Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contrasting patterns of ERK activation in the tail of the striatum in response to aversive and rewarding signals

The caudal part of the striatum, also named the tail of the striatum (TS), defines a fourth striatal domain. Determining whether rewarding, aversive and salient stimuli regulate the activity of striatal spiny projections neurons (SPNs) of the TS is therefore of a paramount importance to understand its functions, which remain largely elusive. Taking advantage of genetically encoded biosensors (AKAR3) to record PKA signals and by analyzing the distribution of D1R-and D2R/A2aR-SPNs in the TS, we characterized three evolutionary highly conserved subterritories: a D2R/A2aR-lacking area, a D1R/D2-SPNs-enriched and an D1R/D2R-intermingled area. The analysis of ERK phosphorylation in these TS subterritories in response to distinct appetitive, aversive and pharmacological stimuli revealed that SPNs of the TS are not recruited by stimuli triggering innate or learned avoidance responses, fasting, satiety or palatable signals. In contrast, D1R-SPNs of the intermingled and D2R/A2AR-lacking areas are strongly activated by both direct stimulation of D1R and psychostimulant drugs (d-amphetamine, cocaine, MDMA or methylphenidate), but not by hallucinogens. Finally, a similar pattern of ERK activation was observed by blocking selectively dopamine reuptake. Together, our results reveal that the caudal TS might participate in the processing of specific reward signals.
Changing Paediatric Cancer Practice in COVID-19 Times

Introduction: Experts dealing with the treatment of cancer in children believe that the COVID-19 pandemic could pose a serious global challenge to the delivery of affordable and equitable treatment to children with cancer. In this paper we report our experience in the management of children with cancer in these COVID-19 times. Patients and Methods: Out-patient case records, in-patient case records, imaging pictures of all children with cancer attending our hospital were retrieved and analyzed. Results: Our study period extended from Dec 2019 until the end of April 2020. During this period, it was observed that the number of children attending the outpatient department, undergoing day-care procedures including chemotherapy, as well as children undergoing surgery progressively declined due to COVID-19 associated lockdown. Efforts were made to help the children and their families to gain easy access to treatment. Conclusion: COVID-19 has disrupted the world and has caused widespread anxiety among families of children with cancer. The medical fraternity with active help from all agencies should work out measures to reduce these difficulties faced by children and their families to provide the means to ensure the continuity of curative treatments and palliative care as effectively as possible.
Thermostabilization of VPR, a cold adapted subtilase, by proline substitutions into surface loops and monitoring the dynamics of the active site with electron paramagnetic resonance

The first goal of this project was to understand the thermostabilization effect of prolines in surface loops of VPR a cold adapted serine protease from Vibrio sp. (PA-44). The mutations N3P, I5P, N238P, and T265P were introduced into VPR based on the location of the prolines found at corresponding sites in surface loops of aqualysin I (AQUI), a thermophilic structural homologue from Thermus aquaticus. The single variants N3P, I5P showed most increase in stability while the T265P and N238P variants had mild increase and decrease in stability, respectively, compared to the pseudo wild type VPR∆C. The double (N3P/I5P), triple (N3P/I5P/N238P and N3P/I5P/T265P), and quadruple variants (N3P/I5P/N238P/T265P) were all more stable than if the stability effects of the individual proline substitutions were added together. The most stable variants were N3P/I5P/T265P and N3P/I5P/N238P/T265P with around 8-9°C increase in stability compared to VPR∆C according to TM and T50%. The thermostabilization of the proline substitutions conferred to VPR were therefore additive and in some cases cooperative. All the proline mutations caused minimal to no effect on the activity characteristics of VPR. The second goal of this project was to reveal the possible relationship between molecular flexibility and catalytic activity in the cold-active VPR and the thermostable AQUI. This was achieved with a chemical modification of the active-site serine to cysteine followed by spin labeling. The motion of the active-site spin label was then monitored with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The EPR line shape and scaled mobility (Ms) of the spin labeled VPR∆C and AQUI wt reflected that the motion of the spin label was largely similar in both enzymes and immobile. This might suggest that the motion of the active site in the near vicinity to the active-site serine, which had been modified to cysteine, is similar for VPR∆C and AQUI wt. This is against the general notion that enzymes from psychrophiles achieve their cold activity through increased flexibility of the active site. AQUI D98S, which has increased turnover rate (kcat) and substrate affinity (KM), exhibited considerably more motion of the active-site spin label in comparison to AQUI wt. This suggests that there might be increased localized motion or possibly some alteration to the active site in AQUI D98S compared to AQUI wt.
Three-Dimensional Printing of Honeycomb Microwave Absorbers: Feasibility and Innovative Multiscale Topologies

In this article, we propose to apply 3-D printing technology to the design and realization of honeycomb microwave absorbers. First, printability of simple honeycomb structures, made of a lossy dielectric material, was evaluated and validated by measurement in the 2–18 GHz frequency band. Effective dielectric properties of honeycomb structures with different dimensions are also discussed. Then, the interest of 3-D printing technology was highlighted by the design, fabrication, and measurement of a multiscale honeycomb absorber that can significantly increase the relative bandwidth. The 3-D printed honeycomb absorbers are compared with others technologies. The potential of this technology was also illustrated by the fabrication and measurement of a pyramidal honeycomb absorber that demonstrates an absorption level of more than 22.9 dB over the 2–18 GHz frequency band.
Complex interactions between local adaptation, plasticity, and sex affect vulnerability to warming in a widespread marine copepod

Predicting the response of populations to climate change requires knowledge of thermal performance. Genetic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity affect thermal performance, but the effects of sex and developmental temperatures often go uncharacterized. We used common garden experiments to test for effects of local adaptation, developmental phenotypic plasticity, and individual sex on thermal performance of the ubiquitous copepod, Acartia tonsa. Females had higher thermal tolerance than males in both populations, while the Florida population had higher thermal tolerance compared to the Connecticut population. An effect of developmental phenotypic plasticity on thermal tolerance was observed only in the Connecticut population. Ignoring sex-specific differences may result in a severe underestimation of population-level impacts of warming (i.e. - population decline due to sperm limitation). Further, despite having a higher thermal tolerance, southern populations may be more vulnerable to warming as they lack the ability to respond to increases in temperature through phenotypic plasticity.
A biophysical computational model for memory trace transfer from hippocampus to neocortex

The hippocampus plays important roles in memory formation and retrieval through sharp-wave-ripples. Recent studies have shown that certain neuron populations in the prefrontal cortex exhibit coordinated reactivations during awake ripple events. Also, the reactivation seems stronger during initial awake learning. These experimental findings suggest that the awake ripple is an important biomarker, through which the hippocampus interacts with the neocortex to assist the memory formation and retrieval. However, the computational mechanisms of this ripple based hippocampal-cortical coordination are still not clear. In this work, we build a biophysical model that includes both CA1 and layer V networks of the prefrontal cortex to investigate the possible mechanisms, by which the memory traces in the hippocampus can be transferred to prefrontal cortex. We first show that the local field potentials generated in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex exhibit ripple range activities that are consistent with the recent experimental studies. Then, we find that the sequence information stored in the hippocampus can be successfully transferred to the prefrontal cortex recurrent networks through spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) and sequence replays. Further, we investigate the mechanisms of memory retrieval in the PFC network. Our findings suggest that the stored memory traces in the prefrontal cortex network can be retrieved through two different mechanisms, namely the cell-specific input and non-specific spontaneous background noise. Finally, we show that more SWRs and an optimal background noise level will both contribute to better sequence reactivations in the PFC network during memory retrieval. Our study presents a possible explanation for the memory trace transfer from the hippocampus to the neocortex through ripple coupling in awake states and reports two different mechanisms by which the stored memory traces can be successfully retrieved. Author Summary The hippocampal-cortical interactions have been found to be important for learning and memory. Recent experimental work reports interesting coordinations between the hippocampus and neocortex during ripple events in quiet awake states. Investigating this phenomena is critical for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which hippocampus contributes to the long-term memory formation in the neocortex. To this end, we build a biophysical computational model for both the hippocampal CA1 and prefrontal cortex networks. We demonstrate that under STDP rule and sequential inputs, the memory traces initially stored in the hippocampus can be transferred to the neocortex through the ripple events. The stored memory traces in the PFC network can be reactivated by two different mechanisms, namely the cell-specific inputs and non-specific background noises. Our study suggests that both the ripple event numbers and the level of background noises jointly determine the quality of memory retrieval during reactivation.
Characterization of algae communities in spring-associated limestone habitats of Austria

Tuffbache bieten einzigartige hydro-chemische und geomorphologische Bedingungen, welche auch Organismengemeinschaften strukturieren. Tuff (Travertin) ist das Produkt der Kalkausfallung, welche durch Unterschiede im CO2-Partialdruck zwischen Wasser und der Atmosphare hervorgerufen wird. Das Grundwasser ist mit CO2 angereichert, welches sich mit Wasser zur Kohlensaure verbindet. Diese schwache Saure lost Kalkstein auf. Kommt das Grundwasser an die Oberflache, beginnt CO2 in die Atmosphare auszugasen, wodurch als Nebeneffekt Kalk ausfallt. In dieser Studie wurden Algengemeinschaften an 14 Tuffbachen in Osterreich im Fruhling und Herbst 2014 hinsichtlich ihrer Artenzusammensetzung untersucht. Weiteres wurden einige Umweltparameter ermittelt. Typische quell-assoziierte Tuffarten konnten gefunden werden, wie zum Beispiel die Kieselalgen Delicata delicatula, Denticula tenuis, Encyonopsis microcephala, Cymbopleura austriaca, Encyonopsis cesati, Gomphonema lateripunctatum, Brachysira calcicola ssp. pfisteri und Oocardium stratum. Oocardium stratum ist eine sehr seltene Zieralge, welche ausschlieslich in Tuffbachen anzutreffen ist. Sie bildet Kalkrohren aus, welche durch physiologische Aktivitaten verlangert werden. Oocardium stratum wurde an den vier bereits bekannten Standorten in Osterreich identifiziert; weiters wurden fur Osterreich drei neue Standorte entdeckt. Multivariate statistische Analysen zeigten, dass es keine saisonale Variabilitat in den Algengemeinschaften gibt. Es konnte jedoch ein geographisches Muster ermittelt werden. Eine Indikatorartanalyse konnte 22 Indikatorarten fur sieben Taxagruppen identifizieren. Signifikante Umweltparameter fur die Artenverteilung sind vom Menschen verursachte Veranderungen an den Standorten, der Gesamtphosphor, pH, Leitfahigkeit, die Hydrogenkarbonatkonzentration, der Langelier Sattigungsindex, die Lichtversorgung, die Chloridkonzentration und die Kalkfallungsrate. Oocardium stratum kommt bei intakten 68 Standorten mit niedrigen Phosphorwerten und hohen Kalkausfallungsraten vor. Im Grosen und Ganzen wurden typische Algengemeinschaften gefunden und wichtige Umweltparameter fur die Artenkomposition ermittelt.
Attention Multibranch Convolutional Neural Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification Based on Adaptive Region Search

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demo- nstrated outstanding performance on image classification. To classify the hyperspectral images (HSIs), existing CNN-based approaches commonly adopt the architecture using single or several fixed spatial windows as inputs. This kind of architecture may lose contextual information or incorporate heterogeneous information due to the neglect of various land-cover distributions in HSIs. To deal with this problem, a novel attention multibranch CNN method based on adaptive region search (RS-AMCNN) is proposed for HSI classification. In RS-AMCNN, sizes and locations of spatial windows are searched in the nonlocal candidate region adaptively according to sample-specific distribution. These flexible spatial windows are input into several branches of RS-AMCNN. In each branch, convolutional long short-term memories (ConvLSTMs) are merged into CNN from shallow to deep layers, which not only extracts joint spatial–spectral features, but also exploits complementary information among different layers. Then, a branch attention mechanism is devised to emphasize more discriminative branches and suppress less useful ones. It forces RS-AMCNN to extract multiscale and multicontextual attention features for classification. Finally, RS-AMCNN is optimized end-to-end by combining the losses from the ramose classifiers of different branches and the main classifier. Experiments carried on several benchmark HSI data sets demonstrate that RS-AMCNN provides promising classification performance, especially in edge preservation and region uniformity.
Bioinformatics analysis of lncRNAs differently expressed in patients with schizophrenia

This study aimed to perform bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed NONHSAT089447, NONHSAT021545 and NONHSAT041499 and their coexpressed mRNAs in blood samples of patients with schizophrenia, to provide the theoretical basis for further research. We screened the peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 5 patients and 5 controls, 10 differentially expressed lncRNAs were selected and validated in 106 patients and 48 controls by qPCR. The co-expressed mRNAs of lncRNAs were identified by calculating Pearson correlation, and the result were analyzed by gene ontology and KEGG pathway analysis using DAVID. Then an lncRNA-transcription factor-gene network was performed. The co-expressed mRNAs of lncRNAs were participate in diverse GO biological processes, among which some terms have direct relationship with the central nervous system; The pathway analysis showed that a significant enrichment in ribosome, lysosome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis, GnRH signaling pathway, hematopoietic cell lineage, leukocyte transendothelial migration, mTOR signaling pathway, insulin signaling pathway and apoptosis; LncRNA-transcription factor-gene network showed that TAF1, EBF1 and USF1 were important transcription factors and that 15 genes (RPL13A, RPL12, RPL10A, RPS2, CASC4, HIST1H4E, PTMA, RPL17, RPL26, RPL3, RPS18, SH2B3, SLC15A4, TPP1, TRAPPC2L) may play a key role in schizophrenia. Bioinformatics analysis indicates that NONHSAT089447, NONHSAT021545 and NONHSAT041499 and their co-expressed mRNAs are closely related to the mechanism and pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Correspondence to: Li-yi Zhang, Prevention and Treatment Center for Psychological Diseases, NO.102 hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, North Peace Road 55, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213003, People’s Republic of China, Tel: 86 519 83064556; Fax: 86 519 83064560; E-mail: zly102@126.com
Epigenetic effects of decitabine on acute lymphoblastic and acute promyelocytic leukemia cells

BackgroundDecitabine (5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine, DAC) is a deoxycytidine analog currently used as an effective drug against myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia. Although various studies have pointed out the epigenetic effects of this drug, its epigenetic mechanisms in different leukemic cell lines are not specified. In this lab trial study, possible epigenetic effects of decitabine on leukemia cell lines Hl-60 (acute promyelocytic leukemia) and Nalm-6 (acute pre-B cell lymphoblastic leukemia) vs. normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are compared.Materias and MethodsAt the logarithmic phase of growth, the cultured cells Hl-60 and Nalm-6 obtained from Tehran Pasteur Institute, Iran, were treated for 24 hr with 1 μM of decitabine, a dose selected from literature and the MTT viability assay. Normal PBMCs were obtained from a pool of 3 healthy adult volunteer males, and cultured simultaneously in the same manner. The gene expressions of epigenetic enzymes DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) were assessed with the real-time PCR technique before and after treatment. The GAPDH gene expression served as the calibrator, while normal PBMCs were used for comparison.ResultsThe expressions of DNMT1 and DNMT3B in lymphoblasts were significantly (p=0.0017 and p=0.0489, respectively) decreased after treatment with decitabine, while the expression of DNMT3A was significantly (p=0.0022) increased. In leukemic promyelocytes the expressions of DNMT1 and DNMT3B in lymphoblasts were significantly (p=0.0222 and p=0.0452, respectively) decreased after treatment with decitabine, while the expression of DNMT3A was significantly (p=0.0013) increased.ConclusionOne of the mechanisms by decitabine to inhibit the proliferation of both myeloid and lymphoid acute leukemia cells maybe by altering the gene expression of DNMTs.
A Queueing Game Based Management Framework for Fog Computing With Strategic Computing Speed Control

In this paper, a novel management framework for fog computing with strategic computing speed control at fog nodes (FNs) is studied. In the considered model, mobile users declare requests of offloading resource-hungry computation tasks that are dynamically collected at a dedicated edge server (ES). Upon receiving these requests, the ES can decide to either self-process or delegate some workloads to third-party FNs for maximizing the overall management profit. Unlike the existing work, this paper takes into account strategic behaviors of FNs in computing speed control, i.e., each FN can strategically allocate its computing resource to maximize its utility, which consists of the benefit gained from executing offloaded tasks and the cost incurred by dissatisfied (delayed) service to its own subscribed tasks. To jointly address the long-term system performance and FNs’ strategic interactions, a scheduling mechanism integrating a noncooperative game and a queueing model is formulated. We then investigate two delegation reward settings, i.e., constant and utility-dependent delegation prices, and propose efficient adaptive algorithms to determine the optimal workload distribution at the ES and the computing speed equilibrium among FNs. Both theoretical analyses and simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed solutions and demonstrate their superiorities over counterparts.
Natural Killer Cells in Cancer Immunotherapy

Natural killer (NK) cells have evolved to complement T and B cells in host defense against pathogens and cancer. They recognize infected cells and tumors using a sophisticated array of activating, costimulatory, and inhibitory receptors that are expressed on NK cell subsets to create extensive functional diversity. NK cells can be targeted to kill with exquisite antigen specificity by antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. NK and T cells share many of the costimulatory and inhibitory receptors that are currently under evaluation in the clinic for cancer immunotherapy. As with T cells, genetic engineering is being employed to modify NK cells to specifically target them to tumors and to enhance their effector functions. As the selective pressures exerted by immunotherapies to augment CD8+ T cell responses may result in loss of MHC class I, NK cells may provide an important fail-safe to eliminate these tumors by their capacity to eliminate tumors that are “missing self. ”
Differential expression feature extraction (DEFE) and its application in RNA-seq data analysis

In differential gene expression data analysis, one objective is to identify groups of co-expressed genes from a large dataset to detect the association between such a group of genes and a phenotypic trait. This is often done through a clustering approach, such as k-means or bipartition hierarchical clustering, based on particular similarity measures in the grouping process. In such a dataset, the gene differential expression itself is an innate attribute that can be used in the feature extraction process. For example, in a dataset consisting of multiple treatments versus their controls, the expression of a gene in each treatment would have three possible behaviors, up-, down- regulated, or unchanged. We propose here a differential expression feature extraction (DEFE) method by using a string consisting of three numerical values at each character to denote such behavior, i.e. 1=up, 2=down, and 0=unchanged, which results in up to 3B differential expression patterns across all B comparisons. This approach has been successfully applied in many datasets, of which we present in this study two sets of RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data on wheat challenged with stress related phytohormones or Fusarium graminearum, the causal agent of fusarium head blight (FHB), a devastating wheat disease to illustrate the algorithm. Combinations of multiple schemes of DEFE patterns revealed groups of genes putatively associated with resistance or susceptibility to FHB. DEFE enabled discovery of genes closely associated with defense related signaling molecules such as JAZ10, shikimate and chorismate biosynthesis pathway and groups of wheat genes with differential effects between more or less virulent strains of Fusarium graminearum.
Impact of Environmental Changes on Mosquitoes and Disease Transmission

Mosquitoes are excellent indicators of environmental changes caused by man, especially as environmental degradation promotes the proliferation of mosquito species with adaptive plasticity which can develop in suburban areas and can carry and transmit pathogens to humans and animals. Therefore, environmental changes are evaluated as risk factors of emerging mosquito borne diseases. The current knowledge of diversity and relative abundance of mosquito vectors as a function of habitat change, survival rate of several mosquito species, as well as their biting rates leading to the rapid spread and emergence of new diseases is not comprehensive. Noteworthy, the interaction between vector-host-parasite in natural environment can be disrupted when deforestation occurs. This review provides useful knowledge for vector control, while allowing the monitoring of biological indicators of environmental changes caused by man, an important step in understanding the dynamics of mosquito vector distribution under changing environment. Keywords : Deforestation, parasite, biodiversity, vector, DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/10-12-04 Publication date: June 30th 2020