Electro-fluid dynamics of aqueous humor production: simulations and new directions.

Purpose: to theoretically investigate the role of bicarbonate ion (HCO− 3 ) on the nonpigmented transepithelial potential di erence Vm, the sodium potassium pump (Na/K) and the active secretion of aqueous humor. Methods: a three-dimensional mathematical model is proposed to isolate the roles of HCO− 3 and Na+, which are di icult to investigate experimentally. The model combines the velocity-extended Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations to describe ion electrodi usion and the Stokes equations to describe aqueous humor flow into the basolateral space adjacent to the nonpigmented ephitelial cells. Results: Computations show that Vm is close to baseline experimental measurements (on monkeys) in the range [−2.7, −2.3]mV only if HCO− 3 is included in the simulation. The model is also capable of reproducing the flow of Na+ exiting the cell and the flow of K+ entering the cell, in accordance with the physiology of the Na/K pump. The simulated Na/K ratio is 1.53, which is in very good agreement with the theoretical value of 1.5. Conclusion: Model simulations suggest that HCO− 3 inhibition may prevent physiologically correct baseline values of the nonpigmented transepithelial potential di erence and Na/K ATPase function. This may provide useful indication in the design of medications that decrease the active secretion of aqueous humor, and supports the advantage of using mathematical models as a noninvasive complement of animal models

Mitochondrial DNA content and methylation in fetal cord blood of pregnancies with placental insufficiency

Introduction: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and preeclampsia (PE) are pregnancy disorders characterized by placental insufficiency with oxygen/nutrient restriction and oxidative stress, all influencing mitochondria functionality and number. Moreover, IUGR and PE fetuses are predisposed to diseases later in life, and this might occur through epigenetic alterations. Here we analyze content and methylation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), for the first time in IUGR and PE singleton fetuses, to identify possible alterations in mtDNA levels and/or epigenetic control of mitochondrial loci relevant to replication (D-loop) and functionality (mt-TF/RNR1: protein synthesis, mt-CO1: respiratory chain complex). Methods: We studied 35 term and 8 preterm control, 31 IUGR, 17 PE/IUGR and 17 PE human singleton pregnancies with elective cesarean delivery. Fetal cord blood was collected and evaluated for biochemical parameters. Extracted DNA was subjected to Real-time PCR to assess mtDNA content and analyzed for D-loop, mt-TF/RNR1 and mt-CO1 methylation by bisulfite conversion and pyrosequencing. Results: mtDNA levels were increased in all pathologic groups compared to controls. Mitochondrial loci showed very low methylation levels in all samples; D-loop methylation was further decreased in the most severe cases and associated to umbilical vein pO2. mt-CO1 methylation levels inversely correlated to mtDNA content. Discussion: Increased mtDNA levels in IUGR, PE/IUGR and PE cord blood may denote a fetal response to placental insufficiency. Hypomethylation of D-loop, mt-TF/RNR1 and mt-CO1 loci confirms their relevance in pregnancy

Differential signature of the centrosomal MARK4 isoforms in glioma

Background: MAP/microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4 (MARK4) is a serine-threonine kinase expressed in two spliced isoforms, MARK4L and MARK4S, of which MARK4L is a candidate for a role in neoplastic transformation. Methods: We performed mutation analysis to identify sequence alterations possibly affecting MARK4 expression. We then investigated the MARK4L and MARK4S expression profile in 21 glioma cell lines and 36 tissues of different malignancy grades, glioblastoma-derived cancer stem cells (GBM CSCs) and mouse neural stem cells (NSCs) by real-time PCR, immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. We also analyzed the sub-cellular localisation of MARK4 isoforms in glioma and normal cell lines by immunofluorescence. Results: Mutation analysis rules out sequence variations as the cause of the altered MARK4 expression in glioma. Expression profiling confirms that MARK4L is the predominant isoform, whereas MARK4S levels are significantly decreased in comparison and show an inverse correlation with tumour grade. A high MARK4L/MARK4S ratio also characterizes undifferentiated cells, such as GBM CSCs and NSCs. Accordingly, only MARK4L is expressed in brain neurogenic regions. Moreover, while both MARK4 isoforms are localised to the centrosome and midbody in glioma and normal cells, the L isoform exhibits an additional nucleolar localisation in tumour cells. Conclusions: The observed switch towards MARK4L suggests that the balance between the MARK4 isoforms is carefully guarded during neural differentiation but may be subverted in gliomagenesis. Moreover, the MARK4L nucleolar localisation in tumour cells features this MARK4 isoform as a nucleolus-associated tumour marker

Microbiome preterm birth DREAM challenge: Crowdsourcing machine learning approaches to advance preterm birth research

Every year, 11% of infants are born preterm with significant health consequences, with the vaginal microbiome a risk factor for preterm birth. We crowdsource models to predict (1) preterm birth (PTB; <37 weeks) or (2) early preterm birth (ePTB; <32 weeks) from 9 vaginal microbiome studies representing 3,578 samples from 1,268 pregnant individuals, aggregated from public raw data via phylogenetic harmonization. The predictive models are validated on two independent unpublished datasets representing 331 samples from 148 pregnant individuals. The top-performing models (among 148 and 121 submissions from 318 teams) achieve area under the receiver operator characteristic (AUROC) curve scores of 0.69 and 0.87 predicting PTB and ePTB, respectively. Alpha diversity, VALENCIA community state types, and composition are important features in the top-performing models, most of which are tree-based methods. This work is a model for translation of microbiome data into clinically relevant predictive models and to better understand preterm birth

Issue Report Classification Using Pre-trained Language Models

This paper describes our participation in the tool competition organized in the scope of the 1st International Workshop on Natural Language-based Software Engineering. We propose a supervised approach relying on fine-tuned BERT-based language models for the automatic classification of GitHub issues. We experimented with different pre-trained models, achieving the best performance with fine-tuned RoBERTa (F1 =.8591)

Leveraging Textual and Non-Textual Features for Documentation Decluttering

This paper describes the participation of a team from the University of Bari in the Decluttering Challenge organized in the scope of the DocGen2 workshop. We propose a supervised approach relying on a minimal set of non-textual features (length, overlapping between the comment text and the source code, code block type, tags, comment type) and classical textual features (bag-of-words). Our system ranked 2nd in the documentation decluttering task

Visual- spatial capacity: gender and sport differences in young volleyball and tennis athletes and non-athletes

Background: In the general population visual-spatial ability is better in males, due to the influence of biological and socio-cultural factors. We know that sport activity improves motor skills. The aim of this work is to determine if these gender differences exist in young athletes. The orientation test described by Terzi and standardized by Cesaroni, used to measure spatial ability, was carried out on 60 volleyball or 60 tennis athletes as well as on 60 non-sporting subjects. Results: The data analysis revealed a worse performance for non-athletes in comparison with athletes in both components of test (p &lt; 0.0001; p = 0.04), with no differences between the volleyball and tennis groups. As far as gender comparison is concerned, as expected in the non- sport group the males presented better values (p &lt; 0.001; p = 0.006). However in both sports groups there weren’t any gender differences in either part of the test (p = 0.18; p = 0.056). Conclusions: These results confirm that during athletic preparation in volleyball and tennis the specific training is able to develop spatial ability. Besides, boys and girls have similar performance demands and training experience. It appears that this specific training could be responsible for modifying gender differences in performance of spatial ability during adolescenc

GitHub Discussions: An exploratory study of early adoption

Discussions is a new feature of GitHub for asking questions or discussing topics outside of specific Issues or Pull Requests. Before being available to all projects in December 2020, it had been tested on selected open source software projects. To understand how developers use this novel feature, how they perceive it, and how it impacts the development processes, we conducted a mixed-methods study based on early adopters of GitHub discussions from January until July 2020. We found that: (1) errors, unexpected behavior, and code reviews are prevalent discussion categories; (2) there is a positive relationship between project member involvement and discussion frequency; (3) developers consider GitHub Discussions useful but face the problem of topic duplication between Discussions and Issues; (4) Discussions play a crucial role in advancing the development of projects; and (5) positive sentiment in Discussions is more frequent than in Stack Overflow posts. Our findings are a first step towards data-informed guidance for using GitHub Discussions, opening up avenues for future work on this novel communication channel

Visual-spatial capacity: gender and sport differences in young volleyball and tennis athletes and non-athletes.

Background: In the general population visual-spatial ability is better in males, due to the influence of biological and socio-cultural factors. We know that sport activity improves motor skills. The aim of this work is to determine if these gender differences exist in young athletes. The orientation test described by Terzi and standardized by Cesaroni, used to measure spatial ability, was carried out on 60 volleyball or 60 tennis athletes as well as on 60 non-sporting subjects. Results: The data analysis revealed a worse performance for non-athletes in comparison with athletes in both components of test (p &lt; 0.0001; p = 0.04), with no differences between the volleyball and tennis groups. As far as gender comparison is concerned, as expected in the non- sport group the males presented better values (p &lt; 0.001; p = 0.006). However in both sports groups there weren’t any gender differences in either part of the test (p = 0.18; p = 0.056). Conclusions: These results confirm that during athletic preparation in volleyball and tennis the specific training is able to develop spatial ability. Besides, boys and girls have similar performance demands and training experience. It appears that this specific training could be responsible for modifying gender differences in performance of spatial ability during adolescence