Phasor identifier : a cloud-based analysis of Phasor-FLIM data on Python notebooks

This paper introduces an innovative approach utilizing Google Colaboratory (Colab) for the versatile analysis of phasor Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) data collected from various samples (e.g., cuvette, cells, tissues) and in various input file formats. In fact, phasor-FLIM widespread adoption has been hampered by complex instrumentation and data analysis requirements. We mean to make advanced FLIM analysis more accessible to researchers through a cloud-based solution that i) harnesses robust computational resources, ii) eliminates hardware limitations, iii) supports both CPU and GPU processing, We envision a paradigm shift in FLIM data accessibility and potential, aligning with the evolving field of AI-driven FLIM analysis. This approach simplifies FLIM data handling and opens doors for diverse applications, from studying cellular metabolism to investigating drug encapsulation, benefiting researchers across multiple domains. The comparative analysis of freely distributed FLIM tools highlights the unique advantages of this approach in terms of adaptability, scalability, and open-source nature

Modulation of the mitochondrial megachannel by divalent cations and protons.

In patch-clamp experiments on rat liver mitoplasts, the 1.3 nanosiemens (in 150 mM KCl) mitochondrial megachannel was activated by Ca2+ and competitively inhibited by Mg2+, Mn2+, Ba2+, and Sr2+. Cyclosporin A, which inhibits the megachannel, also showed a competitive behavior versus Ca2+. The pore is regulated by pH in the physiological range; lower pH values cause its closure in a Ca(2+)-reversible manner. The modulating sites involved in these effects are located on the matrix side of the membrane. As illustrated in the companion paper (Bernardi, P., Vassanelli, S., Veronese, P., Colonna, R., Szabó, I., and Zoratti, M. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 2934-2939), the calcium-induced permeability transition of mitochondria is affected by these various agents in a similar manner. The results support the identification of the megachannel with the pore believed to be involved in the permeabilization process. The kinetic characteristics of the single channel events support the idea that the megachannel is composed of cooperating subunits

Driver and Path Detection through Time-Series Classification

Driver identification and path kind identification are becoming very critical topics given the increasing interest of automobile industry to improve driver experience and safety and given the necessity to reduce the global environmental problems. Since in the last years a high number of always more sophisticated and accurate car sensors and monitoring systems are produced, several proposed approaches are based on the analysis of a huge amount of real-time data describing driving experience. In this work, a set of behavioral features extracted by a car monitoring system is proposed to realize driver identification and path kind identification and to evaluate driver’s familiarity with a given vehicle. The proposed feature model is exploited using a time-series classification approach based on a multilayer perceptron (MLP) network to evaluate their effectiveness for the goals listed above. The experiment is done on a real dataset composed of totally 292 observations (each observation consists of a given person driving a given car on a predefined path) and shows that the proposed features have a very good driver and path identification and profiling ability

Effective Anomaly Detection Using Deep Learning in IoT Systems

Anomaly detection in network traffic is a hot and ongoing research theme especially when concerning IoT devices, which are quickly spreading throughout various situations of people's life and, at the same time, prone to be attacked through different weak points. In this paper, we tackle the emerging anomaly detection problem in IoT, by integrating five different datasets of abnormal IoT traffic and evaluating them with a deep learning approach capable of identifying both normal and malicious IoT traffic as well as different types of anomalies. The large integrated dataset is aimed at providing a realistic and still missing benchmark for IoT normal and abnormal traffic, with data coming from different IoT scenarios. Moreover, the deep learning approach has been enriched through a proper hyperparameter optimization phase, a feature reduction phase by using an autoencoder neural network, and a study of the robustness of the best considered deep neural networks in situations affected by Gaussian noise over some of the considered features. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the created IoT dataset for anomaly detection using deep learning techniques, also in a noisy scenario

Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization Foreground Removal with the SKA

The exceptional sensitivity of the SKA will allow observations of the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization (CD/EoR) in unprecedented detail, both spectrally and spatially. This wealth of information is buried under Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds, which must be removed accurately and precisely in order to reveal the cosmological signal. This problem has been addressed already for the previous generation of radio telescopes, but the application to SKA is different in many aspects. In this chapter we summarise the contributions to the field of foreground removal in the context of high redshift and high sensitivity 21-cm measurements. We use a state-of-the-art simulation of the SKA Phase 1 observations complete with cosmological signal, foregrounds and frequency-dependent instrumental effects to test both parametric and non-parametric foreground removal methods. We compare the recovered cosmological signal using several different statistics and explore one of the most exciting possibilities with the SKA --- imaging of the ionized bubbles. We find that with current methods it is possible to remove the foregrounds with great accuracy and to get impressive power spectra and images of the cosmological signal. The frequency-dependent PSF of the instrument complicates this recovery, so we resort to splitting the observation bandwidth into smaller segments, each of a common resolution. If the foregrounds are allowed a random variation from the smooth power law along the line of sight, methods exploiting the smoothness of foregrounds or a parametrization of their behaviour are challenged much more than non-parametric ones. However, we show that correction techniques can be implemented to restore the performances of parametric approaches, as long as the first-order approximation of a power law stands.Comment: Accepted for publication in the SKA Science Book 'Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array', to appear in 201

Epilepsy Phenotypes of Vitamin B6-Dependent Diseases: An Updated Systematic Review

Background: Vitamin B6-dependent epilepsies include treatable diseases responding to pyridoxine or pyridoxal-5Iphosphate (ALDH7A1 deficiency, PNPO deficiency, PLP binding protein deficiency, hyperprolinemia type II and hypophosphatasia and glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor synthesis defects). Patients and methods: We conducted a systematic review of published pediatric cases with a confirmed molecular genetic diagnosis of vitamin B6-dependent epilepsy according to PRISMA guidelines. Data on demographic features, seizure semiology, EEG patterns, neuroimaging, treatment, and developmental outcomes were collected. Results: 497 published patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Seizure onset manifested at 59.8 ± 291.6 days (67.8% of cases in the first month of life). Clonic, tonic-clonic, and myoclonic seizures accounted for two-thirds of the cases, while epileptic spasms were observed in 7.6%. Burst-suppression/suppression-burst represented the most frequently reported specific EEG pattern (14.4%), mainly in PLPB, ALDH7A1, and PNPO deficiency. Pyridoxine was administered to 312 patients (18.5% intravenously, 76.9% orally, 4.6% not specified), and 180 also received antiseizure medications. Pyridoxine dosage ranged between 1 and 55 mg/kg/die. Complete seizure freedom was achieved in 160 patients, while a significant seizure reduction occurred in 38. PLP, lysine-restricted diet, and arginine supplementation were used in a small proportion of patients with variable efficacy. Global developmental delay was established in 30.5% of a few patients in whom neurocognitive tests were performed. Conclusions: Despite the wide variability, the most frequent hallmarks of the epilepsy phenotype in patients with vitamin B6-dependent seizures include generalized or focal motor seizure semiology and a burst suppression/suppression burst pattern in EEG

Epilepsy Phenotypes of Vitamin B6-Dependent Diseases: An Updated Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Vitamin B6-dependent epilepsies include treatable diseases responding to pyridoxine or pyridoxal-5Iphosphate (ALDH7A1 deficiency, PNPO deficiency, PLP binding protein deficiency, hyperprolinemia type II and hypophosphatasia and glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor synthesis defects). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of published pediatric cases with a confirmed molecular genetic diagnosis of vitamin B6-dependent epilepsy according to PRISMA guidelines. Data on demographic features, seizure semiology, EEG patterns, neuroimaging, treatment, and developmental outcomes were collected. RESULTS: 497 published patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Seizure onset manifested at 59.8 ± 291.6 days (67.8% of cases in the first month of life). Clonic, tonic-clonic, and myoclonic seizures accounted for two-thirds of the cases, while epileptic spasms were observed in 7.6%. Burst-suppression/suppression-burst represented the most frequently reported specific EEG pattern (14.4%), mainly in PLPB, ALDH7A1, and PNPO deficiency. Pyridoxine was administered to 312 patients (18.5% intravenously, 76.9% orally, 4.6% not specified), and 180 also received antiseizure medications. Pyridoxine dosage ranged between 1 and 55 mg/kg/die. Complete seizure freedom was achieved in 160 patients, while a significant seizure reduction occurred in 38. PLP, lysine-restricted diet, and arginine supplementation were used in a small proportion of patients with variable efficacy. Global developmental delay was established in 30.5% of a few patients in whom neurocognitive tests were performed. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the wide variability, the most frequent hallmarks of the epilepsy phenotype in patients with vitamin B6-dependent seizures include generalized or focal motor seizure semiology and a burst suppression/suppression burst pattern in EEG

The synapsin gene family in basal chordates: evolutionary perspectives in metazoans

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Synapsins are neuronal phosphoproteins involved in several functions correlated with both neurotransmitter release and synaptogenesis. The comprehension of the basal role of the synapsin family is hampered in vertebrates by the existence of multiple synapsin genes. Therefore, studying homologous genes in basal chordates, devoid of genome duplication, could help to achieve a better understanding of the complex functions of these proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study we report the cloning and characterization of the <it>Ciona intestinalis </it>and amphioxus <it>Branchiostoma floridae </it>synapsin transcripts and the definition of their gene structure using available <it>C. intestinalis </it>and <it>B. floridae </it>genomic sequences. We demonstrate the occurrence, in both model organisms, of a single member of the synapsin gene family. Full-length synapsin genes were identified in the recently sequenced genomes of phylogenetically diverse metazoans. Comparative genome analysis reveals extensive conservation of the SYN locus in several metazoans. Moreover, developmental expression studies underline that synapsin is a neuronal-specific marker in basal chordates and is expressed in several cell types of PNS and in many, if not all, CNS neurons.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study demonstrates that synapsin genes are metazoan genes present in a single copy per genome, except for vertebrates. Moreover, we hypothesize that, during the evolution of synapsin proteins, new domains are added at different stages probably to cope up with the increased complexity in the nervous system organization. Finally, we demonstrate that protochordate synapsin is restricted to the post-mitotic phase of CNS development and thereby is a good marker of postmitotic neurons.</p

Gait recognition using FMCW radar and temporal convolutional deep neural netowrks

The capability of human identification in specific scenarios and in a quickly and accurately manner, is a critical aspect in various surveillance applications. In particular, in this context, classical surveillance systems are based on video cameras, requiring high computational/storing resources, which are very sensitive to light and weather conditions. In this paper, an efficient classifier based on deep learning is used for the purpose of identifying individuals features by resorting to the micro-Doppler data extracted from low-power frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar measurements. Results obtained through the application of a deep temporal convolutional neural networks confirms the applicability of deep learning to the problem at hand. Best obtained identification accuracy is 0.949 with an F-measure of 0.88 using a temporal window of four second

Comparison of three different immunoassays in the diagnosis of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

Background: Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is caused by platelet activating antibodies that recognize platelet factor 4/heparin (PF4/H) complexes. Laboratory testing plays a key role in the diagnosis of HIT. As functional assays are unfeasible for most clinical laboratories, antigen binding assays are commonly used in routine testing. However, their low specificity leads to overdiagnosis of HIT. Therefore, it is advisable to improve screening tests in this setting. Methods: Blood samples from 114 patients in whom HIT was suspected were investigated using a chemiluminescence test (HemosIL (R) AcuStar HIT-IgG), a PF4/H IgG enzyme immunoassay (Lifecodes PF4 IgG), an IgG-specific lateral flow immunoassay heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (LFI-HIT, STic Expert (R) HIT) and the heparin-induced platelet aggregation (HIPA) test. Results: Twenty-nine (25.4%) out of 114 subjects with suspected HIT had a positive HIPA test. None of patients with a 4Ts score <4 were positive at HIPA. HemosIL (R) AcuStar HIT-IgG showed the best performance in term of sensitivity and specificity when used as single test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed optimization of sensitivity and specificity using a cut-off of 1.13 U/mL (0.95 and 0.98, respectively). As an alternative approach, a strategy based on screening samples by STic Expert (R) HIT and then retesting positive results by Lifecodes PF4 IgG (cut-off 1 OD) or HemosIL (R) AcuStar HIT-IgG (cut-off 1.3 U/mL) showed a performance compared to a single test approach by HemosIL (R) AcuStar HIT-IgG. Conclusions: The HemosIL (R) AcuStar HIT or a combinatorial approach with the STic Expert (R) HIT and the PF4/H IgG enzyme immunoassay provide an accurate diagnosis of immune HIT