Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Repeated Lipopolysaccharide Stimulation Induces Cellular Senescence in BV2 Cells

Background and Aim: The dual action of microglia in neurodegenerating diseases has been controversial for some time. Recent studies indicate that microglia senescence might be the key determinant. When microglia age, they function abnormally and fail to respond correctly to stimuli, which eventually promotes neurodegeneration. Accumulating evidence has shown a close relationship between inflammation and aging. Since neuroinflammation is characterized by microglia activation, we assessed if the repeated activation of microglia would lead to senescence. Method: The microglia cell line BV2 was repeatedly stimulated every 48 h with lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 10 ng/ml) and senescence was evaluated by β-galactosidase staining and the presence of senescence-associated heterochromatic foci as well as by cell cycle arrest detection by flow cytometry. The senescence-associated protein p53 was also detected by Western blot. Results: β-Galactosidase staining was barely detectable in control cells, while it tended to increase with repeated LPS stimulation and was positive in most cells after stimulation with LPS 6 times. Similarly, senescence-associated heterochromatic foci were most prominent in cells repeatedly stimulated with LPS, while almost undetectable in control cells or cells receiving a single stimulation. p53 expression was highest in the cells that received LPS stimulation 6 times, and the largest number of cells arrested in the G0/G1 phase was observed in this same group. Conclusion: Microglial cells tend to undergo senescence after repeated activation, implying that microglia senescence may start after multiple inflammatory challenges.
Long-term effect of occupational noise on the risk of coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to investigate the short- and long-term effects of occupational exposure to continuous and impulse noise on the risk of CHD. METHODS The effect of noise on CHD was studied among 6005 Finnish middle-aged industrially employed men (part of the screeners in the Helsinki Heart Study) in a prospective 18-year follow-up study. The CHD end points (codes 410-414 in the ninth revision of the International Classification of Diseases and codes I20-I25 in the tenth revision) were obtained from official Finnish registers. The Finnish job-exposure matrix FINJEM provided estimates of the proportion of exposed persons and the mean level of exposure among those exposed by occupation. The relative risks (RR) of CHD and the 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for noise exposure were calculated from Cox's proportional hazard models with adjustment for some other risk factors of CHD. RESULTS The short-term (9-year follow-up) relative risk of CHD for the combined noise (continuous noise exceeding 80 decibels and impulse noise) was 1.38 (95% CI 1.04-1.82), and the long-term (18-year follow-up) RR was 1.54 (95% CI 1.28-1.86). For blue-collar workers the corresponding estimates were 1.11 (95% CI 0.82-1.51) and 1.29 (95% CI 1.05-1.57). Adjustment for other relevant risk factors did not materially change the results. CONCLUSIONS In our long-term follow-up of industrially employed men, exposure to noise, especially to impulse noise, was associated with a moderate, but statistically significant increase in CHD risk that persisted even after the workers had passed the age of retirement.
Prevalence of the chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome among 40–69-year-old men residing in a temperate climate

Abstract Objective. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of the chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) among middle-aged men in a region with a temperate climate, i.e. a community in western Sweden. Material and methods. Men aged 40–69 years who, on the basis of postal invitation, volunteered to participate in a study regarding erectile dysfunction as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, were asked also to complete the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI). Results. In total, 459 of 900 men responded to the invitation. CP/CPPS-like symptoms, i.e. perineal and/or ejaculatory pain and an NIH-CPSI pain score of 4 or greater, were reported by 23 men (5%). More severe symptoms, with a pain score of at least 8 and perineal and/or ejaculatory pain, were reported by 15 men (3.3%). Conclusions. In this cross-sectional population-based study 5% had NIH-CPSI scores suggestive of CP/CPPS, which is in the lower range compared with studies from other regions, refuting the idea that CP/CPPS should be more common in regions with a temperate climate.
Rat oligodendrocytes and astrocytes preferentially express fibroblast growth factor receptor‐2 and ‐3 mRNAs

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) exert various effects on glial cells as well as on neurons in the brain. The mRNAs for four FGF receptors (FGFR‐1‐FGFR‐4) are expressed in the brain. Although FGFR‐1 and ‐4 mRNAs are preferentially expressed in neurons, FGFR‐2 and ‐3 mRNAs are preferentially expressed in glial cells. However, the glial cells that express these receptors remained to be identified. In this study, we found that oligodendrocytes and astrocytes in the brain preferentially expressed FGFR‐2 and FGFR‐3 mRNAs, respectively. The isoforms of immunoglobulin‐like domain III (IIIb and IIIc) of the receptors have crucial roles in ligand binding. We also determined the isoforms of FGFR‐2 and FGFR‐3 expressed in glial cells to be of type IIIc. The expression of FGFR‐2 IIIc and FGFR‐3 IIIc with different ligand specificities might play important roles in the various effects of FGFs on oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Of Mice and Mazes : Simulating Mice Behavior with Reinforcement Learning

In this work, we explore the extent to which instantiations of standard model-free reinforcement learning algorithms can approximate the behavior of mice learning in a maze environment. We found that, using two metrics for determining the similarity between a mouse and agent, there exist instantiations of Q-learning and SARSA that were able to better approximate the mice’s behavior than our baselines, an optimal agent and a random agent. Furthermore, we identify trends in our results, suggesting learning algorithms, reward functions, and other parameters that better allow for RL agents to approximate mouse behavior than others.
Assessing the Relationship Between Cervical Ectopy and HIV Susceptibility: Implications for HIV Prevention in Women

Cervical ectopy, which occurs when the columnar epithelium of the endocervical canal extends outwards into the ectocervix, has been suggested to increase the susceptibility to HIV infection in at‐risk women. This study summarizes observational studies, primarily conducted in sub‐Saharan Africa, that have assessed a possible causative association between cervical ectopy and HIV acquisition and also examines the biological plausibility as well as other cofactors that may mediate this association. Only about half of the studies reviewed found cervical ectopy to be a significant risk factor for HIV acquisition. The reasons for these divergent results still remain to be fully elucidated. Understanding biological factors that affect HIV susceptibility provide opportunities to identify prevention strategies to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition.
Validation of multi-body modelling methodology for reconfigurable underwater robots

This paper investigates the problem of employing reconfigurable robots in an underwater setting. The main results presented is the experimental validation of a modelling methodology for a system consisting of N dynamically connected robots with heterogeneous dynamics. Two distinct types of experiments are performed, a series of hydrostatic free-decay tests and a series of open-loop trajectory tests. The results are compared to a simulation based on the modelling methodology. The modelling methodology shows promising results for usage with systems composed of reconfigurable underwater modules. The purpose of the model is to enable design of control strategies for cooperative reconfigurable underwater systems.
An anti‐Aspergillus protein from Escherichia coli DH5α: Putative inhibitor of siderophore biosynthesis in Aspergillus fumigatus

An antifungal protein designated as anti‐Aspergillus protein (AAP), produced by Escherichia coli DH5α, was purified and characterised. It exhibited a molecular weight of 60 kDa on Sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis and depicted 99% purity on ultra performance liquid chromatography. The purified protein manifested antimycotic potential against pathogenic isolates of Aspergillus spp. , depicting a minimum inhibitory concentration in the range 15.62–31.25 μg ml−1 and 5.0–10.0 μg per disc, using microbroth dilution, spore germination inhibition and disc diffusion assays respectively. In vitro toxicity tests demonstrated that it showed no toxicity against human erythrocytes at doses up to 1000 μg ml−1. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionisation–Time‐of‐flight analysis of trypsin‐digested peptides of purified protein and subsequent Mascot search revealed that several peptides of AAP have identity with bacterial siderophore biosynthetic protein, i.e. non‐ribosomal peptide synthetase enzyme, involved in critical step of fungal siderophore biosynthesis. Siderophore‐based inhibition was further corroborated by Chrome azurol S assay. Hence, the antagonistic effect might be the result of impediment in siderophore‐mediated iron uptake and transport process which may cause critical consequences on Aspergillus growth and virulence.
Semantic Processing of Pictures and Spoken Words: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

Semantic associations between pictures and their verbal referents were assessed in a reaction time (RT) experiment where pictures and words acted both as primes and targets. Behavioral RTs and accuracy were recorded from 20 adult subjects along with the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded from two midline and 10 lateral electrode sites. Behavioral effects were inconclusive, but the ERPs to target stimuli varied as a function of whether the priming stimulus was semantically related or unrelated to the target. The ERPs elicited to unrelated picture targets and unrelated word targets were more negative than their related counterparts and fit the characteristics of the N400 during all but the initial phase of differential processing. The differences in scalp distribution in the initial phases appear to reflect the processing of nonidentical sensory-specific mechanisms; the common later peak activity reflects the processing of a single common semantic processor.
Scrapie‐specific neuronal lesions are independent of neuronal PrP expression

In the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), accumulation of the abnormal disease‐specific prion protein is associated with neurodegeneration. Previous data suggested that abnormal prion protein (PrP) could induce neuronal pathology only when neurons expressed the normal form of PrP, but conflicting evidence also has been reported. Understanding whether neuronal PrP expression is required for TSE neuropathological damage in vivo is essential for determining the mechanism of TSE pathogenesis. Therefore, these experiments were designed to study scrapie pathogenesis in vivo in the absence of neuronal PrP expression. Hamster scrapie (strain 263K) was used to infect transgenic mice expressing hamster PrP in the brain only in astrocytes. These mice previously were shown to develop clinical scrapie, but it was unclear whether the brain pathology was caused by damage to astrocytes, neurons, or other cell types. In this electron microscopic study, neurons demonstrated TSE‐specific pathology despite lacking PrP expression. Abnormal PrP was identified around astrocytes, primarily in the extracellular spaces of the neuropil, but astrocytes showed only reactive changes and no damage. Therefore, in this model the pathogenesis of the disease appeared to involve neuronal damage associated with extracellular astrocytic accumulation of abnormal PrP acting upon nearby PrP‐negative neurons or triggering the release of non‐PrP neurotoxic factors from astrocytes.
TYSABRI – nový management rizik

Natalizumab ĹadĂ­me mezi selektivnĂ­ monoklonĂĄlnĂ­ protilĂĄtky. JednĂĄ se o velmi ĂsAinnĂ˝ lĂSk, kterĂ˝ podstatnA sniĹžuje aktivitu nemoci a vede k dlouhodobĂS stabilizaci roztrouĹĄenĂS sklerĂlzy mozkomĂ­ĹĄnĂ­. Terapie je bohuĹžel spojena s rizikem rozvoje progresivnĂ­ multifokĂĄlnĂ­ leukoencefalopatie (PML) u pacientĹŻ s pozitivitou protilĂĄtek proti John Cunningham viru. StandardizovanĂS, pravidelnĂS klinickĂS sledovĂĄnĂ­, monitorace magnetickou rezonancĂ­ a vyuĹžitĂ­ biomarkerĹŻ umoĹžĹuje stratifikovat riziko rozvoje PML. VAasnĂS zjiĹĄtAnĂ­ PML choroby v asymptomatickĂSm stadiu podstatnA zlepĹĄuje pĹeĹžitĂ­ a sniĹžuje nĂĄsledky tohoto onemocnAnĂ­.
Human Evolution Out of Africa: The Role of Refugia and Climate Change

Ancient Human Migration During the past 100,000 years or so, modern humans migrated from Africa into Eurasia, completely replacing existing populations of Neandertals by about 20,000 years ago. This occurred as the climate cooled toward a glacial maximum. Stewart and Stringer (p. 1317) review some of the recent evidence for how this demographic transition occurred. Data from ancient genomes of Neandertals and Denisovans coupled with our improved understanding of the role of refugia in driving evolution during the Ice Ages suggest that such refugia were important in the pace and pattern of change. Although an African origin of the modern human species is generally accepted, the evolutionary processes involved in the speciation, geographical spread, and eventual extinction of archaic humans outside of Africa are much debated. An additional complexity has been the recent evidence of limited interbreeding between modern humans and the Neandertals and Denisovans. Modern human migrations and interactions began during the buildup to the Last Glacial Maximum, starting about 100,000 years ago. By examining the history of other organisms through glacial cycles, valuable models for evolutionary biogeography can be formulated. According to one such model, the adoption of a new refugium by a subgroup of a species may lead to important evolutionary changes.
Cine magnetic resonance imaging of myocardial ischemia and reperfusion in mice.

Studies of acute myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in genetically manipulated mice have been impeded by the technical challenges of instrumenting small animals ( 500 bpm). To address these problems, 4 C57BL/6 mice (28 to 30 g) were anesthetized with pentobarbital and intubated for surgical instrumentation of the major left coronary artery with pneumatically controlled balloon occluders. The distal end of the tubing from the balloon occluder was exteriorized at the back of the neck. One week later, each mouse was anesthetized with …
Korrelation von Knochendichte und biochemischen Knochenstoffwechselmarkern bei niereninsuffizienten, dialysepflichtigen und nierentransplantierten Kindern

Diese Arbeit untersucht die Korrelationen zwischen Ultraschall-Knochendichtemessung (BUA: Broadband-Ultrasound-Attenuation; MHz/dB und SOS: Speed of sound; m/s) des Kalkaneus und Knochenstoffwechselparametern (unspez. Alk. Phosphatase: AP; Prokollagen-I-Propeptid: PICP; Parathormon: PTH) bei 38 chron. niereninsuffizienten (NIOD; N=7), dialysepflichtigen (NIMD; N=7) und nierentransplantierten (NITRAN; N=24) Kindern uber 12 Monate. Es zeigen sich Korrelationen von BUA mit SOS bei NITRAN (0.497, p<0.005), sowie PTH mit AP (NIMD: 0.949, <0.001), BUA fallt bei NIMD im Verlauf signifikant ab. Zudem zeigen sich erhohte Werte von PTH bei NIMD. BUA hat sich zur Verlaufskontrolle als sinnvoll erwiesen. PICP hat wegen seiner grosen Spannbreite der Normwerte wenig Aussagekraft und ist somit bei Kindern nur von geringem diagnostischem Nutzen. Die erhohten PTH Werte und erniedrigte BUA-Werte bei NIMD weisen auf einen sek. Hyperparathyreoidismus hin.
Combining a volatile and nonvolatile memristor in artificial synapse to improve learning in Spiking Neural Networks

With the end of Moore's law in sight, we need new computing architectures to satisfy the increasing demands of big data processing. Neuromorphic architectures are good candidates to low energy computing for recognition and classification tasks. We propose an event-based spiking neural network architecture based on artificial synapses. We introduce a novel synapse box that is able to forget and remember by inspiration from biological synapses. Two different volatile and nonvolatile memristor devices are combined in the synapse box. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposal, we use system-level simulation in our Neural Network Scalable Spiking Simulator (N2S3) using the MNIST handwritten digit recognition dataset. The first results show better performance of our novel synapse than the traditional nonvolatile artificial synapses.
Generation of Lagrangian intermittency in turbulence by a self-similar mechanism

Intermittency, i.e., extreme fluctuations at small scales, causes the deviation of turbulence statistics from Kolmogorov's 1941 theoretical predictions. Intermittency effects are especially strong for Lagrangian statistics. Our understanding of how Lagrangian intermittency manifests, however, is still elusive. Here, we study the Lagrangian intermittency in the framework of an exact, yet unclosed probability density function (PDF) equation. Combining this theoretical approach with data from experiments and simulations, no a priori phenomenological assumptions about the structure or properties of the flow have to be made. In this description, the non-self-similar evolution of the velocity increment PDF is determined at all scales by a single function, which is accessible through data from experiments and simulations. This ‘intermittency generating function’ arises from the dependence of the acceleration of a fluid element on its velocity history, thereby coupling different scales of turbulent motion. Empirically, we find that the intermittency generating function has a simple, approximately self-similar form, which has the surprising implication that Lagrangian intermittency—the absence of self-similarity in the Lagrangian velocity increment statistics—is driven by a self-similar mechanism. The simple form of the intermittency generating function furthermore allows us to formulate a simple model parametrization of the velocity increment PDFs.
Gaussian mixture decomposition in the analysis of MALDI‐TOF spectra

The article presents a method of protein matrix‐assisted laser desorption and ionization‐time of flight (TOF) spectra analysis. The method performs peaks detection. Spectra are analysed with Gaussian mixture decomposition. The results obtained are used for peaks identification purposes. The concept of the method is that a single peak is represented by one Gaussian distribution. The expectation‐maximization algorithm and maximum likelihood rule are used for spectra processing. The analysis can be done for a set of spectra with use of the mean spectrum, or it may be performed for a single spectrum at a time. The number of mixture‐model components is estimated by the Bayesian information criterion. Before the main analysis, a few pre‐processing steps need to be done. Spectra should be subjected to calibration, normalization, denoising, baseline correction, etc. The aim of the work is to identify peptides in the analysed sample on the basis of the parameters of the mixture model and to find differences between spectra in the analysed set.
Machine learning and NDE: Past, present, and future

Recent high-profile successes in machine learning have found solutions to problems that were long-thought to be decades away and has generated renewed interest in artificial intelligence (AT) and machine learning (ML) research. For example, the recent success and rapid commercialization of deep learning has catapulted technical achievements in many fields, including computer vision, speech recognition, games, and machine translation. These successes present new opportunities for advancing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. This paper reviews the fundamental concepts of ML and their underlying connections to statistics. We then discuss past applications and methods of ML for NDE. We also describe the still unresolved challenges for this field, such as the unavailability of reliable training data. We then discuss current research in ML for NDE that is directed toward solving these challenges. Finally, we outline how the most recent advances in ML, such as deep learning and transfer learning, have the potential to revolutionize how we design future NDE solutions.Recent high-profile successes in machine learning have found solutions to problems that were long-thought to be decades away and has generated renewed interest in artificial intelligence (AT) and machine learning (ML) research. For example, the recent success and rapid commercialization of deep learning has catapulted technical achievements in many fields, including computer vision, speech recognition, games, and machine translation. These successes present new opportunities for advancing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. This paper reviews the fundamental concepts of ML and their underlying connections to statistics. We then discuss past applications and methods of ML for NDE. We also describe the still unresolved challenges for this field, such as the unavailability of reliable training data. We then discuss current research in ML for NDE that is directed toward solving these challenges. Finally, we outline how the most recent advances in ML, such as deep learning and transfer learning, have t.
Human fall detection based on event pattern matching with ultrasonic array sensors

We proposed an algorithm for fall detection based on event pattern matching with ultrasonic array sensors signal. In several references cited later using ultrasonic sensors to detect human fall. But shows miss detection of event pattern matching algorithm. Our contributions are the algorithm and improvement of the human fall detection results. We predict that the major bottleneck would be the implementation of ultrasonic array sensors. The type of falling events was determined through the implemented SVM model. The CEP and Event Pattern Matching are then applied to verify the falling event to ensure no false positive result taken place. The results demonstrate that a better performance can be achieved based on the designed algorithm. The quality of images also plays an important role of accuracy.
Diabetes and Risk of Arterial Stiffness: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis

We aimed to explore the causal association between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and increased arterial stiffness. We performed a Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis in 11,385 participants from a well-defined community study in Shanghai during 2011–2013. We genotyped 34 T2D-associated common variants identified in East Asians and created a genetic risk score (GRS). We assessed arterial stiffness noninvasively with the measurement of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). We used the instrumental variable (IV) estimator to qualify the causal relationship between T2D and increased arterial stiffness. We found each 1-SD increase in T2D_GRS was associated with 6% higher risk in increased arterial stiffness (95% CI 1.01, 1.12), after adjustment of other metabolic confounders. Using T2D_GRS as the IV, we demonstrated a causal relationship between T2D and arterial stiffening (odds ratio 1.24, 95% CI 1.06, 1.47; P = 0.008). When categorizing the genetic loci according to their effect on insulin secretion or resistance, we found genetically determined decrease in insulin secretion was associated with increase in baPWV (βIV = 122.3 cm/s, 95% CI 41.9, 204.6; P = 0.0005). In conclusion, our results provide evidence supporting a causal association between T2D and increased arterial stiffness in a Chinese population.