Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diel variation in cortisol, glucose, lactic acid and antioxidant system of black sea bass Centropristis striata under natural photoperiod

ABSTRACT Diel rhythm in activity of antioxidant enzymes, as well as contents of glutathione and lipid peroxides, has been intensively investigated in Mammalia and Aves, however, the relevant studies about fish are few. In the present study, we examined variation in contents of cortisol, glucose and lactic acid in plasma of black sea bass Centropristis striata under natural photoperiod during a 24-h period. In addition, variation in activity of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), catalase (CAT) and glutathione reductase (GR) as well as contents of total glutathione (T-GSH), reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver and plasma of the fish were also determined. The plasma and liver samples were collected from the test fish at 3 h intervals during a 24-h cycle, with the first sampling time set at 03:00 h. No significant differences were found in glucose content and activities of GSH-PX and GR in plasma, as well as activities of SOD and GR in liver among different sampling times. In contrast, apparent variation was observed in contents of cortisol, lactic acid and MDA in plasma, activities of SOD and CAT in plasma, contents of MDA, T-GSH, GSH and GSSG in liver and activities of GSH-PX and CAT in liver between different sampling times. Moreover, contents of cortisol and MDA in plasma, SOD activity in plasma, and contents of MDA, GSH and GSSG in liver exhibited circadian rhythm, and their acrophases occurred at 06:08 h, 18:38 h, 15:09 h, 09:57 h, 23:36 h and 07:30 h, respectively. The present study indicates that some physiological parameters relating to stress response, such as cortisol and MDA contents in plasma, MDA, GSH and GSSG contents in liver and SOD activity in plasma changed at different time throughout a day in black sea bass. Therefore, caution should be taken when evaluating stress response in fish with these physiological parameters measured at different times.
Morton Filters for Superior Template Protection for Iris Recognition

We address the fundamental performance issues of template protection (TP) for iris verification. We base our work on the popular Bloom-Filter templates protection & address the key challenges like sub-optimal performance and low unlinkability. Specifically, we focus on cases where Bloom-filter templates results in non-ideal performance due to presence of large degradations within iris images. Iris recognition is challenged with number of occluding factors such as presence of eye-lashes within captured image, occlusion due to eyelids, low quality iris images due to motion blur. All of such degrading factors result in obtaining non-reliable iris codes & thereby provide non-ideal biometric performance. These factors directly impact the protected templates derived from iris images when classical Bloom-filters are employed. To this end, we propose and extend our earlier ideas of Morton-filters for obtaining better and reliable templates for iris. Morton filter based TP for iris codes is based on leveraging the intra and inter-class distribution by exploiting low-rank iris codes to derive the stable bits across iris images for a particular subject and also analyzing the discriminable bits across various subjects. Such low-rank non-noisy iris codes enables realizing the template protection in a superior way which not only can be used in constrained setting, but also in relaxed iris imaging. We further extend the work to analyze the applicability to VIS iris images by employing a large scale public iris image database - UBIRIS(v1 & v2), captured in a unconstrained setting. Through a set of experiments, we demonstrate the applicability of proposed approach and vet the strengths and weakness. Yet another contribution of this work stems in assessing the security of the proposed approach where factors of Unlinkability is studied to indicate the antagonistic nature to relaxed iris imaging scenarios.
Proliferation of Faulty Materials Data Analysis in the Literature

Matthew R. Linford1, Vincent S. Smentkowski2*, John T. Grant3, C. Richard Brundle4, Peter M.A. Sherwood5, Mark C. Biesinger6, Jeff Terry7, Kateryna Artyushkova8, Alberto Herrera-Gómez9, Sven Tougaard10, William Skinner11, Jean-Jacques Pireaux12, Christopher F. McConville13, Christopher D. Easton14, Thomas R. Gengenbach14, George H. Major1, Paul Dietrich15, Andreas Thissen15, Mark Engelhard16, Cedric J. Powell17, Karen J. Gaskell18 and Donald R. Baer16 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA; General Electric Research, Niskayuna, NY 12309, USA; Surface Analysis Consultant, Clearwater, FL 33767, USA; C.R. Brundle & Associates, Soquel, CA 95073, USA; University of Washington, Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Surface Science Western, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6G 0J3, Canada; Department of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA; Physical Electronics, Chanhassen, MN 55317, USA; CINVESTAV – Unidad Queretaro, Real de Juriquilla 76230, Mexico; Department of Physics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense 5230, Denmark; Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia; University of Namur, Namur Institute of Structured Matter, B-5000 Namur, Belgium; College of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia; CSIRO Manufacturing, Ian Wark Laboratories, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia; SPECS Surface Nano Analysis GmbH, 13355 Berlin, Germany; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA; National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA and University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Gamma Ray-Induced Polymerization and Cross-Linking for Optimization of PPy/PVP Hydrogel as Biomaterial

Conducting polymer (CP)-based hydrogels exhibit the behaviors of bending or contraction/relaxation due to electrical stimulation. They are similar in some ways to biological organs and have advantages regarding manipulation and miniaturization. Thus, these hydrogels have attracted considerable interest for biomedical applications. In this study, we prepared PPy/PVP hydrogel with different concentrations and content through polymerization and cross-linking induced by gamma-ray irradiation at 25 kGy to optimize the mechanical properties of the resulting PPy/PVP hydrogel. Optimization of the PPy/PVP hydrogel was confirmed by characterization using scanning electron microscopy, gel fraction, swelling ratio, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, we assessed live-cell viability using live/dead assay and CCK-8 assay, and found good cell viability regardless of the concentration and content of Py/pTS. The conductivity of PPy/PVP hydrogel was at least 13 mS/cm. The mechanical properties of PPy/PVP hydrogel are important factors in their application for biomaterials. It was found that 0.15PPy/PVP20 (51.96 ± 6.12 kPa) exhibited better compressive strength than the other samples for use in CP-based hydrogels. Therefore, it was concluded that gamma rays can be used to optimize PPy/PVP hydrogel and that biomedical applications of CP-based hydrogels will be possible.
β-blockers Reverse Agonist-Induced β2-AR Downregulation Regardless of Their Signaling Profile

Altered β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) density has been reported in cells, animals, and humans receiving β-blocker treatment. In some cases, β-AR density is upregulated, but in others, it is unaffected or even reduced. Collectively, these results would imply that changes in β-AR density and β-blockade are not related. However, it has still not been clarified whether the effects of β-blockers on receptor density are related to their ability to activate different β-AR signaling pathways. To this aim, five clinically relevant β-blockers endowed with inverse, partial or biased agonism at the β2-AR were evaluated for their effects on β2-AR density in both human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells expressing exogenous FLAG-tagged human β2-ARs and human lymphocytes expressing endogenous β2-ARs. Cell surface β2-AR density was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry. Treatment with propranolol, carvedilol, pindolol, sotalol, or timolol did not induce any significant change in surface β2-AR density in both HEK293 cells and human lymphocytes. On the contrary, treatment with the β-AR agonist isoproterenol reduced the number of cell surface β2-ARs in the tested cell types without affecting β2-AR-mRNA levels. Isoproterenol-induced effects on receptor density were completely antagonized by β-blocker treatment. In conclusion, the agonistic activity of β-blockers does not exert an important effect on short-term regulation of β2-AR density.
High expression of ZBED1 affects proliferation and apoptosis in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND ZBED1 (zinc finger BED-type containing 1) is a transcription factor. However, its expression, role and clinical significance in cancer are unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the expression of ZBED1 and its effect on the proliferation of gastric cancer (GC). METHODS Quantitative PCR was used to detect the mRNA level of ZBED1 in GC tissues and normal gastric tissues. Proliferation and colony formation assays were conducted when ZBED1 was expressed ectopically or silenced by constructed vectors. Moreover, chemotherapy-drug induced apoptosis rates were examined by flow cytometry when ZBED1 was expressed ectopically or silenced. RESULTS The mRNA level of ZBED1 was significantly elevated in 10 out of 11 cases of GC tumor tissue specimens. Results of our analysis derived from a public clinical microarray database suggest that a high expression of ZBED1 predicts a poor outcome. ZBED1 promotes cell proliferation and colony formation. Moreover, ZBED1 decreased the chemosensitivity of GC cells. CONCLUSIONS ZBED1 expression is up-regulated in GC cells. ZBED1 promotes proliferation and decreases the chemosensitivity of GC cells. ZBED1 may be a potential therapeutic target and predictive biomarker in gastric cancer.
Cytotoxic, anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects of noscapine on human estrogen receptor positive (MCF-7) and negative (MDA-MB-231) breast cancer cell lines.

AIM Noscapine, a naturally occurring alkaloid obtained from opium poppy, is a microtubule-targeting agent. This study is aimed to investigate the effects of noscapine on human breast cancer cell lines by comparing them with those of tamoxifen and docetaxel. METHODS MCF-7 and MDA MB-23 cell lines were used to observe the effects of docetaxel, tamoxifen, and noscapine on cell proliferation. For each drug, cell blocks were prepared from cultured cells treated with IC50 dose of each drug and these were examined histologically. The expressions of Ki-67, Bcl-2, BAX, and cyclin-D1 were assessed immunohistochemically. RESULTS Although noscapine showed cytotoxic effects on both cell lines in a time and dose dependent manner, MDA-MB-231 cells were more susceptible to its effects. Noscapine inhibited MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells proliferation in vitro with IC50 value of 29 µM and 69 µM, respectively, which was comparable with IC50 of tamoxifen (40 µM and 50 µM) and docetaxel (43 nM and 32 nM). Noscapine showed anti-proliferative effects by decreasing Ki-67, cyclin-D1 and apoptotic effects by increasing BAX/Bcl-2 ratio in both breast cancer cells. Its effect was comparable with tamoxifen and docetaxel. CONCLUSION Noscapine may be a good chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of breast cancer, especially in estrogen receptor‑negative breast cancer (Tab. 2, Fig. 7, Ref. 40).
New diagnostic criteria for insomnia and the association between insomnia, anxiety and depression.

BACKGROUND The diagnostic criteria for insomnia in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, version 5 (DSM-5), have been changed. The same changes are expected to be made in the International Classification of Diseases, version 11 (ICD-11). In this study, we examine the impact of the changes in the diagnostic criteria for insomnia on the association between insomnia, anxiety and depression. MATERIAL AND METHOD The study is based on a questionnaire survey with 68 questions that can be found on the website of the Norwegian Competence Centre for Sleep Disorders. The survey began in 2012, and our data were retrieved in 2016. The survey included validated questionnaires for insomnia, anxiety and depression: the Bergen Insomnia Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS A total of 48 932 participants met the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for insomnia. Of these, 42 873 (87.6 %) also met the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for insomnia, while the remaining 6059 (12.4 %) did not satisfy the new criteria. Of those who met the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for insomnia, 46 704 also responded to the questions on anxiety and depression. The prevalence of possible anxiety (HADS-A ≥ 8) among those who met the new criteria was 25 708 (62.9 %), while the prevalence of possible depression (HADS-D ≥ 8) was 15 591 (38.1 %). Among the participants who did not satisfy the new criteria, the prevalence was significantly lower: possible anxiety 2791 (48.1 %) and possible depression 1763 (30.4 %) (both p < 0.001). INTERPRETATION The study indicates that the new diagnostic criteria for insomnia strengthened the association between insomnia, anxiety and depression. This may mean that with the new diagnostic criteria, more patients with insomnia will have comorbid mental disorders.
View-Invariant Deep Architecture for Human Action Recognition Using Two-Stream Motion and Shape Temporal Dynamics

Human action Recognition for unknown views, is a challenging task. We propose a deep view-invariant human action recognition framework, which is a novel integration of two important action cues: motion and shape temporal dynamics (STD). The motion stream encapsulates the motion content of action as RGB Dynamic Images (RGB-DIs), which are generated by Approximate Rank Pooling (ARP) and processed by using fine-tuned InceptionV3 model. The STD stream learns long-term view-invariant shape dynamics of action using a sequence of LSTM and Bi-LSTM learning models. Human Pose Model (HPM) generates view-invariant features of structural similarity index matrix (SSIM) based key depth human pose frames. The final prediction of the action is made on the basis of three types of late fusion techniques i.e. maximum (max), average (avg) and multiply (mul), applied on individual stream scores. To validate the performance of the proposed novel framework, the experiments are performed using both cross-subject and cross-view validation schemes on three publically available benchmarks-NUCLA multi-view dataset, UWA3D-II Activity dataset and NTU RGB-D Activity dataset. Our algorithm outperforms existing state-of-the-arts significantly, which is measured in terms of recognition accuracy, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC).
Evaluation of Pesticide Residues in Vegetables from the Asir Region, Saudi Arabia

This study’s aim was to determine the pesticide residues in 10 different vegetable commodities from the Asir region, Saudi Arabia. We evaluated 211 vegetable samples, collected from supermarkets between March 2018 and September 2018, for a total of 80 different pesticides using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) after extraction with a multi-residue method (the QuEChERS method). The results were assessed according to the maximum residue limit (MRL) provided by European regulations for each pesticide in each commodity. All lettuce, cauliflower, and carrot samples were found to be free from pesticide residues. A total of 145 samples (68.7%) contained detectable pesticide residues at or lower than MRLs, and 44 samples (20.9%) contained detectable pesticide residues above MRLs. MRL values were exceeded most often in chili pepper (14 samples) and cucumber (10 samples). Methomyl, imidacloprid, metalaxyl, and cyproconazole were the most frequently detected pesticides. Based on the results of this study, we recommend that a government-supported program for the monitoring of pesticide residues in vegetables be established to promote consumers’ health and achieve sustainable farming systems.
Differential regulation of mTORC1 activation by leucine and β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate in skeletal muscle of neonatal pigs.

Leucine and its metabolite β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB) stimulate mTORC1-dependent protein synthesis in the skeletal muscles of neonatal pigs. The aim of this study was to determine whether HMB and leucine utilize common nutrient-sensing mechanisms to activate mTORC1. In Study 1, neonatal pigs were fed one of five diets for 24 h: low protein (LP), high protein (HP), or LP supplemented with 4 (LP+HMB4), 40 (LP+HMB40), or 80 (LP+HMB80) μmol HMB·kg body wt-1·day-1. In Study 2, neonatal pigs were fed for 24 h: LP, LP supplemented with leucine (LP+Leu), or HP diets delivering 9, 18 and 18 mmol leucine·kg BW-1·day-1, respectively. The upstream signaling molecules that regulate mTORC1 activity were analyzed. mTOR phosphorylation on Ser2448 and Ser2481 was greater in LP+HMB40, LP+HMB80, and LP+Leu than LP, and greater in HP than HMB-supplemented groups (P<0.05) whereas HP and LP+L were similar. Rheb-mTOR complex formation was lower in LP than HP (P<0.05), with no enhancement by HMB or Leu supplementation. The Sestrin2-GATOR2 complex was more abundant in LP than HP and was reduced by Leu (P<0.05) but not HMB supplementation. RagA-mTOR and RagC-mTOR complexes were higher in LP+Leu and HP than LP and HMB groups (P<0.05). There were no treatment differences in RagB-SH3BP4, Vps34-LRS, and RagD-LRS complex abundances. Phosphorylation of Erk1/2 and TSC2, but not AMPK, were lower in LP than HP (P<0.05) and unaffected by HMB or leucine supplementation. Our results demonstrate that HMB stimulates mTORC1 activation in neonatal muscle independent of the leucine-sensing pathway mediated by Sestrin2 and the Rag proteins.
Suppression of β1-Adrenoceptor Autoantibodies is Involved in the Antiarrhythmic Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Male and Female Hypertensive Rats

The arrhythmogenic potential of β1-adrenoceptor autoantibodies (β1-AA), as well as antiarrhythmic properties of omega-3 in heart diseases, have been reported while underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We aimed to test our hypothesis that omega-3 (eicosapentaenoic acid-EPA, docosahexaenoic acid-DHA) may inhibit matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2) activity to prevent cleavage of β1-AR and formation of β1-AA resulting in attenuation of pro-arrhythmic connexin-43 (Cx43) and protein kinase C (PKC) signaling in the diseased heart. We have demonstrated that the appearance and increase of β1-AA in blood serum of male and female 12-month-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) was associated with an increase of inducible ventricular fibrillation (VF) comparing to normotensive controls. In contrast, supplementation of hypertensive rats with omega-3 for two months suppressed β1-AA levels and reduced incidence of VF. Suppression of β1-AA was accompanied by a decrease of elevated myocardial MMP-2 activity, preservation of cardiac cell membrane integrity and Cx43 topology. Moreover, omega-3 abrogated decline in expression of total Cx43 as well as its phosphorylated forms at serine 368 along with PKC-ε, while decreased pro-fibrotic PKC-δ levels in hypertensive rat heart regardless the sex. The implication of MMP-2 in the action of omega-3 was also demonstrated in cultured cardiomyocytes in which desensitization of β1-AR due to permanent activation of β1-AR with isoproterenol was prevented by MMP-2 inhibitor or EPA. Collectively, these data support the notion that omega-3 via suppression of β1-AA mechanistically controlled by MMP-2 may attenuate abnormal of Cx43 and PKC-ε signaling; thus, abolish arrhythmia substrate and protect rats with an advanced stage of hypertension from malignant arrhythmias.
RadioWeaves for efficient connectivity: analysis and impact of constraints in actual deployments

We present a new type of wireless access infrastructure consisting of a fabric of dispersed electronic circuits and antennas that collectively function as a massive, distributed antenna array. We have chosen to name this new wireless infrastructure "RadioWeaves" and anticipate they can be integrated into indoor and outdoor walls, furniture, and other objects, rendering them a natural part of the environment. Technologically, RadioWeaves will deploy distributed arrays to create both favorable propagation and antenna array interaction. The technology leverages on the ideas of large-scale intelligent surfaces and cell-free wireless access. Offering close to the service connectivity and computing, new grades in energy efficiency, reliability, and low latency can be reached. The new concept moreover can be scaled up easily to offer a very high capacity in specific areas demanding so. In this paper we anticipate how two different demanding use cases can be served well by a dedicated RadioWeaves deployment: a crowd scenario and a highly reflective factory environment. A practical approach towards a RadioWeaves prototype, integrating dispersed electronics invisibly in a room environment, is introduced. We outline the many and diverse R&D challenges that need to be addressed to realize the great potential of the RadioWeaves technology.
Acute Low-Dose Hyperoxia during a Single Bout of High-Intensity Interval Exercise Does Not Affect Red Blood Cell Deformability and Muscle Oxygenation in Trained Men—A Randomized Crossover Study

Recent technological developments provide easy access to use an artificial oxygen supply (hyperoxia) during exercise training. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a commercially available oxygen compressor inducing low-dose hyperoxia, on limiting factors of endurance performance. Thirteen active men (age 24 ± 3 years) performed a high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) session (5 × 3 min at 80% of Wmax, separated by 2 min at 40% Wmax) on a cycle ergometer, both in hyperoxia (4 L∙min−1, 94% O2, HYP) or ambient conditions (21% O2, NORM) in randomized order. The primary outcome was defined as red blood cell deformability (RBC-D), while our secondary interest included changes in muscle oxygenation. RBC-D was expressed by the ratio of shear stress at half-maximal deformation (SS1/2) and maximal deformability (EImax) and muscle oxygenation of the rectus femoris muscle was assessed by near-infrared spectroscopy. No statistically significant changes occurred in SS1/2 and EImax in either condition. The ratio of SS1/2 to EImax statistically decreased in NORM (p < 0.01; Δ: −0.10; 95%CI: −0.22, 0.02) but not HYP (p > 0.05; Δ: −0.16; 95%CI: −0.23, −0.08). Muscle oxygenation remained unchanged. This study showed that low-dose hyperoxia during HIIE using a commercially available device with a flow rate of only 4 L·min−1 may not be sufficient to induce acute ergogenic effects compared to normoxic conditions.