Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The atypical chemokine receptor-2 fine-tunes the immune response in herpes stromal keratitis

Herpes stromal keratitis (HSK) is a blinding corneal disease caused by herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), a common pathogen infecting most of the world’s population. Inflammation in HSK is chemokine-dependent, particularly CXCL10 and less so the CC chemokines. The atypical chemokine receptor-2 (ACKR2) is a decoy receptor predominantly for pro-inflammatory CC chemokines, which regulates the inflammatory response by scavenging inflammatory chemokines thereby modulating leukocyte infiltration. Deletion of ACKR2 exacerbates and delays the resolution of the inflammatory response in most models. ACKR2 also regulates lymphangiogenesis and mammary duct development through the recruitment of tissue-remodeling macrophages. Here, we demonstrate a dose-dependent upregulation of ACKR2 during corneal HSV-1 infection. At an HSV inoculum dose of 5.4 x 105 pfu, but not at higher dose, ACKR2 deficient mice showed prolonged clinical signs of HSK, increased infiltration of leukocytes and persistent corneal neovascularization. Viral clearance and T cell activation were similar in ACKR2-/- and wild type mice, despite a transient diminished expression of CD40 and CD86 in dendritic cells. The data suggest that ACKR2 fine-tunes the inflammatory response and the level of neovascularization in the HSK.
Evaluation and comparison of the sensitivity of three commercial RT-qPCR kits used for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Santiago, Chile

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic is still in force, causing global public health challenges and threats. Although vaccination and herd immunity have proven to be the most efficient way to control the pandemic, massive and early testing of patients using the RT-qPCR technique is crucial for constant genomic surveillance. The appearance of variants of SARS-CoV-2 with new mutations can reduce the efficiency of diagnostic detection. In this sense, several commercial RT-qPCR kits have been the target of extensive analysis because low assay performance could lead to false-negative diagnoses. Methods In this study, we evaluated the performance of three commercial RT-qPCR kits; Thermo Fisher (TaqMan 2019-nCoV Assay Kit v1), BGI and Roche (LightCycler® Multiplex RNA Virus Master) used for the diagnosis of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic in Santiago de Chile. Results Under our best assay conditions, we found significant differences in Cq amplification values for control and viral probes, against the same nasopharyngeal swab samples (NPSs). In addition, in some cases, the sensitivity of the RT-qPCR kits decreased against viral variants. Conclusion Our study suggests evaluating the RT-qPCR kits used to detect SARS-CoV-2 because variants such as Omicron, which has several mutations, can compromise their detection and underestimate viral circulation.
Cognitive impairment assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination predicts all-cause and CVD mortality in Chinese older adults: A 10-year follow-up study

Objective Cognitive impairment (CI) has been demonstrated as a useful proxy measure of mortality in Western populations. However, the predictive value of CI in Chinese populations is unknown. We aimed to explore whether CI is independently associated with increased long-term all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Chinese older adults and the association of performance in specific MMSE sub-domains to subsequent mortality. Methods and results A total of 4,499 older adults [mean (SD) age, 70.3(6.7) years] who received a sample investigation from 2011 to 2014 were followed up till 2021 for mortality. The Mini-Mental State Examination was used to assess cognitive function, and Cox's proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the effects of cognitive function on the risk of all-cause and CVD mortality. Demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and health status were included as covariates. During a 10-year follow-up, a total of 667 (14.8%) died. In the fully adjusted model, compared with cognitively normal participants with CI had a 1.33-fold [HR, 1.33; (95% CI, 1.10–1.61)] greater risk of all-cause mortality and a 1.45-fold [HR, 1.45; (95% CIs, 1.11–1.92)] greater risk of CVD mortality. After a similar multivariable adjustment, a per-SD increase in MMSE scores was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality [HR, 0.85; (95% CI, 0.78–0.93)] and CVD mortality [HR, 0.74; (95% CI, 0.65–0.84)]. In the unadjusted model, MMSE sub-domains (apart from immediate recall) were associated with mortality. But only orientation and calculation and attention were still independently associated with all-cause and CVD mortality in a multivariable model. Conclusion These findings confirmed that CI is a marker of all-cause and CVD mortality risk in Chinese older adults, independently of other commonly assessed risk factors, and some sub-domains of the MMSE may have stronger associations with mortality. Further research is needed to identify the mechanisms underlying the observed associations.
Does folic acid supplementation have a positive effect on improving memory? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Introduction The results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of folic acid supplementation on memory status due to various heterogeneity, dosage, duration, and cognitive function assessments were inconclusive. Therefore, we have performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the effect of folic acid supplementation on memory in RCTs. Method Comprehensive computerized systematic searches were conducted throughout Scopus, PubMed/Medline, and Google Scholar from inception until February 2022 to investigate the effect of folic acid supplementation memory levels in RCTs. The standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CIs) were used to estimate the overall effect size using random-effects meta-analyses. Results The overall results of nine trials with 641 participants, revealed that folic acid supplementation did not significantly change memory score compared to placebo (SMD: 0.12; 95% CI: −0.17, 0.40, p = 0.418; I2 = 62.6%). However, subgroup analyses showed that supplementation with folic acid had favorable effects on memory levels considering the following conditions: (1) doses lower than 1 mg/day, (2) treatment lasting more than 6 months, (3) conducted in eastern countries, and (4) in participants equal to or older than 70 years old. The dose-response analysis suggested a significant favorable effect on memory status at doses of 6–11 mg/d and a significant decline at doses of 17–20 mg/d. Discussion Although we did not find a significant effect of folic acid supplementation on memory, there were some suggestions of beneficial effects in the subgroup analyses.
Towards a Persona Aware Conversational Agent

Dialog systems have been at the center of Natural Language Processing (NLP) since its inception. With a wide range of applications, this type of system is particularly interesting as a user interface, creating the possibility of a more natu-ral and convenient user experience. In the context of Customer Support, goal-oriented dialog systems are now widely used, helping users carry out specific tasks. Traditionally, these systems were created by employing knowledge-based architectures. However, the growth of Deep Learning and the increase in data availability facilitated the development of neural dialog systems, which can be trained end-to-end. A well-known example of such a system is the “Transformer”, a self-attentional model that has achieved state-of-the-art re-sults in multiple NLP tasks. Notwithstanding, these systems still present some shortcomings, particularly in terms of scalability. The need for large amounts of data and considerable computing power can be an impediment, especially in situations where multiple entities must be represented. In Goal-Oriented Dialog Systems, this becomes evident when considering multi-brand Customer Support, since each brand must communicate differently with its users, meaning one model must be developed and maintained for each brand. In Open-Domain System, an analogous problem arises when considering settings where multiple characters must be impersonated. In this work, we explore how we can create conversational agents that tackle this issue, in both settings. To this end, we adapt and experiment with multiple state-of-the-art architectures together with recent datasets.
HEXOS—Humidity Exchange Over the Sea A Program for Research on Water-Vapor and Droplet Fluxes from Sea of Air at Moderate to High Wind Speeds

HEXOS is an international program for the study of evaporation and spray-droplet flux from sea to air. The program includes measurements in the field at moderate-to-high wind speeds, wind-tunnel studies, instrument development, boundary-layer modeling, and subsequent development of parameterization for use in synoptic and climatic models of the atmosphere and the ocean. Present accomplishments of the program are 1) a wind-tunnel study of the flow distortion around the Dutch research platform, Meetpost Noordwijk, 2) a pilot experiment at this platform in November 1984, and 3) an investigation of processes near the air-sea interface in a wind-wave simulation tunnel. The main field experiment, taking place in the autumn of 1986 at and around the Noordwijk platform, includes measurements of the fluxes of water vapor, spray droplets, sensible heat, and momentum, as well as the structure of the planetary boundary layer and the state of the sea. This multidisciplinary effort involves direct measurements from the.
Ordering dynamics of nematic liquid crystals: Monte Carlo simulations

We present comprehensive results from Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of ordering dynamics in d = 2 nematic liquid crystals. We compare our MC results with an analytic form obtained for the correlation function of the liquid crystal order parameter. The numerical and analytical results are in excellent agreement. The domain growth law is consistent with L(t) ∼ (t/ln t)1/2.
In search of a simple scaling for the height of the stratified atmospheric boundary layer

On the basis of observational data of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), a simple scaling framework for the evolving ABL is proposed. The theoretical background is based on a simple parameterization of the vertically-integrated dissipation term in the turbulent kinetic energy equation. The scaling introduces the scaling length LN = u*/N where u* is the friction velocity and N the buoyancy frequency, and it applies to both stable and unstable cases. The scaling fits well 3 different sets of data: the Wangara data, the JASIN data and those from an expedition over the sea ice field of the Baltic Sea. The scaling length related to the rotation appears only as a secondary factor. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0870.1988. tb00359.x
Analytical investigation of two-dimensional unsteady shock-on-shock interactions

The unsteady inviscid two-dimensional flow field and the wave configurations which result when a supersonic vehicle strikes a planar oblique shock wave were modelled and analytically predicted using some approximations and simplifying assumptions. Based on the two- and three-shock theories together with the geometric shock dynamics theory, both regular (windward) and irregular (leeward) shock-on-shock (S-O-S) interactions were investigated, and the transition criterion between them was suggested. For the case of regular S-O-S interaction, the transmitted shock wave reflects over the vehicle body surface either as a regular (RR) or a Mach reflection (MR) depending on the inclination angle and the strength of the impingement shock wave. A pronounced peak surface pressure jump was found to exist during the transition from RR to MR. A RR[harr ]MR transition criterion when the flow ahead of the shock pattern is not quiescent was proposed. Predictions based on the model developed here are superior to those of approximate theories when compared to the available experimental data and numerical simulations.
Influence of instrumental effects upon the full correlation analysis

The “full correlation analysis” (FCA) of spaced antenna (SA) data is sometimes found to be susceptible to the “triangle size effect” (TSE), whereby the magnitude of the FCA “true” velocity increasingly underestimates the actual wind velocity with decreasing antenna spacing. The TSE has been attributed to a number of instrumental effects, including coarsely digitized data, receiver characteristic differences, noise, and antenna coupling. In this paper the sources of the TSE are discussed, and the influence of various previously undocumented instrumental effects upon the FCA are investigated using simulated data. These additional effects are also shown to produce the TSE. The possibility that these instrumental effects may contribute to the lack of agreement exhibited between winds estimated using medium frequency SA radars employing the FCA and alternative in situ, satellite, and other radar techniques is discussed.
Force–Deflection Modeling for Generalized Origami Waterbomb-Base Mechanisms

The origami waterbomb base (WB) is a single-vertex bistable mechanism that can be generalized to accommodate various geometric, kinematic, and kinetic needs. The traditional WB consists of a square sheet that has four mountain folds alternating with five valley folds (eight folds total) around the vertex in the center of the sheet. This special case mechanism can be generalized to create two classes of waterbomb-base-type mechanisms that allow greater flexibility for potential application. The generalized WB maintains the pattern of alternating mountain and valley folds around a central vertex but it is not restricted to eight total folds. The split-fold waterbomb base (SFWB) is made by splitting each fold of a general WB into two “half folds” of the same variety as the parent fold. This study develops kinematic, potential energy, and force–deflection models for the rigid-foldable, developable, symmetric cases of the generalized WB and the SFWB, and investigates the relative effects of numbers of folds and split-fold panel size, on device behavior. The effect of selected key parameters is evaluated, and equations are provided to enable the exploration of other important parameters that may be of interest in the design and analysis of specific mechanisms. The similarities and differences between the two general forms are discussed, including tunability of the bistable and force–deflection behavior of each.
The dynamics and structure of rich clusters of galaxies. I : Velocity data

An extensive spectroscopic study of 10 rich southern X-ray clusters of galaxies is presented. Between 40 and 200 redshifts have been obtained in the field of each of the clusters, which cover a wide range of morphological types and richnesses. Applying rigorous statistical analyses to the total data base of 1000 precise radial velocities provides the necessary information to undertake a thorough dynamical investigation of these individual clusters and of cluster systems in general. 92 refs.
Wave formation on a liquid layer for de-icing airplane wings

Wave formation on a thin liquid layer used for de-icing air-plane wings is investigated by studying the stability of air flow over a liquid-coated flat plate at zero angle of incidence. The ratio of the viscosity of the liquid to that of air is very high (over half a million), and the Reynolds number based on liquid depth and air viscosity is of the order of a few thousand in actual practice. Under these circumstances the analysis gives two formulas, in closed form, for the growth rate and phase velocity of the waves in terms of the wavenumber and other relevant parameters, including the Froude number F representing the gravity effect and a parameter S representing the surface-tension effect. In the calculation, the wavenumber is not restricted in any way. The wavenumber of the waves that one expects to observe is that for which the growth rate is the maximum. The instability is one in which the viscosity difference between the two fluids (air and liquid) plays the dominant role, and is of the kind found by Yih (1967).
Extraction of oil slicks on the sea surface from optical satellite images by using an anomaly detection technique

Many methods for the detection of oil pollution on the sea surface from remotely sensed images have been developed in recent years. However, because of the diverse physical properties of oil on the sea surface in the visible wavelengths, such images are easily affected by the surrounding environment. This is a common difficulty encountered when optical satellite images are used as data sources for observing oil slicks on the sea surface. However, provided the spectral interference generated by the surrounding environment can be regarded as noise and properly modeled, the spectral anomalies caused by an oil slick on normal sea water may be observed after the suppression of this noise. In this study, sea surface oil slicks are extracted by detecting spectral anomalies in multispectral optical satellite images. First, assuming that the sea water and oil slick comprise the dominant background and target anomaly, respectively, an RX algorithm is used to enhance the oil slick anomaly. The oil slick can be distinguished from the sea water background after modeling and suppression of inherent noise. Next, a Gaussian mixture model is used to characterize the statistical distributions of the background and anomaly, respectively. The expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is used to obtain the parameters needed for the Gaussian mixture model. Finally, according to the Bayesian decision rule of minimum error, an optimized threshold can be obtained to extract the oil slick areas from the source image. Furthermore, with the obtained Gaussian distributions and optimized threshold, a theoretical false alarm level can be established to evaluate the quality of the extracted oil slicks. Experimental results show that the proposed method can not only successfully detect oil slicks from multispectral optical satellite images, but also provide a quantitative accuracy evaluation of the detected image.
RIGHT GENERALIZED (α, β)-DERIVATIONS HAVING POWER CENTRAL VALUES

Let $R$ be a prime ring with center $Z$ and $f\ne 0$ a right generalized $(\alpha,\beta)$-derivation of $R$. If $f(x)^n\in Z$ for all $x\in L$, a nonzero ideal of $R$, and for some fixed positive integer $n$, then $R$ is either commutative or is an order in a $4$-dimensional simple algebra.
FLOW LIMITATION IN UNIFORM THICK-WALLED COLLAPSIBLE TUBES☆

Abstract To investigate the flow-rate limitation behaviour of the same thick-walled silicone-rubber tubes with aqueous flow as have previously been characterized by this laboratory in terms of their pressure-drop limitation behaviour, we measured how the pressure drop along the tube varied with flow rate, when both the upstream head and the external pressure were varied in such a way as to keep the transmural pressure at the upstream end to the tube at a series of constant values. Flow limitation with ‘negative effort dependence’ occurred, and it was found that the flow rate depended not just on the upstream transmural pressure but also on its history, in a hysteretic manner. Furthermore, when external pressure was being reduced to the required point, either flow limitation or absence of collapse could be obtained for the same values of upstream transmural pressure. The reductions in flow rate when flow limitation came into effect were typically much greater, relative to the flow-limited flow rates themselves, than has been reported by others using thinner tubes and lower flow rates. Large-amplitude self-excited oscillation was confined to this reducing-flow-rate transition when external pressure was being increased to set the required point, and largely confined to this transition when it was being reduced. Flow limitation was mostly associated with only small-amplitude noise-like fluctuations of the downstream pressure. The transition was analysed and explained by reference to modified control-space diagrams, which show explicitly all oscillatory and divergent instabilities as closed regions. The prominence of the transition in these results forced consideration of whether flow limitation occurs when the flow rate ceases to increase or when it becomes substantially independent of the pressure drop. In adopting the latter definition, we were led to hypothesize that the initial collapse-inducing instability is not the result of choking.
Impact of smoking on oral health: Knowledge and attitude of medical and dental students

--- Introduction: Smoking kills more than 8 million people each year worldwide. The rate of morbidity from illnesses linked to smoking is increasing steadily. The adverse effects of smoking on oral health are well documented. The ability of medical and dental students to assist people in quitting smoking is crucial. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate smoking habits, the level of knowledge and attitudes of medical and dental students towards smoking, as well as the role of dental professionals in prevention of smoking. Methodology: A cross-sectional study, including 150 medical and dental students from the Khyber Medical University, housing officers and dentists from the Hayatabad Medical Complex and Peshawar Dental College, was conducted and data was collected by a pre-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire asked about the patient's smoking and quitting habits, their medical and dentists' experiences with smoking cessation and their readiness to follow dentists' recommendations for quitting. Results: the participants were students and males Majority of them were from 18-30 years old. The prevalence of smoking was highest among medical students (23) followed by the housing officers and dentists (12) while a significantly larger number of non-smokers (3) were found among dental students. The typical outcome was psychological distress which is followed by physical discomfort and impairment, while the least common outcomes were mental illness and physical impairment. In all subscales and overall OHIP-14 goals reached in the current sample population, cigarette smokers outperformed non-smokers in terms of total ranking in search engines. It was found that the participants have the biggest influence on people who want to stop smoking, either by prerequisite or motivation. Conclusion: Dentists play an important role in defining the harmful effects of cigarettes on gums and should put in place a center to support customers quit smoking.
A unified information-theoretic model of EEG signatures of human language processing

We advance an information-theoretic model of human language processing in the brain, in which incoming linguistic input is processed at two levels, in terms of a heuristic interpretation and in terms of error correction. We propose that these two kinds of information processing have distinct electroencephalographic signatures, corresponding to the well-documented N400 and P600 components of language-related event-related potentials (ERPs). Formally, we show that the information content (surprisal) of a word in context can be decomposed into two quantities: (A) heuristic surprise, which signals processing difficulty of word given its inferred context, and corresponds with the N400 signal; and (B) discrepancy signal, which reflects divergence between the true context and the inferred context, and corresponds to the P600 signal. Both of these quantities can be estimated using modern NLP techniques. We validate our theory by successfully simulating ERP patterns elicited by a variety of linguistic manipulations in previously-reported experimental data from Ryskin et al. (2021). Our theory is in principle compatible with traditional cognitive theories assuming a `good-enough' heuristic interpretation stage, but with precise information-theoretic formulation.