Technical report: Cost-benefit analysis of cooking banana seed propagation methods

<p>Confusion matrix obtained as a result of Bayesian classification of EEG patterns, corresponding to various eye movements and blinking, after EOG artifact removal.</p

Blood Biochemistry Analysis to Detect Smoking Status and Quantify Accelerated Aging in Smokers

Abstract There is an association between smoking and cancer, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. However, currently, there are no affordable and informative tests for assessing the effects of smoking on the rate of biological aging. In this study we demonstrate for the first time that smoking status can be predicted using blood biochemistry and cell count results andthe recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI). By employing age-prediction models developed using supervised deep learning techniques, we found that smokers exhibited higher aging rates than nonsmokers, regardless of their cholesterol ratios and fasting glucose levels. We further used those models to quantify the acceleration of biological aging due to tobacco use. Female smokers were predicted to be twice as old as their chronological age compared to nonsmokers, whereas male smokers were predicted to be one and a half times as old as their chronological age compared to nonsmokers. Our findings suggest that deep learning analysis of routine blood tests could complement or even replace the current error-prone method of self-reporting of smoking status and could be expanded to assess the effect of other lifestyle and environmental factors on aging

In search for geroprotectors: in silico screening and in vitro validation of signalome-level mimetics of young healthy state

ABSTRACT Populations in developed nations throughout the world are rapidly aging, and the search for geroprotectors, or anti-aging interventions, has never been more important. Yet while hundreds of geroprotectors have extended lifespan in animal models, none have yet been approved for widespread use in humans. GeroScope is a computational tool that can aid prediction of novel geroprotectors from existing human gene expression data. GeroScope maps expression differences between samples from young and old subjects to aging-related signaling pathways, then profiles pathway activation strength (PAS) for each condition. Known substances are then screened and ranked for those most likely to target differential pathways and mimic the young signalome. Here we used GeroScope and shortlisted ten substances, all of which have lifespan-extending effects in animal models, and tested 6 of them for geroprotective effects in senescent human fibroblast cultures. PD-98059, a highly selective MEK1 inhibitor, showed both life-prolonging and rejuvenating effects. Natural compounds like N-acetyl-L-cysteine, Myricetin and Epigallocatechin gallate also improved several senescence-associated properties and were further investigated with pathway analysis. This work not only highlights several potential geroprotectors for further study, but also serves as a proof-of-concept for GeroScope, Oncofinder and other PAS-based methods in streamlining drug prediction, repurposing and personalized medicine

Novel robust biomarkers for human bladder cancer based on activation of intracellular signaling pathways

Sherpa Romeo blue journal. Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (CC BY 3.0) applies.We recently proposed a new bioinformatic algorithm called OncoFinder for quantifying the activation of intracellular signaling pathways. It was proved advantageous for minimizing errors of high-throughput gene expression analyses and showed strong potential for identifying new biomarkers. Here, for the first time, we applied OncoFinder for normal and cancerous tissues of the human bladder to identify biomarkers of bladder cancer. Using Illumina HT12v4 microarrays, we profiled gene expression in 17 cancer and seven non-cancerous bladder tissue samples. These experiments were done in two independent laboratories located in Russia and Canada. We calculated pathway activation strength values for the investigated transcriptomes and identified signaling pathways that were regulated differently in bladder cancer (BC) tissues compared with normal controls. We found, for both experimental datasets, 44 signaling pathways that serve as excellent new biomarkers of BC, supported by high area under the curve (AUC) values. We conclude that the OncoFinder approach is highly efficient in finding new biomarkers for cancer. These markers are mathematical functions involving multiple gene products, which distinguishes them from “traditional” expression biomarkers that only assess concentrations of single genes.Ye

Vive la radiorésistance!: converging research in radiobiology and biogerontology to enhance human radioresistance for deep space exploration and colonization.

While many efforts have been made to pave the way toward human space colonization, little consideration has been given to the methods of protecting spacefarers against harsh cosmic and local radioactive environments and the high costs associated with protection from the deleterious physiological effects of exposure to high-Linear energy transfer (high-LET) radiation. Herein, we lay the foundations of a roadmap toward enhancing human radioresistance for the purposes of deep space colonization and exploration. We outline future research directions toward the goal of enhancing human radioresistance, including upregulation of endogenous repair and radioprotective mechanisms, possible leeways into gene therapy in order to enhance radioresistance via the translation of exogenous and engineered DNA repair and radioprotective mechanisms, the substitution of organic molecules with fortified isoforms, and methods of slowing metabolic activity while preserving cognitive function. We conclude by presenting the known associations between radioresistance and longevity, and articulating the position that enhancing human radioresistance is likely to extend the healthspan of human spacefarers as well

Test Results of Fuel Additive in the Boiler with Grate Firing of Coal

В настоящее время в отечественной теплоэнергетике отсутствует опыт применения топливных присадок для повышения эффективности топливоиспользования в угольных котлах. Однако за рубежом данное направление увеличения эффективности сжигания твердых топлив получило широкое распространение, что, в первую очередь, обусловлено поиском технологий «экологизации» использования «грязного» угля. В статье приводятся результаты промышленных испытаний комплексной топливной присадки катализирующего и модифицирующего действия на угольном котле КВ-р-11.63-115 в одной из котельных г. Новокузнецка Кемеровской области. По результатам испытаний зафиксировано повышение к.п.д. брутто котельного агрегата на 5,1 % (абс.) при соответствующем снижении расхода условного топлива на выработку единицы тепловой энергии. Применение присадки привело также к очистке экранных труб от слоя натрубных отложений и изменению структуры образующегося при сгорании угля шлака, который стал более однородным и без очагов агломерацииNow the domestic heat-and-power engineering has no experience of use of fuel additives to increase efficiency of fuel usage in coal boilers. However abroad this direction of increase in efficiency of combustion of solid fuels has been widely adopted, that, first of all, is caused by search of technologies for “ecologization” of use of “dirty” coal. The article contains the results of industrial tests of complex fuel additive of catalyzing and modifying action in the coal boiler KV-r-11.63-115 in one of the boiler houses in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region. The test results showed increase in gross efficiency of the boiler unit for 5,1 % (abs.) along with the corresponding decrease in consumption of coal fuel to produce one unit of heat energy. Application of the additive also led to cleaning of furnace tube from a layer of deposits and changing of structure of slag formed at combustion of coal which became more homogeneous and without agglomeration center

Brain-Computer Interface Based on Generation of Visual Images

This paper examines the task of recognizing EEG patterns that correspond to performing three mental tasks: relaxation and imagining of two types of pictures: faces and houses. The experiments were performed using two EEG headsets: BrainProducts ActiCap and Emotiv EPOC. The Emotiv headset becomes widely used in consumer BCI application allowing for conducting large-scale EEG experiments in the future. Since classification accuracy significantly exceeded the level of random classification during the first three days of the experiment with EPOC headset, a control experiment was performed on the fourth day using ActiCap. The control experiment has shown that utilization of high-quality research equipment can enhance classification accuracy (up to 68% in some subjects) and that the accuracy is independent of the presence of EEG artifacts related to blinking and eye movement. This study also shows that computationally-inexpensive Bayesian classifier based on covariance matrix analysis yields similar classification accuracy in this problem as a more sophisticated Multi-class Common Spatial Patterns (MCSP) classifier