Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liver, Tumor and Viral Hepatitis: Key Players in the Complex Balance Between Tolerance and Immune Activation

Liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer related death in the World. From an epidemiological point of view the risk factors associated to primary liver cancer are mainly viral hepatitis infection and alcohol consumption. Even though there is a clear correlation between liver inflammation, cirrhosis and cancer, other emerging liver diseases (like fatty liver) could also lead to liver cancer. Moreover, the liver is the major site of metastasis from colon, breast, ovarian and other cancers. In this review we will address the peculiar status of the liver as organ that has to balance between tolerance and immune activation. We will focus on macrophages and other key cellular components of the liver microenvironment that play a central role during tumor progression. We will also discuss how current and future therapies may affect the balance toward immune activation.
Psychological Flexibility in Depression Relapse Prevention: Processes of Change and Positive Mental Health in Group-Based ACT for Residual Symptoms

Relapse rates following a depressive episode are high, with limited treatments available aimed at reducing such risk. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a cognitive-behavioral approach that has gained increased empirical support in treatment of depression, and thus represents an alternative in relapse prevention. Psychological flexibility (PF) plays an important role in mental health according to the model on which ACT is based. This study aimed to investigate the role of PF and its subprocesses in reducing residual symptoms of depression and in improving positive mental health following an 8-week group-based ACT treatment. Adult participants (75.7% female) with a history of depression, but currently exhibiting residual symptoms (N = 106) completed measures before and after intervention, and at 6 and 12-month follow-up. A growth curve model showed that positive mental health increased over 12-months. Multilevel mediation modeling revealed that PF significantly mediated these changes as well as the reduction of depressive symptoms, and that processes of acceptance, cognitive defusion, values and committed action, in turn, mediated increased PF.
Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Neurophysiology, Adaptive DBS, Virtual Reality, Neuroethics and Technology

The Seventh Annual Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Think Tank held on September 8th of 2019 addressed the most current: (1) use and utility of complex neurophysiological signals for development of adaptive neurostimulation to improve clinical outcomes; (2) Advancements in recent neuromodulation techniques to treat neuropsychiatric disorders; (3) New developments in optogenetics and DBS; (4) The use of augmented Virtual reality (VR) and neuromodulation; (5) commercially available technologies; and (6) ethical issues arising in and from research and use of DBS. These advances serve as both “markers of progress” and challenges and opportunities for ongoing address, engagement, and deliberation as we move to improve the functional capabilities and translational value of DBS. It is in this light that these proceedings are presented to inform the field and initiate ongoing discourse. As consistent with the intent, and spirit of this, and prior DBS Think Tanks, the overarching goal is to continue to develop multidisciplinary collaborations to rapidly advance the field and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Phosphorylation-Dependent Regulation of Ca2+-Permeable AMPA Receptors During Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity

Experience-dependent learning and memory require multiple forms of plasticity at hippocampal and cortical synapses that are regulated by N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDA) and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-type ionotropic glutamate receptors (NMDAR, AMPAR). These plasticity mechanisms include long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD), which are Hebbian input-specific mechanisms that rapidly increase or decrease AMPAR synaptic strength at specific inputs, and homeostatic plasticity that globally scales-up or -down AMPAR synaptic strength across many or even all inputs. Frequently, these changes in synaptic strength are also accompanied by a change in the subunit composition of AMPARs at the synapse due to the trafficking to and from the synapse of receptors lacking GluA2 subunits. These GluA2-lacking receptors are most often GluA1 homomeric receptors that exhibit higher single-channel conductance and are Ca2+-permeable (CP-AMPAR). This review article will focus on the role of protein phosphorylation in regulation of GluA1 CP-AMPAR recruitment and removal from hippocampal synapses during synaptic plasticity with an emphasis on the crucial role of local signaling by the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and the Ca2+calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase 2B/calcineurin (CaN) that is coordinated by the postsynaptic scaffold protein A-kinase anchoring protein 79/150 (AKAP79/150).
Universal RNA Secondary Structure Insight Into Mosquito-Borne Flavivirus (MBFV) cis-Acting RNA Biology

Mosquito-borne flaviviruses (MBFVs) spread between vertebrate (mammals and birds) and invertebrate (mosquitoes) hosts. The cis-acting RNAs of MBFV share common evolutionary origins and contain frequent alterations, which control the balance of linear and circular genome conformations and allow effective replication. Importantly, multiple cis-acting RNAs interact with trans-acting regulatory RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and affect the MBFV lifecycle process, including viral replicase binding, viral RNA translation-cyclisation-synthesis and nucleocapsid assembly. Considering that extensive structural probing analyses have been performed on MBFV cis-acting RNAs, herein the homologous RNA structures are online folded and consensus structures are constructed by sort. The specific traits and underlying biology of MBFV cis-acting RNA are illuminated accordingly in a review of RNA structure. These findings deepen our understanding of MBFV cis-acting RNA biology and serve as a resource for designing therapeutics in targeting protein-viral RNA interaction or viral RNA secondary structures.
Of Circuits and Brains: The Origin and Diversification of Neural Architectures

Nervous systems are complex cellular structures that allow animals to interact with their environment, which includes both the external and the internal milieu. The astonishing diversity of nervous system architectures present in all animal clades has prompted the idea that selective forces must have shaped them over evolutionary time. In most cases, neurons seem to coalesce into specific (centralized) structures that function as “central processing units” (CPU): “brains. ” Why did neural systems adopt this physical configuration? When did it first happen? What are the physiological, computational, and/or structural advantages of concentrating many neurons in a specific place within the body? Here we examine the concept of nervous system centralization and factors that might have contributed to the evolutionary success of this centralization strategy. In particular, we suggest a putative scenario for the evolution of neural system centralization that incorporates different strands of evidence. This scenario is based on some premises: (1) Receptors originated before neurons (sensors before transmitters) and there were deployed in the first organisms in an asymmetric fashion (deposited randomly in the outer layer); (2) Receptors were segregated in a preferential position in response to an anisotropic environment, (3) Neurons were born in association with this receptors and used to transmit signals distally; (4) Energetics preferentially selected the localization of neurons, and synapsis, close to the receptors (to minimize wire use, for instance); (5) The presence of condensed areas of neurons could have stimulated the proliferation of more receptors in the vicinity, increasing the repertoire of signals processed in an specific body domain (i.e., head) plus contributing to amplify the computational power of the neuronal aggregate; (6) The proliferation of receptors would have induced the proliferation of more neurons in the aggregate, with a further increase in its computational power (hence, diversifying the behavioral repertoire). These last two steps of proliferation and aggregation could have been sustained through a feedback loop, reiterated many times, generating distinct topologies in different lineages. Our main aim in this paper is to examine the brain as both a biological and a physical or computational device.
MAP4K4 negatively regulates CD8 T cell–mediated antitumor and antiviral immunity

MAP4K4 inhibition augments CD8 T cell antitumor and antiviral responses. Activation enhancer CD8+ T cell activation is dependent on encounters with antigen-presenting cells (APCs) through immune synapse formation, which involves binding interactions mediated by multiple molecules on T cells, including lymphocyte function-associated antigen–1 (LFA-1). Here, Esen et al. show that mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase 4 (MAP4K4) suppresses LFA-1 activation. CD8+ T cell activation is increased upon genetic deletion of Map4k4, which is caused by reduced phosphorylation of ERM (ezrin, radixin, and moesin) proteins that leads to enhanced LFA-1 activation, greater T cell–APC conjugation, and increased CD8+ T cell functionality. Together, these findings define MAP4K4 as a negative regulator of CD8 T cell activation. During cytotoxic T cell activation, lymphocyte function-associated antigen–1 (LFA-1) engages its ligands on antigen-presenting cells (APCs) or target cells to enhance T cell priming or lytic activity. Inhibiting LFA-1 dampens T cell–dependent symptoms in inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and graft-versus-host disease. However, the therapeutic potential of augmenting LFA-1 function is less explored. Here, we show that genetic deletion or inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase 4 (MAP4K4) enhances LFA-1 activation on CD8 T cells and improves their adherence to APCs or LFA-1 ligand. In addition, loss of Map4k4 increases CD8 T cell priming, which culminates in enhanced antigen-dependent activation, proliferation, cytokine production, and cytotoxic activity, resulting in impaired tumor growth and improved response to viral infection. LFA-1 inhibition reverses these phenotypes. The ERM (ezrin, radixin, and moesin) proteins reportedly regulate T cell–APC conjugation, but the molecular regulator and effector of ERM proteins in T cells have not been defined. In this study, we demonstrate that the ERM proteins serve as mediators between MAP4K4 and LFA-1. Last, systematic analyses of many organs revealed that inducible whole-body deletion of Map4k4 in adult animals is tolerated under homeostatic conditions. Our results uncover MAP4K4 as a potential target to augment antitumor and antiviral immunity.
Examination and It's Evaluation of Preprocessing Method for Individual Identification in EEG

: Recently, the technology of BMI that communicates with humans and operates a robot using human brain information has been actively studied. The authentiﬁcation function using BMI has been studied by previous research. Although many studies focus on feature extraction and learning model creation, there are few studies that discuss the e ﬀ ectiveness of preprocessing. In this study, we implemented an EEG biometric function using image stimulation method. In this paper, we proposed biometric authentication system system using EEG at time of image stimulus. At the same time, we evaluated the change in authentication accuracy in order to verify the preprocessing (digital ﬁlter, artifact countermeasure, epoch) method in the authentication system. As a result, authentication accuracy is improved by performing the proposed preprocessing. In addition, it was shown that convenience and security were improved when using the system.
Measuring Force in a Laryngoscope

A laryngoscope is a surgical instrument used to facilitate endotracheal intubation task during general anaesthesia or mechanical ventilation. This task usually takes less than a minute, but requires very precise movements and force control ability; otherwise it may result in serious damages to the patient incisors, larynx, spinal column, changes in heart rate and/or blood-pressure. This work presents a prototype of a device that can be easily adapt to a common laryngoscope, which allows the measurement of the force applied between the handler and the blade. The force measurements are acquired by a bluetooth® data acquisition module and transmitted to a portable computer for data recording and analysis. Realtime force information is provided to laryngoscopists and alarm triggered as desired by according to the user settings. The software application – Laring Monitor was built in Free Pascal and is able to be run in different operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac X).
The Usage of CDN for Live Video Streaming to Improve QoS. Case Study: 1231 Provider

Streaming is a popular technology used by active users for enjoying audio or video. Broadly, this technology needs high bandwidth to carefully keep its Quality of Service (QoS) at a reasonable level. Without enough bandwidth, a problem arises, such as packet loss. This condition can decrease the quality of content delivery. To properly handle that problem, cache technology can be utilized. One type of these technologies is Content Delivery System (CDN). Naturally, the position of CDN has to be placed not far from the user area, so the access time can be faster than the access time when the CDN is not used. Another contributing factor, such as the right video format selecting can provide a good impact. There are two popular formats for live video streaming, such as HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) and RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol). This study is going to elaborate on the comparative between HLS and RTMP with CDN and also without it. The result shows live video streaming with CDN has better performance than without CDN. 
An Approach to Open Access to Multimedia Multicast Services at the Network Edge

—The multicast services are effective solution for content delivery to groups of subscribers. Typical multicast applications include distribution of music, video, news, advertisements, weather information, software and other data. The multicast minimizes the network traffic in comparison to unicast as the content is accessible for all users subscribed for the service simultaneously. The efforts on further evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) in fifth generation (5G) mobile networks enable more optimal usage of network capacity and better quality of experience for end users. The MBMS requires deployment of additional functions in the core network, which from technical point of view introduces latency. There are use case scenarios where the latency has to be minimized, e.g. for mission critical applications. In this paper, we present an approach to provide MBMS functionality at the network edge using Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) technology. MEC reduces latency as it distributes the cloud capabilities closer to the place where they are needed. The vicinity to end users enables more efficient usage of network resources and higher data rates in addition to latency reduction. Among the others, the deployment of MBMS at the network edge enables location based content delivery, e.g. broadband multicasting of sport events at stadiums. A new MEC service is proposed, which enables third party applications to manage multicast sessions. Using the service, a MEC application may create a new multicast session, delete an existing multicast session, get information about the multicast session, and manage user participation in a multicast session. A MEC application may subscribe to receive notifications about multicast session events and may be notified when such events occur. The proposed MEC service follows the Representational State Format (REST) architectural style. We present the service data model which describes the data type and the structure of resource, as well as methods supported by the resources. To illustrate the approach feasibility, we model the multicast session state as seen by the network and by MEC application, and prove formally that both models are synchronized, i.e. they expose equivalent behavior. We also discuss service performance in terms of introduced latency. The latency “injected” by the service is evaluated theoretically through signaling for multicast session management. Based on published empirical data for MEC performance we determine the distributions which fit best to these data applied to the proposed MEC service. Manuscript received August 16, 2019; revised March 6, 2020. This work was supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, Ministry of Education and Science under Grant No. DH07/10-2016. Corresponding author email: enp@tu-sofia.bg. doi:10.12720/jcm.15. 4.309-317
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTER TO THE EDITOR REGARDING BPERIPHERAL NERVE STIMULATION COMPARED WITH USUAL CARE FOR PAIN RELIEF OF HEMIPLEGIC SHOULDER PAIN[

To the Editor: The reviewers read with interest this article that describes the efficacy of therapeutic single-lead peripheral nerve stimulation in the treatment of hemiplegia with shoulder pain (HSP) as compared with those receiving usual and customary Btreatment. [ In the reviewers’ brief review of the literature, they identified 31 direct causes of shoulder pain in HSP alphabetically ranging from acromioclavicular dislocation to thoracic outlet syndrome. In addition, diaphragmatic irritation and cardiomyopathy, among others, were also reported as remote sources of HSP. As the authors also acknowledged, no one etiology has been identified as the inciting agents in HSP, and they can also be multifactorial. Although the authors list a number of exclusion criteria that eliminated subjects from this study, the primary inclusion diagnosis in both groups seemed to be Bidiopathic. [ Diagnosis, from the Greek diaignnskein, is the act of specifically identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms, thereby ensuring a specific plan of treatment tailored to this taxon. Idiopathic is, by definition, not a diagnosis but instead an admission that no singular cause has been identified as the inciting agent. In both cohorts, subluxation occurred in approximately 55% of the samples, suggesting that it played a prominent role as a direct cause or as a prominent contributor to the HSP. Arm-weighted distraction of the tethered structures of the shoulder and the neck including, among others, the bicipital tendon and/or the cervical spinal roots can be pain generators presenting as a tendinitis and/or cervical radiculopathy, respectively, in association with degenerative cervical disk disease. Immobility itself can contribute to the development of a subdeltoid bursitis, which, when untreated, can culminate with an adhesive capsulitis. Proximal venous occlusion of the subclavian vein as it passes under both the pectoralis major and the minor muscles can present as distal hand edema mimicking a sympathetic dystrophy. In both cohorts, the patients deserve a specific diagnosis with then an opportunity to receive diagnostic-specific treatment rather than historically related treatment, which has evolved from electric eels as well as electrostatic devices to the present single-lead and/or multilead peripheral nerve stimulation. This study’s results rest on the assumption that both cohorts are homogeneous and are therefore comparable. Instead, the descriptor, Bidiopathic[ would suggest otherwise. Without a definitive diagnosis for each subject, there is the potential for significant variability within each group and between each cohort. This heterogeneity introduces the distinct possibility that the reported statistical outcome in this relatively small sample, as well as one with excessive variability, occurred by a Brandom effect. [
Perianal Tumor With Overlap Features of Fibroadenoma and Phyllodes Tumor Arising From Anogenital Mammary-like Glands

a superimposed lichen simplex chronicus and excoriations. Similarly, the presence of atrophy in cutaneous lesions of LS is also a common finding. Interestingly, no studies have previously reported the association between LS and cornoid lamellation. This case is the first to describe a plaque of extragenital LS associated with the presence of cornoid lamellas in the margins. We interpret it as an incidental finding secondary to the epithelial alterations occurring in LS; however, genetic instability may play a role in the coincidental manifestation of these lesions. Because the diagnosis of early and evolving lesions of LS without the hallmark sclerosis can be problematic, the purpose of this case is to highlight a new histopathological feature that can overlap with LS and delay its diagnosis.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR KINESIO TAPING IMPROVES PAIN, RANGE OF MOTION, AND PROPRIOCEPTION IN OLDER PATIENTS WITH KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS

To the Editor: With interest we read the study by Cho et al. about kinesio taping in older patients with knee osteoarthritis. The authors succeeded in writing a clear article of their well-designed study about the short-term effects of kinesio taping. After reading their conclusions, some questions remained. First, the methods section described that included subjects are outpatients from local clinics in Seoul. Unfortunately, it is not clear in which way patients are selected to participate in the study. For example, are the 60 volunteers with knee OA all patients who visited the local clinics during October 2011 to June 2012? How are the patients selected and which kind of patients are approached by the clinics? Which kind of clinics and how many participated? We are convinced it is interesting to know more about the selection of the patients, to preclude selection bias and for the generalizability of the results of the study. Secondly, Cho et al. described in their article that the participants and the researchers were unaware of group assignment, resulting in a single blind research design. We are not sure if the blinding of the patients succeeded. Some of the placebo-KT group patients might have known that they had received placebo taping. Kinesio tape is very elastic, so when the tape is applied correctly, the patient feels a pulling sensation of the tape. When the tape is applied without tension, as is done in the placebo-KT group, the patient experiences this pulling sensation to a lesser extent. The patients could have noticed the degree of the pulling sensation whether they were in the placebo group. Moreover, the authors do not mention whether the patients have received kinesio taping before this research. If so, the patients would notice directly if they had received the taping with or without the applied tension. We are curious if the researchers asked the patients at the end of the trial to guess which treatment they had been receiving, to assess performance bias. Furthermore, it is unclear if the outcome assessor was blinded for the objective outcomes. Cho et al. did not mention who assessed the active range of motion and proprioception of the knee. This could mean that the results of the study are possibly influenced by detection bias. For these reasons, we have some doubts regarding the conclusion, which states that kinesio taping has large effects on attenuating various types of pain, and improves active range of motion and proprioception in all patients with osteoarthritis in clinics. We would be interested in the authors_ thoughts on these comments. REFERENCES 1. Cho HY, Kim EH, Kim J, et al: Kinesio taping improves pain, range of motion, and proprioception in older patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2015;94:192Y200