Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anti-Prion Systems Block Prion Transmission, Attenuate Prion Generation, Cure Most Prions as They Arise and Limit Prion-Induced Pathology in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Simple Summary Virus and bacterial infections are opposed by their hosts at many levels. Similarly, we find that infectious proteins (prions) are severely restricted by an array of host systems, acting independently to prevent infection, generation, propagation and the ill effects of yeast prions. These ‘anti-prion systems’ work in normal cells without the overproduction or deficiency of any components. DNA repair systems reverse the effects of DNA damage, with only a rare lesion propagated as a mutation. Similarly, the combined effects of several anti-prion systems cure and block the generation of all but 1 in about 5000 prions arising. We expect that application of our approach to mammalian cells will detect analogous or even homologous systems that will be useful in devising therapy for human amyloidoses, most of which are prions. Abstract All variants of the yeast prions [PSI+] and [URE3] are detrimental to their hosts, as shown by the dramatic slowing of growth (or even lethality) of a majority, by the rare occurrence in wild isolates of even the mildest variants and by the absence of reproducible benefits of these prions. To deal with the prion problem, the host has evolved an array of anti-prion systems, acting in normal cells (without overproduction or deficiency of any component) to block prion transmission from other cells, to lower the rates of spontaneous prion generation, to cure most prions as they arise and to limit the damage caused by those variants that manage to elude these (necessarily) imperfect defenses. Here we review the properties of prion protein sequence polymorphisms Btn2, Cur1, Hsp104, Upf1,2,3, ribosome-associated chaperones, inositol polyphosphates, Sis1 and Lug1, which are responsible for these anti-prion effects. We recently showed that the combined action of ribosome-associated chaperones, nonsense-mediated decay factors and the Hsp104 disaggregase lower the frequency of [PSI+] appearance as much as 5000-fold. Moreover, while Btn2 and Cur1 are anti-prion factors against [URE3] and an unrelated artificial prion, they promote [PSI+] prion generation and propagation.
Lepidine B & E as new target inhibitors from Lepidium sativum seeds against four enzymes of the pathogen Candida albicans: in vitro and in silico studies.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The present paper aims to study the inhibition of Candida albicans growth as candidiasis treatment, using seeds of Lepidium sativum as source. METHODS In vitro assays were carried out on the antifungal activity of three kinds of extracts from L. sativum seeds against four strains of C. albicans, then testing the same phytochemicals on the inhibition of Lipase (LCR). A new in silico study was achieved using molecular docking, with Autodock vina program, to find binding affinity of two important and major lepidine alkaloids (lepidine E and B) towards the four enzymes secreted by C. albicans as target drugs, responsible of vitality and virulence of this yeast cells: Lipase, Serine/threonine phosphatase, Phosphomannose isomerase and Sterol 14-alpha demethylase (CYP51). RESULTS The results of the microdillution assay show that the hexanic and alkaloidal extracts have an antifungal activity with MICs: 2.25 mg/ml and 4.5mg/ml, respectively. However, Candida rugosa lipase assay gives a remarkable IC50 values for the hexanic extract (1.42± 0.04 mg/ml) followed by 1.7± 0.1 and 2.29 ± 0.09 mg/ml of ethyl acetate and alkaloidal extracts respectively. The molecular docking confirms a significant correlation between C. albicans growth and inhibition of crucial enzymes involved in the invasion mechanism and cellular metabolisms, for the first time there were an interesting and new positive results on binding modes of lepidine E and B on the four studied enzymes. CONCLUSION Through this work, we propose Lepidine B & E as potent antifungal drugs.
Macromolecular‐Suppressed GABA‐Edited MR Spectroscopy in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex of Patients With Acute Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) causes a number of molecular and cellular alterations. There is evidence of an imbalance between the main excitatory (glutamate, Glu) and the main inhibitory (gamma‐aminobutyric acid [GABA]) neurotransmitters following mTBI. In vivo human GABA–Glu balance studies following mTBI are sparse.
Caregiver Representations of Therapeutic Patient Education Programmes for People with Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Study

Background: In France, there are two main types of psychosocial educational therapies for people with mental disorders: (1) therapeutic patient education (TPE) or “training”, and (2) psychoeducation. Both types of educational therapy aim to improve disease morbidity, treatment compliance and patient quality of life, but they have very different modes of application. The aim of this study was to interview mental health professionals in order to explore and identify the determinants (barriers and enablers) underlying their acceptance of therapeutic patient education (TPE) in order to facilitate the implementation of these programmes among people with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. Methods: In this multicentre cross-sectional study, we opted for a qualitative approach based on individual semi-structured interviews with 21 mental health professionals trained in TPE, regardless of whether they had practiced it before or not. In accordance with the “Jardé” law (Decree no 2016-1537 dated 16 November 2016 published on 17 November 2016 in the Official Journal of the French Republic). No regulatory approval was required for this study. Results: The major themes that emerged from the analysis were grouped into the following conceptual framework: (1) mental health professionals (MHPs) highlight important organizational and institutional challenges that they feel are beyond their scope; (2) MHPs mention in parallel their own perceptions and representations of TPE in the context of mental health care; and (3) MHPs’ representations could hide a lack of knowledge or awareness that would prevent them from appropriating TPE programmes. For each major theme, the sub-themes identified are presented. Conclusions: Although TPE is of interest in the process of patient empowerment, we found that caregivers were reluctant to appropriate this approach to care. Efforts must be made in the initial and ongoing training of MHPs to move from a paternalistic model to a patient partnership model, which is made possible by TPE. These efforts must also be firmly supported by health care facilities, and proactive governance is required for the successful implementation of TPE.
An Autonomous Overtaking Maneuver Based on Relative Position Information

Reliable and efficient overtaking maneuvers are important and challenging for autonomous vehicles. Position information of both involved vehicles during overtaking is important, to avoid collisions. In this paper, we try to perform overtaking based on relative position information, such as the distance, angle and velocity between vehicles, in a non-collaborative scenario. To reduce the complexity of maneuvers, a fuzzy inference system (FIS) is applied to analyze the driving behavior of the preceding vehicle based on the relative position information. An output of “safe” or “dangerous” will be sent to the decision part based on reinforcement learning frameworks. Various overtaking maneuvers including “conservative” and “aggressive” can be obtained accordingly. Numeric results validate our analysis, and show that our proposed strategies can be easily extended to the multiple-vehicle-scenario.
A structural health monitoring method proposal based on optical scanning and computational models

This article proposes a method for continuous bridge displacement monitoring combining the dynamic triangulation scanning and load estimation by vehicle image recognition. The vehicle–bridge interaction is a non-stationary dynamic process parameter of high relevance to understanding the static instability behavior of bridges. The knowledge of the load on a bridge in the specific time when its structural spatial coordinates are measured allows correlating the bridge displacement with the effect of vehicle–bridge interaction. The evaluation of such correlation is mandatory in order to verify if the observed bridge displacement is due to the nature of its operation or due to it is presenting structural damage. The proposed method is continuous structural health monitoring method, based on the combination of three approaches evaluated at laboratory environment: (1) a three-dimensional optical scanning system for displacement measurement, (2) a load measurement system for vehicle–bridge interaction assessment, and (3) a two-measurement systems data correlation; to be implemented in bridges at a real environment to collect their historical behavior. Overall, for each approach, the measurement systems’ principles, the laboratory experimental methodology followed, and results obtained are presented.
Sum-of-Squares Optimization without Semidefinite Programming

We propose a homogeneous primal-dual interior-point method to solve sum-of-squares optimization problems by combining non-symmetric conic optimization techniques and polynomial interpolation. The approach optimizes directly over the sum-of-squares cone and its dual, circumventing the semidefinite programming (SDP) reformulation which requires a large number of auxiliary variables. As a result, it has substantially lower theoretical time and space complexity than the conventional SDP-based approach. Although our approach circumvents the semidefinite programming reformulation, an optimal solution to the semidefinite program can be recovered with little additional effort. Computational results confirm that for problems involving high-degree polynomials, the proposed method is several orders of magnitude faster than semidefinite programming.
Wireless Federated Learning With Dynamic Quantization and Bandwidth Adaptation

Quantization has been increasingly proposed in wireless federated learning (FL) to compress transmission data, which therefore significantly reduces the training latency. In this letter, we further reduce the training latency by introducing dynamic quantization and bandwidth adaptation. Our insights are twofold: (1) without introducing any information loss, the quantization bit length can be dynamically adjusted according to the magnitude of weight updates (i.e., differentials), which vary in different devices and training iterations, and (2) bandwidth allocation can further adapt to the varying sizes of transmission data to reduce the communication latency of straggler devices. We mathematically prove the convergence of dynamic quantization and formalize the optimization problem of bandwidth allocation. The evaluation results demonstrate that while preserving the test accuracy, our techniques can reduce over 50% training latency in both i.i. d. and non-i.i. d. datasets compared to previous work.
Disruption of the Chitin Biosynthetic Pathway Results in Significant Changes in the Cell Growth Phenotypes and Biosynthesis of Secondary Metabolites of Monascus purpureus

In this study, the gene monascus-5162 from Monascus purpureus LQ-6, identified as chitin synthase gene VI (chs6), was knocked out to disrupt the chitin biosynthetic pathway and regulate the biosynthesis of Monascus pigments (MPs) and citrinin. The results showed that the aerial hyphae on a solid medium were short and sparse after the deletion of chs6 in M. purpureus LQ-6, significantly reducing the germination percentage of active spores to approximately 22%, but the colony diameter was almost unaffected. Additionally, the deletion of chs6 changed the mycelial morphology of M. purpureus LQ-6 during submerged fermentation and increased its sensitivity to environmental factors. MP and citrinin biosynthesis was dramatically inhibited in the recombinant strain. Furthermore, comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that the pathways related to spore development and growth, including the MAPK signaling pathway, chitin biosynthetic pathway, and regulatory factors LaeA and WetA genes, were significantly downregulated in the early phase of fermentation. The mRNA expression levels of genes in the cluster of secondary metabolites were significantly downregulated, especially those related to citrinin biosynthesis. This is the first detailed study to reveal that chs6 plays a vital role in regulating the cell growth and secondary metabolism of the Monascus genus.
Recovery in water polo: how much do we have to know? A systematic review

Water polo (WP) is a high-intensity intermittent aquatic sport, with a predominance of swimming skills and nonswimming activities and incomplete recovery periods. Consequently, recovery after exercise is a fundamental part of sports performance. The main purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effects of different recovery strategies in WP performance. The studies were found by searching in the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Methodological quality and risk of bias were assessed in accordance with the Cochrane Collaboration Guidelines samples. A summary of results including five studies was followed. The results show that supplementation with cherry juice before training does not imply improvements in recovery; the full-body photobiomodulation therapy reduces muscle damage; reducing training load during the season increased the natural logarithm of the root mean square of successive differences and perceived state of recovery, and the heart rate variability stabilizes and could progressively increase at the end of a tournament; and when an increase in internal training load is less than 60%–70% autonomic cardiac disturbances during preseason training do not occur. Recovery in WP is a very limited field of study that needs future research in active recovery, hydrotherapy, massage, rest and sleep to help coaches formulate recommendations.
A Flip-Chip 180-GHz Receiver in 40-nm CMOS

This paper presents a 180-GHz direct conversion receiver in a standard 40-nm CMOS technology. The CMOS chip is flip-chip assembled to an integrated-passive-device carrier patch antenna for Gb/s wireless communications. The receiver includes a low-noise amplifier, a single-balanced mixer, a frequency doubler, and an intermediate frequency amplifier. The demonstrated receiver consumes only 110 mW dc power. It shows a probed measured conversion gain of 28.1 dB and an IP1dB of −32 dBm. The wireless measurement shows an intermediate frequency bandwidth of 5.5 GHz, supporting a multi-Gb/s wireless connectivity.
Acupuncture Treatment is Associated with Reduced Dementia Risk in Patients with Migraine: A Propensity-Score–Matched Cohort Study of Real-World Data

Background Migraine is a recurrent headache disease that has been identified as a risk factor for subsequent dementia. The present study collected data from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to investigate the incidence of dementia in patients with migraine who did or did not concurrently receive acupuncture treatment. Methods A 1:1 propensity score method was used to match an equal number of patients (N = 4813) in the acupuncture and nonacupuncture cohorts based on sex, age, migraine diagnosis year, index year, insurance amount, urbanization level, baseline comorbidities, and medication usage. We employed Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate the risk of dementia. Results Patients with migraine who received acupuncture treatment were found to have a lower risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.40–0.65) than those who did not undergo acupuncture treatment. The cumulative incidence of dementia was significantly lower in the acupuncture cohort than in the nonacupuncture cohort (Log rank test, p < 0.001). This propensity score–matched cohort study demonstrated an association between acupuncture treatment and dementia development in patients with migraine in Taiwan. Conclusion The results suggest that acupuncture treatment significantly reduced the development of dementia in patients with migraine.
Consequences of Oviposition Site Choice for Geckos in Changing Environments

Simple Summary Most lizards lay eggs inside nests where developing embryos experience large temperature fluctuations. As females do not incubate eggs, the embryos can experience lethally high temperatures during heatwaves. Thus, future changes in the frequency and intensity of summer heatwaves may threaten lizard populations. However, variation in female nest site choice might buffer the embryos in some nests from high temperatures. In this study, we incubated eggs of the velvet gecko under two fluctuating temperature regimes to mimic the temperatures experienced inside currently used sun-exposed (“warm”: mean = 25.4 °C; range = 16.5–35.5 °C) and shaded (“cold”: mean = 23.3 °C; 17.5–30.5 °C) communal nest sites. We found that warm-incubated hatchlings hatched 15 days earlier, on average, and were smaller than their cold-incubated clutch mates. We released the hatchlings to the wild, and monitored their survival over six months. Egg incubation treatment did not influence the survival of hatchlings. This result is reassuring, because even if air temperatures increase by 2 °C in future, some currently used shaded nests will provide thermal regimes that are suitable for embryonic development. Variation in female nest site choice may therefore allow some populations of velvet geckos to persist in changing environments. Abstract Most lizards lay eggs inside nests where embryos experience daily fluctuations in temperature. As embryos are sensitive to exposure to high temperatures, increases in nest temperatures may pose a risk to lizards. In the velvet gecko Amalosia lesueurii, nest temperatures are positively correlated with air temperatures, so nests may get hotter in future. However, maternal variation in oviposition site choice might buffer populations from future warming. To evaluate the consequences of oviposition site choice, we incubated eggs under two fluctuating temperature regimes that mimicked temperatures experienced inside sun-exposed (“warm”: mean = 25.4 °C; range = 16.5–35.5 °C) and shaded (“cold”: mean = 23.3 °C; 17.5–30.5 °C) communal nests. We measured the phenotypic traits of hatchlings, released them to the wild, and monitored their survival over 6 months. Warm-incubated hatchlings hatched 15 days earlier, on average, and were smaller than their cold-incubated clutch mates. Incubation treatment did not influence the apparent survival of hatchlings. Hence, even if air temperatures increase by 2 °C in future, thermal regimes inside some currently used shaded nests will be suitable for embryo development. Maternal variation in nest site choice may therefore allow southern populations of the velvet gecko to persist in changing environments.
Unveiling the HER and ORR activity origin of isolated Co sites supported on N-doped carbon

Electrocatalysis plays very important role in clean energy conversion. In which, developing high active and robust electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are highly crucial and challenging. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the Gibbs free energy diagrams and electronic structure of N-graphene, Ir-N4 and Co-N4 are investigated in this work. The results show that Co-N4 have the appropriate H adsorption and lower ORR overpotentials, which gives expectation of high multifunctional electrocatalytic performance. This theoretical study provides vital insights into the enhanced electrocatalytic mechanism of Co sites supported on N-doped carbon.
InGaAsP/InP Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiode Towards Sub-kHz Dark Count Rate at 20% Photon Detection Efficiency

Geiger-mode InGaAsP/InP single photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD) with a low dark count rate (DCR) of 870 Hz at a photon detection efficiency (PDE) of 20% at 1064 nm is achieved for a 40 micron diameter device at −30 °C. Extensively optimized and accurately controlled shallow/deep two-step pn junction and doping profiles are identified to play decisive roles for the performance improvement. While a state-of-the-art specific detectivity of 1.4×1014 cm·Hz1/2/W is realized for the optimized SPAD, a temperature coefficient of the breakdown voltage (Vbr) of 139 mV/K, a dark current of 200 pA at 90%Vbr and a timing jitter of 280 ps at 20% PDE are also simultaneously attained. Thermal activation energies of approximate 0.5 eV are observed for both the dark current and the DCR at 253–293 K, indicates the dominant source of dark carriers is the mid-gap defect trapping states-related tunneling in the InGaAsP absorber.
More like a bee, less like a spider, and not like a tomato: Ecologically-valid enrichment experiences promote changes in how young children differentiate biological categories

Knowledge about categories supports learning and generalization, and this knowledge is particularly important early in development. Although most theories of category knowledge posit a role for experience in acquiring this knowledge, the current evidence for the presumed role of experience in category knowledge acquisition remains limited to correlational evidence, indirect measures of category knowledge, and computational studies. Here we provide direct evidence that repeated experience with a biological domain in an ecologically-valid setting changed children’s category representations, with increased differentiation of items within that domain and relative to a second domain. The implications of these results for understanding the role of experience in category acquisition, and the contribution of enrichment experiences to school readiness are discussed.
Stock Analyzer and Bot using Machine Learning

The purpose of Stock Market Prediction is to anticipate a company's financial stock long term value. Machine learning has lately been a prominent trend in stock market prediction technology, generating estimates depends on the principles of current stock market statistics by practicing on their previous data. Machine learning makes use of a variety of models in order to create correct estimates. This research focuses on using LSTM and ARIMA-based Machine Learning to anticipate stock prices. Open, close, low, high, and volume are all factors considered.
Thermodynamic and structural profiles of multi‐target binding of vinblastine in solution

Structural information about drug‐receptor interactions is paramount in drug discovery and subsequent optimization processes. Drugs can bind to multiple potential targets as they contain common chemical entities in their structures. Understanding the details of such interactions offer possibilities for repurposing and developing potent inhibitors of disease pathways. Vinblastine (VLB) is a potent anticancer molecule showing multiple receptor interactions with different affinities and degrees of structural perturbations. We have investigated the multi‐target binding profile of VLB with DNA and human serum albumin (HSA) in a dynamic physiological environment using spectroscopic, molecular dynamics simulations, and quantum mechanical calculations to evaluate the structural features, mode, ligand and receptor flexibility, and energetics of complexation. These results confirm that VLB prefers to bind in the major groove of DNA with some inclination toward Thymidine residue and the TR‐5 binding site in HSA with its catharanthine half making important contacts with both the receptors. Spectroscopic investigation at multiple temperatures has also proved that VLB binding is entropy driven indicating the major groove and TR‐5 binding site of interaction. Finally, the overall binding is facilitated by van der Waals contacts and a few conventional H‐bonds. VLB portrays reasonable conformational diversity on binding with multiple receptors.