Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 are attenuated in rhesus macaques as compared to Delta

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, five different variants of concern (VOCs) have been identified: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron. Because of confounding factors in the human population, such as preexisting immunity, comparing severity of disease caused by different VOCs is challenging. Here, we investigate disease progression in the rhesus macaque model upon inoculation with the Delta, Omicron BA.1, and Omicron BA.2 VOCs. Disease severity in rhesus macaques inoculated with Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 was lower than those inoculated with Delta and resulted in significantly lower viral loads in nasal swabs, bronchial cytology brush samples, and lung tissue in rhesus macaques. Cytokines and chemokines were up-regulated in nasosorption samples of Delta animals compared to Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 animals. Overall, these data suggest that, in rhesus macaques, Omicron replicates to lower levels than the Delta VOC, resulting in reduced clinical disease.
Memory B cells and memory T cells induced by SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccination or infection show different dynamics and efficacy to the Omicron variant

Although BNT162b2 vaccination was shown to prevent infection and reduce COVID-19 severity, and the persistence of immunological memory generated by the vaccination has not been well elucidated. We evaluated memory B and T cell responses to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein before and after the third BNT162b2 booster. Although the antibody titer against the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) decreased significantly 8 months after the second vaccination, the number of memory B cells continued to increase, while the number of memory T cells decreased slowly. Memory B and T cells from unvaccinated infected patients showed similar kinetics. After the third vaccination, the antibody titer increased to the level of the second vaccination, and memory B cells increased at significantly higher levels before the booster, while memory T cells recovered close to the second vaccination levels. In memory T cells, the frequency of CXCR5+CXCR3+CCR6- cTfh1 was positively correlated with RBD-specific antibody-secreting B cells. Furthermore, T cell-dependent antibody production from reactivated memory B cells in vitro was correlated to the Tfh-like cytokine levels. For the response to variant RBDs, although 60%-80% of memory B cells could bind to the Omicron RBD, their binding affinity was low, while memory T cells show an equal response to the Omicron spike. Thus, the persistent presence of memory B and T cells will quickly upregulate antibody production and T cell responses after Omicron strain infection, which prevents severe illness and death due to COVID-19.
Ena/VASP proteins at the crossroads of actin nucleation pathways in dendritic cell migration

As sentinels of our immune system dendritic cells (DCs) rely on efficient cell migration for patrolling peripheral tissues and delivering sampled antigens to secondary lymphoid organs for the activation of T-cells. Dynamic actin polymerization is key to their macropinocytic and migratory properties. Both major actin nucleation machineries, formins and the Arp2/3 complex, are critical for different aspects of DC functionality, by driving the generation of linear respectively branched actin filaments. However, the importance of a third group of actin nucleators, the Ena/VASP family, has not been addressed yet. Here, we show that the two family members Evl and VASP are expressed in murine DCs and that their loss negatively affects DC macropinocytosis, spreading, and migration. Our interactome analysis reveals Ena/VASP proteins to be ideally positioned for orchestrating the different actin nucleation pathways by binding to the formin mDia1 as well as to the WAVE regulatory complex, a stimulator of Arp2/3. In fact, Evl/VASP deficient murine DCs are more vulnerable to inhibition of Arp2/3 demonstrating that Ena/VASP proteins contribute to the robustness and efficiency of DC migration.
Pantothenate Kinase 4 Governs Lens Epithelial Fibrosis by Negatively Regulating Pyruvate Kinase M2-Related Glycolysis

Lens fibrosis is one of the leading causes of cataract in the elderly population. The primary energy substrate of the lens is glucose from the aqueous humor, and the transparency of mature lens epithelial cells (LECs) is dependent on glycolysis for ATP. Therefore, the deconstruction of reprogramming of glycolytic metabolism can contribute to further understanding of LEC epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). In the present study, we found a novel pantothenate kinase 4 (PANK4)-related glycolytic mechanism that regulates LEC EMT. The PANK4 level was correlated with aging in cataract patients and mice. Loss of function of PANK4 significantly contributed to alleviating LEC EMT by upregulating pyruvate kinase M2 isozyme (PKM2), which was phosphorylated at Y105, thus switching oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis. However, PKM2 regulation did not affect PANK4, demonstrating the downstream role of PKM2. Inhibition of PKM2 in Pank4−/− mice caused lens fibrosis, which supports the finding that the PANK4–PKM2 axis is required for LEC EMT. Glycolytic metabolism-governed hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) signaling is involved in PANK4–PKM2-related downstream signaling. However, HIF-1α elevation was independent of PKM2 (S37) but PKM2 (Y105) when PANK4 was deleted, which demonstrated that PKM2 and HIF-1α were not involved in a classic positive feedback loop. Collectively, these results indicate a PANK4-related glycolysis switch that may contribute to HIF-1 stabilization and PKM2 phosphorylation at Y105 and inhibit LEC EMT. The mechanism elucidation in our study may also shed light on fibrosis treatments for other organs.
Potential Anti-Mpox Virus Activity of Atovaquone, Mefloquine, and Molnupiravir, and Their Potential Use as Treatments

Abstract Background Mpox virus (MPXV) is a zoonotic orthopoxvirus and caused an outbreak in 2022. Although tecovirimat and brincidofovir are approved as anti-smallpox drugs, their effects in mpox patients have not been well documented. In this study, by a drug repurposing approach, we identified potential drug candidates for treating mpox and predicted their clinical impacts by mathematical modeling. Methods We screened 132 approved drugs using an MPXV infection cell system. We quantified antiviral activities of potential drug candidates by measuring intracellular viral DNA and analyzed the modes of action by time-of-addition assay and electron microscopic analysis. We further predicted the efficacy of drugs under clinical concentrations by mathematical simulation and examined combination treatment. Results Atovaquone, mefloquine, and molnupiravir exhibited anti-MPXV activity, with 50% inhibitory concentrations of 0.51–5.2 μM, which was more potent than cidofovir. Whereas mefloquine was suggested to inhibit viral entry, atovaquone and molnupiravir targeted postentry processes. Atovaquone was suggested to exert its activity through inhibiting dihydroorotate dehydrogenase. Combining atovaquone with tecovirimat enhanced the anti-MPXV effect of tecovirimat. Quantitative mathematical simulations predicted that atovaquone can promote viral clearance in patients by 7 days at clinically relevant drug concentrations. Conclusions These data suggest that atovaquone would be a potential candidate for treating mpox.
Histopathological spectrum of cervical biopsies – a 5 year retrospective study

Introduction: cervix is a gateway to numerous non neoplastic and neoplastic gynecological lesions. Cervical cancer is the leading cancer in Indian women and second most common cancer in women worldwide next to breast cancer. Objectives: 1) To study the histopathological features of cervical lesions. 2) To study the age distribution and relative frequency of various cervical lesions. Materials and Methods: This is 5 years retrospective study of all cervical biopsies received from 2011-2015 in the department of pathology. Result: In a total of 739 cases studied 365(49.39%) cases were non neoplastic, 113(15.29%) were pre invasive and 261(35.31%) cases were malignant. Cervicitis was the most common non neoplastic lesion and squamous cell carcinoma was the most common cancer. Conclusion: Adequate cervical screening procedure with follow up cervical biopsies helps in early diagnosis and management of premalignant and malignant lesions.
The Principles of Mathematics Revisited: Introduction

1. The functions of logic and the problem of truth definition 2. The game of logic 3. Frege's fallacy foiled: Independence-friendly logic 4. The joys of independence: Some uses of IF logic 5. The complexities of completeness 6. Who's afraid of Alfred Tarski? Truth-definitions for IF first-order languages 7. The liar belied: negation in IF logic 8. Axiomatic set theory: Frankenstein's monster? 9. IF logic as a framework for mathematical theorizing 10. Constructivism reconstructed 11. The epistemology of mathematical objects.
University of Birmingham Heterogeneous claudin-1 expression in human liver

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INVERSES OF MOMENT HERMITIAN MATRICES.

Motivated by (9) we study the existence of the inverse of infinite Her- mitian moment matrices associated with measures with support on the complex plane. We relate this problem to the asymptotic behaviour of the smallest eigen- values of finite sections and we study it from the point of view of infinite transition matrices associated to the orthogonal polynomials. For Toeplitz matrices we in- troduce the notion of weakly asymptotic Toeplitz matrix and we show that, under certain assumptions, the inverse of a Toeplitz moment matrix is weakly asymptotic Toeplitz. Such inverses are computed in terms of some limits of the coefficients of the associated orthogonal polynomials. We finally show that the asymptotic behaviour of the smallest eigenvalue of a moment Toeplitz matrix only depends on the absolutely part of the associated measure.
Iron abundance correlations and an occurrence distribution discrepancy from ongoing planet migration

Whether the higher occurrence of giant planets being hosted by metal-rich versus metal-poor stars results from formation or from "pollution" has been a question of intense debate. We present new patterns that emerge when planet/star systems are separated by stellar [Fe/H], and when systems with stellar companions are separated out. These differences can best be explained if the onset of high eccentricity planet migration is also a time when planet are sent into merge with the star. Planet migration into the star is likely a complementary explanation to the view that systems with higher initial iron abundance form more planets, and that more crowded planets are more likely to scatter into eccentric orbits. Planets of iron-rich single stars have eccentricity distributions that are higher than planets of iron-poor single stars (where "rich" and "poor" are stars whose [Fe/H] is above and below solar, respectively). Stars with planets that have a stellar companion comprise a third population of systems in which the stars are preferentially iron-rich. We describe new patterns that are best explained by eccentric planet migration being associated with other planets migrating into the star. Though medium planets are more numerous than giant planets at periods greater than three days, giant planets are more numerous than medium planets at the shortest periods. Since giant planets migrate into the star faster, we show this as evidence of giant planet migration. Planet migration into the star is certain to be an important part of planetary system evolution.
On the Capacity of Additive AVCs with Feedback

We consider the problem of communication over adversarial channels with feedback. Two parties comprising sender Alice and receiver Bob seek to communicate reliably. An adversary James observes Alice's channel transmission entirely and chooses, maliciously, its additive channel input or jamming state thereby corrupting Bob's observation. Bob can communicate over a one-way reverse link with Alice; we assume that transmissions over this feedback link cannot be corrupted by James. Our goal in this work is to study the optimum throughput or capacity over such channels with feedback. We first present results for the quadratically-constrained additive channel where communication is known to be impossible when the noise-to-signal (power) ratio (NSR) is at least 1. We present a novel achievability scheme to establish that positive rate communication is possible even when the NSR is as high as 8/9. We also present new converse upper bounds on the capacity of this channel under potentially stochastic encoders and decoders. We also study feedback communication over the more widely studied q-ary alphabet channel under additive noise. For the q -ary channel, where q > 2, it is well known that capacity is positive under full feedback if and only if the adversary can corrupt strictly less than half the transmitted symbols. We generalize this result and show that the same threshold holds for positive rate communication when the noiseless feedback may only be partial; our scheme employs a stochastic decoder. We extend this characterization, albeit partially, to fully deterministic schemes under partial noiseless feedback. We also present new converse upper bounds for q-ary channels under full feedback, where the encoder and/or decoder may privately randomize. Our converse results bring to the fore an interesting alternate expression for the well known converse bound for the q—ary channel under full feedback which, when specialized to the binary channel, also equals its known capacity.
DARK HALOS AND ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES AS MARGINALLY STABLE DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

The origin of equilibrium gravitational configurations is sought in terms of the stability of their trajectories, as described by the curvature of their Lagrangian configuration manifold of particle positions—a context in which subtle spurious effects originating from the singularity in the two-body potential become particularly clear. We focus on the case of spherical systems, which support only regular orbits in the collisionless limit, despite the persistence of local exponential instability of N-body trajectories in the anomalous case of discrete point particle representation even as N → ∞. When the singularity in the potential is removed, this apparent contradiction disappears. In the absence of fluctuations, equilibrium configurations generally correspond to positive scalar curvature and thus support stable trajectories. A null scalar curvature is associated with an effective, averaged equation of state describing dynamically relaxed equilibria with marginally stable trajectories. The associated configurations are quite similar to those of observed elliptical galaxies and simulated cosmological halos and are necessarily different from the systems dominated by isothermal cores, expected from entropy maximization in the context of the standard theory of violent relaxation. It is suggested that this is the case because a system starting far from equilibrium does not reach a “most probable state” via violent relaxation, but that this process comes to an end as the system finds and (settles in) a configuration where it can most efficiently wash out perturbations. We explicitly test this interpretation by means of direct simulations.
Improving The Reliability of The Multiline TRL Calibration Algorithm

This paper presents an updated version of the multiline Thru-Reflect-Line (mTRL) calibration algorithm. The proposed approach formulates the calibration problem in a single eigenvalue problem, in which all line standards are combined using an optimally derived weighting matrix. This approach eliminates the need for common line selection and line pairing procedures, as documented in MultiCal [1], [2]. Using on-wafer measurements up to 150 GHz and sensitivity analysis based on the Monte Carlo method, we show that this new approach outperforms the MultiCal implementation and delivers consistent results in the presence of additive noise and phase error.
The Secrecy Capacity of The Gaussian Wiretap Channel with Rate-Limited Help at the Decoder

The Gaussian wiretap channel with rate-limited help available at the legitimate receiver (decoder) is studied under various channel configurations (degraded, reversely degraded and non-degraded). In all considered cases but one, the rate-limited help results in a secrecy capacity boost equal to the help rate. This holds irrespective of whether the help is secure or not, so that secure help does not provide any advantage over non-secure one. The secrecy capacity is positive for the reversely-degraded channel (where the no-help secrecy capacity is zero) and no wiretap coding is needed to achieve it. More noise at the legitimate receiver can sometimes result in higher secrecy capacity. The same secrecy capacity boost also holds if non-secure help is available to the transmitter (encoder), in addition to or instead of the receiver help.
Proactive Resilience in 1-2-1 Networks

Millimeter Wave (mmWave) (and beyond) is expected to play an increasingly important role in our wireless infrastructure by expanding the available spectrum and enabling multi-gigabit services. Despite the promising aspects of mmWave communication, mmWave links are highly sensitive to blockage. In this paper, we develop proactive transmission mechanisms that suitably distribute the traffic across multiple paths in the mmWave network, with the two-fold objective of ensuring resilience against link blockages and achieve high end-to-end packet delivery rate. We present examples of resilience-capacity trade-off curves and show that there exist network topologies for which the worst-case and average approximate capacities are achieved by activating overlapping paths. We also show that this can provide additional benefits, such as decreasing the variance of the achieved rate.
Lectures on Generating Functions

Formal power series and generating functions. Operations with formal power series. Elementary generating functions Generating functions for well-known sequences Unambiguous formal grammars. The Lagrange theorem Analytic properties of functions represented as power series and their asymptotics of their coefficients Generating functions of several variables Partitions and decompositions Dirichlet generating functions and the inclusion-exclusion principle Enumeration of embedded graphs Final and bibliographical remarks Bibliography Index.
TRIPLE F (F³) FILTERING OF KINEMATIC DATA

Raw data in biomechanical studies usually require filtering. Depending on the used filter there exist some drawbacks as “signal shifted relative to the raw data”, “instability or degradation”, “endpoint problem”, “oscillations”. A filter called triple F or F³ based on the Fourier transformation is presented that is not crippled by these drawbacks. It consist of a transformation of the original data into the frequency spectrum followed by eliminating the unwanted frequencies (windowing) and an inverse Fourier transformation back to the data as a function of time. This procedure is stable and does not shift the data. It is shown how to dampen additional oscillation on the filtered data and how to avoid the endpoint problem completely. A comparison with a Butterworth filter and an application completes the presentation.
Combined Application of Approximate Computing Techniques in DNN Hardware Accelerators

This paper applies Approximate Computing (AC) techniques to the main elements which form a DNN hardware accelerator, namely, computation, communication, and memory subsystems. Specifically, approximate multipliers for computation, link voltage swing reduction for communication, voltage over-scaling for the internal SRAM memory, and lossy compression of the external DRAM memory are considered. The different AC techniques are applied in isolation as well as in conjunction with each other. A set of representative CNN models are mapped onto the approximated hardware accelerators and the trade-offs performance vs. energy vs. accuracy are derived for the execution of CNN inferences.
Stability preserving structural transformations of systems of linear second-order ordinary differential equations

In the paper we have developed a theory of stability preserving structural transformations of systems of second-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs), i.e., the transformations which preserve the property of Lyapunov stability. The main Theorem proved in the paper can be viewed as an analogous of the Erugin's theorem for the systems of second-order ODEs. The Theorem allowed us to generalize the 3-rd and 4-th Kelvin -- Tait -- Chetayev theorems. The obtained theoretical results were successfully applied to the stability investigation of the rotary motion of a rigid body suspended on a string.
HAND GRIP STRENGTH IN ELDERLY PARTICIPANTS IN COMMUNITY GROUPS

Objective: To analyze the hand grip strength (HGS) in elderly participants in community groups and its relation to gender, physical activity practice, diabetes, systemic arterial hypertension and osteoporosis. Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, performed with 79 elderly people of both genders, participants of community groups in the city of Palhoça-SC. Clinical data and HGS were assessed from July to October 2012, being analyzed the influence of the variables on the HGS. Results: The sample comprised 69 women (87.3%) and 10 men (12.7%), where 34.2% (n= 27) of the elderly reported having diabetes, 55.7% (n= 44) systemic arterial hypertension, and 25.3% (n= 20) osteoporosis. The men’s HGS (63.97 ± 15.17 pounds) was higher than the women’s (40.52 ± 12.27 pounds), (p=0.001). There was no significant difference between the HGS averages among the elderly practitioners of physical activity and the non-practitioners (p= 0.99). There was influence of osteoporosis on the HGS, where the elderly without the disease presented more strength than the affected ones (p=0.002). Conclusion: The elderly showed lower HGS values than expected for their age, being men’s HGS higher than the women’s. The physical activity practice, systemic arterial hypertension and diabetes did not influence the HGS, however, the elderly with osteoporosis showed diminished HGS. Descriptors: Hand Strength; Aged; Aging.