Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differences in the photosynthetic plasticity of ferns and Ginkgo grown in experimentally controlled low [O2]:[CO2] atmospheres may explain their contrasting ecological fate across the Triassic–Jurassic mass extinction boundary

Background and Aims Fluctuations in [CO2] have been widely studied as a potential driver of plant evolution; however, the role of a fluctuating [O2]:[CO2] ratio is often overlooked. The present study aimed to investigate the inherent physiological plasticity of early diverging, extant species following acclimation to an atmosphere similar to that across the Triassic‐Jurassic mass extinction interval (TJB, approx. 200 Mya), a time of major ecological change. Methods Mature plants from two angiosperm (Drimys winteri and Chloranthus oldhamii), two monilophyte (Osmunda claytoniana and Cyathea australis) and one gymnosperm (Ginkgo biloba) species were grown for 2 months in replicated walk‐in Conviron BDW40 chambers running at TJB treatment conditions of 16 % [O2]‐1900 ppm [CO2] and ambient conditions of 21 % [O2]‐400 ppm [CO2], and their physiological plasticity was assessed using gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence methods. Key Results TJB acclimation caused significant reductions in the maximum rate of carboxylation (VCmax) and the maximum electron flow supporting ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate regeneration (Jmax) in all species, yet this downregulation had little effect on their light‐saturated photosynthetic rate (Asat). Ginkgo was found to photorespire heavily under ambient conditions, while growth in low [O2]:[CO2] resulted in increased heat dissipation per reaction centre (DIo/RC), severe photodamage, as revealed by the species' decreased maximum efficiency of primary photochemistry (Fv/Fm) and decreased in situ photosynthetic electron flow (Jsitu). Conclusions It is argued that the observed photodamage reflects the inability of Ginkgo to divert excess photosynthetic electron flow to sinks other than the downregulated C3 and the diminished C2 cycles under low [O2]:[CO2]. This finding, coupled with the remarkable physiological plasticity of the ferns, provides insights into the underlying mechanism of Ginkgoales' near extinction and ferns' proliferation as atmospheric [CO2] increased to maximum levels across the TJB.
Novel MARG-Sensor Orientation Estimation Algorithm Using Fast Kalman Filter

Orientation estimation from magnetic, angular rate, and gravity (MARG) sensor array is a key problem in mechatronic-related applications. This paper proposes a new method in which a quaternion-based Kalman filter scheme is designed. The quaternion kinematic equation is employed as the process model. With our previous contributions, we establish the measurement model of attitude quaternion from accelerometer and magnetometer, which is later proved to be the fastest (computationally) one among representative attitude determination algorithms of such sensor combination. Variance analysis is later given enabling the optimal updating of the proposed filter. The algorithm is implemented on real-world hardware where experiments are carried out to reveal the advantages of the proposed method with respect to conventional ones. The proposed approach is also validated on an unmanned aerial vehicle during a real flight. Results show that the proposed one is faster than any other Kalman-based ones and even faster than some complementary ones while the attitude estimation accuracy is maintained.
Potential therapeutic applications of mesenchymal stromal cells

Summary Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are a non-homogeneous population of plastic-adherent cells which were initially isolated from post-natal bone marrow. They have the capacity to differentiate to multiple mesodermal lineages including bone, cartilage and adipose tissue. In stringent culture conditions, MSCs can also be induced to differentiate into different cell types of endoderm and neuroectoderm lineages. To date, no specific marker identifies MSCs, although a number of cell surface antigens have been described which enrich for MSCs. Mesenchymal stromal cells possess a number of properties which have generated considerable interest in diverse cellular therapeutic applications. The capacity of MSCs to differentiate into multiple different cell lineages has seen them actively explored for tissue repair, particularly in cardiac, orthopaedic and neurological applications. A large body of data indicates that MSCs possess immunomodulatory properties. Mesenchymal stromal cells are immunosuppressive, interacting with T lymphocytes, antigen presenting cells, B lymphocytes, and natural killer cells. In addition, they are immunoprivileged, allowing transplantation across allogeneic barriers. These immunomodulatory properties have seen infusion of MSCs for the treatment of steroid refractory graft versus host disease, a life threatening complication of haemopoietic cell transplantation, with promising results. Furthermore, these immune functions may lead to roles in the facilitation of engraftment, induction of tolerance and as therapy in autoimmune disease.
Quantitative mass spectrometry of human reticulocytes reveal proteome‐wide modifications during maturation

Erythropoiesis is marked by progressive changes in morphological, biochemical and mechanical properties of erythroid precursors to generate red blood cells (RBC). The earliest enucleated forms derived in this process, known as reticulocytes, are multi‐lobular and spherical. As reticulocytes mature, they undergo a series of dynamic cytoskeletal re‐arrangements and the expulsion of residual organelles, resulting in highly deformable biconcave RBCs (normocytes). To understand the significant, yet neglected proteome‐wide changes associated with reticulocyte maturation, we undertook a quantitative proteomics approach. Immature reticulocytes (marked by the presence of surface transferrin receptor, CD71) and mature RBCs (devoid of CD71) were isolated from human cord blood using a magnetic separation procedure. After sub‐fractionation into triton‐extracted membrane proteins and luminal samples (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation), quantitative mass spectrometry was conducted to identify more than 1800 proteins with good confidence and coverage. While most structural proteins (such as Spectrins, Ankyrin and Band 3) as well as surface glycoproteins were conserved, proteins associated with microtubule structures, such as Talin‐1/2 and ß‐Tubulin, were detected only in immature reticulocytes. Atomic force microscopy (AFM)‐based imaging revealed an extended network of spectrin filaments in reticulocytes (with an average length of 48 nm), which shortened during reticulocyte maturation (average spectrin length of 41 nm in normocytes). The extended nature of cytoskeletal network may partly account for increased deformability and shape changes, as reticulocytes transform to normocytes.
Severity of Allergic Airway Disease Due to House Dust Mite Allergen Is Not Increased after Clinical Recovery of Lung Infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae in Mice

ABSTRACT Chlamydia pneumoniae is associated with chronic inflammatory lung diseases like bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The existence of a causal link between allergic airway disease and C. pneumoniae is controversial. A mouse model was used to address the question of whether preceding C. pneumoniae lung infection and recovery modifies the outcome of experimental allergic asthma after subsequent sensitization with house dust mite (HDM) allergen. After intranasal infection, BALB/c mice suffered from pneumonia characterized by an increased clinical score, reduction of body weight, histopathology, and a bacterial load in the lungs. After 4 weeks, when infection had almost resolved clinically, HDM allergen sensitization was performed for another 4 weeks. Subsequently, mice were subjected to a methacholine hyperresponsiveness test and sacrificed for further analyses. As expected, after 8 weeks, C. pneumoniae-specific antibodies were detectable only in infected mice and the titer was significantly higher in the C. pneumoniae/HDM allergen-treated group than in the C. pneumoniae/NaCl group. Intriguingly, airway hyperresponsiveness and eosinophilia in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were significantly lower in the C. pneumoniae/HDM allergen-treated group than in the mock/HDM allergen-treated group. We did observe a relationship between experimental asthma and chlamydial infection. Our results demonstrate an influence of sensitization to HDM allergen on the development of a humoral antibacterial response. However, our model demonstrates no increase in the severity of experimental asthma to HDM allergen as a physiological allergen after clinically resolved severe chlamydial lung infection. Our results rather suggest that allergic airway disease and concomitant cellular changes in mice are decreased following C. pneumoniae lung infection in this setting.
Prescribing of Electronic Activity Monitors in Cardiometabolic Diseases: Qualitative Interview-Based Study

Background The prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, including those such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, so-called cardiometabolic diseases, is high and is increasing worldwide. Strong evidence supports the role of physical activity in management of these diseases. There is general consensus that mHealth technology, including electronic activity monitors, can potentially increase physical activity in patients, but their use in clinical settings remains limited. Practitioners’ requirements when prescribing electronic activity monitors have been poorly described. Objective The aims of this qualitative study were (1) to explore how specialist physicians prescribe electronic activity monitors to patients presenting with cardiometabolic conditions, and (2) to better understand their motivation for and barriers to prescribing such monitors. Methods We conducted qualitative semistructured interviews in March to May 2016 with 11 senior physicians from a public university hospital in France with expertise in management of cardiometabolic diseases (type 1 and type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia). Interviews lasted 45 to 60 minutes and were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using directed content analysis. We report our findings following the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist. Results Most physicians we interviewed had never prescribed electronic activity monitors, whereas they frequently prescribed blood glucose or blood pressure self-monitoring devices. Reasons for nonprescription included lack of interest in the data collected, lack of evidence for data accuracy, concern about work overload possibly resulting from automatic data transfer, and risk of patients becoming addicted to data. Physicians expected future marketing of easy-to-use monitors that will accurately measure physical activity duration and intensity and provide understandable motivating feedback. Conclusions Features of electronic activity monitors, although popular among the general public, do not meet the needs of physicians. In-depth understanding of physicians’ expectations is a first step toward designing technologies that can be widely used in clinical settings and facilitate physical activity prescription. Physicians should have a role, along with key health care stakeholders—patients, researchers, information technology firms, the public, and private payers—in developing the most effective methods for integrating activity monitors into patient care.
Electrostatic manipulation of piezoelectric fibres using a sharp probe electrode in a dielectric liquid: Analysis of the electrohydrodynamic phenomena

Micro-assembly techniques have been identified as a major technology ‘pillar’ that will underpin further advancements in integrated micro-and nano-systems. In practice, there is a generic requirement for component parts that are often fragile, or that have been prepared by mutually incompatible processes, to be brought together to make a complete working system. This thesis discusses an electrostatic positioning technique for micro-scale elements that could form the basis of an industrial process. A highly non-uniform field generated between a needle-like upper electrode and a bottom flat electrode can be used to electrostatically capture, displace, and relocate elements into a predefined spatial configuration. The very intense field at the needle tip can facilitate the collection of the material at a precise point. However charge injection and local dielectric breakdown must also be considered as they can induce instability near the tip, and consequently interfere with any picking up action. The principal physical phenomena and potential benefits are analysed and discussed, considering three different configurations to achieve the pick and place operation for a micro-fibre in the needle-plane configuration. The first two are operated on an isolated single fibre lying on a flat bottom electrode, applying respectively a DC or an AC voltage. The third case is that of a group of fibres, and it exploits a dielectrophoretic chain structuring effect to assist in the micro-manipulation technique. Experimentation has focussed on the importance of the charge transfer mechanisms, leading to a model which provides good agreement with the observed behaviour. Moreover, an analysis of the forces exerted on the fibres showed that they arise not only from a polarisation effect, but that there is also an electrophoretic contribution. The viability of the proposed technique has been demonstrated using lead zirconate titanate (PZT rods and carbon fibres).
Meta-analysis of cognitive performance in fibromyalgia

ABSTRACT Introduction: Fibromyalgia is a condition with symptoms of pain, physical function difficulties, and emotional problems, but is also characterized by complaints of poor cognition (often called “FibroFog”). Over the last two decades, a number of studies have examined cognitive differences between individuals with and without fibromyalgia. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a quantitative synthesis of these differences across multiple cognitive domains. Method: Following Cochrane guidelines, we identified 37 eligible studies for analysis where persons with fibromyalgia (total n = 964) were compared to participants from age-matched control groups without fibromyalgia (total n = 1025) on a range of neuropsychological measures. Group differences between persons with fibromyalgia and healthy controls were examined for cognitive domains including processing speed, long- and short-term memory, and executive functions (inhibitory control, set shifting, updating, and accessing). Random-effect meta-analyses were conducted to determine effect sizes for these differences in cognitive performance. Results: Fibromyalgia was significantly and negatively associated with performance on all domains of cognitive function. The largest effect size was found for inhibitory control (g = 0.61), followed by memory (g = 0.51 for short-term, 0.50 for long-term memory). The smallest cognitive difference between those with fibromyalgia and controls was for set shifting (g = 0.30). Conclusion: These findings support the hypothesis that the self-reported cognitive impact of fibromyalgia is also found in objective neuropsychological measures. Routine screening for cognitive dysfunction in those with fibromyalgia may be warranted in addition to assessment of the traditional fibromyalgia symptoms.
Exchange Rate Volatility and Foreign Direct Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The inability of households to save over time has significant influence on the rate of capital accumulation and economic growth in developing countries. In order to understand this trend, this research assesses savings rates and its correlates in rural Kwara state, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to obtain data from 120 households. This was then analyzed using two descriptive statistics: the generalized linear model and the Tobit regression model. Results show that majority of the rural households were male-headed (81.0 percent) and combined farming with other non-farming activities (73.5 percent). The Tobit regression model reveals that age squared (p<0.10), farming experience (p<0.10) and diversification of nonfarming activities (p<0.05) positively influence rural saving rates.
Effect of ocean acidification on the fatty acid composition of a natural plankton community

The effect of ocean acidification on the fatty acid composition of a natural plankton community in the Arctic was studied in a large-scale mesocosm experiment, carried out in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard, Norway) at 79° N. Nine mesocosms of ~50 m3 each were exposed to 8 different pCO2 levels (from natural background conditions to ~1420 μatm), yielding pH values (on the total scale) from ~8.3 to 7.5. Inorganic nutrients were added on day 13. The phytoplankton development during this 30-day experiment passed three distinct phases: (1) prior to the addition of inorganic nutrients, (2) first bloom after nutrient addition, and (3) second bloom after nutrient addition. The fatty acid composition of the natural plankton community was analysed and showed, in general, high percentages of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs): 44–60% of total fatty acids. Positive correlations with pCO2 were found for most PUFAs during phases 2 and/or 3, with the exception of 20:5n3 (eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA), an important diatom marker. These correlations are probably linked to changes in taxonomic composition in response to pCO2. While diatoms (together with prasinophytes and haptophytes) increased during phase 3 mainly in the low and intermediate pCO2 treatments, dinoflagellates were favoured by high CO2 concentrations during the same time period. This is reflected in the development of group-specific fatty acid trophic markers. No indications were found for a generally detrimental effect of ocean acidification on the planktonic food quality in terms of essential fatty acids.
Intension classification of user queries in intelligent customer service system

In this paper, we investigate the popular neural word embedding method word2vec as a source of evidence in short text similarity calculation, which has been applied to intention classification of user queries in our intelligent customer service system — Alime. For avoiding information loss on sentence-level vector representation, we design a Word Similarity Maximization (WSM) method, which utilize word-level embedding vectors to directly calculate query similarity. Experimental results on a dataset from real daily user query data from Alime system show WSM can better detect query-intention relation than baseline methods.
Acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome after adjuvant chemotherapy: A population‐based study among older breast cancer patients

Chemotherapy for early breast cancer is associated with a small risk of developing myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and/or acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The aim of this study was to determine the risk of developing AML or MDS after modern adjuvant chemotherapy in older breast cancer patients and to further define the risk of individual chemotherapy regimens.
The Influence of Local Critical Current Degradation on the Quench Characteristics of GdBCO Tapes and Coils

We experimentally investigated the influence of local critical current degradation on the thermal and electromagnetic behavior around the local degradation region and the time-dependent characteristics of the voltage across it. The local critical current degradation was produced by cutting a part of the width of a piece of GdBCO tape. The current that caused the tape to burn out and the voltages across the degradation region were measured in short tape samples and pancake coils made using GdBCO tape. In a sample without copper stabilizer covered with Styrofoam, the voltage rapidly increased over a short time period and the sample burned out soon after the operating current exceeded the local critical current. On the other hand, the tape with the copper stabilizer cooled by an LN 2 was able to stably maintain the voltage even when the operating current largely exceeded the local critical current. The current sharing effect of the copper stabilizer greatly contributed to an improvement in stability because the current sharing effect was much larger than the LN2 cooling effect. The cooling effect from the top and bottom surfaces of the coil was also important and should be improved upon as much as possible to suppress the temperature rise during coil excitation. The heat transfer effect in the radial direction between coil layers was smaller than the LN2 cooling effect.
A study on the deterioration of LDPE and epoxy insulation by partial discharge

Experiments were conducted to investigate the deterioration of LDPE (low density polyethylene) and epoxy insulation by partial discharge (PD) in open air and in nitrogen atmosphere. The specimens subjected to the PD were examined using AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) and FTIR. It was discovered through the AFM observation that irregularities were generated in the deteriorated region of the insulation. The magnitude of the irregularities after 200 hours of aging was estimated to be 600-900 nanometers. From analysis of the FTIR spectra, carbonyl groups and amides were found to be generated in the LDPE specimen subjected to PD in air, whereas in specimens subjected to PD in nitrogen, amines were generated. The deterioration process of LDPE by PD was discussed in relation to these FTIR results.
Numerical Modeling and Material Characterization for Multilayer Magnetically Shielded Room Design

In this paper, a method for the assessment of magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials at low magnetic field values is presented. The knowledge of these properties is crucial for the design of magnetically shielded rooms that must be effective against low-frequency external magnetic field disturbances on the order of 0.1– $1~\mu \mathrm {T}$ . The considered shielding structure is composed by a number of layers made of different high-permeability ferromagnetic sheets as grain-oriented electric steel and nickel–iron soft magnetic alloy. The ferromagnetic materials in this region follow the Rayleigh law that is a quadratic law between magnetic flux density and the applied field. Two material-dependent parameters of this law are obtained by a characterization of the material behaviour performed on a scaled prototype of a magnetically shielded room. The procedure is validated on a multilayer shield structure.
An Online Learning Approach to Generative Adversarial Networks

We consider the problem of training generative models with a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). Although GANs can accurately model complex distributions, they are known to be difficult to train due to instabilities caused by a difficult minimax optimization problem. In this paper, we view the problem of training GANs as finding a mixed strategy in a zero-sum game. Building on ideas from online learning we propose a novel training method named Chekhov GAN 1 . On the theory side, we show that our method provably converges to an equilibrium for semi-shallow GAN architectures, i.e. architectures where the discriminator is a one layer network and the generator is arbitrary. On the practical side, we develop an efficient heuristic guided by our theoretical results, which we apply to commonly used deep GAN architectures. On several real world tasks our approach exhibits improved stability and performance compared to standard GAN training.