This paper shows the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in Li-ion battery charging methods by introducing a new charging algorithm based on artificial neural networks (ANNs). The proposed ...charging algorithm is able to find an optimized charging current profile, through ANNs, considering the real-time conditions of the Li-ion batteries. To test and validate the proposed approach, a low-cost battery management system (BMS) was developed, supporting up to 168 cells in series and n cells in parallel. When compared with the multistage charging algorithm, the proposed charging algorithm revealed a shorter charging time (7.85%) and a smaller temperature increase (32.95%). Thus, the results show that the proposed algorithm based on AI is able to effectively charge and balance batteries and can be regarded as a subject of interest for future research.
Co-circulation of arthropod-borne viruses, particularly those with shared mosquito vectors like Zika (ZIKV) and Chikungunya (CHIKV), is increasingly reported. An accurate differential diagnosis ...between ZIKV and CHIKV is of high clinical importance, especially in the context of pregnancy, but remains challenging due to limitations in the availability of specialized laboratory testing facilities. Using data collected from the prospective pregnancy cohort study of the Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group, which followed up pregnant persons with rash during the peak and decline of the 2015-2017 ZIKV epidemic in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, this study aims to describe the geographic and temporal distribution of ZIKV and CHIKV infections and to investigate the extent to which ZIKV and CHIKV infections may be clinically differentiable. Between December 2015 and June 2017, we observed evidence of co-circulation with laboratory confirmation of 213 ZIKV mono-infections, 55 CHIKV mono-infections, and 58 sequential ZIKV/CHIKV infections (i.e., cases with evidence of acute ZIKV infection with concomitant serological evidence of recent CHIKV infection). In logistic regressions with adjustment for maternal age, ZIKV mono-infected cases had lower odds than CHIKV mono-infected cases of presenting with arthralgia (aOR, 99% CI: 0.33, 0.15-0.74), arthritis (0.35, 0.14-0.85), fatigue (0.40, 0.17-0.96), and headache (0.44, 0.19-1.90). However, sequential ZIKV/CHIKV infections complicated discrimination, as they did not significantly differ in clinical presentation from CHIKV mono-infections. These findings suggest clinical symptoms alone may be insufficient for differentiating between ZIKV and CHIKV infections during pregnancy and therefore laboratory diagnostics continue to be a valuable tool for tailoring care in the event of arboviral co-circulation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been most severe in the poorest regions of Brazil, such as the states of the Northeast Region. The lack of national policies for pandemic control forced state and municipal ...authorities to implement public health measures. The aim of this study is to show the effect of these measures on the epidemic. The highest incidence of COVID-19 among the nine states in the Northeast was recorded in Sergipe, Paraíba and Ceará. Piauí, Paraíba and Ceará were the states that most tested. Factors associated with transmission included the high proportion of people in informal work. States with international airports played an important role in the entry of the virus and the initial spread, especially Ceará. All states applied social distancing measures, banned public events and closed schools. The response was a significant increase in social distancing, especially in Ceará and Pernambuco, a decline in the reproduction rate (Rt), and a separation of the curve of observed cases versus expected cases if the non-pharmacological interventions had not been implemented in all states. Poverty, inequality, and the high rates of informal work provide clues to the intensity of COVID-19 in the region. On the other hand, the measures taken early by the governments mitigated the effects of the pandemic.
We present a new version of the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System where different previous versions for weather, chemistry and carbon cycle were unified in a single ...integrated software system. The new version also has a new set of state-of-the-art physical parameterizations and greater computational parallel and memory usage efficiency. Together with the description of the main features are examples of the quality of the transport scheme for scalars, radiative fluxes on surface and model simulation of rainfall systems over South America in different spatial resolutions using a scale-aware convective parameterization. Besides, the simulation of the diurnal cycle of the convection and carbon dioxide concentration over the Amazon Basin, as well as carbon dioxide fluxes from biogenic processes over a large portion of South America are shown. Atmospheric chemistry examples present model performance in simulating near-surface carbon monoxide and ozone in Amazon Basin and Rio de Janeiro megacity. For tracer transport and dispersion, it is demonstrated the model capabilities to simulate the volcanic ash 3-d redistribution associated with the eruption of a Chilean volcano. Then, the gain of computational efficiency is described with some details. BRAMS has been applied for research and operational forecasting mainly in South America. Model results from the operational weather forecast of BRAMS on 5 km grid spacing in the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies, INPE/Brazil, since 2013 are used to quantify the model skill of near surface variables and rainfall. The scores show the reliability of BRAMS for the tropical and subtropical areas of South America. Requirements for keeping this modeling system competitive regarding on its functionalities and skills are discussed. At last, we highlight the relevant contribution of this work on the building up of a South American community of model developers.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
ABSTRACT
Atherosclerotic disease remains a leading cause of death in westernized societies, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a pivotal role in atherogenesis. Mitochondria are the main ...intracellular sites of ROS generation and are also targets for oxidative damage. Here, we show that mitochondria from atherosclerosis‐prone, hypercholesterolemic low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor knockout mice have oxidative phosphorylation efficiency similar to that from control mice but have a higher net production of ROS and susceptibility to develop membrane permeability transition. Increased ROS production was observed in mitochondria isolated from several tissues, including liver, heart, and brain, and in intact mononuclear cells from spleen. In contrast to control mitochondria, knockout mouse mitochondria did not sustain a reduced state of matrix NADPH, the main source of antioxidant defense against ROS. Experiments in vivo showed faster liver secretion rates and de novo synthesis of triglycerides and cholesterol in knockout than in control mice, suggesting that increased lipogenesis depleted the reducing equivalents from NADPH and generated a state of oxidative stress in hypercholesterolemic knockout mice. These data provide the first evidence of how oxidative stress is generated in LDL receptor defective cells and could explain the increased LDL oxidation, cell death, and atherogenesis seen in familiar hypercholesterolemia.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
While Zika virus (ZIKV) is now widely recognized as a teratogen, the frequency and full spectrum of adverse outcomes of congenital ZIKV infection remains incompletely understood.
Participants in the ...MERG cohort of pregnant women with rash, recruited from the surveillance system from December/2015-June/2017. Exposure definition was based on a combination of longitudinal data from molecular, serologic (IgM and IgG3) and plaque reduction neutralization tests for ZIKV. Children were evaluated by a team of clinical specialists and by transfontanelle ultrasound and were classified as having microcephaly and/or other signs/symptoms consistent with congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). Risks of adverse outcomes were quantified according to the relative evidence of a ZIKV infection in pregnancy.
376 women had confirmed and suspected exposure to ZIKV. Among evaluable children born to these mothers, 20% presented with an adverse outcome compatible with exposure to ZIKV during pregnancy. The absolute risk of microcephaly was 2.9% (11/376), of calcifications and/or ventriculomegaly was 7.2% (13/180), of additional neurologic alterations was 5.3% (13/245), of ophthalmologic abnormalities was 7% (15/214), and of dysphagia was 1.8% (4/226). Less than 1% of the children experienced abnormalities across all of the domains simultaneously. Interpretation: Although approximately one-fifth of children with confirmed and suspected exposure to ZIKV in pregnancy presented with at least one abnormality compatible with CZS, the manifestations presented more frequently in isolation than in combination. Due to the rare nature of some outcomes and the possibility of later manifestations, large scale individual participant data meta-analysis and the long-term evaluation of children are imperative to identify the full spectrum of this syndrome and to plan actions to reduce damages.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Na/K-ATPase (NKA) is inhibited by perillyl alcohol (POH), a monoterpene used in the treatment of tumors, including brain tumors. The NKA α1 subunit is known to be superexpressed in glioblastoma cells ...(GBM). This isoform is embedded in caveolar structures and is probably responsible for the signaling properties of NKA during apoptosis. In this work, we showed that POH acts in signaling cascades associated with NKA that control cell proliferation and/or cellular death.
NKA activity was measured by the amount of non-radioactive Rb(+) incorporation into cultured GBM cell lines (U87 and U251) and non-tumor cells (mouse astrocytes and VERO cells). Cell viability was measured by lactate dehydrogenase levels in the supernatants of POH-treated cells. Activated c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) and p38 were assessed by western blotting. Apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry, and the release of interleukins was measured by ELISA.
All four cell types tested showed a similar sensitivity for POH. Perillic acid (PA), the main metabolite of POH, did not show any effect on these cells. Though the cell viability decreased in a dose-dependent manner when cells were treated with POH, the maximum cytotoxic effect of PA obtained was 30% at 4 mM. 1.5 mM POH activated p38 in U87 cells and JNK in both U87 and U251 cells as well as mouse astrocytes. Dasatinib (an inhibitor of the Src kinase family) and methyl β-cyclodextrin (which promotes cholesterol depletion in cell membranes) reduced the POH-induced activation of JNK1/2 in U87 cells, indicating that the NKA-Src complex participates in this mechanism. Inhibition of JNK1/2 by the JNK inhibitor V reduced the apoptosis of GBM cells that resulted from POH administration, indicating the involvement of JNK1/2 in programmed cell death. 1.5 mM POH increased the production of interleukin IL-8 in the U251 cell supernatant, which may indicate a possible strategy by which cells avoid the cytotoxic effects of POH.
A signaling mechanism mediated by NKA may have an important role in the anti-tumor action of POH in GBM cells.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
IntroductionZika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy is a known cause of microcephaly and other congenital and developmental anomalies. In the absence of a ZIKV vaccine or prophylactics, ...principal investigators (PIs) and international leaders in ZIKV research have formed the ZIKV Individual Participant Data (IPD) Consortium to identify, collect and synthesise IPD from longitudinal studies of pregnant women that measure ZIKV infection during pregnancy and fetal, infant or child outcomes.Methods and analysisWe will identify eligible studies through the ZIKV IPD Consortium membership and a systematic review and invite study PIs to participate in the IPD meta-analysis (IPD-MA). We will use the combined dataset to estimate the relative and absolute risk of congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), including microcephaly and late symptomatic congenital infections; identify and explore sources of heterogeneity in those estimates and develop and validate a risk prediction model to identify the pregnancies at the highest risk of CZS or adverse developmental outcomes. The variable accuracy of diagnostic assays and differences in exposure and outcome definitions means that included studies will have a higher level of systematic variability, a component of measurement error, than an IPD-MA of studies of an established pathogen. We will use expert testimony, existing internal and external diagnostic accuracy validation studies and laboratory external quality assessments to inform the distribution of measurement error in our models. We will apply both Bayesian and frequentist methods to directly account for these and other sources of uncertainty.Ethics and disseminationThe IPD-MA was deemed exempt from ethical review. We will convene a group of patient advocates to evaluate the ethical implications and utility of the risk stratification tool. Findings from these analyses will be shared via national and international conferences and through publication in open access, peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration numberPROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews (CRD42017068915).
Birdsong is a learned vocal behaviour that requires intact hearing for its development in juveniles and for its maintenance during adulthood. However, the functional organization of the brain ...circuits involved in the perceptual processing of song has remained obscure. Here we provide evidence that GABAergic mechanisms are an important component of these circuits and participate in the auditory processing of birdsong. We first cloned a zebra finch homologue of the gene encoding the 65‐kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase (zGAD‐65), a specific GABAergic marker, and conducted an expression analysis by in situ hybridization to identify GABAergic cells and to map their distribution throughout auditory telencephalic areas. The results showed that field L2, the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) and the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) contain a high number of GABAergic cells. Using patch‐clamp brain slice recordings, we found abundant GABAergic mIPSCs in NCM. Pharmacological antagonism of mIPSCs induced large EPSC bursts, suggesting that tonic inhibition helps to stabilize NCM against runaway excitation via activation of GABA‐A receptors. Next, using double fluorescence in situ hybridization and double immunocytochemical labelling, we demonstrated that large numbers of GABAergic cells in NCM and CMM show inducible expression of the transcriptional regulator ZENK in response to song auditory stimulation. These data provide direct evidence that GABAergic neurons in auditory brain regions are activated by song stimulation. Altogether, our results suggest that GABAergic mechanisms participate in auditory processing and perception, and might contribute to the memorization of birdsong.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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