Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of Migrants Through the Lens of a Constructivist Approach to Ethnicity

The article rethinks the integration of migrants through the lens of constructivist studies of ethnicity. It is done on the basis of the theoretical language developed by the author, which builds upon other constructivist languages. It is pointed out that ethnicity is the organization of differences around categories, membership in which is predominantly inherited. Categories, according to language, are organized in the form of categorizations, classifications, and taxonomies; categories are associated with attributes, which include stereotypes, indicators, norms, characteristics of relationships with other categories, as well as discourses. Together, categories and attributes form the construction of ethnicity, which is a typical object of analysis and description. Individuals constantly evaluate the surrounding phenomena in terms of conformity with the construction of ethnicity, which is why the construction of ethnicity changes. Integration is a change in the construction of ethnicity or re-categorization of individuals in the space of the dichotomy «migrant» - «local» without changing the construction of ethnicity. In the course of integration, «migrant» categories may be re-categorized as «local»; «local» categories may change the attributes associated with them to include attributes previously associated with «migrant» categories; categories and attributes may not change, while re-categorization occurs at the individual level. How exactly integration will take place depends on a variety of factors that characterize the construction of ethnicity and go beyond it. The construction of ethnicity in Russia is a vernacular taxonomy, which implies the existence of a general category (‘Rossijane’, ‘Russkie’), which includes other categories - defined as the «local» ones. Most of the «migrant» categories correspond to identical in name «local» categories. The integration of migrants in Russia thus takes the form of an individual transition from the category of «Tajik migrants» to «local Tajiks». The language created and studied for applicability to the integration of migrants is analyzed for pros and cons and directions for further work are identified.
Biological Degradation of Plastics and Microplastics: A Recent Perspective on Associated Mechanisms and Influencing Factors

Plastic and microplastic pollution has caused a great deal of ecological problems because of its persistence and potential adverse effects on human health. The degradation of plastics through biological processes is of great significance for ecological health, therefore, the feasibility of plastic degradation by microorganisms has attracted a lot of attention. This study comprises a preliminary discussion on the biodegradation mechanism and the advantages and roles of different bacterial enzymes, such as PET hydrolase and PCL-cutinase, in the degradation of different polymers, such as PET and PCL, respectively. With a particular focus on their modes of action and potential enzymatic mechanisms, this review sums up studies on the biological degradation of plastics and microplastics related to mechanisms and influencing factors, along with their enzymes in enhancing the degradation of synthetic plastics in the process. In addition, biodegradation of plastic is also affected by plastic additives and plasticizers. Plasticizers and additives in the composition of plastics can cause harmful impacts. To further improve the degradation efficiency of polymers, various pretreatments to improve the efficiency of biodegradation, which can cause a significant reduction in toxic plastic pollution, were also preliminarily discussed here. The existing research and data show a large number of microorganisms involved in plastic biodegradation, though their specific mechanisms have not been thoroughly explored yet. Therefore, there is a significant potential for employing various bacterial strains for efficient degradation of plastics to improve human health and safety.
Concentration Regimes for Extensional Relaxation Times of Unentangled Polymer Solutions

: We study the extensional flow properties of polyacrylamide (PAM) solutions with various molecular weights and dispersities using a dripping-onto-substrate (DoS) protocol. A recent study [Dinic and Sharma, Macromolecules 2020 , 53 , 4821 − 4835] suggested that coil − stretch hysteresis, which occurs when the drag coefficient ratio of stretched and coiled polymer chains ς s / ς c > 4.5, controls the scaling exponent of the extensional relaxation time λ E with concentration. Here, we test this hypothesis by varying ς s / ς c through the PAM molecular weight distribution. The scaling exponent of the concentration dependence of λ E is m = 0.34 for PAM solutions with ς s / ς c < 4.5 and m > 0.5 for PAM solutions with ς s / ς c > 4.5. The increase in the scaling exponent is attributed to the presence of coil − stretch hysteresis, which screens the excluded volume interactions under extensional flow. For highly disperse solutions with Đ ≈ 21, the transition from an exponent of 0.67 to 1 occurs at overlap concentration c * derived from the weight-averaged molecular weight instead of viscosity-averaged molecular weight, highlighting the role of long chains. These results provide insight into the role of the polymer size distribution in the concentration-dependent extensional material response in dilute and unentangled semidilute solutions.
SISTEMA DE REPRODUÇÃO EM POPULAÇÕES DE Esenbeckia leiocarpa Engl.

O sistema de reprodução de duas populações naturais de Esenbeckia leiocarpa (guarantã) foi estudado em dois fragmentos florestais do Estado de São Paulo, a partir da análise de eletroforese de isoenzimas. A análise da taxa de cruzamento mostrou a espécie como alógama, porém o teste de homogeneidade nas freqüências do conjunto gênico do pólen e d.os óvulos e a correlação. de paternidade ( r ) revelaram que os cruzamentos nas populaçõ'és naturais de E. leiocarpa não foram aleatórios, gerando uma pequena quantidade de indivíduos por cruzamentos entre aparentados e preferenciais. A correlação da taxa de autofecundação ( fs ) revelou que os indivíduos de autofecundação encontram-se aleatoriamente distribuídos dentro das progênies e a correlação de paternidade ( r P ) indicou a existência de uma alta proporção de im1ãos completos dentro das progênies de polinização livre. Por sua vez, comparando os parâmetros do sistema de reprodução entre os fragmentos, verificou-se a ausência de diferenças entre o maior (Caetetus) e o menor (lbicatu) fragmento.
Differential expression of CD1a and s-100 by dendritic cells in different forms of leprosy–possible role of dendritic cells in pathogenesis

Introduction: Leprosy is one of chronic granulomatous disease that is caused by Mycobacterium leprae. This bacillus has a high affinity for skin and peripheral nerve cells. The clinical evolution of disease is determined by immune status of patients. Dendritic cells are one of the antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that play important role in initiating immune response to this pathogen. Langerhans cells and dermal dendrocytes are skin dendritic cells. These cells can be identified by using immunohistochemical markers such as CD1a and S-100. Aim: To quantify the Langerhans cells and dermal dendrocytes by using immunohistochemical markers CD1a and S-100 in different forms of leprosy and to investigate the possible role of these denditic cells in the pathogenesis of the disease. Methods: In the present study, 30 skin samples from patients with tuberculoid (19 biopsies) and lepromatous (11biopsies) leprosy were analyzed by using antibodies against CD1a and S-100. Results : CD1a immunostaining: The mean number of positive Langerhans cells was 3.4 ± 0.7 cells/hpf in tuberculoid leprosy (TT) and was 0.4 ± 0.5cells/hpf in lepromatous leprosy (LL). Dermal dendrocytes were also on higher side in TT with mean value of 7.3± 03.15 and mean value of 0.3± 0.5 cells in LL. (statistically significant, p=0.001). S-100 immunostaining: The mean number of positive Langerhans cells was 2.8 ± 0.7 cells/hpf in TT cases and was 0.6± 0.3 in LL. The mean value of positive dermal dendrocytes was 12.6±6.5 cells in TT and 1.5± 2.3cells in LL. (statistically significant, p=0.001). No significant difference was seen in Langerhans cell and dermal dendrocytes number between TT and BT and between LL and BL histological subtypes on CD1a and S-100 immunostaining. Conclusion: Quantitative analysis showed a clear predominanace of Langerhans cells and dermal dendrocytes in tuberculoid cases as compared to lepromatous cases. This indicates a role for dendritic cells in the cutaneous immune response and clinical evolution of leprosy.
Designing chairs for users with high body weight

The relationship between the functional dimensions of the furniture and a user’s anthropometric dimensions is crucial for safety and functionality. The weight and dimensions of the user’s body significantly affect the functional dimensions of the furniture, especially for overweight users. This paper is focused on the concept of chair structural design, which is suitable for bariatric users, including the application of additional reinforcing structural components. Such components are expected to improve the stiffness and strength properties of the chair structure, and it provides the possibilities to a chair design with improved ergonomic parameters. To increase rigidity and reinforce the frame structure of a chair for obese users, the side stretchers, middle braces inserted under seat and armrests are used. The main goal of the different structural designs of chair frames is to minimize internal forces acting in the structural components of the chair. The finite element method (FEM) was used to determine the internal forces and stress-strain state in the structural elements of the chair, starting with the standard design of the chair frame and comparing different design variants. A synergistic effect is obtained, making the bariatric chair durable and ergonomic, without stigmatizing its users.
Plasma Carotenoids and Polyphenols and Their Association with MetS: The Need for Nutritional Interventions

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is characterized by increased pro-oxidative stress and a chronic inflammation state and their consequent alterations. Several studies have highlighted the protective effect of carotenoids and polyphenols in MetS patients. This study aimed to evaluate the plasma level of selected carotenoids and polyphenols and to determine their relationship with MetS severity, MetS components, and inflammatory markers in Polish adults with metabolic disorders. It was designed as a cross-sectional study. The final study group comprised 275 adults, including 158 women and 117 men. Data were collected on the frequency of consumption of selected food groups. Anthropometric measurements and blood samples were taken to determine the concentration of carotenoids, polyphenols, and indicators (parameters) of metabolic disorders. Plasma concentrations of selected carotenoids and polyphenols were low in adults with MetS. The highest concentrations of carotenoids and polyphenols in the blood were observed for lutein and phenolic acids (including gallic and p-coumaric acids). Nevertheless, a correlation was found between the individual bioactive compounds and MetS components. In terms of the lipid profile, our study showed that the plasma of the selected carotenoids and polyphenols positively correlated with HDL cholesterol (zeaxanthin; total carotenoids), LDL cholesterol (chlorogenic acid), triglycerides (lycopene), and the total cholesterol (kaempferol). We found that the level of CRP as a marker of inflammation negatively correlated with the concentration of zeaxanthin. In our study group, no relationship was found between the dietary antioxidant intensity and the variables studied, which may be attributed to the low frequency of consumption of the sources of bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids and polyphenols, but also to the metabolic disorders. Further research is needed to determine whether these associations are causally related to the metabolic syndrome or are a result of the pathologies of the syndrome or improper diet with a low intake of vegetables and fruit.
Effect of a probiotic formula on gastrointestinal health, immune responses and metabolic health in adults with functional constipation or functional diarrhea

Objective Our aim was to determine the efficacy of four-week probiotic supplementation on gastrointestinal health. The secondary objectives were to assess probiotic effects on immune reaction, as well as weight control and metabolic health. Methods We conducted two randomized sub-trials, respectively, among subjects who were diagnosed with functional constipation (FC) or functional diarrhea (FDr) according to the Rome IV criteria. In each sub-trial, 70 eligible Chinese adults were randomized to receive a multi-strain probiotic combination or a placebo. Gastrointestinal symptoms, defecation habits, stool characteristics, blood and fecal biochemistry markers, anthropometrics measures, stress-associated responses, and intestinal flora changes were assessed at baseline and after probiotics intervention. Results Four weeks of probiotic supplementation reduced overall gastrointestinal symptoms scores in FC participants (p < 0.0001). Their mean weekly stool frequency increased from 3.3 times to 6.2 times; immune response and inflammation markers improved with increases in serum IgA, IFN-γ and fecal sIgA, and decrease in hsCRP; most components of lipid profile were significantly ameliorated, with increases in HDL-C and reductions in TC and TG; body weight, body mass index and basal metabolic rate decreased following probiotics consumption. For FDr participants, probiotics consumption markedly reduced overall gastrointestinal symptom scores (p < 0.0001); decreased stool frequency by 3 times per week; increased IgA, IFN-γ, sIgA concentrations, while lowered hsCRP and IL-4 levels. Both FC and FDr participants had improvement in the scores of defecation habits, anxiety or depression, and perceived stress. Probiotics supplementation promoted the production of all three major short-chain fatty acids. No changes were observed in LDL-C, IgG, IgM, IL-8, IL-10 and motilin. Conclusion Supplementation with the probiotic formula over a four-week period could help relieving gastrointestinal symptoms, improving satisfaction with defecation habits, emotional state and immune response, and ameliorating dysbacteriosis in participants with FC or FDr. It also had beneficial effects on lipid metabolism and weight control for FC participants.
Use of Enzymatically Activated Carbon Monoxide Donors for Sensitizing Drug-Resistant Tumor Cells

The application of gaseous signaling molecules like NO, H2S or CO to overcome the multidrug resistance in cancer treatment has proven to be a viable therapeutic strategy. The development of CO-releasing molecules (CORMs) in a controlled manner and in targeted tissues remains a challenge in medicinal chemistry. In this paper, we describe the design, synthesis and chemical and enzymatic stability of a novel non-metal CORM (1) able to release intracellularly CO and, simultaneously, facilitate fluorescent degradation of products under the action of esterase. The toxicity of 1 against different human cancer cell lines and their drug-resistant counterparts, as well as the putative mechanism of toxicity were investigated. The drug-resistant cancer cell lines efficiently absorbed 1 and 1 was able to restore their sensitivity vs. chemotherapeutic drugs by causing a CO-dependent mitochondrial oxidative stress that culminated in mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis. These results demonstrate the importance of CORMs in cases where conventional chemotherapy fails and thus open the horizons towards new combinatorial strategies to overcome multidrug resistance.
Process-structure-property modeling for postbuild heat treatment of powder bed fusion Ti-6Al-4V

Postbuild heat treatment is an important component in optimized manufacturing processing for laser beam powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) Ti-6Al-4V. The development of predictive modeling, based on the understanding of the relationships between process parameters, microstructure evolution, and mechanical properties, is a potentially key ingredient in this optimization process. In this paper, a process-structure-property (PSP) model is developed to predict the effect of postbuild heat treatment on yield strength, which is a key tensile property for PBF-LB Ti-6Al-4V. The process-structure part is developed with a focus on the prediction of solid-state phase transformation, especially dissolution of martensite during the heating phase. Subsequent tensile properties are quantified by a microstructure-sensitive yield strength model based on the predicted microstructure variables. The integrated PSP model is validated via experimentally measured phase fraction, α lath width and monotonic tensile tests on PBF-LB Ti-6Al-4V with different heat treatment temperatures, for identification of optimal process parameters.
A Reflexive Admissible Topological Group must be Locally Compact

Let G be a reflexive topological group, and Gits group of characters, endowed with the compact open topology. We prove that the evaluation mapping from Gx G into the torus T is continuous if and only if G is locally compact. This is an analogue of a well-known theorem of Arens on admissible topologies on C(X) . DEFINITIONS AND REMARKS Let X, Y be topological spaces, and let Z be a subset of yX . A topology on Z is said to be admissible if the evaluation mapping from the product Z x X into Y, defined by w(f, x) = f(x), is continuous. Let (S, V) = {f E Z; f(S) C V}. The family {(S, V)}, where S runs over the collection of all compact subsets of X and V runs over a basis of open sets in Y, is a subbase for the compact open topology on Z. An admissible topology on Z must be finer than the compact open topology [8]. A result of Arens states that the existence of a coarsest admissible topology for the class of real continuous functions on a completely regular space X is equivalent to X being locally compact [1]. In this paper we are interested in reflexive topological groups. Answering in the negative a question of Megrelishvili [7], we will see that the evaluation map for those groups need not be continuous. In fact, as specified in the theorem, the continuity of the evaluation characterizes locally compact Hausdorff abelian groups among reflexive groups. We prove this result by means of convergence spaces. For an account of theory of convergence spaces the reader is referred to [3, 4]. We only give here needed definitions. Let G be a Hausdorff topological abelian group, and let FG be the set of all continuous homomorphisms from G into the unidimensional torus T. If addition is defined pointwise in FG, it becomes an abelian group. The continuous Received by the editors October 5, 1993 and, in revised form, April 25, 1994; the contents of this paper were presented to the First Ibero-American Conference on Topology and its Applications in Benicassim, Spain, on March 28-30, 1995. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 22A05.
On marginal sliced inverse regression for ultrahigh dimensional model-free feature selection

Model-free variable selection has been implemented under the sufﬁ-cient dimension reduction framework since the seminal paper of Cook [ Ann. Statist. 32 (2004) 1062–1092]. In this paper, we extend the marginal coordinate test for sliced inverse regression (SIR) in Cook (2004) and propose a novel marginal SIR utility for the purpose of ultrahigh dimensional feature selection. Two distinct procedures, Dantzig selector and sparse precision matrix estimation, are incorporated to get two versions of sample level marginal SIR utilities. Both procedures lead to model-free variable selection consistency with predictor dimensionality p diverging at an exponential rate of the sample size n . As a special case of marginal SIR, we ignore the correlation among the predictors and propose marginal independence SIR. Marginal in-dependence SIR is closely related to many existing independence screening procedures in the literature, and achieves model-free screening consistency in the ultrahigh dimensional setting. The ﬁnite sample performances of the proposed procedures are studied through synthetic examples and an application to the small round blue cell tumors data.
Excited State Kinetics of Benzo[a]pyrene Is Affected by Oxygen and DNA

Benzo[a]pyrene is a widespread environmental pollutant and a strong carcinogen. It is important to understand its bio-toxicity and degradation mechanism. Herein, we studied the excited state dynamics of benzo[a]pyrene by using time-resolved fluorescence and transient absorption spectroscopic techniques. For the first time, it is identified that benzo[a]pyrene in its singlet excited state could react with oxygen, resulting in fluorescence quenching. Additionally, effective intersystem crossing can occur from its singlet state to the triplet state. Furthermore, the interaction between the excited benzo[a]pyrene and ct-DNA can be observed directly and charge transfer between benzo[a]pyrene and ct-DNA may be the reason. These results lay a foundation for further understanding of the carcinogenic mechanism of benzo[a]pyrene and provide insight into the photo-degradation mechanism of this molecule.
Lung Cancer Screening with Low-Dose CT: What We Have Learned in Two Decades of ITALUNG and What Is Yet to Be Addressed

The ITALUNG trial started in 2004 and compared lung cancer (LC) and other-causes mortality in 55–69 years-aged smokers and ex-smokers who were randomized to four annual chest low-dose CT (LDCT) or usual care. ITALUNG showed a lower LC and cardiovascular mortality in the screened subjects after 13 years of follow-up, especially in women, and produced many ancillary studies. They included recruitment results of a population-based mimicking approach, development of software for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) and lung nodules volumetry, LDCT assessment of pulmonary emphysema and coronary artery calcifications (CAC) and their relevance to long-term mortality, results of a smoking-cessation intervention, assessment of the radiations dose associated with screening LDCT, and the results of biomarkers assays. Moreover, ITALUNG data indicated that screen-detected LCs are mostly already present at baseline LDCT, can present as lung cancer associated with cystic airspaces, and can be multiple. However, several issues of LC screening are still unaddressed. They include the annual vs. biennial pace of LDCT, choice between opportunistic or population-based recruitment. and between uni or multi-centre screening, implementation of CAD-assisted reading, containment of false positive and negative LDCT results, incorporation of emphysema. and CAC quantification in models of personalized LC and mortality risk, validation of ultra-LDCT acquisitions, optimization of the smoking-cessation intervention. and prospective validation of the biomarkers.