Immunolocalization of FOXP3, JAK1 and STAT5 in Preeclamptic, Intrauterine Growth Restricted and Gestational Diabetic Human Placentas

Objective: The aim of the study to show the relation of T cells in placental villous fragments with FOXP3,JAK1 and STAT5 receptors in different conditions such as GDM, PE and IUGR placental tissues. Methods: Specimens of ten(10) diabetic placentas, ten(10) preeclamptic, ten(10) intrauterine growth restricted placentas and ten(10) control placentas were collected by systematic uniform random sampling. Immunohistochemical detections of FOXP3, JAK1 and STAT5 were performed in histological sections for each group’s placental tissue. The H-score value was derived for each specimen by calculating the sum of the percentage of syncytiotrophoblast and syncytial nodes in placenta and intervillus area. They were categorized by intensity of staining, multiplied by its respective score. Results: FOXP3, JAK1 and STAT5 immunoreactivity comparisons are shown in four groups of placentas. FOXP3 immunoreactions significantly increase in GDM group. JAK1 and STAT5 immunoreactions significantly decrease in PE group. STAT5 immunoreactivity was detected crucially increase in GDM group. Discussion: The results showed that in different conditions such as PE,GDM and IUGR, T cells in placental villous fragments have relation with FOXP3,JAK1 and STAT5 receptors and that FOXP3 can inactivate the PE and IUGR in the placental tissue. We have also confirmed as other studies that JAK-STAT pathway plays important role in PE,IUGR and GDM placental tissue.

AIGEN: Random Generation of Symbolic Transition Systems

AIGEN is an open source tool for the generation of transition systems in a symbolic representation. To ensure diversity, it employs a uniform random sampling over the space of all Boolean functions with a given number of variables. AIGEN relies on reduced ordered binary decision diagrams (ROBDDs) and canonical disjunctive normal form (CDNF) as canonical representations that allow us to enumerate Boolean functions, in the former case with an encoding that is inspired by data structures used to implement ROBDDs. Several parameters allow the user to restrict generation to Boolean functions or transition systems with certain properties, which are then output in AIGER format. We report on the use of AIGEN to generate random benchmark problems for the reactive synthesis competition SYNTCOMP 2019, and present a comparison of the two encodings with respect to time and memory efficiency in practice.

Phenotype bias determines how RNA structures occupy the morphospace of all possible shapes

The relative prominence of developmental bias versus natural selection is a long standing controversy in evolutionary biology. Here we demonstrate quantitatively that developmental bias is the primary explanation for the occupation of the morphospace of RNA secondary structure (SS) shapes. By using the RNAshapes method to define coarse-grained SS classes, we can directly measure the frequencies that non-coding RNA SS shapes appear in nature. Our main findings are, firstly, that only the most frequent structures appear in nature: The vast majority of possible structures in the morphospace have not yet been explored. Secondly, and perhaps more surprisingly, these frequencies are accurately predicted by the likelihood that structures appear upon uniform random sampling of sequences. The ultimate cause of these patterns is not natural selection, but rather strong phenotype bias in the RNA genotype-phenotype (GP) map, a type of developmental bias that tightly constrains evolutionary dynamics to only act within a reduced subset of structures which are easy to “find”.

The critical radius in sampling-based motion planning

We develop a new analysis of sampling-based motion planning in Euclidean space with uniform random sampling, which significantly improves upon the celebrated result of Karaman and Frazzoli and subsequent work. In particular, we prove the existence of a critical connection radius proportional to [Formula: see text] for n samples and d dimensions: below this value the planner is guaranteed to fail (similarly shown by Karaman and Frazzoli). More importantly, for larger radius values the planner is asymptotically (near-)optimal. Furthermore, our analysis yields an explicit lower bound of [Formula: see text] on the probability of success. A practical implication of our work is that asymptotic (near-)optimality is achieved when each sample is connected to only [Formula: see text] neighbors. This is in stark contrast to previous work that requires [Formula: see text] connections, which are induced by a radius of order [Formula: see text]. Our analysis applies to the probabilistic roadmap method (PRM), as well as a variety of “PRM-based” planners, including RRG, FMT*, and BTT. Continuum percolation plays an important role in our proofs. Lastly, we develop similar theory for all the aforementioned planners when constructed with deterministic samples, which are then sparsified in a randomized fashion. We believe that this new model, and its analysis, is interesting in its own right.

Thickness of the bone-cartilage unit in relation to osteoarthritis severity in the human hip joint

ObjectiveBone formation is a hallmark of osteoarthritis (OA). It has been speculated that bone formation may occur because of ossification at the bone-cartilage unit, that is, bone formation directly involving the calcified cartilage (CC). This study aimed to investigate the thickness of the CC and subchondral bone (SCB) in relation to the severity of the overlying articular cartilage (AC) degeneration.DesignWe investigated femoral heads from 20 patients with OA and 15 healthy subjects with design-based stereology using systematic uniform random sampling of the entire joint surface. This was combined with the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) OA cartilage histopathology assessment system, thus obtaining focal OARSI grades paired with thickness measurements of AC, CC and the SCB.ResultsThe patients with OA had thicker CC (mean 159; 95% CI 144 to 177 µm) compared with the healthy subjects (mean 132; 95% CI 113 to 1550 µm; p=0.036), and this difference was even higher in areas without loss of AC thickness (OARSI grade ≤3); 187 (95% CI 164 to 214) µm vs 132 (95% CI 113 to 155) µm (p=0.001). In the patients with OA, a thicker SCB was observed in areas with loss of AC thickness (OARSI grade ≥4), but not in areas without loss of AC thickness (OARSI grade ≤3).ConclusionThe study showed that thicker CC is present in early stages of OA, suggesting that bone formation by endochondral ossification is an early phenomenon of OA. Thickening of the SCB was present, but only in areas with denuded bone. Suggesting that also appositional bone growth occurs and that it may be a consequence of changed biomechanics.