Targeting the hypothalamus for modeling age-related DNA methylation and developing OXT-GnRH combinational therapy against Alzheimer's disease-like pathologies in male mouse model.

The hypothalamus plays an important role in aging, but it remains unclear regarding the underlying epigenetics and whether this hypothalamic basis can help address aging-related diseases. Here, by comparing mouse hypothalamus with two other limbic system components, we show that the hypothalamus is characterized by distinctively high-level DNA methylation during young age and by the distinct dynamics of DNA methylation and demethylation when approaching middle age. On the other hand, age-related DNA methylation in these limbic system components commonly and sensitively applies to genes in hypothalamic regulatory pathways, notably oxytocin (OXT) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pathways.

Towards renewables development: Review of optimization techniques for energy storage and hybrid renewable energy systems.

As global energy demand and warming increase, there is a need to transition to sustainable and renewable energy sources. Integrating different systems to create a hybrid renewable system enhances the overall adoption and deployment of renewable energy resources. Given the intermittent nature of solar and wind, energy storage systems are combined with these renewable energy sources, to optimize the quantity of clean energy used.

Polynomial-SHAP analysis of liver disease markers for capturing of complex feature interactions in machine learning models.

Liver disease diagnosis is pivotal for effective patient management, and machine learning techniques have shown promise in this domain. In this study, we investigate the impact of Polynomial-SHapley Additive exPlanations analysis on enhancing the performance and interpretability of machine learning models for liver disease classification. Our results demonstrate significant improvements in accuracy, precision, recall, F1_score, and Matthews correlation coefficient across various algorithms when polynomial- SHapley Additive exPlanations analysis is applied.

The complementary role of carbon dioxide removal: A catalyst for advancing the COP28 pledges towards the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement target.

As the imperative to address climate change becomes more pressing, there is an increasing focus on limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 °C by the end of the century relative to pre-industrial levels. During the recent Conference of Parties (COP28), nations committed to tripling renewable energy generation to a minimum of 11,000 GW by 2030 and increasing the global annual energy efficiency from 2 % to 4 % annually until 2030.

Accurate parameter identification method for coupled sub/super-synchronous oscillations for high penetration wind power systems.

As the penetration of renewable energy increases to a large scale and power electronic devices become widespread, power systems are becoming prone to synchronous oscillations (SO). This event has a major impact on the stability of the power grid. The recent research has been mainly concentrated on identifying the parameters of sub-synchronous oscillation.

Environmental impact and thermodynamic comparative optimization of CO2-based multi-energy systems powered with geothermal energy.

The continuous increase in global population and energy demands has enhanced the use of fossil fuels. The evident climate change effect in recent years has brought about the necessity to reduce fossil fuels. Hence, there exists an aggregate problem of meeting energy demands and reducing carbon emissions.

Vulnerability analysis and modeling false data injection attack against voltage source converter in renewable generation power system.

With the increasing penetration of renewable resources, more power electronic devices that need communication with control centers may bring a novel risk of cyber attacks. This paper investigates the vulnerability of the hierarchical control and proposes a false data injection attack (FDIA) constructing algorithm against voltage source converters. The attack can be accomplished via a physical attack generator or falsification via attacking supervisory control and data acquisition system.

Patient-specific iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes reveal aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in SCN5A-related Brugada syndrome.

Background: Mutations in the cardiac sodium channel gene SCN5A cause Brugada syndrome (BrS), an arrhythmic disorder that is a leading cause of sudden death and lacks effective treatment. An association between SCN5A and Wnt/β-catenin signaling has been recently established. However, the role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in BrS and underlying mechanisms remains unknown.

Causal associations between thyroid cancer and IgA nephropathy: a Mendelian randomization study.

Background: The incidence of kidney disease caused by thyroid cancer is rising worldwide. Observational studies cannot recognize whether thyroid cancer is independently associated with kidney disease. We performed the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to genetically investigate the causality of thyroid cancer on immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN).

Patient-specific iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes reveal variable phenotypic severity of Brugada syndrome.

Background: Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a cardiac channelopathy that can result in sudden cardiac death (SCD). SCN5A is the most frequent gene linked to BrS, but the genotype-phenotype correlations are not completely matched. Clinical phenotypes of a particular SCN5A variant may range from asymptomatic to SCD.

Juxtaposing Sub-Sahara Africa's energy poverty and renewable energy potential.

Recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a comprehensive roadmap for the global energy sector to achieve net-zero emission by 2050. Considering the sizeable share of (Sub-Sahara) Africa in the global population, the attainment of global energy sector net-zero emission is practically impossible without a commitment from African countries. Therefore, it is important to study and analyze feasible/sustainable ways to solve the energy/electricity poverty in Africa.

Deep learning framework for rapid and accurate respiratory COVID-19 prediction using chest X-ray images.

COVID-19 is a contagious disease that affects the human respiratory system. Infected individuals may develop serious illnesses, and complications may result in death. Using medical images to detect COVID-19 from essentially identical thoracic anomalies is challenging because it is time-consuming, laborious, and prone to human error.

Short sleep duration and atrial fibrillation risk: A comprehensive analysis of observational cohort studies and genetic study.

Background: Previous observational studies are inconclusive on whether an association exists between short sleep duration and the high risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF). Understanding their potential association would be of great clinical significance. Thus, in this study, we aimed to explore their causal relationship.

No causal association between tea consumption and 7 cardiovascular disorders: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

Previous studies have reported inconsistent results on the causal association between habitual tea consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study is aim to determine the association between habitual tea intake and CVD using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. The genetically predicted causation between tea consumption and 7 common cardiovascular diseases (atrial fibrillation, hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, angina, and heart failure) was evaluated using MR analysis model.

Comprehensive assessment, review, and comparison of AI models for solar irradiance prediction based on different time/estimation intervals.

Solar energy-based technologies have developed rapidly in recent years, however, the inability to appropriately estimate solar energy resources is still a major drawback for these technologies. In this study, eight different artificial intelligence (AI) models namely; convolutional neural network (CNN), artificial neural network (ANN), long short-term memory recurrent model (LSTM), eXtreme gradient boost algorithm (XG Boost), multiple linear regression (MLR), polynomial regression (PLR), decision tree regression (DTR), and random forest regression (RFR) are designed and compared for solar irradiance prediction. Additionally, two hybrid deep neural network models (ANN-CNN and CNN-LSTM-ANN) are developed in this study for the same task.

Exosomes/microvesicles target SARS-CoV-2 via innate and RNA-induced immunity with PIWI-piRNA system.

Murine neural stem cells (NSCs) were recently shown to release piRNA-containing exosomes/microvesicles (Ex/Mv) for exerting antiviral immunity, but it remains unknown if these Ex/Mv could target SARS-CoV-2 and whether the PIWI-piRNA system is important for these antiviral actions. Here, using in vitro infection models, we show that hypothalamic NSCs (htNSCs) Ex/Mv provided an innate immunity protection against SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, enhanced antiviral actions were achieved by using induced Ex/Mv that were derived from induced htNSCs through twice being exposed to several RNA fragments of SARS-CoV-2 genome, a process that was designed not to involve protein translation of these RNA fragments.

Estimated plasma volume status (ePVS) is a predictor for acute myocardial infarction in-hospital mortality: analysis based on MIMIC-III database.

Background: Estimated plasma volume status (ePVS) has been reported that associated with poor prognosis in heart failure patients. However, no researchinvestigated the association of ePVS and prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Therefore, we aimed to determine the association between ePVS and in-hospital mortality in AMI patients.

GnRH pulse frequency and irregularity play a role in male aging.

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) has a role in hypothalamic control of aging, but the underlying patterns and relationship with downstream reproductive hormones are still unclear. Here we report that hypothalamic GnRH pulse frequency and irregularity increase before GnRH pulse amplitude slowly decreases during aging. GnRH is inhibited by nuclear factor (NF)-κB, and GnRH pulses were controlled by oscillations in the transcriptional activity of NF-κB.

Hypothalamic microinflammation.

Over the past decade, hypothalamic microinflammation has been studied and appreciated as a core mechanism involved in the advancement of metabolic syndrome and aging. Accumulating evidence suggests that atypical microinflammatory insults disturb hypothalamic regulation resulting in metabolic imbalance and aging progression, establishing a common causality for these two pathophysiologic statuses. Studies have causally linked these changes to activation of key proinflammatory pathways, especially NF-κB signaling within the hypothalamus, which leads to hypothalamic neuronal dysregulation, astrogliosis, microgliosis, and loss of adult hypothalamic neural stem/progenitor cells.

The hypothalamus for whole-body physiology: from metabolism to aging.

Obesity and aging are two important epidemic factors for metabolic syndrome and many other health issues, which contribute to devastating diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, stroke and cancers. The brain plays a central role in controlling metabolic physiology in that it integrates information from other metabolic organs, sends regulatory projections and orchestrates the whole-body function. Emerging studies suggest that brain dysfunction in sensing various internal cues or processing external cues may have profound effects on metabolic and other physiological functions.

Control of lifespan and survival by NF-κB signaling through neuroendocrine cells and neuroblasts.

We report a comparative analysis of the effects of immune activation in the fly nervous system using genetic activation models to target NF-κB within Toll versus Imd pathways. Genetic gain-of-function models for either pathway pan-neuronally as well as in discrete subsets of neural cells including neuroendocrine insulin-producing cells (IPCs) or neuroblasts reduce fly lifespan, however, these phenotypes in IPCs and neuroblasts are stronger with Toll activation than Imd activation. Of note, while aging is influenced more by Toll/NF-κB activation in IPCs during adulthood, neuroblasts influence aging more substantially during development.

Motion Capture Data Analysis in the Instantaneous Frequency-Domain Using Hilbert-Huang Transform.

Motion capture data are widely used in different research fields such as medical, entertainment, and industry. However, most motion researches using motion capture data are carried out in the time-domain. To understand human motion complexities, it is necessary to analyze motion data in the frequency-domain.

Innate and Adaptive Immunity of Murine Neural Stem Cell-Derived piRNA Exosomes/Microvesicles against Pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-Based Lentivirus.

By testing pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-based lentivirus, this study reports that exosomes/microvesicles (Ex/Mv) isolated from murine hypothalamic neural stem/progenitor cells (htNSC) or subtype htNSC as well as hippocampal NSC have innate immunity-like actions against these RNA viruses. These extracellular vesicles also have a cell-free innate antiviral action by attacking and degrading viruses. We further generated the induced versions of Ex/Mv through prior viral exposure to NSCs and found that these induced Ex/Mv were stronger than basal Ex/Mv in reducing the infection of these viruses, suggesting the involvement of an adaptive immunity-like antiviral function.