An accurate inference of the chronological and biological age of individuals is fundamental to population ecology and our understanding of ageing itself, its evolution and the biological processes that affect or even cause ageing. In humans, epigenetic clocks based on the DNA methylation (DNAm) at selected CpG sites correlate highly with chronological age. Discrepancies between the inferred epigenetic and known chronological age predict morbidity and mortality, and therefore epigenetic clocks are thought to reflect biological age. Recently, a growing number epigenetic clocks in non-model organisms have been developed towards a diverse array of purposes in commercial, conservation and ageing research. Here we review those studies and conduct the first meta-analysis to assess the effects of different aspects of experimental protocol on the accuracy of epigenetic clocks for non-model species. Our analysis reveals higher coefficients of determination (R2) of chronological age for epigenetic clocks based on the HorvathMammalMethylChip4, compared to other DNAm quantification approaches. No dependence of (R2) was detected for the number of CpG sites in a clock; the sample size; the number or kind of tissue(s) used; the class of animals; or whether captive or wild animals were sampled to infer the epigenetic clocks. We further conclude that epigenetic clocks can predict chronological age with relatively high accuracy, suggesting great potential for the field of ecological epigenetics. We therefore encourage further research on the topic of ecological epigenetics in relation to ageing and, perhaps more importantly, discuss the potential of employing DNAm to assess key traits other than age.

The depth discrimination in confocal microscopy is based on the digital analysis of depth response signals obtained by each camera pixel during measurement. Various signal processing algorithms are used for this purpose. The accuracy of these algorithms is inter alia restricted by the axial symmetry of the signals. However, in practice response signals are rather asymmetrical especially in case of measurement objects with critical surface structures such as edges or steep flanks. We present a novel signal processing algorithm based on an exponential function with a cubic argument to handle asymmetrical and also symmetrical depth response signals. Results obtained by this algorithm are compared to those of commonly used signal processing algorithms. It turns out that the novel algorithm is more robust, more accurate and exhibits a repeatability of a similar order compared to other algorithms.

In recent years increasing evidence suggests that commensal microbiota may play an important role in health and disease, including cerebrovascular disease. Gut microbes impact physiology, at least in part by metabolizing dietary factors and also host-derived substrates and then generating active compounds including toxins. The purpose of the current review is to highlight the complex interplay between microbiota, their metabolites and essential functions for human health ranging from regulation of the metabolism and the immune system to modulation of brain development and function. We also discuss the role of gut dysbiosis in cerebrovascular disease, specifically in acute and chronic stroke phases and the possible implication of intestinal microbiota in post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia, and we identify potential therapeutic opportunities of targeting microbiota in this context.

The central nervous system (CNS) has long been considered an immune-privileged site, with minimal interaction between immune cells, particularly of the adaptive immune system. Previously, the presence of immune cells in this organ was primarily linked to events involving disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) or inflammation. However, current research has shown that immune cells are found patrolling CNS under homeostatic conditions. Specifically, T cells of the adaptive immune system are able to cross the BBB and are associated with aging and cognitive impairment. In addition, T-cell infiltration has been observed in pathological conditions, where inflammation correlates with poor prognosis. Despite ongoing research, the role of this population in the aging brain under both physiological and pathological conditions is not yet fully understood. In this review, we provide an overview of the interactions between T cells and other immune and CNS parenchymal cells, and examine the molecular mechanisms by which these interactions may contribute to normal brain function and the scenarios in which disruption of these connections lead to cognitive impairment. A comprehensive understanding of the role of T cells in the aging brain and the underlying molecular pathways under normal conditions could pave the way for new research to better understand brain disorders.

It is well known that the nervous system adjusts itself to its environment during development. Although a great deal of effort has been directed toward understanding the developmental processes of the individual sensory systems (e.g., vision, hearing, etc.), only one major study has examined the maturation of multisensory processing of cortical neurons. Therefore, the present investigation sought to evaluate multisensory development in a different cortical region and species. Using multiple single-unit recordings in anesthetized ferrets (n=18) of different ages (from postnatal day 80 through 300), we studied the responses of neurons from the rostral posterior parietal area (PPr) to presentations of visual, tactile and combined visual-tactile stimulation. The results showed that multisensory neurons were infrequent at the youngest ages (pre-pubertal) and progressively increased through the later ages. Significant response changes that result from multisensory stimulation (defined as multisensory integration, MSI) were observed in post-pubertal adolescent animals and the magnitude of these integrated responses also increased across this age group. Furthermore, non-significant multisensory response changes were progressively increased in adolescent animals. Collectively, at the population level, MSI was observed to shift from primarily suppressive levels in infants to increasingly higher levels in later stages. These data indicate that, like the unisensory systems from which it is derived, multisensory processing shows developmental changes the specific time course of which may be regionally and species dependent.

Obesity is rising globally and is associated with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders among children, adolescents, and young adults. Whether obesity is the cause or the consequence of these disorders remains unclear. To examine the behavioural effects of obesity systematically, locomotion, anxiety, and social behaviour were assessed in male and female C57Bl/6J mice using the open field (OF), elevated plus maze (EPM) and social preference (SP) task. First, the effects of age, sex and prior exposure to the tasks were examined in control mice, before investigating post-weaning consumption of a high fat, high sugar (HFHS) diet commonly consumed in human populations with high rates of obesity. In the OF and EPM, locomotor activity and anxiety-related behaviours were reduced by age in both sexes, but with different sex-specific profiles. Prior exposure to the tasks reduced locomotion in the OF in a sex-specific manner but had little effect on behaviour in the EPM in either sex. The HFHS diet reduced food and calorie intake and increased body mass and fat deposition in both sexes. In the OF, both male and female HFHS mice showed reduced locomotion, whereas, in the EPM, only HFHS female mice displayed reduced anxiety-related behaviours. Both male and female HFHS mice had a significantly higher SP index than controls. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that the behavioural effects of age, prior exposure and of diet-induced obesity all depend on the sex of the mouse. This emphasises the importance of including both sexes when assessing behavioural phenotypes arising from dietary manipulations.

Hoffa fractures are rare fractures of the femoral condyle that occur in the coronal plane. In most cases, high-energy trauma leads to isolated coronal fractures of one of the femoral condyles, medial or lateral. The fracture was approached from both the medial and lateral sides of the distal femur

While both the incidence and general awareness of food allergies is increasing, the variety and clinical availability of therapeutics remain limited. Therefore, investigations into the potential factors contributing to the development of food allergy and the mechanisms of natural tolerance or induced desensitization are required. In addition, a detailed understanding of the pathophysiology of food allergies is needed to generate compelling, enduring, and safe treatment options. New findings regarding the contribution of barrier function, the effect of emollient interventions, mechanisms of allergen recognition, and the contributions of specific immune cell subsets through rodent models and human clinical studies provide novel insights. With the first approved treatment for peanut allergy, the clinical management of food allergy is evolving towards less intensive, alternative approaches involving fixed doses, lower maintenance dose targets, co-administration of biologicals, adjuvants, and tolerance-inducing formulations. The ultimate goal is to improve immunotherapy and develop precision-based medicine via risk phenotyping allowing optimal treatment for each food-allergic patient.

Developing analytical systems imposes several challenges related not only to the amount and heterogeneity of the involved data but also to the constant need to readapt and evolve to overcome new business challenges. Data is a determinant factor in the success of analytical and decision-making applications, being its nature, availability, and quality, crucial aspects for planning and structuring populating analytical systems. Today’s users are more demanding, requiring adaptable and flexible analytical applications, which impose serious challenges on ETL systems design and development for ensuring flexible and robust data populating services, operating 24/7, and managing and processing large volumes of data. Thus, we should design and implement ETL processes using innovative and up-to-date approaches, having real application evidence. In this paper, we present a service-oriented implementation for ETL design and development. We mapped and implemented some of the most conventional ETL processes in a service-oriented architecture, for demonstrating the application and benefits that this kind of approach will provide to ETL systems project development.

Adaptation enables natural populations to survive in a changing environment. Understanding the mechanics of adaptation is therefore crucial for learning about the evolution and ecology of natural populations, and for better conservation and management of natural resources such as fish stocks. In this review we focus on the impact of random sweepstakes on selection in highly fecund populations. In random sweepstakes the distribution of individual recruitment success is highly skewed, resulting in a huge variance in the number of offspring contributed by the individuals present in any given generation. We also describe selective sweepstakes which are well approximated by recurrent selective sweeps of strongly beneficial allelic types arising by mutation. We demonstrate that both types of sweepstakes reproduction may facilitate rapid adaptation. Finally, we review an important case study in which a model of recurrent selective sweeps is shown to essentially explain population genomic data of the highly fecund Atlantic cod, with broad implications for studying the evolution and ecology of highly fecund populations across domains of life.

Bicuspid aortic valve is the most common congenital cause for the development of aortic valve calcification and stenosis. Calcification cause valvular stenosis or valvular insufficiency due to coaptation failure. We report a unique case of calcification of bicuspid valve was extending to left ventricular outflow tract and attached to interventricular septum which caused subvalvular stenosis.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a familial or sporadic severe neurodegenerative disorder that leads to short-term memory impairment followed by progressive cognitive deterioration of executive functions. AD frequency is increasing with a consequent socio-economic burden and there is an urgent need to understand its aetiological complexity, find reliable animal models and identify effective therapeutic treatments. AD diagnosis relies on a series of neuropsychiatric criteria and the detection of two pathognomonic protein aggregates in the brain parenchyma: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The concurrence of these aggregates seems to be mostly present in humans. In this issue, Vacher and colleagues demonstrate the notable coexistence of AP deposition and hyperphosphorylated tau in the brains of dolphins. Here we discuss the relevance of this finding and how they could help understanding AD

Differentiating autoimmune hepatitis from liver dysfunction due to adult-onset Still's disease is important in deciding whether to terminate or continue corticosteroid therapy, and also in terms of management of cirrhosis and surveillance of hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver biopsy is thought to be the most important determinant for differential diagnosis.

This paper presents a Youla-Kucera based interpolation between a set of Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) controllers, each one being a gain-scheduled of Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) controllers designed separately for different operating points. The gain-scheduling is achieved based on Youla-Kucera (YK) parameterization. A generalized LPV-YK control structure is designed to interpolate between various LPV controllers. The closed-loop system is proved to guarantee the quadratic stability for any continuous/discontinuous interpolating signals in terms of a set of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs). The proposed method can help multi-variable and multi-objective systems to achieve high performances at different operating conditions and different critical situations regardless of the interpolation rate. A numerical example is simulated to show the importance of the proposed method to achieve different objectives for lateral control of autonomous vehicles. In addition, the approach has been tested on a real Renault ZOE vehicle to validate its real performance, and compare it with a standard polytopic LPV controller.

Anode-free Li-metal batteries (AFLBs) are of significant interest to energy storage industries due to their intrinsically high energy. However, the accumulative Li dendrites and dead Li continuously consume active Li during cycling. That results in a short lifetime and low Coulombic efficiency (CE) of AFLBs. Introducing effective electrolyte additives can improve the Li deposition homogeneity and solid-state interphase (SEI) stability for AFLBs. Herein, we reveal that introducing dual additives, composed of LiAsF6 and FEC, into a commercial carbonate electrolyte will boost the cycle life and average CE of NCM||Cu AFLBs. The NCM||Cu AFLBs with the dual additives exhibit a capacity retention of about 75% after 50 cycles, much higher than those with bare electrolytes (35%). The average CE of the NCM||Cu AFLBs with additives can maintain 98.3% over 100 cycles. In contrast, the average CE without additives rapidly decline to 97% after only 50 cycles. In situ Raman measurements reveal that the prepared dual additives facilitate denser and smoother Li morphology during Li deposition. The dual additives significantly suppress the Li dendrite growth, enabling stable SEI formation on anode and cathode surfaces. Our results provide a broad view of developing low-cost and high-effective functional electrolytes for high-energy and long-life AFLBs.

A document by Miaomiao Wang. Click on the document to view its contents.

A suitable interface between the electrode and electrolyte is crucial in achieving highly stable electrochemical performance for Li-ion batteries, as facile ionic transport is required. Recently, intriguing research and development have been carried out to form a stable interface between the electrode and electrolyte. Therefore, it is essential to investigate emerging knowledge and contextualize it. The nanoengineering of the electrode-electrolyte interface has been actively researched both at the electrode/electrolyte and interphase levels, which calls for significant attention. This review presents and summarizes some recent advances aimed at nanoengineering approaches to build a more stable electrode-electrolyte interface and assess the impact of each approach adopted. Furthermore, future perspectives on the feasibility and practicality of each approach will also be reviewed in detail. Finally, this review aids in projecting a more sustainable research pathway for a nanoengineered interphase design between electrode and electrolyte, which is pivotal for high-performance, thermally stable Li-ion batteries.

Multiomics approaches to studying systems biology are very powerful tools that can elucidate changes in the genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic levels within a particular cell type in response to an infection. These approaches are valuable for understanding the mechanisms behind disease pathogenesis, and specifically how the immune system responds to being challenged. With the emergence of the COVID-019 pandemic, now more than ever, the importance and utility of these tools has become evident in garnering a better understanding of the systems biology within the innate and adaptive immune response and for developing treatments and preventative measures for new and emerging pathogens that pose a threat to human health. In this review we focus on the various state of the art “omics” technologies used within the scope of innate immunity.