Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Torque ripple minimization for induction motor drives with direct torque control (DTC)

Direct torque control (DTC) schemes can produce quick and robust responses, but they usually behave like hysteresis controllers. Consequently there are similar problems like non constant switching frequencies and high torque ripple especially when operation conditions result in low switching frequencies. In this paper, the basic concept of DTC will be improved by modifying the classical method. Problems which arising when using standard DTC methods are explained and improvements are derived to overcome these problems. Two theoretical approaches are verified and compared with standard DTC by measurements and experiments. The proposed methods provide a constant switching frequency and solve the starting problem without dither signal. Further results are a reduction of torque pulsations as well as a new method for stator flux estimation.
Outcomes of corneal transplantation in Australia, in an era of lamellar keratoplasty

Widespread adoption of modern lamellar procedures has altered the pattern of practice of corneal transplantation. Herein, we describe recent findings from the Australian Corneal Graft Registry and place these data into an international context. The total number of grafts reported to the Registry has doubled over the past decade. Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty is increasingly used for keratoconus, while endokeratoplasty has displaced penetrating keratoplasty for Fuchs endothelial dystrophy. Graft survival and visual outcomes for modern lamellar procedures have shown improvement over time. First deep anterior lamellar and penetrating grafts for keratoconus show comparable survival and long‐term best‐corrected visual acuity is equivalent. Penetrating grafts for Fuchs endothelial dystrophy exhibit significantly better survival than do endokeratoplasties, largely because the latter undergo more early graft failures. However, visual rehabilitation is swifter in surviving endokeratoplasties. Significantly fewer recipients of a deep anterior lamellar graft or endokeratoplasty require spectacle or contact lens correction, compared with penetrating keratoplasty.
Design and performance evaluation of service discovery protocols for vehicular networks

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are gaining momentum among researchers. ITS encompasses several technologies, including wireless communications, sensor networks, data and voice communication, real-time driving assistant systems, etc. These states of the art technologies are expected to pave the way for a plethora of vehicular network applications. In fact, recently we have witnessed a growing interest in Vehicular Networks from both the research community and industry. Several potential applications of Vehicular Networks are envisioned such as road safety and security, traffic monitoring and driving comfort, just to mention a few. It is critical that the existence of convenience or driving comfort services do not negatively affect the performance of safety services. In essence, the dissemination of safety services or the discovery of convenience applications requires the communication among service providers and service requesters through constrained bandwidth resources. Therefore, service discovery techniques for vehicular networks must efficiently use the available common resources. In this thesis, we focus on the design of bandwidth-efficient and scalable service discovery protocols for Vehicular Networks. Three types of service discovery architectures are introduced: infrastructure-less, infrastructure-based, and hybrid architectures. Our proposed algorithms are network layer based where service discovery messages are integrated into the routing messages for a lightweight discovery. Moreover, our protocols use the channel diversity for efficient service discovery. We describe our algorithms and discuss their implementation. Finally, we present the main results of the extensive set of simulation experiments that have been used in order to evaluate their performance.
Residential exposure to traffic-related air pollution and survival Residential exposure to traffic-related air pollution and survival after heart failure after heart failure benefits you.

Data collection. Information obtained from hospital medical records included demographic characteristics, medical history, and the results of physiologic measures and laboratory tests performed during hospitalization. The medical records of previous hospitalizations or B ACKGROUND : Although patients with heart failure (HF) have been identified as particularly susceptible to the acute effects of air pollution, the effects of long-term exposure to air pollution on patients with this increasingly prevalent disease are largely unknown. O BJECTIVE : This study was designed to examine the mortality risk associated with residential expo- sure to trafﬁc-related air pollution among HF patients. : A total of 1,389 patients hospitalized with acute HF in greater Worcester, Massachusetts, during 2000 were followed for survival through December 2005. We used daily trafﬁc within 100 and 300 m of residence as well as the distance from residence to major roadways and to bus routes as proxies for residential exposure to trafﬁc-related air pollution. We assessed mortality risks for each exposure variable using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for prognostic factors. R ESULTS : After the 5-year follow-up, only 334 (24%) subjects were still alive. An interquartile range increase in daily trafﬁc within 100 m of home was associated with a mortality hazard ratio (HR) of 1.15 [95% conﬁdence interval (CI), 1.05–1.25], whereas for trafﬁc within 300 m this association was 1.09 (95% CI, 1.01–1.19). The mortality risk decreased with increasing distance to bus routes (HR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81–0.96) and was larger for those living within 100 m of a major roadway or 50 m of a bus route (HR = 1.30; 95% CI, 1.13–1.49). Adjustment for area-based income and educational level slightly attenuated these associations. C ONCLUSIONS : Residential exposure to trafﬁc-related air pollution increases the mortality risk after hospitalization with acute HF. Reducing exposure to traffic-related emissions may improve the long-term prognosis of HF patients.
University of Huddersfield Repository of (BHS) among University A multimethod approach

There is considerable debate about the underlying factor structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) in the literature. An established view is that it reflects a unitary or bi-dimensional construct in non-clinical samples. There are, however, reasons to reconsider this conceptualisation. Based on previous factor analytic findings from both clinical and nonclinical studies, the aim of the present study was to compare 16 competing models of the BHS in a large university student sample ( N = 1, 733). Sixteen distinct factor models were specified and tested using conventional confirmatory factor analytic techniques, along with confirmatory bifactor modelling. A 3-factor solution with 2 method effects (i.e., a multitrait– multimethod model) provided the best fit to the data. The reliability of this conceptualisation was supported by McDonald's coefficient omega, and the differential relationships exhibited between the three hopelessness factors (‘Feelings about the Future’, ‘Loss of Motivation’, and ‘Future Expectations’) and measures of goal disengagement, brooding rumination, suicide ideation, and suicide attempt history. The results provide statistical support for a three-trait and two-method factor model, and hence the three dimensions of hopelessness theorised by Beck. The theoretical and methodological implications of these ﬁndings are discussed.
Epistemes of human rights in Kashmir: Paradoxes of universality and particularity

Abstract Human rights violations through militarized control have been the cornerstone of Indian statecraft in Indian-administered Kashmir. This article offers a close reading of the April 2017 episode of using a civilian Kashmiri Muslim man as a human shield by the Indian Army in Indian-administered Kashmir. Whereas the existing scholarship on the relationship between militarization, human rights violations, and Hindutva politics have employed political or feminist analytical frameworks, this article focuses on rereading the episode of human shield usage to analyze how “universality” of human rights in India is being redefined. It reflects on how the ruling right-wing government in India appropriates the language of violations and afflictions to embolden its strategies to alter the grammar of human rights in India. Drawing on a discourse analysis of the human shield event, the article deliberates on how anthropology of Hindutva and right-wing extremism research could pay greater attention to the conversation between Hindutva theology of rights and neoliberal ethics when approaching questions of recurrent human rights violations in Kashmir.
Protection of mice against experimental cryptococcosis by Protection of mice against experimental cryptococcosis by synthesized peptides delivered in glucan particles [preprint] synthesized peptides delivered in glucan particles [preprint] how this benefits you.

20 The high global burden of cryptococcosis has made development of a protective vaccine a 21 public health priority. We previously demonstrated that a vaccine composed of recombinant 22 Cryptococcus neoformans chitin deacetylase 2 (Cda2) delivered in glucan particles (GPs) 23 protects BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice from an otherwise lethal challenge with a highly virulent C. 24 neoformans strain. An immunoinformatic analysis of Cda2 revealed a peptide sequence 25 predicted to have strong binding to the MHC Class II (MHC II) H2-IAd allele found in BALB/c 26 mice. BALB/c mice vaccinated with GPs containing a 32 amino acid peptide (Cda2-Pep1) that 27 included this strong binding region were protected from cryptococcosis. Protection was lost with 28 GP-based vaccines containing versions of recombinant Cda2 protein and Cda2-Pep1 with 29 mutations predicted to greatly diminish MHC II binding. Cda2 has homology to the three other 30 C. neoformans chitin deacetylases, Cda1, Cda3 and Fpd1, in the high MHC II binding region. 31 GPs loaded with homologous peptides of Cda1, Cda3 and Fpd1 protected BALB/c mice from 32 experimental cryptococcosis, albeit not as robustly as the Cda2-Pep1 vaccine. Finally, seven 33 other peptides were synthesized based on regions in Cda2 predicted to contain promising CD4 + 34 T cell epitopes in BALB/c or C57BL/6 mice. While five peptide vaccines significantly protected 35 BALB/c mice, only one protected C57BL/6 mice. Thus, GP-based vaccines containing a single 36 peptide can protect mice against cryptococcosis. However, given the diversity of human MHC II 37 alleles, a peptide-based Cryptococcus vaccine for use in humans would be challenging and 38 likely need to contain multiple peptide sequences.
CORTICOTROPIN-RELEASING FACTOR- DOPAMINE INTERACTIONS IN MALE AND FEMALE MACAQUE: BEYOND THE CLASSIC VTA

Dopamine (DA) is involved in stress and stress-related illnesses, including many psychiatric disorders. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) plays a role in stress responses and targets the ventral midbrain DA system which is composed of DA and non-DA cells, and divided into specific subregions. Although CRF inputs to the midline A10 nuclei ('classic VTA') are known, in monkeys, CRF-containing terminals are also highly enriched in the expanded A10 parabrachial pigmented nucleus (PBP) and in the A8 retrorubral field subregions. We characterized CRF-labeled synaptic terminals on DA (tyrosine hydroxylase, TH+) and non-DA (TH-) cell types in the PBP and A8 regions using immuno-reactive electron microscopy (EM) in male and female macaques. CRF labeling was present mostly in axon terminals, which mainly contacted TH-negative dendrites in both subregions. Most CRF-positive terminals had inhibitory (symmetric) profiles. In both PBP and A8, CRF symmetric (inhibitory) synapses onto TH-negative dendrites were significantly greater than asymmetric (excitatory) profiles. This overall pattern was similar in males and females, despite shifts in the size of these effects between regions depending on sex. Because stress and gonadal hormone shifts can influence CRF expression, we also did hormonal assays over a 6-month time period, and found little variability in basal cortisol across similarly housed animals at the same age. Together our findings suggest that at baseline, CRF-positive synaptic terminals in the primate PBP and A8 are poised to regulate DA indirectly through synaptic contacts onto non-DA neurons.
p75NTR prevents the onset of cerebellar granule cell migration via RhoA activation

Neuronal migration is one of the fundamental processes during brain development. Several neurodevelopmental disorders can be traced back to dysregulated migration. Although substantial efforts have been placed in identifying molecular signals that stimulate migration, little is known about potential mechanisms that restrict migration. These restrictive mechanisms are essential for proper development since it helps coordinate the timing for each neuronal population to arrive and establish proper connections. Moreover, preventing migration away from a proliferative niche is necessary to maintain a pool of proliferating cells until the proper number of neuronal progenitors is attained. Here, we identify an anti-migratory role for the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) in cerebellar development. Our results show that granule cell precursors robustly express p75NTR in the external granule layer (EGL) when they are proliferating during postnatal development, however, they do not express p75NTR when they migrate either from the rhombic lip during embryonic development or from the EGL during postnatal development. We show that p75NTR prevented GCP migration by maintaining elevated levels of active RhoA. The expression of p75NTR was sufficient to prevent the migration of the granule cells even in the presence of BDNF, a well-established chemotactic signal for this cell population. Our findings suggest that the expression of p75NTR might be a critical signal that stops and maintains the GCPs in the proliferative niche of the EGL, promoting the clonal expansion of cerebellar granule neurons.
Single cell profiling of functionally cured Chronic Hepatitis B patients reveals the emergence of activated innate and an altered adaptive immune response in the intra-hepatic environment

Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss or functional cure (FC), is considered the desirable therapeutic outcome for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. However, the immuno-pathological biomarkers and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here we present a comprehensive single cell-transcriptomic atlas together with immune-phenotyping of disease-associated cell states (DACS) isolated from intra-hepatic tissue and matched PBMCs of either CHB or FC patients. We find that the intra-hepatic environment displays specific cell identities and molecular signatures that are distinct from PBMCs. FC is associated with emergence of an altered adaptive immune response marked by CD4 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD4-CTLs), and an activated innate response represented by liver-resident natural killer (LR-NK) cells. Overall, these findings provide novel insights into immuno-pathological cell states associated with FC that could serve as prognostic biomarkers.
Resource allocation accounts for the large variability of rate-yield phenotypes across bacterial strains

Different strains of a microorganism growing in the same environment display a wide variety of growth rates and growth yields. We developed a coarse-grained model to test the hypothesis that different resource allocation strategies, corresponding to different compositions of the proteome, can account for the observed rate-yield variability. The model predictions were verified by means of a database of hundreds of published rate-yield and uptake-secretion phenotypes of Escherichia coli strains grown in standard laboratory conditions. We found a very good quantitative agreement between the range of predicted and observed growth rates, growth yields, and glucose uptake and acetate secretion rates. These results support the hypothesis that resource allocation is a major explanatory factor of the observed variability of growth rates and growth yields across different bacterial strains. An interesting prediction of our model, supported by the experimental data, is that high growth rates are not necessarily accompanied by low growth yields. The resource allocation strategies enabling high-rate, high-yield growth of E. coli lead to a higher saturation of enzymes and ribosomes, and thus to a more efficient utilization of proteomic resources. Our model thus contributes to a fundamental understanding of the quantitative relationship between rate and yield in E. coli and other microorganisms. It may also be useful for the rapid screening of strains in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology.
Pre-analytical processing of plasma and serum samples for combined proteome and metabolome analysis

Metabolomic and proteomic analyses of human plasma and serum samples harbour the power to advance our understanding of disease biology. Pre-analytical factors may contribute to variability and bias in the detection of analytes, especially when multiple labs are involved, caused by sample handling, processing time, and differing operating procedures. To better understand the impact of pre-analytical factors that are relevant to implement a unified proteomic and metabolomic approach in a clinical setting, we assessed the influence of temperature, sitting times, and centrifugation speed on the plasma and serum metabolomes and proteomes from six healthy volunteers. We used targeted metabolic profiling (497 metabolites) and data-independent acquisition (DIA) proteomics (572 proteins) on the same samples generated with well-defined pre-analytical conditions to evaluate criteria for pre-analytical SOPs for plasma and serum samples. Time and temperature showed the strongest influence on the integrity of plasma and serum proteome and metabolome. While rapid handling and low temperatures (4°C) are imperative for metabolic profiling, the analysed proteome showed variability when exposed to temperatures of 4°C for more than 2 hours, highlighting the need for compromises in a combined analysis. We formalised a quality control scoring system to objectively rate sample stability and tested this score using external data sets from other pre-analytical studies. Stringent and harmonised standard operating procedures (SOPs) are required for pre-analytical sample handling when combining proteomics and metabolomics of clinical samples to yield robust and interpretable data on a longitudinal scale and across different clinics. To ensure an adequate level of practicability in a clinical routine for metabolomics and proteomics studies we suggest to keep blood samples up to 2 hours on ice (4°C) prior to snap-freezing as a compromise between stability and operability. Finally, we provide the methodology as an open source R package allowing the systematic scoring of proteomics and metabolomics datasets to assess the stability of plasma and serum samples.
SWAP1-SFPS-RRC1 splicing factor complex modulates pre-mRNA splicing to promote photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis

Light signals perceived by a group of photoreceptors have profound effects on the physiology, growth, and development of plants. The red/far-red light absorbing phytochromes modulate these aspects by intricately regulating gene expression at multiple levels. Previously, we reported that two splicing factors SFPS (SPLICING FACTOR FOR PHYTOCHROME SIGNALING) and RRC1 (REDUCED RED LIGHT RESPONSES IN CRY1CRY2 BACKGROUND 1), interact with photoactivated phyB to regulate light-mediated pre-mRNA alternative splicing (AS). Here, we report the identification and functional characterization of an RNA binding splicing factor, SWAP1 (SUPPRESSOR-OF-WHITE-APRICOT/SURP RNA-BINDING DOMAIN-CONTAINING PROTEIN1). Loss-of-function swap1-1 mutant is hyposensitive to red light and exhibits a day light-independent early flowering phenotype. SWAP1 physically interacts with both SFPS and RRC1 in a light-independent manner and forms a ternary complex. In addition, SWAP1 also physically interacts with photoactivated phyB and colocalizes with nuclear phyB photobodies. Deep RNA-seq analyses show that SWAP1 regulates the gene expression and pre-mRNA alternative splicing of a large number of genes including those involved in plant responses to light signaling. A comparison with SFPS- and RRC1-regulated events shows that all three splicing factors coordinately regulate the alternative splicing of a subset of genes. Collectively, our study uncovered the function of a new splicing factor, which interacts with photoactivated phyB, in modulating light-regulated development in plants. SIGNIFICANCE Regulation of transcription and pre-mRNA alternative splicing is essential for the transcript diversity and modulation of light signaling in plants. Although several transcription factors involved in light signaling have been discovered and characterized in-depth, only a few splicing factors have been shown to be involved in the regulation of light signaling pathways. In this study, we describe the identification and characterization of a new splicing factor SWAP1, which interact with two previously characterized splicing factors, SFPS and RRC1, forming a ternary complex. We show that, like SFPS and RRC1, SWAP1 also interacts with photoactivated phyB, and consistently, swap1 seedlings are hyposensitive to red light. SWAP1 modulates alternative splicing of a large number of genes and a subset of these genes are coordinately regulated by SFPS, RRC1 and SWAP1. These results highlight the importance of not only the transcription factors but also the phyB-interacting splicing factors in light-regulated plant development.
Defining the age-dependent and tissue-specific circadian transcriptome in male mice

Cellular circadian clocks direct a daily transcriptional program that supports homeostasis and resilience. Emerging evidence supports age-associated changes in circadian functions. To define age-dependent changes at the systems level, we profiled the circadian transcriptome in the hypothalamus, lung, heart, kidney, skeletal muscle, and adrenal gland in 3 age groups. We found age-dependent and tissue-specific clock output changes. Aging reduced the number of rhythmically expressed genes (REGs), indicative of weakened circadian control. Many genes gained rhythmicity in old tissues, reflecting an adaptive response. REGs were enriched for the hallmarks of aging, adding a new dimension to our understanding of aging. Differential gene expression analysis found that there were temporally distinct clusters of genes in tissue-specific manner. Increased daily gene expression variability is a common feature of aged tissues. This novel analysis extends the landscape of the understanding of aging and highlights the impact of aging on circadian clock function and temporal changes in gene expression. HIGHLIGHTS - Rhythmically expressed genes (REGs) in Young, but not Old mice, are enriched for the aging hallmarks across all tissues. - The numbers of REGs decline across all tissues with age implicating the circadian clock in altered homeostasis. - Age- and tissue-specific differentially expressed genes (DEGs) cluster at specific times of the day. - Increase in gene expression variability over a day is a common feature of aging tissues.