Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
400 Gb/s Silicon Photonic Transmitter and Routing WDM Technologies for Glueless 8-Socket Chip-to-Chip Interconnects

Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR)-based interconnections for Multi-Socket Server Boards (MSBs) have been identified as a promising solution to replace the electrical interconnects in glueless MSBs towards boosting processing performance. In this article, we present an 8-socket glueless optical flat-topology Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)-based point-to-point (P2P) interconnect pursued within the H2020 ICT project ICT-STREAMS and we report on our latest achievements in the deployment of the constituent silicon (Si)-photonic transmitter and routing building blocks, exploiting experimentally obtained performance metrics for analyzing the 8-socket chip-to-chip (C2C) connectivity in terms of throughput and energy efficiency. We demonstrate an 8-channel WDM Si-photonic microring-based transmitter (Tx) capable of providing 400 (8 × 50) Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) Tx capacity and an 8 × 8 Coarse-WDM (CWDM) Si-AWGR with verified cyclic data routing capability in O-band. Following an overview of our recently demonstrated crosstalk (XT)-aware wavelength allocation scheme, that enables fully-loaded AWGR-based interconnects even for typical sub-optimal XT values of silicon integrated CWDM AWGRs, we validate the performance of a full-scale 8-socket interconnect architecture through physical layer simulations exploiting experimentally-verified simulation models for the underlying Si-photonic Tx and routing circuits. This analysis reveals a total aggregate capacity of 1.4 Tb/s for an 8-socket interconnect when operating with 25 Gb/s line-rates, which can scale to 2.8 Tb/s at an energy efficiency of just 5.02 pJ/bit by exploiting the experimentally verified building block performance at 50 Gb/s line. This highlights the perspectives for up to 69% energy savings compared to the standard QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) typically employed in electronic glueless MSB interconnects, while scaling the single-hop flat connectivity from 4- to 8-socket interconnection systems.
Application of negative pressure cavitation extraction (NPCE) on total phenolic compound extraction from Millettia sericea root

Production of total phenolic compounds from Millettia sericea roots was carried out using the NPCE method. This study aims to determine the effect of solvent concentration (60, 70, 80, 90%) and negative pressure (-0.4, -0.5, -0.6, -0.7 bar) in the NPCE system on Millettia sericea roots and investigate the increase in extraction yield compared to maceration methods. According to the results of the investigation, the best solvent concentration resulted from 70% methanol and -0.7 bar negative pressure. The results of the comparison of the NPCE extraction method with maceration exhibited a high escalate in extraction yield more than 3 times compare to maceration methods.
Context dependent cytokine secretion by stem cell derived microglia in vitro

This thesis demonstrated that inflammation by brain immune called microglia, is context dependent. Previous studies have used microglia derived from human embryonic stem cells to model Alzheimer's disease, but have not investigated whether the responses are uniform across models. This thesis used stem cell-derived microglia, under multiple culture conditions, to demonstrate that differences in inflammation is due to environmental context. It was clearly demonstrated that microglia grown with neurons were more inflammatory than microglia grown alone. Additionally, this thesis shows the inflammation profile is altered by how inflammation is stimulated. This is the first study to demonstrate clear context dependent differences in stem cell-derived microglia inflammation models. This indicates future works should take care to choose appropriate culturing conditions and stimulus choices for modelling diseases of the brain for optimal experimental outcomes.
Effect of Fermentation on Antinutritional Factors and in Vitro Protein Digestibility of Bambara Nut (Voandzeia subterranean L.)

Bambara nut ( Voandzeia subterranean L. ) has better nutritive values than most other legumes. However, it is being underutilized due to long cooking time, antinutritional constituents and dehulling constraints. Fermentation as a unit operation has been able to address most of the factors responsible for the underutilization of some legumes. In this study, a full factorial block design comprising of time (0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 h) and Rhizopus combinations (A, B, C, AB, AC, BC and ABC) were used. Three species of Rhizopus ( R. oligosporus (A) , R. oryzae (B) and R. nigricans (C)) and their combinations were used in the fermentation for 3 days. Fermented samples that were collected at 12 hourly intervals were blanched, dried and milled to Bambara Flour (BF). The BF was evaluated for tannin, oxalate, phytate, trypsin inhibitors and in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD). The results show that fermentation significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the antinutritional factors and enhanced IVPD of bambara nut. Ranges of values for antinutritional factors were tannin (0.35 – 0.02), oxalate (1.54 – 0.39), phytate (35.20 – 10.70) and trypsin inhibitor (3.22 – 0.49mg/g) while in vitro protein digestibility were 21.70 – 66.14%. Therefore, fermented bambara nut flour could be useful to supplement starchy foods. Key words : Antinutritional factors , in vitro protein digestibility, Rhizopus , bambara flour
Toward a Unified Approximate Analytical Representation for Spatially Running Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum Model

As a versatile template characterizing the center of mass movements in legged locomotion, the sagittal spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model has been extensively explored in both biomechanics and robotics. Despite concise in mathematical formulation, the accurate analytical representation of the SLIP model is unaccessible due to its intrinsic nonlinearity. This article extends the traditional SLIP model from sagittal hopping into spatially running. A novel perturbation-based approach is proposed to obtain an analytical approximate solution for the 3-D-SLIP model, resulting in a straight-forward closed-form formulation wherein the numerical integration or iteration is avoided. The derived solution does not rely on the negligible gravity assumption as conventional simplification reported in the existing literature and offers satisfactory prediction performance in a wide range of model parameter combinations. The merits of the acquired approximate solution in both critical state of the apex return map and trajectory prediction with high accuracy have been demonstrated via performance evaluation, endowing this approximation the potential in motion planning and gait control for legged robots.
Mid-level clouds are frequent above the southeast Atlantic stratocumulus clouds

Abstract. Shortwave-absorbing aerosols seasonally overlay extensive low-level stratocumulus clouds over the southeast Atlantic. While much attention has focused on the interactions between the low-level clouds and the overlying aerosols, few studies have focused on the mid-level clouds that also occur over the region. The presence of mid-level clouds over the region complicates the space-based remote-sensing retrievals of cloud properties and the evaluation of cloud radiation budgets. Here we characterize the mid-level clouds over the southeast Atlantic using lidar- and radar-based satellite cloud retrievals and observations collected in September 2016 during the ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) field campaign. We find that mid-level clouds over the southeast Atlantic are relatively common, with the majority of the clouds occurring between altitudes of 5 and 7 km and at temperatures between 0 and −20 ∘C. The mid-level clouds occur at the top of a moist mid-tropospheric smoke-aerosol layer, most frequently between August and October, and closer to the southern African coast than farther offshore. They occur more frequently during the night than during the day. Between July and October, approximately 64 % of the mid-level clouds had a geometric cloud thickness less than 1 km, corresponding to a cloud optical depth of less than 4. A lidar-based depolarization–backscatter relationship for September 2016 indicates that the mid-level clouds are liquid-only clouds with no evidence of the existence of ice. In addition, a polarimeter-derived cloud droplet size distribution indicates that approximately 85 % of the September 2016 mid-level clouds had an effective radius less than 7 µm, which could further discourage the ability of the clouds to glaciate. These clouds are mostly associated with synoptically modulated mid-tropospheric moisture outflow that can be linked to the detrainment from the continental-based clouds. Overall, the supercooled mid-level clouds reduce the radiative cooling rates of the underlying low-altitude cloud tops by approximately 10 K d−1, thus influencing the regional cloud radiative budget.
Integrin α5β1 and ADAM-17 Interact in Vitro and Co-localize in Migrating HeLa Cells*

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α-converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM-17) has diverse roles in the proteolytic processing of cell surface molecules and, due to its ability to process TNFα, is a validated therapeutic target for anti-inflammatory therapies. Unlike a number of other ADAM proteins, which interact with integrin receptors via their disintegrin domains, there is currently no evidence for an ADAM-17-integrin association. By analyzing the adhesion of a series of cell lines with recombinant fragments of the extracellular domain of ADAM-17, we now demonstrate a functional interaction between ADAM-17 and α5β1 integrin in a trans orientation. Because ADAM-17-mediated adhesion was sensitive to RGD peptides and EDTA, and the integrin-binding site within ADAM-17 was narrowed down to the disintegrin/cysteine-rich region, the two molecules appear to have a ligand-receptor relationship mediated by the α5β1 ligand binding pocket. Intriguingly, ADAM-17 and α5β1 were found to co-localize in both membrane ruffles and focal adhesions in HeLa cells. When confluent HeLa cell monolayers were wounded, ADAM-17 and α5β1 redistributed to the leading edge and co-localized, which is suggestive of a cis orientation. We postulate that the interaction of ADAM-17 with α5β1 may target or modulate its metalloproteolytic activity.
Preparation of Plasmonic Au-TiO2 Thin Films on a Transparent Polymer Substrate

In this work, plasmonic thin films composed of Au nanoparticles embedded in a TiO2 matrix were prepared in a transparent polymer substrate of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The thin films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering, and then subjected to heat treatment up to 150 °C in order to promote the growth of the Au nanoparticles throughout the TiO2 matrix. The transmittance spectrum of the thin films was monitored in situ during the heat treatment, and the minimum time required to have a defined localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) band was about 10 min. The average size of Au nanoparticles was estimated to be about 21 nm—the majority of them are sized in the range 10–40 nm, but also extend to larger sizes, with irregular shapes. The refractive index sensitivity of the films was estimated by using two test fluids (H2O and DMSO), and the average value reached in the assays was 37.3 ± 1.5 nm/RIU, resulting from an average shift of 5.4 ± 0.2 nm. The results show that it is possible to produce sensitive plasmonic Au-TiO2 thin films in transparent polymer substrates such as PDMS, the base material to develop microfluidic channels to be incorporated in LSPR sensing systems.
Coping with workplace ostracism: the roles of emotional exhaustion and resilience in deviant behavior

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explicate the relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior, and further test the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of resilience.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 409 first-line production workers from four manufacturing enterprises in China was collected. A moderated mediation analysis was employed to test the hypotheses and examine the relationships proposed in the research framework.FindingsThe findings indicate that emotional exhaustion could mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior. Moreover, the results from the moderated mediation analysis suggest that the mediation of emotional exhaustion is moderated by resilience such that with a higher level of resilience, the mediation effect of emotional exhaustion becomes weaker.Research limitations/implicationsThe participants of this study are limited to manufacturing enterprises, and thus our findings may not be equally valid for other types of industries. Meanwhile, this study is a cross-sectional research that could not explain the causal relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior.Practical implicationsThe present research can offer some managerial implications about how to avoid the occurrence of workplace ostracism and deviant behavior for organizations.Originality/valueThis study constructs a moderated mediation model by introducing the potential mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effect of resilience in order to reveal the mechanism through which workplace ostracism relates to deviant behavior. Our research not only integrates and enriches the ideas of the Stress-Non-Equilibrium-Compensation Approach and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Theory but could also inform future management practices for mitigating the negative consequences of workplace ostracism.
Etiology of soybean-induced enteritis in fish

The inclusion of soybean meal (SBM), especially in the diet of Atlantic salmon, induces an inflammatory response of the distal intestinal mucosa, known as SBM-induced enteritis. A semi-quantitative scoring system was developed to assess the extent of the morphological changes observed in this study. The influence of SBM feeding has been investigated taking into account several dietary and non-dietary factors possibly involved in the induction of the disorder. It has been found that the severity of enteritis and its kinetics are dose-dependent. Electron microscopy studies indicated a block of the endocytosis process and a strong decrease of the microvilli length. Comparative studies were carried out in an omnivorous species and for the first time ever reported, the results suggested that the symptoms of enteritis also occur in common carp. Contrary to the observations in studies with Atlantic salmon, the common carp started to recover from week four onwards. Several cytokines were presumed to influence this process and they were correlated to the modulation of the inflammatory process triggered by the SBM-containing diet. The influence of different factors was measured according to the degree of enteritis developed. Low temperature (8 °C vs. 12 °C) seems to delay the onset of the symptoms. On the other hand, it was suggested that SBM-induced enteritis was not strongly influenced by either salinity or age. The extent of enteritis in Atlantic salmon depends on the origin and/or the processing of the soybeans. The morphological changes observed were induced when soyasaponins were fed to Atlantic salmon alone or in combination with other soybean components suggesting their possible role on the induction of enteritis. The actual causative components and its mechanisms of action need further research. It is concluded that the etiology and further development of SBM-induced enteritis is related to dietary factors rather than non-dietary factors. SBM inclusion levels and the commercial source used for the diet formulation have a great impact on the severity of the disorder, mainly affecting the endocytosis process. This thesis evidenced that the endocytosis block is directly related to the disappearance of the supranuclear vacuoles, which can be considered as the most striking feature in the onset of enteritis.
Efficient Murine Norovirus Transport Across the Intestinal Epithelium Requires Microfold (M) Cells.

Neutral red (NR) is a dye that must be actively imported into the cell, and, therefore, the dye has been used for decades to selectively stain living cells. In addition, NR can also be incorporated into virus particles, although the mechanism behind this is poorly understood. Once encapsulated into the virion, NR, a light sensitive dye, can be photoactivated to inactivate the virus. The proposed mechanism explaining this observation is that activation of NR allows the dye to cross-link viral genome to viral capsid and thus preventing viral uncoating and infection. To study the early events of murine norovirus (MNV)-host interaction, light-sensitive NR-containing MNV is used to distinguish between input virus (i.e., NR-containing virus) and replicated virus (i.e., NRfree virus). This protocol describes the incorporation of NR into MNV capsids and the use of these virions for detection of viral replication in a mouse and in tissue culture by standard plaque assay. The same technique is also used for study of poliovirus
Bottom-up hyperlocal media in Belgium: Facebook-groups as collaborative neighborhood awareness systems

Hyperlocal media are typically considered as organized entities, deliberately set up with a journalistic purpose. However, recently we see the emergence of bottom-up, unstructured, loosely organized and little monitored Facebook-groups that bring together residents and information concerning a specific locality. In these groups, people share information and news related to the neighborhood, announce and promote events, or report neighborhood problems. Notwithstanding the obvious organizational differences between hyperlocal media and local Facebook-groups, this observation raises the question to what extent these bottom-up online environments show characteristics and have consequences that are similar to hyperlocal media operations. Using a mixed method design and informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory and the concepts ambient and affective social news stream, we studied six Facebook-groups situated in Ghent, a densely populated city in the northern part of Belgium. We found that the Facebook-groups are similar to hyperlocal media in terms of circulating local information, engendering local attachment and civic engagement, yet without conforming to journalistic norms nor its members considering themselves as local journalists.
Antibiotic suceptibility of Escherichia coli isolated in cases of urinary tract infection in Nsukka, Nigeria

Introduction and objective. The study was carried out to determine the occurrence and antibiotics susceptibility profile of Escherichia coli recovered from patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) in Nsukka, southeastern Nigeria. Materials and method. Midstream urine samples were obtained from 266 outpatients. Standardized questionnaires were used to collect relevant information from the subjects. Urine samples were plated on MacConkey and eosin methylene blue agar. E. coli isolates were identified using standardized procedure. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was used to determine the susceptibility of the isolates. Results. An overall UTI prevalence of 18.8% with 29 (19.30%) from females and 21 (18.10%) from males was observed. Females and males within the age range of 20–29 and 50–59 had the highest prevalence rate of 23.2% and 15%, respectively. The highest prevalence rate (26%) occurred in the Igbo-Etiti local government area, compared to the other four local government areas within the study locations. Urinalysis showed that 16 urine samples contained protein, 29 were nitrite positive and 31 were acidic. Most of the isolates were susceptible to nitrofurantoin (94%), ciprofloxacin (70%) and ofloxacin (78%) while all of them were completely resistant to cefuroxime, ceftazidime and augmentin (100%). All 50 (100%)E. coli isolates showed multiple resistance to three or more antibiotics with a resistance index ranging from 0.375–1.00. The MIC results showed that 17 (34%) isolates were sensitive to gentamicin (MIC ≤ 0.25μg/ml, MBC ≥ 128μg/ml), resistant to ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. Conclusion. E. coli is predominantly associated with UTI in the study area and was susceptible to nitrofurantoin.
Nhe6 and Nhe9 are sodium hydrogen exchangers found on separate mobile endosome populations in neuronal dendrites

This dissertation reports the endosomal locations of NHE6 and NHE9, sodium hydrogen exchangers that contribute to pathogenesis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) within dendrites of cultured hippocampal neurons. ASDs are debilitating, neurological disorders characterized by deficient social interaction; obsessive, repetitive behaviors; and often accompanied by mental retardation, epilepsy, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For normal brain function to occur neurons form circuits at synapses and their size and strength change based on use, known as synaptic plasticity. Disruption of synaptic plasticity is thought to underlie ASDs. Because endocytosis is required for synaptic plasticity and the yeast ortholog of human Nhe6 and Nhe9 is known to contribute to this process, I hypothesized that Nhe6 and Nhe9 are found on endosomes in hippocampal neurons where they contribute to endocytosis and synaptic plasticity. Using fluorescence microscopy, I initially demonstrate that Nhe6 and Nhe9 are localized to different pools of endosomes with cultured HeLa cells using Rab-GTPases as markers of the endocytic pathway. Nhe6 and Nhe9 showed similar distribution within the dendrites of hippocampal neurons cultured from mice or rats whereby Nhe6 was present in Rab5 and Rab11-positive endosomes and Nhe9 was found in Rab11, Rab7, and Rab9-positive endosomes later in the pathway. Live neuron imaging revealed that both Nhe6 and Nhe9 endosomes are mobile and that Nhe9-positive endosomes appear to undergo transient fusion and fission events from Rab7, Rab9, or Rab11-positive endosomes. Together, these data imply roles for Nhe6 and Nhe9 in endosome mobility and fusion underlying endocytosis required for synaptic plasticity.
Predicting mortality risk on dialysis and conservative care: development and internal validation of a prediction tool for older patients with advanced chronic kidney disease

Abstract Background Conservative care (CC) may be a valid alternative to dialysis for certain older patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). A model that predicts patient prognosis on both treatment pathways could be of value in shared decision-making. Therefore, the aim is to develop a prediction tool that predicts the mortality risk for the same patient for both dialysis and CC from the time of treatment decision. Methods CKD Stage 4/5 patients aged ≥70 years, treated at a single centre in the Netherlands, were included between 2004 and 2016. Predictors were collected at treatment decision and selected based on literature and an expert panel. Outcome was 2-year mortality. Basic and extended logistic regression models were developed for both the dialysis and CC groups. These models were internally validated with bootstrapping. Model performance was assessed with discrimination and calibration. Results In total, 366 patients were included, of which 126 chose CC. Pre-selected predictors for the basic model were age, estimated glomerular filtration rate, malignancy and cardiovascular disease. Discrimination was moderate, with optimism-corrected C-statistics ranging from 0.675 to 0.750. Calibration plots showed good calibration. Conclusions A prediction tool that predicts 2-year mortality was developed to provide older advanced CKD patients with individualized prognosis estimates for both dialysis and CC. Future studies are needed to test whether our findings hold in other CKD populations. Following external validation, this prediction tool could be used to compare a patient’s prognosis on both dialysis and CC, and help to inform treatment decision-making.