Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elevated Interleukin-1 Expression In Human Neonatal Neutrophils

ABSTRACT: Newborn infants have an increased morbidity and mortality from infection caused in part by diminished polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) function and impaired recruitment of PMN to sites of inflammation. Recent studies in our laboratory and others have demonstrated the in vitro expression of several cytokines, including IL-1-β, in adult human peripheral blood PMN. Because newborn infants have an impaired inflammatory response, we sought to compare the synthetic capability and regulation of cytokine expression in neonatal and adult PMN. In our present studies, we found that tumor necrosis factor-α and lipopolysaccharide could induce IL-1-β expression in both neonatal and adult PMN and that neonatal PMN produced significantly more IL-1-β when compared with adult PMN. The PMN chemotactic peptide fMet-Leu-Phe did not induce IL-I-β expression in either adult or neonatal PMN. Elevated cytokine expression by neonatal PMN may play an important role in the regulation of the immune and inflammatory systems at sites of injury and infection in neonates.
Individual Value of Brain Tissue Oxygen Pressure, Microvascular Oxygen Saturation, Cytochrome Redox Level, and Energy Metabolites in Detecting Critically Reduced Cerebral Energy State During Acute Changes in Global Cerebral Perfusion

The authors assessed the diagnostic value of brain tissue oxygen tension (PbrO2), microvascular oxygen saturation (SmvO2), cytochrome oxidase redox level (Cyt a+a3 oxidation), and cerebral energy metabolite concentrations in detecting acute critical impairment of cerebral energy homeostasis. Each single parameter as well as derived multimodal indices (arteriovenous difference in oxygen content [AVDO2], cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen [CMRO2], fractional microvascular oxygen extraction [OEF]) were investigated during controlled variation of global cerebral perfusion using a cisternal infusion technique in 16 rabbits. The objective of this study was to determine whether acute changes between normal, moderately, and critically reduced cerebral perfusion as well as frank ischemia defined by local cortical blood flow (lcoBF), brain electrical activity (BEA), and brain stem vasomotor control can be reliably identified by SmvO2, PbrO2, Cyt a+a3 oxidation, or energy metabolites (glutamate, lactate/pyruvate ratio). PbrO2, SmvO2, and Cyt a+a3 oxidation, but not cerebral perfusion pressure, were closely linked to lcoBF and BEA and allowed discrimination between normal, moderately reduced, and critically reduced cerebral perfusion (P < 0.01). Glutamate concentrations and the lactate/pyruvate ratio varied significantly only between moderately reduced cerebral perfusion and frank ischemia (complete loss of BEA and brain stem vasomotor control). Therefore, PbrO2, SmvO2, and Cyt a+a3 oxidation, but not glutamate and the lactate/pyruvate ratio, reliably predict the transition from moderately to critically reduced cerebral perfusion with impending energy failure.
Cellular responses to a prolonged delay in mitosis are determined by a DNA damage response controlled by Bcl-2 family proteins

Anti-cancer drugs that disrupt mitosis inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis, although the mechanisms of these responses are poorly understood. Here, we characterize a mitotic stress response that determines cell fate in response to microtubule poisons. We show that mitotic arrest induced by these drugs produces a temporally controlled DNA damage response (DDR) characterized by the caspase-dependent formation of γH2AX foci in non-apoptotic cells. Following exit from a delayed mitosis, this initial response results in activation of DDR protein kinases, phosphorylation of the tumour suppressor p53 and a delay in subsequent cell cycle progression. We show that this response is controlled by Mcl-1, a regulator of caspase activation that becomes degraded during mitotic arrest. Chemical inhibition of Mcl-1 and the related proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL by a BH3 mimetic enhances the mitotic DDR, promotes p53 activation and inhibits subsequent cell cycle progression. We also show that inhibitors of DDR protein kinases as well as BH3 mimetics promote apoptosis synergistically with taxol (paclitaxel) in a variety of cancer cell lines. Our work demonstrates the role of mitotic DNA damage responses in determining cell fate in response to microtubule poisons and BH3 mimetics, providing a rationale for anti-cancer combination chemotherapies.
On the Black's equation for the risk tolerance function

We analyze a nonlinear equation proposed by F. Black (1968) for the optimal portfolio function in a log-normal model. We cast it in terms of the risk tolerance function and provide, for general utility functions, existence, uniqueness and regularity results, and we also examine various monotonicity, concavity/convexity and S-shape properties. Stronger results are derived for utilities whose inverse marginal belongs to a class of completely monotonic functions.
Investigating Driver Fatigue versus Alertness Using the Granger Causality Network

Driving fatigue has been identified as one of the main factors affecting drivers’ safety. The aim of this study was to analyze drivers’ different mental states, such as alertness and drowsiness, and find out a neurometric indicator able to detect drivers’ fatigue level in terms of brain networks. Twelve young, healthy subjects were recruited to take part in a driver fatigue experiment under different simulated driving conditions. The Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals of the subjects were recorded during the whole experiment and analyzed by using Granger-Causality-based brain effective networks. It was that the topology of the brain networks and the brain’s ability to integrate information changed when subjects shifted from the alert to the drowsy stage. In particular, there was a significant difference in terms of strength of Granger causality (GC) in the frequency domain and the properties of the brain effective network i.e., causal flow, global efficiency and characteristic path length between such conditions. Also, some changes were more significant over the frontal brain lobes for the alpha frequency band. These findings might be used to detect drivers’ fatigue levels, and as reference work for future studies.
Exploring the Social and Cognitive Factors Shaping the Acquisition of Science Concepts among Primary School Students in first and second languages

This study investigates the intricate interplay of social and cognitive factors influencing the acquisition of science concepts among primary school pupils, with a focus on their first and second language. A survey research design was carried out across different primary schools in Ijebu Ode Government Area of Ogun State, during the third term of the 2022/2023 academic year. A sample size of 268 primary four pupils, 196 from eight private and seventy-two (72) from three public primary schools, were randomly selected through simple random sampling technique. A pilot survey was conducted by administering the research instruments to 46 male and 72 female randomly selected primary 4 pupils after which the instruments were subjected to analysis. The data collected were analyzed using a t-test and hierarchical regression analysis. Regression analysis showed that pupil motivation, teacher support, parent support, and school environment have a significant contribution to pupils’ science performance test (SPT). The results revealed a significant correlation between pupil motivation, teacher support, parental involvement, and the school environment, collectively influencing pupils' science performance. The study emphasizes addressing language disparities, enhancing student motivation, fostering collaborative support from parents and teachers, and creating a conducive learning environment in primary schools to improve overall science education performance.
The SEPALLATA-Like Gene OsMADS34 Is Required for Rice Inflorescence and Spikelet Development1[C][W][OA]

Grass plants develop distinct inflorescences and spikelets that determine grain yields. However, the mechanisms underlying the specification of inflorescences and spikelets in grasses remain largely unknown. Here, we report the biological role of one SEPALLATA (SEP)-like gene, OsMADS34, in controlling the development of inflorescences and spikelets in rice (Oryza sativa). OsMADS34 encodes a MADS box protein containing a short carboxyl terminus without transcriptional activation activity in yeast cells. We demonstrate the ubiquitous expression of OsMADS34 in roots, leaves, and primordia of inflorescence and spikelet organs. Compared with the wild type, osmads34 mutants developed altered inflorescence morphology, with an increased number of primary branches and a decreased number of secondary branches. In addition, osmads34 mutants displayed a decreased spikelet number and altered spikelet morphology, with lemma/leaf-like elongated sterile lemmas. Moreover, analysis of the double mutant osmads34 osmads1 suggests that OsMADS34 specifies the identities of floral organs, including the lemma/palea, lodicules, stamens, and carpel, in combination with another rice SEP-like gene, OsMADS1. Collectively, our study suggests that the origin and diversification of OsMADS34 and OsMADS1 contribute to the origin of distinct grass inflorescences and spikelets.
Newborn hearing screening: experience in a Malaysian hospital.

INTRODUCTION This study aims to determine the prevalence of hearing loss among newborns delivered at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and to evaluate the usefulness of our hearing screening protocol. METHODS All infants born in the hospital over a nine-month period, between April to December 2003, were screened for hearing loss with a portable otoacoustic emission (OAE) before discharge. At the age of two months, a second OAE test was repeated on newborns who failed the initial test. Those who failed the second test were re-tested at three months of age. When these infants failed the third OAE test, a brainstem evoked response (BSER) test was performed. RESULTS During the study period, 4,219 infants were born in the hospital, and 3,762 (89.2 percent) underwent OAE screening. 620 (19.7 percent) of them failed the first screening test, and 506 (81.6 percent) of them came for a second stage-screening test. In the third stage screening at three months of age, only 39 (65 percent) patients turned up. Of these, ten infants passed the OAE test and 29 failed. However, when these infants underwent BSER, 13 had normal BSER and 16 have abnormal BSER. The prevalence of hearing loss in this study was 0.42 percent (16/3,762). CONCLUSION The large number of defaulters and false-positive results in this study suggest that this pilot hearing-screen programme requires fine-tuning to minimise these problems.
Improved Approximation Algorithms for Relay Placement

In the relay placement problem, the input is a set of sensors and a number r ⩾ 1, the communication range of a relay. In the one-tier version of the problem, the objective is to place a minimum number of relays so that between every pair of sensors there is a path through sensors and/or relays such that the consecutive vertices of the path are within distance r if both vertices are relays and within distance 1 otherwise. The two-tier version adds the restrictions that the path must go through relays, and not through sensors. We present a 3.11-approximation algorithm for the one-tier version and a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for the two-tier version. We also show that the one-tier version admits no PTAS, assuming P ≠ NP.
Identifying suitable locations for onshore wind turbines using a GIS-MCDA approach

Onshore wind generation is one of the most cost-effective methods of renewable electricity generation. However, there is often difficulty in identifying suitable sites for development. To assist such systems, geospatial information systems are extensively used in identifying suitable sites for wind turbines: these models predominantly focus on the technical and legislative constraints, and have a limited understanding of the social issues surrounding development. As a result, there are concerns with the validity of these models in accurately determining suitable sites and fail to acknowledge the strong local opposition which some projects can experience. Building upon previous statistical analysis, this paper presents a geospatial multi-criteria decision analysis that integrates the technological, legislative, and social constraints to determine suitable sites for onshore wind turbine development. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that aims to understand whether suitable sites are likely to receive planning permission and to integrate this into the decision-making process. The findings highlight the importance of considering the planning constraints within modelling and demonstrates the limitations in identifying suitable sites for development.
Nadir observations of sprites from the International Space Station

[1] The experiment LSO (Lightning and Sprite Observations) is dedicated to the optical study, from the International Space Station, of sprites occurring in the upper atmosphere above thunderstorms. The objectives were to study these phenomena and to validate a new measurement concept for future measurements of sprites from space at the nadir. The first measurements were performed in the frame of the flight of the French Astronaut Claudie Haignere (mission Andromede) in October 2001. Observations were performed by two microcameras, one in the visible and near-infrared and the other equipped with a moderately wide band filter at 761 nm. This filter includes the most intense N2 1P emission of the sprites and partly the oxygen absorption A band of the atmosphere. The light emissions from sprites occurring in the middle and upper atmosphere are then differentiated from the emissions from lightning, occurring more deeply in the atmosphere and then more absorbed. This paper presents the first observations of sprites from space at the nadir and statistics about the respective intensities of lightning and sprites emissions as observed with this experiment.
Simultaneous Sparse Graph Embedding for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Sparse graph embedding (SGE) is a promising technique useful for the nonlinear feature extraction (FE) of hyperspectral images (HSIs). However, such images exhibit spatial variability and spectral multimodality, presenting challenges to existing FE methods, including SGE. To address this issue, this paper presents two novel SGE methods for HSI classification. One method, which is termed simultaneous SGE (SSGE), is designed to consider the spatial variability of spectral signatures by using a simultaneous sparse representation (SSR) model integrated with a shape-adaptive neighborhood building approach. In addition, a sparse graph is constructed via matrix computation based on sparse codes. Then, low-dimensional features are produced by employing linear graph embedding (LGE) based on the constructed sparse graph. The other method, which is termed simultaneous sparse multimanifold learning (SSMML), is proposed to handle the multimodality of an HSI. In SSMML, multiple views are generated to represent different modalities. Then, multiview-oriented submanifolds are produced by adopting SSGE, and they are further integrated via coregularization. SSGE is capable of modeling both local and global data structures. Furthermore, SSMML serves as a prototype that can model multimodal data structures. The proposed methods are evaluated by using sparse multinomial logistic regression for HSI classification. Experimental results with two popular hyperspectral data sets validate the good performance of the two methods in producing more representative low-dimensional features and yielding superior classification results compared with other related approaches.
Functional and morphological evidence for a ventricular conduction system in zebrafish and Xenopus hearts.

Zebrafish and Xenopus have become popular model organisms for studying vertebrate development of many organ systems, including the heart. However, it is not clear whether the single ventricular hearts of these species possess any equivalent of the specialized ventricular conduction system found in higher vertebrates. Isolated hearts of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) and African toads (Xenopus laevis) were stained with voltage-sensitive dye and optically mapped in spontaneous and paced rhythms followed by histological examination focusing on myocardial continuity between the atrium and the ventricle. Spread of the excitation wave through the atria was uniform with average activation times of 20 +/- 2 and 50 +/- 2 ms for zebrafish and Xenopus toads, respectively. After a delay of 47 +/- 8 and 414 +/- 16 ms, the ventricle became activated first in the apical region. Ectopic ventricular activation was propagated significantly more slowly (total ventricular activation times: 24 +/- 3 vs. 14 +/- 2 ms in zebrafish and 74 +/- 14 vs. 35 +/- 9 ms in Xenopus). Although we did not observe any histologically defined tracts of specialized conduction cells within the ventricle, there were trabecular bands with prominent polysialic acid-neural cell adhesion molecule staining forming direct myocardial continuity between the atrioventricular canal and the apex of the ventricle; i.e., the site of the epicardial breakthrough. We thus conclude that these hearts are able to achieve the apex-to-base ventricular activation pattern observed in higher vertebrates in the apparent absence of differentiated conduction fascicles, suggesting that the ventricular trabeculae serve as a functional equivalent of the His-Purkinje system.
Models of general community assembly mechanisms simulating the spatial and temporal dynamics of benthic biodiversity

Benthic macroinvertebrates are part of a complex network of interactions. The spatial and temporal scales of the processes that form the basis for these interactions have traditionally restricted their empirical investigation. The first chapter of the manuscript attempts a review of the modelling tools that have been employed for the study of the marine benthos.The implementation of a mechanistic modelling framework seems fitting, but it requires the derivation of a few model entities with a clear functional role. The second chapter of the manuscript employs the emergent group hypothesis to do that in a way that is objective and testable. The resulting grouping is tested against theoretical expectations and the results support its ability to represent functional diversity in the Rance estuary.The lack of knowledge for the attribution of relationships among functional components is still important. The third chapter of the manuscript addresses this issue based on ecological theories that predict the existence of functional trade-offs operating at both large and small spatial scales. In a first inception of the system, these elements are incorporated in the form of general rules of interaction into qualitative models of the functional groups.In spite of the interest in developing and analysing qualitative models, the goal of studying the dynamic and spatially explicit behaviour of benthic biodiversity can only be reached by a model with the same characteristics. The fourth chapter of the manuscript presents the architecture of an individual-based model, primarily transferring the rules of interaction from the qualitative models to a dynamic and spatially explicit framework.
CD8 T Cells Can Reject Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I‐Deficient Skin Allografts

Following transplantation, recipient T cells can recognize and respond to donor antigens expressed directly on donor cells, and can respond to donor‐derived peptides that have been processed and presented in the context of recipient MHC through the indirect pathway. Indirectly primed CD4+ T cells have been well studied in transplantation, but little information is available regarding whether indirectly primed CD8+ T cells participate in rejection. To address this, we placed MHC class I‐deficient DbKb knockout skin grafts onto allogeneic H‐2 k SCID recipients followed by adoptive transfer of purified H‐2 k CD8+ T cells. The MHC class I‐deficient grafts were rejected and only CD8+ T cells were detectable in the recipient lymphoid organs and in the skin grafts. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that CD8+ T cells were found in close proximity to vascular endothelial cells and to recipient infiltrating macrophages, suggesting specific interactions. The data demonstrate that cross‐primed polyclonal CD8+ T cells can function as active participants in the effector phase of rejection. The findings confirm and extend previous studies using a monoclonal TCR transgenic T cell and shed light on mechanisms of acute and chronic graft injury that are potentially relevant to human transplant recipients.
Application of growth regulators in Ginger and turmeric: A review

Plant growth regulators had a potential impact on the agriculture sector, due to its immediate effect on the crop and less time consuming. When administered at lower quantities itself, a bio-regulator can stimulate, inhibits, or changes plant morphological and physiological processes. In present scenario of pursued population growth and limited land availability utilization of plant growth regulators would sustain plant productivity and quality. The major constrain in the field of production of ginger include low production of quality rhizomes. These paper reviews the research work done on the ginger and turmeric using various growth regulators to respond to current needs of enhancing yield in market and drive further growth in ginger and turmeric industry
Restrictions on Tree Adjoining Languages

Several methods are known for parsing languages generated by Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAGs) in O(n6) worst case running time. In this paper we investigate which restrictions on TAGs and TAG derivations are needed in order to lower this O(n6) time complexity, without introducing large runtime constants, and without losing any of the generative power needed to capture the syntactic constructions in natural language that can be handled by unrestricted TAGs. In particular, we describe an algorithm for parsing a strict subcalss of TAG in O(n5), and attempt to show that this subclass retains enough generative power to make it useful in the general case.
Imagerie lithosphérique par inversion de formes d’ondes télésismiques – Application aux Alpes Occidentales

Dans cette these, un algorithme d'inversion de formes d'ondes (FWI) est developpe pour l'imagerie 3D des parametres elastiques de la lithosphere a partir des enregistrements telesismiques dans le but d'accroitre la resolution des images lithospheriques. La modelisation sismique est effectuee par un methode hybride d'injection de champ d'ondes. Une premiere modelisation est effectuee dans une Terre globale avec le logiciel AxiSEM pour determiner les champs d’ondes aux bords de la cible lithospherique. Ces solutions sont ensuite propagees dans cette cible par une methode aux elements finis spectraux. Le probleme inverse est resolu avec un algorithme d’optimisation locale de type quasi-Newton (l-BFGS). La sensibilite de la methode a la configuration experimentale (parametrisation du milieu, modele initial, geometrie et echantillonnage du dispositif de capteurs) est tout d’abord analysee avec un modele synthetique realiste des Alpes Occidentales. L’algorithme est finalement applique a neuf evenements de la campagne CIFALPS dans les Alpes occidentales jusqu’a une frequence de 0.2Hz. Les modeles de vitesses P et S et de densite revelent les grandes structures lithospheriques de la chaine alpine, en particulier le corps d’Ivree et la geometrie des Moho europeen et adriatique. Plus profondement, deux anomalies de vitesses lentes sont imagees dans le manteau et sont interpretees comme la signature d’une remontee asthenospherique et la localisation du detachement du panneau plongeant europeen. Ces resultats corroborent l’hypothese d’une subduction continentale de la croute europeenne et d’une eventuelle dechirure du panneau plongeant europeen lors de la phase de collision.