Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transactive response DNA binding protein of 43/histone deacetylase 6 axis alleviates H
2O
2‐induced retinal ganglion cells injury through inhibiting apoptosis and autophagy

Oxidative damage is believed to contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). The current study aimed to detect the effects of transactive response DNA binding protein of 43 (TDP‐43) on cell damage induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in this process. We observed that TDP‐43 was highly expressed in RGC‐5 cells induced by H2O2, and that repression of TDP‐43 obviously ameliorated H2O2‐induced RGC‐5 cell injury. In addition, loss of TDP‐43 profoundly mitigated H2O2‐triggered oxidative stress by decreasing the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species and the activity of oxidative stress indicator malondialdehyde, as well as enhancing the content of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase to restore the antioxidant defense system. Moreover, suppression of TDP‐43 obviously obstructed H2O2‐induced apoptosis. Meanwhile, knockdown of TDP‐43 attenuated the expression of the proapoptotic proteins Bax and Cytochrome c, elevated the anti‐apoptotic protein Bcl‐2, and suppressed the activation of caspase 3 in H2O2‐induced RGC‐5 cells. Moreover, elimination of TDP‐43 inhibited H2O2‐triggered autophagy, which appeared as decreased expression of LC3II/I and Beclin‐1, along with p62 degradation. Importantly, silencing of TDP‐43 diminished the expression of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6), and HDAC6 also abolished the inhibitory effect of TDP‐43 inhibition on H2O2‐induced apoptosis and autophagy. Collectively, our findings demonstrated that depletion of TDP‐43 may protect RGC‐5 cells against oxidative stress‐mediated apoptosis and autophagy by suppressing its target HDAC6. Thus, the TDP‐43/HDAC6 axis might be a promising strategy for the treatment of DR.
Risk of pulmonary toxicity of bleomycin and filgrastim

Objectives To estimate the relative risk of pulmonary toxicity in patients exposed to a bleomycin-based chemotherapy including filgrastim compared to a similar chemotherapy without filgrastim. Methods We conducted a nested case–control study of patients treated with BEP (bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin) for germ cell cancer or with ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine) for Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis Hospital between 31 October 2000 and 30 June 2016. The relative risk was estimated by an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) using a propensity score-adjusted regression analysis. Results Thirteen cases of pulmonary toxicity, representing 14.7% of the 88 patients included in the study, were matched with 65 controls. A higher proportion of women (31.8%) than men (11.3%) developed pulmonary toxicity although the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.08). Within the cohort, two deaths related to lung toxicity were observed among cases where no filgrastim was used. The risk of pulmonary toxicity associated with the addition of filgrastim was not statistically significant (aOR = 2.48 95% CI = 0.50 to 12.19). Conclusion The results add further evidence that the concomitant use of filgrastim might not increase the risk of pulmonary toxicity of bleomycin. It also suggests that female patients might be more likely to develop this adverse effect. A clinical trial would be needed to confirm this result.
Virtual Teamwork and Commitments Impact on Project Quality

This﻿article﻿examines﻿how﻿commitment﻿among﻿individuals﻿involved﻿in﻿a﻿short﻿term,﻿virtual﻿team﻿ projects﻿ influence﻿ the﻿ quality﻿ of﻿ the﻿ project﻿ outcome. ﻿ Results﻿ indicate﻿ that﻿ forced﻿ and﻿ habitual﻿ commitment﻿types﻿had﻿a﻿negative﻿impact﻿on﻿virtual﻿team﻿project﻿quality﻿but﻿found﻿no﻿evidence﻿of﻿ the﻿hypothesized﻿positive﻿ influences﻿of﻿ affective,﻿ normative﻿or﻿ economic﻿ commitment. ﻿Findings﻿ suggest﻿that﻿commitment﻿in﻿virtual﻿teams,﻿particularly﻿those﻿virtual﻿teams﻿that﻿engage﻿in﻿short﻿term﻿ projects,﻿may﻿not﻿exert﻿the﻿influence﻿observed﻿in﻿co-located﻿teams﻿involved﻿in﻿longer﻿duration﻿projects. ﻿ Further,﻿forced﻿and﻿habitual﻿commitment﻿may﻿actually﻿be﻿destructive. ﻿As﻿such,﻿the﻿findings﻿of﻿this﻿ study﻿suggest﻿that﻿for﻿project﻿quality﻿to﻿be﻿achieved,﻿other﻿forces﻿may﻿be﻿necessary. KeywoRdS Commitment, Database Management Systems, Project Quality, Virtual Environments, Virtual Teams
Multisensory Influences on Driver Steering During Curve Navigation

Objective: The effects of inertial (vestibular and somatosensory) information on driver steering during curve navigation were investigated, using an electric four-wheel mobility vehicle outfitted with a steering wheel and a portable virtual reality system. Background: When driving, multiple sources of perceptual information are available. Researchers have focused on visual information, which plays a critical role in steering control. However, it is not yet well established how inertial information might contribute. Methods: I biased inertial cues by varying visual/inertial gains (doubled, halved, reversed), as drivers negotiated curving paths, and measured steering accuracy and efficiency. I also assessed whether being exposed to inertial biases had an impact on postbias steering by comparing pre- and posttest session performance measures. Results: Doubling or halving inertial cues had little effect on steering performance. Inertial information only disrupted steering when it was reversed with respect to visual information. Over time, the influence of this extreme inertial bias was reduced though not eliminated. Postbias curve navigation performance was not impacted, likely because participants had learned to disregard, rather than integrate, biased inertial cues. Conclusion: Results suggest that biased inertial information has little influence on curve navigation performance when visual information is available. Application: Though inertial cues may be important for open-loop steering, when visual cues are unavailable, their role in closed-loop steering seems less influential. This has implications for driving simulation and suggests that inertial discrepancies due to limitations in motion-cuing capabilities may not be all that problematic for the simulation of closed-loop curve steering tasks.
An IoT proposal for monitoring vineyards called SEnviro for agriculture

During the last decade, a massive deployment of sensing devices using the Internet protocol to transfer data, called the Internet of Things, has penetrated considerably in all areas; the field of agriculture is not an exception. This fact has led to a new concept called "smart agriculture", and it contemplates activities such as field monitoring, which offer support to make decisions or perform actions, such as irrigation or fertilization. In this scenario, the current work shows a full Internet of Things environment to monitor and predict some vineyard diseases to help farmers to improve the product quality and reduce losses in vineyard fields. Different nodes have been deployed in some vineyard parcels located in the province of Castelló (Spain).
Finding Important People in a Video Using Deep Neural Networks with Conditional Random Fields

SUMMARY Finding important regions is essential for applications, such as content-aware video compression and video retargeting to automatically crop a region in a video for small screens. Since people are one of main subjects when taking a video, some methods for ﬁnding important regions use a visual attention model based on face / pedestrian detection to incorporate the knowledge that people are important . However, such methods usually do not distinguish important people from passers-by and bystanders, which results in false positives. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network (DNN)-based method, which classiﬁes a person into important or unimportant, given a video containing multiple people in a single frame and captured with a hand-held camera. Intuitively, impor- tant / unimportant labels are highly correlated given that corresponding people’s spatial motions are similar. Based on this assumption, we propose to boost the performance of our important / unimportant classiﬁcation by using conditional random ﬁelds (CRFs) built upon the DNN, which can be trained in an end-to-end manner. Our experimental results show that our method successfully classiﬁes important people and the use of a DNN with CRFs improves the accuracy.
Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Liver Cancer in China (2017 Edition)

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (about 85–90% of primary liver cancer) is particularly prevalent in China because of the high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection. HCC is the fourth most common malignancy and the third leading cause of tumor-related deaths in China. It poses a significant threat to the life and health of Chinese people. Summary: This guideline presents official recommendations of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China on the surveillance, diagnosis, staging, and treatment of HCC occurring in China. The guideline was written by more than 50 experts in the field of HCC in China (including liver surgeons, medical oncologists, hepatologists, interventional radiologists, and diagnostic radiologists) on the basis of recent evidence and expert opinions, balance of benefits and harms, cost-benefit strategies, and other clinical considerations. Key Messages: The guideline presents the Chinese staging system, and recommendations regarding patients with HCC in China to ensure optimum patient outcomes.
Prediction of Potential Small Molecule-Associated MicroRNAs Using Graphlet Interaction

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proved to be targeted by the small molecules recently, which made using small molecules to target miRNAs become a possible therapy for human diseases. Therefore, it is very meaningful to investigate the relationships between small molecules and miRNAs, which is still yet in the newly-developing stage. In this paper, we presented a prediction model of Graphlet Interaction based inference for Small Molecule-MiRNA Association prediction (GISMMA) by combining small molecule similarity network, miRNA similarity network and known small molecule-miRNA association network. This model described the complex relationship between two small molecules or between two miRNAs using graphlet interaction which consists of 28 isomers. The association score between a small molecule and a miRNA was calculated based on counting the numbers of graphlet interaction throughout the small molecule similarity network and the miRNA similarity network, respectively. Global and two types of local leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) as well as five-fold cross validation were implemented in two datasets to evaluate GISMMA. For Dataset 1, the AUCs are 0.9291 for global LOOCV, 0.9505, and 0.7702 for two local LOOCVs, 0.9263 ± 0.0026 for five-fold cross validation; for Dataset 2, the AUCs are 0.8203, 0.8640, 0.6591, and 0.8554 ± 0.0063, in turn. In case study for small molecules, 5-Fluorouracil, 17β-Estradiol and 5-Aza-2′-deoxycytidine, the numbers of top 50 miRNAs predicted by GISMMA and validated to be related to these three small molecules by experimental literatures are in turn 30, 29, and 25. Based on the results from cross validations and case studies, it is easy to realize the excellent performance of GISMMA.
Heterologous Expression of the Transcription Factor EsNAC1 in Arabidopsis Enhances Abiotic Stress Resistance and Retards Growth by Regulating the Expression of Different Target Genes

Heterologous expression of a transcription factor (TF) gene in a related species is a useful method for crop breeding and the identification of gene function. The differences in phenotype and target gene expression between HE lines (with the heterologous expression of an ortholog) and OX lines (with an overexpressed native gene) must be understood. EsNAC1, encoding a NAC protein and the ortholog of RD26 in Arabidopsis, was cloned from Eutrema salsugineum and introduced into Arabidopsis. The heterologous expression of EsNAC1 retarded the vegetative growth of Arabidopsis, and the transgenic plants (HE lines) showed much greater resistance to salt and oxidative stress than the wild type, Col-0. The HE lines accumulated 2.8-fold (8-h light) of starch, 1.42-fold of Chlorophyll a and 1.31-fold of Chlorophyll b than Col-0 during the light period, with obvious differences compared to the RD26OX line. A genome-wide ChIP (chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis)-on-chip assay revealed that EsNAC1 targeted promoters of different genes compared to RD26. In HE lines, EsNAC1 could specifically upregulate the expression level of TF genes NAC DOMAIN CONTAINING PROTEIN 62 (ANAC062), INTEGRASE-TYPE DNA-BINDING PROTEIN (TINY2), and MYB HYPOCOTYL ELONGATION-RELATED (MYBH) to show more effective abiotic stress resistance than RD26OX lines. Moreover, DELTA1-PYRROLINE-5-CARBOXYLATE SYNTHASE 1 (P5CS1), TRYPTOPHAN BIOSYNTHESIS 2 (TRP2) or GALACTINOL SYNTHASE 2 (GOLS2), was also specifically regulated by EsNAC1 to retard the vegetative growth of HE lines, but not the brassinosteroid singling pathway in RD26OX lines. These differences in phenotypes and metabolism between the HE lines and the RD26OX line implied that the differential features could be produced from the diversity of target genes in the transgenic plants when the ortholog was introduced.
The effects of repeatedly recalling a traumatic event on eyewitness memory and suggestibility

ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to examine the effects of repeatedly recalling a traumatic event on recall performance and eyewitness suggestibility. We also investigated whether these effects were moderated by the type of details recalled and the completeness of retrieval. Participants watched a video depicting a fatal car accident and were randomly allocated to one of four conditions in which they: (1) repeatedly recalled the traumatic (central) details of the event only (trauma-focused); (2) repeatedly recalled the non-traumatic (peripheral) details of the event only (non-trauma focused); (3) repeatedly recalled the entire video (complete); or (4) did not recall the video at all (no-recall control). Results indicated that repeated complete recall was beneficial for memory retention of the entire traumatic event and that, in general, trauma-related (central) post-event information (PEI) was less likely to be reported than trauma-unrelated (peripheral) PEI. It was also found that repeated trauma-focused recall increased trauma-related confabulations. These results not only illustrate the value of repeated complete recall to best preserve the integrity of eyewitness memory, but, perhaps more critically, warn of the dangers of repeatedly questioning witnesses specifically about the central or traumatic details of an event.
Human endogenous retrovirus-K (HML-2): a comprehensive review

Abstract The human genome contains a large number of retroviral elements acquired over the process of evolution, some of which are specific to primates. However, as many of these are defective or silenced through epigenetic changes, they were historically considered “junk DNA” and their potential role in human physiology or pathological circumstances have been poorly studied. The most recently acquired, human endogenous retrovirus-K (HERV-K), has multiple copies in the human genome and some of them have complete open reading frames that are transcribed and translated, especially in early embryogenesis. Phylogenetically, HERV-K is considered a supergroup of viruses. One of the subtypes, termed HML-2, seems to be the most active and hence, it is the best studied. Aberrant expression of HML-2 in adult tissues has been associated with certain types of cancer and with neurodegenerative diseases. This review discusses the discovery of these viruses, their classification, structure, regulation and potential for replication, physiological roles, and their involvement in disease pathogenesis. Finally, it presents different therapeutic approaches being considered to target these viruses.
Should we avoid using ketoconazole in patients with severe Cushing’s syndrome and increased levels of liver enzymes?

We read with interest the paper of Young et al. in which the authors recommend avoiding ketoconazole in the treatment of Cushing’s syndrome when patients display increased liver enzymes (>2-fold the upper limit of normal (ULN)). We found in a small series of patients that We read with interest the paper of Young et al. in which the authors recommend avoiding ketoconazole in the treatment of Cushing’s syndrome when patients display increased liver enzymes (>2-fold the upper limit of normal (ULN)). Although limited, our experience suggests that liver function tests may improve during ketoconazole treatment and that, in a life-threatening situation such as severe Cushing’s syndrome, increased liver enzymes should not preclude ketoconazole prescription.
Demonstrating Gamepad with Programmable Haptic Texture Analog Buttons

We demonstrate a haptic feedback method to generate multiple virtual textures on analog buttons of the gamepad. The method utilizes the haptic illusion evoked from proper haptic cues in respect of the analog button's movement to change the perceived physical property of the button. Two types of analog buttons, joystick and trigger button on the gamepad is augmented with localized haptic feedback. We implemented two virtual textures for each type of analog button, and these textures could be programmatically controlled reflecting the dynamic game situations. We also demonstrate a two-player shooter game to show the dynamic texture representation of customized gamepad could enrich the game experience.
Safe Grid Search with Optimal Complexity

Popular machine learning estimators involve regularization parameters that can be challenging to tune, and standard strategies rely on grid search for this task. In this paper, we revisit the techniques of approximating the regularization path up to predefined tolerance $\epsilon$ in a unified framework and show that its complexity is $O(1/\sqrt[d]{\epsilon})$ for uniformly convex loss of order $d \geq 2$ and $O(1/\sqrt{\epsilon})$ for Generalized Self-Concordant functions. This framework encompasses least-squares but also logistic regression, a case that as far as we know was not handled as precisely in previous works. We leverage our technique to provide refined bounds on the validation error as well as a practical algorithm for hyperparameter tuning. The latter has global convergence guarantee when targeting a prescribed accuracy on the validation set. Last but not least, our approach helps relieving the practitioner from the (often neglected) task of selecting a stopping criterion when optimizing over the training set: our method automatically calibrates this criterion based on the targeted accuracy on the validation set.
Flexible certificate revocation list for efficient authentication in IoT

When relying on public key infrastructure (PKI) for authentication, whether a party can be trusted primarily depends on its certificate status. Bob's certificate status can be retrieved by Alice through her interaction with Certificate Authority (CA) in the PKI. More specifically, Alice can download Certificate Revocation List (CRL) and then check whether the serial number of the Bob's certificate appears in this list. If not found, Alice knows that Bob can be trusted. Once downloaded, a CRL can be used offline for arbitrary many times till it expires, which saves the bandwidth to an extreme. However, if the number of revoked certificates becomes too large, the size of the CRL will exceed the RAM of Alice's device. This conflict between bandwidth and RAM consumption becomes even more challenging for the Internet-of-Things (IoT), since the IoT end-devices is usually constrained by both factors. To solve this problem in PKI-based authentication in IoT, we proposed two novel lightweight CRL protocols with maximum flexibility tailored for constrained IoT end-devices. The first one is based on generalized Merkle hash tree and the second is based on Bloom filter. We also provided quantitative theorems for CRL parameter configuration, which help strike perfect balance among bandwidth, RAM usage and security in various practical IoT scenarios. Furthermore, we thoroughly evaluated the proposed CRL protocols and exhibited their outstanding efficiency in terms of RAM and bandwidth consumption. In addition, our formal treatment of the security of a CRL protocol can also be of independent interest.
Development of Hard and Soft Palate During the Fetal Period and Hard Palate Asymmetry

Abstract In the present study, it was aimed to perform the morphometric analysis of the hard and soft palate in fetal cadavers and evaluate hard palate asymmetry during the fetal development. The development of the palate was investigated in 40 (21 males, 19 females) fetal materials aged between the 17th and 40th gestational week. In this study, distances between the incisive papilla-staurion (Ip-Sr), staurion-posterior nasal spine (Sr-Pns), incisive papilla-greater palatine foramen (Ip-Gpf) on the right and left sides, Sr-Gpf, and Pns-Gpf were measured. In cases with asymmetry, the ratio of asymmetry was determined in percentage using the asymmetry index. Moreover, angular values between Ip-Sr-Gpf and Ip-Pns-Gpf on the right and left sides were measured, and the right and left side values were compared with each other. The hard and soft palate lengths were measured on the planum medianum. Upon comparing the measured parameters between males and females, the mean values of male fetuses were higher in all parameters, but a significant difference was found only in the Sr-Pns distance among these parameters. Upon comparing the angular data and asymmetry index data on the hard palate between the trimester groups, a significant difference was found only in the Ip-Sr-Gpf (left) parameter. The mean ratio of the hard palate to the soft palate was found as 1.90. It is believed that the obtained data will contribute to studies to be conducted in fields such as plastic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, intrauterine surgery, fetopathology, embryology, anatomy, and obstetrics.
Screen-Camera Communication via Matrix Barcode Utilizing Imperceptible Color Vibration

Communication between screens and cameras has attracted attention as a ubiquitous information source, motivated by the widespread use of smartphones and the increase of public advertising and information screens. We propose embedding matrix barcodes into images projected on displays by utilizing imperceptible color vibration. This approach maintains the visual experience as the barcodes are imperceptible and can be implemented on almost any display and camera for the technology to be pervasive. In fact, the color vibration can be generated by ordinary 60 Hz LCDs and captured by 120 fps smartphone cameras. To illustrate the technology capabilities, we present scenarios of potential practical applications.