Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell-based therapeutic strategies for treatment of spinocerebellar ataxias: an update

Spinocerebellar ataxias are heritable neurodegenerative diseases caused by a cytosine-adenine-guanine expansion, which encodes a long glutamine tract (polyglutamine) in the respective wild-type protein causing misfolding and protein aggregation. Clinical features of polyglutamine spinocerebellar ataxias include neuronal aggregation, mitochondrial dysfunction, decreased proteasomal activity, and autophagy impairment. Mutant polyglutamine protein aggregates accumulate within neurons and cause neural dysfunction and death in specific regions of the central nervous system. Spinocerebellar ataxias are mostly characterized by progressive ataxia, speech and swallowing problems, loss of coordination and gait deficits. Over the past decade, efforts have been made to ameliorate disease symptoms in patients, yet no cure is available. Previous studies have been proposing the use of stem cells as promising tools for central nervous system tissue regeneration. So far, pre-clinical trials have shown improvement in various models of neurodegenerative diseases following stem cell transplantation, including animal models of spinocerebellar ataxia types 1, 2, and 3. However, contrasting results can be found in the literature, depending on the animal model, cell type, and route of administration used. Nonetheless, clinical trials using cellular implants into degenerated brain regions have already been applied, with the expectation that these cells would be able to differentiate into the specific neuronal subtypes and re-populate these regions, reconstructing the affected neural network. Meanwhile, the question of how feasible it is to continue such treatments remains unanswered, with long-lasting effects being still unknown. To establish the value of these advanced therapeutic tools, it is important to predict the actions of the transplanted cells as well as to understand which cell type can induce the best outcomes for each disease. Further studies are needed to determine the best route of administration, without neglecting the possible risks of repetitive transplantation that these approaches so far appear to demand. Despite the challenges ahead of us, cell-transplantation therapies are reported to have transient but beneficial outcomes in spinocerebellar ataxias, which encourages efforts towards their improvement in the future.
Thrombin increases the expression of cholesterol 25-hydroxylase in rat astrocytes after spinal cord injury

Astrocytes are important cellular centers of cholesterol synthesis and metabolism that help maintain normal physiological function at the organism level. Spinal cord injury results in aberrant cholesterol metabolism by astrocytes and excessive production of oxysterols, which have profound effects on neuropathology. 25-Hydroxycholesterol (25-HC), the main product of the membrane-associated enzyme cholesterol-25-hydroxylase (CH25H), plays important roles in mediating neuroinflammation. However, whether the abnormal astrocyte cholesterol metabolism induced by spinal cord injury contributes to the production of 25-HC, as well as the resulting pathological effects, remain unclear. In the present study, spinal cord injury-induced activation of thrombin was found to increase astrocyte CH25H expression. A protease-activated receptor 1 inhibitor was able to attenuate this effect in vitro and in vivo. In cultured primary astrocytes, thrombin interacted with protease-activated receptor 1, mainly through activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase/nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway. Conditioned culture medium from astrocytes in which ch25h expression had been knocked down by siRNA reduced macrophage migration. Finally, injection of the protease activated receptor 1 inhibitor SCH79797 into rat neural sheaths following spinal cord injury reduced migration of microglia/macrophages to the injured site and largely restored motor function. Our results demonstrate a novel regulatory mechanism for thrombin-regulated cholesterol metabolism in astrocytes that could be used to develop anti-inflammatory drugs to treat patients with spinal cord injury.
Psychological Stress Detection in Speech Using Return-to-opening Phase Ratios in Glottis

This paper is focused on investigation of psychological stress in speech signal using shapes of normalised glottal pulses. The pulses were estimated by two algorithms: the Direct Inverse Filtering and Iterative and Adaptive Inverse Filtering. Normalised glottal pulses are divided into opening and return phase, and a feature vector characterizing each glottal pulse is calculated for a series of n percentage interval in time domain. Each feature vector is created by parameters describing its return to opening phase ratio, namely chosen intervals, kurtosis, skewness, and area. Further, psychological stress is detected by feature vector and four different classifiers. Experimental results show, that the best accuracy approaching 95 % is reached with Gaussian Mixture Models classifier. All the best results were obtained regarding only the interval of 5 % from both phase durations, i.e. for and after pulse peak, where the most significant differences between normal and stressed speech in feature vector are occurred. Presented experiments were performed on our own speech database containing both real stressed speech and normal speech. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.eee. 21.5. 13336
Structural transformation and magnetoelectric behaviour in Bi1−xGdxFeO3 multiferroics

The crystal structure, dielectric, magnetic and magnetoelectric (ME) properties of Bi1−xGdxFeO3 (BGFO, x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) multiferroic ceramics have been studied. The substitution of bismuth by gadolinium induces a phase structural transition at x > 0.1, which leads to the suppression of the spiral modulated spin structure and develops weak ferromagnetic properties in the BiFeO3-based materials. Through studying the temperature/magnetic field dependence of the ME coefficient, we have revealed the effect of the substitution of Gd3+ ions on the ME properties, and have demonstrated the possibility of manipulating the electric state in BGFO multiferroics by applying magnetic field at room temperature.
Static and dynamic behaviour of plasma detachment in the divertor simulator experiment NAGDIS-II

A comprehensive investigation has been performed of the static and dynamic behaviour of detached recombining plasmas in the linear divertor plasma simulator NAGDIS-II. For stationary plasma detachment, the transition from electron-ion recombination (EIR) to molecular activated recombination (MAR) has been observed by injecting hydrogen gas into high density helium plasmas. The particle loss rate due to MAR is found to be comparable to that of EIR. Experiments have also been performed by the injection of a plasma heat pulse produced by RF heating into the detached helium plasma to demonstrate the dynamic behaviour of volumetric plasma recombination. Negative spikes in the Balmer series line emission were observed and found to be similar to the so called negative ELM observed in tokamak divertors. Observed Balmer spectra were analysed in detail using the collisional-radiative model. A rapid increase of the ion flux to the target plate was observed associated with the re-ionization of the highly excited atoms generated by EIR.
On the Leading Patterns of Northern Hemisphere Sea Level Pressure Variability

AbstractThe leading patterns of variability of the monthly mean Northern Hemisphere (NH) sea level pressure (SLP) field, as derived from empirical orthogonal teleconnection (EOT) analysis of a 93-yr (1920–2012) record of NOAA–CIRES 20th Century Reanalyses, are presented and discussed, with emphasis on wintertime patterns. The analysis yields nine or more highly reproducible wintertime hemispheric EOTs, the first six of which closely resemble EOF1 or EOF2 in their respective sectors of the hemisphere. Collectively, the first nine wintertime patterns account for 70% of the variance of NH SLP, 40% of the variance of NH surface air temperature (SAT), and 52% of the variance of the time series of NH-mean SAT poleward of 20°N. Wintertime EOT1 corresponds to the NH annular mode (NAM) and EOT2 corresponds to the SLP expression of the Pacific–North America pattern. The remaining wintertime EOT patterns are monopoles arranged like the links of a chain wrapped around the primary center of action of the annular mode.
Poles of Igusa's local zeta function and monodromy

qui est meromorphe sur C. La conjecture de monodromie associe des valeurs propres de la monodromie (complexe) de l’hypersurface f = 0 aux poles de Z(s). On peut exprimer une liste de candidats-poles de Z(s) ainsi que les valeurs propres de la monodromie a l’aide de donnees numeriques de varietes exceptionelles, associees a une resolution plongee de f = 0. En utilisant des relations entre ces donnees numeriques on montre que certains candidats-poles ne contribuent pas aux vrais poles, ce qui entrâine une forte evidence concernant la conjecture.
A hybrid gradient‐based and differential evolution algorithm for infinite impulse response adaptive filtering

Global optimization algorithms (GO) had been applied to solve the adaptive infinite impulse response filtering problem, which is known to have multimodal error surface under certain conditions. However, although GO may be able to search multimodal surfaces, they have certain disadvantages. They may not converge to any minimum point, the convergence speed is reduced as the solution vectors move closer, and tracking ability for non‐stationary environment is lacking. The traditional gradient descent method does not have these limitation but is not able to search multimodal surfaces. In this work, we propose a hybrid algorithm combining gradient descent and differential evolution (DE) for adapting the coefficients of infinite impulse response adaptive filters. DE is run in a block‐based manner. The coefficient vector with the lowest error surface value (the best member) of the current block is updated via gradient descent for the duration of the next block. Thus combining the ability to search multimodal surface of DE and fast local search of gradient descent. As with all GO, global search capacity is gradually lost as the coefficient vectors converge together. Thus, re‐initialization is also incorporated into the hybrid algorithm to provide continuous global search capacity for non‐stationary environment. All the coefficient vectors except the best member are re‐initialized when the normalized mean Euclidean distance between each pair of vectors falls below a threshold value. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better solution quality and convergence speed than classic DE and GO for stationary and non‐stationary environments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Online brand community and consumer brand trust: Analysis from Czech millennials

Abstract To ensure effective and efficient relationship marketing, brand management has become an asset (pre-requisite) for quality service marketing to thrive. Brands have gone viral to develop communities to interact with existing and novice consumers. However, the relationships between these online communities and brand trust are less explored in the literature, given the fact that consumers and users of information are core beneficiaries of these communities. The study, hence, adopted a referral (snowball) method of sampling technique to identify and gather data from social media users who are mainly millennials from the Czech Republic. Five hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM with 534 valid respondents. The results show that online brand community has a direct significant effect on consumer’s brand trust, and indirect significant via the mediating role of peer-to-peer interaction and consumer brand engagement. Hence, the research provides managers (brand practitioners) with new insights regarding the motivations (brand promise and trust) as consequence of interacting in online brand communities. Again, this study enhances social media marketing and branding literature for researchers and practitioners to leverage on the relevance of online brand community for a firm’s competitive edge. Limitation and future research directions are considered.
A numerical technique for predicting microstructure in liquid crystalline polymers

A numerical technique has been developed to model texture in nematic liquid crystals. The technique differentiates between splay, twist and bend distortions and includes splay-splay compensation. The technique is tested by the simulation of the Freedericksz transition and by the determination of minimum energy director fields for specific boundary conditions. To model the bulk, periodic boundary conditions are imposed. The effect of elastic anisotropy on disclination character has been investigated by terminating simulations before all the defects have been annihilated. With a low twist constant, twist disclinations are observed; with a high twist constant, wedge disclinations are observed. With a low twist constant and high splay constant, realistic for polymeric liquid crystals, features observed experimentally are simulated.
Improving critical thinking and problem-solving skills through POGIL combined with digital mind map

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are necessary skills in the 21st century learning. However, the initial tests of students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills showed low scores. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to improve students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills through the POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) model combined with a digital mind map based on online learning. This study uses the Classroom Action Research (CAR) method following the design of Kemmis & McTaggart, which consists of 4 stages, namely planning, implementing the action, observing, and reflecting. The stages of the POGIL model consist of orientation, exploration, concept formation combined with making digital mind maps, applications, and closings. The research subjects were students of class XI MIPA 4 of SMAN 2 Malang, totalling 28 students which consisted of twenty girls and eight boys. The percentage of critical thinking skills achievement increased by 29.61% from 66.87% in the first cycle to 86.67% in the second cycle. Problem-solving skills increased by 22.16% from 70.27% in the first cycle to 85.84% in the second cycle. The results showed that the POGIL model combined with a digital mind map based on online learning could improve students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Banana Bunchy Top Virus Molecular Confirmation and DNA-S Phylogenetic of some Banana Isolates from Indonesia

This study was aimed to confirms the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) infection of ten banana accessions from Indonesia through PCR assay using primer of BBTV coat protein (CP) gene, also the sequences characteristics and phylogeny. Preliminary morphological results showed five acessions were positively infected with slight to severe intensity symptoms i.e. Pisang Berlin, Candi, Billa, Morosebo, and Mas Kripik; and five accessions were symptomless i.e. M. acuminata var. rutilifes and M. balbisiana, Pisang Ebung, Madu and Moseng. However, PCR results qualitatively confirms that all accessions were positively infected. Two sizes of amplicons were identified. Pisang Candi isolate was showing ±500 bp amplicons, whereas the others were ±1000-1100 bp. The total aligned and selected BBTV CP sequences of 36 accessions (bananas and other host species) was 450 nt. It was considered highly conserved (85.55%), low G+C content (41%), and high genetic similarities (92.47 to 100%). Phylogenetic analysis delineates isolates into two large groups, i.e. the Asian group (East Asia and South-east Asia) and the South Pacific group (South Asia, Africa and the Pacific). The findings of this study are usefull for broader applicability of further banana breeding program particularly for mitigation, selection and evaluation of banana with BBTV resistance.
An explicit application of partition of unity approach to XFEM approximation for precise reproduction of a priori knowledge of solution

The application of the XFEM to fracture mechanics is effective, because a crack can be modeled independently from the meshes and a complex remeshing procedure can be avoided. However, the classical XFEM has an essential problem in the approximation of partially enriched elements, that is, blending elements, which causes a lack of accuracy. For the weighted XFEM, although the numerical results show the effective improvements, it was found that the issue of blending elements still remains upon detailed examination. In the present paper, the PU‐XFEM is formulated as an explicit application of the partition of unity (PU) approach to the XFEM, in order to precisely reproduce a priori knowledge of the solution by enrichment. The PU‐XFEM is applied to two‐dimensional linear fracture mechanics, and its effectiveness is verified. It is consequently found out that the PU‐XFEM precisely reproduces a priori knowledge of the solution and is therefore effective to completely solve the problem of the blending elements. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Die Plancksche Theorie der Strahlung und die Theorie der spezifischen Wärme [AdP 22, 180 (1907)]

Em dois artigos anteriores [1], eu havia demonstrado que a interpretacao da lei da distribuicao de energia da radiacao de corpo negro em termos da teoria de Boltzmann para a segunda lei leva a uma nova concepcao dos fenomenos da emissao e absorcao da luz, que, embora ainda longe de ter o carater de uma teoria completa, e notavel na medida em que facilita a compreensao de uma serie de regularidades. Este trabalho mostrara que a teoria da radiacao em particular a teoria de Planck leva a uma modificacao da teoria cinetico-molecular do calor por meio da qual algumas dificuldades que obstruem a implementacao de tal teoria podem ser eliminadas. O trabalho tambem fornecera uma relacao entre os comportamentos termico e optico dos solidos. ——————— Inicialmente, vamos apresentar uma derivacao da energia media do ressonador de Planck que claramente demonstra sua relacao com a mecânica molecular. Para isto, utilizamos alguns resultados da teoria molecular geral do calor [2]. Consideremos que o estado de um sistema no sentido da teoria molecular esteja completamente determinado pelas (muitas) variaveis P1, P2, · · ·Pn. Consideremos que o processo molecular ocorra segundo as equacoes
Galaxy classification using fractal signature

Fractal geometry is becoming increasingly important in the study of image characteristics. For recognition of regions and objects in natural scenes, there is always a need for features that are invariant and they provide a good set of descriptive values for the region. There are many fractal features that can be generated from an image. In this paper, fractal signatures of nearby galaxies are studied with the aim of classifying them. The fractal signature over a range of scales proved to be an efficient feature set with good discriminating power. Classifiers were designed using nearest neighbour method and neural network technique. Using the nearest distance approach, classification rate was found to be 92%. By the neural network method it has been found to increase to 95%.
Geometrically nonlinear models in crystal plasticity and the limit of rigid elasticity

It is shown that a standard model in crystal plasticity for which only rigid body motions have finite elastic energy can be approximated in the sense of Γ‐convergence by models with more general elastic potentials. (© 2010 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Vertical Wind Shear Influences on Tropical Cyclone Formation and Intensification during TCM-92 and TCM-93

Abstract Vertical wind shears between 200 and 850 mb are calculated from operational analyses and special interactive analyses for Tropical Storm Steve during the Tropical Cyclone Motion (TCM-93) field experiment and for Typhoon Omar at the end of the TCM-92 experiment. The operational Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) analyses have strong 200-mb winds crossing over the intensifying storms, which leads to vertical wind shears exceeding the 12.5 m s−1 threshold value believed to prevent tropical cyclone intensification. Interactive analyses are produced with the multiquadric interpolation technique that blends composited cloud-drift winds and aircraft reports between 1800 and 0000 UTC and between 0600 and 1200 UTC, sets of synthetic observations to represent missing or mislocated tropical circulations, and the FNMOC analyses that are used as a first-guess field. These interactive analyses indicate that the high winds at 200 mb associated with low-latitude circulations such as mons.
Regression Properties for Asymmetric Generalized Scale Mixtures of Multivariate Gaussian Variables

Analytical properties of regression and the variance–covariance matrix of asymmetric generalized scale mixture of multivariate Gaussian variables are presented. The analysis includes an in-depth analytical investigation of the first two conditional moments of the mixing variable. Exact computable expressions for the prediction and the conditional variance are presented for the generalized hyperbolic distribution using the inversion theorem for Fourier transforms. An application to financial log returns is demonstrated via the classical Euler approximation. The methodology is illustrated by analyzing the regression of intraday log returns for CISCO against the corresponding data from S&P 500.
Extended Overdetermined Dual-Doppler Formalism in Synthesizing Airborne Doppler Radar Data

Abstract During the intensive observing period of the field phase of the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) of the Tropical Oceans and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, airborne Doppler radars capable of fore–aft scanning (dual-Doppler analog) were involved in aircraft missions in which highly coordinated and parallel tusks were flown (quad-Doppler analog). Pairs of observations from each radar can be used to infer the wind components through an iterative dual-equation solution, while combining them allows a direct determination. Errors from these two analysis methods are discussed, in particular those induced from geometrical considerations. Due to these geometrical limitations, neither the dual-Doppler nor the quad-Doppler approach can take advantage of the whole volume sampling. To overcome the limitations and to increase considerably the synthesis domain, the overdetermined dual-Doppler (ODD) technique is proposed in an extended version (EODD). EODD includes solutions to these proble.