Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uvaol Prevents Group B Streptococcus-Induced Trophoblast Cells Inflammation and Possible Endothelial Dysfunction

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection during pregnancy is involved in maternal sepsis, chorioamnionitis, prematurity, fetal infection, neonatal sepsis, and neurodevelopmental alterations. The GBS-induced chorioamnionitis leads to a plethora of immune and trophoblast cells alterations that could influence endothelial cells to respond differently to angiogenic mediators and alter placental vascular structure and function in pregnant women. In this context, preventive measures are needed to reduce such dysfunctions. As such, we evaluated the effects of a non-lethal exposure to inactivated GBS on trophoblast cells and chorionic villi explants, and if the treatment with uvaol would mitigate these effects. The concentration of 106 CFU of GBS was chosen since it was unable to reduce the HTR-8/SVneo cell line nor term chorionic villi explant viability. Raman spectroscopy of trophoblast cells showed significant alterations in their biochemical signature, mostly reverted by uvaol. GBS exposure increased HTR-8/SVneo cells IL-1β and IFN-γ production, phagocytosis, oxidative stress, and decreased trophoblast cell migration. The Ea.hy926 endothelial cell line produced angiopoietin-2, CXCL-8, EGF, FGF-b, IL-6, PlGF, sPECAM-1, and VEGF in culture. When co-cultured in invasion assay with HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cells, the co-culture had increased production of angiopoietin-2, CXCL-8, FGF-b, and VEGF, while reduced sPECAM-1 and IL-6. GBS exposure led to increased CXCL-8 and IL-6 production, both prevented by uvaol. Chorionic villi explants followed the same patterns of production when exposed to GBS and response to uvaol treatment as well. These findings demonstrate that, even a non-lethal concentration of GBS causes placental inflammation and oxidative stress, reduces trophoblast invasion of endothelial cells, and increases CXCL-8 and IL-6, key factors that participate in vascular dysregulation observed in several diseases. Furthermore, uvaol treatment prevented most of the GBS-provoked changes. Hence, uvaol could prevent the harmful effects of GBS infection for both the mother and the fetus.
Delta Variant with P681R Critical Mutation Revealed by Ultra-Large Atomic-Scale Ab Initio Simulation: Implications for the Fundamentals of Biomolecular Interactions

SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is emerging as a globally dominant strain. Its rapid spread and high infection rate are attributed to a mutation in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 allowing the virus to invade human cells much faster and with increased efficiency. Particularly, an especially dangerous mutation P681R close to the furin cleavage site has been identified as responsible for increasing the infection rate. Together with the earlier reported mutation D614G in the same domain, it offers an excellent instance to investigate the nature of mutations and how they affect the interatomic interactions in the spike protein. Here, using ultra large-scale ab initio computational modeling, we study the P681R and D614G mutations in the SD2-FP domain including the effect of double mutation and compare the results with the wild type. We have recently developed a method of calculating the amino acid-amino acid bond pairs (AABP) to quantitatively characterize the details of the interatomic interactions, enabling us to explain the nature of mutation at the atomic resolution. Our most significant find is that the mutations reduce the AABP value, implying a reduced bonding cohesion between interacting residues and increasing the flexibility of these amino acids to cause the damage. The possibility of using this unique mutation quantifiers in a machine learning protocol could lead to the prediction of emerging mutations.
Prediction of Blast Induced Air Overpressure in Opencast Mine

Blasting is still considered to be the most economical technique for rock excavation and displacement either on the surface or underground. The explosive energy, which fractures the rockmass is not fully utilized and only 20-30% of the energy is utilized in actual breakage of the rockmass, and the rest of the energy is spread in the form of ground vibration, air blast, flying rock, back break, etc. Air blast is considered to be one of the most detrimental side effects due to generation of noise. A generalized equation has been proposed by many researchers but due to its site specific constants, it cannot be used in other geo-mining conditions. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to predict the air blast using a neural network (NN) by incorporating the maximum charge per delay and distance between blast face to monitoring point. To investigate the appropriateness of this approach, the predictions by a NN are also compared with generalized equation of air overpressure and conventional statistical relations. For prediction of air overpressure, the data set has been taken from two different limestone mines for training of the network while validation of the network has been done by Magnesite mine data set. The network is trained by 41 datasets with 50 epochs and tested by 15 dataset. The correlation co-efficient determined by a NN was 0.9574 while correlation co-efficient were 0.3811 and 0.5258 by generalized equation and statistical analysis respectively. The Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for a NN was 2.7437, whereas MAPE for generalized equation and statistical analysis were 8.6957 and 6.9179 respectively.
3-D FDTD design analysis of a 2.4-GHz polarization-diversity printed dipole antenna with integrated balun and polarization-switching circuit for WLAN and wireless communication applications

Detailed numerical simulation, fabrication, and experimental measurements of a 2.4-GHz polarization-diversity printed dipole antenna are presented for wireless communication applications. Two orthogonal printed dipole antennas, each with a microstrip via-hole balun feeding structure, are combined and fabricated on an FR-4 printed-circuit-board substrate. A p-i-n diode circuit is used to switch and select the desired antenna polarization. In the antenna design simulation, a full-wave method of a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is employed to analyze the entire structure of the printed antenna including the lumped elements of the polarization-selected p-i-n diode switching circuit. The Berenger perfectly matched layer absorbing-boundary condition is used for the FDTD computation. Numerical and measured results of antenna radiation characteristics, including input standing-wave ratio, radiation patterns, and polarization diversity are presented.
Adaptive Signal Control II

This report is a comprehensive investigation of adaptive signal control. The literature review identifies the various control types and the typical benefits of adaptive control over other signal controls. Congestion, incidents and transit priority are discussed and examined by modeling, first on a theoretical network, and then on four Salt Lake City area networks using field collected data. The modeling done through the University of Utah built interface between the micro-simulation models CORSIM and VISSIM and the Split, Cycle and Offset Optimization Technique (SCOOT). The findings of this two-year study show that adaptive control has substantial benefits over a non-adaptive system. The results presented are compared to an updated and optimal fixed times system, the best that an experienced traffic engineer can achieve, short of adaptive control. The report recommends the deployment of adaptive signal control. The research shows that adaptive control in Salt Lake City will bring immediate delay reduction and improved traffic control.
Scalable Neural Data Server: A Data Recommender for Transfer Learning

Absence of large-scale labeled data in the practitioner’s target domain can be a bottleneck to applying machine learning algorithms in practice. Transfer learning is a popular strategy for leveraging additional data to improve the downstream performance, but finding the most relevant data to transfer from can be challenging. Neural Data Server (NDS) [45], a search engine that recommends relevant data for a given downstream task, has been previously proposed to address this problem. NDS uses a mixture of experts trained on data sources to estimate similarity between each source and the downstream task. Thus, the computational cost to each user grows with the number of sources. To address these issues, we propose Scalable Neural Data Server (SNDS), a large-scale search engine that can theoretically index thousands of datasets to serve relevant ML data to end users. SNDS trains the mixture of experts on intermediary datasets during initialization, and represents both data sources and downstream tasks by their proximity to the intermediary datasets. As such, computational cost incurred by SNDS users remains fixed as new datasets are added to the server. We validate SNDS on a plethora of real world tasks and find that data recommended by SNDS improves downstream task performance over baselines. We also demonstrate the scalability of SNDS by showing its ability to select relevant data for transfer outside of the natural image setting.
Analysis of a Preliminary Design Approach for Conformal Lattice Structures

An important issue when designing conformal lattice structures is the geometric modeling and prediction of mechanical properties. This paper presents suitable methods for obtaining optimized conformal lattice structures and validating them without the need for high computational power and time, enabling the designer to have quick feedback in the first design phases. A wireframe modeling method based on non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) free-form deformation (FFD) that allows conforming a regular lattice structure inside a design space is presented. Next, a previously proposed size optimization method is adopted for optimizing the cross-sections of lattice structures. Finally, two different commercial finite element software are involved for the validation of the results, based on Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories. The findings highlight the adaptability of the NURBS-FFD modeling approach and the reliability of the size optimization method, especially in stretching-dominated cell topologies and load conditions. At the same time, the limitation of the structural beam analysis when dealing with thick beams is noted. Moreover, the behavior of different kinds of lattices was investigated.
Phenomenological Research On Guest Couchsurfing Experience

Couchsurfing (CS) is now regarded as an alternative platform that reflects changes in tourist accommodation preferences. The CS platform, based on the sharing economy, offers an opportunity to give various tourist experiences to travelers, as well as accommodation. This study aims to provide information about the travel motivations, prejudices, risk perceptions and experiences of CS guests. It has original value for the relevant literature, as it delves deeply into CS guests using a phenomenological approach. The present results show that the desire to sightsee new places, meet new people and recognize different cultures has motivated the participants. The study found that although most of the participants did not have prejudices or risk perceptions, CS first timers did. It has also been observed that participants are highly satisfied with their CS experiences and intend to take part in CS activities again.
Neomudejar Architecture and Analysis of Local Stresses of Masonry Structures: The Escuelas Aguirre Case Study

At the end of the 19th century, an architectural style called Neomudéjar became quite popular in some areas of Spain. Very much like other historicist European styles in the same years, the Neomudéjar sought to recreate the local medieval architecture. The use of faced brick façades with complicated bonds -formed by stretchers and headers in and out the main wall plane-lead in term to a wide variety of results that resembled Arabic architecture. The brick façades of the Neomudéjar buildings are ideal case studies for the analysis of the local behaviour of masonry structures, especially regarding problems of stress concentration. There are several methods for studying the global behaviour of masonry structures – from the classic thrust line to the limit analysis tools – but, as the average stresses taken over by structural masonry elements are usually well below the compression strength of the constituent material, the classical methods of analysis are designed to verify only the global stability. Local behaviour, on the other hand,
High-performance vertical transition for broadband and millimetre-wave BGA module packaging

A high-performance ball-grid-array (BGA) package transition applicable in high-speed digital and millimetre-wave module packaging has been designed and fabricated. Measured results agreed well with full- wave electromagnetic simulations, showing return and insertion loss values better than 17 dB and 1 dB, respectively, up to 47 GHz.
Dermal absorption of chemicals and toxicity – the role of filaggrin genetics

Dermal exposure to chemicals is an increasing problem, and daily we are exposed to chemicals via the skin both in our occupations and from consumer products. The skin barrier is an important protection to chemical exposure, but appr. 10% of the Scandinavian population carry loss-of-function mutations (so called null mutations) in an important skin barrier protein, filaggrin (gene name FLG), which may result in an impaired skin barrier. The copy number variation (CNV 10, 11 or 12 copies) of the repeated sequences in exon 3 of the FLG gene may also impact skin barrier function. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if genetic variation of FLG lead to an increased uptake of chemicals through the skin, and in turn, increased systemic effects, such as genotoxicity and inflammation. We used two occupational cohorts with high dermal exposure via work, consisting of hairdressers and chimney sweeps respectively, to cross-sectionally investigate associations between FLG variation and the degree of exposure and genotoxicity. Further, we performed a human exposure experiment to investigate if FLG null carriers take up more chemicals through the skin, using a PAH (pyrene), a pesticide (pyrimethanil), a UV-filter (oxybenzone), and a metal (nickel). We also investigated if the exposure during the experiment led to changes in inflammation-related proteins in blood. Among hairdressers, we found FLG null and CNV 10 to be associated with shorter telomeres than wildtype (wt) and non CNV 10 carriers. Among chimney sweeps, FLG null was also associated with shorter telomeres and more DNA methylation of CpG-site 03636183 of the lung cancer-related gene F2RL3 than among FLG wt, opposite to our hypothesis. In the human exposure experiment, we found FLG null carriers to take up the three organic chemicals through the skin with up to 80% shorter lag times than FLG wt carriers with high CNV. FLG null carriers showed two times the internal dose of pyrimethanil than wt carriers with high CNV. We found a decrease in internal dose with increasing CNV for all three organic compounds included in the study. We found an increase in inflammation-related protein expression among FLG null carriers after exposure, and a decrease among FLG wt carriers. To conclude, we have clarified that FLG null and low CNV lead to an increased uptake of three organic chemicals through the skin and that the exposure may lead to differences in systemic effects measured as expression of inflammation-related proteins in blood between FLG null and wt genotypes. Further we have found associations between FLG null and increased genotoxicity and epigenetic changes in two occupational groups with high dermal exposure. We identified low CNV as a potential susceptibility factor for increased dermal absorption. Further studies of relevant genetic susceptibility of the skin in association with dermal exposure to more diverse chemical groups is needed. Our research can be used by policy makers in the setting of limit values for existing and new chemicals in consumer products and in the working environment.
CRISPR gene-drive systems based on Cas9 nickases promote super-Mendelian inheritance in Drosophila

CRISPR-based gene drive systems can be used to modify entire wild populations due to their ability to bias their own inheritance towards super-Mendelian rates (>100%). Current gene drives contain a Cas9 and a gRNA gene inserted at the location targeted by the gRNA. These gene products are able to cut the opposing wildtype allele, and lead to its replacement with a copy of the gene drive through the homology-directed DNA repair pathway. When this allelic conversion occurs in the germline it leads to the preferential inheritance of the engineered allele; a property that has been proposed to disseminate engineered traits for managing disease-transmitting mosquito populations. Here, we report a novel gene-drive strategy relying on Cas9 nickases which operates by generating staggered paired-nicks in the DNA to promote propagation of the gene drive allele. We show that only when 5' overhangs are generated, the system efficiently leads to allelic conversion. Further, the nickase gene-drive arrangement produces large stereotyped deletions, providing potential advantages for targeting essential genes. Indeed, the nickase-gene-drive design should expand the options available for gene drive designs aimed at applications in mosquitoes and beyond.
Receiver design for digital fiber optic communication systems, II

This paper is concerned with a systematic approach to the design of the “linear channel” of a repeater for a digital fiber optic communication system. In particular, it is concerned with how one properly chooses the front-end preamplifier and biasing circuitry for the photodetector; and how the required power to achieve a desired error rate varies with the bit rate, the received optical pulse shape, and the desired baseband-equalized output pulse shape. It is shown that a proper front-end design incorporates a high-impedance preamplifier which tends to integrate the detector output. This must be followed by proper equalization in the later stages of the linear channel. The baseband signal-to-noise ratio is calculated as a function of the preamplifier parameters. Such a design provides significant reduction in the required optical power and/or required avalanche gain when compared to a design which does not integrate initially. It is shown that, when the received optical pulses overlap and when the optical channel is behaving linearly in power,1 baseband equalization can be used to separate the pulses with a practical but significant increase in required optical power. This required power penalty is calculated as a function of the input and equalized pulse shapes.
Determining the Return Volatility of Major Stock Markets Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Applying the EGARCH Model

With this study, we aim to determine the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the return volatility of the DJI, the DAX, the FTSE100 and the CAC40 stock indexes. We take return volatility between 1st January 2019 and 17th July 2020 and split it into two separate periods - before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and the first wave of the ‘In-Pandemic’ period. Only the so-called first wave of the pandemic was chosen to avoid the influence of knowledge of possible vaccines and antiviral solutions. Data were analysed by using the exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model. Findings show excessive volatility in the major stock markets with short volatility persistence and the presence of leverage in returns during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. Moreover, during the pandemic period, positive shocks have been observed to have a greater effect than negative socks on the stock index return volatility.
Analysis of Working Decision of Elderly in Yogyakarta Province

This research aimed to analyse the the social-economis factors influencing the working decisions of elderly in Yogyakarta Province. The sample used was the elderly population of Special Region of Yogjakarta province aged 60 years amounted to 1.906 people following the number of respondents of Susenas in 2016. The analytical tool used is Binary Logit Regression using SPSS 21.The results show that the number of productive elderly people was 57,50% from the whole number of elderly people. The elderly workers dominantly work in the agriculture sector. Their profession is as an entrepreneur and mostly helped by their workers and others are as full time force workers. Binary regression test showed that duration of illness, hospitalization, dependent burden, living location, and pension guarantee significantly negative influence to their decision to go working. Meanwhile, level of primary education, marital status, and their status in the household positively significant influence to work. In addition, gender, level of secondary and higher education, and their household expenses do not significantly influence to their decision to work in the Special Region of Yogjakarta province in 2016.
Investigation of Scavenger Receptor Class B Type I gene variants in patients with coronary heart disease with a history of early myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVE The scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-BI, SCARB1), which is a high-density lipoprotein (HDL) receptor that mediates selective cholesteryl ester uptake, plays an important role in reverse cholesterol transport. This study investigated the distribution of polymorphic variants of the SR-BI gene in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) with a history of early myocardial infarction (MI) at an early age and their effects on their serum lipid levels. METHODS SR-BI rs5888(T>C), rs4238001(C>T), and rs10846744(G>C) were analyzed in 100 male patients with CHD with a history of MI (MI+) who were younger than 50 years and 89 male control subjects without MI history (MI-) using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and mutant-allele-specific PCR techniques. RESULTS SR-BI rs4238001 common-CC genotype was found to be more frequent in patients with MI+ than in control subjects (MI-; odds ratio 4.046, p<0.001). The rs10846744 rare-C allele showed a significant association with increased total cholesterol (p=0.014) and triglyceride (p=0.009) levels in the MI+ CHD group. Logistic regression analysis confirmed that there may be an association between the rs4238001-CC genotype (p=0.002), smoking (p=0.026), and MI+ CHD in the presence of other risk factors associated with CHD, whereas haplotype analysis confirmed that patients with MI+ CHD (rs5888-C, rs10846744-G, and rs4238001-C alleles) and CCC (rs5888-C, rs10846744-C, and rs4238001-C alleles) haplotypes were highly frequent (p<0.01 and p=0.027, respectively). CONCLUSION These results indicated that SR-BI gene variants show different distribution in patients with MI+ CHD compared with that in MI- control subjects, and these variants may have effects in favor of dyslipidemia.