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Diamine Oxidase isoforms in placenta - structural analysis and implication in pre-eclampsia
No full textObjectives: Defective maternal blood Diamine Oxidase (DAO, also known as AOC1: EC:1.4.3.22) activity during trimester 1 of human pregnancy has been associated with Pre-eclampsia (PE). The enzyme is produced by the placenta to remove excess histamine produced during placentation and foetal development. The structure of the placental DAO protein was analysed for variations that could underly the defective enzyme activity in PE.
Methods: We used phylogenetic methodology to examine 41 protein sequences (NP = 21; PE = 20) extracted from RNA-Seq data to provide more accurate descriptions of patterns of relatedness and variations in conserved regions of the protein structure. We further modelled the 3D structures of each protein sample to examine conformational changes and impact on protein function in PE.
Results: We identified two types of DAO proteins in human placentae, that mapped to DAO protein isoforms P19801-1 and P19801-2 for AOC1_HUMAN held in PDB and UniProt (identity >99.5%; Expect Value = 0.0; Query Cover = 100%). Contrary to previous report that P19801-2 isoform is a non-functional protein, we isolated this isoform from a placenta with normal pregnancy outcome. There were significantly more amino acid sequence variations in the non-conserved regions of the PE than in NP proteins. Number of conserved regions’ amino acid sequence variations were similar between PE and NP proteins. There were relatively more total bonds and less angels in the PE than in NP proteins.
Conclusion: DAO protein isoform 2 was found in placenta with normal pregnancy outcome, indicating the protein has functional activity to support normal pregnancy. DAO proteins from PE placentae had more structural aberrations that could explain the defective activity observed in PE. Further work is needed to confirm the conformational changes observed in PE placental protein
Spatio-temporal crime predictions by leveraging artificial intelligence for citizens security in smart cities
Get PDFSmart city infrastructure has a significant impact on improving the quality of humans life. However, a substantial increase in the urban population from the last few years poses challenges related to resource management, safety, and security. To ensure the safety and security in the smart city environment, this paper presents a novel approach by empowering the authorities to better visualize the threats, by identifying and predicting the highly-reported crime zones in the smart city. To this end, it first investigates the Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (HDBSCAN) to detect the hot-spots that have a higher risk of crime occurrence. Second, for crime prediction, Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) is exploited in each dense crime region to predict the number of crime incidents in the future with spatial and temporal information. The proposed HDBSCAN and SARIMA based crime prediction model is evaluated on ten years of crime data (2008-2017) for New York City (NYC) . The accuracy of the model is measured by considering different time scenarios such as the year-wise, (i.e., for each year), and for the total considered duration of ten years using an 80:20 ratio. The 80% of data was used for training and 20% for testing. The proposed approach outperforms with an average Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 11.47 as compared to the highest scoring DBSCAN based method with MAE 27.03
The health and wellbeing of older women living alone in the UK: is living alone a risk factor for poorer health?
Get PDFOlder women are more likely to live alone in later life in the UK; however, relatively little is known as to how this has an association with poorer health. This paper attempts to fill this research gap, assessing if living alone is a risk factor for poorer health in later life. The Household Panel Survey data, wave 8 were used which was collected during 2017 in the United Kingdom. Women’s household types were divided into three types: living alone, living with a partner and living with others (not a partner). Seven health and wellbeing outcome variables were used. Descriptive analysis and regression analyses examined the role of living alone in predicting health and wellbeing, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic (SES) factors. Results showed significant differences between the household types. However, living alone was not found to be a risk factor for poorer health once SES variables were included in the regression models. While there were differences in the health and wellbeing of the three household composition types, these differences were not found to be significant once demographic and socioeconomic variables were accounted for. Future UK policy should aim to reduce inequalities in SES throughout the life course to improve health and wellbeing in later life. Future research directions include a more detailed examination of the determinants of health of this population
Deep learning-based growth prediction system: A use case of china agriculture.
Get PDFAgricultural advancements have significantly impacted people’s lives and their surroundings in recent years. The insufficient knowledge of the whole agricultural production system and conventional ways of irrigation have limited agricultural yields in the past. The remote sensing innovations recently implemented in agriculture have dramatically revolutionized production efficiency by offering unparalleled opportunities for convenient, versatile, and quick collection of land images to collect critical details on the crop’s conditions. These innovations have enabled automated data collection, simulation, and interpretation based on crop analytics facilitated by deep learning techniques. This paper aims to reveal the transformative patterns of old Chinese agrarian development and fruit production by focusing on the major crop production (from 1980 to 2050) taking into account various forms of data from fruit production (e.g., apples, bananas, citrus fruits, pears, and grapes). In this study, we used production data for different fruits grown in China to predict the future production of these fruits. The study employs deep neural networks to project future fruit production based on the statistics issued by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on the total fruit growth output for this period. The proposed method exhibits encouraging results with an accuracy of 95.56% calculating by accuracy formula based on fruit production variation. Authors further provide recommendations on the AGR-DL (agricultural deep learning) method being helpful for developing countries. The results suggest that the agricultural development in China is acceptable but demands more improvement and government needs to prioritize expanding the fruit production by establishing new strategies for cultivators to boost their performance
The Feldenkrais method in creative practice: dance, music and theatre
No full textBringing together scholars and researchers in one volume, this study investigates how the thinking of the Ukrainian-Israeli somatic educationalist Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-84) can benefit and reflect upon the creative practices of dance, music and theatre.
Since its inception, the Feldenkrais Method has been associated with artistic practice, growing contiguously with performance, cognitive and embodied practices in dance, music, and theatre studies. It promotes awareness of fine motor action for improved levels of action and skill, as well as healing for those who are injured. For creative artists, the Feldenkrais Method enables them to refine and improve their work.
This book offers historical, scientific and practical perspectives that develop thinking at the heart of the Method and is divided into three sections: Historical Perspectives on Creative Practice, From Science into Creative Practice and Studies in Creative Practice. All the essays provide insights into self-improvement, training, avoiding injury, history and philosophy of artistic practice, links between scientific and artistic thinking and practical thinking, as well as offering some exercises for students and artistic practitioners looking to improve their understanding of their practice.
Ultimately, this book offers a rich development of the legacy and the ongoing relevance of the Feldenkrais Method. We are shown how it is not just a way of thinking about somatic health, embodiment and awareness, but a vital enactivist epistemology for contemporary artistic thought and practice
The spinal α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor contributes to the maintenance of cancer-induced bone pain
Get PDFIntroduction: Cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) is acknowledged as a multifactorial chronic pain that tortures advanced cancer patients, but existing treatment strategies for CIBP have not been satisfactory yet. Investigators have demonstrated that the activation of α 7-nAChRs exerts analgesic effects in some chronic pain models. However, the role of spinal α 7-nAChRs in CIBP remains unknown. This study was designed to investigate the role of α 7-nAChRs in a well-established CIBP model induced by Walker 256 rat mammary gland carcinoma cells.
Methods: The paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) of the ipsilateral hind paw was measured using von Frey filament. The expressions of spinal α 7-nAChRs and NF-κB were measured with Western blotting analysis. Immunofluorescence was employed to detect the expression of α 7-nAChRs and co-expressed of α 7-nAChRs with NeuN or GFAP or Iba1.
Results: Experiment results showed that the expression of spinal α 7-nAChRs was significantly downregulated over time in CIBP rats, and in both CIBP rats and sham rats, most of the α 7-nAChRs located in neurons. Behavioral data suggested PNU-282,987, a selective α 7-nAChRs agonist, dose-dependently produced analgesic effect and positive allosteric modulator could intensify its effects. Further, repeated administration of PNU-282,987 reversed the expression of α 7-nAChRs, inhibited the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway, and attenuates CIBP-induced mechanical allodynia state as well.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the reduced expression of spinal α 7-nAChRs contributes to the maintenance of CIBP by upregulating NF-κB expression, which implying a novel pharmacological therapeutic target for the treatment of CIBP.
Keywords: cancer-induced bone pain, α 7-nAChR, NF-κB, PNU-282,98
Identification of metabolic kinetic patterns in different brain regions using metabolomics methods coupled with various discriminant approaches
Get PDFMetabolomics is widely used as a powerful technique for identifying metabolic patterns and functions of organs and biological systems. Normally, there are multiple groups/targets involved in data processed by discriminant analysis. This is more common in cerebral studies, as there are always several brain regions involved in neuronal studies or brain metabolic dysfunctions. Furthermore, neuronal activity is highly correlated with cerebral energy metabolism, such as oxidation of glucose, especially for glutamatergic(excitatory) and GABAergic (inhibitory) neuronal activities. Thus, regional cerebral energy metabolism recognition is essential for understanding brain functions. In the current study, ten different brain regions were considered for discrimination analysis. The metabolic kinetics were investigated with13C enrichments in metabolic products of glucose and measured using the nuclear magnetic spectroscopic method. Multiple discriminative methods were used to construct classification models in order to screen out the best method. After comparing all the applied discriminatory analysis methods, the boost-decision tree method was found to be the best method for classification and every cerebral region exhibited its own metabolic pattern. Finally, the differences in metabolic kinetics among these brain regions were analyzed. We, therefore, concluded that the current technology could also be utilized in other multi-class metabolomics studies and special metabolic kinetic patterns could provide useful information for brain function studies
The adaptive afterlife of texts: entropy and generative decay
Get PDFBuilding on a tradition of exploring textual interrelationships through figurative readings and extended metaphors, this paper seeks to read adaptation as an active and creative practice of decay. The reading is couched within a broader exploration of the afterlife of texts and heterocosms via a conceptualization of textual embodiment as prey to particular kinds of entropy. Within this paradigm, Adaptation Studies becomes an inclusive methodology for exploring the ways in which texts metamorphose and are purposefully, posthumously altered by authors, readers, and adapters. Adaptation is proposed as a creative engagement of generative decay based in a broader universe of textual entropy, requiring interpretative burrowings from readers and adapters so that sources might be recycled and rewritten in the inks of their suppurations
COVID-19: ‘psychologists should know how to deal with this’ – stress and resilience in mental health psychology practitioners
No full textCovert communication over VoIP streaming media with dynamic key distribution and authentication
Get PDFVoice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is widely embedded into commercial and industrial applications. VoIP streams can be used as innocuous cover objects to hide the secret data in steganographic systems. The security offered by VoIP signaling protocols is likely to be compromised due to a sharp increase in computing power. This article describes a theoretical and experimental investigation of covert steganographic communications over VoIP streaming media. A new information-theoretical model of secure covert VoIP communications was constructed to depict the security scenarios in steganographic systems against the passive attacks. A one-way accumulation-based steganographic algorithm was devised to integrate dynamic key updating and exchange with data embedding and extraction, so as to protect steganographic systems from adversary attacks. The theoretical analysis of steganographic security using information theory proves that the proposed model for covert VoIP communications is secure against a passive adversary. The effectiveness of the steganographic algorithm for covert VoIP communications was examined by means of performance and robustness measurements. The results reveal that the algorithm has no or little impact on real-time VoIP communications in terms of imperceptibility, speech quality, and signal distortion, and is more secure and effective at improving the security of covert VoIP communications than the other related algorithms with the comparable data embedding rates