Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The extra domain A of fibronectin stimulates murine mast cells via Toll‐like receptor 4

The activation of mast cells by extra domain A of fibronectin (FN‐EDA), an endogenous ligand of TLR4, and its contribution to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in vivo were examined. FN‐EDA, but no other domain of the fibronectin fragment, III11 (FN‐III11) and III12 (FN‐III12), stimulated bone marrow‐derived murine mast cells (BMMCs) dose‐dependently to secret cytokines (TNF‐α, IL‐6, and IL‐1β), similar to the pattern produced by LPS. FN‐EDA‐induced cytokine production was mediated by TLR4, as cytokine production by FN‐EDA was absent in TLR4‐deficient (TLR4−/−) BMMCs. We examined the roles of TLR4‐mediated mast cell activation by this form of fibronectin fragment in the pathogenesis of RA in vivo. The injection of FN‐EDA, but not FN‐III11and FN‐III12, to joints resulted in joint swelling of mice in vivo. Genetically mast cell‐deficient WBB6F1‐W/Wv mice exhibited significantly less swelling and cytokine production compared with mast cell‐sufficient +/+ mice, suggesting that swelling and inflammatory cytokine production were partially dependent on tissue mast cells. Reduced swelling and cytokine production were recovered by the reconstitution of tissue mast cells by the injection of BMMCs from wild‐type mice but not from TLR4−/− mice. Altogether, these results suggest that the TLR4‐mediated activation of mast cells by endogenous ligand FN‐EDA might contribute to the pathogenesis of RA through proinflammatory cytokine production.
Construct Dimensionality of Engagement and its Relation With Satisfaction

Engagement—a persistent and positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption (W. B. Schaufeli, M. Salanova, V. González-Roma, & A. B. Bakker, 2002)—has become a popular subject among academic and industry researchers. Following suggestions in the recent literature calling for further examination of the underlying factors comprising the construct of engagement, the authors investigated the factor structure of W. B. Schaufeli et al.'s measure of engagement and academic engagement's relation to academic satisfaction. Previous researchers found a 3-factor structure of engagement that comprises vigor, dedication, and absorption. The authors administered to a sample of university students a questionnaire on their level of engagement in academic work and various other measures. The results did not confirm the 3-factor structure. The present authors found engagement and satisfaction to be highly related constructs.
Information Security as a Determinant of Nation'S Networked Readiness: a Country Level Analysis

In a digital era where Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a pivotal role in driving forward the competitiveness of nations, it is imperative to understand the factors influencing the successful diffusion and deployment of this resource. ICT has become a global resource influencing the competitiveness of not only companies, but also nations. Previous research discussed the factors influencing ICT effectiveness and networked readiness; nevertheless, the impact of a country’s secure communications, competitiveness, and ICT laws on global IT effectiveness has yet to be addressed. Using country-level data generated by World Bank, World Economic Forum, and UNDP, this study uses SEM and examines the impact that IT characteristics, laws, and secure communications have on the networked readiness level of countries. The impact of the various factors on a country’s establishment of secure communication lines is examined. Further analysis is also done using multigroup level analysis to assess differences between country groups, regarding the impact of these different factors on networked readiness. A holistic model comprising technological, institutional, and economic factors is developed and tested, emphasizing secure communication and laws related to IT security and privacy protection. Findings are reported, implications are discussed, and recommendations for future research are presented.
Composition and phase mineral variation of Portland cement in Mass Factory Sulaimani – Kurdistan Region NE-Iraq

The raw materials, clinker, and cement from the Mass cement factory in Sulaimani CityKurdistan Region NEIraq have been investigated using polarizing microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy SEM and chemical analysis. This study will discuss about the composition and phases mineral variation from different sample type of the factory. Chemical composition analysis using X-ray fluorescence is one of the important quality analyses for examining of cement and widely used in cement industries for a long time as a tool to estimate phase composition. X-ray diffraction is one of the established techniques as a qualitative tool to identify phase existing in the sample. Microscopic invistigation and X-ray diffraction of clinkers from Mass factory indicating the presence of five principle constitutes alite,(C3S), belite (C2S), aluminate (C3A) , ferrite (C4AF), as well as minor isotropic residue (Periclase, and freelime). The obtained SEM – micrographs show alite with well developed external shape and hexagonal outline and it is larger than the other existing phase while belite is semi rounded and irregular outline phase. The chemical analyses of raw materials used in Mass cement factory indicate that the local raw materials are suitable for cement industry after addition some additive such as iron oxide and sandstone. The chemical and mineralogical analyses for studied clinker samples show that the dominant phases composition are C3S and C2S while the C3A and C4AF are less abundant. Transformation of mineral phases is found affected by different temperature during cement production. The different types of mineral phases are observed during the
Submatrix localization via message passing

The principal submatrix localization problem deals with recovering a $K\times K$ principal submatrix of elevated mean $\mu$ in a large $n\times n$ symmetric matrix subject to additive standard Gaussian noise. This problem serves as a prototypical example for community detection, in which the community corresponds to the support of the submatrix. The main result of this paper is that in the regime $\Omega(\sqrt{n}) \leq K \leq o(n)$, the support of the submatrix can be weakly recovered (with $o(K)$ misclassification errors on average) by an optimized message passing algorithm if $\lambda = \mu^2K^2/n$, the signal-to-noise ratio, exceeds $1/e$. This extends a result by Deshpande and Montanari previously obtained for $K=\Theta(\sqrt{n}). $ In addition, the algorithm can be extended to provide exact recovery whenever information-theoretically possible and achieve the information limit of exact recovery as long as $K \geq \frac{n}{\log n} (\frac{1}{8e} + o(1))$. The total running time of the algorithm is $O(n^2\log n)$. Another version of the submatrix localization problem, known as noisy biclustering, aims to recover a $K_1\times K_2$ submatrix of elevated mean $\mu$ in a large $n_1\times n_2$ Gaussian matrix. The optimized message passing algorithm and its analysis are adapted to the bicluster problem assuming $\Omega(\sqrt{n_i}) \leq K_i \leq o(n_i)$ and $K_1\asymp K_2. $ A sharp information-theoretic condition for the weak recovery of both clusters is also identified.
Accuracy of the Tracy-Widom limit for the largest eigenvalue in white Wishart matrices

Let A be a p-variate real Wishart matrix on n degrees of freedom with identity covariance. The distribution of the largest eigenvalue in A has important applications in multivariate statistics. Consider the asymptotics when p grows in proportion to n, it is known from Johnstone (2001) that after centering and scaling, these distributions approach the orthogonal Tracy-Widom law for real-valued data, which can be numerically evaluated and tabulated in software. Under the same assumption, we show that more carefully chosen centering and scaling constants improve the accuracy of the distributional approximation by the Tracy-Widom limit to second order: O(min(n,p)^{-2/3}). Together with the numerical simulation, it implies that the Tracy-Widom law is an attractive approximation to the distributions of these largest eigenvalues, which is important for using the asymptotic result in practice. We also provide a parallel accuracy result for the smallest eigenvalue of A when n > p.
Glycinergic tonic inhibition of hippocampal neurons with depolarizing GABAergic transmission elicits histopathological signs of temporal lobe epilepsy

An increasing number of epilepsy patients are afflicted with drug‐resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and require alternative therapeutic approaches. High‐affinity glycine receptors (haGlyRs) are functionally adapted to tonic inhibition due to their response to hippocampal ambient glycine, and their synthesis is activity‐dependent. Therefore, in our study, we scanned TLE hippocampectomies for expression of haGlyRs and characterized the effects mediated by these receptors using primary hippocampal neurons. Increased haGlyR expression occurred in TLE hippocampi obtained from patients with a severe course of disease. Furthermore, in TLE patients, haGlyR and potassium chloride cotransporter 2 (KCC2) expressions were inversely regulated. To examine this potential causal relationship with respect to TLE histopathology, we established a hippocampal cell culture system utilising tonic inhibition mediated by haGlyRs in response to hippocam‐pal ambient glycine and in the context of a high Cl equilibrium potential, as is the case in TLE hippocampal neurons. We showed that hypoactive neurons increase their ratio between glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses, reduce their dendrite length and finally undergo excitotoxicity. Pharmacological dissection of the underlying processes revealed ionotropic glutamate and TrkB receptors as critical mediators between neuronal hypoactivity and the emergence of these TLE‐characteristic histopathological signs. Moreover, our results indicate a beneficial role for KCC2, because decreasing the Cl− equilibrium potential by KCC2 expression also rescued hypoactive hippocampal neurons. Thus, our data support a causal relationship between increased haGlyR expression and the emergence of histopathological TLE‐characteristic signs, and they establish a pathophysiological role for neuronal hypoactivity in the context of a high Cl− equilibrium potential.
Spontaneous Non-Traumatic Stress Fractures in Bilateral Femoral Shafts in a Patient Treated with Bisphosphonates

Bisphosphonates are potent inhibitors of bone resorption and widely used to treat osteoporosis. Extensive studies have shown that therapy with bisphosphonates improves bone density and decreases fracture risk. However, concerns have been raised about potential over-suppression of bone turnover during long-term use of bisphosphonates, resulting in increased susceptibility to and delayed healing of non-spinal fractures. We report a patient who sustained non-traumatic stress fractures in bilateral femoral shafts with delayed healing after long-term bisphosphonate therapy. She underwent open reduction and surgical internal fixation. Although bisphosphonates effectively prevent vertebral fractures, and their safety has been tested in randomized trials, we must emphasize the need for awareness of the possibility that long-term suppression of bone turnover with bisphosphonates may eventually lead to an accumulation of fatigue-induced damage and adverse skeletal effects such as delayed fracture healing.
Polynomial-time techniques for approximate timing analysis of asynchronous systems

As designers face the limitations of synchronous circuits, there has been a renewed interest in asynchronous design techniques that use timing assumptions to obtain fast and low-overhead circuits. Since statistical variations in manufacturing conditions, operating conditions, etc. result in uncertainties in component delays in a chip, it is important to analyze asynchronous systems with uncertain delays to check for timing constraint violations, and to determine sufficient conditions for their correct operation. Unfortunately, exact timing analysis with uncertain component delays is computationally intractable in general. This thesis presents polynomial-time techniques for approximate timing analysis of asynchronous systems. Although the algorithms are conservative in the worst case, experiments indicate that they are fairly accurate in practice. Three important problems in asynchronous timing analysis are addressed. First, a polynomial-time algorithm for computing bounds on signal propagation delays from each primary input to each gate in a combinational circuit is described. This has applications in determining input timing constraints for correct operation of asynchronous circuits. To improve the accuracy of simulation, a polynomial-time reconvergent fanout analysis technique is also proposed. As an application, a timing analysis tool for a class of asynchronous circuits is presented. Experiments indicate that the proposed algorithm is efficient and fairly accurate in practice. Next, the problem of computing bounds on time separation of events is addressed. This has important applications in timing verification, analysis and optimization of asynchronous systems. A polynomial-time algorithm for analyzing choice-free systems with min and max timing constraints, but without repeated occurrences of events is first proposed. The algorithm is based on computing a convex over-approximation of the feasible region of a system of constraints. Experiments indicate that the algorithm is highly efficient and accurate in practice. Finally, the time separations problem for choice-free systems with repeated events and min and max timing constraints is addressed. Tightly-coupled systems, a class of practical asynchronous systems, are characterized, and a polynomial-time algorithm for computing time separation bounds in tightly-coupled systems is proposed. To demonstrate the practicality of the approach, a complete asynchronous differential equation solver chip has been analyzed using the proposed algorithm.
Bayesian Differential Privacy on Correlated Data

Differential privacy provides a rigorous standard for evaluating the privacy of perturbation algorithms. It has widely been regarded that differential privacy is a universal definition that deals with both independent and correlated data and a differentially private algorithm can protect privacy against arbitrary adversaries. However, recent research indicates that differential privacy may not guarantee privacy against arbitrary adversaries if the data are correlated. In this paper, we focus on the private perturbation algorithms on correlated data. We investigate the following three problems: (1) the influence of data correlations on privacy; (2) the influence of adversary prior knowledge on privacy; and (3) a general perturbation algorithm that is private for prior knowledge of any subset of tuples in the data when the data are correlated. We propose a Pufferfish definition of privacy, called Bayesian differential privacy, by which the privacy level of a probabilistic perturbation algorithm can be evaluated even when the data are correlated and when the prior knowledge is incomplete. We present a Gaussian correlation model to accurately describe the structure of data correlations and analyze the Bayesian differential privacy of the perturbation algorithm on the basis of this model. Our results show that privacy is poorest for an adversary who has the least prior knowledge. We further extend this model to a more general one that considers uncertain prior knowledge.
Phosphorus limitation on CO2, N2O, and NO emissions from a tropical humid forest soil of South Sumatra, Indonesia

We examined if there is a P limitation on microbial activities and the accompanying gas emissions in a humid tropical forest soil of South Sumatra, Indonesia. The soil was incubated for 30 d with and without adding P (Ca(H<inf>2</inf>PO<inf>4</inf>)<inf>2</inf>; 2 mg P g·soil<sup>−1</sup>) after adjusting water-filled pore space (WFPS) to 75% or 100%. The cumulative CO<inf>2</inf> emission during 30 d (mg C kg·soil<sup>−1</sup>) increased by P addition from 751 ± 105 to 959 ± 66 and from 1096 ± 36 to 1294 ± 47 at 75% and 100% WFPS, respectively, suggesting that the soil microbial activity was limited by P. P addition also increased the cumulative N<inf>2</inf>O emissions (from 10.2 ± 5.08 to 19.9 ± 6.91 and from 1405 ± 161 to 1977 ± 179 at 75% and 100% WFPS, respectively) and the cumulative NO emissions (from 354 ± 25.9 to 774 ± 52.7 and from 117 ± 14.7 to 272 ± 19.4 at 75% and 100% WFPS, respectively) during 30 d. N<inf>2</inf>O/NO ratios were always smaller than 1 at 75% WFPS, ranging from 0.03 to 0.70, while always larger than 1 at 100% WFPS, ranging from 40.3 to 94.5, suggesting that the N<inf>2</inf>O and NO were emitted mainly from nitrification at 75% WFPS and denitrification at 100% WFPS. Thus nitrification and denitrification in the soil was also limited by P. We suggest soil microbial activities and the emissions of CO<inf>2</inf>, N<inf>2</inf>O, and NO in tropical forest might be limited by P availability, and P shortage in tropics might be suppressing the emissions of these unwelcomed gases.
Working memory in simultaneous interpreters: Effects of task and age

This study examines whether interpreters have better working memory (WM) than non-interpreters, taking into account different WM components and the potential modulatory influence of age. Younger and older interpreters and non-interpreters were tested on reading span, nonword repetition, and order- and category-cued recall, using English, second-language materials. Articulation rate was also assessed. Interpreters outperformed non-interpreters in reading span and nonword repetition, but not cued recall and articulation rate. These results suggest that interpreters have better ability to manipulate information in working memory and process or store sub-lexical phonological representations, but have no advantage in short-term retention of words and their meaning. Compared to the other tested groups, younger interpreters were marginally better in nonword repetition and cued recall, suggesting that future studies on WM advantages in interpreters should consider the age factor.
Editorial "Ecosystems in transition: interactions and feedbacks with an emphasis on the initial development"

R. F. Hüttl 1,2, W. Gerwin2, I. Kögel-Knabner3, R. Schulin4, C. Hinz5, and J.-A. Subke6 1GFZ Potsdam, Germany 2BTU Cottbus, Research Center Landscape Development and Mining Landscapes, Germany 3TU München, Chair of Soil Science, Germany 4ETH Zurich, Chair of Soil Protection, Switzerland 5BTU Cottbus, Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Germany 6University of Stirling, School of Natural Sciences, Biological and Environmental Sciences, UK
Secure Ranked Keyword Search over Encrypted Cloud Data

As Cloud Computing becomes prevalent, sensitive information are being increasingly centralized into the cloud. For the protection of data privacy, sensitive data has to be encrypted before outsourcing, which makes effective data utilization a very challenging task. Although traditional searchable encryption schemes allow users to securely search over encrypted data through keywords, these techniques support only boolean search, without capturing any relevance of data files. This approach suffers from two main drawbacks when directly applied in the context of Cloud Computing. On the one hand, users, who do not necessarily have pre-knowledge of the encrypted cloud data, have to post process every retrieved file in order to find ones most matching their interest, On the other hand, invariably retrieving all files containing the queried keyword further incurs unnecessary network traffic, which is absolutely undesirable in today's pay-as-you-use cloud paradigm. In this paper, for the first time we define and solve the problem of effective yet secure ranked keyword search over encrypted cloud data. Ranked search greatly enhances system usability by returning the matching files in a ranked order regarding to certain relevance criteria (e.g., keyword frequency), thus making one step closer towards practical deployment of privacy-preserving data hosting services in Cloud Computing. We first give a straightforward yet ideal construction of ranked keyword search under the state-of-the-art searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) security definition, and demonstrate its inefficiency. To achieve more practical performance, we then propose a definition for ranked searchable symmetric encryption, and give an efficient design by properly utilizing the existing cryptographic primitive, order-preserving symmetric encryption (OPSE). Thorough analysis shows that our proposed solution enjoys ``as-strong-as-possible" security guarantee compared to previous SSE schemes, while correctly realizing the goal of ranked keyword search. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed solution.
Dynamics and Flexibility of Human Aromatase Probed by FTIR and Time Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Human aromatase (CYP19A1) is a steroidogenic cytochrome P450 converting androgens into estrogens. No ligand-free crystal structure of the enzyme is available to date. The crystal structure in complex with the substrate androstenedione and the steroidal inhibitor exemestane shows a very compact conformation of the enzyme, leaving unanswered questions on the conformational changes that must occur to allow access of the ligand to the active site. As H/D exchange kinetics followed by FTIR spectroscopy can provide information on the conformational changes in proteins where solvent accessibility is affected, here the amide I region was used to measure the exchange rates of the different elements of the secondary structure for aromatase in the ligand-free form and in the presence of the substrate androstenedione and the inhibitor anastrozole. Biphasic exponential functions were found to fit the H/D exchange data collected as a function of time. Two exchange rates were assigned to two populations of protons present in different flexible regions of the protein. The addition of the substrate androstenedione and the inhibitor anastrozole lowers the H/D exchange rates of the α-helices of the enzyme when compared to the ligand-free form. Furthermore, the presence of the inhibitor anastrozole lowers exchange rate constant (k1) for β-sheets from 0.22±0.06 min−1 for the inhibitor-bound enzyme to 0.12±0.02 min−1 for the free protein. Dynamics effects localised in helix F were studied by time resolved fluorescence. The data demonstrate that the fluorescence lifetime component associated to Trp224 emission undergoes a shift toward longer lifetimes (from ≈5.0 to ≈5.5 ns) when the substrate or the inhibitor are present, suggesting slower dynamics in the presence of ligands. Together the results are consistent with different degrees of flexibility of the access channel and therefore different conformations adopted by the enzyme in the free, substrate- and inhibitor-bound forms.
Transformation of sodium bicarbonate and CO2 into sodium formate over NiPd nanoparticle catalyst

The present research systematically investigated, for the first time, the transformation of sodium bicarbonate and CO2 into sodium formate over a series of Ni based metal nanoparticles (NPs). Ni NPs and eight NiM (M stands for a second metal) NPs were prepared by a facile wet chemical process and then their catalytic performance were evaluated in sodium bicarbonate hydrogenation. Bimetallic NiPd NPs with a composition of 7:3 were found to be superior for this reaction, which are more active than both pure Ni and Pd NPs. Hot filtration experiment suggested the NPs to be the truly catalytic active species and kinetic analysis indicated the reaction mechanism to be different than most homogeneous catalysts. The enhanced activity of the bimetallic nanoparticles may be attributed to their smaller size and improved stability.