Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Microparticle Size and Fc Density on Macrophage Phagocytosis

Controlled induction of phagocytosis in macrophages offers the ability to therapeutically regulate the immune system as well as improve delivery of chemicals or biologicals for immune processing. Maximizing particle uptake by macrophages through Fc receptor-mediated phagocytosis could lead to new delivery mechanisms in drug or vaccine development. Fc ligand density and particle size were examined independently and in combination in order to optimize and tune the phagocytosis of opsonized microparticles. We show the internalization efficiency of small polystyrene particles (0.5 µm to 2 µm) is significantly affected by changes in Fc ligand density, while particles greater than 2 µm show little correlation between internalization and Fc density. We found that while macrophages can efficiently phagocytose a large number of smaller particles, the total volume of phagocytosed particles is maximized through the non-specific uptake of larger microparticles. Therefore, larger microparticles may be more efficient at delivering a greater therapeutic payload to macrophages, but smaller opsonized microparticles can deliver bio-active substances to a greater percentage of the macrophage population. This study is the first to treat as independent variables the physical and biological properties of Fc density and microparticle size that initiate macrophage phagocytosis. Defining the physical and biological parameters that affect phagocytosis efficiency will lead to improved methods of microparticle delivery to macrophages.
Shareability in optical networks: beyond bandwidth optimization

We extend the famous path protection sharing scheme and introduce the generalized sharing concept. In this concept, we allow for additional sharing of important node devices in order to reduce network cost. These node devices (e.g., optical-electronic-optical regenerators and pure all-optical converters) constitute the dominant cost factor in an optical backbone network, and reduction of their number is of paramount importance. For demonstration purposes, we extend the concept of 1:N shared path protection to allow for the sharing of electronic regenerators needed to cope with optical transmission impairments. Considerable cost reductions in electronic budget are demonstrated through numerical examples.
Racial/Ethnic Differences in Associations Between Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines, United States, 2013–2014

Introduction Neighborhood factors are increasingly recognized as determinants of health. Neighborhood social cohesion may be associated with physical activity, but previous studies examined data aggregated across racial/ethnic groups. We assessed whether neighborhood social cohesion was associated with physical activity in a nationally representative data set and explored the role of race/ethnicity. Methods We combined National Health Interview Survey data from 2013 and 2014 (n = 64,754) and constructed a neighborhood social cohesion score by summing responses to 4 questions. The outcome of meeting aerobic physical activity guidelines was defined as 150 or more minutes per week of moderate activity or 75 or more minutes of vigorous activity. Multivariable models regressing physical activity on neighborhood social cohesion were adjusted for demographic factors; interaction analyses assessed effect modification by race/ethnicity. Results In adjusted analyses, a 1-unit increase in the neighborhood social cohesion score was associated with higher odds of meeting physical activity guidelines (odds ratio [OR], 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03–1.05). Neighborhood social cohesion and physical activity were associated among non-Hispanic white adults (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.20–1.42) and Hispanic adults (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.03–1.34]) but not among non-Hispanic black or Asian American adults (Chinese, Filipino, and Asian Indians). Conclusion Neighborhood social cohesion was associated with meeting physical activity guidelines in a nationally representative sample; this association may be most meaningful for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic populations. Additional studies are needed to identify neighborhood factors that help non-Hispanic black and Asian Americans to meet physical activity guidelines.
Value stream analysis of Riceberry rice's supply chain in Thailand

Rice is the staple food in many Asian countries, especially Thailand. Riceberry rice is one of the most popular rice varieties in Thailand which has been given more attention by Thai consumers because it is rich in antioxidants and has high nutrition content. This research study aims to analyze the related activities of Riceberry rice's supply chain to conduct a comparison study of its performance based on three major cultivation regions. Value stream mapping analysis was applied to identify and compare the activities of the Riceberry rice supply chain by collecting data regarding the supply chain process using site visit, observation, and interview, starting with the farmer, the rice mill operator, and the seller or distributor. The ECRS technique was employed to suggest a new approach that can improve the logistic performance of the Riceberry rice supply chain. The result showed that the cycle time ratio of value-added and non-value-added activities in the Riceberry rice supply chain in the northern, central, and northeastern parts of Thailand are 92.29%:7.71%; 88.48%:11.52%, and 89.05%:10.95%, respectively. Furthermore, why-why analysis and the ECRS technique were implemented to evaluate the root cause of the inefficiency of the process and to recommend approaches for improvement. Finally, a recommendation was suggested which illustrated that the total cycle time of the Riceberry rice supply chain in the northern, central, and northeastern parts of Thailand could be reduced by 2.59%, 4.51%, and 3.87%, respectively.
Transplant surgery and the obese patient: special considerations

Perhaps as a consequence of increased obesity in the general population, the likelihood of obese patients receiving kidney transplants has more than doubled. Obesity confers increased risk for graft loss and death among renal transplant recipients. However, the relationship of changes in body weight and composition to outcome on the transplant waitlist and posttransplantation are not straightforward. Strategies to manage weight in the waitlisted and post-kidney transplantation patient must be performed in the context of a multidisciplinary approach and individualized to risk factors in particular patients. While retrospective studies offer considerable insight into the relationship between obesity and kidney transplant outcome, causal inferences must be made with great caution.
Case Study of Particle Number Fluxes and Size Distributions during Nucleation Events in Southeastern Italy in the Summer

Concentrations, size distributions and particle number vertical turbulent fluxes were measured by the eddy-covariance method at an urban background site in southeastern Italy during the summer. CO2/H2O concentrations and fluxes were also determined together with meteorological parameters. Time series show that particles could be divided into two size classes with negatively-correlated temporal trends in diurnal hours: nanoparticles (diameter Dp 50 nm). Larger particles include part of the Aitken mode and the accumulation mode. Nanoparticles peaked in diurnal hours due to the presence of several days with nucleation events when particles Dp > 50 nm were at minimum concentrations. Nucleation increased diurnal total particle concentration by a factor of 2.5, reducing mean and median diameters from Dmean = 62.3 ± 1.2 nm and Dmedian = 29.1 ± 1.3 nm on non-event days to Dmean = 35.4 ± 0.6 nm and Dmedian = 15.5 ± 0.3 nm on event days. During nucleation events, particle deposition increased markedly (i.e., downward fluxes), but no significant changes in CO2 concentrations and fluxes were observed. This is compatible with new particle formation above the measurement height and a consequent net transport towards the surface. Correlation with meteorology shows that the formation of new particles is correlated with solar radiation and favored at high wind velocity.
Factor analysis and validation of a self-report measure of impaired fear inhibition

ABSTRACT Difficulties with inhibiting fear have been associated with the emergence of anxiety problems and poor response to cognitive–behavioural treatment. Fear inhibition problems measured using experimental paradigms involving aversive stimuli may be inappropriate for vulnerable samples and may not capture fear inhibition problems evident in everyday life. We present the Fear Inhibition Questionnaire (FIQ), a self-report measure of fear inhibition abilities. We assess the FIQ’s factor structure across two cultures and how well it correlates with fear inhibition indices derived experimentally. Adolescent participants from Hong Kong and England completed the FIQ, with the English participants also completing a conditioning and extinction task to assess fear inhibition problems. Across both cultures, the FIQ showed a single factor structure and low FIQ scores, or worse fear inhibition problems, were associated with self-reports of heightened anxiety. Correlation of FIQ scores with experimental indices, whilst controlling for anxious symptoms, suggests that the FIQ represents a valid and unique measure of fear inhibition abilities. The FIQ might be used to assess more ecologically valid fear inhibition problems particularly amongst people who have or who are at risk of anxiety diagnoses.
The Heart of Heritage: Sociocultural Dimensions of Heritage Language Learning

The very notion of heritage language (HL) is a sociocultural one insofar as it is defined in terms of a group of people who speak it. Heritage languages also have a sociocultural function, both as a means of communication and as a way of identifying and transforming sociocultural groups. This article surveys two broad approaches to research on the sociocultural dimensions of HL learning. While both of these approaches acknowledge the close connection and mutual dependency between HL learning processes and sociocultural processes, they differ in that one of them takes a correlational perspective, and the other a social constructivist perspective. This article reviews a selective body of work conducted from each of the two perspectives and concludes with a discussion of the implications of the sociocultural complexity associated with HL learning for research and practice.
Herbarium specimens can reveal impacts of climate change on plant phenology; a review of methods and applications

Studies in plant phenology have provided some of the best evidence for large-scale responses to recent climate change. Over the last decade, more than thirty studies have used herbarium specimens to analyze changes in flowering phenology over time, although studies from tropical environments are thus far generally lacking. In this review, we summarize the approaches and applications used to date. Reproductive plant phenology has primarily been analyzed using two summary statistics, the mean flowering day of year and first-flowering day of year, but mean flowering day has proven to be a more robust statistic. Two types of regression models have been applied to test for associations between flowering, temperature and time: flowering day regressed on year and flowering day regressed on temperature. Most studies analyzed the effect of temperature by averaging temperatures from three months prior to the date of flowering. On average, published studies have used 55 herbarium specimens per species to characterize changes in phenology over time, but in many cases fewer specimens were used. Geospatial grid data are increasingly being used for determining average temperatures at herbarium specimen collection locations, allowing testing for finer scale correspondence between phenology and climate. Multiple studies have shown that inferences from herbarium specimen data are comparable to findings from systematically collected field observations. Understanding phenological responses to climate change is a crucial step towards recognizing implications for higher trophic levels and large-scale ecosystem processes. As herbaria are increasingly being digitized worldwide, more data are becoming available for future studies. As temperatures continue to rise globally, herbarium specimens are expected to become an increasingly important resource for analyzing plant responses to climate change.
A Framework for Resolving Cryptic Species: A Case Study from the Lizards of the Australian Wet Tropics

Abstract. As we collect range‐wide genetic data for morphologically‐defined species, we increasingly unearth evidence for cryptic diversity. Delimiting this cryptic diversity is challenging, both because the divergences span a continuum and because the lack of overt morphological differentiation suggests divergence has proceeded heterogeneously. Herein, we address these challenges as we diagnose and describe species in three co‐occurring species groups of Australian lizards. By integrating genomic and morphological data with data on hybridization and introgression from contact zones, we explore several approaches—and their relative benefits and weaknesses—for testing the validity of cryptic lineages. More generally, we advocate that genetic delimitations of cryptic diversity must consider whether these lineages are likely to be durable and persistent through evolutionary time.
Elk3 Deficiency Causes Transient Impairment in Post-Natal Retinal Vascular Development and Formation of Tortuous Arteries in Adult Murine Retinae

Serum Response Factor (SRF) fulfills essential roles in post-natal retinal angiogenesis and adult neovascularization. These functions have been attributed to the recruitment by SRF of the cofactors Myocardin-Related Transcription Factors MRTF-A and -B, but not the Ternary Complex Factors (TCFs) Elk1 and Elk4. The role of the third TCF, Elk3, remained unknown. We generated a new Elk3 knockout mouse line and showed that Elk3 had specific, non-redundant functions in the retinal vasculature. In Elk3(−/−) mice, post-natal retinal angiogenesis was transiently delayed until P8, after which it proceeded normally. Interestingly, tortuous arteries developed in Elk3(−/−) mice from the age of four weeks, and persisted into late adulthood. Tortuous vessels have been observed in human pathologies, e.g. in ROP and FEVR. These human disorders were linked to altered activities of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the affected eyes. However, in Elk3(−/−) mice, we did not observe any changes in VEGF or several other potential confounding factors, including mural cell coverage and blood pressure. Instead, concurrent with the post-natal transient delay of radial outgrowth and the formation of adult tortuous arteries, Elk3-dependent effects on the expression of Angiopoietin/Tie-signalling components were observed. Moreover, in vitro microvessel sprouting and microtube formation from P10 and adult aortic ring explants were reduced. Collectively, these results indicate that Elk3 has distinct roles in maintaining retinal artery integrity. The Elk3 knockout mouse is presented as a new animal model to study retinal artery tortuousity in mice and human patients.
Vision and Locomotion Shape the Interactions between Neuron Types in Mouse Visual Cortex

In the mouse primary visual cortex (V1), sensory responses are shaped by behavioral factors such as locomotion. These factors are thought to control a disinhibitory circuit, whereby interneurons expressing vasoactive intestinal peptide (Vip) inhibit those expressing somatostatin (Sst), disinhibiting pyramidal cells (Pyr). We measured the effect of locomotion on these neurons and on interneurons expressing parvalbumin (Pvalb) in layer 2/3 of mouse V1, and found in-consistencies with the disinhibitory model. In the presence of large stimuli, locomotion increased Sst cell responses without suppressing Vip cells. In the presence of small stimuli, locomotion increased Vip cell responses without suppressing Sst cells. A circuit model could reproduce each cell type’s activity from the measured activity of other cell types, but only if we allowed locomotion to increase feedforward synaptic weights while modulating recurrent weights. These results suggest that locomotion alters cortical function by changing effective synaptic connectivity, rather than only through disinhibition.
Learning a Text-Video Embedding from Incomplete and Heterogeneous Data

Joint understanding of video and language is an active research area with many applications. Prior work in this domain typically relies on learning text-video embeddings. One difficulty with this approach, however, is the lack of large-scale annotated video-caption datasets for training. To address this issue, we aim at learning text-video embeddings from heterogeneous data sources. To this end, we propose a Mixture-of-Embedding-Experts (MEE) model with ability to handle missing input modalities during training. As a result, our framework can learn improved text-video embeddings simultaneously from image and video datasets. We also show the generalization of MEE to other input modalities such as face descriptors. We evaluate our method on the task of video retrieval and report results for the MPII Movie Description and MSR-VTT datasets. The proposed MEE model demonstrates significant improvements and outperforms previously reported methods on both text-to-video and video-to-text retrieval tasks.
How we manage patients with Waldenström macroglobulinaemia

Waldenström macroglobulinaemia (WM) is a rare, indolent B‐cell lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by cellular involvement in bone marrow and monoclonal IgM production. Symptoms can be related to cytopenias, tumoural involvement, or IgM‐related disorders. Somatic mutations in the MYD88 gene have been described in the majority of WM cases. The mutation is responsible for a gain‐of‐function and induces activation of nuclear factor‐κB, for DNA transcription and cell survival. It seems that MYD88 mutation is associated with better prognosis and better response to some treatment. Treatments are started when WM is symptomatic, following systematic biological and morphological assessments. Therapeutic choice depends on age, frailty and urgent efficacy need. In first line, the majority of patients are treated with monoclonal anti‐CD20 antibody‐based regimens combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy. Rituximab, cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone remain the most commonly used regimen with good safety. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of new drugs are becoming available or are in development. Proteasome inhibitors, such as bortezomib or carfilzmib, showed good and rapid responses. Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor demonstrated excellent results and is now available for relapse/refractory disease or as first line for some patients. This review highlights the diagnostic procedures and therapeutic approaches in WM.
Estimation of Fine and Oversize Particle Ratio in a Heterogeneous Compound with Acoustic Emissions

The final phase of powder production typically involves a mixing process where all of the particles are combined and agglomerated with a binder to form a single compound. The traditional means of inspecting the physical properties of the final product involves an inspection of the particle sizes using an offline sieving and weighing process. The main downside of this technique, in addition to being an offline-only measurement procedure, is its inability to characterise large agglomerates of powders due to sieve blockage. This work assesses the feasibility of a real-time monitoring approach using a benchtop test rig and a prototype acoustic-based measurement approach to provide information that can be correlated to product quality and provide the opportunity for future process optimisation. Acoustic emission (AE) was chosen as the sensing method due to its low cost, simple setup process, and ease of implementation. The performance of the proposed method was assessed in a series of experiments where the offline quality check results were compared to the AE-based real-time estimations using data acquired from a benchtop powder free flow rig. A designed time domain based signal processing method was used to extract particle size information from the acquired AE signal and the results show that this technique is capable of estimating the required ratio in the washing powder compound with an average absolute error of 6%.
New sub-module inverter for cascaded multilevel inverter with reduced number of switch counts

This research presented a new sub-module multilevel inverter for the cascaded multilevel inverters. This topology can be produces 25-levels at the end without any extra circuit. Then, cascaded topology in three modes (a symmetric mode and two asymmetric modes) based on magnitudes of DC links have been investigated. The advantage of the proposed cascaded connection is the decreasing of the number of switch, DC links and total voltage standing on switches in the same output voltage levels, in comparison with other cascaded topologies. MATLAB simulation outcome are demonstrated to confirm the proposed topology excellent operation.
Arc-Induced Long Period Gratings from Standard to Polarization-Maintaining and Photonic Crystal Fibers

In this work, we report about our recent results concerning the fabrication of Long Period Grating (LPG) sensors in several optical fibers, through the Electric Arc Discharge (EAD) technique. In particular, the following silica fibers with both different dopants and geometrical structures are considered: standard Ge-doped, photosensitive B/Ge codoped, P-doped, pure-silica core with F-doped cladding, Panda type Polarization-maintaining, and Hollow core Photonic crystal fiber. An adaptive platform was developed and the appropriate “recipe” was identified for each fiber, in terms of both arc discharge parameters and setup arrangement, for manufacturing LPGs with strong and narrow attenuation bands, low insertion losses, and short length. As the fabricated devices have appealing features from the application point of view, the sensitivity characteristics towards changes in different external perturbations (i.e., surrounding refractive index, temperature, and strain) are investigated and compared, highlighting the effects of different fiber composition and structure.