Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Importance of Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans in Pancreatic Islets and β-Cells

β-cells in the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas secrete insulin in response to the glucose concentration in the blood. When these pancreatic β-cells are damaged, diabetes develops through glucose intolerance caused by insufficient insulin secretion. High molecular weight polysaccharides, such as heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycans, and HS-degrading enzymes, such as heparinase, participate in the protection, maintenance, and enhancement of the functions of pancreatic islets and β-cells, and the demand for studies on glycobiology within the field of diabetes research has increased. This review introduces the roles of complex glycoconjugates containing high molecular weight polysaccharides and their degrading enzymes in pancreatic islets and β-cells, including those obtained in studies conducted by us earlier. In addition, from the perspective of glycobiology, this study proposes the possibility of application to diabetes medicine.
THE EFFECT OF GALACTIC PROPERTIES ON THE ESCAPE FRACTION OF IONIZING PHOTONS

The escape fraction, fesc, of ionizing photons from early galaxies is a crucial parameter for determining whether the observed galaxies at z ⩾ 6 are able to reionize the high-redshift intergalactic medium. Previous attempts to measure fesc have found a wide range of values, varying from less than 0.01 to nearly 1. Rather than finding a single value of fesc, we clarify through modeling how internal properties of galaxies affect fesc through the density and distribution of neutral hydrogen within the galaxy, along with the rate of ionizing photons’ production. We find that the escape fraction depends sensitively on the covering factor of clumps, along with the density of the clumped and interclump medium. One must therefore be cautious when dealing with an inhomogeneous medium. Fewer high-density clumps lead to a greater escape fraction than more numerous low-density clumps. When more ionizing photons are produced in a starburst, fesc increases, as photons escape more readily from the gas layers. Large variations in the predicted escape fraction, caused by differences in the hydrogen distribution, may explain the large observed differences in fesc among galaxies. Values of fesc must also be consistent with the reionization history. High-mass galaxies alone are unable to reionize the universe, because fesc >1 would be required. Small galaxies are needed to achieve reionization, with greater mean escape fraction in the past.
On the "intrinsic" breakdown of thick gate oxide.

The thick gate oxide breakdown mechanism has become an important topic again due to the rising demand for power electronics. The failure of the percolation model in explaining the observed Weibull shape factor, β, seriously hampers the establishment of thick gate oxide breakdown models and the ability to project reliability from measurement data. In this work, lifetime shortening by oxide defects are simulated to produce degraded breakdown distributions that match experimentally observed βs. The result shows that even a low density of defects with the right energy is enough to greatly degrade β for thick oxides. Strong area scaling for thin oxides counters this sensitivity to defects effectively and explains why the percolation model is successful in thin oxides but not in thick oxides. Only defects with the appropriate energy can degrade the breakdown distribution. The required energy is consistent with oxygen vacancy E γ ' defect after capturing a hole and the concentration required is consistent with very high-quality oxide. This explains the consistent low β values for thick oxides universally reported in the literature.
On the Homogenized Linial Arrangement: Intersection Lattice and Genocchi Numbers.

Hetyei recently introduced a hyperplane arrangement (called the homogenized Linial arrangement) and used the finite field method of Athanasiadis to show that its number of regions is a median Genocchi number. These numbers count a class of permutations known as Dumont derangements. Here, we take a different approach, which makes direct use of Zaslavsky's formula relating the intersection lattice of this arrangement to the number of regions. We refine Hetyei's result by obtaining a combinatorial interpretation of the M\"obius function of this lattice in terms of variants of the Dumont permutations. This enables us to derive a formula for the generating function of the characterisitic polynomial of the arrangement. The M\"obius invariant of the lattice turns out to be a (nonmedian) Genocchi number. Our techniques also yield type B, and more generally Dowling arrangement, analogs of these results.
Eidetic: An In-Memory Matrix Multiplication Accelerator for Neural Networks

This paper presents the Eidetic architecture, which is an SRAM-based ASIC neural network accelerator that eliminates the need to continuously load weights from off-chip, while also minimizing the need to go off chip for intermediate results. Using in-situ arithmetic in the SRAM arrays, this architecture can supports a variety of precision types allowing for effective inference. We also present different data mapping policies for matrix-vector based networks (RNN and MLP) on the Eidetic architecture and describe the tradeoffs involved. With this architecture, multiple layers of a network can be concurrently mapped, storing both the layer weights and intermediate results on-chip, removing the energy and latency penalty of off-chip memory accesses. We evaluate Eidetic on Google's Neural Machine Translation System (GNMT) encoder and demonstrate a 17.20× increase in throughput and 7.77× reduction in average latency over a single TPUv2 chip.
Inhibition of electron thermal conduction by electromagnetic instabilities. [in stellar coronas

Heat flux inhibition by electromagnetic instabilities in a hot magnetized plasma is investigated. Low-frequency electromagnetic waves become unstable due to anisotropy of the electron distribution function. The chaotic magnetic field thus generated scatters the electrons with a specific effective mean free path. Saturation of the instability due to wave-wave interaction, nonlinear scattering, wave propagation, and collisional damping is considered. The effective mean free path is found self-consistently, using a simple model to estimate saturation level and scattering, and is shown to decrease with the temperature gradient length. The results, limited to the assumptions of the model, are applied to astrophysical systems. For some interstellar clouds the instability is found to be important. Collisional damping stabilizes the plasma, and the heat conduction can be dominated by superthermal electrons.
SPIDER – X. Environmental effects in central and satellite early-type galaxies through the stellar fossil record

A detailed analysis of how environment affects the star formation history of earlytype galaxies (ETGs) is undertaken via high signal to noise ratio stacked spectra obtained from a sample of 20,977 ETGs (morphologically selected) from the SDSSbased SPIDER survey. Two major parameters are considered for the study: the central velocity dispersion (σ), which relates to local drivers of star formation, and the mass of the host halo, which relates to environment-related effects. In addition, we separate the sample between centrals (the most massive galaxy in a halo) and satellites. We derive trends of age, metallicity, and [α/Fe] enhancement, with σ. We confirm that the major driver of stellar population properties in ETGs is velocity dispersion, with a secondorder effect associated to the central/satellite nature of the galaxy. No environmental dependence is detected for satellite ETGs, except at low σ – where satellites in groups or in the outskirts of clusters tend to be younger than those in the central regions of clusters. In contrast, the trends for centrals show a significant dependence on halo mass. Central ETGs in groups (i.e. with a halo mass > 10 12.5 M⊙) have younger ages, lower [α/Fe], and higher internal reddening, than “isolated” systems (i.e. centrals residing in low-mass, < 10 12.5 M⊙, halos). Our findings imply that central ETGs in groups formed their stellar component over longer time scales than “isolated” centrals, mainly because of gas-rich interactions with their companion galaxies.
Particle acceleration and magnetic field structure in PKS 2155−304: optical polarimetric observations

In this paper, we present multiband optical polarimetric observations of the very-high energy blazar PKS 2155-304 made simultaneously with a HESS/Fermi high-energy campaign in 2008, when the source was found to be in a low state. The intense daily coverage of the data set allowed us to study in detail the temporal evolution of the emission, and we found that the particle acceleration time-scales are decoupled from the changes in the polarimetric properties of the source. We present a model in which the optical polarimetric emission originates at the polarized mm-wave core and propose an explanation for the lack of correlation between the photometric and polarimetric fluxes. The optical emission is consistent with an inhomogeneous synchrotron source in which the large-scale field is locally organized by a shock in which particle acceleration takes place. Finally, we use these optical polarimetric observations of PKS 2155-304 at a low state to propose an origin for the quiescent gamma-ray flux of the object, in an attempt to provide clues for the source of its recently established persistent TeV emission.
Efficacy and optimal combination timing of chemotherapy combined with PD-1 inhibitor in advanced cervical cancer: a multicenter retrospective cohort study

Background This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of chemotherapy combined with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors in the treatment of advanced cervical cancer and the effect of optimal combination timing on prognosis. Methods From March 2020 to December 2021, the clinical data of 116 patients with advanced cervical cancer who received PD-1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy were collected. The clinical characteristics and adverse events of the patients were recorded until the cut-off date of follow-up. The primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), the objective response rate (ORR), and safety; the secondary endpoints were the disease-control rate (DCR) and overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyze the prognostic factors affecting the PFS of patients and to assess the effect of the timing of combination therapies on PFS. Results In total, 85 patients from 4 study centers were included in this study. The median PFS was 10.3 months [95% confidence interval (CI): 9.47–11.13 months], the ORR was 44.7%, the DCR was 75.3%, and the median OS was not reached. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that the early combination of chemotherapy with a PD-1 inhibitor provided better PFS than the late combination [hazard ratio (HR) 0.40, 95% CI: 0.24–0.67, P=0.001]. Lymph node metastasis (HR 2.04, 95% CI: 1.24–3.38, P=0.005), and previous treatment (HR 1.79, 95% CI: 1.09–3.00, P=0.023) were also independent risk factors for PFS. During the treatment and follow-up periods, the overall incidence of adverse events in this study was 56.5%, and that of grade ≥3 adverse events was 12.9%. Thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, anemia, and hypothyroidism were the main treatment-related adverse events, all of which were tolerated, and no serious adverse events leading to death were observed. There were no treatment-related deaths. Conclusions PD-1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy have good efficacy and controllable safety in patients with advanced cervical cancer. The early combination of PD-1 inhibitors and chemotherapy may provide better survival benefits than the late combination for patients.
Noah’s Syndrome: Systematic Review of Animal Hoarding Disorder

Animal Hoarding Disorder (AHD) is a recently acknowledged psychiatric syndrome regarded as a form of Hoarding Disorder. Despite its great complexity, AHD has been underestimated both within and outside the academic community. This systematic review of the literature will assess some features to give a description of the syndrome. We have selected 26 empirical investigations which have been analyzed for such purpose. Moreover, we have estimated the mean values of some variables such as age (55.6 years old), gender (74.9% women), households (51.8% single-person), unemployment (53.6%), number of animals per case (64.1), presence of dead animals (32.9%) and object hoarding co-morbidity (59.5%). Results will be discussed to highlight AHD particular features, the need for an integrated view around the One Welfare concept and the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Given its complexity, we recommend acknowledging AHD as a separate nosographic entity.
Mycotoxin Production and the Relationship between Microbial Diversity and Mycotoxins in Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd cv. Huangguan Pear

Mycotoxins are generated by a series of fungal pathogens in postharvest fruit, resulting in serious health threat to consumers and great economic loss to the fruit storage industry. The microbial differences between rotten and healthy fruit during storage and their relationship with mycotoxin production have not been fully studied. In this study, differences in microbial diversity between rotten and healthy fruit after 30 days of storage at ambient temperature were investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology in ‘Huangguan’ pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd cv. Huangguan) harvested from five different producing regions of Hebei province, China. The bacterial genus Gluconobacter was much more abundant in rotten fruit (76.24%) than that in healthy fruit (32.36%). In addition, Komagataeibacter and Acetobacter were also relatively higher in abundance in rotten fruit. In contrast, bacterial genera Pantoea, Alistipes, Muribaculaceae, Lactobacillus, and Ruminococcaceae_UCG were found to be more abundant in healthy fruit. Fungal genera including Botryosphaeria, Colletotrichum, Valsa, Alternaria, Rosellinia, Fusarium, and Trichothecium were found to be abundant in rotten fruit. The results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) showed that there were significant differences in the microbial diversity of different regions. PAT (patulin) was detected in all rotten fruit samples, while tenuazonic acid (TeA), alternariol (AOH), and alternariolmonomethyl ether (AME) were only detected in samples collected from one region (Weixian). Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and Pearson correlation analysis showed that the abundance of Alistipes and Pantoea were negatively correlated with the contents of PAT, suggesting that bacterial genera Alistipes and Pantoea have potential in reducing mycotoxin production in ‘Huangguan’ pear.
MODELING THERMAL DUST EMISSION WITH TWO COMPONENTS: APPLICATION TO THE PLANCK HIGH FREQUENCY INSTRUMENT MAPS

We apply the Finkbeiner et al. two-component thermal dust emission model to the Planck High Frequency Instrument maps. This parameterization of the far-infrared dust spectrum as the sum of two modified blackbodies (MBBs) serves as an important alternative to the commonly adopted single-MBB dust emission model. Analyzing the joint Planck/DIRBE dust spectrum, we show that two-component models provide a better fit to the 100–3000 GHz emission than do single-MBB models, though by a lesser margin than found by Finkbeiner et al. based on FIRAS and DIRBE. We also derive full-sky 6. ′1 resolution maps of dust optical depth and temperature by fitting the two-component model to Planck 217–857 GHz along with DIRBE/IRAS 100 μm data. Because our two-component model matches the dust spectrum near its peak, accounts for the spectrum's flattening at millimeter wavelengths, and specifies dust temperature at 6. ′1 FWHM, our model provides reliable, high-resolution thermal dust emission foreground predictions from 100 to 3000 GHz. We find that, in diffuse sky regions, our two-component 100–217 GHz predictions are on average accurate to within 2.2%, while extrapolating the Planck Collaboration et al. single-MBB model systematically underpredicts emission by 18.8% at 100 GHz, 12.6% at 143 GHz, and 7.9% at 217 GHz. We calibrate our two-component optical depth to reddening, and compare with reddening estimates based on stellar spectra. We find the dominant systematic problems in our temperature/reddening maps to be zodiacal light on large angular scales and the cosmic infrared background anisotropy on small angular scales.
ON THE NECESSITY OF COMPOSITION-DEPENDENT LOW-TEMPERATURE OPACITY IN MODELS OF METAL-POOR ASYMPTOTIC GIANT BRANCH STARS

The vital importance of composition-dependent low-temperature opacity in low-mass (M ⩽ 3 M☉) asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stellar models of metallicity Z ⩾ 0.001 has recently been demonstrated. Its significance to more metal-poor, intermediate-mass (M ⩾ 2.5 M☉) models has yet to be investigated. We show that its inclusion in lower-metallicity models ([Fe/H] ⩽−2) is essential and that there exists no threshold metallicity below which composition-dependent molecular opacity may be neglected. We find it to be crucial in all intermediate-mass models investigated ([Fe/H] ⩽−2 and 2.5 ⩽ M/M☉ ⩽ 5), because of the evolution of the surface chemistry, including the orders of magnitude increase in the abundance of molecule-forming species. Its effect on these models mirrors that previously reported for higher-metallicity models—increase in radius, decrease in Teff, faster mass loss, shorter thermally pulsing AGB lifetime, reduced enrichment in third dredge-up products (by a factor of 3–10), and an increase in the mass limit for hot bottom burning. We show that the evolution of low-metallicity models with composition-dependent low-temperature opacity is relatively independent of initial metal abundance because its contribution to the opacity is far outweighed by changes resulting from dredge-up. Our results imply a significant reduction in the expected number of nitrogen-enhanced metal-poor stars, which may help explain their observed paucity. We note that these findings are partially a product of the macrophysics adopted in our models, in particular, the Vassiliadis & Wood mass loss rate which is strongly dependent on radius.
A selection of hot subluminous stars in the GALEX survey – I. Correlation with the Guide Star Catalog

We assembled a catalogue of bright, hot subdwarf and white dwarf stars extracted from a joint ultraviolet, optical and infrared source list. The selection is secured using colour criteria that correlate well with effective temperatures T eff ≳ 12 000 K. We built a N UV - V versus V -J diagram for ≳60000 bright sources using the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) N UV magnitude (N UV < 14), the associated Guide Star Catalog (GSC2.3.2) photographic quick-V magnitude and the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey J and H magnitudes. This distillation process delivered a catalogue of ≈700 sources with N UV - V < 0.5 comprising ~160 known hot subdwarf stars and another ~60 known white dwarf stars. A reduced proper-motion diagram built using the proper-motion measurements extracted from the Naval Observatory Merged Astrometric Dataset allowed us to identify an additional ~120 new hot subdwarf candidates and ~10 hot white dwarf candidates. We present a spectroscopic study of a subset of 52 subdwarfs, 48 of them analysed here for the first time, and with nine objects brighter than V ~ 12. Our sample of spectroscopically confirmed hot subdwarfs comprises 10 sdO-type stars and 42 sdB-type stars suitable for pulsation and binary studies. We also present a study of 50 known white dwarfs selected in the GALEX survey and six new white dwarfs from our catalogue of subluminous candidates. Ultraviolet, optical and infrared synthetic magnitudes employed in the selection and analysis of white dwarf stars are listed in appendix.
Steiner Trees and Beyond: Approximation Algorithms for Network Design

We present approximation algorithms for several NP-hard optimization problems arising in network design. Almost all of our algorithms run in polynomial time and output solutions with a worst-case performance guarantee on the quality of the output solution. A typical problem that we consider can be stated as follows: given an undirected graph and certain connectivity requirements, find a subgraph that satisfies these requirements and has minimum cost. In this thesis, we address many different connectivity requirements such as spanning trees, Steiner trees, generalized Steiner forests, and two-connected networks. The cost criteria that we consider range from the total cost of the edges in the network, the total cost of the nodes in the network, the maximum degree of any node in the network, the maximum cost of any edge in the network to some combination of these. We also address the maximum-leaf spanning tree problem and provide the first approximation algorithms for this problem. In the course of deriving our results, we use three distinct techniques: the primal-dual technique that draws on the theory of linear programming, local optimization, and a solution-based decomposition method. Our work highlights the applicability of these techniques to designing approximation algorithms.
Revisiting the spectrum of a scalar field in an anisotropic universe

We revisit the issue on signatures of initial background anisotropy by considering the quantization of a massless and minimally-coupled scalar field in an axially-symmetric Kasner background, mimicking cosmological perturbations. We show that the power spectrum of the scalar field fluctuation has a negligible difference from the standard inflation in non-planar directions, but it has a sharp peak around the symmetry plane. For the non-planar high-momentum modes, we use the WKB approximation for the first period and the asymptotic approximation based on the de Sitter solution for the next period. At the boundary, two mode functions have the same accuracy, with an error of O(Hi/k). We calculate the approximation up to the order of (Hi/k)6 and show that the power spectrum of the scalar field fails to have corrections until we execute the approximation up to 6th order.
Probing the nuclear star cluster of galaxies with extremely large telescopes

The unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution of next-generation, ground-based, extremely large telescopes (ELTs) will open a completely new window on the study of resolved stellar populations. In this paper we study the feasibility of the analysis of nuclear star cluster (NSC) stellar populations with ELTs. To date, NSC stellar population studies are based on the properties of their integrated light. NSCs are in fact observed as unresolved sources even with the HST. We explore the possibility of obtaining direct estimates of the age of NSC stellar populations from the photometry of main-sequence turn-off stars. We simulated ELT observations of NSCs at different distances and with different stellar populations. Photometric measurements on each simulated image were analysed in detail and results about photometric accuracy and completeness are reported here. We found that the main-sequence turn-off is detectable – and therefore the age of stellar populations can be directly estimated – up to 2 Mpc for old, up to 3 Mpc for intermediate-age and up to 4−5 Mpc for young stellar populations. We found that for this particular science case, the performances of TMT and E-ELT are of