Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Premacular Cell Proliferation Profiles in Tangential Traction Vitreo-Maculopathies Suggest a Key Role for Hyalocytes

Purpose: To compare immunocytochemical and ultrastructural features of premacular tissue surgically removed from eyes with tangential traction vitreo-maculopathies. Methods: By spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), premacular tissue was differentiated into premacular proliferation and premacular membrane (PMM). Specimens were harvested during vitrectomy from 10 eyes with macular pucker, lamellar macular hole (LMH) and full-thickness macular hole, and prepared for immunocytochemistry and transmission electron microscopy. Results: All specimens showed positive autofluorescence consistent with the yellow colour of peeled tissue. Glial cells were predominantly positive in premacular proliferation. Hyalocytes were the main cell type in PMM. Electron microscopy revealed densely packed premacular glial cells neighbouring hyalocytes and vitreous collagen strands. Myofibroblasts with features indicative of contractile properties were found in PMM, exclusively. Cell composition of premacular proliferation was free of contractile elements. Conclusion: All three types of vitreo-maculopathy have similar cell constituents in their premacular tissue. Cell population of premacular proliferation is not unique for LMHs. Corresponding to SD-OCT, electron microscopy demonstrates hyalocytes and vitreous collagen in PMMs both directly adjacent to the cellular complex of premacular proliferation. Study results point to the vitreous as one important pathogenic player potentially driving the degenerative cellular process at the vitreoretinal interface in tangential traction vitreo-maculopathies.
Caffeine and blood pressure: a critical review perspective

Abstract The WHO reported that high blood pressure (BP) is one of the primary causes of death worldwide. Hypertension (HPT) is a major risk factor for CVD and related diseases as well as for diseases, leading to a considerable increase in cardiovascular risk. Since BP response could also be influenced by caffeine, which is widely consumed with coffee and other items, it is important to define the possible effects associated with caffeine intake. The most recent findings aimed at clarifying the role of caffeine consumption on BP and HPT risk/incidence are conflicting and difficult to interpret. Therefore, in the present narrative review, we aimed to examine various methodological inaccuracies/aspects and factors that make studies difficult to be compared, in order to obtain a single consensus on the effects of caffeine intake on the risk of BP and HPT. We observed that this heterogeneity in results could be due to the presence of: (i) several variables affecting BP (such as age, sex, genetic and lifestyle aspects); (ii) different caffeine content of food and beverages; and (iii) caffeine metabolism. Moreover, different methodological aspects in the evaluation of daily dietary caffeine intake and in the BP measurement could add some other bias in the interpretation of results. Therefore, it is mandatory to consider all methodological aspects and confounding factors to generate a standardised methodology in order to increase cross-study consistency and minimise confounding effects of different variables on the relationship between BP response and HPT risk/incidence after caffeine intake.
Cooperative Deep Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Traffic Grid Signal Control

Exploiting reinforcement learning (RL) for traffic congestion reduction is a frontier topic in intelligent transportation research. The difficulty in this problem stems from the inability of the RL agent simultaneously monitoring multiple signal lights when taking into account complicated traffic dynamics in different regions of a traffic system. Such challenge is even more outstanding when forming control decisions on a large-scale traffic grid, where the RL action space grows exponentially with the number of intersections within the traffic grid. In this paper, we tackle such a problem by proposing a cooperative deep reinforcement learning (Coder) framework. The intuition behind Coder is to decompose the original difficult RL task as a number of subproblems with relatively easy RL goals. Accordingly, we implement Coder with multiple regional agents and a centralized global agent. Each regional agent learns its own RL policy and value functions over a small region with limited actions. Then, the centralized global agent hierarchically aggregates RL achievements from different regional agents and forms the final ${Q}$ -function over the entire large-scale traffic grid. The experimental investigations demonstrate that the proposed Coder could reduce on average 30% congestions in terms of the number of waiting vehicles during high density traffic flows in simulations.
Counteracting the Metabolic Effects of Glucose Load in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients; an Exercise-Based Approach

Glucose-based peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions are the predominantly used dialysate in PD patients. Glucose absorption has been shown to be associated with several unfavorable metabolic complications. Several studies have shown positive effects of exercise in end-stage renal disease patients. This paper provides an overview of glucose-associated metabolic complications, and proposed exercise regimens to counteract the caloric load associated with glucose absorption.
Quantifying Dispositional Fear as Threat Sensitivity: Development and Initial Validation of a Model-Based Scale Measure

The Research Domain Criteria initiative aims to reorient the focus of psychopathology research toward biobehavioral constructs that cut across different modalities of measurement, including self-report and neurophysiology. Constructs within the Research Domain Criteria framework are intentionally transdiagnostic, with the construct of “acute threat,” for example, broadly relevant to clinical problems and associated traits involving fearfulness and stress reactivity. A potentially valuable referent for research on the construct of acute threat is a structural model of fear/fearlessness questionnaires known to predict variations in physiological threat reactivity as indexed by startle potentiation. The aim of the current work was to develop an efficient, item-based scale measure of the general factor of this structural model for use in studies of dispositional threat sensitivity and its relationship to psychopathology. A self-report scale consisting of 44 items from a conceptually relevant, nonproprietary questionnaire was first developed in a sample of 1,307 student participants, using the general factor of the fear/fearlessness model as a direct referent. This new Trait Fear scale was then evaluated for convergent and discriminant validity with measures of personality and psychopathology in a separate sample (n = 213) consisting of community adults and undergraduate students. The strong performance of the scale in this criterion-validation sample suggests that it can provide an effective means for indexing variations along a dispositional continuum of fearfulness reflecting variations in sensitivity to acute threat.
Conversor Buck Boost interleaved para carga e descarga de veículos elétricos

Este artigo tem por objetivo projetar o conversor CC-CC buck-boost bidirecional interleaved, utilizado em estacoes eletricas para veiculos eletricos que possuem a tecnologia Vehicle-to Grid e Grid-to-Vehicle, com o intuito de realizar o carregamento da bateria ou injecao de energia para a rede. Vale ressaltar que sera apresentado a topologia do conversor, assim como a modelagem em espaco de estados e pequenos sinais, que sao manipuladas para se obter as funcoes de transferencia, as quais sao utilizadas para projetar os controladores do tipo PI, bem como a discretizacao desse sistema que possibilitara a implementacao do controle digital. Os softwares PSIM e MATLAB auxiliaram nas validacoes, na obtencao das funcoes matematicas e projeto dos controladores. Atraves das validacoes constata-se a eficacia do conversor operando sob os cenarios impostos.
Stress and autonomic response to sleep deprivation in medical residents: A comparative cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the stress suffered by medical residents as the result of being on call for 24 hours, from a multidimensional approach. Two groups of medical residents selected according to their work shift, participated in the study: one group (n = 40) was sleep-deprived after having been actively on-call for 24 hours, and another contrast group (n = 18) had performed a normal work day and were not sleep-deprived. All participants completed pre-post measures during a 24 h cycle. These were administered on both occasions at 8 am. The measures included HRV, cortisol, cognitive performance and transitory mood. The effect of the group x phase interaction was significant for all variables analysed, indicating that doctors in the 24h on-call shift group showed significant deterioration in all physiological, performance and mood indicators in comparison with the participants in the group not on call. These results suggest the need to review medical on-call systems, in order to reduce the stress load, which has a direct effect on working conditions.
Critical Appraisal of Oral Pre- and Probiotics for Caries Prevention and Care

In recent years, the concept of preventing caries-related microbial dysbiosis by enhancing the growth and survival of health-associated oral microbiota has emerged. In this article, the current evidence for the role of oral pre- and probiotics in caries prevention and caries management is discussed. Prebiotics are defined as “substrates that are selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit. ” With regard to caries, this would include alkali-generating substances such as urea and arginine, which are metabolized by some oral bacteria, resulting in ammonia production and increase in pH. While there is no evidence that urea added to chewing gums or mouth rinses significantly contributes to caries inhibition, multiple studies have shown that arginine in consumer products can exert an inhibitory effect on the caries process. Probiotics are “live microorganisms which when administrated in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host. ” Clinical trials have suggested that school-based programs with milk supplemented with probiotics and probiotic lozenges can reduce caries development in preschool children and in schoolchildren with high caries risk. Due to issues with research ethics (prebiotics) and risk of bias (prebiotics, probiotics), the confidence in the effect estimate is however limited. Further long-term clinical studies are needed with orally derived probiotic candidates, including the health-economic perspectives. In particular, the development and evaluation of oral synbiotic products, containing both prebiotics and a probiotic, would be of interest in the future management of dental caries.
Research on High Power Fuel Cell DC-DC Based on SiC Devices

With the increasing shortage of traditional energy resources, new energy resources such as fuel cells are widely used. However, the front-end output voltage of new energy power generation systems such as fuel cells is low, which cannot directly supply power to the load. Therefore, an efficient DC converter with a high boost ratio is needed to raise the voltage to the required level. The staggered parallel DC boost converter has the characteristics of small input current ripple and high voltage gain, which is very suitable for low voltage and high current input and high voltage output. Compared with Si Mosfet, SiC Mosfet has better on-state and on-switch characteristics. In this paper, the requirements of fuel cells in DC-DC are analyzed, the characteristics and applications of SiC devices are introduced, and the topology and working principle of DC-DC are studied. By comparing the topology of isolated DC-DC and non-isolated DC-DC, the staggered Boost circuit topology is selected. The advantages and working state of multiple staggered parallel circuits are studied in detail.
Dynamical conductivity of lithium-intercalated hexagonal boron nitride films: A memory function approach

This work is a study of dynamical conductivity of a quasi-two-dimensional heterostructure Li(BN) 8 . The conducting electrons have a free-electron-like parabolic dispersion and are assumed to scatter only on acoustic phonons. The approach used to derive the generalized Drude relation with frequency and temperature dependent relaxation consists of deﬁning the induced current density as a function of the electron-hole operator. This element is proportional to the perturbating electric ﬁeld and is decomposed into the zeroth and second order of the electron-phonon interaction. The electron-hole operator is then evaluated using the Heisenberg equation. The connection between the electron-hole operator and the memory function is shown. The analytical properties of the imaginary and real part of the frequency and temperature dependent memory function, that describe electron scattering on acoustic and optical phonons, are examined in detail. Finally, the dynamical conductivity of Li(BN) 8 is calculated, with the explanation of all relevant features originating from the memory function.
Polygenic Risk: Predicting Depression Outcomes in Clinical and Epidemiological Cohorts of Youths.

OBJECTIVE: Identifying risk factors for major depression and depressive symptoms in youths could have important implications for prevention efforts. This study examined the association of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for a broad depression phenotype derived from a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) in adults, and its interaction with childhood abuse, with clinically relevant depression outcomes in clinical and epidemiological youth cohorts. METHODS: The clinical cohort comprised 279 youths with major depression (mean age=14.76 years [SD=2.00], 68% female) and 187 healthy control subjects (mean age=14.67 years [SD=2.45], 63% female). The first epidemiological cohort included 1,450 youths (mean age=13.99 years [SD=0.92], 63% female). Of those, 694 who were not clinically depressed at baseline underwent follow-ups at 6, 12, and 24 months. The replication epidemiological cohort comprised children assessed at ages 8 (N=184; 49.2% female) and 11 (N=317; 46.7% female) years. All cohorts were genome-wide genotyped and completed measures for major depression, depressive symptoms, and/or childhood abuse. Summary statistics from the largest GWAS to date on depression were used to calculate the depression PRS. RESULTS: In the clinical cohort, the depression PRS predicted case-control status (odds ratio=1.560, 95% CI=1.230-1.980), depression severity (β=0.177, SE=0.069), and age at onset (β=-0.375, SE=0.160). In the first epidemiological cohort, the depression PRS predicted baseline depressive symptoms (β=0.557, SE=0.200) and prospectively predicted onset of moderate to severe depressive symptoms (hazard ratio=1.202, 95% CI=1.045-1.383). The associations with depressive symptoms were replicated in the second epidemiological cohort. Evidence was found for an additive, but not an interactive, effect of the depression PRS and childhood abuse on depression outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Depression PRSs derived from adults generalize to depression outcomes in youths and may serve as an early indicator of clinically significant levels of depression.
Communicative-Functional Potential of Incentive Modality in Psycholinguistic Dimension

The objective is to substantiate the psycholinguistic parameters of the category of incentive modality that has a direct connection with a number of mental phenomena and the speaker and the addressee, and describe the psycholinguistic model of the act of volition in combination with the study of the mechanisms and processes Комунікативно -функційний потенціал спонукальної модальності . 184 © Шинкарук Василь & Харченко Світлана of perception, interpretation and speech generation governing the functioning of a language unit in a certain psycholingual dimension and its interpretation by
Evaluation of the ‘Colli-Pee’, a first-void urine collection device for self-sampling at home for the detection of sexually transmitted infections, versus a routine clinic-based urine collection in a one-to-one comparison study design: efficacy and acceptability among MSM in Belgium

Objectives Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users are screened bi-annual for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A novel device, called the Colli-Pee, collects first-void urine in a standardised way and the collector tube can be easily delivered by regular post to a certified laboratory. The aim of the study was a one-to-one comparison between the STI test results obtained with the urine collected in the clinic, versus urine collected at home in a real-life setting by Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in Belgium. The user-friendliness and acceptability of the Colli-Pee device by the users was also evaluated. Design A single-site nested substudy in a prospective PrEP demonstration project (Be-PrEP-ared) among MSM in Belgium. Participants A total of 473 home-based samples from 213 MSM were received with a mean age of 38.5 years. Interventions Participants were requested to collect a urine sample at home using the Colli-Pee device and to send it to the laboratory via regular mail. Primary and secondary outcome measures The presence of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) was determined using molecular amplification assays. Agreement between test results of samples collected at the clinic and collected at home were evaluated using Cohen’s kappa statistic. Results: TV was not detected. A very good to almost perfect agreement was found for CT, NG and MG of κ=0.75, 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. Using the Colli-Pee device only one low positive CT and two MG infections were missed, however, three additional CT, two NG and six MG infections were detected. Conclusions The Colli-Pee device is a feasible and convenient way to collect urine at home for STI testing. This may be particularly relevant for populations that need frequent STI testing, such as PrEP users and patients who prefer home-sampling. Trial registration number NCT02552914; Pre-results.
PTCD1 Is Required for Mitochondrial Oxidative-Phosphorylation: Possible Genetic Association with Alzheimer's Disease

In addition to amyloid-β plaques and tau tangles, mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Neurons heavily rely on mitochondrial function, and deficits in brain energy metabolism are detected early in AD; however, direct human genetic evidence for mitochondrial involvement in AD pathogenesis is limited. We analyzed whole-exome sequencing data of 4549 AD cases and 3332 age-matched controls and discovered that rare protein altering variants in the gene pentatricopeptide repeat-containing protein 1 (PTCD1) show a trend for enrichment in cases compared with controls. We show here that PTCD1 is required for normal mitochondrial rRNA levels, proper assembly of the mitochondrial ribosome and hence for mitochondrial translation and assembly of the electron transport chain. Loss of PTCD1 function impairs oxidative phosphorylation and forces cells to rely on glycolysis for energy production. Cells expressing the AD-linked variant of PTCD1 fail to sustain energy production under increased metabolic stress. In neurons, reduced PTCD1 expression leads to lower ATP levels and impacts spontaneous synaptic activity. Thus, our study uncovers a possible link between a protein required for mitochondrial function and energy metabolism and AD risk. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Mitochondria are the main source of cellular energy and mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we identify a variant in the gene PTCD1 that is enriched in AD patients and demonstrate that PTCD1 is required for ATP generation through oxidative phosphorylation. PTCD1 regulates the level of 16S rRNA, the backbone of the mitoribosome, and is essential for mitochondrial translation and assembly of the electron transport chain. Cells expressing the AD-associated variant fail to maintain adequate ATP production during metabolic stress, and reduced PTCD1 activity disrupts neuronal energy homeostasis and dampens spontaneous transmission. Our work provides a mechanistic link between a protein required for mitochondrial function and genetic AD risk.
Anxiety sensitivity and daily cigarette smoking in relation to sleep disturbances in treatment-seeking smokers

ABSTRACT Although the association between anxiety and sleep disturbance is well-documented, the underlying mechanisms are less clear. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the fear of physiological arousal and bodily sensations, is a risk factor for anxiety and poor sleep. Smoking also contributes to poor sleep and may compound the effects of AS on sleep quality. This study evaluated the main and interactive effects of AS and cigarettes/day on sleep quality among smokers. Participants (n = 190) were adult treatment-seeking daily smokers who completed a baseline assessment as part of a larger smoking cessation trial. Sleep quality was self-reported. Results indicated that AS was significantly correlated with greater disturbance in sleep duration, subjective sleep quality, sleep onset latency, sleep disturbance, daytime dysfunction, and sleep medication use. There was a significant interaction between AS and cigarettes/day in terms of sleep onset latency, but not other sleep quality indices. AS was associated with significantly longer sleep onset latency minutes among heavier smokers, but not lighter smokers. Specifically, the association between AS and sleep onset latency was significant for those who smoked ≥ 33 cigarettes/day. AS is a psychological factor that may contribute to poor sleep quality, especially in heavy smokers, and thus may be a promising intervention target.
Object recognition in acquired and developmental prosopagnosia

ABSTRACT Whether face and object recognition are dissociated in prosopagnosia continues to be debated: a recent review highlighted deficiencies in prior studies regarding the evidence for such a dissociation. Our goal was to study cohorts with acquired and developmental prosopagnosia with a complementary battery of tests of object recognition that address prior limitations, as well as evaluating for residual effects of object expertise. We studied 15 subjects with acquired and 12 subjects with developmental prosopagnosia on three tests: the Old/New Tests, the Cambridge Bicycle Memory Test, and the Expertise-adjusted Test of Car Recognition. Most subjects with developmental prosopagnosia were normal on the Old/New Tests: for acquired prosopagnosia, subjects with occipitotemporal lesions often showed impairments while those with anterior temporal lesions did not. Ten subjects showed a putative classical dissociation between the Cambridge Face and Bicycle Memory Tests, seven of whom had normal reaction times. Both developmental and acquired groups showed reduced car recognition on the expertise-adjusted test, though residual effects of expertise were still evident. Two subjects with developmental prosopagnosia met criteria for normal object recognition across all tests. We conclude that strong evidence for intact object recognition can be found in a few subjects but the majority show deficits, particularly those with the acquired form. Both acquired and developmental forms show residual but reduced object expertise effects.