Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arteriovenous Malformations: An Update on Models and Therapeutic Targets

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are an anomaly of the vascular system where feeding arteries are directly connected to the venous drainage network. While AVMs can arise anywhere in the body and have been described in most tissues, brain AVMs are of significant concern because of the risk of hemorrhage which carries significant morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of AVM's and the mechanisms underlying their formation are not well understood. For this reason, patients who undergo treatment for symptomatic AVM's remain at increased risk of subsequent bleeds and adverse outcomes. The cerebrovascular network is delicate and novel animal models continue to provide insight into its dynamics in the context of AVM's. As the molecular players in the formation of familial and sporadic AVM's are better understood, novel therapeutic approaches have been developed to mitigate their associated risks. Here we discuss the current literature surrounding AVM's including the development of models and therapeutic targets which are currently being investigated.
Latitudinal variation and plasticity in response to temperature in Geukensia demissa

Abstract As global temperatures warm, species must adapt to a changing climate or transition to a different location suitable for their survival. Understanding the extent to which species are able to do so, particularly keystone species, is imperative to ensuring the survival of key ecosystems. The ribbed mussel Geukensia demissa is an integral part of salt marshes along the Atlantic coast of North America. Spatial patterns of genomic and phenotypic divergence have been previously documented, although their link with coastal environmental variation is unknown. Here, we study how populations of G. demissa in the northern (Massachusetts) and southern (Georgia) portions of the species range respond to changes in temperature. We combine assays of variation in oxygen consumption and RNA transcriptomic data with genomic divergence analyses to identify how separate populations of G. demissa may vary in distinct thermal environments. Our results show differences in constitutive oxygen consumption between mussels from Georgia and Massachusetts, as well as shared and disparate patterns of gene expression across temperature profiles. We also find that metabolic genes seem to be a strong component of divergence between these two populations. Our analysis highlights the importance of studying integrative patterns of genomic and phenotypic variation in species that are key for particular ecosystems, and how they might respond to further changes in climate.
Hypobaric hypoxia induced renal injury in rats: Prophylactic amelioration by quercetin supplementation

The present study aims at assessing the effect of hypobaric hypoxia induced renal damage and associated renal functions in male SD rats. Further, this study was extended to explore the protective efficacy of quercetin in ameliorating the functional impairment in kidneys of rats under hypobaric hypoxia. Rats were exposed to 7620m (25000 ft.) at 25°C ±2 in a simulated hypobaric hypoxia chamber for different time durations (0h,1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h and 48h) in order to optimize the time at which maximum renal damage would occur. The rats were exposed to hypoxia for 12h duration was considered as the optimum time, due to significant increase in oxidative stress (ROS, MDA) and renal metabolites (creatinine, BUN and uric acid) with remarkable reduction (p<0.001) in antioxidants (GSH) in plasma, as compared to other tested durations. Moreover, these findings were in support with the histopathology analysis of renal tissues. For optimum quercetin dose selection, the rats were administered with different doses of quercetin (25mg, 50mg, 100mg and 200mg/Kg BW) for 12h at 7620 m, 25°C ±2, 1h prior to hypoxia exposure. Quercetin 50mg/kg BW was considered as the optimum dose at which significant (p<0.001) reduction in oxidative stress levels followed by reduction in creatinine and BUN levels were obtained in plasma of the rats compared to hypoxia control rats. Quercetin prophylaxis (50mg/kg BW) stabilized the HIF-1α protein expression followed by reduced VEGF protein expression along with reduced levels of LDH (p<0.001) in the kidneys of rats compared to hypoxia control. Histopathological observations further substantiated these findings in reducing the renal tissue injury. The study findings revealed that, quercetin prophylaxis abrogates the possibility of hypobaric hypoxia induced renal injury by reducing the oxidative stress in rats.
A deep learning system for heart failure mortality prediction

Heart failure (HF) is the final stage of the various heart diseases developing. The mortality rates of prognosis HF patients are highly variable, ranging from 5% to 75%. Evaluating the all-cause mortality of HF patients is an important means to avoid death and positively affect the health of patients. But in fact, machine learning models are difficult to gain good results on missing values, high dimensions, and imbalances HF data. Therefore, a deep learning system is proposed. In this system, we propose an indicator vector to indicate whether the value is true or be padded, which fast solves the missing values and helps expand data dimensions. Then, we use a convolutional neural network with different kernel sizes to obtain the features information. And a multi-head self-attention mechanism is applied to gain whole channel information, which is essential for the system to improve performance. Besides, the focal loss function is introduced to deal with the imbalanced problem better. The experimental data of the system are from the public database MIMIC-III, containing valid data for 10311 patients. The proposed system effectively and fast predicts four death types: death within 30 days, death within 180 days, death within 365 days and death after 365 days. Our study uses Deep SHAP to interpret the deep learning model and obtains the top 15 characteristics. These characteristics further confirm the effectiveness and rationality of the system and help provide a better medical service.
Ultrahigh dielectric permittivity in oxide ceramics by hydrogenation

Boosting dielectric permittivity representing electrical polarizability of dielectric materials has been considered a keystone for achieving scientific breakthroughs as well as technological advances in various multifunctional devices. Here, we demonstrate sizable enhancements of low-frequency dielectric responses in oxygen-deficient oxide ceramics through specific treatments under humid environments. Ultrahigh dielectric permittivity (~5.2 × 106 at 1 Hz) is achieved by hydrogenation, when Ni-substituted BaTiO3 ceramics are exposed to high humidity. Intriguingly, thermal annealing can restore the dielectric on-state (exhibiting huge polarizability in the treated ceramics) to the initial dielectric off-state (displaying low polarizability of ~103 in the pristine ceramics after sintering). The conversion between these two dielectric states via the ambient environment–mediated treatments and the successive application of external stimuli allows us to realize reversible control of dielectric relaxation characteristics in oxide ceramics. Conceptually, our findings are of practical interest for applications to highly efficient dielectric-based humidity sensors.
Torsion characteristics of long-period fiber gratings induced by high-frequency CO2 laser pulses

It is demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, that torsion characteristics of resonant wavelength of long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) induced by high-frequency CO2 laser pulses depend strongly on the twist directions. That is, the resonant wavelength shifts linearly toward the longer wavelength as the LPFG is twisted clockwise, whereas it shifts linearly toward the shorter wavelength as the LPFG is twisted anticlockwise. On the other hand, the loss peak amplitude decreases gradually whether the LPFG is twisted clockwise or anticlockwise. If the twisted fiber is much longer than the twisted LPFG, the resonant wavelength shifts wavelike toward the longer and shorter wavelength as the LPFG is twisted clockwise and anticlockwise, respectively, and the loss peak amplitude decreases wavelike with the twist rate applied. An asymmetric refractive-index distribution exists within the cross section of the LPFG fabricated by high-frequency CO2 laser pulses, which results in obvious linear birefringence in the LPFG. The right- and left-rotatory elliptical birefringence are induced when the LPFG with a linear birefringence is twisted clockwise and anticlockwise, respectively. So the twist-induced right- and left-rotatory elliptical birefringence in the LPFG show that the shift of resonant wavelength is dependent on the twist directions. The twist-induced circular birefringence in the fiber shows that the resonant wavelength and amplitude of the LPFG change wavelike.
Microfilter simulations and scaling laws

This work presents DSMC simulations used to quantify the effect of Knudsen number on flows through filters with micron-scale holes. The empirical scaling laws currently used to predict pressure drop as a function of flow conditions and filter geometry are based on experiments and calculations within the continuum regime. We illustrate that noncontinuum effects are significant for filters designed to capture biowarfare agents and pathogens of current interest. We also suggest a scaling based on Knudsen number for correcting the classic scaling laws to include these effects.
Wide-band planar monopole antennas

The circular disc monopole (CDM) antenna has been reported to yield wide-impedance bandwidth. Experiments have been carried out on a CDM that has twice the diameter of the reported disc with similar results. New configurations are proposed such as elliptical (with different ellipticity ratios), square, rectangular, and hexagonal disc monopole antennas. A simple formula is proposed to predict the frequency corresponding to the lower edge of the bandwidth for each of these configurations. The elliptical disc monopole (EDM) with ellipticity ratio of 1.1 yields the maximum bandwidth from 1.21 GHz to more than 13 GHz for voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR)<2.
Expression of malic enzyme reveals subcellular carbon partitioning for storage reserve production in soybeans.

Central metabolism produces amino and fatty acids for protein and lipids that establish seed value. Biosynthesis of storage reserves occurs in multiple organelles that exchange central intermediates including two essential metabolites, malate and pyruvate that are linked by malic enzyme. Malic enzyme can be active in multiple subcellular compartments, partitioning carbon and reducing equivalents for anabolic and catabolic requirements. Prior studies based on isotopic labeling and steady state metabolic flux analyses indicated malic enzyme provides carbon for fatty acid biosynthesis in plants, though genetic evidence confirming this role is lacking. We hypothesized that increasing malic enzyme flux would alter carbon partitioning and result in increased lipid levels in soybeans. Homozygous transgenic soybean plants expressing Arabidopsis malic enzyme alleles, targeting the translational products to plastid or outside the plastid during seed development, were verified by transcript and enzyme activity analyses, organelle proteomics and transient expression assays. Protein, oil, central metabolites, cofactors, and acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACPs) levels were quantified over development. Amino and fatty acid levels were altered resulting in an increase in lipids by 0.5-2% of seed biomass (i.e., 2-9% change in oil). Subcellular targeting of a single gene product in central metabolism impacts carbon and reducing equivalent partitioning for seed storage reserves in soybeans.
Unsteady blood flow in a helically symmetric pipe

Fully developed flow in a helical pipe is investigated with a view to modelling blood flow around the commonly non-planar bends in the arterial system. Medical research suggests that the formation of atherosclerotic lesions is strongly correlated with regions of low wall shear and it has been suggested that the observed non-planar geometry may result in a more uniform shear distribution. Helical flows driven by an oscillating pressure gradient are studied analytically and numerically. In the high-frequency limit an expression is derived for the second-order steady flow driven by streaming from the Stokes layers. Finite difference methods are used to calculate flows driven by sinusoidal or physiological pressure gradients in various geometries. Possible advantages of the observed helical rather than planar arterial bends are discussed in terms of wall shear distribution and the inhibition of boundary layer separation.
Statistical sensitivity and minimum sensitivity structures with fewer coefficients in discrete time linear systems

Statistical sensitivity in discrete-time state-space linear systems is defined, using a virtual system whose coefficients are stochastically varied. The necessary and sufficient condition for the mean-square asymptotical stability is obtained by analyzing the convergence of the state covariance matrix of the virtual system. This condition determines an upper bound on the variance of coefficient variations that guarantees stochastic stability. Minimum-sensitivity structures can be synthesized by using two assumptions to simplify the sensitivity measure. The minimum-sensitivity structures have many more coefficients than the other canonical structures in general. The authors synthesize minimum-sensitivity structures that have fewer coefficients and lower sensitivity than the usual minimum-sensitivity structures. The number of coefficients depends on the pole-zero configuration of the transfer function. Two numerical examples show that the minimum-sensitivity structures have much lower sensitivity than the other realizations. >
The dawn of the functional genomics era in muscle physiology

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant component of the mature mammalian phenotype. Designed to generate contractile force and movement, skeletal muscle is crucial for organism health, function and development. One of the great interests for muscle biologists is in understanding how skeletal muscle adapts during periods of stress and stimuli, such as disease, disuse and ageing. To this end, genomic‐based experimental and analytical approaches offer one of the most powerful approaches for comprehensively mapping the molecular paradigms that regulate skeletal muscle. With the power, applicability, and robustness of ‘omic’ technologies continually being developed, we are now in a position to investigate these molecular mechanisms in skeletal muscle to an unprecedented level of accuracy and precision, heralding the dawn of a new era of functional genomics in the field of muscle physiology.
Initial performance evaluation of a high resolution Albira small animal positron emission tomography scanner with monolithic crystals and depth-of-interaction encoding from a user's perspective

The user evaluation of the Albira small animal positron emission tomography scanner is presented. The system has a 80 mm × 40 mm field of view. In the center of the field of view, it has 2.49% sensitivity, with 33% solid angle coverage, and 0.88% sensitivity for a mouse phantom. The maximum of noise equivalent counts is 14.6 kcps at 6.0 MBq for a mouse phantom. The scanner employs an innovative crystal design of eight 40(50) × 40(50) × 9.8 mm3 LYSO tapered monolithic crystals forming detector modules read by position-sensitive photomultipliers. This design allows for easy depth-of-interaction readout. The system saturates at 6.7 MBq for the mouse phantom. As an example of the application of the Albira system, some preliminary results from a study of ischemic stroke on animal models with 18-FDG co-registered with MRI images are shown.
High-field magnetooptical behavior of polymer-embedded single-walled carbon nanotubes

We report a study of the magnetophotoluminescence (PL) of single-walled carbon nanotubes embedded in polymer films. The magnetic-field dependence of the intensity and emission energy is used to deduce the splitting and mixing of the bright and dark exciton states. It is shown that the presence of strain in the films causes a considerable increase in the bright–dark exciton splitting. The unstrained nanotubes show considerably smaller exciton splittings than reported previously and demonstrate an unexpected magnetic suppression of the PL intensity which can only be observed once the Aharanov-Bohm phase splitting is significantly larger than the bright–dark exciton splitting. Functional fitting of the data also allows the diameter dependence of the Aharanov-Bohm (AB) phase-induced energy shifts to be accurately measured. Evidence is also presented for the existence of a zero-field AB splitting due possibly to spin-orbit interaction effects.
Use of Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Pump Therapy Sensor Augmented Pump or Automated Insulin Delivery in Different Age Groups (0.5 to <26 Years) With Type 1 Diabetes From 2018 to 2021: Analysis of the German/Austrian/Swiss/Luxemburg DPV Registry.

AIM Insulin pump, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), and sensor augmented pump (SAP) technology have evolved continuously leading to the development of automated insulin delivery (AID) systems. Evaluation of the use of diabetes technologies in people with T1D from January 2018 to December 2021. METHODS A patient registry (Diabetes Prospective Follow-up Database [DPV]) was analyzed for use of SAP (insulin pump + CGM ≥90 days, no automated dose adjustment) and AID (HCL or LGS/PLGS). In total 46,043 people with T1D aged 0.5 to <26 years treated in 416 diabetes centers (Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, and Switzerland) were included and stratified into 4 groups A-D according to age. Additionally, TiR and HbA1c were analyzed. RESULTS From 2018 to 2021, there was a significant increase from 28.7% to 32.9% (sensor augmented pump [SAP]) and 3.5% to 16.6% (AID) across all age groups, with the most frequent use in group A (<7 years, 38.8%-40.2% and 10.3%-28.5%). A similar increase in SAP and AID use was observed in groups B (7 to <11 years) and C (11 to <16 years): B: +15.8 PP, C: +15.9 PP. HbA1c improved significantly in groups C and D (16 to <26 years) (both P < .01). Time in range (TiR) increased in all groups (A: +3 PP; B: +5 PP; C: +5 PP; D: +5 PP; P < 0.01 for each group). Insulin pumps (61.0% versus 53.4% male) and SAP (33.5% versus 28.9% male) are used more frequently in females. CONCLUSION In recent years, we found an increasing use of new diabetes technologies and an improvement in metabolic control (TiR) across all age groups.
Multistream-Based Marked Point Process With Decomposed Cumulative Hazard Functions

Abstract When applying a point process to a real-world problem, an appropriate intensity function model should be designed based on physical and mathematical prior knowledge. Recently, a fully trainable deep learning–based approach has been developed for temporal point processes. In this approach, a cumulative hazard function (CHF) capable of systematic computation of adaptive intensity function is modeled in a data-driven manner. However, in this approach, although many applications of point processes generate various kinds of information such as location, magnitude, and depth, the mark information of events is not considered. To overcome this limitation, we propose a fully trainable marked point process method for modeling decomposed CHFs for time and mark prediction using multistream deep neural networks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method through experiments with synthetic and real-world event data.
Testing the use of adjoints for parameter estimation in a simple GCM on climate time-scales

The paper presents a feasibility study for a Climate Prediction Data Assimilation System following the methodological approach of the Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS). The usefulness of accurate gradient information for estimating process parameters of the spectral atmospheric circulation model PUMA on climate time-scales is investigated. Pseudo observations of the long-term mean surface temperature are generated by the model itself. The gradient of the model-data misfit computed by the tangent linear version of the model provides a good approximation for integration periods of 10 days arid one year. In an identical twin experiment the correct parameter values can be retrieved by variational assimilation of the pseudo observations for an integration period of 10 days. For an integration period of 100 days this worked after adding pseudo observations of the seasonality of the surface temperature. (Less)
Antagonism between Prdm16 and Smad4 specifies the trajectory and progression of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a deadly disease whose molecular etiology remains mostly enigmatic. By discovering an antagonistic relationship between the tumor suppressors Prdm16 and Smad4 in PDAC, this study paves the way for innovative frameworks with potential therapeutic implications.
Transient and Sustained Ganglion Cell Light Responses Are Differentially Modulated by Intrinsically Produced Reactive Oxygen Species Acting upon Specific Voltage-Gated Na+ Channel Isoforms

Increasing spike rates drive greater neuronal energy demand. In turn, mitochondrial ATP production leads to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can modulate ion channel gating. Does ROS production autoregulate the excitability of a neuron? We investigated the links between retinal ganglion cell (RGC) excitability and spike activity-driven ROS production in male and female mice. Changes to the light-evoked and current-evoked spike patterns of functionally identified αRGC subtypes, along with their NaV channel-gating properties, were recorded during experimentally induced decreases and increases of intracellular ROS. During periods of highest spike rates (e.g., following light onset in ON sustained RGCs and light offset in OFF sustained RGCs), these αRGC subtypes responded to reductions of ROS (induced by catalase or glutathione monoethyl ester) with higher spike rates. Increases in ROS (induced by mercaptosuccinate, antimycin-A, or H2O2) lowered spike rates. In ON and OFF transient RGCs, there were no changes in spike rate during ROS decreases but increased ROS increased spiking. This suggests that endogenous ROS are intrinsic neuromodulators in RGCs having high metabolic demands but not in RGCs with lower energy needs. We identified ROS-induced shifts in the voltage-dependent gating of specific isoforms of NaV channels that account for the modulation of ON and OFF sustained RGC spike frequency by ROS-mediated feedback. ROS-induced changes to NaV channel gating, affecting activation and inactivation kinetics, are consistent with the differing spike pattern alterations observed in RGC subtypes. Cell-autonomous generation of ROS during spiking contributes to tuning the spike patterns of RGCs. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Energy production within retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is accompanied by metabolic by-products harmful to cellular function. How these by-products modulate the excitability of RGCs bears heavily on visual function and the etiology of optic neuropathies. A novel hypothesis of how RGC metabolism can produce automodulation of electrical signaling was tested by identifying the characteristics and biophysical origins of changes to the excitability of RGCs caused by oxidizing by-products in the retina. This impacts our understanding of the pathophysiology of RGC dysfunction, supporting an emerging model in which increases in oxidizing chemical species during energy production, but not necessarily bioenergetic failure, lead to preferential degeneration of specific subtypes of RGCs, yielding loss of different aspects of visual capacity.