Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glimpse of natural selection of long-lived T-cell clones in healthy life

Significance A healthy life requires T cells to provide immunity against infections while maintaining immune tolerance to self and commensal antigens. The diversity of T-cell clones evolves in an individual’s life due to competition between preexisting clones and clones continuously generated from the thymus. It is not known whether antigen-experienced T-cell clones are randomly replaced by new clones or selectively retained for long-term keeping in healthy living conditions. Here, we tracked long-lived T-cell clones in mice without infections or immune challenges. Our study revealed that healthy living conditions select regulatory T-cell clones that may be necessary to maintain the immune-tolerant status of long-lived T-cell clones against self or commensal antigens shared across different mice. Homeostatic maintenance of T cells with broad clonal diversity is influenced by both continuing output of young T cells from the thymus and ongoing turnover of preexisting clones in the periphery. In the absence of infection, self and commensal antigens are thought to play important roles in selection and homeostatic maintenance of the T-cell pool. Most naïve T cells are short-lived due to lack of antigen encounter, whereas antigen-experienced T cells may survive and persist as long-lived clones. Thus far, little is known about the homeostasis, antigenic specificity, and clonal diversity of long-lived T-cell clones in peripheral lymphoid organs under healthy living conditions. To identify long-lived T-cell clones in mice, we designed a lineage-tracing method to label a wave of T cells produced in the thymus of young mice. After aging the mice for 1.5 y, we found that lineage-tracked T cells consisted of primarily memory-like T cells and T regulatory cells. T-cell receptor repertoire analysis revealed that the lineage-tracked CD4 memory-like T cells and T regulatory cells exhibited age-dependent enrichment of shared clonotypes. Furthermore, these shared clonotypes were found across different mice maintained in the same housing condition. These findings suggest that nonrandom and shared antigens are involved in controlling selection, retention, and immune tolerance of long-lived T-cell clones under healthy living conditions.
Psychometric properties of the Ndetei–Othieno–Kathuku (NOK) Scale: A mental health assessment tool for an African setting

Background: Research suggests that psychiatric conditions in children and adolescents are highly debilitating, with sparse resources for assessment and treatment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability, validity, and latent factor structure of an ethnographically-grounded assessment instrument for detecting common mental health complaints among rural Kenyan children and adolescents. Methods: The Ndetei–Othieno–Kathuku Scale (NOK) was delivered to 2 282 children aged 10 to 18 years old. Exploratory factor analysis identified four latent factors. This structure was confirmed in subsequent confirmatory factor analyses. External validity was explored by investigating associations among NOK factors and Youth Self-Report DSM-oriented scales. Results: Findings suggest the NOK possesses good internal reliability and a four-factor latent structure corresponding to depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, and a mixed factor. Significant associations ranging from small to medium effect sizes were noted between NOK factors and YSR DSM-oriented scales. Conclusions: Exploratory findings suggest that the NOK possesses adequate psychometric properties among this population. This ethnographically-grounded instrument may be uniquely suited to screening for mental health complaints among Kenyan children and adolescents.
CLA and EPA inhibit LPS-induced prostaglandin release from bovine endometrial cells through an NF-κB-dependent signaling mechanism

Although their action in antagonizing arachidonic acid metabolism is a key antiinflammatory effect of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA), these molecules have other antiinflammatory effects that might occur upstream of altered eicosanoid production. We examined the effects of two CLA isomers (c9,t11 and t10,c12 isomers), n-3 PUFA (EPA and DHA), and κNF-κB inhibitor (ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC)) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced secretion of prostaglandins (PGE 2 and PGF 2a ) by bovine endometrial (BEND) cells. LPS increased PGE 2 and PGF 2a concentrations in BEND cell- conditioned media in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The c9,t11 CLA isomer and EPA decreased prostaglandin response to LPS. Addition of PDTC, alone or in combination with c9,t11 CLA or EPA, inhibited LPS-induced eicosanoid release into the culture medium. Results indicate that the c9,t11 CLA isomer and EPA inhibit the endometrial prostaglandin release in cattle and that these molecules may act through an NF-κB signaling mechanism.
Zone-Melting Recrystallization for Crystalline Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells

vii effective diffusion length on dislocation density has been developed. For this purpose the model published by Donolato [J. Appl. Phys. 84, 2656 (1998)] has been extended regarding the following features: (i) The use of the »quantum efficiency effective diffusion length«. This quantity is compatible with the usual diffusion length extraction from quantum efficiency data and is more adequate for the typical operation conditions of a solar cell than the quantity introduced in the original work. (ii) The appropriate description of thin devices with a finite thickness and a finite back surface recombination velocity. Since the associated boundary value problem does not allow a straightforward analytical solution, an approximate expression has been derived, which was validated by numerical simulations. The model has been applied to the characterization of thin-film solar cell devices using the techniques of etch pit density (EPD) mapping and spectrally resolved light beam induced current (SR-LBIC). For EPD measurements a special setup has been developed, which is based on an automated microscope and digital image analysis. This system is capable of producing EPD maps with tens of thousands of data points. To correlate EPD and SR-LBIC diffusion length data, the Gaussian profile of the LBIC beam has to be considered. Further, charge carriers can diffuse from the point of generation into neighboring areas (which might have different dislocation densities). Both effects were taken into account by convolving the EPD map with a filter kernel that contains information on LBIC profile and diffusion parameters. The result is an effective dislocation density (EDD) map. At the investigated structures, these EDD maps correlated well with SR-LBIC diffusion length maps. For a quantitative analysis, the extended version of Donolato’s model was locally fitted to EDD and effective diffusion length data. The determined normalized recombination strength values are in the range of 0.006 to 0.016, and are comparable to values measured on conventional multicrystalline silicon solar cells. In addition, the model has been applied to open circuit voltage data measured on samples with different dislocation densities. For these devices a strong decrease of open circuit voltage with increasing dislocation density was found. With the consideration of space charge region recombination, the experimental data could be modeled very well. However, in order to obtain satisfactory fitting results, it had to be assumed that the region of high recombination is much wider
Beneficial effect of genistein on lowering blood pressure and kidney toxicity in fructose-fed hypertensive rats

The study evaluates the effects of genistein on blood pressure (BP) and ultrastructural changes in kidney of fructose-fed hypertensive rats. Male Wistar rats were fed a diet containing 60 % starch or 60 % fructose as the source of carbohydrate. After 15 d, rats in each dietary group were divided into two groups and were treated with either genistein (1 mg/kg per d) in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) or 30 % DMSO alone. BP, pressor mechanisms, protein kinase C-βII (PKC-βII) expression, endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) expression and renal ultrastructural changes were evaluated after 60 d. Fructose-fed rats displayed significant elevation in BP and heart rate. Significant increase in plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity, alterations in renal lipid profile, nitrite and kallikrein activity, enhanced expression of membrane-associated PKC-βII and decreased expression of eNOS were observed in them. Histology and electron microscopic studies showed structural changes in the kidney. Genistein administration lowered BP, restored ACE, PKC-βII and eNOS expression and preserved renal ultrastructural integrity. These findings demonstrate that genistein has effects on eNOS activity in renal cells, leading to eNOS activation and NO synthesis. These effects could have been mediated by activation of PKC-βII. The observed benefits of genistein make it a promising candidate for therapy of diabetic kidney disease.
Analysis of the Expression of Surface Receptors on NK Cells and NKG2D on Immunocytes in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Background: The aberrant expression of surface receptors on immunocytes may represent potential markers of tumor escape for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of representative receptors on natural killer (NK) cells and NK group 2, member D (NKG2D) on immunocytes in the peripheral blood of patients with NPC. Methods: Patients (n = 64) with NPC prior to initiation of treatment were defined as the study group. Healthy volunteers (n = 31) served as the control group. The expression of NK cells and NKT cells; the triggering receptors NKp30, NKp44, and NKp46 on NK cells; the activating receptor NKG2D on NK cells, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells; and the inhibitory receptors CD158b and CD159a on NK cells were analyzed by flow cytometry in the two groups. Results: Here, our study showed that no differences were observed in terms of the numbers of NK cells or NKT cells, or the expression of CD158b and CD159a on the surface of NK cells between the two groups. Nevertheless, the expression levels of NKp30 and NKp46 on NK cells in the NPC patients were significantly lower than in the healthy individuals (P < 0.05). No differences existed in the expression of NKG2D on NK cells, but NKG2D on CD8+ T cells showed a markedly lower expression in the study group (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings may reflect a possible mechanism of immune evasion for NPC. The enhancement of immunotherapy concerning NKp30, NKp46, and NKG2D may be an innovative treatment strategy for patients with NPC.
Simultaneous Object Classification and Viewpoint Estimation using Deep Multi-task Convolutional Neural Network

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have shown an impressive performance in many computer vision tasks. Most of the CNN architectures were proposed to solve a single task. This paper proposes a CNN model to tackle the problem of object classification and viewpoint estimation simultaneously, where these problems are opposite in terms of feature representation. While object classification task aims to learn viewpoint invariant features, viewpoint estimation task requires features that capture the variations of the viewpoint for the same object. This study addresses this problem by introducing a multi-task CNN architecture that performs object classification and viewpoint estimation simultaneously. The first part of the CNN is shared between the two tasks, and the second part is two subnetworks to solve each task separately. Synthetic images are used to increase the training dataset to train the proposed model. To evaluate our model, PASCAL3D+ dataset is used to test our proposed model, as it is a challenging dataset for object detection and viewpoint estimation. According to the results, the proposed model performs as a multi-task model, where we can exploit the shared layers to feed their features for different tasks. Moreover, 3D models can be used to render images in different conditions to solve the lack of training data and to enhance the training of the CNNs.
Prospective analysis of the quality of Spanish health information web sites after 3 years

ABSTRACT Objective: Although the Internet has become an essential source of health information, our study conducted 3 years ago provided evidence of the low quality of Spanish health web sites. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the quality of Spanish health information web sites now, and to compare these results with those obtained 3 years ago. Methods: For the original study, the most visited health information web sites were selected through the PageRank® (Google®) system. The present study evaluated the quality of the same web sites from February to May 2013, using the method developed by Bermúdez-Tamayo et al. and HONCode® criteria. Results: The mean quality of the selected web sites was low and has deteriorated since the previous evaluation, especially in regional health services and institutions’ web sites. The quality of private web sites remained broadly similar. Compliance with privacy and update criteria also improved in the intervening period. Conclusion: The results indicate that, even in the case of health web sites, design or appearance is more relevant to developers than quality of information. It is recommended that responsible institutions should increase their efforts to eliminate low-quality health information that may further contribute to health problems.
Does the Convergent Validity of the PAI Antisocial Features Scale Depend on Offender Response Style?

ABSTRACT Researchers have recently questioned the utility of the response style indicators included on many self-report measures of personality and psychopathology. We examined whether the size of convergent validity coefficients for Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) Antisocial Features (ANT) scores depends on PAI validity scale scores. Using PAI and Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL–R) scores from 477 offenders evaluated for civil commitment as sexually violent predators, we found that PAI Positive Impression (PIM), Negative Impression (NIM), Malingering Index (MAL), Defensiveness Index (DEF), and Infrequency (INF) scores moderated the association between ANT and PCL–R scores. The association between ANT and PCL–R scores decreased as offenders overstated psychopathology (i.e., higher NIM or MAL scores) or exhibited increasing disengagement (i.e., higher INF scores). However, the association between ANT and PCL–R scores increased as offenders engaged in defensive reporting (i.e., higher PIM or DEF scores). The interaction effects were most common for ANT–E (Egocentricity), and to a lesser extent ANT–A (Antisocial Behaviors). PAI discriminant function validity indexes did not exhibit moderating effects on ANT and PCL–R scores. There was no evidence of validity scale suppression effects. These findings provide support for the potential role of some PAI response style measures for ANT scale interpretation in forensic settings.
CleanNet: Transfer Learning for Scalable Image Classifier Training with Label Noise

In this paper, we study the problem of learning image classification models with label noise. Existing approaches depending on human supervision are generally not scalable as manually identifying correct or incorrect labels is time-consuming, whereas approaches not relying on human supervision are scalable but less effective. To reduce the amount of human supervision for label noise cleaning, we introduce CleanNet, a joint neural embedding network, which only requires a fraction of the classes being manually verified to provide the knowledge of label noise that can be transferred to other classes. We further integrate CleanNet and conventional convolutional neural network classifier into one framework for image classification learning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on both of the label noise detection task and the image classification on noisy data task on several large-scale datasets. Experimental results show that CleanNet can reduce label noise detection error rate on held-out classes where no human supervision available by 41.5% compared to current weakly supervised methods. It also achieves 47% of the performance gain of verifying all images with only 3.2% images verified on an image classification task. Source code and dataset will be available at kuanghuei.github. io/CleanNetProject.
False Negatives for Remote Life Detection on Ocean-Bearing Planets: Lessons from the Early Earth

Abstract Ocean-atmosphere chemistry on Earth has undergone dramatic evolutionary changes throughout its long history, with potentially significant ramifications for the emergence and long-term stability of atmospheric biosignatures. Though a great deal of work has centered on refining our understanding of false positives for remote life detection, much less attention has been paid to the possibility of false negatives, that is, cryptic biospheres that are widespread and active on a planet's surface but are ultimately undetectable or difficult to detect in the composition of a planet's atmosphere. Here, we summarize recent developments from geochemical proxy records and Earth system models that provide insight into the long-term evolution of the most readily detectable potential biosignature gases on Earth—oxygen (O2), ozone (O3), and methane (CH4). We suggest that the canonical O2-CH4 disequilibrium biosignature would perhaps have been challenging to detect remotely during Earth's ∼4.5-billion-year history and that in general atmospheric O2/O3 levels have been a poor proxy for the presence of Earth's biosphere for all but the last ∼500 million years. We further suggest that detecting atmospheric CH4 would have been problematic for most of the last ∼2.5 billion years of Earth's history. More broadly, we stress that internal oceanic recycling of biosignature gases will often render surface biospheres on ocean-bearing silicate worlds cryptic, with the implication that the planets most conducive to the development and maintenance of a pervasive biosphere will often be challenging to characterize via conventional atmospheric biosignatures. Key Words: Biosignatures—Oxygen—Methane—Ozone—Exoplanets—Planetary habitability. Astrobiology 17, 287–297.
Micronutrient deficiency status among women of desert areas of western Rajasthan, India

Abstract Objective To assess the magnitude of three micronutrient deficiency disorders (iron, vitamin A and iodine), nutritional deficiencies and their association with related factors. Material and Methods Using the three-stage sampling technique, a study was conducted in twenty-eight villages of Jodhpur district. A total of 1193 women, 384 pregnant, 400 lactating and 409 non-pregnant non-lactating controls (15 years and above, women who have not attained their family status) were examined for three micronutrient deficiency disorders, nutritional deficiencies, dietary and associated factors. Results Majority of the women were anaemic. Anaemia was higher among pregnant and lactating women (80·7 %). Severe anaemia was three-fold higher among pregnant and lactating women in comparison to controls (4·1 %). Vitamin A deficiency was observed to be higher among pregnant women (8·8 %). A high proportion of women (80·8 %) consumed salt, having inadequate iodine content. Median urinary iodine values were less in pregnant and lactating women than the WHO cut-off points. Consumption of pulses and legumes was low besides leafy vegetables. Average intake of nutrients showed deficiency of protein and energy, iron and folic acid and vitamin A deficiency. Anaemia and iodine deficiency disorder were found to be inversely proportional to education and income. Conclusions The proportion of anaemia in this study was higher in comparison to national-level studies besides the low consumption of normal iodised salt. Only 19 % of salt samples had adequate iodine content, which calls for caution. In addition to iodisation of salt, the study suggests the development of nutritional packages utilising local dietary aspects.
Toughness recovery of modified 9Cr–1Mo steel weld metals after long-term thermal ageing and its evaluation by electrochemical measurement

Recently, thermal power plants have tended to operate under higher temperature and pressure steam conditions for CO2 reduction. Modified 9Cr–1Mo steels are used in the ultra-super critical power plant because of their excellent creep properties. However, the toughness of base metal decreases after long-term thermal ageing at operation temperature. Moreover, toughness of weld metal is lowest in the MIG weldment. In this study, metallurgical factors of toughness of the modified 9Cr–1Mo steel weld metals by thermal ageing at operation temperature were investigated. And the evaluation method of toughness by the electrochemical measurement used with 5% sulphuric acid aqueous solution was investigated. The weld metal that received post-welding heat treatment (PWHT: 1023 K and 5.4 ks) decreased toughness by thermal ageing in 873 K and 31.5 Ms. However, toughness of the welds after thermal ageing was recovered to the same level as PWHT welds when the thermal aged welds received the same thermal history as PWHT. A lot of the large Laves phase was observed in the weld metal after the thermal ageing. However, almost all of the Laves phase dissolved in parent phase by the same thermal history as PWHT. Therefore, it seemed that the decrease and the recovery of toughness were mainly determined by the behaviour of precipitation of the Laves phase. The peak of the current density (Ip) in the electrochemical measurement appeared in the weld metals that precipitated a lot of large Laves phase. It seemed that appearance of Ip was caused by the dissolution of the Laves phase. A good correlation between toughness and Ip was observed. Therefore, it can be said that toughness of the weld metals is supposed to be predicted using an Ip of the electrochemical measurement.
Obesity induced alterations in redox homeostasis and oxidative stress are present from an early age

Objectives Oxidative stress and inflammation have been postulated as underlying mechanisms for the development of obesity-related insulin resistance. This association however, remains elusive especially in childhood. We sought to investigate this relation by measuring oxidative stress and antioxidant response biomarkers, before and during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), in different biological samples from obese children. Subjects 24 children were recruited for the study, (18 obese and 6 controls). After OGTT, the obese group was subdivided in two, according to whether or not carbohydrate metabolic impairment (Ob.IR+, Ob.IR-; respectively) was found. Different biomarkers were analyzed after fasting (T = 0) and during an OGTT (T = 60 and 120 min). Lipoperoxides were measured in plasma, erythrocytes, and urine; while advanced glycation end products were determined in plasma, and redox status (GSH/GSSG ratio) in erythrocytes. Results We found marked differences in the characterization of the oxidative status in urine and erythrocytes, and in the dynamics of the antioxidant response during OGTT. Specifically, Ob.IR+ children show increased oxidative stress, deficient antioxidant response and a significant imbalance in redox status, in comparison to controls and Ob.IR- children. Conclusion Obese children with insulin resistance show increased levels of oxidative stress biomarkers, and a stunted antioxidant response to an OGTT leading to increased oxidative stress after a single glucose load, as detected in erythrocytes, but not in plasma. We propose erythrocytes as sensors of early and acute changes in oxidative stress associated with insulin resistance in childhood obesity. This is a pilot study, performed with a limited sample size, so data should be interpreted with caution until reproduced.