Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Regulatory Mechanisms Control B-1 B Cell Activation

B-1 cells constitute a unique subset of B cells identified in several species including mice and humans. B-1 cells are further subdivided into B-1a and B-1b subsets as the former but not the later express CD5. The B-1a subset contributes to innate type of immune responses while the B-1b B cell subset contributes to adaptive responses. B-1 cell responses to B cell receptor (BCR) as well as Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligation are tightly regulated due to the cross-reactivity of antigen specific receptors on B-1 cells to self-antigens. B-1 cells are elevated in several autoimmune diseases. CD5 plays a major role in down regulation of BCR responses in the B-1a cell subset. Reduced amplification of BCR induced signals via CD19 and autoregulation of BCR and TLR responses by B-1 cell produced IL-10 appear to have a role in regulation of both B-1a and B-1b B cell responses. Siglec G receptors and Lyn kinase also regulate B-1 cell responses but their differential role in the two B-1 cell subsets is unknown.
Iron deficiency increases blood concentrations of neurotoxic metals in children

Iron deficiency affects approximately one-third of the world's population, occurring most frequently in children aged 6 months to 3 years. Mechanisms of iron absorption are similar to those of other divalent metals, particularly manganese, lead, and cadmium, and a diet deficient in iron can lead to excess absorption of manganese, lead, and cadmium. Iron deficiency may lead to cognitive impairments resulting from the deficiency itself or from increased metal concentrations caused by the deficiency. Iron deficiency combined with increased manganese or lead concentrations may further affect neurodevelopment. We recently showed that blood manganese and lead concentrations are elevated among iron-deficient infants. Increased blood manganese and lead levels are likely associated with prolonged breast-feeding, which is also a risk factor for iron deficiency. Thus, babies who are breast-fed for prolonged periods should be given plain, iron-fortified cereals or other good sources of dietary iron.
The rank of diluted random graphs

We investigate the rank of the adjacency matrix of large diluted random graphs: for a sequence of graphs converging locally to a tree, we give new formulas for the asymptotic of the multiplicity of the eigenvalue 0. In particular, the result depends only on the limiting tree structure, showing that the normalized rank is 'continuous at infinity'. Our work also gives a new formula for the mass at zero of the spectral measure of a Galton-Watson tree. Our techniques of proofs borrow ideas from analysis of algorithms, random matrix theory, statistical physics and analysis of Schrödinger operators on trees.
THE ZURICH ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY (ZENS) OF GALAXIES IN GROUPS ALONG THE COSMIC WEB. V. PROPERTIES AND FREQUENCY OF MERGING SATELLITES AND CENTRALS IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS

We use the Zurich Environmental Study database to investigate the environmental dependence of the merger fraction Γ and merging galaxy properties in a sample of ∼1300 group galaxies with M > 109.2 M☉ and 0.05 < z < 0.0585. In all galaxy mass bins investigated in our study, we find that Γ decreases by a factor of ∼2–3 in groups with halo masses MHALO > 1013.5 M☉ relative to less massive systems, indicating a suppression of merger activity in large potential wells. In the fiducial case of relaxed groups only, we measure a variation of ΔΓ/Δlog (MHALO) ∼ −0.07 dex−1, which is almost independent of galaxy mass and merger stage. At galaxy masses >1010.2 M☉, most mergers are dry accretions of quenched satellites onto quenched centrals, leading to a strong increase of Γ with decreasing group-centric distance at these mass scales. Both satellite and central galaxies in these high-mass mergers do not differ in color and structural properties from a control sample of nonmerging galaxies of equal mass and rank. At galaxy masses of <1010.2 M☉ where we mostly probe satellite–satellite pairs and mergers between star-forming systems close pairs (projected distance <10–20 kpc) show instead ∼2 × enhanced (specific) star formation rates and ∼1.5 × larger sizes than similar mass, nonmerging satellites. The increase in both size and star formation rate leads to similar surface star formation densities in the merging and control-sample satellite populations.
Effects of pH on Cr‐ Fe interaction during Cr(VI) removal by metallic iron

Abstract In the present investigation, the effect of pH on Cr‐Fe interactions has been studied by carrying out Cr(VI) removal utilising metallic iron from the dichromate solutions of pH 2 to 7 by batch shaking process. Since the presence of ferrous iron in the solution is mainly responsible for Cr(VI) reduction, solubility of iron from the metallic iron was also measured. The maximum Cr(VI) removal efficiency was found at pH 2 but pH 3 was considered to be a suitable solution condition for Cr(VI) removal due to the occurrence of a minimum level of iron in the treated solution. Chemical analysis of Cr(VI) ‐reacted iron and treated dichromate solutions has indicated the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) at the metal surface itself at pH 2 and 3 and in the solution at pH 4 and above. A considerable decrease in chromium concentration on the iron surface in the pH range 4 ‐ 7 as compared to pH 2 and 3 was also observed by EDXA analysis. These studies confirmed that after reduction, involvement of Cr(III) with Fe takes place at the metallic iron surface itself at pH 2 and 3 while it reduces with the rise of pH.
Patterns of interest similarity in adoptive and biological families.

Twin studies have indicated that genetic differences among individuals also contribute to interest and personality differences among them. In this study, 114 biologically related families and 100 adoptive families were administered the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. The protocols of parents and their adolescent children (total N = 870) were scored on the six scales of Holland's model of interest styles (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional). Biological parent--child correlations ranged from -. 13 to +. 40, with 15 of the 24 scale correlations achieving significance; only 2 of the adoptive parent--child correlations were significant (range from -.15 to +.25). Biologically related pairs were also significantly more correlated than adoptive pairs for interest profiles. Same-sex biological siblings were more similar to each other than either opposite-sex siblings pairs or parent--child pairs. Pairs of unrelated children in the adoptive families were not too similar either on Holland's scales or the profile analysis.
Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics Determining Histology-mri Slice Correspondences for Defining Mri-based Disease Signatures of Prostate Cancer

Mapping the spatial disease extent in a certain anatomical organ/tissue from histology images to radiological images is important in defining the disease signature in the radiological images. One such scenario is in the context of men with prostate cancer who have had pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before radical prostatectomy. For these cases, the prostate cancer extent from ex vivo whole-mount histology is to be mapped to in vivo MRI. The need for determining radiology-image-based disease signatures is important for (a) training radiologist residents and (b) for constructing an MRI-based computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system for disease detection in vivo. However, a prerequisite for this data mapping is the determination of slice correspondences (i.e. indices of each pair of corresponding image slices) between histological and magnetic resonance images. The explicit determination of such slice correspondences is especially indispensable when an accurate 3D reconstruction of the histological volume cannot be achieved because of (a) the limited tissue slices with unknown inter-slice spacing, and (b) obvious histological image artifacts (tissue loss or distortion). In the clinic practice, the histology-MRI slice correspondences are often determined visually by experienced radiologists and pathologists working in unison, but this procedure is laborious and time-consuming. We present an iterative method to automatically determine slice correspondence between images from histology and MRI via a group-wise comparison scheme, followed by 2D and 3D registration. The image slice correspondences obtained using our method were compared with the ground truth correspondences determined via consensus of multiple experts over a total of 23 patient studies. In most instances, the results of our method were very close to the results obtained via visual inspection by these experts.
Evolutionary many-objective optimization by NSGA-II and MOEA/D with large populations

Evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) is an active research area in the field of evolutionary computation. EMO algorithms are designed to find a non-dominated solution set that approximates the entire Pareto front of a multiobjective optimization problem. Whereas EMO algorithms usually work well on two-objective and three-objective problems, their search ability is degraded by the increase in the number of objectives. One difficulty in the handling of many-objective problems is the exponential increase in the number of non-dominated solutions necessary for approximating the entire Pareto front. A simple countermeasure to this difficulty is to use large populations in EMO algorithms. In this paper, we examine the behavior of EMO algorithms with large populations (e.g., with 10,000 individuals) through computational experiments on multiobjective and many-objective knapsack problems with two, four, six, eight and ten objectives. We examine two totally different algorithms: NSGA-II and MOEA/D. NSGA-II is a Pareto dominance-based algorithm while MOEA/D uses scalarizing functions. Their search ability is examined for various specifications of the population size under the fixed computation load. That is, we use the total number of examined solutions as the stopping condition of each algorithm. Thus the use of a very large population leads to the termination at an early generation (e.g., 20th generation). It is demonstrated through computational experiments that the use of too large populations makes NSGA-II very slow and inefficient. On the other hand, MOEA/D works well even when it is executed with a very large population. We also discuss why MOEA/D works well even when the population size is unusually large.
Understanding binge drinking among young people: an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Binge drinking (i.e. consuming half the recommended weekly consumption of alcohol in a single session) is a common activity among young people. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as its theoretical framework, this paper reports a study exploring the motivational and attitudinal factors underlying binge drinking in a sample of undergraduate students. Questionnaires were completed by 136 undergraduates which focused on their drinking behaviour and their beliefs about binge drinking. Binge drinking was found to be more prevalent among male respondents, and a number of significant differences in the beliefs of male and female respondents were found which supported this difference in drinking behaviour. A regression analysis identified two key predictors of the frequency of binge drinking; these being positive control beliefs and perceived behavioural control. Frequent binge drinkers were more likely to recognize the influence of a range of factors which may serve to encourage binge drinking (e.g. celebrating an event) and less likely to believe that the decision to engage in binge drinking is under their control. The results are discussed in relation to measures which may help to reduce the incidence of binge drinking through changes in the social environment.
Perineurial cells coexpress genes encoding interstitial collagens and basement membrane zone components

Perineurial cell cultures were established from the sciatic nerves of adult Wistar rats. Highly enriched cultures were studied with respect to the production of extracellular matrix components under conditions free from the influence of Schwann cells, axons, or the extracellular matrix of peripheral nerves. Indirect immunofluorescence staining revealed the presence of collagen type IV epitopes, and electron microscopy demonstrated patches of basement membrane on the perineurial cell surfaces. Collagenous fibrils with a diameter of 15-20 nm were also observed in the intracellular space. SDS-PAGE of radiolabeled medium proteins showed a pattern of bands suggesting the synthesis and secretion of fibronectin, and type I and IV collagens. Northern hybridizations revealed characteristic polymorphic mRNA transcripts corresponding to fibronectin, laminin B2 chain, as well as to the alpha- chain subunits of type I, III, and IV collagens. Furthermore, in situ hybridizations suggested expression of these genes by cultured perineurial cells without apparent heterogeneity within the cell populations. In situ hybridizations of sciatic nerve tissue from 2-wk- old rats also suggested that perineurial cells express alpha 1(I) and alpha 2(IV) collagen, as well as laminin B2 chain genes in vivo. This profile of matrix gene expression is different from that of Schwann cells, which do not synthesize fibronectin, or that of fibroblastic cells, which do not form a cell surface basement membrane. The capability of perineurial cells to express genes for the basement membrane zone and for interstitial collagens further adds to our understanding of the functional role of perineurial cells in developing and healing peripheral nerve, as well as in certain neoplastic lesions of neural origin, such as von Recklinghausen's neurofibromas.
Formal Models for Expert Finding on DBLP Bibliography Data

Finding relevant experts in a specific field is often crucial for consulting, both in industry and in academia. The aim of this paper is to address the expert-finding task in a real world academic field. We present three models for expert finding based on the large-scale DBLP bibliography and Google scholar for data supplementation. The first, a novel weighted language model, models an expert candidate based on the relevance and importance of associated documents by introducing a document prior probability, and achieves much better results than the basic language model. The second, a topic-based model, represents each candidate as a weighted sum of multiple topics, whilst the third, a hybrid model, combines the language model and the topic-based model. We evaluate our system using a benchmark dataset based on human relevance judgments of how well the expertise of proposed experts matches a query topic. Evaluation results show that our hybrid model outperforms other models in nearly all metrics.
MicroRNA-203 negatively regulates c-Abl, ERK1/2 phosphorylation, and proliferation in smooth muscle cells

The nonreceptor tyrosine kinase c‐Abl has a role in regulating smooth muscle cell proliferation, which contributes to the development of airway remodeling in chronic asthma. MicroRNAs (miRs) are small noncoding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression by binding to complementary sequences in the 3′ untranslated regions (3′ UTR) of target mRNAs. Previous analysis suggests that miR‐203 is able to bind to the 3′ UTR of human c‐Abl mRNA. In this report, treatment with miR‐203 attenuated the expression of c‐Abl mRNA and protein in human airway smooth muscle (HASM) cells. Furthermore, transfection with an miR‐203 inhibitor enhanced the expression of c‐Abl at mRNA and protein levels in HASM cells. Treatment with platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) induced the proliferation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in HASM cells. Exposure to miR‐203 attenuated the PDGF‐stimulated proliferation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in HASM cells. The expression of c‐Abl at protein and mRNA levels was higher in asthmatic HASM cells, whereas the level of miR‐203 was reduced in asthmatic HASM cells as compared to control HASM cells. Taken together, our present results suggest that miR‐203 is a negative regulator of c‐Abl expression in smooth muscle cells. miR‐203 regulates smooth muscle cell proliferation by controlling c‐Abl expression, which in turn modulates the activation of ERK1/2.
Bitrate distribution of syntax elements in the HEVC encoded video

The paper focuses on two problems: 1) analysis of bitrate contribution of I and B frames in encoded HEVC data stream, and 2) analysis of distribution of HEVC syntax elements in I and B frames. The relationship between sizes of I and B frames located at a different levels in hierarchical coding scheme was experimentally determined, as well as contribution of HEVC syntax elements in encoded streams of I, B0, B1, B2, and B3 frames. The results are presented in the paper. All presented results concern a wide range of QP values in a video encoder.
Towards Naturally Grabbing and Moving Objects in VR

Many VR applications require picking and moving of virtual objects. Many gesture based solutions do not work reliably, whereas controller based methods are not as natural as hand pose recognition. Tethered controllers add the issue of a cable being in the user’s way. We developed a gesture interface using a Leap Motion finger tracker attached to an Oculus Rift DK2 and implemented three ways of interacting with objects: innate pinching, magnetic force, and a physical button attached to the index finger. We built a virtual reality test scenario, in which the user needs to move virtual objects between shelves to sort them. Initial testing shows that grabbing with the button works better than the other two more natural methods. Besides the user interaction techniques, we also report on our practical experiences using Oculus Rift, Leap Motion and the button with the Unity 3D development platform.
Increased Fibronectin Expression in Sturge-Weber Syndrome Fibroblasts and Brain Tissue

Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS) is a neurocutaneous disorder that presents with a facial port-wine stain and a leptomeningeal angioma. Fibronectin expression regulates angiogenesis and vasculogenesis and participates in brain tissue responses to ischemia and seizures. We therefore hypothesized that abnormal gene expression of fibronectin and other extracellular matrix genes would be found in SWS brain tissue and SWS port-wine skin fibroblasts. Fibronectin gene and protein expression from port-wine–derived fibroblasts were compared with that from normal skin-derived fibroblasts of four individuals with SWS using microarrays, reverse transcriptase–PCR, Western analysis, and immunocytochemistry. Fibronectin gene and/or protein expression from eight SWS surgical brain samples was compared with that in two surgical epilepsy brain samples and six postmortem brain samples using microarrays, reverse transcriptase–PCR, and Western analysis. The gene expression of fibronectin was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the SWS port-wine–derived fibroblasts compared with that of fibroblasts from SWS normal skin. A trend for increased protein levels of fibronectin in port-wine fibroblasts was found by Western analysis. No difference in the pattern of fibronectin staining was detected. The gene expression of fibronectin was significantly increased (p < 0.05), and a trend for increased fibronectin protein expression was found in the SWS surgical brain samples compared with the postmortem controls. These results suggest a potential role for fibronectin in the pathogenesis of SWS and in the brain's response to chronic ischemic injury in SWS. The reproducible differences in fibronectin gene expression between the SWS port-wine–derived fibroblasts and the SWS normal skin-derived fibroblasts are consistent with the presence of a hypothesized somatic mutation underlying SWS.
Gastric mucosa injury quantification in an ischemia — Reperfusion experimental model

Gastric ischemia - reperfusion (I/R) injury is an important clinical problem, which is developed in more than 80% of critically ill patients. I/R is caused by interruption of blood supply to an organ or tissue followed by blood reflow into the exposed area, leading to multiple organ failure and death. Gastric reactance has been proposed to measure tissue injury caused by ischemia. The present study evaluates a new method to quantify gastric tissue damage due to I/R, and assess its relation to gastric reactance changes. Twenty Wistar rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups: control, ischemia, I/R 30 min, I/R 1 h. Local gastric ischemia was induced by clamping the celiac artery for 30 min and reperfusion was done for 30-60 min. In all groups, gastric impedance was measured, and then gastric mucosa samples were taken for light microscopy. There were statistical significant differences (p <;0.05) among the groups with respect to the index of gastric injury proposed, which was greater in I/R 1 h group. Also, impedance parameters increased in I/R groups with respect to control, and ischemia groups. The proposed index of gastric injury allowed gastric mucosa damage quantification, and it was related with gastric impedance increase, which is an objective method to evaluate tissue injury.
Studies on the Material Anisotropy Influence in Case of Sheets Made From Magnesium Alloy AZ31B on the Stress Concentration Factor in the Presence of a Circular Concentrator

This paper presents an experimental study regarding the behaviour and the durability o a magnesium alloy sheet designed with a circular stress concentrator, tested for different angles between the tensile direction and the rolling direction of the sample material. To perform this study the experimental tests has been carried out on samples machined for different angles values the material rolling direction and the main axis of the sample: 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90°. The experimental tests have been done on samples with and without circular stress concentrator. From the analysis of the obtained results, it can be concluded that the sheet made from magnesium alloy, shows a very pronounced variation of the tensile strength and yield strength depending on the material rolling direction. At the same time, the effect generated by the presence of the circular stress concentrator it is significantly influenced by the anisotropy of the AZ31B magnesium alloy.
Bicycle wheel wobble - a case study in dynamics

This paper examines reasons why wheel wobble occurs in common production bicycles. In particular, the effects of frame size, rider position and riding style are examined with reference to a range of mathematical models of bicycles which are available in the published literature. Much of the motivation for this work comes from the personal cycling experience of one of the authors and the difficulty in resolving the true cause of wheel wobble from the wide range of advice offered of a variety of cycling experts. It is hoped that recourse to a mathematical analysis will give objective direction as to how wheel wobble can be alleviated through rider intervention.