Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistent Infection of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells With Bartonella Henselae Exerts a Proangiogenic Effect

Background B henselae is in humans the aetiologic agent of cat-scratch disease and of the vasculoproliferative disorders bacillary angiomatosis and bacillary peliosis. Although endothelial cells are crucial in the pathogenesis other cell types function as reservoir and contribute to pathological angiogenesis. Among them, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) can sense pathogens and mount an appropriate cytokine/chemokine response through different Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs). MSCs exert direct antimicrobial effector function but may also shelter bacteria such as M. tuberculosis. Methods Adipose-derived MSCs were infected with B. henselae and analyzed for bacterial persistence by gentamicin protection assay, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. Involvement of PRRs in bacterial infection was evaluated through gene and protein expression analysis. The effect of infection on MSC proliferation, apoptosis and release of soluble factors was assessed. The role of infected-MSC conditioned medium in promoting Bartonella infection of endothelial cells and angiogenesis was demonstrated using respectively gentamicin protection assay and different pro-angiogenic assays including spheroid, wound healing and morphogenesis. Results B. henselae can readily infect MSCs and survive in perinuclear bound vacuoles for up to 8 days. Bartonella infection stimulates MSC proliferation and upregulation of EGFR and of the two pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) TLR2 and NOD1. Specific inhibition of EGFR reduces bacterial internalization and treatment with anti-TLR2 neutralizing antibody or EGFR/NOD1 inhibitors significantly downmodulates CXCL8 production. Secretome analysis shows that, in addition to CXCL8, infected MSCs secrete higher levels of the proangiogenic factors VEGF, FGF-7, MMP-9, PIGF, serpin E1, TSP-1, uPA, IL-6, CCL5 and PDGF-D. Importantly, supernatants from B. henselae-infected MSCs increase the susceptibility of ECs to B. henselae infection while enhancing EC proangiogenic potential. Conclusions Altogether, these findings indicate that MSCs constitute a novel niche for B. henselae, which favors the persistence of vascular proliferative disorders.
Paraoxonase-1 and -3 Protein Expression in the Brain of the Tg2576 Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: Brain oxidative lipid damage and inflammation are common in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Paraoxonase-1 and -3 (PON1 and PON3) protein expression was demonstrated in tissue with no PON1 or PON3 gene expression. In the present study, we examine differences in PON1 and PON3 protein expression in the brain of a mouse model of AD. Methods: we used peroxidase- and fluorescence-based immunohistochemistry in five brain regions (olfactory bulb, forebrain, posterior midbrain, hindbrain and cerebellum) of transgenic (Tg2576) mice with the Swedish mutation (KM670/671NL) responsible for a familial form of AD and corresponding wild-type mice. Results: We found intense PON1 and PON3-positive staining in star-shaped cells surrounding Aβ plaques in all the studied Tg2576 mouse-brain regions. Although we could not colocalize PON1 and PON3 with astrocytes (star-shaped cells in the brain), we found some PON3 colocalization with microglia. Conclusions: These results suggest that (1) PON1 and PON3 cross the blood–brain barrier in discoidal high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) and are transferred to specific brain-cell types; and (2) PON1 and PON3 play an important role in preventing oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in particular brain-cell types (likely to be glial cells) in AD pathology and potentially in other neurodegenerative diseases as well.
Effects of English Learner Reclassification Policies on Academic Trajectories

In California 38% of students are either current or former English Learners (ELs). A crucial decision in their educational trajectory is when to reclassify ELs. Upon reclassification, ELs cease to receive language supports, but have more opportunities to take the same courses as fluent English speakers. This paper uses regression discontinuity in California’s two largest school districts to ask: “Are ELs being reclassified at the right time? ” In most cases the districts were reclassifying students appropriately, with no discontinuity for outcomes including test scores and graduation on time. Exceptions in which those meeting the reclassification criteria subsequently performed worse were resolved with Los Angeles’s newer reclassification policy.
Can Cognitive Capital Sustain Customer Satisfaction? The Mediating Effects of Employee Self-Efficacy

Despite the important role of cognitive capital as a facet of social capital, there is little empirical work examining the causal effect of cognitive capital dimensions on sustaining customer satisfaction. Thus, there is a need to investigate the relationship between these constructs via employee self-efficacy. Our proposed hypothetical framework is tested in the tourism industry sector employing a quantitative research method. Drawing from social capital and social cognitive theories, we generated items from a piloted questionnaire which was administered to 600 top and middle managers in hotels and travel agents using drop and collect methods. We test our hypothetical model using SEM techniques with 490 usable cases. The survey results indicate that cognitive capital dimensions have direct and indirect relationships with sustained customer satisfaction. In addition, employee self-efficacy mediates between exogenous constructs and the endogenous construct. Surprisingly, these two exogenous constructs: shared norms and shared values do directly influence shared goals and enhance employee self-efficacy. Additionally, shared goals enhance employee efficacy which subsequently leads to sustained customer satisfaction. These findings shed light on the impact of intra-firm social interactions on customer experience in hotels and travel agents. Managers should use cognitive capital to improve the level of service employee self-efficacy and subsequently sustain customer satisfaction. The paper outlines theoretical and managerial implications and addresses possible directions for further research.
Impact of Molecular Architecture on the High-Pressure Rheology of Hydrocarbon Fluids

Molecular dynamics simulations are conducted on three C18 poly-α-olefin isomers under extreme conditions typical of traction fluids or lubricants under elastohydrodynamic lubrication conditions. The viscosity, self-diffusivity, and rotational relaxation times of the molecules are computed at pressures ranging from atmospheric to as high as 1 GPa. The dynamics of all three isomers are slowed as pressure increases, but a highly branched isomer shows a more dramatic reduction in mobility with pressure than does a linear or singly branched isomer. In particular, the viscosity of the highly branched molecule exhibits a much larger increase with pressure than does the viscosity of the other isomers, indicating that the highly branched molecule should exhibit more favorable traction properties than the other isomers. An explanation for the differences in dynamic properties between the isomers is given in terms of a reduction in liquid void volume coupled with the greater backbone stiffness of the highly branched.
A novel robust fixed‐time fault‐tolerant tracking control of uncertain robot manipulators

Funding information Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province of China, Grant/Award Number: 2019GY086; Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, Grant/Award Number: 2020JQ-847; Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department, Grant/Award Number: 20JK0914 Abstract This paper presents a novel robust fixed-time fault-tolerant control for global fixed-time tracking of uncertain robot manipulators with actuator effectiveness faults. With the sufficient consideration of the effects on uncertain dynamics, external disturbances and actuator effectiveness faults to the trajectory tracking performance, a singularity-free robust fault-tolerant control with an auxiliary vector is constructed for the fixed-time tracking control of uncertain robot manipulators. Lyapunov stability theory is employed to prove the global fixed-time stability ensuring that both the position and velocity tracking errors converge globally to the origin within a fixed time. The appealing advantages of the proposed control are as follows: (i) it is easy to implement with the global robust fixed-time fault-tolerant tracking control for uncertain robot manipulators featuring with faster transient convergence rate and higher steady-state tracking precision; (ii) the settling time is independent of the initial states of closed-loop system and can be calculated in advance for robot manipulators with uncertain dynamics, external disturbances and actuator faults. Extensive simulations on a two-DOFs robot are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and improved performances of the proposed approach.
Taxi within a grab? A gender-invariant model of mobile taxi adoption

PurposeThe paper intends to examine mobile taxi (m-taxi) adoption, so as to close the gap in the current literature and clarify the behaviour of users by synthesising technological factors that are related to the characteristics of m-taxi applications with non-technological factors that are associated with the psychological characteristics of customers. The moderating effects of gender were also tested.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered questionnaire was adopted for data collection with 415 useable responses. The theoretical lens was tested via partial least squares-structural equation modelling. Additionally, state-of-the-art techniques such as permutation and multigroup analysis were applied.FindingsResults indicate that social pressure, technology anxiety, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, and service and system quality are not significantly related to behavioural intention. Also, findings show no significant differences among gender in this study, which suggests that the model is invariant across gender groups.Originality/valueThis study provides a novel insight by taking a broader perspective of ride-hailing terminology by considering both taxis and private vehicles.
Joint Bayesian Inference for Near‐Surface Explosion Yield and Height‐of‐Burst

Forensic capabilities to understand chemical and nuclear explosions are greatly aided by an accurate estimate of explosive yield with uncertainty. The relationship between explosive size and geophysical observations of seismic, acoustic, and optical waves can be exploited to provide an estimate of yield. Any near‐surface yield estimate is complicated by the surface interaction, so an estimate for the explosion height‐of‐burst is necessarily included in the relationship. The relationship dictates a trade‐off between estimates of yield and height‐of‐burst. Fortunately, the surface interaction for each type of observation is different, which breaks the trade‐off, and the inclusion of height‐of‐burst with multiple data types improves yield estimation. We define simple parametric forward models to relate seismoäcoustoöptic observations from a data set of known explosive yields and height‐of‐bursts. The parameters of the models and a prediction for the yield and height‐of‐burst of a new event can then be estimated given new observations via Bayesian inference. We report posterior distribution estimates of the parametric models using a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling technique. These models are then used to predict the yield and height‐of‐burst of SUGAR, a historical near‐surface nuclear explosion, using its reported historical observations. The reported yield of 1.2 ktonne Trinitrotoluene (TNT)‐equivalent (Department of Energy, 2015) is within the estimated posterior. Yield uncertainty can be estimated from the spread of the posterior, which is between 0.9 and 2.1 ktonne TNT‐equivalent. The posterior for height‐of‐burst has a wider range between 10 m below and 8 m above ground that includes the true height‐of‐burst of 1 m.
Improving the Lifetime of an Out-Patient Implanted Medical Device Using a Novel Flower Pollination-Based Optimization Algorithm in WBAN Systems

The new inventions in health care devices have led to a considerable increase in the human lifespan. Miniaturized bio-sensing elements and dedicated wireless communication bands have led to the development of a new arena called Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) (IEEE 802.11.6). These Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) are used for monitoring a chronic patient’s medical condition as well as therapeutic and life-saving functions. The aim of this study is to improve the dynamic channel selection algorithm for an increased Out Patient-Body Network Controller (OP-BNC) medical device during visits to the hospital. There is a fixed number of licensed spectra allocated to the In Patient-Body Network Controller (IP-BNC) and Out-Patient Body Network Controller (OP-BNC). When there is an increase in the OP-BNC, there is an availability of idle spectrum in the IP-BNC. An existing rank-based algorithm is used in the allocation of idle spectrum to the increased OP-BNC. This ranking method takes more time for the processing and selection of an idle channel to the registered user. To avoid it, we proposed an EFPOC model to select from the free idle channels of the IP-BNC licensed spectrum. We also discussed the algorithm complexity of the proposed Enhanced Flower Pollination-based Optimized Channel selection (EFPOC) algorithm and obtained a complexity of O(n2), which is a significant improvement over the existing algorithm rank-based algorithm complexity. Our experimental result shows that the proposed EFPOC algorithm improves the Tier-2 systems lifetime by 46.47%. Then, to prove that the proposed model is time efficient in channel selection, a simulated experimented is conducted. When selecting a number of channels from a Look-Up Table (LUT), the proposed EFPOC method takes 25% less time than the existing algorithms.
The effects of a home exercise programme on the exercise endurance of children infected with HIV

Exercise endurance is a reflection of how capable the heart, lungs and blood cells are of supplying oxygenated blood to muscle tissues that are exercised;[1] it also refers to the ability of muscles to use this oxygen to produce the necessary energy for movement. [1] Various factors affect the exercise endurance of an individual, such as abnormalities of the cardiovascular, haematological and pulmonary systems. [2] Untreated HIV infection can give rise to a cardiomyopathy which results in reduced exercise endurance and other complications of cardiac failure. [3] Exercise endurance can be measured objectively using different tests. Some tests assess the body systems involved in exercise performance while others focus on the exertion during exercise. Choosing a test should be based on the variables that need to be tested and the resources available. [4] Recently, there has been more interest shown in simple tests that link exercise testing to daily activities, such as walk tests. [5] Exercise can have an immense impact on the exercise endurance of chronically ill patients. [6] A study examining the effects of a hospitaland home-based exercise intervention on HIV-infected children in Miami, Florida, showed improvements in aerobic capacity and lean body mass from both exercise interventions. [7] Research on the effects of a home exercise programme (HEP) in children with HIV is limited worldwide; to date, there have been no South African studies in which a HEP has been used to improve exercise endurance in HIV-infected children. Hospital-based physiotherapists are unable to provide regular therapy to all children with HIV owing to shortages of staff at South African (SA) provincial hospitals,[8] and consequently there is growing interest in the effect that home-based treatment programmes have on the rehabilitation outcomes for these children. The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of a HEP on the exercise endurance of children infected with HIV. This was done by investigating the exercise endurance of children with HIV undergoing a 12-week HEP compared with the exercise endurance of children with HIV not receiving the HEP after the 12-week period. The change in exercise endurance from baseline to follow-up was also investigated within each group.
Comparative transcriptome profiling of heat stress response of the mangrove crab Scylla serrata across different sites

Background: The fishery and aquaculture of the widely distributed mangrove crab Scylla serrata is a steadily growing, high-value, global industry. Climate change poses a risk to this industry as temperature elevations are expected to threaten the mangrove crab habitat and the supply of mangrove crab seeds from the wild. It is therefore important to understand the genomic and molecular basis of how mangrove crab populations from sites with different climate profiles respond to heat stress. Towards this, we performed RNA-seq on the gill tissue of S. serrata individuals sampled from 3 sites (Cagayan, Bicol, and Bataan) in the Philippines, under normal and heat-stressed conditions. To compare the transcriptome expression profiles, we designed a 2-factor generalized linear model containing interaction terms, which allowed us to simultaneously analyze within-site response to heat-stress and across-site differences in the response.Results: We present the first ever transcriptome assembly of S. serrata obtained from a massive data set containing ~66 Gbases of cleaned RNA-seq reads. With lowly-expressed and short contigs excluded, the assembly contains roughly 17,000 genes with an N50 length of 2,366 bp. Based on sequence comparison to the fruitfly and shrimp proteomes, our assembly contains several thousands of almost full-length transcripts. Differential expression analysis found population-specific differences in heat-stress response. Within-site analysis of heat response showed 177, 755, and 221 differentially expressed (DE) genes in the Cagayan, Bataan, and Bicol group, respectively. Across-site analysis of difference in heat response showed that between Cagayan and Bataan, there were 389 differently differentially expressed (DDE) genes associated with 48 signalling and stress-response pathways; and between Cagayan and Bicol, there were 101 DDE genes affecting 8 pathways.Conclusion: In light of previous work on climate profiling and on population genetics of marine species in the Philippines, our findings suggest that the variation in thermal response among populations might be derived from acclimatory plasticity due to pre-exposure to extreme temperature variations or from population structure shaped by connectivity which leads to adaptive genetic differences among populations.
The draw of hometown: understanding rural teachers’ mobility in Southwest China

ABSTRACT This two-year study explores the sociocultural factors for the mobility decisions and trajectories of 7 rural teachers in southwest China. It finds that those who teach outside their home regions tend to make efforts to return to their hometown in order to gain a sense of belonging, in addition to pursuing better working and living conditions. Several factors, such as lack of a sense of belonging, linking personal success to their family, and filial piety to their parents, motivate these teachers to make decisions to return to their hometown. In their hometown areas, their selection of final destination is also linked with their concern to bring glory and benefits to their family and community. Their tendency to take family and community into consideration is intrinsically linked to the Chinese cultural sense of self or personhood. These findings imply that emotional attachment and identity construction of individual teachers should be taken into consideration to recruit and retain teachers in schools in impoverished rural regions.
Developing the detector of x-ray imaging spectrometer for GEO-X mission

We report development status of an X-ray imaging spectrometer for scientific micro satellite mission GEO-X that aims for imaging of Earth’s magnetosphere from the vicinity of the Moon (∼40 RE). The planned direction for the observations includes proximity of the day-side Earth. Therefore the primary requirement for the detector is the fast frame rate to decrease the visible light background. In this regard we will apply complementary MOS (CMOS) sensor that is originally fabricated for the visible light and/or infrared spectroscopy. Faster readout speed improves time resolution and decrease the contribution from visible light compared with the conventional CCD detectors. We evaluate imaging and spectroscopic performances of backside illumination type scientific CMOS sensors with low noise performance. Most of the signals produced by X-rays distributes within 2 by 2 pixels. Spectra of monochromatic X-rays exhibit significant diﬀerence of pulse height between the event within single pixel and that spreads across multiple pixels, which indicates that a part of the signal charges are lost around the pixel edges. Then we adopt another type of the sensor that have been updated in terms of the incident surface treatment. We found that the amount of the lost charges are substantially decreased with the new sensor. Another measure to improve the spectroscopic performance is the dark level determination. Gradual or discontinuous change of the dark level in orbit might it diﬃcult to evaluate the appropriate dark level especially for the high frame rate and the limited resources of onboard computer. Then we take the average of pulse heights for the outermost pixels in a event (5 by 5 pixels) and correct the pulse height of all pixels with the average value. With these measures the energy resolution improved successfully.
Influence of farmyard manure, inorganic fertilizers and weed control practices on some soil physical properties in a long‐term experiment

Abstract. In a long‐term experiment, soil physical properties were studied after 20 annual cycles of maize‐wheat‐fodder cowpea cropping with annual application of inorganic fertilizers and farmyard manure (FYM). Weeds were controlled by hand or by the use of herbicides. The hand weeding treatment resulted in a lowering of the bulk density of the surface layer (0‐15 cm) and a significant increase in the subsurface (15–30 cm) density. Application of FYM significantly increased the soil organic carbon (OC), infiltration rate, water retention, aggregation and aggregate stability in water. Application of inorganic fertilizers had small but statistically significant effect in increasing soil OC.