Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toxicogenomics of iron oxide nanoparticles in the nematode C. elegans

Abstract We present a mechanistic study of the effect of iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) in Caenorhabditis elegans combining a genome-wide analysis with the investigation of specific molecular markers frequently linked to nanotoxicity. The effects of two different coatings were explored: citrate, an anionic stabilizer, and bovine serum albumin, as a pre-formed protein corona. The transcriptomic study identified differentially expressed genes following an exposure to SPIONs. The expression of genes involved in oxidative stress, metal detoxification response, endocytosis, intestinal integrity and iron homeostasis was quantitatively evaluated. The role of oxidative stress was confirmed by gene expression analysis and by synchrotron Fourier Transform infrared microscopy based on the higher tissue oxidation of NP-treated animals. The observed transcriptional modulation of key signaling pathways such as MAPK and Wnt suggests that SPIONs might be endocytosed by clathrin-mediated processes, a putative mechanism of nanotoxicity which deserves further mechanistic investigations.
A Pilot Study of Mitomycin, Ifosfamide and Cisplatin as Outpatient Combination Chemotherapy for Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Twenty-one patients with advanced stage, non-small-cell lung carcinoma were treated with a chemotherapy regimen including: mitomycin (6 mg/m2), ifosfamide (3 g/m2), cisplatin (80 mg/m2). The regimen was administered on an outpatient basis. Two patients were lost to follow-up. Among the 29 patients evaluable for response we registered a response rate of 36.8 %; 36.8% of patients had stable disease, and 15.7 % progressed during treatment. Median duration was 8.7 months and median survival was 11 months. Toxicity was low and easily manageable on an outpatient basis.
2 The b 3A subunit gene (Ap3b1) of the AP-3 adaptor complex is altered in the mouse hypopigmentation mutant pearl, a model for Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome and night

1998 Lysosomes, melanosomes and platelet-dense granules are abnormal in the mouse hypopigmentation mutant pearl. The b 3A subunit of the AP-3 adaptor complex, which likely regulates protein trafficking in the trans-Golgi network/endosomal compartments, was identified as a candidate for the pearl gene by a positional/ candidate cloning approach. Mutations, including a large internal tandem duplication and a deletion, were identified in two respective pearl alleles and are predicted to abrogate function of the b 3A protein. Signifi-cantly lowered expression of altered b 3A transcripts occurred in kidney of both mutant alleles. The several distinct pearl phenotypes suggest novel functions for the AP-3 complex in mammals. These experiments also suggest mutations in AP-3 subunits as a basis for unique forms of human Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome and congenital night blindness, for which the pearl mouse is an appropriate animal
A randomized trial comparing autologous chondrocyte implantation with microfracture. Findings at five years.

BACKGROUND The optimal treatment for cartilage lesions has not yet been established. The objective of this randomized trial was to compare autologous chondrocyte implantation with microfracture. This paper represents an update, with presentation of the clinical results at five years. METHODS Eighty patients who had a single chronic symptomatic cartilage defect on the femoral condyle in a stable knee without general osteoarthritis were included in the study. Forty patients were treated with autologous chondrocyte implantation, and forty were treated with microfracture. We used the International Cartilage Repair Society, Lysholm, Short Form-36, and Tegner forms to collect clinical data, and radiographs were evaluated with use of the Kellgren and Lawrence grading system. RESULTS At two and five years, both groups had significant clinical improvement compared with the preoperative status. At the five-year follow-up interval, there were nine failures (23%) in both groups compared with two failures of the autologous chondrocyte implantation and one failure of the microfracture treatment at two years. Younger patients did better in both groups. We did not find a correlation between histological quality and clinical outcome. However, none of the patients with the best-quality cartilage (predominantly hyaline) at the two-year mark had a later failure. One-third of the patients in both groups had radiographic evidence of early osteoarthritis at five years. CONCLUSIONS Both methods provided satisfactory results in 77% of the patients at five years. There was no significant difference in the clinical and radiographic results between the two treatment groups and no correlation between the histological findings and the clinical outcome. One-third of the patients had early radiographic signs of osteoarthritis five years after the surgery. Further long-term follow-up is needed to determine if one method is better than the other and to study the progression of osteoarthritis.
Video events recognition by scene and group context

The ability to recognise video events has become increasingly more popular owing to its extensive practical applications. Most events will occur in certain scene with certain people, and the scene context and group context provide important information for event recognition. In this paper, we present an algorithm to recognise video events in different scenes in which there are multiple agents. First, we recognise events for each agent based on Stochastic Context Sensitive Grammar (SCSG). Then we propose the model of a scene in order to infer the scene in which the events occur, and we use a co-occurrence matrix of events to represent the group context. Finally, the scene and group context are exploited to distinguish events having similar structures. Experimental results show that by adding the scene and group context, the performance of events recognition can be significantly improved.
Visualisation and Analysis Challenges for WALLABY

Visualisation and analysis of terabyte-scale datacubes, as will be produced with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), will pose challenges for existing astronomy software and the work practices of astronomers. Focusing on the proposed outcomes of WALLABY (Wide field ASKAP L-Band Legacy All-Sky Blind Survey), and using lessons learnt from HIPASS (H{\sc i} Parkes All Sky Survey), we identify issues that astronomers will face with WALLABY data cubes. We comment on potential research directions and possible solutions to these challenges.
Writing to your car: handwritten text input while driving

For in-car navigation, information and entertainment systems, text input is increasingly important. We investigate handwriting as a text input modality and assess where to best position the input surface and how to provide feedback. For this purpose, we created different prototypes that allow text input on the steering wheel and in the central console, as well as visual feedback on the input surface and on the dashboard. The results of the study indicate that handwritten text input on the steering wheel is well-received by the users and that the visual feedback should be presented in the dashboard area or on the steering wheel. We also observed that the number of corrective actions and the remaining errors were significantly smaller (25% less) on the steering wheel than in the central console and that entering text while driving made people drive slower.
Vegetation and wildfire controls on sediment yield in bedrock landscapes

Steep, rocky landscapes commonly exhibit high sediment yields and are especially sensitive to climate, tectonics, and wildfire. Predicting landscape response to these perturbations demands a quantitative understanding of erosion processes. However, existing models for hillslope sediment production and transport do not apply to landscapes with patchy soil and slopes that exceed the angle for sediment stability. Here we present field measurements in southern California, USA, which indicate that sediment storage on steep slopes is enabled by vegetation that traps sediment upslope. We find that the storage capacity of unburned vegetation dams follows a geometric scaling model with a cubic dependence on effective plant width and an inverse dependence on local slope. Measured sediment volumes behind burned vegetation dams indicate a loss of at least 75% relative to unburned dams, and when expanded to the catchment scale, our measurements match records of postfire sediment yield from nearby retention basins. Contrary to existing models, our observations indicate that wildfire‐induced sediment yield is driven by transient storage and release of sediment by vegetation dams, rather than increased bedrock‐to‐soil conversion rates. Without a feedback between soil production and wildfire, fire may play little role in long‐term landscape evolution, and increasing fire frequency in response to climate change may not result in heightened sedimentation hazards due to supply limitations.
Testing for Global Network Structure Using Small Subgraph Statistics

We study the problem of testing for community structure in networks using relations between the observed frequencies of small subgraphs. We propose a simple test for the existence of communities based only on the frequencies of three-node subgraphs. The test statistic is shown to be asymptotically normal under a null assumption of no community structure, and to have power approaching one under a composite alternative hypothesis of a degree-corrected stochastic block model. We also derive a version of the test that applies to multivariate Gaussian data. Our approach achieves near-optimal detection rates for the presence of community structure, in regimes where the signal-to-noise is too weak to explicitly estimate the communities themselves, using existing computationally efficient algorithms. We demonstrate how the method can be effective for detecting structure in social networks, citation networks for scientific articles, and correlations of stock returns between companies on the S\&P 500.
0 WSN Design for Unlimited Lifetime

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are among the most natural applications of energy harvesting techniques. Sensor nodes, in fact, are usually deployed in harsh environments with no infrastructured power supply and they are often scattered over wide areas where human intervention is difficult and expensive, if not impossible at all. As a consequence, their actual lifetime is limited by the duration of their batteries, so that most of the research efforts in the field of WSNs have been devoted so far to lifetime maximization by means of the joint application of low-power design, dynamic power management, and energy-aware routing algorithms. The capability of harvesting renewable power from the environment provides the opportunity of granting unbounded lifetime to sensor nodes, thus overcoming the limitations of battery-operated WSNs. In order to optimally exploit the potential of energy-harvesting WSNs (hereafter denoted by EH-WSNs) a paradigm shift is required from energy-constrained lifetime maximization (typical of battery-operated systems) to power-constrained workload maximization. As long as the average workload at each node can be sustained by the average power it takes from the environment (and environmental power variations are suitably filtered-out by its onboard energy buffer) the node can keep working for an unlimited amount of time. Hence, the main design goal for an EH-WSN becomes the maximization of its sustainable workload, which is strongly affected by the routing algorithm adopted.
Creating Employment or Keeping Them Busy? An Evaluation of Training Programs for Older Workers in Germany

The authors analyze the effect of participation in short-term training measures on older German recipients of means-tested unemployment benefits. Their analysis uses administrative data of the German Federal Employment Agency, and they estimate the effects of participating in two types of short-term training—classroom and in-firm training—on different outcomes of the participants. Results show that classroom training is not effective in making participants independent of benefit receipt. It has a moderately positive effect on employment outcomes, which are highest for West German men. In contrast, in-firm training significantly raises the participants' likelihood of finding regular jobs and of being independent of unemployment benefit receipt.
Custodial Grandmothers' Psychological Distress, Dysfunctional Parenting, and Grandchildren's Adjustment

An adaptation of the Family Stress Model (FSM) with hypothesized linkages between family contextual factors, custodial grandmothers' psychological distress, parenting practices, and grandchildren's adjustment was tested with structural equation modeling. Interview data from 733 custodial grandmothers of grandchildren between ages 4–17 revealed that the effect of grandmothers' distress on grandchildren's adjustment was mediated by dysfunctional parenting, especially regarding externalizing problems. The effects of contextual factors on grandchildren's adjustment were also indirect. The model's measurement and structural components were largely invariant across grandmothers' race and age, as well as grandchildren's gender and age. Group differences were more prevalent regarding the magnitude of latent means for model constructs. We conclude that parenting models like the FSM are useful for investigating custodial grandfamilies.
A New High-Frequency Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor for Humidity Measurement

The relative humidity sensor based on the high-frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator has been presented in this paper. In the device, a two-port SAW resonator with Nafion coating was used. To increase the sensitivity of the sensor, the higher resonator harmonics have been employed. The sensor exhibits a very high sensitivity and linearity as well as relatively short response time. Due to the Nafion properties, it is extremely resistant to chemical compound interactions, e.g., it can operate in the atmosphere with sulfur dioxide, acidic and alkaline vapors, strong oxidizing agents, and dust.
Development of a 20-m-long Giacometti arm with balloon body based on kinematic model with air resistance

As a part of our research on several different types of Giacometti robots, a 20-m-long, considerably light, and simple robot arm, referred to as the Giacometti arm, is developed in this study. Even though the Giacometti arm is not suitable for precise positioning, rapid motion, and high load capacity, which are the aspects most conventional robots focus on, it is designed for extremely specific purposes such as the inspection of otherwise unreachable regions using a small camera at the arm's tip. In addition, it is designed to be essentially safe even if it falls down or hits an object. This aspect is realized using helium-filled balloon bodies and thin pneumatic muscles. In this paper, we designed new Giacometti arm which is 20-m-long, weighs 940 g, and has 20 degrees of freedom. To realize this long arm, we derived a kinematic model of the 20-m-long Giacometti arm, factoring in the air resistance. We verified the model using the arm, and its utility was confirmed at a mock-up facility.
Advanced Interaction Paradigms to Define Smart Visit Experiences in the Internet of Things Era

The growing spread of smart objects is changing the way humans interact with technologies since the interaction they propose is more and more physical and less virtual. From an HCI perspective, one of the most interesting aspects regards how non-technical end users can program the behavior of such smart objects. This poster presents an ongoing project on three novel interaction paradigms that support the creation of smart visit experiences.
Design and Experiment of 3-Dimensional Micro-Optical System for MEMS Tunable Lasers

This paper presents a 3-dimensional micro-optical system for improving the optical coupling efficiency in the external cavity tunable lasers. It is constructed by an optical fiber and a curved mirror; the former acts as a rod lens to transform the light in one direction while the latter converges the light in the other direction. Compared with the previous MEMS lasers that have no light focusing or only in one direction, this 3D micro-optical system allows for long external cavity length and high coupling efficiency, which are critical for wide tuning range. A prototype is fabricated on SOI wafer by DRIE with an etching depth of 75 µ m. It obtains a coupling efficiency as high as 46.5% with a total external cavity length of 220 µ m. In contrast, the coupling efficiency is only 13% when the fiber rod lens is absent, and is 1% when no light transformation is involved. Compared with conventional laser optical systems that employ external ball lenses and other optical components, this 3D micro-optical system possesses the advantages of simple packaging, large alignment tolerance and easy mass production.
Arabidopsis gynoecium structure in the wild type and in ettin mutants

The gynoecium is the female reproductive structure of flowering plants. Here we present a description of the Arabidopsis thaliana gynoecium at anthesis. The cylindrical organ can be broken down into three longitudinal regions arranged in an apical-basal order: stigma, style, and ovary. Each region can be distinguished histologically and morphologically. The transmitting (pollination) tract is axially positioned along the center of the gynoecium and spans stigma, style and ovary. Histochemistry, scanning electron microscopy and a style-specific reporter gene are used to compare the wild-type pattern of gynoecium cell types and regions, with patterns formed in gynoecia of individuals homozygous for a series of allelic mutations at the ETTIN locus. ettin gynoecia show morphological and histological alterations that appear to result from the merging of apical and basal regions and the development of abaxial into adaxial tissues. These developmental abnormalities result in a reduction of the ovary region, an expansion of the stylar and stigmatic regions, and the abaxial (outward) proliferation of transmitting tract tissue. The alterations in the mutants can be interpreted as resulting from misspecifications of position along the longitudinal and transverse axes during gynoecium development. The results suggest that early patterning events underlie wild-type gynoecium development, and that ETT functions during this early programming.
Sub-Doppler light amplification in a coherently pumped atomic system.

The authors report the observation of steady-state amplification of a weak probe laser without population inversion in the bare states in a Doppler-broadened A-type Rb atomic system. The probe amplification was observed with the Rabi frequency of a coupling laser much smaller than the Doppler width and can be viewed as due to the dressed-state inversion. A 10% single-pass amplification of a weak probe laser was obtained, and the measured linewidth of the gain spectral feature approaches the Rb natural linewidth. A theoretical analysis based on a three-level Doppler-broadened A system is presented, and qualitative agreement with the experiment results is achieved.
Traveling Wave Locomotion of Snake Robot along Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical body shapes

In this paper, kinematics and dynamics of traveling wave locomotion of a snake robot with two types of body shapes are developed. The body shape, also called body curve, is the actual geometrical shape in the plane in which the robot can assume during its progression. The snake can then travel along this curve. Two types of body curves, symmetrical and unsymmetrical, have been introduced for creeping locomotion, in horizontal plane. Kinematics and dynamic of traveling wave with symmetrical body curve has also been developed. These concepts are applied and kinematics and dynamics for traveling wave in vertical plane with unsymmetrical body shapes are obtained. In kinematics section, we first determine the joint relative angles using the body shape and curvature function. Next, position, velocity and acceleration of each link as well as center of gravity of the snake body are calculated. In Dynamic's section, force diagram of the i(exp th) link is shown. Using Newton principle, relative motion of the i(exp th) link with respect to the (i+1)(exp th) link is determined. Next, effects of friction coefficient, initial winding angle and the unsymmetrical factor on the joint torques are investigated. Results indicate that as the winding angle increases, joint torques decreases. Additionally, it is shown that the unsymmetrical factor, k, does not significantly affect torques. Finally, to validate our analysis, traveling wave locomotion is simulated in both Webots as well as MATLAB. It is shown that the traveling wave locomotion for both symmetrical and unsymmetrical body shapes is realized.
Presence without Being Present: Reflection and Action in a Community of Practice.

Reflection and Communities of Practice are common constructs in teacher education. Co-teaching is often seen as beneficial, yet teacher education students rarely have experiences being co-taught. Thus, reflection, communities of practice, and co-teaching, deserve careful consideration in designing teacher education learning experiences. Based on experiences co-teaching, we argue that unexamined assumptions of university education and university structures can influence how future teachers learn through and about these constructs. We apply sociocultural perspectives to reflexively analyze our co-teaching in order to unpack meanings of: reflection in and on action and communities of practice. Through our analysis we raise questions about how structures of educational systems affect learning. Our goal is to consider issues related to the goals of teacher education and the structures that enable meeting those goals.
Generating Recombinant Anti-idiotypic Antibodies for the Detection of Haptens in Solution

Abstract A new method is described for generating recombinant human and chicken antibody fragments for accurate quantification of haptens in solution. The chemistry of labelling small molecules has always been a problem in the development of immunoassays. Here, we describe a specific panning procedure that enables the selection of recombinant anti-idiotypic phage antibodies that bind to hapten binding molecules (e.g., antibodies) in the absence of the hapten, but are displaced in a highly specific and concentration dependent manner, in the presence of the hapten. The major advantage of such a detection system is that there is no need to label the hapten or to covalently attach it to a solid phase. In this study we demonstrate, using cortisol and aldosterone as model haptens, that the recombinant antibody phage display technology offers great possibilities to generate recombinant anti-idiotypic antibodies. Furthermore, we show that such antibodies can be used successfully to design highly sensitive immunoassays for the quantification of small molecules.