Given that the Gypsy Moth has a cyclic population dynamics, this negative genetic correlation could have a role in maintaining genetic variability in this species.
Fiber Optic Sensors-Based Thermal Analysis of Perfusion-Mediated Tissue Cooling in Liver Undergoing Laser Ablation

The current challenge in the field of thermo-ablative treatments of tumors is to achieve a balance between complete destruction of malignant cells and safeguarding of the surrounding healthy tissue. Blood perfusion plays a key role for thermal ablation success, especially in the case of highly vascularized organs like liver. This work aims at monitoring the temperature within perfused swine liver undergoing laser ablation (LA). Temperature was measured through seven arrays of Fiber Bragg Grating sensors (FBGs) around the laser applicator. To mimic reality, blood perfusion within the ex-vivo liver was simulated using artificial vessels. The influence of blood perfusion on LA was carried out by comparing the temperature profiles in two different spatial configurations of vessels and fibers. The proposed setup permitted to accurately measure the heat propagation in real-time with a temperature resolution of 0.1 °C and to observe a relevant tissue cooling near to the vessel up to 65%.
Integrative Omics Analyses Reveal Epigenetic Memory in Diabetic Renal Cells Regulating Genes Associated With Kidney Dysfunction

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major complication of diabetes and the leading cause of end-stage renal failure. Epigenetics has been associated with metabolic memory in which prior periods of hyperglycemia enhance the future risk of developing DKD despite subsequent glycemic control. To understand the mechanistic role of such epigenetic memory in human DKD and to identify new therapeutic targets, we profiled gene expression, DNA methylation, and chromatin accessibility in kidney proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTECs) derived from subjects with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D-PTECs displayed persistent gene expression and epigenetic changes with and without transforming growth factor-β1 treatment, even after culturing in vitro under similar conditions as nondiabetic PTECs, signified by deregulation of fibrotic and transport-associated genes (TAGs). Motif analysis of differential DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility regions associated with genes differentially regulated in T2D revealed enrichment for SMAD3, HNF4A, and CTCF transcription factor binding sites. Furthermore, the downregulation of several TAGs in T2D (including CLDN10, CLDN14, CLDN16, SLC16A2, and SLC16A5) was associated with promoter hypermethylation, decreased chromatin accessibility, and reduced enrichment of HNF4A, histone H3-lysine-27-acetylation, and CTCF. Together, these integrative analyses reveal epigenetic memory underlying the deregulation of key target genes in T2D-PTECs that may contribute to sustained renal dysfunction in DKD.
An objective evaluation of the beholder’s response to abstract and figurative art based on construal level theory

Significance Art affects our mindset; it can be therapeutic, emotionally evocative, and generative of aesthetic experience. But how art recruits cognitive processes, and how this process differs between abstract and representational art, remain unknown. To quantify differences in mindset evoked by abstract and representational art, we drew on construal level theory (CLT), a psychological theory that has systematically characterized differences in abstract and concrete mindsets. In three different decision making tasks, we found that abstract art evokes a more abstract mindset than representational art. Our data suggest that abstract and representational art have differential effects on cognition and that CLT provides a useful new empirical approach to the analysis of cognitive states evoked by different levels of artistic abstraction. Does abstract art evoke a different cognitive state than figurative art? To address this question empirically, we bridged art theory and cognitive research and designed an experiment leveraging construal level theory (CLT). CLT is based on experimental data showing that psychologically distant events (i.e., occurring farther away in space or time) are represented more abstractly than closer events. We measured construal level elicited by abstract vs. representational art and asked subjects to assign abstract/representational paintings by the same artist to a situation that was temporally/spatially near or distant. Across three experiments, we found that abstract paintings were assigned to the distant situation significantly more often than representational paintings, indicating that abstract art was evocative of greater psychological distance. Our data demonstrate that different levels of artistic abstraction evoke different levels of mental abstraction and suggest that CLT provides an empirical approach to the analysis of cognitive states evoked by different levels of artistic abstraction.
Automatic segmentation of brain MRI using a novel patch-wise U-net deep architecture

Accurate segmentation of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an essential step in quantifying the changes in brain structure. Deep learning in recent years has been extensively used for brain image segmentation with highly promising performance. In particular, the U-net architecture has been widely used for segmentation in various biomedical related fields. In this paper, we propose a patch-wise U-net architecture for the automatic segmentation of brain structures in structural MRI. In the proposed brain segmentation method, the non-overlapping patch-wise U-net is used to overcome the drawbacks of conventional U-net with more retention of local information. In our proposed method, the slices from an MRI scan are divided into non-overlapping patches that are fed into the U-net model along with their corresponding patches of ground truth so as to train the network. The experimental results show that the proposed patch-wise U-net model achieves a Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) score of 0.93 in average and outperforms the conventional U-net and the SegNet-based methods by 3% and 10%, respectively, for on Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS) and Internet Brain Segmentation Repository (IBSR) dataset.
Electrocommunication in pulse Gymnotiformes: the role of electric organ discharge (EOD) time course in species identification

ABSTRACT Understanding how individuals detect and recognize signals emitted by conspecifics is fundamental to discussions of animal communication. The species pair Gymnotus omarorum and Brachyhypopomus gauderio, found in syntopy in Uruguay, emit species-specific electric organ discharge (EOD) that can be sensed by both species. The aim of this study was to unveil whether either of these species is able to identify a conspecific EOD, and to investigate distinctive recognition signal features. We designed a forced-choice experiment using a natural behavior (i.e. tracking electric field lines towards their source) in which each fish had to choose between a conspecific and a heterospecific electric field. We found a clear pattern of preference for a conspecific waveform even when pulses were played within 1 Hz of the same rate. By manipulating the time course of the explored signals, we found that the signal features for preference between conspecific and heterospecific waveforms were embedded in the time course of the signals. This study provides evidence that pulse Gymnotiformes can recognize a conspecific exclusively through species-specific electrosensory signals. It also suggests that the key signal features for species differentiation are probably encoded by burst coder electroreceptors. Given these results, and because receptors are sharply tuned to amplitude spectra and also tuned to phase spectra, we extend the electric color hypothesis used in the evaluation of objects to apply to communication signals. Summary: Individuals of a syntopic pair of electric fish recognize the electric field emitted by conspecifics by evaluating the whole time course of received signals, rather than power spectral density alone.
Dietary Phytogenic Combination with Hops and a Mixture of a Free Butyrate Acidifier and Gluconic Acid Maintaining the Health Status of the Gut and Performance in Chickens

Simple Summary Throughout the rearing period of broiler chickens, they are exposed to a number of stress factors that may compromise their health status. It is particularly important that the development of the gut with a balanced microbiome is not disturbed, which determines the overall health of the birds to a large extent. A number lines of evidence have indicated that substances with bioactive properties, including prebiotics, organic acids, and/or phytogenic ingredients of plants, may have beneficial actions in maintaining the good health status of the bird gut without compromising performance. In the present study, we investigated the dietary application of phytogenic ingredients from hops, licorice and arabic gum as well as a free butyrate acidifier together with a prebiotic complex in relation to the gut functional status response of the host. The present report confirmed that feeding the birds with the dietary treatments maintained bird growth and normal healthy status of the gut and improved gut morphostructure indices. Our findings indicate the potential of the investigated additives for modulating gut functional status in birds. Abstract Additives with bioactive properties can improve chickens’ gut health. This study investigated the physiological status of the gut, including its morphological structure and microbiome activities in chickens fed diets supplemented with phytogenic ingredients with hops (Anta®Phyt) or a mixture of a free butyrate acidifier and gluconic acid (PreAcid). In this study, 1155 broilers were distributed to three dietary treatments with 5 replicate pens per treatment, 77 birds each. Anta®Phyt was added at 400/300/200/200 mg/kg diet whereas PreAcid was added at 3/2/1/1 g/kg starter/grower I/grower II/finisher diet respectively. Dietary treatments did not compromise body weight in different growth periods. In the birds fed PreAcid-supplemented diet, higher gut concentration of butyric acid was observed, particularly in the early stage of growth, while the profile of the short-chain fatty acids was maintained among the treatments. Neither additive significantly affected cecal bacterial enzyme activities. Feeding the birds with Anta®Phyt and PreAcid had beneficial effects on gut morphostructure indices, including intestinal wall thickness, crypt depth and the villus height to crypt depth ratio, in 35- and 42-day old birds. In conclusion, the feeding Anta®Phyt- or PreAcid-supplemented diet exerted beneficial effects on the indices determining the physiological status of the gut and maintained good performance of birds of different ages.
Effective inhibition of cancer cells by recombinant adenovirus expressing EGFR-targeting artificial microRNA and reversed-caspase-3

The EGFR-targeting cancer therapies are commonly facing drug resistance, mostly due to mutations. Gene therapy with artificial microRNA targeting EGFR conserved sequence may avoid such problem. In this study, we constructed a recombinant adenovirus expressing EGFR-targeting artificial microRNA and active revCASP3 (Ad-EC), under the control of tumor-specific SLPI promoter, and evaluated its inhibitory effect on HEP-2 cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. MTT assay showed that cell growth inhibition rate at 72h was 44.0% in Ad-EC group at MOI 50, while the rate was 7.7% in the control virus Ad-GFP group and 3.6% in Cetuximab (500 μg/ml) group respectively. Flow cytometry analysis revealed the late apoptotic cells rate was 36.1% in Ad-EC group, significantly higher than 6.5% of Ad-GFP group (p < 0.001). When Ad-EC (MOI 50) was combined with CDDP (0.25 μg/ml), late apoptotic cells rate increased to 61.2%, significantly higher than each monotherapy group (P < 0.001). The real-time xCELLigence system recorded an effective cell growth inhibition in Ad-EC and CDDP groups, and more enhanced effect in Ad-EC plus CDDP group. Western blot revealed that Ad-EC could inhibit the activation of AKT pathway and ERK1/2 pathway, while Cetuximab had the AKT pathway over-activated. In vivo experiments with HEP-2 xenograft in nude mice confirmed the tumor inhibition in Ad-EC, CDDP and Ad-EC plus CDDP groups compared with PBS group (P < 0.01). Collectively, these data support the effective inhibition of cancer cells by this novel gene therapy strategy.
A comprehensive rat transcriptome built from large scale RNA-seq-based annotation

Abstract The rat is an important model organism in biomedical research for studying human disease mechanisms and treatments, but its annotated transcriptome is far from complete. We constructed a Rat Transcriptome Re-annotation named RTR using RNA-seq data from 320 samples in 11 different organs generated by the SEQC consortium. Totally, there are 52 807 genes and 114 152 transcripts in RTR. Transcribed regions and exons in RTR account for ∼42% and ∼6.5% of the genome, respectively. Of all 73 074 newly annotated transcripts in RTR, 34 213 were annotated as high confident coding transcripts and 24 728 as high confident long noncoding transcripts. Different tissues rather than different stages have a significant influence on the expression patterns of transcripts. We also found that 11 715 genes and 15 852 transcripts were expressed in all 11 tissues and that 849 house-keeping genes expressed different isoforms among tissues. This comprehensive transcriptome is freely available at http://www.unimd. org/rtr/. Our new rat transcriptome provides essential reference for genetics and gene expression studies in rat disease and toxicity models.
Endothelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Endothelial-to-Mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is a process which encompasses extensive transcriptional reprogramming of activated endothelial cells leading to a shift towards mesenchymal cellular phenotypes and functional responses. Initially observed in the context of embryonic development, in the last few decades EndMT is increasingly recognized as a process that contributes to a variety of pathologies in the adult organism. Within the settings of cardiovascular biology, EndMT plays a role in various diseases including atherosclerosis, heart valvular disease, cardiac fibrosis and myocardial infarction, among others. EndMT is also being progressively implicated in development and progression of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This review covers the current knowledge about EndMT in PH and PAH and provides comprehensive overview of seminal discoveries. Topics covered include evidence linking EndMT to factors associated with PAH development including hypoxia responses, inflammation, dysregulation of bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2), and redox signaling. This review amalgamates these discoveries into potential insights for the identification of underlying mechanisms driving EndMT in PH and PAH and discusses future directions for EndMT-based therapeutic strategies in disease management.
Induction of thoracic aortic dissection: a mini-review of β-aminopropionitrile-related mouse models

Thoracic aortic dissection (TAD) is one of the most lethal aortic diseases due to its acute onset, rapid progress, and high rate of aortic rupture. The pathogenesis of TAD is not completely understood. In this mini-review, we introduce three emerging experimental mouse TAD models using β-aminopropionitrile (BAPN) alone, BAPN for a prolonged duration (four weeks) and then with added infusion of angiotensin II (AngII), or co-administration of BAPN and AngII chronically. We aim to provide insights into appropriate application of these three mouse models, thereby enhancing the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of TAD.
A Control Method for SMMS Teleoperation System with Affection of Disturbance

The article presents an overview of some problems in controlling the Teleoperation SMMS (Single Master – Multi Slave) and establishes a control structure that coordinates the slave robots to perform a common task with regard to the effect of disturbance on the system. Based on the dynamic analysis of the Teleoperation SMMS system, with the specific task of the master robot as well as each slave robot, the combination of the disturbance estimation algorithm and the PD Virtual Damping control algorithm for each robot ensures that the robot trajectory of the slave robot system is dramatically tracked to the trajectory of the master robot under supervision of the operator. By simulating on a Matlab Simulink for the object of Teleoperation SMMS with 2 DOF planar robot arm indicates the correctness of the proposed control method.
The Effects of NPY1 Receptor Antagonism on Intervertebral Disc and Bone Changes in Ovariectomized Rats

Study Design: Basic science. Objective: To compare the effects of a neuropeptide Y1 receptor antagonist (NPY-1RA) to estrogen on maintaining vertebral bone microarchitecture and disc height in a rat model of menopause. Methods: This study was an institutional animal care approved randomized control study with 104 ovariectomized rats and 32 intact control animals. Comparison of disc height, trabecular bone, body weights, circulating levels of NPY and estrogen, and distribution of Y1 receptors in the intervertebral disc in an established rodent osteoporotic model were made at baseline and after 2, 4, and 8 weeks after receiving either an implant containing estrogen or an antagonist to the neuropeptide Y1 receptor. Data was compared statistically using One-way analysis of variance. Results: Circulating levels of estrogen increased and NPY decreased following estrogen replacement, with values comparable to ovary-intact animals. NPY-1RA-treated animals had low estrogen and high NPY circulating levels and were similar to ovariectomized control rats. Both NPY-1RA and estrogen administration were able reduce, menopause associated weight gain. NPY-1RA appeared to restore bone formation and maintain disc height, while estrogen replacement prevented further bone loss. Conclusion: NPY-1RA in osteoporotic rats activates osteoblast production of bone and decreased marrow and body fat more effectively than estrogen replacement when delivered in similar concentrations. Annulus cells had NPY receptors, which may play a role in disc nutrition, extracellular matrix production, and pain signaling cascades.
Antimicrobial Flavonoid, 3,6-Dihydroxyflavone, Have Dual Inhibitory Activity against KAS III and KAS I

Three types of -ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase (KAS) are important for overcoming the bacterial resistance problem. Recently, we reported the discovery of a antimicrobial flavonoid, YKAF01 (3,6-dihydroxyflavone), which exhibits antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria through inhibition of -ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase III (KAS III). In this report, we suggested that YKAF01 can be an inhibitor -ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase I (KAS I) with dual inhibitory activity for KAS I as well as KAS III. KAS I is related to the elongation of unsaturated fatty acids in bacterial fatty acid synthesis and can be a good therapeutic target of designing novel antibiotics. We performed docking study of Escherichia coli KAS I (ecKAS I) and YKAF01, and determined their binding model. YKAF01 binds to KAS I with high binding affinity () and exhibited an antimicrobial activity against the multidrug-resistant E. coli with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 512 /mL. Further optimization of this compound will be carried out to improve its antimicrobial activity and membrane permeability against bacterial cell membrane.