CD5L, Macrophage Apoptosis Inhibitor, Was Identified in Epicardial Fat-Secretome and Regulated by Isoproterenol From Patients With Heart Failure

Objectives: Neurohormonal dysfunction, which can regulate epicardial fat activity, is one of the main promoters of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with heart failure (HF). Our aim was to study the epicardial fat mediators for AF in patients with HF and its catecholaminergic regulation. Methods: We have included 29 patients with HF who underwent cardiac surgery and were followed up for 5 years. Released proteins by epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) after isoproterenol treatment were identified by nano-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and triple time-of-flight (TOF) analysis. Common and differential identified proteins in groups of patients with AF before and after surgery were determined by the FunRich tool. Plasma and epicardial fat biopsy proteins were quantified by western blot. Results: Our results identified 17 common released proteins by EAT, after isoproterenol treatment, from HF patients who suffered AF or developed new-onset AF during follow-up. Mostly, they were involved on inflammatory response and extracellular matrix. One of them was CD5L, a macrophage apoptosis inhibitor. Its secretion by isoproterenol treatment was validated on western blot. The CD5L levels on epicardial fat were also higher in the group of male patients who present or develop AF (0.44 +/- 0.05 vs. 0.18 +/- 0.15; p < 0.016). However, there were no differences regarding plasma levels. Conclusion: Our results suggest the role of epicardial fat CD5L as a mediator of AF and its possible paracrine effect by catecholaminergic activity

Weed control in two clones of Eucalyptus 7 urograndis In Amap\ue1

Objetivou-se analisar o crescimento inicial de dois clones do h\uedbrido Eucalyptus 7 urograndis em diferentes sistemas de manejo da matocompeti\ue7\ue3o, ao longo do tempo, no ano de implanta\ue7\ue3o em \ue1reas amapaenses. O trabalho foi desenvolvido na Amap\ue1 Florestal e Celulose S.A. (AMCEL), no per\uedodo de setembro de 2006 a novembro de 2007, em duas \ue1reas experimentais localizadas no munic\uedpio de Itaubal, AP (0\ub042\u2019N; 50\ub048\u2019W) onde foram plantados de forma mecanizada dois diferentes clones do h\uedbrido Eucalyptus 7 urograndis, caracterizando um clone por talh\ue3o (H3911 e H3243). A limpeza das \ue1reas foi realizada por meio de aplica\ue7\ue3o do herbicida glifosato. O experimento foi alocado em delineamento de medidas repetidas, com os arranjos: Dois clones \u2013 H3911 e H3243; seis tratamentos - T1: sem limpeza; T2: limpeza total com herbicida; T3: limpeza com herbicida em duas faixas de 50cm na linha de plantio; T4: limpeza com herbicida em duas faixas de 75cm na linha de plantio; T5: limpeza com herbicida em duas faixas de 100 cm na linha de plantio e, T6: coroamento com 75 cm de raio por meio de herbicida; com quatro repeti\ue7\uf5es. Foram mensuradas durante os primeiros quatro meses de avalia\ue7\ue3o apenas as alturas das plantas. A partir do quinto m\ueas, al\ue9m das alturas foram mensurados os di\ue2metros a 1,30 m do solo (DAP). Foi realizado o teste de esfericidade de Mauchly e testadas \ue0s hip\uf3teses de nulidade das intera\ue7\uf5es tempo x clone e tempo x clone x tipos de limpezas, e quando verificadas diferen\ue7as significativas (p &lt; 0,05), as m\ue9dias foram comparadas por meio do teste de Tukey. Em rela\ue7\ue3o ao clone H3911, o tratamento com maior T5 e o de limpeza total, as alturas mostraram-se estatisticamente semelhantes, o que n\ue3o ocorreu com os demais tipos de limpezas. Quanto aos DAP\u2019s das plantas do clone H3911, foi observado crescimento com repostas similares, no entanto com diferentes velocidades de crescimento durante o per\uedodo de avalia\ue7\ue3o, com T1 e T6 demonstrando maior sensibilidade \ue0 competi\ue7\ue3o. As alturas das plantas do clone H3243 mantiveram-se estatisticamente semelhantes no final do experimento, no entanto, quanto aos DAP\u2019s, foi observado que as plantas do T1, apesar de, no primeiro m\ueas de avalia\ue7\ue3o, possuir o valor m\ue9dio de DAP (2,3cm) estatisticamente superior aos demais tratamentos de limpezas, estes foram mais sens\uedveis \ue0 presen\ue7a e efeito da matocompeti\ue7\ue3o. O crescimento das plantas do tratamento com Limpeza Total se destacou dos demais ao longo de um ano de avalia\ue7\ue3o, para os dois clones testados.This study aimed to analyze the initial growth of two clones of the hybrid Eucalyptus 7 urograndis in different weed management systems, during the year of implantation, in the Amap\ue1 area. The study was developed in Amap\ue1 Florestal Celulose S.A. (AMCEL), from September/2006 until November/2007, with two experimental areas located in Itaubal, AP (0\ub042\u2019N; 50\ub0450\ub048\u2019W). Two clones of the hybrid Eucalyptus 7 urograndis (H3911 and H3243) were planted by mechanized form, with one clone per stand. The areas were cleaned using an application of glyphosate. A repeated measure model was used. Treatments consisted of the two clones and six silvicultural treatments with four replicates (T1: without cleaning; T2: total cleaning; T3: cleaning in two bands of 50cm at the plantation line; T4: cleaning in two bands of 75cm at the plantation line; T5: cleaning in two bands of 100cm at the plantation line; and T6: circle cleaning with 75cm of ray). In the beginning of the evaluation, only plants height were measured. From the fifth month on, the diameter, at 1.30m (DBH), was also measured. The Mauchly sphericity test was carried out and hypotheses of nullity were tested for interactions time x clone and time x clone x types of cleanness. Differences among means were compared by Tukey test (p &lt; 0.05). For clone H3911, the treatment T5 and Total Cleaning showed statistically similar heights, which did not occur with the other treatments. For the DBH of clone H3911 plants, growth was similar, though with different rates of growth during the evaluation period, where T1 and T6 showed greater sensitivity to competition. The heights of clone H3243 plants remained statistically similar at the end of the experiment, however, for DAP, it was observed that plants from T1 were more sensitive to the presence and effect of weeds, athough they had a mean DBH statistically superior to other treatments in the first month of evaluation.The growth of plants from the Total Cleaning treatment was superior in comparison to the other treatments over a year of assessment for both clones tested

Etest® versus broth microdilution for ceftaroline MIC determination with Staphylococcus aureus: results from PREMIUM, a European multicentre study

Objectives: To compare the concordance of ceftaroline MIC values 24 by reference broth microdilution (BMD) and Etest (BioMérieux, France) for MSSA and MRSA isolates, respectively, in isolates from PREMIUM (D372SL00001), a European multi-centre study.  Methods: Ceftaroline MICs were determined by reference BMD and by Etest for 1,242 MSSA and MRSA from adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia or complicated skin and soft tissue infections collected between February and May 2012; tests were performed across six European laboratories. Selected isolates with ceftaroline resistance in broth (MIC >1 mg/L) were retested in three central laboratories to confirm their behaviour.  Results: Overall concordance between BMD and Etest was good, with >97% essential agreement and >95% categorical agreement. Nevertheless, 12 of the 26 MRSA isolates found resistant by BMD scored as susceptible by Etest, with MICs ≤1 mg/L, thus counting as very major errors, whereas only five of 380 MRSA found ceftaroline susceptible in BMD were mis-categorised as resistant by Etest. Twenty-one of the 26 isolates with MICs of 2 mg/L by BMD were then re-tested twice by each of three central laboratories: BMD MICs of 2 mg/L were consistently found for 19 of the 21 isolates. Among 147 Etest results for these 21 isolates (original plus six repeats per isolate) 112 were >1 mg/L.  Conclusions: BMD and Etest have good overall agreement for ceftaroline against Staphylococcus aureus; nevertheless, reliable Etest-based discrimination of the minority of ceftaroline-resistant (MIC 2 mg/L) MRSA is extremely challenging, requiring careful reading of strips, ideally with duplicate testing

Event reconstruction for KM3NeT/ORCA using convolutional neural networks

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is currently under construction at two locations in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ORCA water-Cherenkov neutrino detector off the French coast will instrument several megatons of seawater with photosensors. Its main objective is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. This work aims at demonstrating the general applicability of deep convolutional neural networks to neutrino telescopes, using simulated datasets for the KM3NeT/ORCA detector as an example. To this end, the networks are employed to achieve reconstruction and classification tasks that constitute an alternative to the analysis pipeline presented for KM3NeT/ORCA in the KM3NeT Letter of Intent. They are used to infer event reconstruction estimates for the energy, the direction, and the interaction point of incident neutrinos. The spatial distribution of Cherenkov light generated by charged particles induced in neutrino interactions is classified as shower- or track-like, and the main background processes associated with the detection of atmospheric neutrinos are recognized. Performance comparisons to machine-learning classification and maximum-likelihood reconstruction algorithms previously developed for KM3NeT/ORCA are provided. It is shown that this application of deep convolutional neural networks to simulated datasets for a large-volume neutrino telescope yields competitive reconstruction results and performance improvements with respect to classical approaches

Event reconstruction for KM3NeT/ORCA using convolutional neural networks

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is currently under construction at two locations in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ORCA water-Cherenkov neutrino de tector off the French coast will instrument several megatons of seawater with photosensors. Its main objective is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. This work aims at demonstrating the general applicability of deep convolutional neural networks to neutrino telescopes, using simulated datasets for the KM3NeT/ORCA detector as an example. To this end, the networks are employed to achieve reconstruction and classification tasks that constitute an alternative to the analysis pipeline presented for KM3NeT/ORCA in the KM3NeT Letter of Intent. They are used to infer event reconstruction estimates for the energy, the direction, and the interaction point of incident neutrinos. The spatial distribution of Cherenkov light generated by charged particles induced in neutrino interactions is classified as shower-or track-like, and the main background processes associated with the detection of atmospheric neutrinos are recognized. Performance comparisons to machine-learning classification and maximum-likelihood reconstruction algorithms previously developed for KM3NeT/ORCA are provided. It is shown that this application of deep convolutional neural networks to simulated datasets for a large-volume neutrino telescope yields competitive reconstruction results and performance improvements with respect to classical approaches

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase&nbsp;1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation&nbsp;disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age&nbsp; 6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score&nbsp; 652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc&nbsp;= 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N&nbsp;= 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in&nbsp;Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

BLOOM: A 176B-Parameter Open-Access Multilingual Language Model

Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to be able to perform new tasks based on a few demonstrations or natural language instructions. While these capabilities have led to widespread adoption, most LLMs are developed by resource-rich organizations and are frequently kept from the public. As a step towards democratizing this powerful technology, we present BLOOM, a 176B-parameter open-access language model designed and built thanks to a collaboration of hundreds of researchers. BLOOM is a decoder-only Transformer language model that was trained on the ROOTS corpus, a dataset comprising hundreds of sources in 46 natural and 13 programming languages (59 in total). We find that BLOOM achieves competitive performance on a wide variety of benchmarks, with stronger results after undergoing multitask prompted finetuning. To facilitate future research and applications using LLMs, we publicly release our models and code under the Responsible AI License