Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of the mechanical and dispersible properties of wood pulp/Danufil wetlaid nonwovens with/without hydroentanglement

Abstract A new wiping product prepared by wetlaid/spunlace (wetlace) method possess dispersibility and fully degradability. To obtain the excellent products, the present research first investigates the apparent microstructures, mechanical properties and dispersibility of wood pulp/Danufil wetlaid nonwovens with/without hydroentanglement. The results suggest that fibers are stacked and some of the fiber cohesions occurred on the surface of wetlaid nonwoven. After hydroentanglement, a 3D entanglement skeleton formed by Danufil fibers is found to determine the mechanical and dispersion properties of nonwovens, while wood pulp ensures the dispersion properties and is attributed as the main component of the nonwovens. The breaking extension and tearing strength of nonwovens have been improved significantly and the material with decreasing dispersibility becomes soft. Meanwhile, the dispersion of wetlaid and wetlace nonwovens over time both show linear fitting trend. The increase in content and length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio of Danufil fiber results in the increase in tensile and tearing strength, and the decrease in bending rigidity and dispersion performances of materials. Moreover, the wetlaid nonwovens developed in this study may become promising candidate for the disposable sanitary products.
Chemical Analysis and Study of Phenolics, Antioxidant Activity, and Antibacterial Effect of the Wood and Bark of Maclura tinctoria (L.) D. Don ex Steud.

Maclura tinctoria (L.) D. Don ex Steud. has one of the highest qualities among the coefficients for Brazilian woods (up to 9.6) and resistance rates equivalent to Indian teak (Tectona grandis). In this study, the macromolecular constituents and total phenols compounds as well as the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of this wood were evaluated. Total phenols and proanthocyanidin levels were higher in wood when compared with bark levels. The antioxidant activity of wood extracts (IC50 = 18.7 μg/mL) was more effective than that of bark extracts (IC50 = 20.9 μg/mL). Wood and bark extracts revealed a high potential for inhibition of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. The bark extracts were the most active (MIC from 20 to 60 μg/mL). Both antioxidant activity and high potential for bacteria inhibition turn these extracts promising for drug formulations, especially as antibacterial agent.
Strong Convergence to the homogenized limit of elliptic equations with random coefficients

Consider a discrete uniformly elliptic divergence form equation on the $d$ dimensional lattice $\Z^d$ with random coefficients. It has previously been shown that if the random environment is translational invariant, then the averaged Green's function together with its first and second differences, are bounded by the corresponding quantities for the constant coefficient discrete elliptic equation. It has also been shown that if the random environment is ergodic, then solutions of the random equation converge under diffusive scaling to solutions of a homogenized elliptic PDE on $\R^d$. In this paper point-wise estimates are obtained on the difference between the averaged Green's function and the homogenized Green's function for certain random environments which are strongly mixing.
Mitochondrial Fission Induces Glycolytic Reprogramming in Cancer-Associated Myofibroblasts, Driving Stromal Lactate Production, and Early Tumor Growth

Recent studies have suggested that cancer cells behave as metabolic parasites, by inducing oxidative stress in adjacent normal fibroblasts. More specifically, oncogenic mutations in cancer cells lead to ROS production and the “secretion” of hydrogen peroxide species. Oxidative stress in stromal fibroblasts then induces their metabolic conversion into cancer-associated fibroblasts. Such oxidative stress drives the onset of autophagy, mitophagy, and aerobic glycolysis in fibroblasts, resulting in the local production of high-energy mitochondrial fuels (such as L-lactate, ketone bodies, and glutamine). These recycled nutrients are then transferred to cancer cells, where they are efficiently burned via oxidative mitochondrial metabolism (OXPHOS). We have termed this new energy-transfer mechanism “Two-Compartment Tumor Metabolism”, to reflect that the production and consumption of nutrients (L-lactate and other catabolites) is highly compartmentalized. Thus, high-energy onco-catabolites are produced by the tumor stroma. Here, we used a genetic approach to stringently test this energy-transfer hypothesis. First, we generated hTERT-immortalized fibroblasts which were genetically re-programmed towards catabolic metabolism. Metabolic re-programming towards glycolytic metabolism was achieved by the recombinant over-expression of MFF (mitochondrial fission factor). MFF over-expression results in extensive mitochondrial fragmentation, driving mitochondrial dysfunction. Our results directly show that MFF-fibroblasts undergo oxidative stress, with increased ROS production, and the onset of autophagy and mitophagy, both catabolic processes. Mechanistically, oxidative stress induces autophagy via NF-kB activation, also providing a link with inflammation. As a consequence MFF-fibroblasts showed intracellular ATP depletion and the extracellular secretion of L-lactate, a critical onco-catabolite. MFF-fibroblasts also showed signs of myofibroblast differentiation, with the expression of SMA and calponin. Importantly, MFF-fibroblasts signficantly promoted early tumor growth (up to 6.5-fold), despite a 20% overall reduction in angiogenesis. Thus, catabolic metabolism in cancer-associated fibroblasts may be a critical event during tumor intiation, allowing accelerated tumor growth, especially prior to the onset of neo-angiogenesis.
Serum Selenium and Ceruloplasmin in Nigerians with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy

The study aimed to determine if selenium deficiency, serum ceruloplasmin and traditional birth practices are risk factors for peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), in Kano, Nigeria. This is a case-control study carried out in three hospitals, and PPCM patients were followed up for six months. Critically low serum selenium concentration was defined as <70 µg/L. A total of 39 PPCM patients and 50 controls were consecutively recruited after satisfying the inclusion criteria. Mean serum selenium in patients (61.7 ± 14.9 µg/L) was significantly lower than in controls (118.4 ± 45.6 µg/L) (p < 0.001). The prevalence of serum selenium <70 µg/L was significantly higher among patients (76.9%) than controls (22.0%) (p < 0.001). The mean ceruloplasmin and prevalence of socio-economic indices, multiparity, pregnancy-induced hypertension, obesity and twin pregnancy were not different between the groups (p > 0.05). Logistic regression showed that rural residency significantly increased the odds for serum selenium <70 µg/L by 2.773-fold (p = 0.037). Baseline serum levels of selenium and ceruloplasmin were not associated with six-month mortality. This study has shown that selenium deficiency is a risk factor for PPCM in Kano, Nigeria, and is related to rural residency. However, serum ceruloplasmin, customary birth practices and some other characteristics were not associated with PPCM in the study area.
Human Milk Glycoproteins Inhibit the Adherence of Salmonella typhimurium to HeLa Cells

The ability of human milk, as well as its protein fractions, to inhibit the adhesion and invasion of Salmonella typhimurium to HeLa cells was investigated. The results revealed that milk secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) inhibited neither the adherence nor the bacterial invasion; however, free secretory component and lactoferrin inhibited the bacterial adhesion and interacted with several bacterial proteins. Our data indicated that glycoproteins such as free secretory component and lactoferrin could act as protective compounds against infant enteric diseases, possibly binding to bacterial surface and blocking adhesion, the primordial step of S. typhimurium infection.
Structural Plasticity of Synaptopodin in the Axon Initial Segment during Visual Cortex Development

The axon initial segment (AIS) is essential for action potential generation. Recently, the AIS was identified as a site of neuronal plasticity. A subpopulation of AIS in cortical principal neurons contains stacks of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) forming the cisternal organelle (CO). The function of this organelle is poorly understood, but roles in local Ca2+-trafficking and AIS plasticity are discussed. To investigate whether the presence and/or the size of COs are linked to the development and maturation of AIS of cortical neurons, we analyzed the relationship between COs and the AIS during visual cortex development under control and visual deprivation conditions. In wildtype mice, immunolabeling for synaptopodin, ankyrin-G, and ßIV-spectrin were employed to label COs and the AIS, respectively. Dark rearing resulted in an increase in synaptopodin cluster sizes, suggesting a homeostatic function of the CO in this cellular compartment. In line with this observation, synaptopodin-deficient mice lacking the CO showed AIS shortening in the dark. Collectively, these data demonstrate that the CO is an essential part of the AIS machinery required for AIS plasticity during a critical developmental period of the visual cortex.
Development and Validation of the Quality-of-Life Adolescent Cleft Questionnaire in Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate

Abstract Only a few reports in the literature have described the use of specific instruments for assessing the quality of life in adolescents and young adults with cleft lip and palate (CLP). This condition markedly affects their lifestyle, even after surgical treatment. In the present study, we aimed to develop a quality-of-life assessment tool specifically designed for such patients with CLP. Our multidisciplinary team created a questionnaire focused on the physical, psychological, and social satisfaction of adolescents and young adults with CLP, which was adapted from 3 dimensions of the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey. The questionnaire was administered to a randomized sample of 40 adolescents and young adults (aged 16–24 years) with CLP who had completed treatment protocols and 40 (aged 16–24 years) who were not affected by CLP. The statistical results stated that the questionnaire had good reliability and validity; the Cronbach &agr; coefficient was found to be 0.944. Moreover, factorial analysis confirmed the presence of 3 subscales that were the fundamental components of this questionnaire, which is consistent with the areas theoretically proposed and from which the items were designed and selected. Thus, we validated our novel questionnaire that was administered in the present study and proved its consistency. However, further investigations on a larger population would be useful to confirm these findings.
Detecting inefficiently-used containers to avoid bloat

Runtime bloat degrades significantly the performance and scalability of software systems. An important source of bloat is the inefficient use of containers. It is expensive to create inefficiently-used containers and to invoke their associated methods, as this may ultimately execute large volumes of code, with call stacks dozens deep, and allocate many temporary objects. This paper presents practical static and dynamic tools that can find inappropriate use of containers in Java programs. At the core of these tools is a base static analysis that identifies, for each container, the objects that are added to this container and the key statements (i.e., heap loads and stores) that achieve the semantics of common container operations such as ADD and GET. The static tool finds problematic uses of containers by considering the nesting relationships among the loops where these semantics-achieving statements are located, while the dynamic tool can instrument these statements and find inefficiencies by profiling their execution frequencies. The high precision of the base analysis is achieved by taking advantage of a context-free language (CFL)-reachability formulation of points-to analysis and by accounting for container-specific properties. It is demand-driven and client-driven, facilitating refinement specific to each queried container object and increasing scalability. The tools built with the help of this analysis can be used both to avoid the creation of container-related performance problems early during development, and to help with diagnosis when problems are observed during tuning. Our experimental results show that the static tool has a low false positive rate and produces more relevant information than its dynamic counterpart. Further case studies suggest that significant optimization opportunities can be found by focusing on statically-identified containers for which high allocation frequency is observed at run time.
Immunoglobulin classes of Aleutian disease virus antibody

Aleutian disease virus (ADV) persistently infects mink and causes marked hypergammaglobulinemia. Immunoglobulin class-specific antisera were used to define the total immunoglobulin of each class by radial immunodiffusion and the immunoglobulin class of ADV-specific antibody by immunofluorescence in experimentally and naturally infected mink. Electrophoretic gamma globulin closely reflects the immunoglobulin G (IgG) level in mink, and the majority of the increased immunoglobulin and ADV antibody in infected mink is IgG. IgM becomes elevated within 6 days after infection, reaches peak levels by 15 to 18 days, and returns to normal by 60 days after infection. The first ADV antibody demonstrable is IgM, and most mink have virus-specific IgM antibody for at least 85 days postinfection. Serum IgA levels in normal mink are not normally distributed, and ADV infection causes a marked elevation of IgA. Low levels of ADV-specific IgA antibody can be shown throughout the course of infection. Failure of large amounts of virus-specific IgG antibody to inhibit the reaction of virus-specific IgM and IgA antibodies suggests that the various classes of antibodies are directed against spatially different antigenic determinants. The IgM and IgA were shown not to be rheumatoid factors.
Superficial mycoses.

Twenty-five years ago many of the topical remedies for superficial mycoses were irritating, toxic, or allergenic. Total x-ray depilation of the scalp was the accepted mode of therapy for tinea capitis. The introduction of topical nystatin for candidiasis and tolnaftate for dermatophytosis were major advances, but tinea capitis, onychomycosis, and chronic tinea pedis still presented problems. Soon after its introduction in 1958, griseofulvin became the definitive form of therapy for all types of dermatophytosis and played a major role in abolishing large-scale epidemics of tinea capitis in some countries. Recently, haloprogin and the imidazole derivatives, miconazole and clotrimazole, which are topically active against dermatophytes and Candida albicans, have become available. Selective indicator media for isolating dermatophytes are useful diagnostic tools, but quicker methods of diagnosis which require little interpretation are still lacking. Epidemiologic studies in Vietnam again revealed the effects of climate and occlusion on the prevalence, incidence, and severity of superficial mycoses and led to renewed interest in host susceptibility, environment, and prevention of infections.
SymPy: Symbolic computing in Python

SymPy is an open source computer algebra system written in pure Python. It is built with a focus on extensibility and ease of use, through both interactive and programmatic applications. These characteristics have led SymPy to become the standard symbolic library for the scientific Python ecosystem. This paper presents the architecture of SymPy, a description of its features, and a discussion of select domain specific submodules. The supplementary materials provide additional examples and further outline details of the architecture and features of SymPy.
A Pseudomonas aeruginosa TIR effector mediates immune evasion by targeting UBAP1 and TLR adaptors

Bacterial pathogens often subvert the innate immune system to establish a successful infection. The direct inhibition of downstream components of innate immune pathways is particularly well documented but how bacteria interfere with receptor proximal events is far less well understood. Here, we describe a Toll/interleukin 1 receptor (TIR) domain‐containing protein (PumA) of the multi‐drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA7 strain. We found that PumA is essential for virulence and inhibits NF‐κB, a property transferable to non‐PumA strain PA14, suggesting no additional factors are needed for PumA function. The TIR domain is able to interact with the Toll‐like receptor (TLR) adaptors TIRAP and MyD88, as well as the ubiquitin‐associated protein 1 (UBAP1), a component of the endosomal‐sorting complex required for transport I (ESCRT‐I). These interactions are not spatially exclusive as we show UBAP1 can associate with MyD88, enhancing its plasma membrane localization. Combined targeting of UBAP1 and TLR adaptors by PumA impedes both cytokine and TLR receptor signalling, highlighting a novel strategy for innate immune evasion.
Anti-CD47 antibodies induce phagocytosis of live, malignant B cells by macrophages via the Fc domain, resulting in cell death by phagoptosis

When expressed on the surface of cells, CD47 inhibits phagocytosis of these cells by phagocytes. Most human cancers overexpress CD47, and antibodies to CD47 have shown a remarkable ability to clear a range of cancers in animal models. However, the mechanism by which these antibodies cause cancer cell death is unclear. We find that CD47 is expressed on the surface of three B-cell lines from human malignancies: 697 (pre-B-ALL lymphoblasts), Ramos and DG-75 (both mature B-cells, Burkitt’s lymphoma), and anti-CD47 antibodies greatly increase the phagocytosis of all three cell line by macrophages. In the presence of macrophages, the antibodies cause clearance of the lymphoblasts within hours, but in the absence of macrophages, the antibodies have no effect on lymphoblast viability. Macrophages engulf viable lymphoblasts containing mitochondria with a normal membrane potential, but following engulfment the mitochondrial membrane potential is lost indicating a loss of viability. Inhibition of phagocytosis protects lymphoblasts from death indicating that phagocytosis is required for anti-CD47 mediated cell death. Blocking either the antibody Fc domain or Fc receptors inhibits antibody-induced phagocytosis. Antibodies against cell surface markers CD10 or CD19 also induced Fc-domain-dependent phagocytosis, but at a lower level commensurate with expression. Thus, phagoptosis may contribute to the efficacy of a number of therapeutic antibodies used in cancer therapy, as well as potentially endogenous antibodies. We conclude that anti-CD47 antibodies induce phagocytosis by binding CD47 on lymphoblast and Fc receptors on macrophages, resulting in cell death by phagocytosis, i.e. phagoptosis.
AZD2014, an Inhibitor of mTORC1 and mTORC2, Is Highly Effective in ER+ Breast Cancer When Administered Using Intermittent or Continuous Schedules

mTOR is an atypical serine threonine kinase involved in regulating major cellular functions, such as nutrients sensing, growth, and proliferation. mTOR is part of the multiprotein complexes mTORC1 and mTORC2, which have been shown to play critical yet functionally distinct roles in the regulation of cellular processes. Current clinical mTOR inhibitors only inhibit the mTORC1 complex and are derivatives of the macrolide rapamycin (rapalogs). Encouraging effects have been observed with rapalogs in estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) breast cancer patients in combination with endocrine therapy, such as aromatase inhibitors. AZD2014 is a small-molecule ATP competitive inhibitor of mTOR that inhibits both mTORC1 and mTORC2 complexes and has a greater inhibitory function against mTORC1 than the clinically approved rapalogs. Here, we demonstrate that AZD2014 has broad antiproliferative effects across multiple cell lines, including ER+ breast models with acquired resistance to hormonal therapy and cell lines with acquired resistance to rapalogs. In vivo, AZD2014 induces dose-dependent tumor growth inhibition in several xenograft and primary explant models. The antitumor activity of AZD2014 is associated with modulation of both mTORC1 and mTORC2 substrates, consistent with its mechanism of action. In combination with fulvestrant, AZD2014 induces tumor regressions when dosed continuously or using intermittent dosing schedules. The ability to dose AZD2014 intermittently, together with its ability to block signaling from both mTORC1 and mTORC2 complexes, makes this compound an ideal candidate for combining with endocrine therapies in the clinic. AZD2014 is currently in phase II clinical trials. Mol Cancer Ther; 14(11); 2508–18. ©2015 AACR.
HRTF personalization using anthropometric measurements

Individualized head related transfer functions (HRTFs) are needed for accurate rendering of spatial audio, which is important in many applications. Since these are relatively tedious to acquire, they may not be acceptable for some applications. A number of studies have sought to perform simple customization of the HRTF. We propose and test a strategy for HRTF personalization, based on matching certain anthropometric ear parameters with the HRTF database, and the incorporation of a low-frequency "head-and-torso" model. We present preliminary tests aimed at evaluation of this customization. Results show that the approach improves both the accuracy of the localization and subjective perception of the virtual auditory scene.
HIV-related intimate partner violence among pregnant women in Nigeria.

AIM To compare the prevalences and patterns of intimate partner violence between HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women receiving prenatal care at a tertiary hospital in South East Nigeria METHODS A comparative cross-sectional study of HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women was done. Statistical analysis was by descriptive and inferential statistics at 95% level of confidence RESULTS A total of 220 pregnant women studied. These were equally divided between HIV-positive women (cases) and HIV-negative women (controls). Cases did not differ significantly from controls with respect to age, parity, tribe, religion, marital status, monthly family income. HIV positive respondents experienced physical violence in the course of the index pregnancy six times more than controls; sexual violence about 4 times more than controls and were 12 times more likely to be denied sex by their partner compared to controls. Threat of being hurt, deprivation of financial support and denial of communication were the commonest forms of intimate partner violence among HIV-positive pregnant women and these also occurred significantly more among HIV positive women than the controls. CONCLUSION HIV-positive status predisposes pregnant women to increased intimate partner violence more of emotional nature further underlying the enormity of social rejection suffered as a result of HIV infection. Intimate partner violence screening should form part of their routine antenatal care