Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current Trends on the Involvement of Zinc, Copper, and Selenium in the Process of Hepatocarcinogenesis

Numerous nutritional factors increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. The dysregulation of zinc, copper, and selenium homeostasis is associated with the occurrence of HCC. The impairment of the homeostasis of these essential trace elements results in oxidative stress, DNA damage, cell cycle progression, and angiogenesis, finally leading to hepatocarcinogenesis. These essential trace elements can affect the microenvironment in HCC. The carrier proteins for zinc and copper and selenium-containing enzymes play important roles in the prevention or progression of HCC. These trace elements enhance or alleviate the chemosensitivity of anticancer agents in patients with HCC. The zinc, copper, or selenium may affect the homeostasis of other trace elements with each other. Novel types of cell death including ferropotosis and cupropotosis are also associated with hepatocarcinogenesis. Therapeutic strategies for HCC that target these carrier proteins for zinc and copper or selenium-containing enzymes have been developed in in vitro and in vivo studies. The use of zinc-, copper- or selenium-nanoparticles has been considered as novel therapeutic agents for HCC. These results indicate that zinc, copper, and selenium may become promising therapeutic targets in patients with HCC. The clinical application of these agents is an urgent unmet requirement. This review article highlights the correlation between the dysregulation of the homeostasis of these essential trace elements and the development of HCC and summarizes the current trends on the roles of these essential trace elements in the pathogenesis of hepatocarcinogenesis.
Accurate Extraction of Body-Diode-Conduction for Synchronous Rectification of CLLC Resonant Converters in High-Voltage Application

Mainstream adaptive drain–source voltage-sensing-based synchronous rectification (ADVS-SR) has rarely been used for CLLC converters in higher output-voltage applications (HOVA) due to the issue of sensing accuracy and high dv/dt. This letter proposes a novel body-diode-conduction (BDC) extraction circuit consisting of an accurate drain–source voltage sensing circuit and a customized valley-conduction-detection (VCD) circuit for ADVS-SR in HOVA. The compensation diodes packaged together with blocking diodes can eliminate the sensing error accurately with a single PNP transistor instead of complex current mirror. Absorption diodes and series combination of blocking diode effectively solve the high-dv/dt issue. The traditional external negative threshold voltage for the voltage comparison in VCD circuit can be omitted. Thus, the proposed BDC extraction circuit is accurate, high-dv/dt immune and easy-to-implement, and the performance of which have been validated from the experimental results in a 1 kW-500 V CLLC prototype.
Origem e disseminação dos microrganismos do vinho

Júri: Presidente: Doutora Margarida Gomes Moldão Martins, Professora Auxiliar com agregação do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade de Lisboa Vogais: Doutor Manuel José Pimenta Malfeito Ferreira, Professor Auxiliar com agregação do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade de Lisboa Doutora Catarina Paula Guerra Geoffroy Prista, Professora Auxiliar do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade de Lisboa
Altitudinal Patterns of Plant Communities and Species Diversity in the Habaxueshan Mountains,Yunnan, China

The plant community types and spatial differentiation of plant species diversity along the altitudinal gradient in the Habaxueshan Mountain, Northwest Yunnan was analyzed using quantitative methods based on the 72 quadrat data. The result showed that: The plant communities of Habaxueshan Mountain could be grouped into 6 vegetation types with the hierarchical cluster analysis and the non-metric multidimensional scaling. The plant species diversity in Habaxueshan Mountain was influenced more by "the mid-domain Effect" than "Rapoports elevation rule". The altitudinal pattern of species richness generally presented the single hump pattern and fluctuated in mid-elevation zone; both Shannon-Wiener and Cody indexes presented the single hump pattern on the whole, and showed wavy fluctuation in mid-elevation zone. Generally ,the altitudinal pattern of plant diversity in Habaxueshan Mountain presented a complicate feature which indicated the diversity of micro-habitat, and the complication also manifested by the alternative distribution and substitution effect of plant communities.
Vitamin D Reduces GABA-Positive Astrocytes in the 5xFAD Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: Vitamin D has neuroprotective and immunomodulating functions that may impact glial cell function in the brain. Previously, we reported molecular and behavioral changes caused by deficiency and supplementation of vitamin D in an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse model. Recent studies have highlighted reactive astrocytes as a new therapeutic target for AD treatment. However, the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of vitamin D on the glial cells of AD remain unclear. Objective: To investigate the potential association between vitamin D deficiency/supplementation and the pathological progression of AD, including amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology and reactive astrogliosis. Methods: Transgenic hemizygous 5XFAD male mice were subjected to different dietary interventions and intraperitoneal vitamin D injections to examine the effects of vitamin D deficiency and supplementation on AD. Brain tissue was then analyzed using immunohistochemistry for Aβ plaques, microglia, and astrocytes, with quantifications performed via ImageJ software. Results: Our results demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency exacerbated Aβ plaque formation and increased GABA-positive reactive astrocytes in AD model mice, while vitamin D supplementation ameliorated these effects, leading to a reduction in Aβ plaques and GABA-positive astrocytes. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the significant impact of vitamin D status on Aβ pathology and reactive astrogliosis, underscoring its potential role in the prevention and treatment of AD. This study provides the first in vivo evidence of the association between vitamin D and reactive astrogliosis in AD model mice, indicating the potential for targeting vitamin D levels as a novel therapeutic approach for AD.
Keypoint Analysis of Underwater Images with Different Altitude Using SIFT and SURF Descriptor

This Paper produced different results characterize the detection of underwater camera image are processed with different height detection using SIFT and SURF. Taking image height difference of the fact that the higher order can be used to guide the motion estimation is lower, thus increasing durability and efficiency mosaicing process. The process of analysis is performed by examining the images of the results of each video frame using the SIFT and SURF keypoint detection to determine quality. The image of the three cameras keypoint calculated and compared. Values significantly different keypoint not used in mosaicing process. The results of testing for underwater imagery generated by three different camera heights, SIFT keypoint detection better than SURF. Distance of the object to the camera affect the amount detected keypoint. SIFT and SURF have in common that camera nearest keypoint more little value furthest from the camera.
OS IMPACTOS DOS INCENTIVOS FISCAIS SOBRE A ESTRUTURA INDUSTRIAL E SOBRE A COMPETITIVIDADE DAS FIRMAS

A partir do modelo de duopólio de Cournot, postula um modelo analítico que busca compreender os impactos da entrada de uma nova firma em um mercado, quando esta recebe incentivos fiscais do governo. Primeiramente, deriva o modelo fechado com três firmas e encontram-se os resultados. Na etapa seguinte, inclui o mercado externo na análise e são analisados todos os equilíbrios possíveis para o mercado em questão. Investiga, então, quais seriam os efeitos sobre a produção, sobre a lucratividade e competitividade das firmas, tornando clara a importância de se conhecerem as características específicas de cada mercado como uma condição para que a política pública tenha o impacto desejado pelo governo e pela sociedade como um todo.
UV photochemistry of carboxylic acids at the air‐sea boundary: A relevant source of glyoxal and other oxygenated VOC in the marine atmosphere

Photochemistry plays an important role in marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) degradation, but the mechanisms that convert DOC into volatile organic compounds (VOCs) remain poorly understood. We irradiated carboxylic acids (C7–C9) on a simulated ocean surface with UV light (<320 nm) in a photochemical flow reactor and transferred the VOC products into a dark ozone reactor. Glyoxal was detected as a secondary product from heptanoic, octanoic, and nonanoic acid (NA) films, but not from octanol. Primary glyoxal emissions were not observed, nor was glyoxal formed in the absence of ozone. Addition of a photosensitizer had no noticeable effect. The concurrent detection of heptanal in the NA system suggests that the ozonolysis of 2‐nonenal is the primary chemical mechanism that produces glyoxal. This source can potentially sustain tens of parts per trillion by volume (pptv) glyoxal over oceans, and helps to explain why glyoxal fluxes in marine air are directed from the atmosphere into the ocean.
RPRP-SAP: A Robust and Precise ResNet Predictor for Steering Angle Prediction of Autonomous Vehicles

Steering angle controller is a core module of autonomous vehicles, where a slight miscalculation can cause severe accidents. Following safety precautions, development of robust and precise steering angle predictor is an active area of research. However, existing simulator based steering angle predictors lack in predictive performance and have not been evaluated on same benchmark datasets. Furthermore, most of them are evaluated on simulated datasets and their potential on real-world data as well as in cross-domain evaluation of both types data (real-world, simulated) remain unexplored. To accelerate and expedite research related to steering angle prediction contributions of this paper are manifold: 1) It presents two benchmark datasets that are developed using Udacity and CARLA simulators. 2) Following the need for comparative study, over both simulated datasets, it benchmarks the performance of existing predictors under 2 different evaluation settings namely: same-track and cross-track evaluation. 3) In cross-domain evaluation, it explores generalization potential of predictors by training predictors on simulated data and evaluating them on 2 real-world datasets and vice versa. 4) It presents a robust and precise steering angle predictor that utilizes skip connections for proper gradient flow among different convolutional layers. In same-track evaluation where predictors are trained and evaluated on same-track data, proposed predictor outperforms existing predictors by achieving least Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.13, 0.19 and 0.065 over lake track, jungle track and CARLA based datasets, respectively. Similarly, in cross-track evaluation where predictors are trained on one track and are evaluated on other track data, once again proposed predictor outperforms existing predictors by producing average least MAE errors of 0.33 and 0.06 over Udacity and CARLA datasets, respectively. Over two real-world datasets, Sully Chen and Comma.ai, the proposed predictor demonstrates superior performance compared to existing simulator-based predictors, achieving the lowest MAE of 2.41 and 0.50, respectively.
A Potential biomarker for the early diagnosis of OSCC: saliva and serum PrPC

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage, and the high mortality of patients is mainly due to the delay of diagnosis. Cellular prion protein (PrPC) contributes to the occurrence and development of many malignant tumors. However, little has been known about the clinical and diagnostic value of PrPC in OSCC. This study investigated the levels of PrPC in the saliva and serum of patients with OSCC, OPMD and control group and their diagnostic value. Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and Clinical Proteome Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) databases were analyzed to evaluate the expression of human prion protein gene (PRNP) mRNA and PrPC in OSCC. Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was utilized to detect the expression of PrPC in saliva and serum samples of OSCC, OPMD and control groups. Furthermore, diagnostic value and clinical significance of PrPC in OSCC was identified. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by STRING. GO and KEGG analysis were performed by ClusterProfiler. Results: The levels of PRNP mRNA and PrPC in OSCC were significantly higher than those in the control group from databases (P<0.05). Besides, salivary and serum PrPC of OSCC patients showed increased levels compared with OPMD and control groups (P<0.05). The expression of salivary and serum PrPC of OSCC was correlated with the degree of differentiation (P<0.05), and the expression of PrPC from CPTAC was related to tumor stage of OSCC (P<0.05). The areas under the diagnostic curves (AUCs) of salivary and serum PrPC were 0.807 and 0.671, respectively. GO and KEGG analysis revealed that PrPC might be related to cell adhesion, cell differentiation, signal transduction and apoptosis, and participate in the pathways of focal adhesion, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and ECM- receptor interaction in OSCC. Conclusion: PrPC in saliva and serum may be a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of OSCC.
OHAAKI RESERVOIR CHEMISTRY: INSIGHTS INTO THE NATURE AND LOCATION OF THE HEAT SOURCE(S)

A recent chemical survey of the Ohaaki geothermal system (New Zealand) has highlighted compositional differences between the East and West Bank production fluids. The highest reservoir Cl concentrations are found on the West Bank, in apparent conflict with maximum reservoir pressures found on the east bank. B/Cl, N2/Ar and CO2/He maxima all occur on the East Bank. The current model holds that there are two heat sources for the present-day system, with that on the East Bank comprising of an actively degassing and relatively shallow-seated magmatic intrusion.
The role of neural inhibition in the development of amblyopia

One of the theories in the development of amblyopia is binocular inhibition. Support for this theory come from neurotransmitter studies. Dopamine is a modulatory neurotransmitter and may have a significant role in normal visual maturation and in the cortical plasticity during the critical period. This preliminary study assessed and compared, through autoradiographic techniques, the dopamine distribution in human fetal and neonatal visual cortex to adult primary visual cortex. The results shows a laminar and ontogenic distribution of dopamine receptor binding sites in adult and child visual cortex,with binding most distinct in layer IVc. The results suggests a role for dopamine in early visual development.
Servicii inteligente de asistență medicală: o soluție centrată pe pacient bazată pe Cloud Computing

This paper reviews how to approach intelligent health services, exploring the requirements to achieve them. The following concepts are briefly presented: (1) The Internet of Things (IoT) as an important source for the future of health care services; (2) intelligent element technology and, in particular, the characteristics and benefits of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Devices; (3) the basic notions in Cloud Computing and its benefits in healthcare. In addition, concepts and features for smart health services are presented, followed by a proposal for a framework for a smart Cloudbased health system that illustrates the scope of electronic healthcare through the adoption of WSN-RFID intelligent objects.
Communicating beach management: educators; coastal engineers and local governments collaborating to create successful education programs.

ABSTRACT Muurmans, M. , Leahy, P., Richards, L. , Communicating beach management: educators; coastal engineers and local governments collaborating to create successful education programs. Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 672–674. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Through partnership between The Griffith Centre for Coastal Management and the City of Gold Coast a very successful education program “CoastEd” was created since 2001 with a focus on the coastal environment. Complimentary educational sessions are delivered to schools, community groups and residents. Topics range from beach health, coastal processes and tourism, to mangrove environments and climate change. The school programs match the Australian Curriculum and community programs are increasingly popular. The unique collaboration between a city council and a research centre has resulted in improved communication to the community as all programs are delivered by industry professionals with an extensive teaching background. The award winning program has been operational for 15 years and is highly respected in the community. CoastEd is a knowledge hub for queries the local community may have with regards to coastal protection. This paper will highlight some of the successful techniques we have used to increase awareness on certain pressing topics such as climate change, coastal protection and biodiversity.
Copper(II) Can Kinetically Trap Arctic and Italian Amyloid-β40 as Toxic Oligomers, Mimicking Cu(II) Binding to Wild-Type Amyloid-β42: Implications for Familial Alzheimer’s Disease

The self-association of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide into neurotoxic oligomers is believed to be central to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Copper is known to impact Aβ assembly, while disrupted copper homeostasis impacts phenotype in Alzheimer’s models. Here we show the presence of substoichiometric Cu(II) has very different impacts on the assembly of Aβ40 and Aβ42 isoforms. Globally fitting microscopic rate constants for fibril assembly indicates copper will accelerate fibril formation of Aβ40 by increasing primary nucleation, while seeding experiments confirm that elongation and secondary nucleation rates are unaffected by Cu(II). In marked contrast, Cu(II) traps Aβ42 as prefibrillar oligomers and curvilinear protofibrils. Remarkably, the Cu(II) addition to preformed Aβ42 fibrils causes the disassembly of fibrils back to protofibrils and oligomers. The very different behaviors of the two Aβ isoforms are centered around differences in their fibril structures, as highlighted by studies of C-terminally amidated Aβ42. Arctic and Italian familiar mutations also support a key role for fibril structure in the interplay of Cu(II) with Aβ40/42 isoforms. The Cu(II) dependent switch in behavior between nonpathogenic Aβ40 wild-type and Aβ40 Arctic or Italian mutants suggests heightened neurotoxicity may be linked to the impact of physiological Cu(II), which traps these familial mutants as oligomers and curvilinear protofibrils, which cause membrane permeability and Ca(II) cellular influx.
The Emerging Function and Promise of tRNA-Derived Small RNAs in Cancer

Fragments derived from tRNA, called tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs), have attracted widespread attention in the past decade. tsRNAs are widespread in prokaryotic and eukaryotic transcriptome, which contains two main types, tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) and tRNA-derived stress-inducing RNA (tiRNAs), derived from the precursor tRNAs or mature tRNAs. According to differences in the cleavage position, tRFs can be divided into tRF-1, tRF-2, tRF-3, tRF-5, and i-tRF, whereas tiRNAs can be divided into 5'-tiRNA and 3'-tiRNA. Studies have found that tRFs and tiRNAs are abnormally expressed in a variety of human malignant tumors, promote or inhibit the proliferation and apoptosis of cancer cells by regulating the expression of oncogene, and play an important role in the aggressive metastasis and progression of tumors. This article reviews the biological origins of various tsRNAs, introduces their functions and new concepts of related mechanisms, and focuses on the molecular mechanisms of tsRNAs in cancer, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, b-cell lymphoma, and chronic lymphoma cell leukemia. Lastly, this article puts forward some unresolved problems and future research prospects.
Harmonic-Copuled Riccati Equations and its Applications in Distributed Filtering

The coupled Riccati equations are cosisted of multiple Riccati-like equations with solutions coupled with each other, which can be applied to depict the properties of more complex systems such as markovian systems or multi-agent systems. This paper manages to formulate and investigate a new kind of coupled Riccati equations, called harmonic-coupled Riccati equations (HCRE), from the matrix iterative law of the consensus on information-based distributed filtering (CIDF) algortihm proposed in [1], where the solutions of the equations are coupled with harmonic means. Firstly, mild conditions of the existence and uniqueness of the solution to HCRE are induced with collective observability and primitiviness of weighting matrix. Then, it is proved that the matrix iterative law of CIDF will converge to the unique solution of the corresponding HCRE, hence can be used to obtain the solution to HCRE. Moreover, through applying the novel theory of HCRE, it is pointed out that the real estimation error covariance of CIDF will also become steady-state and the convergent value is simplified as the solution to a discrete time Lyapunov equation (DLE). Altogether, these new results develop the theory of the coupled Riccati equations, and provide a novel perspective on the performance analysis of CIDF algorithm, which sufficiently reduces the conservativeness of the evaluation techniques in the literature. Finally, the theoretical results are verified with numerical experiments.
In Silico Analysis of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 Strains from Presumptive Super- and Low-Shedder Cattle

Cattle are the primary reservoir for STEC O157, with some shedding >104 CFU/g in feces, a phenomenon known as super-shedding (SS). The mechanism(s) responsible for SS are not understood but have been attributed to the environment, host, and pathogen. This study aimed to compare genetic characteristics of STEC O157 strains from cattle in the same commercial feedlot pens with SS or low-shedding (LS) status. Strains from SS (n = 35) and LS (n = 28) collected from 11 pens in three feedlots were analyzed for virulence genes, Shiga toxin-carrying bacteriophage insertion sites, and phylogenetic relationships. In silico analysis showed limited variation regarding virulence gene profiles. Stx-encoding prophage insertion sites mrlA and wrbA for stx1a and stx2a, respectively, were all occupied, but two isolates had fragments of the stx-carrying phage in mrlA and wrbA loci without stx1a and stx2a. All strains screened for lineage-specific polymorphism assay (LSPA-6) were 111111, lineage I. Of the isolates, 61 and 2 were clades 1 and 8, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that pens with more than one SS had multiple distantly related clusters of SS and LS isolates. Although virulence genes and lineage were largely similar within and across feedlots, multiple genetic origins of strains within a single feedlot pen illustrate challenges for on-farm control of STEC.