Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lifespan of g / d T Cells By

Information on the turnover and lifespan of murine g / d cells was obtained by administering the DNA precursor, bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), in the drinking water and staining lymphoid cells for BrdU incorporation. For TCRg / d (V g 2) transgenic mice, nearly all g / d thymocytes became BrdU 1 within 2 d and were released rapidly into the peripheral lymphoid tissues. These recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) underwent phenotypic maturation in the periphery for several days, but most of these cells died within 4 wk. In adult thymectomized (ATx) transgenic mice, only a small proportion of g / d cells survived as long-lived cells; most of these cells had a slow turnover and retained a naive phenotype. As in transgenic mice, the majority of RTEs generated in normal mice (C57BL/6) appeared to have a restricted lifespan as naive cells. However, in marked contrast to TCR transgenic mice, most of the g / d cells surviving in ATx normal mice had a rapid turnover and displayed an activated/memory phenotype, implying a chronic response to environmental antigens. Hence, in normal mice many g / d RTEs did not die but switched to memory cells.
DETERMINATION OF SUCCESS FACTORS FOR INVESTING IN LONG-TERM CARE

The report examines factors enabling success of long-term care (LTC) for the elderly and successful investment in LTC. The factors are explored through analysis of qualitative data from focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders in eight European countries, drawing on earlier research by Ghibelli et al. (2017) and Greve (2017a) for the SPRINT project. Stakeholders of LTC from eight EU countries representing different welfare traditions and very distinct approaches to responsibilities and resourcing of care for older people were asked to evaluate their current LTC provision in order to understand how success is perceived. Examples of national, institutional and individual success stories provided by key stakeholders indicated attributes which are associated with desirable LTC outcomes and broader objectives for future development.
Understanding the Three-Dimensional Conceptual Space of Fitts’ Aimed-movement Paradigm

Fitts’ law is a well known empirically-based relation which predicts aimed-movement time ( MT ) from target distance ( D ) and target width ( W ). Fitts’ demonstration that MT , within limits, depends essentially on the ratio D / W implies a scale invariance that reduces the paradigm from three dimensions ( MT , D , and W ) to two ( MT and D / W ). This reduction, however, is legitimate only for narrow ranges of scale variations, a limitation that appears to have been overlooked so far. This paper advocates an explicit three-dimensional construal of Fitts’ paradigm involving not only the speed ( MT ) and the relative amplitude ( D / W ), but also the absolute amplitude ( D ), or scale of movements. Not only is this three-dimensional description of Fitts’ paradigm a technical necessity for the classic study of Fitts’ law, but it paves the way for a more complete modeling of aimed-movement performance and suggests a promising adaptation of Fitts’ paradigm to the recently emerged problem of target selection in zooming interfaces.
Draft An integrated multi-criteria decision analysis and optimization modeling approach to spatially operational road decisions

Complete List of Authors: Ezzati, Sättar; Laval University, Mechanical Engineering ; Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet Institutionen for Skogens Ekolog och Skotsel, Forest Planning Bettinger , Pete; University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources Athens, GA, USA 30602 706-542-1187 Eriksson, Ola; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Forest Resource Management Boston, Kevin; Humboldt State University, Forestry and Wildland Sciences Awasthi, Anjali; Concordia University
Exploring differential exon usage via short- and long-read RNA sequencing strategies

Alternative splicing produces various mRNAs, and thereby various protein products, from one gene, impacting a wide range of cellular activities. However, accurate reconstruction and quantification of full-length transcripts using short-reads is limited, due to their length. Long-reads sequencing technologies may provide a solution by sequencing full-length transcripts. We explored the use of both Illumina short-reads and two long Oxford Nanopore Technology (cDNA and Direct RNA) RNA-Seq reads for detecting global differential splicing during mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation, applying several bioinformatics strategies: gene-based, isoform-based and exon-based. We detected the strongest similarity among the sequencing platforms at the gene level compared to exon-based and isoform-based. Furthermore, the exon-based strategy discovered many differential exon usage (DEU) events, mostly in a platform-dependent manner and in non-differentially expressed genes. Thus, the platforms complemented each other in the ability to detect DEUs (i.e. long-reads exhibited an advantage in detecting DEUs at the UTRs, and short-reads detected more DEUs). Exons within 20 genes, detected in one or more platforms, were here validated by PCR, including key differentiation genes, such as Mdb3 and Aplp1. We provide an important analysis resource for discovering transcriptome changes during stem cell differentiation and insights for analysing such data.
The Rocks Don’t Lie, But They Can Be Misunderstood

Although the adage “the rocks don’t lie” is true—rocks are literal ground truth—their message can be misinterpreted. More generally, it is misguided to favor one form of inquiry, such as field observation, over oth-ers, including laboratory analyses, physical experiments, and mathematical or compu-tational simulations. This was recognized more than a century ago by T.C. Chamberlin, who warned against premature adherence to a “ruling theory,” and by G.K. Gilbert, who emphasized the investigative nature of geological reasoning. Geologic research involves a search for fruitful, coherent, and causal hypotheses that are consistent with all the relevant evidence and tests provided by the natural world, and field observation is perhaps the most fertile source of new geologic hypotheses. Hypotheses that are consistent with other relevant evidence survive and are strengthened; those that conflict with relevant evidence must be either revised or discarded.
Consensus measurement in Delphi studies Review and implications for future quality assurance Technological Forecasting & Social Change

Consensus measurement plays an important role in Delphi research. Although it is not the technique's aim, the measurement has to be considered an important component of Delphi analyses and data interpretation. During the past 60 years, the Delphi multi-round survey procedure has been widely and successfully used to aggregate expert opinions on future developments and incidents. This paper is dedicated to how consensus (and dissent) has been measured since the technique's emergence in the 1960s and which criteria have been used. The review also includes a description of its relationship with the measurement of stability over Delphi rounds, although the major focus lies on the concept of consensus. In an extensive literature review, 15 types of measure were identified and classified for measuring consensus (and/or stability) in detail. The research reveals that there are obvious deficits in the practice and rigour of consensus measurement for Delphi research: mistakes in statistical tests or their premises have even been made. This article gives a broad understanding of the consensus concept, shows strengths and weaknesses as well as premises of different types of measure and concludes with lessons learned. Its major contribution is therefore on improving the future quality of consensus-oriented Delphi studies.
Impact of Fluid-Rock Interaction on Strength and Hydraulic Transmissivity Evolution in Shear Fractures Under Hydrothermal Conditions

Reactivated shear fractures contribute to the creation of pervasive fracture networks in geothermal systems. The creation, reactivation, and sustainability of fracture networks depend on complex coupling among thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) processes. However, most laboratory experiments focus either solely on how fluid transport properties evolve in stationary fractures at elevated temperatures or on how strength evolves in shear faults at room temperature. Studies that examine the combined evolution of these properties, especially under hydrothermal conditions, are limited. Laboratory restrengthening tests, referred to as slide-hold-slide (SHS), measure the difference between the steady sliding strength and the peak shear strength immediately following a hold period at constant stress or displacement. We present the results of five SHS experiments on Westerly granite bare surfaces. These experiments are combined with in-plane flow tests and conducted at an effective confining pressure of 20 MPa and temperatures of 23 and 200 ˚C. Consistent with previous studies, we observe a greater reduction in fluid transmissivity at 200 ˚C than at 23 ˚C and, generally, strength increasing with log(hold duration). However, there are deviations from the expected frictional healing behavior that likely relate to mineralogy and pore fluid chemical equilibrium. For example, under no-flow conditions where fluid is allowed to equilibrate with the rock, restrengthening rate of coefficient of friction is initially 0.02 per decade change in hold time (decade -1 ) for holds ≤ 5x10 4 s. Contrary to expected behavior, time-dependent reduction in frictional healing occurs at a rate of -0.03 decade -1 for holds longer than 5x10 4 s. For flow-through tests in which undersaturated fluid is continuously introduced to the fault surface, this reduction begins earlier, starting at 5x10 3 s, but at the same rate of -0.03 decade -1 . The earlier onset of reduction in frictional healing under the continuous flow conditions suggests that the process underlying the behavior is related to chemical equilibrium. The mechanisms behind the complex healing behavior are not fully understood but it is apparent that fault zone restrengthening under hydrothermal conditions is the result of multiple interacting processes.
Attribute-Driven Generation of Drug Reviews using Deep Learning

In the last years, the demands on different models using deep learning to generate textual data conditionally have increased, where one would like to control what textual data to generate from a deep learning model. For this purpose, a couple of models have been developed and achieved state-of-art performance in the field of generating textual data conditionally. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a new model that could outperform the relevant baseline models with respect to the BLEU metric. The alternative model combined some of the properties from the state-of-art models and was given the name the Variational Attribute-to-Sequence decoder model (shortened to the V-Att2Seq model) that paraphrases the name of one of the state-of-art models and "variational" refers to its application of variational recurrent autoencoders (VRAE). The data set used in this study contained drug reviews that were written by patients to express their opinion about the drug that they have used to treat a certain condition. The drug review texts were accompanied by the following attributes: the (name of the) drug, the condition, and the rating that the patient has given to the drug. The results in this study show that the V-Att2Seq model did not outperform all the baseline models, which concluded that the V-Att2Seq model did not satisfy the requirements imposed on the model itself. However, there are some future work that is suggested by this study to hopefully improve the performance of the V-Att2Seq model in the future such as including other mechanisms that are present in the state-of-art models, testing with e.g. other sizes and settings of the V-Att2Seq model, and testing different strategies for generating sequences since there is still potential that has been observed in the model that should be further investigated to improve its performance.
by Valorization of marble’s waste as a substitute in sand

2020 ) Abstract. The recovery of waste proves a solution with two impacts: the environmental impact by the reduction of pollution and the gain of the occupied space by this waste, and the economic impact by the use of these lasts in the building and in the area of public works. The present research consists in recovering a waste marble (thrown powder exposed to the different meteorological phenomena) generated by the quarry marble of Fil-fila, located at the east side of Skikda in the north-east of Algeria, and add it, as sand in the composition of sand concrete. To carry out this research, we analyzed the evolution brought by the substitution of ordinary sand by marble waste sand, with 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% on the properties in the fresh state (density, workability and air content) and in the cured state (compressive strength, tensile strength, surface hardness and sound velocity). For durability we tested water absorption by immersion and chloride penetration. The results obtained are compared with control samples of 0% of substitution rate. In order to have a good filling of the voids in the granular skeleton; we added a quantity of limestone recycled fines from the quarries and for a good workability a super-plasticizing additive. The results showed that the partial substitution modified both the fresh and the hardened characteristics of the tested concretes, the durability parameters
Performance Analysis of an Ant-based Routing Algorithm with Enhanced Path Maintenance for MANETs

— Ant-based routing algorithms belong to a class of ant colony optimization which applies the behavior of ants in nature to routing mechanism. Since ant-based routing algorithms provide high adaptability to the dynamic network topology, it is suitable for routing in mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). In this paper, we introduce a routing method, namely EPMAR (ant-based routing algorithm using enhanced path maintenance), which enhances route selection method and the process upon link failure of EAR. We then compare the performance of ant-based routing algorithms, AntHocNet, EAR, and EPMAR, how they perform as the packet transmission rate varies. The simulation results show that EPMAR provided higher packet delivery ratio and less critical link failure than AntHocNet and EAR.
MAPKs and IL-10-Dependent Mechanismsthrough Induces Th1/Th17 Immune Response Genetically Detoxified Pertussis Toxin

Genetically detoxiﬁed pertussis toxin (dPT) maintains the protein structure and the immunological properties, but not the enzymatic activity. In search of an adjuvant able to direct polarization of T cells to induce/potentiate protective immune response to a variety of infectious disease, we investigated the role played by dPT on human dendritic cell-driven Th polarization and analyzed the intracellular signaling events. To reach these aims, we used a highly puriﬁed dPT preparation devoid of contamination and monocyte-derived dendritic cells, a well-characterized model to study ex vivo the polarization of the immune responses. First, we analyzed dPT-induced monocyte-derived dendritic cell maturation, longevity, and cytokine production and, in a second step, we analyzed TLR4/2 engagement by dPT, the connected signaling events, and their relevance to the skewing of Th cell polarization. These approaches allowed us to clarify some of the mechanisms that are responsible for dPT-driven regulation of T cell polarization. We demonstrated that dPT acts utilizing TLR4/TLR2 engagement, being the signaling induced by the former stronger. dPT, through a crucial role played by MAPK and IL-10, favors the expansion of the Th1/Th17 immunity. Indirect evidences indicated that dPT-induced Th17 expansion is counterregulated by the PI3K pathway. For its properties and being already used in humans as vaccine Ag in pertussis, dPT may represents a valid candidate adjuvant to foster immune protective response in vaccines against infectious diseases where Th1/Th17 are mediating host immunity. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 183: 1892–1899.
Round E(cid:30)cient Byzantine Agreement from VDFs

Byzantine agreement (BA) is a fundamental primitive in distributed systems and has received huge interest as an important building block for blockchain systems. Classical byzantine agreement considers a setting where n parties with (cid:28)xed, known identities want to agree on an output in the presence of an adversary. Motivated by blockchain systems, the assumption of (cid:28)xed identities is weakened by using a resource-based model. In such models, parties do not have (cid:28)xed known identities but instead have to invest some expensive resources to participate in the protocol. Prominent examples for such resources are computation (measured by, e.g., proofs-of-work) or money (measured by proofs-of-stake). Unlike in the classical setting where BA without trusted setup (e.g., a PKI or an unpredictable beacon) is impossible for t ≥ n/ 3 corruptions, in such resource-based models, BA can be constructed for the optimal threshold of t < n/ 2 . In this work, we investigate BA without a PKI in the model where parties have restricted computational resources. Concretely, we consider sequential computation modeled via computing a veri(cid:28)able delay function (VDF) and establish the following results:
The moderation of institutional mimicry on eco-innovation performance: evidence from Brazil

ACCEPTED: 04 JANUARY 2022 ABSTRACT The moderating force that institutional pressures can exert on the relationship between eco-innovation and performance has received little attention. In In this context, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between eco-innovation and environmental and financial performance, as well as the moderating role of institutional mimetic pressure in this relationship. We surveyed 175 brazilian companies from the organic production sector. For the analysis, we used Structural Equation Modeling to verify the relationship between the variables. The main results point to (i) a positive relationship between eco-innovation and environmental performance; (ii) the relationship between eco-innovation and financial performance does not occurs directly, but indirectly, due to environmental performance; and (iii) mimetic pressure attenuates the influence of eco-innovation on environmental and financial performance. This finding had not yet been verified in the literature on innovation, an unprecedented contribution of this work. Therefore, business managers can use the findings to implement innovation management systems under eco-innovative perspectives to produce goods
The ﬁrst theorem of Andrey Roiter

The article contains memories about A.V. Roiter. I ﬁrst met Andrey in the Fall of 1959, in Uzhgorod, at a conference organized by I.R. Shafarevich and D.K. Faddeev. Most of the talks at the conference were on algebraic geometry, homological algebra and algebraic topology, but there were also two survey talks on representation theory–by D.K. Faddeev on unimodular representations, and by S.D. Berman on modular representations of ﬁnite groups. In Faddeev a number of important theorems on unimodular representations-the classical Jordan-Zassenhaus theorem, the theorems of Maranda on p -adic representations, and described in detail the recent problem which arose in connection with the results of Diederichsen on unimodular representations of cyclic groups.
A new insight into RecA filament regulation by RecX

17 RecA protein mediates homologous recombination repair in bacteria through 18 assembly of long helical filaments on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) in an ATP 19 dependent manner. RecX, an important negative regulator of RecA, is known to 20 inhibit RecA activity by stimulating the disassembly of RecA nucleoprotein filaments. 21 Here we use a single-molecule approach to address the regulation of (E. coli) RecA22 ssDNA filaments by RecX (E. coli) within the framework of distinct conformational 23 states of RecA-ssDNA filament. Our findings revealed that RecX effectively binds the 24 inactive conformation of RecA-ssDNA filaments and slows down the transition to the 25 active state. Results of this work provide new mechanistic insights into the RecX26 RecA interactions and highlight the importance of conformational transitions of RecA 27 filaments as an additional level of regulation of its biological activity. 28
A Hydropower Biological Evaluation Toolset (HBET) for Characterizing Hydraulic Conditions and Impacts of Hydro-Structures on Fish

Approximately 16% of the world’s electricity and over 80% of the world’s renewable electricity is generated from hydropower resources, and there is potential for developing significantly more new hydropower capacity. In practice, however, optimizing the use of potential hydropower resources is limited by various factors, including environmental effects and related mitigation requirements. That is why hydropower regulatory requirements frequently call for targets to be met regarding fish injury and mortality rates. The sensor fish (SF) is a small autonomous sensor package that can be deployed through complex hydraulic structures, such as a turbine or spillway, to collect high resolution measurements that describe the forces and motions that live fish would encounter. The Hydropower Biological Evaluation Toolset (HBET), an integrated suite of science-based tools, is designed to use the SF (implemented) and other tools (to be implemented in the future) to characterize the hydraulic conditions of hydropower structures and provide quantitative estimates of fish injury and mortality rates resulting from exposure to various physical stressors including strike, pressure, and shear. HBET enables users to design new studies, analyze data, perform statistical analyses, and evaluate biological responses. It can be used by researchers, turbine designers, hydropower operators, and regulators to design and operate hydropower systems that minimize ecological impacts in a cost-effective manner. In this paper, we discuss the technical methodologies and algorithms implemented in HBET and describe a case study that illustrates its functionalities.
The Stock Market and Government Debt

This thesis investigates whether or not changes in a country’s government debt could affect its domestic stock market performance. The relationship is investigated by examining three different European countries, Germany, Portugal and Sweden, on the basis of two variables; (1) quarterly government debt changes as a percentage of gross domestic product and (2) the quarterly stock market changes over the time period 2000:Q2 – 2011:Q2. The evidence is presented with help of Ordinary Least Square Method and Granger Causality test for each respective country. According to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, stock market prices should fully reflect all relevant information, e.g. government debt changes, as soon as they occur, without any delay, if the market is efficient. Past information should be insignificant and therefore not affect the stock market prices in an efficient market. either respect stock performance The empirical capture This indicates the Market rejected regards Portugal respect changes. stock capture hence possibly mislead when