Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biomechanical analysis of occipitocervical stabilization techniques: emphasis on integrity of osseous structures at the occipital implantation sites.

OBJECTIVE The objective of the current study was to quantify and compare the multidirectional flexibility properties of occipital anchor fixation with conventional methods of occipitocervical screw fixation using nondestructive and destructive investigative methods. METHODS Fourteen cadaveric occipitocervical specimens (Oc-T2) were randomized to reconstruction with occipital anchors or an occipital plate and screws. Using a 6-degree-of-freedom spine simulator with moments of ± 2.0 Nm, initial multidirectional flexibility analysis of the intact and reconstructed conditions was performed followed by fatigue loading of 25,000 cycles of flexion-extension (x-axis, ± 2.0 Nm), 15,000 cycles of lateral bending (z-axis, ± 2.0 Nm), and 10,000 cycles of axial rotation (y-axis, ± 2.0 Nm). Fluoroscopic images of the implantation sites were obtained before and after fatigue testing and placed on an x-y coordinate system to quantify positional stability of the anchors and screws used for reconstruction and effect, if any, of the fatigue component. Destructive testing included an anterior flexural load to construct failure. Quantification of implant, occipitocervical, and atlantoaxial junction range of motion is reported as absolute values, and peak flexural failure moment in Newton-meters (Nm). RESULTS Absolute value comparisons between the intact condition and 2 reconstruction groups demonstrated significant reductions in segmental flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation motion at the Oc-C1 and C1-2 junctions (p < 0.05). The average bone mineral density at the midline keel (1.422 g/cm3) was significantly higher compared with the lateral occipital region at 0.671 g/cm3 (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the occipital anchor and plate treatments in terms of angular rotation (degrees; p = 0.150) or x-axis displacement (mm; p = 0.572), but there was a statistically significant difference in y-axis displacement (p = 0.031) based on quantitative analysis of the pre- and postfatigue fluoroscopic images (p > 0.05). Under destructive anterior flexural loading, the occipital anchor group failed at 90 ± 31 Nm, and the occipital plate group failed at 79 ± 25 Nm (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Both reconstructions reduced flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation at the occipitocervical and atlantoaxial junctions, as expected. Flexural load to failure did not differ significantly between the 2 treatment groups despite occipital anchors using a compression-fit mechanism to provide fixation in less dense bone. These data suggest that an occipital anchor technique serves as a biomechanically viable clinical alternative to occipital plate fixation.
Gait Characteristics Based on Shoe-Type Inertial Measurement Units in Healthy Young Adults during Treadmill Walking

This study investigated the gait characteristics of healthy young adults using shoe-type inertial measurement units (IMU) during treadmill walking. A total of 1478 participants were tested. Principal component analyses (PCA) were conducted to determine which principal components (PCs) best defined the characteristics of healthy young adults. A non-hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted to evaluate the essential gait ability, according to the results of the PC1 score. One-way repeated analysis of variance with the Bonferroni correction was used to compare gait performances in the cluster groups. PCA outcomes indicated 76.9% variance for PC1–PC6, where PC1 (gait variability (GV): 18.5%), PC2 (pace: 17.8%), PC3 (rhythm and phase: 13.9%), and PC4 (bilateral coordination: 11.2%) were the gait-related factors. All of the pace, rhythm, GV, and variables for bilateral coordination classified the gait ability in the cluster groups. We suggest that the treadmill walking task may be reliable to evaluate the gait performances, which may provide insight into understanding the decline of gait ability. The presented results are considered meaningful for understanding the gait patterns of healthy adults and may prove useful as reference outcomes for future gait analyses.
Long-Range Binocular Vision Target Geolocation Using Handheld Electronic Devices in Outdoor Environment

Binocular vision is a passive method of simulating the human visual principle to perceive the distance to a target. Traditional binocular vision applied to target localization is usually suitable for short-range area and indoor environment. This paper presents a novel vision-based geolocation method for long-range targets in outdoor environment, using handheld electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets. This method solves the problems in long-range localization and determining geographic coordinates of the targets in outdoor environment. It is noted that these sensors necessary for binocular vision geolocation such as the camera, GPS, and inertial measurement unit (IMU), are intergrated in these handheld electronic devices. This method, employing binocular localization model and coordinate transformations, is provided for these handheld electronic devices to obtain the GPS coordinates of the targets. Finally, two types of handheld electronic devices are used to conduct the experiments for targets in long range up to 500m. The experimental results show that this method yields the target geolocation accuracy along horizontal direction with nearly 20m, achieving comparable or even better performance than monocular vision methods.
New Biophysical Approaches Reveal the Dynamics and Mechanics of Type I Viral Fusion Machinery and Their Interplay with Membranes

Protein-mediated membrane fusion is a highly regulated biological process essential for cellular and organismal functions and infection by enveloped viruses. During viral entry the membrane fusion reaction is catalyzed by specialized protein machinery on the viral surface. These viral fusion proteins undergo a series of dramatic structural changes during membrane fusion where they engage, remodel, and ultimately fuse with the host membrane. The structural and dynamic nature of these conformational changes and their impact on the membranes have long-eluded characterization. Recent advances in structural and biophysical methodologies have enabled researchers to directly observe viral fusion proteins as they carry out their functions during membrane fusion. Here we review the structure and function of type I viral fusion proteins and mechanisms of protein-mediated membrane fusion. We highlight how recent technological advances and new biophysical approaches are providing unprecedented new insight into the membrane fusion reaction.
Mesocorticolimbic Interactions Mediate fMRI-Guided Regulation of Self-Generated Affective States

Increasing evidence shows that the generation and regulation of affective responses is associated with activity of large brain networks that also include phylogenetically older regions in the brainstem. Mesencephalic regions not only control autonomic responses but also participate in the modulation of autonomic, emotional, and motivational responses. The specific contribution of the midbrain to emotion regulation in humans remains elusive. Neuroimaging studies grounding on appraisal models of emotion emphasize a major role of prefrontal cortex in modulating emotion-related cortical and subcortical regions but usually neglect the contribution of the midbrain and other brainstem regions. Here, the role of mesolimbic and mesocortical networks in core affect generation and regulation was explored during emotion regulation guided by real-time fMRI feedback of the anterior insula activity. The fMRI and functional connectivity analysis revealed that the upper midbrain significantly contributes to emotion regulation in humans. Moreover, differential functional interactions between the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic system and frontoparietal networks mediate up and down emotion regulatory processes. Finally, these findings further indicate the potential of real-time fMRI feedback approach in guiding core affect regulation.
Physical activity attenuates cardiovascular risk and mortality in men and women with and without the metabolic syndrome - a 20-year follow-up of a population-based cohort of 60-year-olds.

AIMS The purpose of this study was to analyse the association of leisure-time physical activity of different intensities at baseline, and cardiovascular disease incidence, cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality in a population-based sample of 60-year-old men and women with and without established metabolic syndrome, for more than 20 years of follow-up. A secondary aim was to study which cardiometabolic factors may mediate the association between physical activity and long-term outcomes. METHODS A total of 3693 participants (53% women) underwent physical examination and laboratory tests, completed an extensive questionnaire at baseline 1997-1999 and were followed until their death or until 31 December 2017. First-time cardiovascular disease events and death from any cause were ascertained through regular examinations of national registers. RESULTS Metabolic syndrome prevalence was 23.0%. In metabolic syndrome participants, light physical activity attenuated cardiovascular disease incidence (hazard ratio = 0.71; 95% confidence interval 0.50-1.00) compared to sedentary (reference) after multi-adjustment. Moderate/high physical activity was inversely associated with both cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, but became non-significant after multi-adjustment. Sedentary non-metabolic syndrome participants had lower cardiovascular disease incidence (0.47; 0.31-0.72) but not significantly different cardiovascular disease (0.61; 0.31-1.19) and all-cause mortality (0.92; 0.64-1.34) compared to sedentary metabolic syndrome participants. Both light and moderate/high physical activity were inversely associated with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in non-metabolic syndrome participants (p<0.05). There were significant variations in several central cardiometabolic risk factors with physical activity level in non-metabolic syndrome participants. Fibrinogen mediated the protective effects of physical activity in non-metabolic syndrome participants. CONCLUSION Physical activity of different intensities attenuated cardiovascular risk and mortality in 60-year old men and women with metabolic syndrome during a 20-year follow-up.
Local/Global contagion of viral/non-viral information: Analysis of contagion spread in online social networks

Contagion in online social networks (OSN) occurs when users are exposed to information disseminated by other users. Studies of contagion are largely devoted to the spread of viral information and to local neighbor-to-neighbor contagion. However, many contagion events can be non-viral in the sense of being unpopular with low reach size, or global in the sense of being exposed to non-adjacent neighbors. This study aims to investigate the differences between local and global contagion and the different contagion patterns of viral vs. non-viral information. We analyzed three datasets and found significant differences between the temporal spreading patterns of local contagion compared to global contagion. Based on our analysis, we can successfully predict whether a user will be infected by either a local or a global contagion. We achieve an F1-score of 0.87 for non-viral information and an F1-score of 0.84 for viral information. We propose a novel method for early detection of the viral potential of an information nugget and investigate the spreading of viral and non-viral information. In addition, we analyze both viral and non-viral contagion of a topic. Differentiating between local versus global contagion, as well as between viral versus non-viral information, provides a novel perspective and better understanding of information diffusion in OSNs.
Single-Coil Eddy Current Sensors and Their Application for Monitoring the Dangerous States of Gas-Turbine Engines

The creation and exploitation of gas turbine engines (GTE) often involve two mutually exclusive tasks related to ensuring the highest reliability while achieving a good economic and environmental performance of the power plant. The value of the radial clearance between the blade tips of the compressor or turbine and the stator is a parameter that has a significant impact on the efficiency and safety of the GTE. However, the radial displacements that form tip clearances are only one of the components of the displacements made by GTE elements due to the action of power loads and thermal deformations during engines’ operation. The impact of loads in conjunction with natural aging is also the reason for the wear of the GTE’s structural elements (for example, bearing assemblies) and the loss of their mechanical strength. The article provides an overview of the methods and tools for monitoring the dangerous states of the GTE (blade tips clearances, impellers and shafts displacements, debris detecting in lubrication system) based on the single-coil eddy current sensor, which remains operational at the temperatures above 1200 °C. The examples of practical application of the systems with such sensors in bench tests of the GTE are given.
CDK1-PLK1/SGOL2/ANLN pathway mediating abnormal cell division in cell cycle may be a critical process in hepatocellular carcinoma

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the potential mechanisms and identify core biomarkers of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The profile GSE113850 was downloaded to analyze the differentially expressed genes. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and protein–protein interaction network analysis were used to reveal the main signal pathways of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and hub genes. The correlation between core gene expression and pathological stages, the disease-free survival analysis, the overall survival analysis were analyzed by Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis. Furthermore, we reidentified the expression level of core genes of carcinoma tissues and para-carcinoma tissues from 14 HCC patients with real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis (RT-PCR) and western blotting. After SK-Hep1 cell was treated with cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) siRNA for 72 h, we detected the expression of the core genes and fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis. A total of 378 DEGs were found. GO and KEGG analysis revealed that the DEGs were mainly enriched in the cell cycle. There were positive correlations among CDK1, polo-like kinase 1, shugoshin2 and anillin actin-binding protein. Moreover, the expression levels of four core genes were related to the HCC occurrence, pathological stages, and survivorship curve. The clinical HCC specimens verified the higher expression level of core genes by real-time RT-PCR. The transfection of siCDK1 in SK-Hep1 resulted in a disordered cell cycle. Furthermore, CDK1 knockdown suppressed the expression of PLK1, ANLN, and SGOL2. The CDK1-PLK1/SGOL2/ANLN pathway mediating abnormal cell division in the cell cycle might be a critical process in HCC.
Protein C Deficiency.

Protein C (PC) deficiency is a heritable or acquired risk factor for thrombophilia, with presentations varying from asymptomatic to venous thromboembolism to neonatal purpura fulminans, a life-threatening disorder. Hereditary PC deficiency is caused by mutation in the PC ( PROC) gene located on chromosome 2q14.3. Heterozygous and acquired PC deficiencies are more common than homozygous deficiency. The recommended initial laboratory test measures PC activity using either clot-based or chromogenic methods. There are numerous potential interferences in PC activity testing that may result in either false-positive (falsely low activity) or false-negative (falsely normal or elevated activity) results. In the present review, we discuss common clinical presentations; laboratory testing, with a focus on potential assay interferences; treatment options; and prognosis in patients with PC deficiency.
Fucoidan Purified from Sargassum polycystum Induces Apoptosis through Mitochondria-Mediated Pathway in HL-60 and MCF-7 Cells

Fucoidans are biocompatible, heterogeneous, and fucose rich sulfated polysaccharides biosynthesized in brown algae, which are renowned for their broad-spectrum biofunctional properties. As a continuation of our preliminary screening studies, the present work was undertaken to extract polysaccharides from the edible brown algae Sargassum polycystum by a modified enzyme assisted extraction process using Celluclast, a food-grade cellulase, and to purify fucoidan by DEAE-cellulose anion exchange chromatography. The apoptotic and antiproliferative properties of the purified fucoidan (F5) were evaluated on HL-60 and MCF-7 cells. Structural features were characterized by FTIR and NMR analysis. F5 indicated profound antiproliferative effects on HL-60 leukemia and MCF-7 breast cancer cells with IC50 values of 84.63 ± 0.08 µg mL−1 and 93.62 ± 3.53 µg mL−1 respectively. Further, F5 treatment increased the apoptotic body formation, DNA damage, and accumulation of HL-60 and MCF-7 cells in the Sub-G1 phase of the cell cycle. The effects were found to proceed via the mitochondria-mediated apoptosis pathway. The Celluclast assisted extraction is a cost-efficient method of yielding fucoidan. With further studies in place, purified fucoidan of S. polycystum could be applied as functional ingredients in food and pharmaceuticals.
Immune Imprinting in the Influenza Ferret Model

The initial exposure to influenza virus usually occurs during childhood. This imprinting has long-lasting effects on the immune responses to subsequent infections and vaccinations. Animal models that are used to investigate influenza pathogenesis and vaccination do recapitulate the pre-immune history in the human population. The establishment of influenza pre-immune ferret models is necessary for understanding infection and transmission and for designing efficacious vaccines.
Increases in [IP3]i aggravates diastolic [Ca2+] and contractile dysfunction in Chagas’ human cardiomyocytes

Chagas cardiomyopathy is the most severe manifestation of human Chagas disease and represents the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Latin America. We previously demonstrated diastolic Ca2+ alterations in cardiomyocytes isolated from Chagas’ patients to different degrees of cardiac dysfunction. In addition, we have found a significant elevation of diastolic [Na+]d in Chagas’ cardiomyocytes (FCII>FCI) that was greater than control. Exposure of cardiomyocytes to agents that enhance inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate (IP3) generation or concentration like endothelin (ET-1) or bradykinin (BK), or membrane-permeant myoinositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate hexakis(butyryloxy-methyl) esters (IP3BM) caused an elevation in diastolic [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]d) that was always greater in cardiomyocytes from Chagas’ than non- Chagas’ subjects, and the magnitude of the [Ca2+]d elevation in Chagas’ cardiomyocytes was related to the degree of cardiac dysfunction. Incubation with xestospongin-C (Xest-C), a membrane-permeable selective blocker of the IP3 receptors (IP3Rs), significantly reduced [Ca2+]d in Chagas’ cardiomyocytes but did not have a significant effect on non-Chagas’ cells. The effects of ET-1, BK, and IP3BM on [Ca2+]d were not modified by the removal of extracellular [Ca2+]e. Furthermore, cardiomyocytes from Chagas’ patients had a significant decrease in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+content compared to control (Control>FCI>FCII), a higher intracellular IP3 concentration ([IP3]i) and markedly depressed contractile properties compared to control cardiomyocytes. These results provide additional and convincing support about the implications of IP3 in the pathogenesis of Chagas cardiomyopathy in patients at different stages of chronic infection. Additionally, these findings open the door for novel therapeutic strategies oriented to improve cardiac function and quality of life of individuals suffering from chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CC).
Overview of Biotic Stresses in Pepper (Capsicum spp.): Sources of Genetic Resistance, Molecular Breeding and Genomics

Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is one of the major vegetable crops grown worldwide largely appreciated for its economic importance and nutritional value. This crop belongs to the large Solanaceae family, which, among more than 90 genera and 2500 species of flowering plants, includes commercially important vegetables such as tomato and eggplant. The genus includes over 30 species, five of which (C. annuum, C. frutescens, C. chinense, C. baccatum, and C. pubescens) are domesticated and mainly grown for consumption as food and for non-food purposes (e.g., cosmetics). The main challenges for vegetable crop improvement are linked to the sustainable development of agriculture, food security, the growing consumers’ demand for food. Furthermore, demographic trends and changes to climate require more efficient use of plant genetic resources in breeding programs. Increases in pepper consumption have been observed in the past 20 years, and for maintaining this trend, the development of new resistant and high yielding varieties is demanded. The range of pathogens afflicting peppers is very broad and includes fungi, viruses, bacteria, and insects. In this context, the large number of accessions of domesticated and wild species stored in the world seed banks represents a valuable resource for breeding in order to transfer traits related to resistance mechanisms to various biotic stresses. In the present review, we report comprehensive information on sources of resistance to a broad range of pathogens in pepper, revisiting the classical genetic studies and showing the contribution of genomics for the understanding of the molecular basis of resistance.
Dynamical Channel Pruning by Conditional Accuracy Change for Deep Neural Networks

Channel pruning is an effective technique that has been widely applied to deep neural network compression. However, many existing methods prune from a pretrained model, thus resulting in repetitious pruning and fine-tuning processes. In this article, we propose a dynamical channel pruning method, which prunes unimportant channels at the early stage of training. Rather than utilizing some indirect criteria (e.g., weight norm, absolute weight sum, and reconstruction error) to guide connection or channel pruning, we design criteria directly related to the final accuracy of a network to evaluate the importance of each channel. Specifically, a channelwise gate is designed to randomly enable or disable each channel so that the conditional accuracy changes (CACs) can be estimated under the condition of each channel disabled. Practically, we construct two effective and efficient criteria to dynamically estimate CAC at each iteration of training; thus, unimportant channels can be gradually pruned during the training process. Finally, extensive experiments on multiple data sets (i.e., ImageNet, CIFAR, and MNIST) with various networks (i.e., ResNet, VGG, and MLP) demonstrate that the proposed method effectively reduces the parameters and computations of baseline network while yielding the higher or competitive accuracy. Interestingly, if we Double the initial Channels and then Prune Half (DCPH) of them to baseline’s counterpart, it can enjoy a remarkable performance improvement by shaping a more desirable structure.