Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interfacial actin protrusions mechanically potentiate killing by cytotoxic T cells

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) kill by forming immunological synapses with target cells and secreting toxic proteases and the pore forming protein perforin into the intercellular space. Immunological synapses are highly dynamic structures that potentiate perforin activity by applying mechanical force against the target cell. Here, we employed high-resolution imaging and microfabrication to investigate how CTLs exert synaptic forces and coordinate their mechanical output with perforin secretion. Using micropatterned stimulatory substrates that enable synapse growth in three dimensions, we found that perforin release occurs at the base of actin-rich protrusions that extend from central and intermediate locations within the synapse. These protrusions, which depended on the cytoskeletal regulator WASP and the Arp2/3 actin nucleation complex, were required for synaptic force exertion and efficient killing. They also mediated physical distortion of the target cell surface during CTL-target cell interactions. Our results reveal the mechanical basis of cellular cytotoxicity and highlight the functional importance of dynamic, three-dimensional architecture in immune cell-cell interfaces. One sentence summary Cytotoxic T lymphocytes use F-actin-rich protrusions at the immunological synapse to potentiate perforin-and granzyme-mediated target cell killing.
MR spectroscopy of the liver – a reliable non-invasive alternative for evaluating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common conditions worldwide that targets the liver parenchyma. NAFLD represents an intrahepatic triglyceride accumulation in the absence of excessive alcohol consumption and other diseases that affect the liver parenchyma. The current “gold standard” for evaluating the amount of intrahepatic fat is represented by liver biopsy, but many patients are reluctant and hardly accept undergoing this procedure due to its invasive nature. The current study addresses this aspect by evaluating the reliability of liver magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in diagnosing NAFLD, compared to the traditional invasive liver biopsy. The present study included a total of 38 patients based on several well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. We used the same NAFLD grading system for both liver MRS and liver biopsy: grade 0: <5% hepatocytes are affected; grade I: 5–33% hepatocytes are affected; grade II: 34–66% hepatocytes are affected; grade III: >66% hepatocytes are affected. Regarding the NAFLD grade, over three-quarters of patients were classified as grade I and grade II, with a strong predilection for men. The current results indicated a significant association between the NAFLD grade indicated by liver MRS and the NAFLD grade indicated by liver biopsy. At the end of our study, we recommend using liver MRS for evaluating and grading NAFLD in association with other parameters like serum triglycerides and body mass index grade as this protocol can enhance early detection and provide an accurate grading that will lead to a proper management of this disease.
Disease-associated sequence variations congregate in a polyanion-recognition patch on human factor H revealed in 3D structure.

Mutations and polymorphisms in the regulator of complement activation, factor H, have been linked to atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and age-related macular degeneration. Many aHUS patients carry mutations in the two C-terminal modules of factor H, which normally confer upon this abundant 155 kDa plasma glycoprotein its ability to selectively bind self-surfaces and prevent them from inappropriately triggering the complement cascade via the alternative pathway. In the current study, the three-dimensional solution structure of the C-terminal module-pair of factor H has been determined. A binding site for a fully sulfated heparin-derived tetrasaccharide has been delineated using chemical shift mapping, and the C3d/C3b-binding site inferred from sequence comparisons and computational docking. The resultant information allows assessment of the likely consequences of aHUS-associated amino acid substitutions in this critical region of factor H. It is striking that, excepting those likely to perturb the 3D-structure, aHUS-associated missense mutations congregate in the polyanion-binding site delineated in this study, thus potentially disrupting a vital mechanism for control of complement on self-surfaces in the microvasculature of the kidney. It is intriguing that an SNP predisposing to age-related macular degeneration occupies another region of factor H that harbours a polyanion-binding site.
Nanoparticle Interactions and Molecular Relaxation in PLA/PBAT/Nanoclay Blends

Abstract Organo-modified clay nanoparticles were mixed at 1 and 5 wt% concentrations with a molten blend of 75 wt% of polylactide (PLA) and 25 wt% poly[(butylene adipate)-co-terephthalate] (PBAT). Three mixing strategies were used to control the localization of nanoclay. Small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) and stress growth tests were conducted to clarify the nanoclay interactions with the blend components and its effect on the molecular relaxation behavior. SAOS and weighted relaxation spectra properties were determined before and after pre-shearing at a rate of 0.01 s−1. Molecular relaxation and its characteristics were influenced by PLA degradation, PBAT droplet coalescence, and nanoclay localization.
Socioeconomic Differences in Worker Involvement in Labor Union Activities

Union members are better paid than their nonunion counterparts (Hirsch, 2004) and receive better fringe benefits, such as employer-provided health insurance and pensions (Buchmueller et al., 2004). Unions improve job safety, reduce occupational stress, and help create more cohesive organizational cultures (Baugher & Timmons Roberts, 2004; Hagedorn et al., 2016). However, to properly function and better workers’ lives, unions rely heavily on voluntary, unpaid involvement from members. Such involvement can take the form of leadership roles, participation in communal union activities, or even simply informal discussion of the union with others (Fiorito et al., 2010; Monnot et al., 2011; Parks et al., 1995; Tetrick et al., 2007). Unions failing to secure members’ voluntary engagement in often mundane, but necessary, activities will likely also fail to effectively launch their members into political activism (Yu, 2014). Thus, much research has attempted to understand the antecedents of union involvement (e.g., Bamberger et al., 1999; Fiorito et al., 2014). Most models of union involvement, such as the exchange-covenant model (Snape & Redman, 2004), hold that union members most reliably ABSTRACT. The success of organized labor is aided by worker involvement in voluntary, union-related activities such as leadership roles and the socialization of new members. Established models of the attitudinal antecedents of this involvement (e.g., the exchange-covenant model; Snape & Redman, 2004) hold that positive attitudes toward unions in general are involvement’s primary predictor, with effectiveness of one's own union being of secondary importance. However, these findings are gathered largely from high-socioeconomic status (SES) samples (e.g., university professors; see, e.g., Fiorito et al., 2014), and even more diversely sampled studies do not test for the influence of SES. Therefore, using a socioeconomically and occupationally diverse sample (n = 94), we examined whether established union involvement models apply equally to lowand high-SES union members. We found that, in high-SES individuals, general attitudes about unions positively predicted self-reports of past involvement, b = 0.70, t(79) = 2.57, p = . 01, CI95%[. 16, 2.15], and future involvement interest, b = 0.77, t(79) = 2.45, p = . 02, CI95%[. 15, 1.40]; results were null for average(past involvement p = .81, future p = .83) and low-SES workers (past involvement p = .10, future p = .24). Our findings indeed suggest that the exchange-covenant model is only applicable to high-SES union workers. General union attitudes are ostensibly irrelevant to overall involvement from their low-SES counterparts, possibly due to greater influence of social and material resource exchange on low-SES union members considering becoming involved in union activities. Future union involvement research should account for the influence of socioeconomic factors.
Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Hippocampus as a Common Neural Substrate for Model-Based Planning and Spatial Memory

Little is known about the neural mechanisms that allow humans and animals to plan actions using knowledge of task contingencies. Emerging theories hypothesize that it involves the same hippocampal mechanisms that support self-localization and memory for locations. Yet, there is limited direct evidence for the link between model-based planning and the hippocampal place map. We addressed this by investigating model-based planning and place memory in healthy controls and epilepsy patients treated using unilateral anterior temporal lobectomy with hippocampal resection. We found that both functions were impaired in the patient group. Specifically, the planning impairment was related to right hippocampal lesion size, controlling for overall lesion size. Furthermore, planning and place memory covaried with one another, but only in neurologically intact controls, consistent with both functions relying on the same structure in the healthy brain. These findings clarify the scope of hippocampal contributions to behavior and the neural mechanism of model-based planning.
A Special Total-Ionizing-Dose-Induced Short Channel Effect in Thin-Film PDSOI Technology: Phenomena, Analyses, and Models

A special total-ionizing-dose-induced short channel effect in thin-film partially depleted silicon-on-insulator (PDSOI) technology is found. Short devices suffer more significant total-ionizing-dose-induced threshold voltage shift of the front-gate main transistor. The devices under pass-gate (PG) bias show worse threshold voltage shift of the front-gate main transistor than the devices under ON bias, which reveal that the trapped charges in the buried oxide layer are more responsible for these phenomena. Through the simulation of the electric field under PG bias by TCAD, we found that devices with different lengths can be uniformly divided into four regions. Then we combined the partially full depletion model with charge-sharing model and made a qualitative analysis of this effect. On this basis, we proposed a quantitative analysis model. Through this model, we can calculate the threshold voltage shift of the front-gate main transistor through the threshold voltage shift of back-gate main transistor.
Feeling of Insecurity in Khaki: its Effects on Burnout and Allied Consequences in Haryana Police Officers

The study aimed to assess feeling of insecurity at job, its association with burnout and the role of burnout in the relationships of feeling of insecurity with certain outcomes in Haryana Police officers. Adopting a cross-sectional design (sample size 1,223), the study observed feeling of insecurity at job in the officers; its positive association with burnout; burnout as a mediator in the relationships of feeling of insecurity with job satisfaction, commitment to the workplace, health, work-family conflict, and feeling to quit. The study identified burnout acting more like a suppressor variable in the relationships of feeling of insecurity with organisational citizenship behaviours, and physical aggression. The study found both feeling of insecurity and burnout as unrelated to verbal aggression. For the police administrators, study findings have key practical implications. The findings highlight feeling of insecurity and burnout as key venues to target with appropriate interventions for attenuating their adverse effects.
Are Course Withdrawals a Useful Student Success Strategy?

Course withdrawals have significant cost and curricular implications for both students and institutions. Yet within the retention literature, little is known about the context or impact of course withdrawals. This study examines course withdrawals of first year students from a sample of nine universities. Data reveal that demographic and contextual factors differentially influence the use of course withdrawals. Further, these data suggest that course withdrawals have negative consequences for second year retention, with nuanced significance when compared to making grades of D or F. We discuss implications for academic advisors, retention specialists, and faculty leaders, as well as policy and future research considerations.
High Anti-HCV Seroprevalence and Low Performance of ICT Strip in Diagnosing Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Children in Enugu Metropolis

The lack of a vaccine for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) places children at a high risk of contracting the infection. It becomes necessary to accurately diagnose this infection for proper treatment as well as identifying potential risk factors for effective management.This study was conceived to assess the test performance of the commonly used Immunochromatographic test (ICT) strip and identify the associated clinical manifestations and risk factors of HCV in children in Enugu Metropolis.A cross-sectional study involving randomly selected 270 children below six years of age was conducted in Enugu Nigeria. The subjects were screened for anti-HCV by ICT and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and the demographic, signs and symptoms and risk factors were collected.A total of 50 out of 270 children were positive for anti-HCV with a seropositivity of 18.5%. ICT strip had a very low sensitivity of 38.00% with an accuracy of 88.52% in detecting anti-HCV. The presence of dark urine was associated (p= 0.01) with HCV infection.A seroprevalence of 18.5% of Anti-HCV was found in children below six years old in Enugu metropolis and the performance of ICT in diagnosing HCV infection was poor compared to ELISA.
Analyzing Android Taint Analysis Tools: FlowDroid, Amandroid, and DroidSafe

Numerous static taint analysis techniques have recently been proposed for identifying information flows in mobile applications. These techniques are often optimized and evaluated on a set of synthetic benchmarks, which makes the comparison results difficult to generalize. Moreover, the techniques are commonly compared under different configuration setups, rendering the comparisons inaccurate. In this paper, we provide a large, controlled, and independent comparison of the three most prominent static taint analysis tools: FlowDroid, Amandroid, and DroidSafe. We align the configuration setup for the tools and evaluate them on both a set of common benchmarks and on real applications from the Google Play app store. We further evaluate the effectiveness of additional reflection handling mechanism implemented by DroidRA, applying it to each of the evaluated tools. We compare the results of our analysis to the results reported in previous studies, identify main reasons for inaccuracy in existing tools, and provide suggestions for future research.
Effects of ibogaine per os treatment on redox homeostasis in rat kidney

Our previous results showed that a single oral dose (1 or 20 mg/kg body weight) of the anti-addiction agent ibogaine induced in rats 6 and 24 h after administration glycogenolytic activity in hepatocytes, followed by a mild oxidative stress. In this work, we examined the in vivo effect of the same doses of ibogaine on rat kidney morphology, antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutases (SOD1 and 2), catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione- S-transferase) activities, and oxidative stress (TBARS) and redox (-SH groups) parameters. The dose of 1 mg/kg ibogaine induced an elevation in SOD1 activity and decreased GR activity after 6 and 24 h. GR activity was decreased at 6 and 24 h after 20 mg/kg ibogaine administration, suggesting changed redox homeostasis. After 24 h, we observed an increase in moderate morphological changes, without changes in urinalyses, indicating that kidney function was not measurably affected. Nevertheless, kidney-function monitoring during and following ibogaine use in human subjects is advisable.
Association between Bovine Leukemia Virus Infection, Reproductive Performance and Milk Production in Water Buffaloes and Dairy Cattle in Egypt

| Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a retrovirus, affects lymphoid tissue and causes malignant lymphoma and lymphosarcoma. There is strong evidence that BLV has deleterious impact on fertility and milk production of animal. The main objective of the present study was therefore to characterize the impact of BLV infection on reproduction efficiency and milk production in water buffaloes and Holstein-Friesian cattle raised in Egypt. The study was conducted on 100 buffaloes from one herd and 350 cows from three different herds to investigate antibodies against BLV and its association with service per conception (SPC) and milk production. The results revealed significant (P=0.001) increases in SPC in seropositive-buffaloes (N=9) compared to healthy buffaloes (N=91). However, no significance difference in SPC between seropositive and seronegative cows. The seropositive buffaloes showed significant (P<0.05) reduction in days in milk, daily milk and total milk production (N=9) than the seronegative buffaloes (N=91). Similar to SPC result, the seropositive cattle didn’t show reduction in milk production. In conclusion, BLV infection has more injurious impact on the reproductive performance and milk production in water buffaloes than dairy cattle. Therefore, this study recommends effective prevention strategies against BLV infection in water buffaloes farms in Egypt.
Quantifying dissipation in actomyosin networks

Quantifying entropy production in various active matter phases will open new avenues for probing self-organization principles in these far-from-equilibrium systems. It has been hypothesized that the dissipation of free energy by active matter systems may be optimized, leading to system trajectories with histories of large dissipation and an accompanying emergence of ordered dynamical states. This interesting idea has not been widely tested. In particular, it is not clear whether emergent states of actomyosin networks, which represent a salient example of biological active matter, self-organize following the principle of dissipation optimization. In order to start addressing this question using detailed computational modelling, we rely on the MEDYAN simulation platform, which allows simulating active matter networks from fundamental molecular principles. We have extended the capabilities of MEDYAN to allow quantification of the rates of dissipation resulting from chemical reactions and relaxation of mechanical stresses during simulation trajectories. This is done by computing precise changes in Gibbs free energy accompanying chemical reactions using a novel formula and through detailed calculations of instantaneous values of the system’s mechanical energy. We validate our approach with a mean-field model that estimates the rates of dissipation from filament treadmilling. Applying this methodology to the self-organization of small disordered actomyosin networks, we find that compact and highly cross-linked networks tend to allow more efficient transduction of chemical free energy into mechanical energy. In these simple systems, we observe that spontaneous network reorganizations tend to result in a decrease in the total dissipation rate to a low steady-state value. Future studies might carefully test whether the dissipation-driven adaptation hypothesis applies in this instance, as well as in more complex cytoskeletal geometries.
Effect of low temperature in the first development stage for five red raspberry genotypes

In raspberry, the expression of the primocane fruiting trait is influenced by the environment. Although there are several factors that influence the expression of this character, it is well known that low temperatures that occur during the growth season of the primocane, are important and affect the flowering. In this study, plants in their early stages of development were exposed to low temperatures (2°C) for one month, in a dark cold chamber. The following genotypes primocane and floricane were used: ‘UC103’, ‘Autumn Bliss’, ‘Heritage’, ‘Meeker’ and ‘Tulameen’. Flowering and growth were recorded until the end of the season and the morphology of the meristem was characterized in this moment. Interaction between cold and genotype was detected in all parameters studied. In ‘Heritage’, a slight primocane, growth and flowering were favoured by exposure to cold. Thereby, low temperature affects flowering, but this effect depends on primocane fruiting degree of each genotype, slight primocane the cold favored flowering and growth. However, strongly primocane the cold had no effect on flowering and growth.
Evaluating Nitrogen Management for Corn Production with Supplemental Irrigation on Sandy Soils of the Southeastern Coastal Plain Region of the U.S.

Highlights This study addressed the inclusion of field-scale soil variability in nitrogen (N) management for corn production. RZWQM2 was calibrated for corn yield and N dynamics on four sandy soil series under supplemental irrigation. Multi-year simulations of corn production under high and low N application rates were analyzed. Results showed room to reduce N use and N leaching without affecting corn production on Coastal Plain sandy soils. Abstract. Nitrogen (N) fertilization contributes significantly to maintain high yields in corn (Zea mays L.) production. In the Southeastern Coastal Plain of the U.S. where soils are sandy with poor water and nutrient holding capacity, a fraction of the N applied to corn fields is often leached from the root zone and becomes unavailable to plants. As these soils belong to various taxonomic classes, research has shown significant corn yield differences among soil series. However, few studies have focused on integrating field-scale soil variability, N leaching, and corn production. To address this knowledge gap, this study used the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) to simulate different N management scenarios in corn production for four sandy soil series under supplemental irrigation. The calibrated model was used to simulate nine consecutive years of corn production under four N management scenarios, including two high rates of N application (rate A = 224 kg N ha-1 with 25 kg N ha-1 at preplant; rate A' = 224 kg N ha-1 without preplant N), and two low rates of N application (rate B = 157 kg N ha-1 with 25 kg N ha-1 at preplant; rate B' = 157 kg N ha-1 without preplant N). Simulation results showed that without preplant N application, N leaching was reduced by up to 17% with no significant impact on corn yield, depending on the soil series. Hence, consideration of field-scale soil variability could help improve N management by reducing N use and N leaching without impacting corn production. Keywords: Corn yield components, Growing season, Modeling, Nitrogen dynamics, RZWQM2, Soil variability.