Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurofilament Light Chain (NF-L) Stimulates Lipid Peroxidation to Neuronal Membrane through Microglia-Derived Ferritin Heavy Chain (FTH) Secretion

A part of the axonal cytoskeleton protein complex, neurofilament light chain (NF-L) has been suggested as a pathological hallmark in various neurological disorders, including hemorrhagic stroke, vascular dementia, and cerebral small vessel disease. Neuroaxonal debris are mainly engulfed and phagocytosed by microglia, while the effects of NF-L on microglia have not been elucidated. Ferritin heavy chain (FTH) not only reflects the age-related status of microglia but may also be secreted into the extracellular space. After treatment of microglia with varying concentrations of NF-L (0-3 μg/ml), we found robust increases in the number of secretory FTH-containing exosomes in the medium. Induction of the FTH-containing exosomes secreted from microglia stimulates neuronal loss and membrane lipid peroxidation, as assessed by CKK8 and C11-Bodipy581/591, respectively. However, this oxidative stress damage was attenuated by blocking Fth1 expression. Our results suggest that NF-L, as a biomarker of axonal injury itself, could participate in neuronal ferroptosis in a nonclassical manner by secreting FTH-containing exosomes from microglia into the extracellular matrix.
The refugee camp management: a general framework and clean water network design

THE REFUGEE CAMP MANAGEMENT: A GENERAL FRAMEWORK AND CLEAN WATER NETWORK DESIGN Elif Akkaya M.S. in Industrial Engineering Advisor: Bahar Y. Kara Co-Advisor: Özlem Karsu January 2017 Motivated by the increasing need to provide support to refugees, which remains as a pressing issue in the agenda of many countries, we consider the refugee camp management problem. It is of utmost importance that asylum-providing countries co-operate with the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) while managing the process and use the resources efficiently and effectively. The Refugee crisis is one of the challenges of today’s world mainly due to the difficulties such as geographical discrepancies and unknown duration of refugee camps. In the first part of the thesis (Chapter 2), we consider the refugee camp management process with an Operations Research (OR) perspective and provide a framework. In the proposed framework, the overall refugee camp management problem is first categorized into two main phases: the establishment phase, which consists of one-time decisions such as infrastructure design; and the administration phase, which focuses on routine decisions that are taken on a periodic basis like aid distribution. We then detail each phase via sub categories and link each decision made in these sub categories with an appropriate decision problem from the OR literature. The proposed framework is aimed to be general enough to cover the problems that might arise in different geographies. In the second part of the thesis, the water network design problem encountered in establishment phase of refugee camps is considered. We propose single and bi-objective models that determine the locations of water well and water distribution units (WDUs), and design the general network structure (transmission pipes). As objective functions; total cost as a function of pipe length and total walking distance of refugees to the closest water source are utilized. The minimal iii
A 65 nm 73 kb SRAM-Based Computing-In-Memory Macro With Dynamic-Sparsity Controlling

For neural network (NN) applications at the edge of AI, computing-in-memory (CIM) demonstrates promising energy efficiency. However, when the network size grows while fulfilling the accuracy requirements of increasingly complicated application scenarios, significant memory consumption becomes an issue. Model pruning is a typical compression approach for solving this problem, but it does not fully exploit the energy efficiency advantage of conventional CIMs, because of the dynamic distribution of sparse weights and the increased data movement energy consumption of reading sparsity indexes from outside the chip. Therefore, we propose a vector-wise dynamic-sparsity controlling and computing in-memory structure (DS-CIM) that accomplishes both sparsity control and computation of weights in SRAM, to improve the energy efficiency of the vector-wise sparse pruning model. Implemented in a 65 nm CMOS process, the measurement results show that the proposed DS-CIM macro can save up to 50.4% of computational energy consumption, while ensuring the accuracy of vector-wise pruning models. The test chip can also achieve 87.88% accuracy on the CIFAR-10 dataset at 4-bit precision in inputs and weights, and it achieves 530.2TOPS/W (normalized to 1 bit) energy efficiency.
Differential Roles of Five Fluffy Genes (flbA–flbE) in the Lifecycle In Vitro and In Vivo of the Insect–Pathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana

The fluffy genes flbA–flbE are well-known players in the upstream developmental activation pathway that activates the key gene brlA of central developmental pathway (CDP) to initiate conidiation in Aspergillus nidulans. Here, we report insignificant roles of their orthologs in radial growth of Beauveria bassiana under normal culture conditions and different stresses although flbA and flbD were involved in respective responses to heat shock and H2O2. Aerial conidiation level was lowered in the deletion mutants of flbB and flbE (~15%) less than of flbA and flbC (~30%), in which the key CDP genes brlA and abaA were repressed consistently during normal incubation. The CDP-controlled blastospore production in submerged cultures mimicking insect hemolymph was abolished in the flbA mutant with brlA and abaA being sharply repressed, and decreased by 55% in the flbC mutant with only abaA being downregulated. The fungal virulence against a model insect was attenuated in the absence of flbA more than of flbC irrespective of normal cuticle infection or cuticle-bypassing infection (intrahemocoel injection). These findings unravel more important role of flbA than of flbC, but null roles of flbB/D/E, in B. bassiana’s insect–pathogenic lifecycle and a scenario distinctive from that in A.nidulans.
Cross‐domain opinion classification via aspect analysis and attention sharing mechanism

The purpose of cross‐domain opinion classification is to leverage useful information acquired from the source domain to train a classifier for opinion classification in the target domain, which has a huge amount of unlabeled data. An opinion classifier trained on a specific domain usually acts poorly, when directly employed to another domain. Annotating the data for all the domains is a laborious and costly process. The majority of available approaches are centered on identifying invariant features among domains. Unluckily, they are unable to properly capture the context within the sentences and better utilization of unlabeled data. To properly address this issue, we propose an aspect‐based attention model for cross‐domain opinion classification. By incorporating knowledge of aspects and sentences, the proposed model provides a transfer mechanism for better‐transferring opinions among domains. We introduce two learning networks, first learning network aims to recognize the shared features between domains, while the purpose of the second learning network is to extract the information from the aspects by utilizing shared words as a bridge. We benefit from BERT and bidirectional gated recurrent unit to get a deep understanding and deep level semantic information of the text. Further, the joint attention learning mechanism is performed for these two learning modules so that the aspects and sentences can impact the resulting opinion expression. In addition, we introduce a gradient reversal layer to obtain invariance features. The comprehensive experiments are performed on Amazon multidomain product datasets and show the effectiveness and significance of the proposed model over state‐of‐the‐art techniques.
Skua and plant dispersal: lessons from the Argentine Islands – Kyiv Peninsula region in the maritime Antarctic

Birds are one of the most likely dispersal vectors for plants in Antarctica. We studied the nesting behavior of south polar skua Catharacta maccormicki and brown skua Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi to assess their potential role in ornithochory in the Argentine Islands – Kyiv Peninsula region. Nest samples were collected during 2009– 2020 years in the Argentine Islands – Kyiv Peninsula region including all islands and coasts of the Graham Land from the Lemaire Channel to the islands of Berthelot Islands from north to south and extending from west to east from the Roca Islands, Cruls Islands, Rasmussen Point to the coast. We found that skuas utilize different nest building materials, including bryophytes, vascular plants (hairgrass Deschampsia antarctica ) and lichens. In south polar skua nests, mosses and lichens dominate in the nest material; in brown skuas Deschampsia antarctica and mosses dominate. Both bird species likely collect nest components from nearby vegetation formations ( < 1 m dis-tant). We conclude that C. maccormicki and C. antarctica lonnbergi are not selective in their choice of plant species, simply using the materials that dominate near the nest. Therefore, both species carry these materials from nearby sites, and only occasionally bring them from distant places. In conclusion, for both species we did not find any evidence to support their involvement in long-distance ornithochory (stomatochory) in the region.
Disparities in Nutritional Adequacy of Diets between Different Socioeconomic Groups of Finnish Adults

Information on dietary adequacy is needed to assess food and nutrition security in a modern society, especially in the transition towards climate-friendly food systems. In this study, differences in the nutritional adequacy of diets among Finnish adults were evaluated in population groups of different education, income and urbanisation levels. The study used data from the FinDiet 2017 Survey (n = 1655, 18–74 years). Modelled usual intakes of foods and nutrients were evaluated relative to food-based dietary guidelines issued by the National Nutrition Council of Finland (FNNC) and with respect to nutrient adequacy following the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations and FNNC. For about half of the nutrients studied, intakes were found to be adequate. Intakes of protein, fat, saturated fatty acids and salt were estimated to be high. By contrast, inadequate intakes were seen in folate and vitamins A, D, B1, B2 and C in almost all groups studied. Groups with a higher education and income, groups that lived in urban areas and, in particular, women adhered more closely to recommended food consumption and nutrient intakes than others. However, major challenges posed by the Finnish diet are common to all groups studied, and only certain dietary features evaluated in view of nutritional adequacy are associated with socioeconomic differences.
Forced to go virtual. Working-from-home arrangements and their effect on team communication during COVID-19 lockdown

Working-from-home arrangements have become increasingly important for firms’ work organization. In this context, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to teams that previously did not work virtually being forced to interact and communicate virtually. In this study, we analyze changes in intra-team communication of four teams in a German medium-sized enterprise. Quantitative network analyses of email communication and qualitative analyses of interviews before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 show that flat hierarchies and self-managing processes helped team members to mitigate negative effects due to spatial and temporal dispersion in forced working-from-home arrangements. Moreover, analysis of the teams’ communication networks shows that forced remote work can trigger faultlines to become salient but that team cohesion, identification with the team, and individuals taking on broker roles prevent negative effects of faultlines on team performance. In discussing these findings, our study contributes to the research on coordination and communication in virtual teams by analyzing contextual, organizational, team-related as well as individual factors that explain how and why teams differ in successfully implementing working-from-home arrangements.
The effects of individual-level and area-level socioeconomic status on preferences and behaviour in leisure time physical activities: a cross-sectional analysis of Chinese adults

ABSTRACT This study examines the extent to which individual and area-level socioeconomic statuses (SES) correlate with the preferences and participation in physical activities during leisure time. A multistage, random clustered sample taken from the China Health and Nutrition Survey of 2015 was used. Results from multi-level analyses indicated that both individual income and area-level SES were significantly associated with participation in walking, whereas individual educational attainment was positively associated with participation in sports. Moreover, leisure preference mediated the relationship between individual SES, area-level SES, and participation in sports. Based on these findings, this article suggests that both individual and area-level influences should be taken into account when developing health policies to promote active lifestyles. In addition, mediation effect of leisure preference in LTPA should be emphasized when implementing intervention program.
Non-Toxic Increases in Nitrogen Availability Can Improve the Ability of the Soil Lichen Cladonia rangiferina to Cope with Environmental Changes

Climate change and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on drylands are greatly threatening these especially vulnerable areas. Soil biocrust-forming lichens in drylands can provide early indicators of these disturbances and play a pivotal role, as they contribute to key ecosystem services. In this study, we explored the effects of different long-term water availability regimes simulating climate changes and their interaction with N addition on the physiological response of the soil lichen Cladonia rangiferina. Three sets of this lichen were subjected to control, reduced watering, and reduced watering and N addition (40 kg NH4NO3 ha−1 year−1) treatments for 16 months. Finally, all samples were subjected to daily hydration cycles with N-enriched water at two levels (40 and 80 kg NH4NO3 ha−1 year−1) for 23 days. We found that reduced watering significantly decreased the vitality of this lichen, whereas N addition unexpectedly helped lichens subjected to reduced watering to cope with stress produced by high temperatures. We also found that long-term exposure to N addition contributed to the acclimation to higher N availability. Overall, our data suggest that the interactions between reduced watering and increased N supply and temperature have an important potential to reduce the physiological performance of this soil lichen.
Effect of Poly-Herbal Formula (PHF5) on Hepatoprotective and Biochemical Parameters of Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Wistar Rats

Background: The current estimates by World Health Organization revealed that near 2030, the number of diabetic patients will reach up to 370 million in the world wide . It would be one of the most common degenerative illnesses in human beings in future that needs to seek urgent solution. Plants have been the major source of medicine since the ancient time. Purpose: This study evaluated the hepaprotective action of Ocimum gratissimum, Gnetum africanum, Gongronema latifolium, Vernonia amygdalina and Aloe Barbadensis leaf extracts and their effects on biochemical parameters of induced alloxan diabetic wister rats. Standard methods were used in the extraction process. Methods: Thirty (30) male Wistar rats weighing (80_120) grams were obtained and they were kept in animal house to acclimatize for two weeks prior to the experiment. The rats were divided into six groups containing five rats each. Group 1 served as normal control, group 2 had the diabetic rats treated with PHF5 (75 mg/kg bodyweight); group 3 contained diabetic rats treated with PHF5 (150 mg/kg bodyweight); group 4 contained diabetic rats treated with PHF5 (300 mg/kg bodyweight); group 5 had diabetic rats not given any intervention, group 6 contained diabetic rats treated with Glibenclamide (5 mg/kg bodyweight). The rats were induced via intra peritoneal by using alloxan monohydrate (100 mg/kg bodyweight). Extracts of PHF5 were administered to the rats orally for eight weeks, after which rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation under light ether anaesthesia. Blood was collected for biochemical evaluation using standard techniques (Randox kits). Fasting blood glucose level was checked weekly. Results: Acute toxicity studies of PHF5 revealed no toxicity to the animals that received the PHF5 dose up to 1000 mg/kg bodyweight. The increased liver (Aspartate amino transferase, Alanine Transferase and Alkaline Phosphatase) marker enzymes in the diabetic rats were significantly (p<0.05) lowered in the PHF5 treated rats and found to be within the normal range while total protein was significantly higher showed no effect on the liver total protein. Conclusion: It is concluded that this study suggest that treating alloxan induced diabetic rats with poly herbal formulated (PHF5); Ocimum gratissimum, Gnetum africanum, Gongronema latifolium, Vernonia amygdalina, and Aloe Barbadensis leaf extracts in different doses of mg/kg enhanced hepaprotective protection against body damage.
Phase 3 Randomized, Multicenter, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate Safety, Immunogenicity, and Lot-to-Lot Consistency of an Adjuvanted Cell Culture-Derived, H5N1 Subunit Influenza Virus Vaccine in Healthy Adult Subjects

A cell-based process may be better suited for vaccine production during a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) pandemic. This was a phase 3, randomized, controlled, observer-blind, multicenter study evaluated safety, immunogenicity, and lot-to-lot consistency of two doses of a MF59-adjuvanted, H5N1 influenza pandemic vaccine manufactured on a cell culture platform (aH5N1c) in 3196 healthy adult subjects, stratified into two age groups: 18 to <65 and ≥65 years. Immunogenicity was measured using hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers. HI antibody responses increased after the first aH5N1c vaccine dose, and 3 weeks after the second vaccination (Day 43), age-appropriate US Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and former European Medicines Authority Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (EMA CHMP) immunogenicity criteria were met. Six months after the first vaccination, HI titers were above baseline but no longer met CBER and CHMP criteria. No relevant changes over time were seen in placebo subjects. Solicited AEs were more frequent in the active treatment than the placebo group, primarily due to injection site pain. No serious adverse events (SAEs) related to aH5N1c- were reported. aH5N1c influenza vaccine elicited high levels of antibodies following two vaccinations administered 21 days apart and met both CBER and former CHMP immunogenicity criteria at Day 43 among both younger and older adults with a clinically acceptable safety profile. Consistency of the three consecutive aH5N1c vaccine lots was demonstrated (NCT02839330).
Partial Self-Concatenation Structure and Performance Analysis of Spinal Codes Over Rayleigh Fading Channel

Spinal codes are a new family of rateless codes which have been proved to be capacity-achieving over both the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel and the binary symmetric channel (BSC). However, over the Rayleigh fading channel between the vehicle nodes, the error performance of Spinal codes is not satisfactory since the tail message blocks of Spinal codes are prone to error. To solve this issue, this paper proposes a new practical partial self-concatenation coding structure of Spinal codes, named <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula> tail-protected Spinal codes, to pointedly protect tail message blocks of Spinal codes over the flat Rayleigh fading channel. Theoretical performance analysis and simulation results are also provided to validate and verify the effectiveness of the proposed <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula> tail-protected Spinal codes.
Next-Generation Healthcare: Enabling Technologies for Emerging Bioelectromagnetics Applications

Rapid advances in antennas, propagation, electromagnetics, and materials are opening new and unexplored opportunities in body area sensing and stimulation. Next-generation wearables and implants are seamlessly providing round-the-clock monitoring. In turn, numerous applications are brought forward with the potential to ultimately transform healthcare, sports, consumer electronics, and beyond. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview, discusses challenges and opportunities, and indicates future directions for: (a) enabling technologies needed to make body area sensing and stimulation a reality, and (b) emerging bioelectromagnetics applications that may readily benefit from such technologies.
Identification and Subtyping of Salmonella Isolates Using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption–Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF)

Subtyping of bacterial isolates of the same genus and species is an important tool in epidemiological investigations. A number of phenotypic and genotypic subtyping methods are available; however, most of these methods are labor-intensive and time-consuming and require considerable operator skill and a wealth of reagents. Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption–Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF), an alternative to conventional subtyping methods, offers a rapid, reproducible method for bacterial identification with a high sensitivity and specificity and at minimal cost. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of using MALDI-TOF to differentiate between six Salmonella serovars recovered from experimental microcosms inoculated with known strains of Salmonella. Following the establishment of a MALDI-TOF reference library for this project, the identity of 843 Salmonella isolates recovered from these microcosms was assessed using both MALDI-TOF and conventional methods (serotyping/PCR). All 843 isolates were identified as being Salmonella species. Overall, 803/843 (95%) of these isolates were identified similarly using the two different methods. Positive percent agreement at the serovar level ranged from 79 to 100%, and negative percent agreement for all serovars was greater than 98%. Cohen’s kappa ranged from 0.85 to 0.98 for the different serovars. This study demonstrates that MALDI-TOF is a viable alternative for the rapid identification and differentiation of Salmonella serovars.
Structural Anomalies Detection from Electrocardiogram (ECG) with Spectrogram and Handcrafted Features

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, causing nearly 17.9 million deaths per year. Therefore, early detection and treatment are critical to help improve this situation. Many manufacturers have developed products to monitor patients’ heart conditions as they perform their daily activities. However, very few can diagnose complex heart anomalies beyond detecting rhythm fluctuation. This paper proposes a new method that combines a Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) spectrogram of the ECG signal with handcrafted features to detect heart anomalies beyond commercial product capabilities. Using the proposed Convolutional Neural Network, the algorithm can detect 16 different rhythm anomalies with an accuracy of 99.79% with 0.15% false-alarm rate and 99.74% sensitivity. Additionally, the same algorithm can also detect 13 heartbeat anomalies with 99.18% accuracy with 0.45% false-alarm rate and 98.80% sensitivity.