912 research outputs found
Where Are You, Congress?: Silence Rings in Congress as Juvenile Offenders Remain in Prison for Life
Over the last decade, Supreme Court precedent has changed the way courts have sentenced juveniles in the United States. It has failed, however, to clearly establish the proper handling of cases in which juveniles are sentenced to extended periods of time in prison that equate to a de facto sentence of life in prison without parole. Congress has also remained noticeably silent on the issue. Children are not considered mature enough to vote, to drink alcohol, to serve on a jury, and yet, courts treat juvenile offenders as mature enough to pay for their crimes for the remainder of their lives. Without a clear remedy in sight, juvenile offenders face uncertain fates and unequal treatment in the justice system, both on the state and federal level. Therefore, despite residing in the same circuit, a juvenile in New Jersey, for example, will face different sentencing consequences than a juvenile in Pennsylvania for similar crimes. This note proposes a solution for Congress to start the trend by banning de facto LWOP to fully establish that children are, in fact, treated differently than adults in the United States
Arzanol, a prenylated heterodimeric phloroglucinyl pyrone, inhibits eicosanoid biosynthesis and exhibits anti-inflammatory efficacy in vivo.
Based on its capacity to inhibit in vitro HIV-1 replication in T cells and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in monocytes, the prenylated heterodimeric phloroglucinyl α-pyrone arzanol was identified as the major anti-inflammatory and anti-viral constituent from Helichrysum italicum. We have now investigated the activity of arzanol on the biosynthesis of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, evaluating its anti-inflammatory efficacy in vitro and in vivo. Arzanol inhibited 5-lipoxygenase (EC 7.13.11.34) activity and related leukotriene formation in neutrophils, as well as the activity of cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 (EC 1.14.99.1) and the formation of COX-2-derived prostaglandin (PG)E(2)in vitro (IC(50)=2.3-9ΌM). Detailed studies revealed that arzanol primarily inhibits microsomal PGE(2) synthase (mPGES)-1 (EC 5.3.99.3, IC(50)=0.4ΌM) rather than COX-2. In fact, arzanol could block COX-2/mPGES-1-mediated PGE(2) biosynthesis in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated human monocytes and human whole blood, but not the concomitant COX-2-derived biosynthesis of thromboxane B(2) or of 6-keto PGF(1α), and the expression of COX-2 or mPGES-1 protein was not affected. Arzanol potently suppressed the inflammatory response of the carrageenan-induced pleurisy in rats (3.6mg/kg, i.p.), with significantly reduced levels of PGE(2) in the pleural exudates. Taken together, our data show that arzanol potently inhibits the biosynthesis of pro-inflammatory lipid mediators like PGE(2)in vitro and in vivo, providing a mechanistic rationale for the anti-inflammatory activity of H. italicum, and a rationale for further pre-clinical evaluation of this novel anti-inflammatory lead
Pharmacogenomics of Drug Response in Type 2 Diabetes: Toward the Definition of Tailored Therapies?
Type 2 diabetes is one of the major causes of mortality with rapidly increasing prevalence. Pharmacological treatment is the first recommended approach after failure in lifestyle changes. However, a significant number of patients showsâor develops along time and disease progressionâdrug resistance. In addition, not all type 2 diabetic patients have the same responsiveness to drug treatment. Despite the presence of nongenetic factors (hepatic, renal, and intestinal), most of such variability is due to genetic causes. Pharmacogenomics studies have described association between single nucleotide variations and drug resistance, even though there are still conflicting results. To date, the most reliable approach to investigate allelic variants is Next-Generation Sequencing that allows the simultaneous analysis, on a genome-wide scale, of nucleotide variants and gene expression. Here, we review the relationship between drug responsiveness and polymorphisms in genes involved in drug metabolism (CYP2C9) and insulin signaling (ABCC8, KCNJ11, and PPARG). We also highlight the advancements in sequencing technologies that to date enable researchers to perform comprehensive pharmacogenomics studies. The identification of allelic variants associated with drug resistance will constitute a solid basis to establish tailored therapeutic approaches in the treatment of type 2 diabetes
Toward the application of XAI methods in EEG-based systems
An interesting case of the well-known Dataset Shift Problem is the
classification of Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in the context of
Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). The non-stationarity of EEG signals can lead to
poor generalisation performance in BCI classification systems used in different
sessions, also from the same subject. In this paper, we start from the
hypothesis that the Dataset Shift problem can be alleviated by exploiting
suitable eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methods to locate and
transform the relevant characteristics of the input for the goal of
classification. In particular, we focus on an experimental analysis of
explanations produced by several XAI methods on an ML system trained on a
typical EEG dataset for emotion recognition. Results show that many relevant
components found by XAI methods are shared across the sessions and can be used
to build a system able to generalise better. However, relevant components of
the input signal also appear to be highly dependent on the input itself.Comment: Accepted to be presented at XAI.it 2022 - Italian Workshop on
Explainable Artificial Intelligenc
On The Effects Of Data Normalisation For Domain Adaptation On EEG Data
In the Machine Learning (ML) literature, a well-known problem is the Dataset
Shift problem where, differently from the ML standard hypothesis, the data in
the training and test sets can follow different probability distributions,
leading ML systems toward poor generalisation performances. This problem is
intensely felt in the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) context, where bio-signals
as Electroencephalographic (EEG) are often used. In fact, EEG signals are
highly non-stationary both over time and between different subjects. To
overcome this problem, several proposed solutions are based on recent transfer
learning approaches such as Domain Adaption (DA). In several cases, however,
the actual causes of the improvements remain ambiguous. This paper focuses on
the impact of data normalisation, or standardisation strategies applied
together with DA methods. In particular, using \textit{SEED}, \textit{DEAP},
and \textit{BCI Competition IV 2a} EEG datasets, we experimentally evaluated
the impact of different normalization strategies applied with and without
several well-known DA methods, comparing the obtained performances. It results
that the choice of the normalisation strategy plays a key role on the
classifier performances in DA scenarios, and interestingly, in several cases,
the use of only an appropriate normalisation schema outperforms the DA
technique.Comment: Published in its final version on Engineering Applications of
Artificial Intelligence (EAAI) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2023.10620
Fatty Acid Ratios as Parameters to Discriminate Between Normal and Tumoral Cells and Compare Drug Treatments in Cancer Cells
The fatty acid (FA) composition of cell membranes represents a metabolic biomarker. However, the FA profile reproducibility in cell cultures remains a significant challenge. In this study, cell FA ratios are validated as metabolic markers alternative to cell FA. To this goal, cell samples belonging to cancer HeLa cells and normal 3T3 fibroblasts, from various experimental sets, are analyzed by a high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled with a photodiode array detector and evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-DAD/ELSD), and the ratios among the main FA are calculated. Principal component analysis (PCA) separately performed on FA and FA ratio data indicates similar clustering of cell samples concerning the cell type. Moreover, similar scores values t[1] and t[2] and graphical distances are calculated in the PCA plots separately performed on FA and FA ratios measured in cancer HeLa cells subjected to various antitumoral compounds. Last, PCA applied to selected FA ratios measured in various cell lines, obtained in similar experimental conditions, allows to discriminate between normal and tumoral cells. The results substantiate FA ratios as a cell-specific fingerprint, characterized by reproducibility across intra-laboratory conditions, useful for cell characterization, discrimination between normal and tumoral cells, and the comparison of different drug treatments. Practical Applications: The reproducibility of the fatty acid (FA) profile in cell cultures remains a significant challenge. Results obtained from this study improve knowledge about the role of the FA ratio profile as a cell-specific fingerprint characterized by reproducibility across intra-laboratory conditions. The characterization of the specific FA ratio profile of a cell culture, under standardized experimental conditions, can facilitate the comparative evaluation of cell data sets for nutritional, metabolic, and pharmacological studies, overcoming differences in cell culture conditions and FA extraction/analytical procedures
Toward the application of XAI methods in EEG-based systems
An interesting case of the well-known Dataset Shift Problem is the classification of Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in the context of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). The non-stationarity of EEG signals can lead to poor generalisation performance in BCI classification systems used in different sessions, also from the same subject. In this paper, we start from the hypothesis that the Dataset Shift problem can be alleviated by exploiting suitable eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methods to locate and transform the relevant characteristics of the input for the goal of classification. In particular, we focus on an experimental analysis of explanations produced by several XAI methods on an ML system trained on a typical EEG dataset for emotion recognition. Results show that many relevant components found by XAI methods are shared across the sessions and can be used to build a system able to generalise better. However, relevant components of the input signal also appear to be highly dependent on the input itself
Semi-supervised detection of structural damage using Variational Autoencoder and a One-Class Support Vector Machine
In recent years, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been introduced in
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. A semi-supervised method with a
data-driven approach allows the ANN training on data acquired from an undamaged
structural condition to detect structural damages. In standard approaches,
after the training stage, a decision rule is manually defined to detect
anomalous data. However, this process could be made automatic using machine
learning methods, whom performances are maximised using hyperparameter
optimization techniques. The paper proposes a semi-supervised method with a
data-driven approach to detect structural anomalies. The methodology consists
of: (i) a Variational Autoencoder (VAE) to approximate undamaged data
distribution and (ii) a One-Class Support Vector Machine (OC-SVM) to
discriminate different health conditions using damage sensitive features
extracted from VAE's signal reconstruction. The method is applied to a scale
steel structure that was tested in nine damage's scenarios by IASC-ASCE
Structural Health Monitoring Task Group
Effects of polysaccharides from Botryotinia fuckeliana (Botrytis cinerea) on in vitro culture of table and wine grapes (Vitis vinifera)
Shoots of several table and wine grape cultivars were cultured in vitro on a medium supplemented with polysaccharides obtained from a culture filtrate of Botryotinia fuckeliana through differential ethanolic precipitations. The general effects of polysaccharides resulted in leaf yellowness and in a reduction of fresh and dry weight. Differential response of assayed cultivars to polysaccharides seemed to be not related to their bunch susceptibility to grey mould under field conditions
Molecular analysis of the mating type (MAT1) locus in strains of the heterothallic ascomycete Botrytis cinerea
Botrytis cinerea shows a heterothallic bipolar matingâtype system; homothallism has been occasionally observed. MAT1 genes and flanking regions in the reference strains SAS56 (MAT1â1) and SAS405 (MAT1â2) and their monoascosporic progeny were analysed. The two mating types confirmed different sequences of 2513 bp (MAT1â1) and 2776 bp (MAT1â2), flanked by near identical regions. In all isolates, each idiomorph included two matingâtype specific genes: MAT1â1â1 (1161 bp), encoding an alphaâdomain containing protein, and MAT1â1â5 (1301 bp); or MAT1â2â1 (1236 bp), encoding a HMGâdomain protein, and MAT1â2â4 (712 bp); the latter genes encode putative proteins of unknown function. Truncated MAT1â1â1 (670 bp) and MAT1â2â1 (92 bp) sequences of the opposite matingâtype were found in the flanking regions. Idiomorphâspecific PCR primer pairs were used to explore the structure of the MAT1 locus in ascospore progeny and field isolates showing homothallic behaviour, and the locus organization in all of them did not differ from that of heterothallic strains. Constitutive expression of all the four matingâtype genes was ascertained by RTâPCR at four different developmental stages (mycelium, sclerotia at two different stages and apothecia). Antisense transcription of the MAT1â2â1 gene with isoforms from alternative splicing was detected. Comparative analysis of MAT1 loci in B. cinerea and in the closely related homothallic Sclerotinia sclerotiorum led to the identification of short nearly identical sequences
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