Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Friends, neighbours and enemies: an overview of the communal and social biology of plants.

Plants were traditionally seen as rather passive actors in their environment, interacting with each other only in so far as they competed for the same resources. In the last 30 years, this view has been spectacularly overturned, with a wealth of evidence showing that plants actively detect and respond to their neighbours. Moreover, there is evidence that these responses depend on the identity of the neighbour, and that plants may cooperate with their kin, displaying social behaviour as complex as that observed in animals. These plant-plant interactions play a vital role in shaping natural ecosystems, and are also very important in determining agricultural productivity. However, in terms of our mechanistic understanding, we have only just begun to scratch the surface, and many aspects of plant-plant interactions remain poorly understood. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of the field of plant-plant interactions, covering the communal interactions of plants with their neighbours as well as the social behaviour of plants toward their kin, and the consequences of these interactions. We particularly focus on the mechanisms that underpin neighbour detection and response, highlighting both progress and gaps in our understanding of these fascinating but previously overlooked interactions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Crosstalk between the COX2‐PGE2‐EP4 signaling pathway and primary cilia in osteoblasts after mechanical stimulation

Primary cilia have been found to function as mechanosensors in low‐magnitude high‐frequency vibration (LMHFV)‐induced osteogenesis. The PGE2 also regulates bone homeostasis and mechanical osteogenesis through its receptor EP4 signaling, but its involvement in LMHFV‐induced or in primary cilia‐induced osteogenesis has not been investigated. We hypothesized that LMHFV stimulates osteoblast (OB) differentiation by activating the COX2‐PGE2‐EP pathway in a manner dependent on primary cilia and that primary cilia are also affected by the PGE2 pathway. In this study, through western blot analysis, RNA interference, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and cytochemical staining, we observed that COX2, mPGES‐1, and PGE2 levels were markedly elevated in cells treated with LMHFV and were greatly decreased in LMHFV‐treated cells following IFT88 silencing. EP4 expression was significantly increased in OBs following LMHFV treatment, but IFT88 silencing significantly blocked this increase. EP4 localized to the bases of primary cilia. LMHFV reduced the length and abundance of primary cilia, but the cells could self‐repair their primary cilia after mechanical damage. EP4 antagonism significantly blocked the LMHFV‐induced increase in IFT88 expression and blocked the recovery of primary cilia length and the proportion of cells with primary cilia. In addition, COX2 or EP4 antagonism disrupted LMHFV‐induced osteogenesis. These results demonstrate the integration of and crosstalk between primary cilia and the COX2‐PGE2‐EP4 signaling pathway under mechanical stimulation.
Dynamic Modeling and Control of a Resonant Switched-Capacitor Converter with Switch Conductance Regulation

This paper presents the modeling and design of a digital nonlinear control for a fully integrated resonant switchedcapacitor (ReSC) voltage converter. An analytic stability criterion is derived based on a harmonic balance approach together with the dual locus method. The model translates the stability requirements into actual design parameters of the converter. The model is verified by measurements of a converter that operates up to a resonance frequency of 47MHz. The presented modelling methodology can be applied to other areas, such as digital LDO, slope shaping or digitally assisted analog.
Stabilization for Networked Control Systems with Unreliable Communication Channel

We study stabilization problems for networked control systems (NCSs) with asymmetric information. In this NCSs model, the remote controller can receive packet-dropout states of the plant, and the available information for the embedded controller are observations of states and packet-dropout states sent from the remote controller. It is shown that the system is bounded in the mean-square sense if and only if there exist the solutions to the two coupled algebraic Riccati equations and the packet-dropout probability satisfies certain condition.
Lipid Profiles and Heart Failure Risk: Results from Two Prospective Studies.

Rationale: Altered lipid metabolism has been implicated in heart failure (HF) development, but no prospective studies have examined comprehensive lipidomics data and subsequent risk of HF. Objective: We aimed to link single lipid metabolites and lipidomics networks to the risk of developing heart failure. Methods and Results: Discovery analyses were based on 216 targeted lipids in a case-control study (331 incident HF cases and 507 controls, matched by age, sex, and study center), nested within the PREDIMED study. Associations of single lipids were examined in conditional logistic regression models. Furthermore, lipidomics networks were linked to HF risk in a multi-step workflow, including machine learning-based identification of the HF-related network-clusters, and regression-based discovery of the HF-related lipid patterns within these clusters. If available, significant findings were externally validated in a subsample of the EPIC-Potsdam cohort (2414 at-risk-participants, including 87 incident HF-cases). After confounder-adjustments, two lipids were significantly associated with HF risk in both cohorts: ceramide 16:0 (HR per SD in PREDIMED 1.28, 95%CI 1.13, 1.47) and phosphatidylcholine 32_0 (HR per SD in PREDIMED 1.23, 95%CI 1.08, 1.41). Additionally, lipid patterns in several network clusters were associated with HF risk in PREDIMED. Adjusted for standard risk factors, an internally cross-validated score based on the significant HF-related lipids that were identified in the network analysis in PREDIMED was associated with a higher HF risk (20 lipids, HR per SD 2.33, 95%CI 1.93, 2.81%). Moreover, a lipid score restricted to the externally available lipids was significantly associated with HF incidence in both cohorts (6 lipids, HRs per SD 1.30, 95%CI 1.14, 1.47 in PREDIMED, and 1.46, 95%CI, 1.17, 1.82 in EPIC-Potsdam). Conclusions: Our study identified and validated two lipid metabolites and several lipidomics patterns as potential novel biomarkers of HF risk. Lipid profiling may capture preclinical molecular alterations that predispose for incident HF.
CMOS IC Design from Schematic Level to Silicon within IC Curricula Using Free CAD Software

In this paper we demonstrate the free and open-source methodology used to design integrated circuits all the way from schematic level simulation to silicon-ready GDS fabrication files. This approach has been successfully implemented in the IC design curricula at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka. The example circuits are known designs of a low-dropout regulator and an oscillator. The CMOS technology node is 180 nm process. Each of the tools is briefly presented, and either of the two designs is shown during different design phases.
How digitalization is perceived from Moroccan students: A Sentiment analysis study

Sentiment analysis is broadly used to assess student’s opinions and reviews about different aspects related to education and problems encountered in student life. The proliferation of social media and internet expend offer a large amount of data to researchers in order to perform a set of experiments. We present in this study an optimized sentiment analysis approach based on the Information Gain filter method which aims at selecting the most relevant features to increase the accuracy given by three experimented supervised algorithms: SVM, Naive Bayes and Random Forest. Our study was carried out on 415 student’s opinions written in Moroccan Dialect about digitization services in university, case of University Hassan 1st of Settat. The findings show that the SVM yields best accuracy for both the systems before feature selection and after feature selection.
Algebraic Design of Symmetrical Windings for AC Machines

This paper compares two important methods for the synthesis of the winding layout of AC machines. Both methods apply in general to integral-slot and fractional-slot windings, including non-overlapping windings, so they can both be claimed to unify the synthesis task. Both of them also maximize the winding factor at the working harmonic. The paper gives several examples including the calculation of the winding factor by the little-known closed-form expression of Klíma [1], which also applies in general to the entirety of this class of windings. Exact agreement with the calculation based on the slot-star corroborates the results.
Cost-Related Nonadherence and Mortality in Patients With Chronic Disease: A Multiyear Investigation, National Health Interview Survey, 2000–2014

Introduction Prescription costs are rising, and many patients with chronic illnesses have difficulty paying for prescriptions. Missing or delaying medication because of financial concerns is common; however, the effects of cost-related nonadherence (CRN) on patient outcomes have not been described. Our objective was to determine if CRN is associated with higher all-cause and disease-specific mortality among patients living with diabetes and cardiovascular disease in a representative sample of US adults. Methods We ascertained CRN, vital status, and cause of death for 39,571 patients with diabetes, 61,968 patients with cardiovascular disease, and 124,899 patients with hypertension in the 2000 through 2014 releases of the National Health Interview Survey. We used adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate associations between CRN and all-cause mortality and CRN and disease-specific mortality. Results On average, 15% of the sample reported CRN in the year before interview. After adjusting for confounders, CRN was associated with 15% to 22% higher all-cause mortality rates for all conditions (diabetes hazard ratio [HR] = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.1–1.3; cardiovascular disease [CVD] HR = 1.15; 95% CI, 1.1–1.2; hypertension HR = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.2–1.3). Relative to no CRN, CRN was associated with 8% to 18% higher disease-specific mortality rates (diabetes HR = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.0–1.4; CVD HR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.0–1.2; hypertension HR = 1.08; 95% CI, 0.9–1.3). Conclusion Relative to full adherence, CRN is associated with higher mortality rates for patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension, although associations may have weakened since 2011. Policies that increase prescription affordability may decrease mortality for patients experiencing CRN.
A Process Checkpoint Evaluation at User Space of Docker Framework on Distributed Computing Infrastructure

This paper presents an evaluation of a process migration checkpoint issues, especially the potential collision of resources usage at user level (space) over a distributed computation infrastructure. In particular, within the docker and its container framework when application checkpointing and restore (resume) occurs quite regularly for shared computing resources. This evaluation will be utilized and be part of larger research titled "Modelling Fast User Space Mutual Exclusive (FUTEX) Process Threads in Single-System Image (SSI)". This paper is primarily written from the literature study and simple exploration experiment and are performed to gather preliminary understanding of the potential issues, performance caveats and testbed setup. The continuation future research will involve nondeterministic modelling simulation using Color Petri Net as comparison to the empirical data resulted from the testbed. It is the aim of this paper to serve as an early study of the larger research as an early exploration utilizing docker and container framework.
Biophysical Characterization and Anticancer Activities of Photosensitive Phytoanthraquinones Represented by Hypericin and Its Model Compounds

Photosensitive compounds found in herbs have been reported in recent years as having a variety of interesting medicinal and biological activities. In this review, we focus on photosensitizers such as hypericin and its model compounds emodin, quinizarin, and danthron, which have antiviral, antifungal, antineoplastic, and antitumor effects. They can be utilized as potential agents in photodynamic therapy, especially in photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer. We aimed to give a comprehensive summary of the physical and chemical properties of these interesting molecules, emphasizing their mechanism of action in relation to their different interactions with biomacromolecules, specifically with DNA.
The role of heparin in preventing the early silent ischemia in carotid stenting

Abstract Introduction and aims Serebral silent ischemia is a complication of carotid stenting. If silent ischemia occurs 24 h later of carotid stenting, it called early serebral silent ischemia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of heparin infusion on the prevention of early silent ischemia in patients who underwent carotid stenting. Materials and methods We included 26 patients who underwent carotid stenting. Patients who had carotid stenting, we randomized into two groups. The first group of patients were given continuously heparin infusion a maximum of 20,000 units for 24 h, and screened the aPTT value each 6 h. The aPTT value aimed a range of 2–3 times to up baseline. The second group didn’t take heparin infusion. Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI-MRI) and gradient echo (GRE) sequences performed in all patients at the 24 h of carotid stenting. Results Early serebral silent ischemia was detected by DWI-MRI in 13 (50%) of 26 patients who underwent carotid stenting. Seven (53.80%) of 13 patients whit early serebral silent ischemia did not receive heparin treatment, while 6 (46.20%) received heparin treatment. There was no symptomatic or asymptomatic acute hemorrhage in patients who treated with heparin. Conclusion In our study, the continuation of anticoagulant therapy for 24 h to prevent early silent ischemia was not statistically significant. Also there is no reduction for count of serebral silent ischemia between two groups. However, due to the small number of patients in the study, future studies are required with more patients.
Concise Review; Effects of Antibiotics and Antimycotics on the Biological Properties of Human Pluripotent and Multipotent Stem Cells.

Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the remarkable potential to self-renew and develop into various cell lineages. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or multipotent stem cells that are present in various organs can self-renew and differentiate into multiple mesenchymal lineages. Both human PSCs and MSCs hold great promise in cell-based therapies, disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine. Human stem cells must be cultured under the optimal conditions to use them in transplantology. Therefore, researchers must ensure the sterility of human stem cell lines. Bacterial contamination is a common problem in laboratories and major precautions are required to detect the types of microorganisms, eliminate, and prevent contamination in cell cultures. Stem cell culture media usually contains antibiotics and antimycotics such as penicillin-streptomycin (pen-strep), gentamicin, and amphotericin B (AmB) to avoid bacterial, fungal, and yeast contaminants. Numerous publications recognized the serious effect of antibiotics and antimycotics on in vitro properties of human stem cells, including proliferation, differentiation, survival, and genetic instability. This review study aimed to understand the impact of routinely used antibiotics and antimycotics such as pen-strep, gentamicin, and AmB on viability, proliferation, and functional properties (differentiation and pluripotency) of human PSCs and MSCs.
NLRP3 and IL-1β gene expression is elevated in monocytes from HIV treated patients with neurocognitive disorders.

BACKGROUND Systemic immune activation and inflammation in chronic HIV infection are driving factors of non-AIDS related events, including neurocognitive impairment. The role of inflammasome in monocytes from patients with HIV infection has been extensively studied but its association with the extent of neurocognitive dysfunction has been poorly investigated. METHODS We enrolled 79 HIV positive patients; 44 with varying levels of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) and 35 without and 8 healthy donors (HD). HAND sub-types included asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment (ANI; n=19), mild neurocognitive disorder (MND; n=17), and HIV associated dementia (HAD; n=8). We quantified plasmatic concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-17A, IL-1β and IFN-γ) for all HIV patients and the mRNA expression of genes involved in inflammasome activity (NLRP3, PYCARD, NAIP, AIM2, IL-1β and IL-18) in monocytes of a subgroup of 25 HIV patients and 8 HD. RESULTS HIV patients' plasma concentrations of IFN-γ, IL-1β and IL-17A were undetectable. Levels of TNF-α and IL-6 were similar among the HIV patient groups. A trend towards an increased expression of inflammasome genes according to neurocognitive disorder severity was observed. Of note, the NLRP3 mRNA relative expression was higher in MND compared to other groups and IL-1β was lower in MND than HAD patients. CONCLUSIONS Changes in inflammasome components in circulating monocytes according to different HAND severity suggest that NLRP3 may be a possible biomarker or target to better understand and treat the link between systemic inflammation and neurocognitive impairment in HIV infection.
Cohort profile: the Diet and Healthy Aging (DaHA) study in Singapore

How diet is related with cognition and health has not been systematically examined in Asians whose eating habits are very different from their counterparts in the West and the biological mechanisms underlying such links are not well known yet. The diet and healthy aging (DaHA) study is a community-based longitudinal study conducted to examine the role of diet and nutrition in promoting cognitive, emotional, and physical health among community-living elderly Singaporeans. The first wave of DaHA, conducted from 2011 to 2017, provided detailed information on diet and baseline cognitive function and health from 1010 community-living elderly in Singapore. Biomarkers of oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, and genetic information were collected. The ongoing second wave of DaHA is conducted from 2017 to 2020, which provides follow- up assessments using established cognitive tests and clinical tools. This well-characterized cohort, with its archived biological samples and high-quality data on diet and lifestyle factors will allow researchers to explore the relationships among diet, nutrition, genes, cognition, mental and physical health in an extremely cost-effective manner. Translations of the research findings into clinical and public health practices will potentially help to promote cognitive health at the population level and reduce healthcare costs related to cognitive impairment.
The Effect of Physical Cues of Biomaterial Scaffolds on Stem Cell Behavior

Stem cells have been sought as a promising cell source in the tissue engineering field due to their proliferative capacity as well as differentiation potential. Biomaterials have been utilized to facilitate the delivery of stem cells in order to improve their engraftment and long‐term viability upon implantation. Biomaterials also have been developed as scaffolds to promote stem cell induced tissue regeneration. This review focuses on the latter where the biomaterial scaffold is designed to provide physical cues to stem cells in order to promote their behavior for tissue formation. Recent work that explores the effect of scaffold physical properties, topography, mechanical properties and electrical properties, is discussed. Although still being elucidated, the biological mechanisms, including cell shape, focal adhesion distribution, and nuclear shape, are presented. This review also discusses emerging areas and challenges in clinical translation.
Soybean Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) Harbor Highly Diverse Populations of Arthropod, Fungal and Plant Viruses

Soybean thrips (Neohydatothrips variabilis) are one of the most efficient vectors of soybean vein necrosis virus, which can cause severe necrotic symptoms in sensitive soybean plants. To determine which other viruses are associated with soybean thrips, the metatranscriptome of soybean thrips, collected by the Midwest Suction Trap Network during 2018, was analyzed. Contigs assembled from the data revealed a remarkable diversity of virus-like sequences. Of the 181 virus-like sequences identified, 155 were novel and associated primarily with taxa of arthropod-infecting viruses, but sequences similar to plant and fungus-infecting viruses were also identified. The novel viruses were predicted to have positive-sense RNA, negative-stranded RNA, double-stranded RNA, and single-stranded DNA genomes. The assembled sequences included 100 contigs that represented at least 95% coverage of a virus genome or genome segment. Sequences represented 12 previously described arthropod viruses including eight viruses reported from Hubei Province in China, and 12 plant virus sequences of which six have been previously described. The presence of diverse populations of plant viruses within soybean thrips suggests they feed on and acquire viruses from multiple host plant species that could be transmitted to soybean. Assessment of the virome of soybean thrips provides, for the first time, information on the diversity of viruses present in thrips.
Phenolic Compounds as Markers of Wine Quality and Authenticity

Targeted and untargeted determinations are being currently applied to different classes of natural phenolics to develop an integrated approach aimed at ensuring compliance to regulatory prescriptions related to specific quality parameters of wine production. The regulations are particularly severe for wine and include various aspects of the viticulture practices and winemaking techniques. Nevertheless, the use of phenolic profiles for quality control is still fragmented and incomplete, even if they are a promising tool for quality evaluation. Only a few methods have been already validated and widely applied, and an integrated approach is in fact still missing because of the complex dependence of the chemical profile of wine on many viticultural and enological factors, which have not been clarified yet. For example, there is a lack of studies about the phenolic composition in relation to the wine authenticity of white and especially rosé wines. This review is a bibliographic account on the approaches based on phenolic species that have been developed for the evaluation of wine quality and frauds, from the grape varieties (of V. vinifera and non vinifera), to the geographical origin, the vintage year, the winemaking process, and wine aging. Future perspectives on the role of phenolic compounds in different wine quality aspects, which should be still exploited, are also outlined.