Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cast immobilization of hindlimb upregulates sarcolipin expression in atrophied skeletal muscles and increases thermogenesis in C57BL/6J mice.

Mechanical unloading impairs cytosolic calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis in skeletal muscles. In this study, we investigated whether sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) itself or one of the regulators of the Ca2+ SERCA pump, sarcolipin (SLN), is altered to deregulate Ca2+ homeostasis in cast-immobilized, atrophied muscles. Hindlimb muscles of 8-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to bilateral cast immobilization for 2 weeks. Two-week cast-immobilization induced both body weight and skeletal muscle loss. Highly phosphorylated CaMKII in the atrophied muscles suggested that cytosolic Ca2+ concentration was elevated. Extremely high expression levels of SLN mRNA and protein were observed in the atrophied muscles. Up-regulation of SLN at the transcriptional level was supported by low RCAN1 expression, which is a negative regulator of SLN. We treated C2C12 cells with dexamethasone to mimic muscle atrophy in vitro and showed a direct relationship between high SLN mRNA expression and low Ca2+ uptake by sarcoplasmic reticulum. Since SLN reportedly plays a role in non-shivering thermogenesis, we performed a cold tolerance test of the whole body. As a result, we found that mice with cast immobilization showed high cold tolerance, suggesting that cast-immobilization promoted whole-body thermogenesis. Although the activity level was decreased during cast-immobilization without change in food intake, adipose tissue weights also decreased significantly after cast immobilization. Concomitantly, we conclude that cast-immobilization of hindlimb increased thermogenesis in C57Bl/6J mice, probably via high expression of sarcolipin.
Prenatal testosterone excess disrupts placental function in a sheep model of polycystic ovary syndrome.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common condition of reproductive aged women. In a well-validated sheep model of PCOS, testosterone (T) treatment of pregnant ewes culminated in placental insufficiency and intrauterine growth restriction of offspring. The purpose of this study was to explore specific mechanisms by which T excess compromises placental function in early, mid-, and late gestation. Pregnant Suffolk sheep received T propionate 100 mg intramuscularly or control vehicle twice weekly from gestational days (GD) 30 to 90 (term = 147 days). Placental harvest occurred at GD 65, 90, and 140. Real time RT-PCR was used to assess transcript levels of pro-inflammatory (TNF, IL1B, IL6, IL8, CCL2, CD68), antioxidant (glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase -1 and -2), and angiogenic (VEGF and HIF1A) genes. Lipid accumulation was assessed using triglyceride assays and oil red O staining. Placental measures of oxidative and nitrative stress included TBARS assay and high pressure liquid chromatography. Tissue fibrosis was assessed with picrosirius red staining. T-tests and Cohen's effect size analyses were used for statistical analysis. At GD 65, T-treated placentomes showed increased lipid accumulation and collagen deposition. Notable findings at GD 90 were a significant increase in HIF1A expression and a large effect increase in VEGF expression. At GD 140, T-treated placentomes displayed large effect increases in expression of hypoxia and inflammatory markers. In summary, T treatment during early pregnancy induces distinct, gestational age-specific effects on placental milieu, which may underlie the previously observed phenotype of placental insufficiency.
High Quantum Efficiency Hot Electron Electrochemistry.

Using hot electrons to drive electrochemical reactions has drawn considerable interest in driving high-barrier reactions and enabling efficient solar to fuel conversion. However, the conversion efficiency from hot electrons to electrochemical products is typically low due to high hot electron scattering rates. Here, it is shown that the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an acidic solution can be efficiently modulated by hot electrons injected into a thin gold film by an Au-Al2O3-Si metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) junction. Despite the large scattering rates in gold, it is shown that the hot electron driven HER can reach quantum efficiencies as high as ~85% with a shift in the onset of hydrogen evolution by ~0.6 V. By simultaneously measuring the currents from the solution, gold, and silicon terminals during the experiments, we find that the HER rate can be decomposed into three components: (i) thermal electron, corresponding to the thermal electron distribution in gold (ii) hot electron, corresponding to electrons injected from silicon into gold which drive the HER before fully thermalizing and (iii) silicon direct injection, corresponding to electrons injected from Si into gold that drive the HER before electron-electron scattering occurs. Through a series of control experiments, we eliminate the possibility of the observed HER rate modulation coming from lateral resistivity of the thin gold film, pinholes in the gold, oxidation of the MIS device, and measurement circuit artifacts. Next, we theoretically evaluate the feasibility of hot electron injection modifying the available supply of electrons. Considering electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering, we track how hot electrons injected at different energies interact with the gold-solution interface as they scatter and thermalize. The simulator is first used to reproduce other published experimental pump-probe hot electron measurements, and then simulate the experimental conditions used here. These simulations predict that hot electron injection first increases the supply of electrons to the gold-solution interface at higher energies by several orders of magnitude and causes a peaked electron interaction with the gold-solution interface at the electron injection energy. The first prediction corresponds to the observed hot electron electrochemical current, while the second prediction corresponds to the observed silicon direct injection current. These results indicate that MIS devices offer a versatile platform for hot electron sources that can efficiently drive electrochemical reactions.
Eosin Removal by Cetyl Trimethylammonium-Cloisites: Influence of the Surfactant Solution Type and Regeneration Properties

The effect of the counteranion of hexadecyltrimethylammonium salts on the physico-chemical properties of organoclays was investigated, using a selected natural clay mineral with a cation exchange capacity of 95 meq/100 g. The uptake amount of C16 cations was dependent on the hexadecyltrimethylammonium (C16) salt solution used, the organoclay prepared from C16Br salt solution exhibited a value of 1. 05 mmole/g higher than those prepared from C16Cl and C16OH salt solutions. The basal spacing of these organoclays was in the range of 1.81 nm to 2.10 nm, indicating a similar orientation of the intercalated surfactants, and could indicated that the excess amount of surfactants, above the cation exchange capacity of 0.95 meq/g could be adsorbed on the external surface of the clay mineral sheets. These organoclays were found to be stable in neutral, acidic, and basic media. The thermal stability of these organoclays was carried out using thermogravimetric analysis and in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The decomposition of the surfactant occurred at a maximum temperature of 240 °C, accompanied with a decrease of the basal spacing value close to 1.42 nm. The application of these organoclays was investigated to remove an acidic dye, eosin. The removal amount was related to the initial used concentrations, the amount of the surfactants contents, and to the preheated temperatures of the organoclays. The removal was found to be endothermic process with a maximum amount of 55 mg of eosin/g of organoclay. The value decreased to 25 mg/g, when the intercalated surfactants were decomposed. The reuse of these organoclays was limited to four regeneration recycles with a reduction of 20 to 30%. However, noticeable reduction between 35% to 50% of the initial efficiency, was achieved after the fifth cycle, depending of the used organoclays.
Does a microfluidic chip for sperm sorting have a positive add‐on effect on laboratory and clinical outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles? A sibling oocyte study

The most recent technologies for sperm sorting involve microfluidics. However, the most important question whether their use is of any advantage in terms of laboratory and clinical IVF/ICSI outcomes still remains controversy. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether a microfluidic sperm sorting device (Fertile Plus®) has a positive add‐on effect on laboratory and clinical outcomes. Sibling oocytes of 81 patients were assigned to two sperm sorting groups including swim up and Fertile Plus®. All embryos were cultured until day 5/6. Fertilisation, embryo quality and blastocyst development were assessed as primary outcomes among 81 patients; clinical pregnancy, implantation and live birth rates were analysed as secondary outcomes as a subgroup analysis due to transfer cancellations. No statistically significant differences were found between groups in terms of all outcomes analysed in laboratory and clinical terms (p > .05 for all). The results of this study suggest that sorting spermatozoa through Fertile chip does not improve laboratory outcomes significantly and does not seem to have a positive contribution to clinical outcomes.
A 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase-based probe for the discovery of the acyltransferase-less type I polyketide synthases

Acyltransferase (AT)-less type I polyketide synthases (PKSs) produce complex natural products due to the presence of many unique tailoring enzymes. The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A synthases (HCSs) are responsible for β-alkylation of the growing polyketide intermediates in AT-less type I PKSs. In this study, we discovered a large group of HCSs, closely associated with the characterized and orphan AT-less type I PKSs through in silico genome mining, sequence and genome neighborhood network analysis. Using HCS-based probes, the survey of 1207 inhouse strains and 18 soil samples from different geological locations revealed the vast diversity of HCS-containing AT-less type I PKSs. The presence of HCSs in many AT-less type I PKSs suggests their co-evolutionary relationship. Our study should inspire future efforts to discover new polyketide natural products from AT-less type I PKSs.
Esculetin regulates the phenotype switching of airway smooth muscle cells

Airway remodeling is one important feature of childhood asthma, which is one of the most common chronic childhood diseases. Phenotype switching of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs), defined as a reversible switching between contractile and proliferative phenotypes, plays an important role in the process of airway remodeling. Esculetin has shown antiinflammatory action in animal models of asthma; however, the effects of esculetin on ASMC phenotype switching have not been investigated. In the present study, platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) was used to induce the phenotype modulation of ASMCs. The results demonstrated that esculetin pretreatment mitigated the PDGF‐caused inhibitory effects on expressions of contractile phenotype protein markers, including calponin and SM22α. Esculetin also inhibited PDGF‐induced migration and proliferation of ASMCs. Besides, the PDGF‐induced expressions of extracellular matrix components, collagen I and fibronectin, were attenuated by esculetin pretreatment. Furthermore, PDGF‐caused activation of PI3K/Akt pathway in ASMCs was inhibited by esculetin. These findings suggest that esculetin might exert its inhibitory effect on PDGF‐induced ASMC phenotype switching through inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway.
Comparative phosphoproteomic analysis reveals a decay of ABA signaling in barley embryos during after-ripening.

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) is one of the major determinant of seed dormancy in plants. Seed dormancy is gradually broken during dry storage in what is known as "after-ripening", and this decay in dormancy is correlated with a decay in ABA sensitivity and content in seeds after imbibition. In this study we aim to investigate the effect of after-ripening on ABA signaling in our cereal model species, barley. Phosphosignaling networks in barley grains were investigated by a large-scale analysis of phosphopeptides to examine potential changes in response pathways to after-ripening. We used freshly harvested (FH) and after-ripened (AR) barley grains which showed different ABA sensitivity. In total 1,730 phosphopeptides were identified in barley embryos isolated from half-cut grains. Comparative analysis revealed that 329 and 235 phosphopeptides were up- or down-regulated respectively after ABA treatment, and phosphopeptides profiles were quite different between FH and AR embryos. These results were supported by peptide motif analysis which suggested that different sets of protein kinases are active in FH and AR grains. Furthermore, in vitro phosphorylation assays confirmed that some phosphopeptides were phosphorylated by SnRK2s, which are major protein kinases involved in ABA signaling. Taken together, our results revealed very distinctive phosphosignaling networks in FH and AR embryos of barley, and suggested that the after-ripening of barley grains is associated with differential regulation of phosphosignaling pathways leading to a decay of ABA signaling.
Mobile edutainment in the city

Touring around a City can sometimes be frustrating rather than an enjoyable experience. The scope of the Virtual Mobile City Guide (VMCG) is to create a mobile application which aims to provide the user with tools normally used by tourists while travelling and provides them with factual information about the city. The VMCG is a mash up of different APIs implemented in the Android platform which together with an information infrastructure provides the user with information about different attractions and guidance around the city in question. While providing the user with the traditional map view by making use of the Google maps API, the VMCG also employs the Wikitude® API to provide the user with an innovative approach to navigating through cities. This view uses augmented reality to indicate the location of attractions and displays information in the same augmented reality. The VMCG also has a built in recommendation engine which suggests attractions to the user depending on the attractions which the user is visiting during the tour and tailor information in order to cater for a learning experience while the user travels around the city in question.
A survey paper on privacy of medical data storage on the cloud

The proliferation of smartphones and use of reliable cloud technologies have given rise to various cloud-based applications. Remote disease prediction based on real-time medical data is one such application that has become very popular among research communities. One of the challenges involved here is the privacy of medical data storage on the cloud. Encrypted data requires decryption before it can be used by machine learning algorithms for disease prediction. This paper presents an analysis of research methods proposed to provide privacy of medical data on the cloud and their limitations.
Wall Street Tree Search: Risk-Aware Planning for Offline Reinforcement Learning

Offline reinforcement-learning (RL) algorithms learn to make decisions using a given, fixed training dataset without online data collection. This problem setting is captivating because it holds the promise of utilizing previously collected datasets without any costly or risky interaction with the environment. However, this promise also bears the drawback of this setting as the restricted dataset induces uncertainty because the agent can encounter unfamiliar sequences of states and actions that the training data did not cover. To mitigate the destructive uncertainty effects, we need to balance the aspiration to take reward-maximizing actions with the incurred risk due to incorrect ones. In financial economics, modern portfolio theory (MPT) is a method that risk-averse investors can use to construct diversified portfolios that maximize their returns without unacceptable levels of risk. We propose integrating MPT into the agent's decision-making process, presenting a new simple-yet-highly-effective risk-aware planning algorithm for offline RL. Our algorithm allows us to systematically account for the \emph{estimated quality} of specific actions and their \emph{estimated risk} due to the uncertainty. We show that our approach can be coupled with the Transformer architecture to yield a state-of-the-art planner, which maximizes the return for offline RL tasks. Moreover, our algorithm reduces the variance of the results significantly compared to conventional Transformer decoding, which results in a much more stable algorithm -- a property that is essential for the offline RL setting, where real-world exploration and failures can be costly or dangerous.
Artificial sign language learning: a method for evolutionary linguistics

Previous research in evolutionary linguistics has made wide use of artificial language learning (ALL) paradigms, where learners are taught artificial languages in laboratory experiments and are subsequently tested in some way about the language they have learnt. The ALL framework has proved particularly useful in the study of the evolution of language, allowing the manipulation of specific linguistic phenomena that cannot be isolated for study in natural languages. Furthermore, this framework can test the output of individual participants, to uncover the cognitive biases of individual learners, but can also be implemented in a cultural evolutionary framework, investigating how participants acquire and change artificial languages in populations where they learn from and interact with each other. In this thesis, I present a novel methodology for studying the evolution of language in experimental populations. In the artificial sign language learning (ASLL) methodology I develop throughout this thesis, participants learn manual signalling systems that are used to interact with other participants. The ASLL methodology combines features of previous ALL methods as well as silent gesture, where hearing participants must communicate using only gesture and no speech. However, ASLL provides several advantages over previous methods. Firstly, reliance on the manual modality reduces the interference of participants’ native languages, exploiting a modality with linguistic potential that is not normally used linguistically by hearing language users. Secondly, research in the manual modality offers comparability with the only current evidence of language emergence and evolution in natural languages: emerging sign languages that have evolved over the last century. Although the silent gesture paradigm also makes use of the manual modality, it has thus far seen little implementation into a cultural evolutionary framework that allows closer modelling of natural languages that are subject to the processes of transmission to new learners and interaction between language users. The implementation and development of ASLL in the present work provides an experimental window onto the cultural evolution of language in the manual modality. I detail a set of experiments that manipulate both linguistic features (investigating
Microtechnology management considering test and cost aspects for stacked 3D ICs with MEMS

Innovative automotive systems require complex semiconductor devices currently only available in consumer grade quality. The European project TRACE will develop and demonstrate methods, processes, and tools to facilitate usage of Consumer Electronics (CE) components to be deployable more rapidly in the life-critical automotive domain. Consumer electronics increasingly use heterogeneous system integration methods and "More than Moore" technologies, which are capable to combine different circuit domains (Analog, Digital, RF, MEMS) and which are integrated within SiP or 3D stacks. Making these technologies or at least some of the process steps available under automotive electronics requirements is an important goal to keep pace with the growing demand for information processing within cars. The approach presented in this paper aims at a technology management and recommendation system that covers technology data, functional and non-functional constraints, and application scenarios, and that will comprehend test planning and cost consideration capabilities.
Scalar curvature operator for quantum-reduced loop gravity

In a previous article we have introduced an operator representing the three-dimensional scalar curvature in loop quantum gravity. In this article we examine the new curvature operator in the setting of quantum-reduced loop gravity. We derive the explicit form of the curvature operator as an operator on the Hilbert space of the quantum-reduced model. As a simple practical example, we study the expectation values of the operator with respect to basis states of the reduced Hilbert space.
On Input/Output Architectures for Convolutional Neural Network-Based Cross-View Gait Recognition

In this paper, we discuss input/output architectures for convolutional neural network (CNN)-based cross-view gait recognition. For this purpose, we consider two aspects: verification versus identification and the tradeoff between spatial displacements caused by subject difference and view difference. More specifically, we use the Siamese network with a pair of inputs and contrastive loss for verification and a triplet network with a triplet of inputs and triplet ranking loss for identification. The aforementioned CNN architectures are insensitive to spatial displacement, because the difference between a matching pair is calculated at the last layer after passing through the convolution and max pooling layers; hence, they are expected to work relatively well under large view differences. By contrast, because it is better to use the spatial displacement to its best advantage because of the subject difference under small view differences, we also use CNN architectures where the difference between a matching pair is calculated at the input level to make them more sensitive to spatial displacement. We conducted experiments for cross-view gait recognition and confirmed that the proposed architectures outperformed the state-of-the-art benchmarks in accordance with their suitable situations of verification/identification tasks and view differences.
An analytic derivation of the empirical correlations of gamma-ray bursts

Empirical correlations between various key parameters have been extensively explored ever since the discovery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and have been widely used as standard candles to probe the Universe. The Amati relation and the Yonetoku relation are two good examples that enjoyed special attention. The former reflects the connection between the peak photon energy (Ep) and the isotropic $\gamma$-ray energy release (Eiso), while the latter links Ep with the isotropic peak luminosity (Lp), both in the form of a power-law function. Most GRBs are found to follow these correlations well, but a theoretical interpretation is still lacking. Some obvious outliers may be off-axis GRBs and may follow correlations that are different from those at the on-axis. Here we present a simple analytical derivation for the Amati relation and the Yonetoku relation in the framework of the standard fireball model, the correctness of which is then confirmed by numerical simulations. The off-axis Amati relation and Yonetoku relation are also derived. They differ markedly from the corresponding on-axis relation. Our results reveal the intrinsic physics behind the radiation processes of GRBs, and they highlight the importance of the viewing angle in the empirical correlations of GRBs.