Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MicroRNAs Implicated in the Immunopathogenesis of Lupus Nephritis

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the deposition of immune complexes due to widespread loss of immune tolerance to nuclear self-antigens. Deposition in the renal glomeruli results in the development of lupus nephritis (LN), the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in SLE. In addition to the well-recognized genetic susceptibility to SLE, disease pathogenesis is influenced by epigenetic regulators such as microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs that bind to the 3′ untranslated region of target mRNAs resulting in posttranscriptional gene modulation. miRNAs play an important and dynamic role in the activation of innate immune cells and are critical in regulating the adaptive immune response. Immune stimulation and the resulting cytokine milieu alter miRNA expression while miRNAs themselves modify cellular responses to stimulation. Here we examine dysregulated miRNAs implicated in LN pathogenesis from human SLE patients and murine lupus models. The effects of LN-associated miRNAs in the kidney, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, macrophages, mesangial cells, dendritic cells, and splenocytes are discussed. As the role of miRNAs in immunopathogenesis becomes delineated, it is likely that specific miRNAs may serve as targets for therapeutic intervention in the treatment of LN and other pathologies.
Are there different spillover effects from cash transfers to men and women? Impacts on investments in education in post-war Uganda

This paper looks at the spillover effects of grants under the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) on human capital investments in conflict-affected Northern Uganda. The YOP grant was primarily aimed at providing start-up money to groups of underemployed young people, and in practice worked similarly to an unconditional cash transfer. It kept a gender balance by mandating that groups should be at least one third female. Overall, the intervention had a significant impact on education-related expenditures, increasing them by 11–15 per cent (US$17– 23) in the shorter and longer term (i.e. after two and four years). However, the educational expenditures of women did not increase. Female recipients seem not to have spent more on education, at least in part because of redistributive pressures such as probable financial requests from other members of their YOP group. These findings are relevant for future designs of group eligibility rules and for targeting of cash transfers.
On-Vehicle and Aerial Texture Analysis for Vision-Based Desert Road Following

We present two components of a vision-based approach to autonomous driving on and near rural and desert roads. The first component comprises fast processing of live vehicle camera video to robustly extract linear direction and midline estimates of marginal roads. The second uses satellite imagery immediately surrounding the vehicle’s GPS position to trace the road ahead for curve and corner anticipation, and to inform the vehicle planner of a nearby road when traveling cross-conalysis: on-board, they are employed to ? nd ruts and trauntry. The algorithms are built upon Gabor wavelet filters for texture acks from which the road vanishing point can be inferred via Houghstyle voting, and aerially, they localize the edges of low-contrast road contours. Mechanisms for both modules to determine whether the vehicle is currently on- or off-road are also explained. Our system’s efficacy is illustrated for several difficult datasets, including a log from one vehicle’s run during the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge.
Listeria Brain Abscess in a Patient With Crescentic Glomerulonephritis That Progressed to Chronic Kidney Disease: A Case Report

Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive opportunistic intracellular pathogen that causes listeriosis, a rare but serious foodborne illness. Listeriosis has a predilection to invade the central nervous system and is associated with high mortality. L. monocytogenes commonly causes meningitis, and brain abscesses are rare. Among the ones reported thus far, most Listeria brain abscess occur in patients with underlying hematological malignancies or in those receiving solid organ transplants. Listeria brain abscess in a patient with crescentic glomerulonephritis, however, has not yet been reported. Here, we report a case of Listeria brain abscess with intraventricular rupture causing ventriculitis and hydrocephalus in a 61-year-old man with crescentic glomerulonephritis that progressed to chronic kidney disease. J Med Cases. 2013;4(5):349-352 doi: https://doi.org/10.4021/jmc1253e
The treatment of perforated duodenal ulcer

The prognosis of 189 patients with a perforated duodenal ulcer was analysed. There were three treatment groups, non‐operative, simple closure and definitive ulcer surgery. The prognosis of the patients was analysed in terms of the chronicity of the ulcer. Perforations occurring in acute duodenal ulcers have an excellent prognosis, with similar results in each group in this series. All perforations of chronic duodenal ulcers should be treated by emergency surgery.
The assessment of gait disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease using the three-dimensional motion analysis system Vicon.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Gait disorders are a common symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) and can occur in the early stage of the disease. The most characteristic gait disorders in that disease affect pace and cadence. This study was designed to assess spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters of patients with PD using the three-dimensional motion analysis system Vicon. MATERIAL AND METHODS 32 patients (14 women and 18 men; age range: 50-75) treated for PD in the Department of Neurology were studied. The control group consisted of 32 healthy persons (13 women and 19 men, age range: 52-77). Gait analysis using the Vicon 3D system took place in the Biokinetics Laboratory in the Academy of Physical Education in Kraków. The Vicon 3D system enables computerized registration and analysis of motion in three-dimensional space. RESULTS The analysis of basic spatiotemporal parameters of gait revealed that PD patients had considerably lower walking speed, stride length and cadence and longer time of double support than controls. The assessment of kinematic gait parameters showed that PD patients had decreased motion range in the joints of the lower limbs and began the double support phase earlier and delayed the swing phase when compared to healthy controls. CONCLUSION Our study shows a difference between PD patients and healthy controls at similar age both in angle changes and in spatiotemporal parameters of gait.
Effectiveness of 1-Methylcyclopropene Treatment on Peach Fruit (Prunus persica L.) for Extending Storage Life

In order to maintain better quality of peach during cold storage and to extend the storage time, effects of different dose of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treated of fresh kiwifruit on quality were investigated and the physiochemical attributes were subsequently evaluated during 60 days storage at 0 °C. Results showed that 1-MCP treatment had a high effect on inhibiting the respiratory rate, total soluble solid decrease and maintaining titratable acid content during the end of the storage compared with the non-treated control.Moreover, 1.0 μL/L 1-MCP showed the best effect on maintaining the quality and extending storage life.
Subjecting Elite Athletes to Inspiratory Breathing Load Reveals Behavioral and Neural Signatures of Optimal Performers in Extreme Environments

Background It is unclear whether and how elite athletes process physiological or psychological challenges differently than healthy comparison subjects. In general, individuals optimize exercise level as it relates to differences between expected and experienced exertion, which can be conceptualized as a body prediction error. The process of computing a body prediction error involves the insular cortex, which is important for interoception, i.e. the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Thus, optimal performance may be related to efficient minimization of the body prediction error. We examined the hypothesis that elite athletes, compared to control subjects, show attenuated insular cortex activation during an aversive interoceptive challenge. Methodology/Principal Findings Elite adventure racers (n = 10) and healthy volunteers (n = 11) performed a continuous performance task with varying degrees of a non-hypercapnic breathing load while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results indicate that (1) non-hypercapnic inspiratory breathing load is an aversive experience associated with a profound activation of a distributed set of brain areas including bilateral insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulated; (2) adventure racers relative to comparison subjects show greater accuracy on the continuous performance task during the aversive interoceptive condition; and (3) adventure racers show an attenuated right insula cortex response during and following the aversive interoceptive condition of non-hypercapnic inspiratory breathing load. Conclusions/Significance These findings support the hypothesis that elite athletes during an aversive interoceptive condition show better performance and an attenuated insular cortex activation during the aversive experience. Interestingly, differential modulation of the right insular cortex has been found previously in elite military personnel and appears to be emerging as an important brain system for optimal performance in extreme environments.
The Cdf Collaboration

We present the results of a search for new physics that couples to Z 0 bosons in conjunction with jets. We describe a method that uses data alone to predict the background from Standard Model Z 0 +jet events, which is the dominant background and is virtually indeterminable with Monte Carlo. This method can be similarly applied to other analyses requiring background predictions in multi-jet environments, as we show when cross-checking the method to predict the background from W +jets in t ¯ t production. We see no significant excess in the data above the background prediction, and set a limit using a 4th-generation quark model to quantify the acceptance.
SONG-LEVEL FEATURES AND SVMS FOR MUSIC CLASSIFICATION

Searching and organizing growing digital music collections requires automatic classification of music. Our system for artist and genre identification uses support vector machines to classify songs based on features calculated over their entire lengths. Since support vector machines are exemplar-based classifiers, training on and classifying entire songs instead of short-time features makes intuitive sense. We model songs as single Gaussians of MFCCs and use a KL divergence-based kernel to measure the distance between songs. This system placed first in both the audio genre and artist identification competitions at MIREX with classification accuracies of 72.45% and 78.81%, respectively.
Island species–area relationships and species accumulation curves are not equivalent: an analysis of habitat island datasets

Aim The relationship between species number and area is of fundamental importance in macroecology and conservation science, yet the implications of different means of quantitative depiction of the relationship remain contentious. We set out (1) to establish the variation in form of the relationship between two distinct methods applied to the same habitat island datasets, (2) to explore the relevance of several key dataset properties for variation in the parameters of these relationships, and (3) to assess the implications for application of the resulting models. Locations Global. Methods Through literature search we compiled 97 habitat island datasets. For each we analysed the form of the island species–area relationship (ISAR) and several versions of species accumulation curve (SAC), giving priority to a randomized form (Ran-SAC). Having established the validity of the power model, we compared the slopes (z-values) between the ISAR and the SAC for each dataset. We used boosted regression tree and simulation analyses to investigate the effect of nestedness and other variables in driving observed differences in z-values between ISARs and SACs. Results The Ran-SAC was steeper than the ISAR in 77% of datasets. The differences were primarily driven by the degree of nestedness, although other variables (e.g. the number of islands in a dataset) were also important. The ISAR was often a poor predictor of archipelago species richness. Main conclusions Slopes of the ISAR and SAC for the same data set can vary substantially, revealing their non-equivalence, with implications for applications of species–area curve parameters in conservation science. For example, the ISAR was a poor predictor of archipelagic richness in datasets with a low degree of nestedness. Caution should be employed when using the ISAR for the purposes of extrapolation and prediction in habitat island systems.
Modeling the Differences in Biochemical Capabilities of Pseudomonas Species by Flux Balance Analysis: How Good Are Genome-Scale Metabolic Networks at Predicting the Differences?

To date, several genome-scale metabolic networks have been reconstructed. These models cover a wide range of organisms, from bacteria to human. Such models have provided us with a framework for systematic analysis of metabolism. However, little effort has been put towards comparing biochemical capabilities of closely related species using their metabolic models. The accuracy of a model is highly dependent on the reconstruction process, as some errors may be included in the model during reconstruction. In this study, we investigated the ability of three Pseudomonas metabolic models to predict the biochemical differences, namely, iMO1086, iJP962, and iSB1139, which are related to P. aeruginosa PAO1, P. putida KT2440, and P. fluorescens SBW25, respectively. We did a comprehensive literature search for previous works containing biochemically distinguishable traits over these species. Amongst more than 1700 articles, we chose a subset of them which included experimental results suitable for in silico simulation. By simulating the conditions provided in the actual biological experiment, we performed case-dependent tests to compare the in silico results to the biological ones. We found out that iMO1086 and iJP962 were able to predict the experimental data and were much more accurate than iSB1139.
Rococo #506

This visual essay is an experiment in the new use of production audio soundtracks to animate objects and effects in 3D space. Using Tibetan religious music as a metaphor, various audio amplitudes were extracted and converted into animation channels. Audio was then used to birth the particles, provide wind effects, and separately offset animation of both the individual curtains and sacred wall hangings. The drum segments were extracted to control the flame intensity, as well as to trigger the "mandela effect" at the climax of the piece.
Exponential stability and stabilization of sampled-data systems with time-varying period

This article proposes a novel approach to assess the exponential stability of linear systems with sampled-data inputs. The paper considers both uncertainties in the model parameters and in the sampling period. Inspired by the input-delay approach and the stability of impulsive systems, the proposed method provides easy tractable stability conditions. Sufficient stability and stabilization conditions are provided to deal with both cases of constant and time-varying sampling periods. The period-dependent conditions are expressed using computable linear matrix inequalities. Several examples show the efficiency and the limitation of such stability criteria.
Auditory-Visual Object Recognition Time Suggests Specific Processing for Animal Sounds

Background Recognizing an object requires binding together several cues, which may be distributed across different sensory modalities, and ignoring competing information originating from other objects. In addition, knowledge of the semantic category of an object is fundamental to determine how we should react to it. Here we investigate the role of semantic categories in the processing of auditory-visual objects. Methodology/Findings We used an auditory-visual object-recognition task (go/no-go paradigm). We compared recognition times for two categories: a biologically relevant one (animals) and a non-biologically relevant one (means of transport). Participants were asked to react as fast as possible to target objects, presented in the visual and/or the auditory modality, and to withhold their response for distractor objects. A first main finding was that, when participants were presented with unimodal or bimodal congruent stimuli (an image and a sound from the same object), similar reaction times were observed for all object categories. Thus, there was no advantage in the speed of recognition for biologically relevant compared to non-biologically relevant objects. A second finding was that, in the presence of a biologically relevant auditory distractor, the processing of a target object was slowed down, whether or not it was itself biologically relevant. It seems impossible to effectively ignore an animal sound, even when it is irrelevant to the task. Conclusions/Significance These results suggest a specific and mandatory processing of animal sounds, possibly due to phylogenetic memory and consistent with the idea that hearing is particularly efficient as an alerting sense. They also highlight the importance of taking into account the auditory modality when investigating the way object concepts of biologically relevant categories are stored and retrieved.
Breast Cancer Medications and Vision: Effects of Treatments for Early-stage Disease

This review concerns the effects on vision and the eye of medications prescribed at three phases of treatment for women with early-stage breast cancer (BC): (1) adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy, (2) adjuvant endocrine therapy, and (3) symptomatic relief. The most common side effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy are epiphora and ocular surface irritation, which can be caused by any of several different regimens. Most notably, the taxane docetaxel can lead to epiphora by inducing canalicular stenosis. The selective-estrogen-receptor-modulator (SERM) tamoxifen, long the gold-standard adjuvant-endocrine-therapy for women with hormone-receptor-positive BC, increases the risk of posterior subcapsular cataract. Tamoxifen also affects the optic nerve head more often than previously thought, apparently by causing subclinical swelling within the first 2 years of use for women older than ~50 years. Tamoxifen retinopathy is rare, but it can cause foveal cystoid spaces that are revealed with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) and that may increase the risk for macular holes. Tamoxifen often alters the perceived color of flashed lights detected via short-wavelength-sensitive (SWS) cone response isolated psychophysically; these altered perceptions may reflect a neural-response sluggishness that becomes evident at ~2 years of use. The aromatase inhibitor (AI) anastrozole affects perception similarly, but in an age-dependent manner suggesting that the change of estrogen activity towards lower levels is more important than the low estrogen activity itself. Based on analysis of OCT retinal thickness data, it is likely that anastrozole increases the tractional force between the vitreous and retina. Consequently, AI users, myopic AI users particularly, might be at increased risk for traction-related vision loss. Because bisphosphonates are sometimes prescribed to redress AI-induced bone loss, clinicians should be aware of their potential to cause scleritis and uveitis occasionally. We conclude by suggesting some avenues for future research into the visual and ocular effects of AIs, particularly as relates to assessment of cognitive function.
Policing Drug Users in Russia: Risk, Fear, and Structural Violence

We undertook qualitative interviews with 209 injecting drug users (IDUs) (primarily heroin) in three Russian cities: Moscow, Barnaul, and Volgograd. We explored IDU's accounts of HIV and health risk. Policing practices and how these violate health and self, emerged as a primary theme. Findings show that policing practices violate health and rights directly, but also indirectly, through the reproduction of social suffering. Extrajudicial policing practices produce fear and terror in the day-to-day lives of drug injectors, and ranged from the mundane (arrest without legal justification; the planting of evidence to expedite arrest or detainment; and the extortion of money or drugs for police gain) to the extreme (physical violence as a means of facilitating “confession” and as an act of “moral” punishment without legal cause or rationale; the use of methods of “torture”; and rape). We identify the concept of police bespredel—living with the sense that there are “no limits” to police power—as a key to perpetuating fear and terror, internalized stigma, and a sense of fatalist risk acceptance. Police besprediel is analyzed as a form of structural violence, contributing to “oppression illness. ” Yet, we also identify cases of resistance to such oppression, characterized by strategies to preserve dignity and hope. We identify hope for change as a resource of risk reduction as well as escape, if only temporarily, from the pervasiveness of social suffering. Future drug use(r)-related policies, and the state responses they sponsor, should set out to promote public health while protecting human rights, hope, and dignity.
Top-Down Etched Site-Controlled InGaN/GaN Quantum Dots.

Quantum technologies such as quantum communication and com putation may one day revolutionize the landscape of communication and compu ting industry, which so far has been largely based on the classical manipulation of t he flow of many photons and electrons. Many important quantum technologies have be en d monstrated on single atoms which have discrete energy levels and can interact strongly with light, both functionalities are key to quantum technologies. However, single atoms are difficult to integrate with other photonic and electronic components , which are equally crucial to most of the applications. Semiconductor quantum dots are considered as the key buildi ng block to scalable quantum technologies due to their atom-like functionality and solid-state integrability. To date, many proof-of-principle integrated quantum devic s have been demonstrated based on single quantum dots. However, most of the devices we re not suitable for large-scale practical applications mainly due to the adopt ion of self-assembled III-As quantum dots, which form at random sites and operate only at l iquid-helium temperatures. These drawbacks may be resolved by using III-N quantu m dots with controlled forming site and optical properties, and high operating tem p ratures. This thesis studies site-controlled InGaN/GaN quantum dot s fabricated by top-down etching a planar single quantum well. Compared to other exis ting ite-controlled III-N quantum dots, ours have the following advantages: 1) the fab rication approach allows flexible control of the emission energy, oscillator strengt h and polarization of each quantum dot; 2) their emission is free from wetting layer con tamination leading to purer single-photon emission; 3) they can be efficiently dri ven by electrical current. We demonstrate in this thesis that these quantum dots have al l the essential properties required for most quantum technologies. They are effici nt light emitters due