4,188 research outputs found
Elimination of Thermally Generated Charge in Charged Coupled Devices Using Bayesian Estimator
This paper deals with advanced methods for elimination of thermally generated charge in astronomical images, which were acquired by a Charged Coupled Device (CCD) sensor. There exist a number of light images acquired by telescope, which were not corrected by dark frame. The reason is simple: the dark frame doesnât exist, because it was not acquired. This situation may for instance come when sufficient memory space is not available. Correction methods based on the modeling of the light and dark image in the wavelet domain will be discussed. As the model for the dark frame image and for the light image the generalized Laplacian was chosen. The model parameters were estimated using moment method, whereas an extensive measurement on an astronomical camera was proposed and done. This measurement simplifies estimation of the dark frame model parameters. Finally a set of astronomical testing images was corrected and then the objective criteria for an image quality evaluation based on the aperture photometry were applied
Efficacy and epigenetic interactions of novel DNA hypomethylating agent guadecitabine (SGI-110) in preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a deadly malignancy characterized at the epigenetic level by global DNA hypomethylation and focal hypermethylation on the promoter of tumor suppressor genes. In most cases it develops on a background of liver steatohepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Guadecitabine (SGI-110) is a second-generation hypomethylating agent, which inhibits DNA methyltransferases. Guadecitabine is formulated as a dinucleotide of decitabine and deoxyguanosine that is resistant to cytidine deaminase (CDA) degradation and results in prolonged in vivo exposure to decitabine following small volume subcutaneous administration of guadecitabine. Here we found that guadecitabine is an effective demethylating agent and is able to prevent HCC progression in pre-clinical models. In a xenograft HCC HepG2 model, guadecitabine impeded tumor growth and inhibited angiogenesis, while it could not prevent liver fibrosis and inflammation in a mouse model of steatohepatitis. Demethylating efficacy of guadecitabine on LINE-1 elements was found to be the highest 8 d post-infusion in blood samples of mice. Analysis of a panel of human HCC vs. normal tissue revealed a signature of hypermethylated tumor suppressor genes (CDKN1A, CDKN2A, DLEC1, E2F1, GSTP1, OPCML, E2F1, RASSF1, RUNX3, and SOCS1) as detected by methylation-specific PCR. A pronounced demethylating effect of guadecitabine was obtained also in the promoters of a subset of tumor suppressors genes (CDKN2A, DLEC1, and RUNX3) in HepG2 and Huh-7 HCC cells. Finally, we analyzed the role of macroH2A1, a variant of histone H2A, an oncogene upregulated in human cirrhosis/HCC that synergizes with DNA methylation in suppressing tumor suppressor genes, and it prevents the inhibition of cell growth triggered by decitabine in HCC cells. Guadecitabine, in contrast to decitabine, blocked growth in HCC cells overexpressing macroH2A1 histones and with high CDA levels, despite being unable to fully demethylate CDKN2A, RUNX3, and DLEC1 promoters altered by macroH2A1. Collectively, our findings in human and mice models reveal novel epigenetic anti-HCC effects of guadecitabine, which might be effective specifically in advanced states of the disease
Exponential stability of the wave equation with memory and time delay
We study the asymptotic behaviour of the wave equation with viscoelastic
damping in presence of a time-delayed damping. We prove exponential stability
if the amplitude of the time delay term is small enough
Application of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methodology in biological studies on marine resources: sex determination of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816)
The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is usually used in biomedicine as an indicator
of the accuracy of diagnostic tests. However, this measure of discrimination has been little used
in other areas, such as animal biology or ecology. We present a novel application of an ROC
analysis in which gonad colour was used to determine the sex of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck,
1816), a sea urchin of considerable commercial interest. A better classifier than gonad colour was
obtained by transforming these colours through flexible logistic generalized additive models.Peer Reviewe
Highlights of recent progress in plant lipid research
Raw fossil material reserves are not inexhaustible and as prices continue to raise it is necessary to find new sources of alternative and renewable energy. Oils from oleaginous field crops (sunflower and rape) with properties close to those of fossil fuel could constitute an alternative source of energy for the production of raw materials. This is the context in which the 18th International Symposium on Plant lipids (ISPL) was held in Bordeaux from 20th to 25th July 2008 at âLa CitĂ© Mondialeâ. The 18th ISPL gathered 270 researchers from 33 countries. Sixty nine oral communications and 136 posters were presented during the 12 sessions of the Symposium. The sessions have covered all the different aspects of the Plant Lipid field including: Surface lipids: suberin, cutin and waxes, Fatty acids, Glycerolipids, Plant lipids as renewable sources of energy, Seed oils and bioengineering of metabolic pathways, Lipid catabolism, Models for lipid studies: lower plants, micro-organisms and others, Modifications of proteins by lipids, Sphingolipids, sterols and isoprenoids, Lipid signaling and plant stress responses, Lipid trafficking and membrane dynamics, New methods and technologies: functional lipidomics, fluxome, modelling
Detection of an optical transient following the 13 March 2000 short/hard gamma-ray burst
We imaged the error box of a gamma-ray burst of the short (0.5 s), hard type
(GRB 000313), with the BOOTES-1 experiment in southern Spain, starting 4 min
after the gamma-ray event, in the I-band. A bright optical transient (OT
000313) with I = 9.4 +/- 0.1 was found in the BOOTES-1 image, close to the
error box (3-sigma) provided by BATSE. Late time VRIK'-band deep observations
failed to reveal an underlying host galaxy. If the OT 000313 is related to the
short, hard GRB 000313, this would be the first optical counterpart ever found
for this kind of events (all counterparts to date have been found for bursts of
the long, soft type). The fact that only prompt optical emission has been
detected (but no afterglow emission at all, as supported by theoretical models)
might explain why no optical counterparts have ever been found for short, hard
GRBs.This fact suggests that most short bursts might occur in a low-density
medium and favours the models that relate them to binary mergers in very
low-density enviroments.Comment: Revised version. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics Letters, 5 pages, 3 figure
A Brain-Inspired Trust Management Model to Assure Security in a Cloud based IoT Framework for Neuroscience Applications
Rapid popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing permits
neuroscientists to collect multilevel and multichannel brain data to better
understand brain functions, diagnose diseases, and devise treatments. To ensure
secure and reliable data communication between end-to-end (E2E) devices
supported by current IoT and cloud infrastructure, trust management is needed
at the IoT and user ends. This paper introduces a Neuro-Fuzzy based
Brain-inspired trust management model (TMM) to secure IoT devices and relay
nodes, and to ensure data reliability. The proposed TMM utilizes node
behavioral trust and data trust estimated using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference
System and weighted-additive methods respectively to assess the nodes
trustworthiness. In contrast to the existing fuzzy based TMMs, the NS2
simulation results confirm the robustness and accuracy of the proposed TMM in
identifying malicious nodes in the communication network. With the growing
usage of cloud based IoT frameworks in Neuroscience research, integrating the
proposed TMM into the existing infrastructure will assure secure and reliable
data communication among the E2E devices.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 2 table
Assessing the representation of species included within the Canadian Living Planet Index
To effectively combat the biodiversity crisis, we need ambitious targets and reliable indicators to accurately track trends and measure conservation impact. In Canada, the Living Planet Index (LPI) has been adapted to produce a national indicator by both World Wildlife Fund-Canada (Canadian Living Planet Index; C-LPI) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Species Index) to provide insight into the status of Canadian wildlife, by evaluating temporal trends in vertebrate population abundance. The indicator includes data for just over 50% of Canadian vertebrate species. To assess whether the current dataset is representative of the distribution of life history characteristics of Canadian wildlife, we analyzed the representation of species-specific biotic variables (i.e., body size, trophic level, lifespan) for vertebrates within the C-LPI compared to native vertebrates lacking LPI data. Generally, there was considerable overlap in the distribution of biotic variables for species in the C-LPI compared to native Canadian vertebrate species lacking LPI data. Nevertheless, some differences among distributions were found, driven in large part by discrepancy in the representation of fishesâwhere the C-LPI included larger-bodied and longer-lived species. We provide recommendations for targeted data collection and additional analyses to further strengthen the applicability, accuracy, and representativity of biodiversity indicators
Small extracellular vesicle targeting of hypothalamic AMPKα1 promotes weight loss in leptin receptor deficient mice
Background and aims: Leptin receptor (LEPR) deficiency promotes severe obesity and metabolic disorders. However, the current therapeutic options against this syndrome are scarce.
Methods: db/db mice and their wildtypes were systemically treated with neuronal-targeted small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) harboring a plasmid encoding a dominant negative mutant of AMP-activated protein kinase alpha 1 (AMPKα1-DN) driven by steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1) promoter; this approach allowed to modulate AMPK activity, specifically in SF1 cells of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH). Animals were metabolically phenotyped. Results: db/db mice intravenously injected with SF1-AMPKα1-DN loaded sEVs showed a marked feeding-independent weight loss and decreased adiposity, associated with increased sympathetic tone, brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and browning of white adipose tissue (WAT).Conclusion: Overall, this evidence indicates that specific modulation of hypothalamic AMPK using a sEV-based technology may be a suitable strategy against genetic forms of obesity, such as LEPR deficiencyMinisterio de Ciencia y Universidades co-funded by the FEDER Program of EU (CD: BFU2017-87721; RN: RTI2018-099413-B-I00 and RED2018-102379-T; ML: RTI2018-101840-B-I00, PID2021-128145NB-I00 and PDC2022-133958-I00). âla Caixaâ Foundation (ID100010434), under the agreement LCF/PR/HR19/52160022 (ML); EuroNanoMed III (RA & ML: EURONANOMED2019-050-ENAMEP); European Research Council (RN: ERC Synergy Grant-2019-WATCH-810331)S
Epigenetic and transcriptional control of adipocyte function by centenarian-associated SIRT6 N308K/A313S mutant
Background: Obesity is a major health burden. Preadipocytes proliferate and differentiate in mature adipocytes in the adipogenic process, which could be a potential therapeutic approach for obesity. Deficiency of SIRT6, a stress-responsive protein deacetylase and mono-ADP ribosyltransferase enzyme, blocks adipogenesis. Mutants of SIRT6 (N308K/A313S) were recently linked to the in the long lifespan Ashkenazi Jews. In this study, we aimed to clarify how these new centenarian-associated SIRT6 genetic variants affect adipogenesis at the transcriptional and epigenetic level. Methods: We analyzed the role of SIRT6 wild-type (WT) or SIRT6 centenarian-associated mutant (N308K/A313S) overexpression in adipogenesis, by creating stably transduced preadipocyte cell lines using lentivirus on the 3T3-L1 model. Histone post-translational modifications (PTM: acetylation, methylation) and transcriptomic changes were analyzed by mass spectrometry (LCâMS/MS) and RNA-Seq, respectively, in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. In addition, the adipogenic process and related signaling pathways were investigated by bioinformatics and biochemical approaches. Results: Overexpression of centenarian-associated SIRT6 mutant increased adipogenic differentiation to a similar extent compared to the WT form. However, it triggered distinct histone PTM profiles in mature adipocytes, with significantly higher acetylation levels, and activated divergent transcriptional programs, including those dependent on signaling related to the sympathetic innervation and to PI3K pathway. 3T3-L1 mature adipocytes overexpressing SIRT6 N308K/A313S displayed increased insulin sensitivity in a neuropeptide Y (NPY)-dependent manner. Conclusions: SIRT6 N308K/A313S overexpression in mature adipocytes ameliorated glucose sensitivity and impacted sympathetic innervation signaling. These findings highlight the importance of targeting SIRT6 enzymatic activities to regulate the co-morbidities associated with obesity
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