Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epigenetic Immune Remodeling of Mesothelioma Cells: A New Strategy to Improve the Efficacy of Immunotherapy

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive malignancy with a severe prognosis, and with a long-standing need for more effective therapeutic approaches. However, treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors is becoming an increasingly effective strategy for MPM patients. In this scenario, epigenetic modifications may negatively regulate the interplay between immune and malignant cells within the tumor microenvironment, thus contributing to the highly immunosuppressive contexture of MPM that may limit the efficacy of immunotherapy. Aiming to further improve prospectively the clinical efficacy of immunotherapeutic approaches in MPM, we investigated the immunomodulatory potential of different classes of epigenetic drugs (i.e., DNA hypomethylating agent (DHA) guadecitabine, histone deacetylase inhibitors VPA and SAHA, or EZH2 inhibitors EPZ-6438) in epithelioid, biphasic, and sarcomatoid MPM cell lines, by cytofluorimetric and real-time PCR analyses. We also characterized the effects of the DHA, guadecitabine, on the gene expression profiles (GEP) of the investigated MPM cell lines by the nCounter platform. Among investigated drugs, exposure of MPM cells to guadecitabine, either alone or in combination with VPA, SAHA and EPZ-6438 demonstrated to be the main driver of the induction/upregulation of immune molecules functionally crucial in host-tumor interaction (i.e., HLA class I, ICAM-1 and cancer testis antigens) in all three MPM subtypes investigated. Additionally, GEP demonstrated that treatment with guadecitabine led to the activation of genes involved in several immune-related functional classes mainly in the sarcomatoid subtype. Furthermore, among investigated MPM subtypes, DHA-induced CDH1 expression that contributes to restoring the epithelial phenotype was highest in sarcomatoid cells. Altogether, our results contribute to providing the rationale to develop new epigenetically-based immunotherapeutic approaches for MPM patients, potentially tailored to the specific histologic subtypes.
Nursery Practices Influence Seedling Morphology, Field Performance, and Cost Efficiency of Containerized Cherrybark Oak

o. ABSTRACT: To quantify effects of nursery practices on seedling cost and performance, cherrybark oaks (Quercus pagoda L.) were grown in three container sizes (170, 650, or 1,250 cm z) with or without fertilization and then planted Dec'. 1995 at a site near MiUedgeville, GA, with or without removal of container soil. Initial size, biomass, and leaf area of seedlings grown in medium and large containers were up to twice those grown in small containers, and they were greater with versus without fertilization. Price efficiency (stem volume divided by estimated nursery price of 1,000 seedlings) was greatest for medium and large containers with soil removed and hypothetically reused. Differences in stem diameter and height due to container size and fertilization continued to diverge through the fifth year after planting. Fifth-year yield (stem volume × proportionate survival of 1,000 planted seedlings) increased 104, 56, and 31% ~¢ith increasing container size and with fertilization and soil removal, respectively. Cost efficiency (fifth-year yield digfded by costs compounded 5 years at 5% interest) was greatest for medium and large containers with soil removed. Joint comparisons of nursery costs, planting costs, and field performance for different seedling stock types provide an objective approach for prioritizing cultural treatments in forestry. South. J. Appl. For. 28(3):152-162.
The detection of low magnitude seismic events using array-based waveform correlation

SUMMARY It has long been accepted that occurrences of a known signal are most effectively detected by cross-correlating the incoming data stream with a waveform template. Such matched signal detectors have received very little attention in the field of detection seismology because there are relatively few instances in which the form of an anticipated seismic signal is known a priori. Repeating events in highly confined geographical regions have been observed to produce very similar waveforms and good signals from events at a given site can be exploited to detect subsequent co-located events at lower magnitudes than would be possible using traditional power detectors. Even greater improvement in signal detectability can be achieved using seismic arrays; running correlation coefficients from single sensors can be stacked over an array or network to result in a network correlation coefficient displaying a significant array gain. If two events are co-located, the time separating the corresponding patterns in the wave train as indicated by the cross-correlation function is identical for all seismic stations and this property means that the correlation coefficient traces are coherent even when the waveforms are not. We illustrate the power of array-based waveform correlation using the 1997 August 16 Kara Sea event. The weak event that occurred 4 hr after the main event was barely detected using an STA/LTA detector on the SPITS array but is readily detected by signal matching on a single channel. The main event was also recorded by the far more distant NORSAR array but no conventional detection can be made for the second event. A clear detection is, however, made when the correlation coefficient traces are beamformed over all sensors of the array. We estimate the reduction in detection threshold of a test signal on a regional seismic array using waveform correlation by scaling down a master signal and immersing it into seismic noise. We show that, for this case, waveform correlation using a single channel detects signals of approximately 0.7 orders of magnitude lower than is possible using an STA/LTA detector on the array beam. Waveform matching on the full array provides an additional improvement of approximately 0.4 magnitude units. We describe a case study in which small seismic events at the Barentsburg coal mine on Spitsbergen were detected using the signals from a major rockburst as master waveforms. Many spurious triggers occurred in this study whereby short sections of signal exhibited coincidental similarity with unrelated incoming wave fronts. We demonstrate how such false alarms can almost always be identified and screened out automatically by performing frequency–wavenumber analysis upon the set of individual correlation coefficient traces.
Five Different Noise Intensities Robustly Affects Corticosterone, Gastrin and Endothelin-1 Responses and Initiated Gastric Tissue Damage in Wistar Rats

Likewise other stress response noise stress is also affects the homeostasis of the biological systems and produce stress response in the form of Corticosterone to prevent the damage but if the exposure is longer with higher magnitude it may disrupt the robust ability of the homeostasis and could produce the damage to the biological systems. The goal of our study was to see how five different noise intensities affected stomach tissue damage. 42 healthy rats were divided into five different stress exposure group, normal control (NC) and sham control (SC) groups. Noise stress exposure was delivered for 1 hour per day continued for 30 days in all five noise exposed groups by specially designed noise chamber whereas sham control group of animals kept in noise chamber for 1 hour per day continued for 30 days without noise stress exposure and control group of animals neither exposed to noise stress of any intensities and nor kept in noise chamber without noise but remain in the same experimental room in their homecage for 30 days respectively. Results of the study showed that animals exposed to 60 and 80 dB noise give habituated and not significant Corticosterone, Gastrin and Endothelin-1 responses compared to NC and SC groups while animals exposed to 100, 120 and 140 dB had significantly higher Corticosterone, Gastrin and Endothelin-1 response and also chronic gastric damage was observed compared to later two noise exposed groups respectively. Study concluded that not only higher but also lower noise intensities also initiated the gastric damage even after the adaptation.
A MEMS probe card with 2D dense-arrayed ‘hoe’-shaped metal tips

In this paper, we present a novel MEMS probe card with densely area-arrayed microprobes for the wafer-level test of advanced ICs. In a 4 inch silicon wafer, a total of about 110 000 probe tips can be simultaneously fabricated, with a two-dimensional tip pitch of 240 µm × 160 µm. The ‘hoe-shaped’ microprobe structure is composed of one or two planar arms and an up-tilted tip, both of which are high-yield fabricated with metal micromachining techniques including low-stress nickel electroplating. With micromachined cavities, the silicon wafer serves as moulds for the up-tilted metal probes. Then, the microprobes are finally flip-chip packaged to a ceramic board for further connection to automatic testing equipment (ATE). After the probe structures are formed, the silicon wafer is removed completely by using TMAH wet etching, while the probes are freed by silicon laterally etching. The measured spring constants for all the three types of probes agree well with the designed values. As both mechanical anchors and electrical interconnections, the Sn–Ag solder-bumps feature satisfactory properties. The tested contact resistance values for three different thin-film pads on dies under test are always below 0.8 Ω, while the current leakage between two adjacent probes is only about 150 pA under 3.3 V.
EFFECT OF REDUCING N, P MINERAL FERTILIZATION LEVELS COMBINED WITH BIOFERTILIZER ON GROWTH, YIELD AND TUBER QUALITY OF POTATO PLANTS

This work was carried out at private farm (loamy soil), in Shobramant village, Giza governorate. , during 2005 and 2006 summer planting seasons, to evaluate effect of reducing the recommended dose of nitrogen and phosphorus mineral fertilizers combined with seed potato tubers and plant inoculation with bio-fertilizers on plant growth, productivity, tuber quality expressed as nitrate and nitrite accumulation, specific gravity, dry matter and total carbohydrate of two potato cultivars and bacterial densities (total count of microbes, number of Azotobacter spp. , number of Azospirillum spp. in the rhizosphere. The results showed that Diamant and Spunta cultivars differed significantly in their responses to growth, yield and tuber quality characteristics, Spunta cultivar recorded the best growth with highest mean tuber weight, nitrate and nitrite tuber content. Reducing mineral N, P levels to 90, 80 and 70 % of the recommended rates combined with bio-fertilizer gave equal yield to that obtained by recommended doses. Moreover, reducing mineral N, P levels to 60 and 50% of the recommended rates significantly increased tuber specific gravity and reduced nitrate and nitrite accumulation in potato tubers. The most promising treatment is bio-fertilizer combined with 70% of recommended mineral N, P dose which satisfy the objective of producing high quality tuber with low nitrate and nitrite level and save about 30% of the cost of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. On the other hand, microbial of densities of bacterial counts, azotobacter, azospirilla and bacillus in the rizosphere increased gradually with advanced reducing mineral fertilizers. Reducing mineral NP rates to the half and biofertilizer produced high quality tubers with low nitrate and nitrite content and also increased microbial densities in potato root rhizosphere.
Photonic synthesis of continuous‐wave millimeter‐wave signals using a passively mode‐locked laser diode and selective optical filtering

We report a photonic synthesis scheme for continuous wave millimeter‐wave signal generation using a single passively mode‐locked laser diode (PMLLD), optical filtering and photomixing in a fast photodiode.The phase noise of the photonically synthesized signals is evaluated and inherits the characteristics of the PMLLD electrical power spectrum. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:1416–1419, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26822
Conflict detection and resolution for goal formation in the fractal manufacturing system

The fractal manufacturing system (FrMS) is based on the concept of autonomously cooperating agents referred to as fractals. A fractal is a set of self-similar agents whose goal can be achieved through cooperation, coordination, and negotiation among the agents for themselves. A fractal has fractal-specific characteristics (e.g. self-similarity, self-organization, self-optimization, goal-orientation, and dynamics), and it also has the characteristics of an agent (e.g. autonomy, mobility, intelligence, cooperation, and adaptability) at the same time. In the FrMS, a goal can be regarded as the status which the system aspires to be in. The goal-formation process (GFP) in the FrMS is a process of generating goals and modifying them by coordination between agents. In the GFP, conflicts may occur between goals, which can drive a system to become inefficient. In this paper, a conflict resolution mechanism via agent-based negotiation is proposed for facilitating the GFP. The scheme deals with non-fixed goals. The mobile agent-based negotiation process (MANPro), in which a mobile agent is used for information-exchanging and problem-solving, is used for negotiations in this scheme. The proposed mechanism is illustrated with a goal formation scenario in an exemplary FrMS.
Persistence of T Cell and Antibody Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Up to 9 Months after Symptom Onset

Visual Abstract Key Points T cell and Ab responses to SARS-CoV-2 persist up to 9 mo after symptoms. SARS-CoV-2–specific CD4+ T effector and cTfh responses correlate with IgG responses. T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 show a high proportion of IL-2–producing CD4 T cells. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces T cell, B cell, and Ab responses that are detected for several months in recovered individuals. Whether this response resembles a typical respiratory viral infection is a matter of debate. In this study, we followed T cell and Ab responses in 24 mainly nonhospitalized human subjects who had recovered from PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection at two time points (median of 45 and 145 d after symptom onset). Ab responses were detected in 95% of subjects, with a strong correlation between plasma and salivary anti-spike (anti-S) and anti—receptor binding domain IgG, as well as a correlation between circulating T follicular helper cells and the SARS-CoV-2–specific IgG response. T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 peptides were determined using intracellular cytokine staining, activation markers, proliferation, and cytokine secretion. All study subjects had a T cell response to at least one SARS-CoV-2 Ag based on at least one T cell assay. CD4+ responses were largely of the Th1 phenotype, but with a lower ratio of IFN-γ– to IL-2–producing cells and a lower frequency of CD8+:CD4+ T cells than in influenza A virus (IAV)-specific memory responses within the same subjects. Analysis of secreted molecules also revealed a lower ratio of IFN-γ to IL-2 and an altered cytotoxic profile for SARS-CoV-2 S- and nucleocapsid-specific responses compared with IAV-specific responses. These data suggest that the memory T cell phenotype after a single infection with SARS-CoV-2 persists over time, with an altered cytokine and cytotoxicity profile compared with long-term memory to whole IAV within the same subjects.
Modelling and Multivariable Control Techniques for Small Coaxial Helicopters

ight of small coaxial helicopters ( < 70cm rotor diameter) poses signicant challenges in terms of comprehensive yet computationally feasible modeling and control. The coaxial platform provides several advantages at small scales in terms of size, footprint, eciency and stability. This study compares techniques used for the modeling and control of such an aircraft in order to identify a viable control design for an experimental platform. Models of the various thrust, servo and motor dynamics are presented, and the delity of the model is assessed. In terms of control techniques, linear methods such as PID, LQR and H1 mixed synthesis are presented. PID control is generally found to be ineective in most cases including trajectory tracking and disturbance rejection. LQR and H1 control techniques outperform PID in this regard and provide respectable results. Furthermore, the H1 control scheme is especially eective in achieving tighter trajectories.
Real Effects of Recognizing Fair Value Changes in Net Income on Firms’ Investment Choices

We study the impact of recognizing fair value changes in net income rather than other comprehensive income on firms’ investment portfolio holdings. To examine this impact, we focus on the adoption of Accounting Standards Update 2016-01 for a sample of property and casualty insurance companies. We find that firms adopting the new standard, which required them to recognize changes in the fair value of equity securities in net income, decreased the riskiness of their equity portfolios relative to firms that did not adopt the new standard. We also find that our results are weaker for adopters that outsource management of a portion of their assets to third parties and stronger for adopters with smaller equity portfolios. Overall, our results suggest that recognizing fair value changes in net income has real effects, prompting firms to alter their investment holdings to reduce earnings volatility.
The Impact of Renewable Energy, Urbanization, and Environmental Sustainability Ratings on the Environmental Kuznets Curve and the Pollution Haven Hypothesis

The impacts of renewable energy adoption and environmental sustainability ratings on the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve and the pollution haven hypothesis are examined using annual balanced panel data from 64 middle and low-income countries and spanning the 2005–2014 period. We show that the GDP per capita/CO2 emissions per capita relationship is an inverse S curve for the full sample of low and middle-income countries and for each subsample. The renewable energy/CO2 emissions per capita relationship is an inverse N curve for the full and the middle-income samples, but a V curve for the low-income sample. The foreign direct investment net inflows/CO2 emissions per capita relationship is an N curve for the full and the middle-income samples, and a positive relationship in the low-income subsample. High levels of government environmental sustainability ratings in low-income countries with relatively higher incomes can attract foreign direct investment net inflows while reducing pollution. In contrast, middle-income countries with high environmental sustainability ratings can attract foreign direct investment net inflows only if they allow small increases in pollution.
Grinding process monitoring based on electromechanical impedance measurements

Grinding is considered one of the last processes in precision parts manufacturing, which makes it indispensable to have a reliable monitoring system to evaluate workpiece surface integrity. This paper proposes the use of the electromechanical impedance (EMI) method to monitor the surface grinding operation in real time, particularly the surface integrity of the ground workpiece. The EMI method stands out for its simplicity and for using low-cost components such as PZT (lead zirconate titanate) piezoelectric transducers. In order to assess the feasibility of applying the EMI method to the grinding process, experimental tests were performed on a surface grinder using a CBN grinding wheel and a SAE 1020 steel workpiece, with PZT transducers mounted on the workpiece and its holder. During the grinding process, the electrical impedance of the transducers was measured and damage indices conventionally used in the EMI method were calculated and compared with workpiece wear, indicating the surface condition of the workpiece. The experimental results indicate that the EMI method can be an efficient and cost-effective alternative for monitoring precision workpieces during the surface grinding process.
UAV-Enabled Mobile Edge-Computing for IoT Based on AI: A Comprehensive Review

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming integrated into a wide range of modern IoT applications. The growing number of networked IoT devices generates a large amount of data. However, processing and memorizing this massive volume of data at local nodes have been deemed critical challenges, especially when using artificial intelligence (AI) systems to extract and exploit valuable information. In this context, mobile edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a way to bring cloud computing (CC) processes within reach of users, to address computation-intensive offloading and latency issues. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the most relevant research works related to UAV technology applications in terms of enabled or assisted MEC architectures. It details the utility of UAV-enabled MEC architecture regarding emerging IoT applications and the role of both deep learning (DL) and machine learning (ML) in meeting various limitations related to latency, task offloading, energy demand, and security. Furthermore, throughout this article, the reader gains an insight into the future of UAV-enabled MEC, the advantages and the critical challenges to be tackled when using AI.
Conventional and recommended arc power and energy calculations and arc damage assessment

The costs associated with fires initiated by arcing faults depend on the extent of the damage. In some cases, costs have exceeded $100 000 000. The personal losses associated with a serious injury or fatality are incalculable. When an arcing fault occurs, qualified in-house personnel and/or professional consultants try to determine the factors involved in the fault's initiation. Investigators also serve as expert witnesses in any pending lawsuits related to the accident. In fact, the growing interest in accident investigation has led to the establishment of an IEEE workgroup in forensics. Even with sophisticated techniques like scanning electron microscopes used to provide magnified photographs of arc damage, only a limited amount of applicable technical information on arcing faults exists for reference. Much of the engineering reference information on calculating arc currents and assessing arc damage is 25-50 years old. Recent papers by the authors discussed calculating arc currents. This paper presents a method to determine the power released by a single-phase-to-ground arc and provides graphs for quick reference. Commonly used methods for calculating arc power and energy and quantifying damage are also discussed. The recommended and conventional methods are used to determine arc energy and to identify the damage threshold in a typical system and the results are compared.