Association between preeclampsia and prostasin polymorphism in Pakistani females.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between a prostasin gene variations and the development of preeclampsia in a Pakistani female population. Methods: This was a case-control study carried out at University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan between May 2018 and 2019. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at rs12597511 locus was examined with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses in 76 preeclamptic and 74 normotensive expecting mothers. RESULTS: We observed significantly increased risk of preeclampsia associated with the CC genotype of rs12597511 polymorphism as compared to TT (p less than 0.001, OR=8.08, 95% CI: 1.28-31.19) and TT/TC (p less than 0.001, OR=14.66 and 95% CI: 3.31-65.07) genotypes carriers. Calculation of the allelic distribution revealed a higher frequency of the T allele (82%) among controls; however, the C allele was more prevalent in the preeclamptic group (36%) significantly. CONCLUSION: The significantly higher C allele frequency in the prostasin gene at the rs12597511 locus in the preeclamptic group indicates that the distribution of the C allele of the prostasin gene is a potential risk factor contributing to the development of preeclampsia.

A Swarm Optimization Solver Based on Ferroelectric Spiking Neural Networks.

As computational models inspired by the biological neural system, spiking neural networks (SNN) continue to demonstrate great potential in the landscape of artificial intelligence, particularly in tasks such as recognition, inference, and learning. While SNN focuses on achieving high-level intelligence of individual creatures, Swarm Intelligence (SI) is another type of bio-inspired models that mimic the collective intelligence of biological swarms, i.e., bird flocks, fish school and ant colonies. SI algorithms provide efficient and practical solutions to many difficult optimization problems through multi-agent metaheuristic search. Bridging these two distinct subfields of artificial intelligence has the potential to harness collective behavior and learning ability of biological systems. In this work, we explore the feasibility of connecting these two models by implementing a generalized SI model on SNN. In the proposed computing paradigm, we use SNNs to represent agents in the swarm and encode problem solutions with the spike firing rate and with spike timing. The coupled neurons communicate and modulate each other's action potentials through event-driven spikes and synchronize their dynamics around the states of optimal solutions. We demonstrate that such an SI-SNN model is capable of efficiently solving optimization problems, such as parameter optimization of continuous functions and a ubiquitous combinatorial optimization problem, namely, the traveling salesman problem with near-optimal solutions. Furthermore, we demonstrate an efficient implementation of such neural dynamics on an emerging hardware platform, namely ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) based spiking neurons. Such an emerging in-silico neuron is composed of a compact 1T-1FeFET structure with both excitatory and inhibitory inputs. We show that the designed neuromorphic system can serve as an optimization solver with high-performance and high energy-efficiency.

Author Correction: Spatially resolved steady-state negative capacitance.

In this Letter, the first name of author Bhagwati Prasad was misspelled Bhagawati. This error has been corrected online.

Spatially resolved steady-state negative capacitance.

Negative capacitance is a newly discovered state of ferroelectric materials that holds promise for electronics applications by exploiting a region of thermodynamic space that is normally not accessible1-14. Although existing reports of negative capacitance substantiate the importance of this phenomenon, they have focused on its macroscale manifestation. These manifestations demonstrate possible uses of steady-state negative capacitance-for example, enhancing the capacitance of a ferroelectric-dielectric heterostructure4,7,14 or improving the subthreshold swing of a transistor8-12. Yet they constitute only indirect measurements of the local state of negative capacitance in which the ferroelectric resides. Spatial mapping of this phenomenon would help its understanding at a microscopic scale and also help to achieve optimal design of devices with potential technological applications. Here we demonstrate a direct measurement of steady-state negative capacitance in a ferroelectric-dielectric heterostructure. We use electron microscopy complemented by phase-field and first-principles-based (second-principles) simulations in SrTiO3/PbTiO3 superlattices to directly determine, with atomic resolution, the local regions in the ferroelectric material where a state of negative capacitance is stabilized. Simultaneous vector mapping of atomic displacements (related to a complex pattern in the polarization field), in conjunction with reconstruction of the local electric field, identify the negative capacitance regions as those with higher energy density and larger polarizability: the domain walls where the polarization is suppressed.

Oxygen dependence of K(+)-Cl- cotransport in human red cell ghosts and sickle cells.

KCC activity in normal human red cells (containing haemoglobin A, HbA, and termed HbA cells) is O2-dependent, being active in oxygenated cells but inactive in deoxygenated ones. The mechanism for O2 dependence is unknown but a role for Hb has been suggested. In this paper, we address two main questions. First, do membrane ghosts prepared from HbA cells retain an O2-sensitive KCC activity? Second, how is the response of KCC to changes in O2 tension altered in sickle cell patients heterozygous for HbS and HbC? We found that substantial Cl(-)-dependent K+ influx, indicative of KCC activity, was present in both pink (5-10% normal Hb complement) and white (no measurable Hb) ghosts when equilibrated with air. KCC responded to deoxygenation in pink ghosts only (86 +/- 10% inhibition, mean+/-S.E.M., n = 3), whilst KCC activity in white ghosts remained high (23 +/- 8% inhibition). Results indicate that pink ghosts retain an O2-dependent KCC activity but that this is lost in white ghosts. Second, HbSC-containing red cells showed sickling (88 +/- 3%) when deoxygenated, together with activation of the deoxygenation-induced cation pathway (Psickle) and the Gardos channel. KCC activity, however, was elevated in oxygenated HbSC cells, but inhibited by deoxygenation. Thus Hb polymerisation and sickling could be dissociated from the abnormal response of KCC to deoxygenation observed in HbS-containing red cells. These preparations provide a useful system with which to study the components involved in O2-sensitive membrane transport and why it is perturbed in certain pathological conditions (such as sickle cell disease and oxidant toxicity).