Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foveal avascular zone area measurements using OCT angiography in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus associated with essential hypertension

Objective. This study followed the variability in the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area measured using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure. Material and Methods. This prospective, non-randomized, cohort study evaluated 46 eyes in 26 patients with high blood pressure associated with diabetic non-proliferative retinopathy (mild, medium, and severe forms) and diabetic proliferative retinopathy. Results. Our results showed early macular alterations (microaneurysms, leakage, neovascularizations, intraretinal microvascular abnormalities), a higher class of severity despite a relatively normal clinical aspect and higher values of FAZ associated with neovascularization undetected by SD-OCT (spectral domain-OCT). Conclusion. Measurement of the foveal avascular zone area using OCTA early detects macular alterations that precede classical retinography and SD-OCT determinations. Abbreviations: FAZ = foveal avascular zone; OCTA = optical coherence tomography angiography; IRMA = intraretinal microvascular abnormalities; SD-OCT = spectral domain-optical coherence tomography; OU = both eyes; PD = papillary diameter; ETDRS = early treatment diabetic retinopathy study; BP = blood pressure; OD = right eye
Spatial Organization of Proteasome Aggregates in the Regulation of Proteasome Homeostasis

Misfolded proteins and insoluble aggregates are continuously produced in the cell and can result in severe stress that threatens cellular fitness and viability if not managed effectively. Accordingly, organisms have evolved several protective protein quality control (PQC) machineries to address these threats. In eukaryotes, the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS) plays a vital role in the disposal of intracellular misfolded, damaged, or unneeded proteins. Although ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation of many proteins plays a key role in the PQC system, cells must also dispose of the proteasomes themselves when their subunits are assembled improperly, or when they dysfunction under various conditions, e.g., as a result of genomic mutations, diverse stresses, or treatment with proteasome inhibitors. Here, we review recent studies that identified the regulatory pathways that mediate proteasomes sorting under various stress conditions, and the elimination of its dysfunctional subunits. Following inactivation of the 26S proteasome, UPS-mediated degradation of its own misassembled subunits is the favored disposal pathway. However, the cytosolic cell-compartment-specific aggregase, Hsp42 mediates an alternative pathway, the accumulation of these subunits in cytoprotective compartments, where they become extensively modified with ubiquitin, and are directed by ubiquitin receptors for autophagic clearance (proteaphagy). We also discuss the sorting mechanisms that the cell uses under nitrogen stress, and to distinguish between dysfunctional proteasome aggregates and proteasome storage granules (PSGs), reversible assemblies of membrane-free cytoplasmic condensates that form in yeast upon carbon starvation and help protect proteasomes from autophagic degradation. Regulated proteasome subunit homeostasis is thus controlled through cellular probing of the level of proteasome assembly, and the interplay between UPS-mediated degradation or sorting of misfolded proteins into distinct cellular compartments.
Lysophosphatidylcholine Induces NLRP3 Inflammasome-Mediated Foam Cell Formation and Pyroptosis in Human Monocytes and Endothelial Cells

Foam cells are specialized lipid-loaded macrophages derived from monocytes and are a key pathological feature of atherosclerotic lesions. Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is a major lipid component of the plasma membrane with a broad spectrum of proinflammatory activities and plays a key role in atherosclerosis. However, the role of LPC in lipid droplet (LD) biogenesis and the modulation of inflammasome activation is still poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated whether LPC can induce foam cell formation through an analysis of LD biogenesis and determined whether the cell signaling involved in this process is mediated by the inflammasome activation pathway in human endothelial cells and monocytes. Our results showed that LPC induced foam cell formation in both types of cells by increasing LD biogenesis via a NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent pathway. Furthermore, LPC induced pyroptosis in both cells and the activation of the inflammasome with IL-1β secretion, which was dependent on potassium efflux and lysosomal damage in human monocytes. The present study described the IL-1β secretion and foam cell formation triggered by LPC via an inflammasome-mediated pathway in human monocytes and endothelial cells. Our results will help improve our understanding of the relationships among LPC, LD biogenesis, and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
The agreement of pelvic measurements obtained in Belgian Blue cows with a Rice pelvimeter and the differences between these measurements around parturition

Because of the elective use of Caesarean Section (CS), the Belgian Blue (BB) breed is being criticized by animal health organizations in Europe and it also has economical consequences. Within the selection for the reduction of CS, the increase of pelvic dimensions plays a crucial role. Correct information about the pelvic canal is a very important condition to perform this selection. Measurements of the pelvic canal in living animals can be performed by using a Rice pelvimeter. The present paper describes a study of the repeatability between two different technicians and within one technician of pelvic measurements in double muscled BB cows using a Rice pelvimeter. Additionally, changes within the pelvic dimensions at parturition were examined by measurements at three different points around calving (one month before, within 24 hours and two weeks after parturition). No significant differences were found for the pelvic height between the two technicians. The variation coefficient of the measurements of the second technician proved to be smaller but not significantly different from technician 1, for pelvic width as well as for pelvic height. Only the pelvic height measured at parturition significantly dif
Reactive Oxygen Species as a Response to Wounding: In Vivo Imaging in Arabidopsis thaliana

Mechanical injury or wounding in plants can be attributed to abiotic or/and biotic causes. Subsequent defense responses are either local, i.e. within or in the close vicinity of affected tissue, or systemic, i.e. at distant plant organs. Stress stimuli activate a plethora of early and late reactions, from electric signals induced within seconds upon injury, oxidative burst within minutes, and slightly slower changes in hormone levels or expression of defense-related genes, to later cell wall reinforcement by polysaccharides deposition, or accumulation of proteinase inhibitors and hydrolytic enzymes. In the current study, we focused on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in wounded Arabidopsis leaves. Based on fluorescence imaging, we provide experimental evidence that ROS [superoxide anion radical (O2 •−) and singlet oxygen (1O2)] are produced following wounding. As a consequence, oxidation of biomolecules is induced, predominantly of polyunsaturated fatty acid, which leads to the formation of reactive intermediate products and electronically excited species.
Wanna Revisited

This article addresses general questions about the organization of grammar via a detailed discussion of a small, but well-explored, area of English: the contraction of want to to wanna. It distinguishes three general approaches to the analysis of wanna: a phonological rule, lexicalization, or a derivational rule. Each approach has a different set of strengths, but they all have weaknesses as well. The article then offers a new analysis in terms of REALIZATION, which combines the strengths of all the previous analyses. This analysis, which is based on the theory of word grammar, accounts not only for all the well-known syntactic and morphological constraints on this contraction, but also for a fact that has not been noted before: that, for some speakers, the last vowel alternates in just the same idiosyncratic way as that of to, which suggests strongly that in some sense wanna contains to as well as want. For these (but not all) speakers, the proposed analysis recognizes two words (sublexemes of WANT and TOinf) at the level of syntax and a single form ({wanna}, containing variants of {want} and {to}) at the level of form; the relations between these words and forms, and between the forms and their phonological realizations, are defined by a declarative network.
Loss of Motion after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

We investigated the loss of motion (LOM) after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. 105 patients underwent ACL recons space truction between 1989 and 1993. LOM was defined as a loss of extension of more than 10° or flexion of less than 125° at 3 months after Surgery. The incidence of LOM was identified in 19 patients (18%). Risk factors were associated with females and the type of graft (patella tendon>semitendinosus). The etiology of LOM at postoperative arthroscopy was classified as intercondylar notch scarring in 11 of 13 patients (85%). All of these patients underwent arthroscopic debridement and all improved. We concluded that arthroscopic debridement is useful for patients who develop LOM after ACL reconstruction.
Idioms

In the literature of generative grammar, idiomaticity has been widely identified with noncompositionality. Such a definition fails to recognize several important dimensions of idiomaticity, including, among others, conventionality and figuration. We propose to distinguish IDIOMATICALLY COMBINING EXPRESSIONS (e.g. take advantage, pull strings), whose meanings—while conventional—are distributed among their parts, from IDIOMATIC PHRASES (e.g. kick the bucket, saw logs), which do not distribute their meanings to their components. Most syntactic arguments based on idioms are flawed, we argue, because they treat all idioms as noncompositional. A careful examination of the semantic properties of idioms and the metaphors that many of them employ helps to explain certain intriguing asymmetries in the grammatical and thematic roles of idiomatic noun phrases.
Recalling the Biological Significance of Immune Checkpoints on NK Cells: A Chance to Overcome LAG3, PD1, and CTLA4 Inhibitory Pathways by Adoptive NK Cell Transfer?

Immune checkpoint receptors (IC) positively or negatively regulate the activation of the host immune response, preventing unwanted reactions against self-healthy tissues. In recent years the term IC has been mainly used for the inhibitory ICs, which are critical to control Natural Killer (NK) and Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells due to its high cytotoxic potential. Due to the different nature of the signals that regulate T and NK cell activation, specific ICs have been described that mainly regulate either NK cell or T cell activity. Thus, strategies to modulate NK cell activity are raising as promising tools to treat tumors that do not respond to T cell-based immunotherapies. NK cell activation is mainly regulated by ICs and receptors from the KIR, NKG2 and NCRs families and the contribution of T cell-related ICs is less clear. Recently, NK cells have emerged as contributors to the effect of inhibitors of T cell-related ICs like CTLA4, LAG3 or the PD1/PD-L1 axes in cancer patients, suggesting that these ICs also regulate the activity of NK cells under pathological conditions. Strikingly, in contrast to NK cells from cancer patients, the level of expression of these ICs is low on most subsets of freshly isolated and in vitro activated NK cells from healthy patients, suggesting that they do not control NK cell tolerance and thus, do not act as conventional ICs under non-pathological conditions. The low level of expression of T cell-related ICs in “healthy” NK cells suggest that they should not be restricted to the detrimental effects of these inhibitory mechanisms in the cancer microenvironment. After a brief introduction of the regulatory mechanisms that control NK cell anti-tumoral activity and the conventional ICs controlling NK cell tolerance, we will critically discuss the potential role of T cell-related ICs in the control of NK cell activity under both physiological and pathological (cancer) conditions. This discussion will allow to comprehensively describe the chances and potential limitations of using allogeneic NK cells isolated from a healthy environment to overcome immune subversion by T cell-related ICs and to improve the efficacy of IC inhibitors (ICIs) in a safer way.
ACE Insertion/Deletion polymorphism (rs4646994) affects body composition in middle-aged premenopausal women with essential hypertension

Abstract This study assesses the association between angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) I/D (rs4646994) polymorphism and body composition parameters in essential hypertension (HT) and menopausal status in Slovak women. The entire study sample comprised 575 women in two groups: 255 with HT and 320 without. Body composition parameters were measured by bioelectric impedance analyzer and ACE I/D polymorphism genotypes were detected by polymerase chain reaction. Premenopausal HT women with ACE II genotype had significantly lower body cell mass (p=0.004), extra- and intracellular water (p=0.027; p=0.004), fat free mass and muscle mass (p=0.006; P = 0.003), fat free mass index (p=0.006) and body cell mass index (p=0.003) than their ID/DD counterparts. These associations were not determined in normotensive and/or postmenopausal women. This study confirmed that ACE I/D gene polymorphism affects body composition in HT premenopausal women.
Recycling of Foundry Sand Wastes in Self-Compacting Mortars: Use as Cementitious Materials and Fine Aggregates

Abstract This work aims to study the possibility recycling of foundry sand wastes (FSW) as a cementations additive and fine aggregate in self-compacting mortars (SCM). For this, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate physical and mechanical properties of SCM. Firstly, sand is substituted by the foundry sand waste at dosages (0%, 10%, 30%, and 50%) by weight of the sand. Secondly cement is partially substituted by crushed foundry sand waste at different ratio (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 50%) by weight of cement. The obtained results show that up to 50%, (FSW) can be used as fine aggregate for mortars without affecting the essential proprieties of mortar. However, beyond 50% of sand substitution, mortars lose their fluidity. The compressive strength of the mortars with 50% of cement substitution decreased compared to the control mortar. Value of the highest compressive strength recorded at 28 days, is of the order of 50 MPa for the mortar with 20% of cement substitution. Also, stress-strain curve show an acceptable mechanical behavior of FSW-based mortar at 50% of sand substitution.
Slovak Comparative Correlatives: New Insights

Abstract Comparative Correlatives (CCs) are structures that have attracted substantial interest. In Slovak, they typically look like the following proverb: Čím bližšie Rím, tým horší kresťan. ‘The closer (to) Rome, the worse the Christian. ’ So far, no extensive research has been conducted on CCs in Slavic languages except Polish [1]. In Slovak, CCs have not received a great deal of attention. Accordingly, this study examines the various forms of CCs in a Slovak National Corpus (SNC) random sample of 500 tokens, showing that there is much more variety than has been acknowledged in the literature. Frequencies will be used to show that there are iconic structures, and it will be argued that there are construction-specific properties that suggest the existence of a specific CC construction in Slovak.
Prototype Spatio-temporal Predictive System of pest development of the codling moth, Cydia pomonella, in Kazakhstan

Summary A prototype for pest development stages forecasting is developed in Kazakhstan exploiting data from the geoinformation technologies and using codling moth as a model pest in apples. The basic methodology involved operational thermal map retrieving based on MODIS land surface temperature products and weather stations data, their recalculation into accumulated degree days maps and then into maps of the phases of the codling moth population dynamics. The validation of the predicted dates of the development stages according to the in-situ data gathered in the apple orchards showed a good predictivity of the forecast maps. Predictivity of the prototype can be improved by using daily satellite sensor datasets and their calibration with data received from a network of weather stations installed in the orchards.
Further structural studies of the lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase AoAA13 belonging to the starch-active AA13 family

Abstract Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are recently discovered copper enzymes that cleave recalcitrant polysaccharides by oxidation. The structure of an Aspergillus oryzae LPMO from the starch degrading family AA13 (AoAA13) has previously been determined from an orthorhombic crystal grown in the presence of copper, which is photoreduced in the structure. Here we describe how crystals reliably grown in presence of Zn can be Cu-loaded post crystallization. A partly photoreduced structure was obtained by severely limiting the X-ray dose, showing that this LPMO is much more prone to photoreduction than others. A serial synchrotron crystallography structure was also obtained, showing that this technique may be promising for further studies, to reduce even further photoreduction. We additionally present a triclinic structure of AoAA13, which has less occluded ligand binding site than the orthorhombic one. The availability of the triclinic crystals prompted new ligand binding studies, which lead us to the conclusion that small starch analogues do not bind to AoAA13 to an appreciable extent. A number of disordered conformations of the metal binding histidine brace have been encountered in this and other studies, and we have previously hypothesized that this disorder may be a consequence of loss of copper. We performed molecular dynamics in the absence of active site metal, and showed that the dynamics in solution differ somewhat from the disorder observed in the crystal, though the extent is equally dramatic.
Battery Monitoring and Control System for Photovoltaic based DC Microgrid

Abstract This paper presents a battery control and monitoring strategy for a DC microgrid feed by a public utility (PU) photovoltaic (PV) including with multi-battery bank (BB). The BBs respond to the changes in a power imbalance between generation and demand within a DC micro-grid, to maintain the micro-grid voltage and reliability enhancement. The fuzzy model reference learning control (FMRLC) controller has been designed to power control of the battery bank. The proposed battery control and monitoring system (BCMS) strategy keep the battery charging and discharging power as per standard charging/discharging characteristics of the battery. The BCMS allows continuous monitoring and intelligent control of distribution system operations such as battery bank energy storage (BBES), the PV system and the electric load of the consumer. A power sharing between the sources has been controlled for smooth supply. A graphical user interface (GUI) in the MATLAB environment has been configured to demonstrate the control and monitoring of the DC micro-grid and the operation performance of the BCMS algorithm for various scenarios (i. e modes). The proposed BCMS shows better operational performance for various operating conditions in terms of monitoring and control of the batteries power in the grid-connected DC micro-grid.
Intra-arterial Tirofiban in a Male Nonagenarian with Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Case Report

Abstract Nonagenarians with acute ischemic stroke tend to have a higher mortality and morbidity than younger patients. Tirofiban is a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonist that has a therapeutic potential for ischemic stroke. Here, we provide a case report of a 93-year-old male patient with acute ischemic stroke. He presented with right-sided hemiparesis for 2 hours (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, NIHSS = 23). Immediate treatment with endovascular tirofiban infusion achieved an improvement of intracranial blood flow and a progressively decreased NIHSS one day after admission (NIHSS = 16) and then seven days after admission (NIHSS = 7). After a follow-up of 90 days, the modified ranking score was 2. This case report suggests that endovascular application with tirofiban may be a favorable option for treating nonagenarians presenting with acute ischemic stroke and warrants further study.
Preparing teachers for the application of AI-powered technologies in foreign language education

Abstract As any other area of human lives, current state of foreign language education has been greatly influenced by the latest developments in the modern information communication technologies. The paper focuses specifically on the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI), which includes a wide range of technologies and methods, such as machine learning, adaptive learning, natural language processing, data mining, crowdsourcing, neural networks or an algorithm, into foreign language learning and teaching. First, the paper is concerned with changes brought to foreign language education specifically through the application of AI-powered tools and discusses ICALL (intelligent computer assisted language learning) as a subset of CALL. Second, it summarizes eight types of AI-powered tools for foreign language education and related results of the existing research, however scarce it is. Third, it discusses the frame for effective preparation of foreign language teachers in order to integrate AI-powered tools into their teaching to make it easier, less time-consuming and more effective. The author argues for reconsideration of the existing frames of requirements for CALL teachers.
The Multimodal Mediation of Knowledge: Instructors’ Explanations in a Scientific Café

Abstract In this paper, we present an in depth study of the interplay between various semiotic modes in the specific instructional setting of a scientific café. We analyzed the multimodal performance of five female instructors delivering a monologue explanation during instruction on the following dimensions: speech, gesture (hand gestures, head orientation and gaze) and use of written didactical material. Results first point out the crucial role played by referential hand gesture together with gaze-body behavior both in representing new concepts (conceptual mediation) and in building bridges between information displayed in several modes (semiotic mediation). They also show cross-individual differences in instructors’ multimodal performance, that we propose to interpret as three diverse modes of mediating knowledge, guiding being the only one providing both conceptual and semiotic mediation.
Product Classification Using Neural Network at Industry Robotic Line

Abstract The article describes a possible way of implementing a neural network in recognizing the shape and position of the products in the production process. The neural network is designed as a multilayer perceptron (MLP), and the whole system is implemented in a form of attachment to robotic arm, where the primary task of neural network is to distinguish a position of product. The neural network is trained like a classifier and outputs are used to control the robot. The advantage of the solution is a high degree of reliability of product positioning under different lighting conditions.