Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apoptotic Neutrophils Augment the Inflammatory Response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Human Macrophages

Macrophages in the lung are the primary cells being infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) during the initial manifestation of tuberculosis. Since the adaptive immune response to Mtb is delayed, innate immune cells such as macrophages and neutrophils mount the early immune protection against this intracellular pathogen. Neutrophils are short-lived cells and removal of apoptotic cells by resident macrophages is a key event in the resolution of inflammation and tissue repair. Since anti-inflammatory activity is not compatible with effective immunity to intracellular pathogens, we therefore investigated how uptake of apoptotic neutrophils modulates the function of Mtb-activated human macrophages. We show that Mtb infection exerts a potent proinflammatory activation of human macrophages with enhanced gene activation and release of proinflammatory cytokines and that this response was augmented by apoptotic neutrophils. The enhanced macrophage response is linked to apoptotic neutrophil-driven activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and subsequent IL-1β signalling. We also demonstrate that apoptotic neutrophils not only modulate the inflammatory response, but also enhance the capacity of infected macrophages to control intracellular growth of virulent Mtb. Taken together, these results suggest a novel role for apoptotic neutrophils in the modulation of the macrophage-dependent inflammatory response contributing to the early control of Mtb infection.
Effects of Narcissism, Leisure Boredom, and Gratifications Sought on User-Generated Content Among Net-Generation Users

This research identifies the gratifications sought by the net-generation when producing user-generated content (UGC) on the internet. Members of the Net-generation want to vent negative feelings, show affection to their frieds and relatives, be involved in others' lives, and fulfill their need to be recognized. These gratifications were all found to be significantly associated with the users' various levels of participation in UGC (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, blogs, online forums, etc.) What's more, narcissism was predictive of content generation in social networking sites, blogs, and personal webpage, while leisure boredom was significantly linked to expressing views in forums, updating personal website, and participating in consumer reviews. In particular, the results showed the Net-geners who encountered leisure boredom had a higher tendency to seek interaction with friends online. Implications of findings are discussed.
EVIDENCE FOR TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA DIVERSITY FROM ULTRAVIOLET OBSERVATIONS WITH THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

We present ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy and photometry of four Type Ia supernovae (SNe 2004dt, 2004ef, 2005M, and 2005cf) obtained with the UV prism of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. This data set provides unique spectral time series down to 2000 Å. Significant diversity is seen in the near-maximum-light spectra (∼2000–3500 Å) for this small sample. The corresponding photometric data, together with archival data from Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope observations, provide further evidence of increased dispersion in the UV emission with respect to the optical. The peak luminosities measured in the uvw1/F250W filter are found to correlate with the B-band light-curve shape parameter Δm15(B), but with much larger scatter relative to the correlation in the broadband B band (e.g., ∼0.4 mag versus ∼0.2 mag for those with 0.8 mag < Δm15(B) < 1.7 mag). SN 2004dt is found as an outlier of this correlation (at > 3σ), being brighter than normal SNe Ia such as SN 2005cf by ∼0.9 mag and ∼2.0 mag in the uvw1/F250W and uvm2/F220W filters, respectively. We show that different progenitor metallicity or line-expansion velocities alone cannot explain such a large discrepancy. Viewing-angle effects, such as due to an asymmetric explosion, may have a significant influence on the flux emitted in the UV region. Detailed modeling is needed to disentangle and quantify the above effects.
Mitochondrial DNA Reveals the Trace of the Ancient Settlers of a Violently Devastated Late Bronze and Iron Ages Village

La Hoya (Alava, Basque Country) was one of the most important villages of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages of the north of the Iberian Peninsula, until it was violently devastated around the 4th century and abandoned in the 3rd century B.C. Archaeological evidences suggest that descendants from La Hoya placed their new settlement in a nearby hill, which gave rise to the current village of Laguardia. In this study, we have traced the genetic imprints of the extinct inhabitants of La Hoya through the analysis of maternal lineages. In particular, we have analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of 41 human remains recovered from the archaeological site for comparison with a sample of 51 individuals from the geographically close present-day population of Laguardia, as well as 56 individuals of the general population of the province of Alava, where the archaeological site and Laguardia village are located. MtDNA haplotypes were successfully obtained in 25 out of 41 ancient samples, and 14 different haplotypes were identified. The major mtDNA subhaplogroups observed in La Hoya were H1, H3, J1 and U5, which show a distinctive frequency pattern in the autochthonous populations of the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Approximate Bayesian Computation analysis was performed to test the most likely model for the local demographic history. The results did not sustain a genealogical continuity between Laguardia and La Hoya at the haplotype level, although factors such as sampling effects, recent admixture events, and genetic bottlenecks need to be considered. Likewise, the highly similar subhaplogroup composition detected between La Hoya and Laguardia and Alava populations do not allow us to reject a maternal genetic continuity in the human groups of the area since at least the Iron Age to present times. Broader analyses, based on a larger collection of samples and genetic markers, would be required to study fine-scale population events in these human groups.
This Must Be the Place: Underrepresentation of Identity and Meaning in Climate Change Decision-Making

The dangers that future climate change poses to physical, biological, and economic systems are accounted for in analyses of risk and increasingly figure in decision-making about responses to climate change. Yet the potential cultural and social impacts of climate change have scarcely been considered. In this article we bring the risks climate change poses to cultures and social systems into consideration through a focus on placesthose local material and symbolic contexts that give meaning and value to peoples' lives. By way of examples, the article reviews evidence on the observed and projected impacts of climate change on the Arctic and Pacific island atoll nations. It shows that impacts may result in the loss of many unique natural and cultural components of these places. We then argue that the risk of irreversible loss of places needs to be factored into decision-making on climate change. The article then suggests ways forward in decision-making that recognizes these non-market and non-instrumental metrics of risk, based on principles of justice and recognition of individual and community identity.
Mitochondrial Polyadenylation Is a One-Step Process Required for mRNA Integrity and tRNA Maturation

Polyadenylation has well characterised roles in RNA turnover and translation in a variety of biological systems. While polyadenylation on mitochondrial transcripts has been suggested to be a two-step process required to complete translational stop codons, its involvement in mitochondrial RNA turnover is less well understood. We studied knockdown and knockout models of the mitochondrial poly(A) polymerase (MTPAP) in Drosophila melanogaster and demonstrate that polyadenylation of mitochondrial mRNAs is exclusively performed by MTPAP. Further, our results show that mitochondrial polyadenylation does not regulate mRNA stability but protects the 3' terminal integrity, and that despite a lack of functioning 3' ends, these trimmed transcripts are translated, suggesting that polyadenylation is not required for mitochondrial translation. Additionally, loss of MTPAP leads to reduced steady-state levels and disturbed maturation of tRNACys, indicating that polyadenylation in mitochondria might be important for the stability and maturation of specific tRNAs.
Constraining the thermal history of the warm-hot intergalactic medium

We have identified a large-scale structure traced by galaxies at z = 0.8, within the Lockman Hole, by means of multi-object spectroscopic observations. By using deep XMM images we have investigated the soft X-ray emission from the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) expected to be associated with this large-scale structure and we set a tight upper limit to its flux in the very soft 0.2-0.4 keV band. The non-detection requires the WHIM at these redshifts to be cooler than 0.1 keV. Combined with the WHIM emission detections at lower redshift, our result indicates that the WHIM temperature rapidly decreases with redshift, as expected in popular cosmological models.
Quasi-passive dynamic autonomous control to enhance horizontal and turning gait speed control

This paper proposes a quasi-passive dynamic autonomous control (Q-PDAC) for a three-dimensional (3-D) bipedal gait of humanoid robots from start points to goal points. The major approach for 3-D traveling is currently footstep planning by a constantly stable gait with an emphasis on its accurate and secure traveling. However, energy would potentially be wasted when the robot accurately travels according to the planned footsteps. In contrast, a limit-cycle-based gait possesses the good efficiency by a gait speed control, although the accurate and secure traveling is difficult for it. Its gait speed control is unfortunately not enough to freely travel on 3-D spaces: shortages of a turning speed control, trackability of horizontal speed, and stability of the bipedal gait. Hence, the Q-PDAC supplies three proper angular momenta by hip and ankle joints to achieve the turning motion and enhance the trackability of horizontal motion. Three angular momenta are simply designed consistent in the PDAC dynamics, and achieved the sufficient gait speed control for 3-D traveling. As a result, the robot can efficiently travel from the start point to the goal point while following a leader point not to collide with walls.
Subjective time perception is affected by different durations of exposure to abstract paintings that represent human movement

perception can be affected by real emotional pictures of people that evoke different levels of arousal. Figurative artwork images of body postures that imply movement with different intensities and evoke different levels of arousal can modulate the perception of time. The present study investigated whether abstract paintings that represent motion in different ways affect the perception of time when subjects are exposed to the paintings for different durations. Undergraduate students observed 20 abstract paintings from different artistic schools (i.e., cubism, constructivism, expressionism, and futurism). They observed for 3 s each painting and estimated the time of exposure (reproduction method). After the time estimations, the subjects completed different semantic Movement, Arousal, Complexity, and Recognition scales to obtain information about how the painting compositions were perceived. Time distortions were observed for only two cubist paintings that represented human forms, which were related to both evoked arousal and implied movement (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 further verified whether these time distortions were related to implied movement perception or arousal. Different groups of participants were exposed for 3 and 9 s to only four cubist paintings that represented human forms. These time exposures (3 and 9 s) were used because the arousal-evoking effects may be transient for exposure times that are longer than 2-3 s. The data analysis revealed overestimation of time for the cubist painting that had greater arousal and movement scores only when the subjects were exposed for 9 s, showing that implied movement in abstract human figures is more effective than images with emotional content. We discuss the effect of durations of exposure to pictorial characteristics of artwork on time perception, emphasizing aspects of the visual perception of human forms in cubist paintings and arousal effects in an aesthetic episode. Keywords: time perception, static images, implied movement, cubism, arousal.
A long-wavelength view on galaxy evolution from deep surveys by the Infrared Space Observatory

We discuss the constraints set on galaxy evolution by a variety of data from deep extragalactic surveys performed in the mid-IR and far-IR with the Infrared Space Observatory and with millimetric telescopes at longer wavelengths. These observations indicate extremely high rates of evolution for IR galaxies, exceeding those measured for galaxies at other wavelengths and comparable or larger than the rates observed for quasars. We also match the modelled integrated emission by IR galaxies at any redshifts with the observed spectral intensity of the extragalactic IR background (CIRB), as a further constraint. The multi-wavelength statistics on IR galaxies can be reconciled with each other by assuming for the bulk of the population spectral energy distributions (SED) as typical for starbursts, which we take as an indication that stellar (rather than AGN, see also Fadda et al. [CITE]) activity powers IR emission by faint galaxies. According to our model and following the analysis of Elbaz et al. ([CITE]), the deep ISO surveys at 15 μ m may have already resolved more than 50% of the bolometric CIRB intensity: the faint ISO 15 μ m source samples, relatively easy to identify in deep optical images (Aussel et al. [CITE]), can then allow to investigate the origin of the CIRB background. From our fits to the observed optical-IR SEDs, these objects appear to mostly involve massive galaxies hosting luminous starbursts ($SFR\sim 100$ $M_\odot$/yr). The evolutionary scheme we infer from these data considers a bimodal star formation (SF), including a phase of long-lived quiescent SF, and enhanced SF taking place during transient events recurrently triggered by interactions and merging. We interpret the strong observed evolution as an increase with z of the rate of interactions between galaxies ( density evolution ) and an increase of their IR luminosity due to the more abundant fuel available in the past ( luminosity evolution ): both factors enhance the probability to detect a galaxy during the "active" phase at higher z . Very schematically, we associate the origin of the bulk of the optical/NIR background to the quiescent evolution, while the CIRB is interpreted as mostly due the dusty starburst phase. The latter possibly leads to the formation of galaxy spheroids, when the dynamical events triggering the starburst re-distribute already present stellar populations. The large energy contents in the CIRB and optical backgrounds are not easily explained, considering the moderate efficiency of energy generation by stars: a top-heavy stellar IMF associated with the starburst phase (and compared with a more standard IMF during the quiescent SF) would alleviate the problem. The evolution of the IR emissivity of galaxies from the present time to $z\sim 1$ is so strong that the combined set of constraints by the observed z -distributions and the CIRB spectrum impose it to turn-over at $z> 1$: scenarios in which a dominant fraction of stellar formation occurs at very high- z are not supported by our analysis.
Approach and separation of quantised vortices with balanced cores

The scaling laws for the reconnection of isolated pairs of quantised vortices are characterised by numerically integrating the three-dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equations, the simplest mean-field equations for a quantum fluid. The primary result is the identification of distinctly different temporal power laws for the pre- and post-reconnection separation distances $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(t)$ for two configurations. For the initially anti-parallel case, the scaling laws before and after the reconnection time $t_{r}$ obey the dimensional $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\sim |t_{r}-t|^{1/2}$ prediction with temporal symmetry about $t_{r}$ and physical space symmetry about the mid-point between the vortices $x_{r}$ . The extensions of the vortex lines close to reconnection form the edges of an equilateral pyramid. For all of the initially orthogonal cases, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\sim |t_{r}-t|^{1/3}$ before reconnection and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\sim |t-t_{r}|^{2/3}$ after reconnection are respectively slower and faster than the dimensional prediction. For both configurations, smooth scaling laws are generated due to two innovations. The first innovation is to use an initial low-energy vortex-core density profile that suppresses unwanted density fluctuations as the vortices evolve in time. The other innovation is the accurate identification of the position of the vortex cores from a pseudo-vorticity constructed on the three-dimensional grid from the gradients of the wave function. These trajectories allow us to calculate the Frenet–Serret frames and the curvature of the vortex lines, secondary results that might hold clues for the origin of the differences between the scaling laws of the two configurations. Reconnection takes place in a reconnection plane defined by the average tangents $\boldsymbol{T}_{av}$ and curvature normal $\boldsymbol{N}_{av}$ directions of the pseudo-vorticity curves at the points of closest approach, at time $t\approx t_{r}$ . To characterise the structure further, lines are drawn that connect the four arms that extend from the reconnection plane, from which four angles $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{i}$ between the lines are defined. Their sum is convex or hyperbolic, that is $\sum _{i=1,4}\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{i}>360^{\circ }$ , for the orthogonal cases, as opposed to the acute angles of the pyramid found for the anti-parallel initial conditions.
The Amazing Universe of Russian Multinationals: New Insights

Over the past few years, large multinational companies originating from Russia have shown outstanding performances alongside their road from regional dominance to global leaders. Taking stock of recent approaches in the literature and statistical data released by well-known international organizations, our papers aims to provide some new insights from the amazing universe of Russian multinationals, following the 2008-2009 global economic crisis. The list of the largest multinationals from Russia shows that corporations from oil & gas and metallurgical sector are prevailing, as a consequence of the resource – based character of the Russian economy. Although Russian giants represents a quite heterogeneous class of companies, they do share several common features such as their propel mechanism of expansion on the global business stage (leveraged by the resource-based nature of their home economy), their tendency to invest in the neighboring countries (like Commonwealth of Independent States or East European countries), their modes of entry (through brownfield projects) etc.
The Association Between Maternal Glucose Concentration and Child BMI at Age 3 Years

OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to determine the association between child BMI at age 3 years and maternal glucose concentration among women without pre-existing diabetes or a gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnosis. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data are from the Pregnancy Infection and Nutrition and Postpartum studies and include 263 mother-child pairs. Measured weights and heights at 3 years were used to calculate age- and sex-specific BMI z scores and percentiles. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine associations of continuous BMI z scores with maternal glucose concentration. Modified Poisson regression estimated risk ratios of child overweight/obesity (BMI ≥85th percentile). RESULTS The mean (SD) maternal glucose concentration and prepregnancy BMI were 103.8 (23.7) mg/dL and 24.3 (5.9) kg/m2, respectively. At 3 years, the mean (SD) child BMI z score was 0.29 (0.99), 20.9% were overweight/obese and 5.3% were obese. In the adjusted model, when compared with glucose concentration <100 mg/dL, a concentration ≥130 mg/dL was associated with significantly higher child BMI z score at 3 years (estimated z score difference of 0.39 [95% CI: 0.03–0.75]). With the use of the same reference category, a concentration ≥130 mg/dL was associated with an approximate twofold greater risk of child overweight/obesity (adjusted risk ratio 2.34 [95% CI: 1.25–4.38]). CONCLUSIONS Fetal exposure to high maternal glucose concentration in the absence of pre-existing diabetes or GDM may contribute to the development of overweight/obesity in the offspring, independent of maternal prepregnancy BMI.
PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND SATISFACTION IN GROUPS OF USERS OF SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS IN SPAIN

The objective of this study was to evaluate the perceived quality, satisfaction and the perceived value among customers of public and private professional sports services in Spain, and to establish prediction models for satisfaction and perceived value. The sample was comprised of 2,027 users of Spanish sports services, of whom 66.1% were men and 33.9% were women. All users completed a self-administered questionnaire. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire ensured a valid measurement of perceived quality, satisfaction and value. The results obtained revealed that the quality of the sports service received was good, and that the technical factors and service staff received the highest evaluations, however, information provided to users was the weakest point. Customer satisfaction and perceived value were also assessed positively. Significant differences were found in these three constructs depending on the activity group that the users were in. Combat activities scored highest for quality, and lowest for satisfaction, whereas customers of individual land-based sports were the most satisfied and perceived the most value, unlike racquet sports, which obtained the lowest scores in the three constructs. Both satisfaction with the service and the perceived value of the service depended chiefly on an intangible factor such as activities.